htowncruiser

Thanks again to all that helped me decide to book the aft balcony! I booked the only room that is for 4 people (room 2486), because this is the only room in that category for 4 people I am assuming that there is no way for there to be a price drop right? I am just making sure I don't need to check anything over the next 11 months!

Also, since I booked and am now obsessing over everything I came across this video that was posted! Looks like it is my room!!

Thanks all for the thoughts and advice! We booked the aft balcony in the family harbor. So excited :) Now we just have to wait 11 months till cruise time (luckily I have my wedding and honeymoon between now and then to keep me busy)!

We are planning a cruise on the horizon for february. Me, husband, boy 11 and girl 13. This will be my 13th cruise but the first for the kids!!! I am torn between 2 connecting insides or the family harbor aft balcony. Thoughts were kids can hang out in the family harbor lounge during busy get ready times but worried there will be a million kids everywhere all the time .Hubby hates the thought of an inside (we always have a balcony) so he is pushing for the aft balcony. I want the kids first cruise to be a good one!

Thoughts?

Did you ask for another Canadian drink .... rye and coke?

I am whiskey drinker, so I am interested if they had different whiskeys.

I'm sorry I'm not a whisky drinker so I'm not sure!! If they do have a selection though it would probably be at the champagne bar.

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Thank you for the bar trip. What was your favorite to go back to and use your package, the bar or bartender?:)

We liked the champagne bar best. The bartenders were personable (and a little quirky) they made fantastic martinis that tasted great and looked beautiful. We would sit at the bar and watch then make drinks, it was fun to watch. We drank quite a few of the martinis, all of them were great.

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Was that included if you have the deluxe drink package?

 

 

 

 

Super canadian and also the best :)

I didn't have one so I'm not sure :(

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I already did a day byday review of my Oasis of the Seas trip for the week of Feb 5-12. I thought I would do a separate review of thedrink package and an overview of the bars in case anyone was interested.

We purchased the drink packageon-line before we left through the cruise planner. It said that it was 20%off. We were travelling without the kidsso I knew the drink package would be worth it, I didn’t want to worry about mybill at the end of the week, especially since we are Canadian and each drinkcomes in at $20 for us! Paying up front and not having to think about it again wasgood.

For the package, eachdrink up to $13 was included. This also included bottled still and sparklingwater, specialty coffees and coffee drinks, fresh squeezed orange juice, vitaminwater, red bull, and pop (not in cans). Theremight be more but that is what we drank.

Here is a bar overview,this was just what I experienced on my week. We felt that the overall nightlifewas kind of lacking, there really wasn’t much happening after 11-11:30, thingswere open and available there just weren’t many people doing anything! The entertainmentand shows were fantastic though and those ran until 11ish most nights so thatis what we ended up looking forward to in the evenings!

I will speak to thebars that we went to. Let’s start fromthe bottom of the ship and work our way up!

Jazz on 4: We went in here a few times over theweek. Jazz is not really my thing but Ican appreciate that the singers were very good, it was a nice, laid back placeto grab a drink and relax. There aremenu’s at the tables and someone comes to take your order. I don’t think there was a blender in here,just regular drinks. One evening theyhad some of the singers from the show CATS performing in here.

Blaze: This was supposed to be the nightclub. I wrongly assumed that this is where I wouldspend my

nights, dancing away. It was abust for me. I never saw many people in there, the music was not for youngpeople (and I am 40 and categorizing myself as young). We still stopped in a couple times hoping forsomething to happen, but it did not...

On Air: They showed sports here on the screens, thisis also where the karaoke was. This was probably the busiest of the bars (especiallywhen there was karaoke). They also sometimesplayed game shows in there. One night wewatched a who wants to be a millionaire show, it was entertaining.

Boleros: This was a latin themed bar. They often had live music in the evenings. One day they had a dance class in there. I got a coconut mojito there that was prettygood!

Globe and Atlas: We went here almost every night. This was a pub. I disliked the menu as it was mostly beer andbeer inspired drinks. You don’t have toget what is on the menu though, they always made me a chocolate martini! There was live music here. This week there was a woman with a guitarthat sang (she had a book, you could choose a song in there and she would singit), when she wasn’t there a guy with a guitar was there singing.

Sorrentos: OK this isn’t really a bar but there is a barin there! We would get pizza every single night before bed. We would sit at the bar and grab a quickdrink here while we ate our pizza, the bartender always convinced us to getdoubles, on the last day we saw him on the pool deck he was like hey doubles!It always amazes me how the staff remember you and what you drink or how youdrink it.

Café Promenade: Again,not really a bar, but we did come here every morning to get a latte, or laterin the week mocha frapacchino’s (so good). They also had the fresh squeezed juice here. We would grab some waterbottles here in the morning too and bring them to the fridge in the room.

Champagne Bar: This is where we spent the most time. It did get busy around 7:00 (I am assuming

withthe after early dinner crowd going for a drink). Weusually went after dinner (we had late seating), and there wouldn’t be manypeople, usually it would be the same 3 or 4 couples (that we got to know). They have a great menu of martini’s andspecialty cocktails. The bartenders gotto know you and what you liked quickly and were very talented making excellent tastingand looking drinks!

Rising Tide Bar: I didn’t actually go to this one, it lookedlike a regular bar that went up and then back down. We didn’t want to get stuck on there for anyperiod of time so we skipped it. Thereare little signs in front of the bar so you know when it is coming back orleaving but it wasn’t always correct.

Schooner bar: This was supposed to be a piano bar? I was expecting like a regular piano bar witheveryone singing and shouting but it was very subdued. We walked in and outboth times we went up there. I am sure the entertainer was very talented but itwas not what I was expecting. We did stophere for a drink on the last day and it was an excellent place to see theparade so keep that in mind!

Central Park Bar: I don’t know what it is called but it is incentral park. There are high tables thatyou can sit at. We would often come hereat night for a stroll and stop in for a drink. Or grab a drink and then sit and listen to the music. I loved central park at night.

Sabor Bar. This is on the boardwalk across from therestaurant near the aquatheatre. I spentthe least amount of time on the boardwalk so I only went here once. They did make me a nice margarita!

Vintages: Was beautiful, can’t say that I had a drinkhere though, the wines are very expensive L But if you aren’t a cheapie like me then check itout!

Dazzles: This was a 2 story night club with live music. They sometimes had games in here too. I was only in here when I participated in a singthe next lyric game. They did have a live band in here most nights so I thinkif you are a little bit older than me then you would enjoy this one, thereseemed to be people dancing a few of the nights.

Pool bars: I am going to lump these all together. I never had bad service at any of the poolbars, and I found that there were tons of people coming around asking you ifyou needed a drink while sitting out on the deck. This is where I would have my blenderdrinks. I tried to only have one aday. My favorite was the BBC, followedclosely by the mudslide. Also on mostdays they had little drink station set up near the pool where you could getdrinks or a pina colada served in a pineapple which was kind of neat.

Solarium Bar: This ison the second floor of the solarium, took me a minute to find it. This bar made good Caesars, all of the barshad clamato, but this bar seemed to make them the best. The only have olives for a garnish but thatis ok! Apparently, this is a Canadiandrink, every time I ordered one the bartender would say, you must be Canadian!

I think that is all ofthe bars! We felt that the drink package was well worth it, especially when youfactor in the non-alcoholic drinks. Theship and all of the venues were great, we had a fantastic time on the Oasis!

I was on the Oasis Feb 5-12 and there was Clamato. I had Caesar almost every day (they didn't have much other than olives for garnish but that was ok)! That was from the solarium bar or any of the pool bars. Every time I ordered one they would say you must be Canadian!

I guess it depends on what you mean by nightlife... I sailed Feb 5-12 and there was nothing going on after 11-11:30. Things were open and available but there would be 5-6 people in each of the bars, nobody in the club, we saw the same 8 people after 11 and that was it. I kept saying where the heck are the 6,000+ people on this ship after 11pm!! For us, on holiday as a couple looking to relax, that was ok. If I was travelling with my best friend (which I do once a year), it would have been more of an issue. There is lots to do on this ship, and there is entertainment every night that runs until 11ish, which we thought was wonderful! There was not a lot of music at the pool, they sometimes had a band that played that was good, and there were no deck parties or anything that I saw (but maybe I missed it). If you are used to sailing Carnival, this will be different.

I'd be interested in seeing the drinks package information if you don't mind posting it. I'm also curious about the apparent speed when using VOOM. Did you experience any delays or signal drops?

 

We are sailing on Oasis next Feb.

We found the VOOM worked well. We didn't stream much, just some music which was no problem. We mostly used it for email/surfing. We had no issues!

I will post my drink/bar review tomorrow!

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Here are my final thoughts on my first Oasis Cruise:

I love this ship. There is so much to see and do, the neighbourhood concept is fantastic, it is a very easy ship to navigate despite its giant size, the boardwalk balcony was awesome. I would return to this ship in a heartbeat if I was travelling with my kids, this is a great ship for families, my kids would love it. If I was sailing as a couple again we would probably try Allure sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale to see if there is a difference in nightlife, that would be my only 'complaint' although, like i said it earlier, it wasn't really a negative for this trip. It may have just been the week I was on the ship?

So, where do I go next? I am not loyal to one line (although maybe I should be so i can start getting some perks)! Price, itinerary and ship is what will look at for my next cruise, but I would definitely cruise with Royal again! We had a wonderful week on the Oasis!

I will do a separate post on the drink package and a bar breakdown for anyone who may be interested.

We are almost done!

DAY 8. We wakeup and get ready to go. It is 8:15 andwhen we open the door literally every single door is open and everyone is gone!We ask our room steward it we can leave the last of our luggage in the roomwhile we go and get breakfast and he says that is fine. I think he has every other room he can startmaking up so I don’t think that having us stay in the room is a big deal. So up to the windjammer we go, they areserving breakfast until 8:45. We eat,then we go to deck 5 where the coffee is not available (no latte for me thismorning). I forgot to mention, theboyfriend insisted on bringing a travel iron. I told him, they will take it from you. He REFUSED to believe me. So yes,on day 1 he was called to the naughty room where they took his iron. He is slightly obsessed with not beingwrinkled, it was a catastrophe for him to not have an iron. Anyways, this morning we have to go and pickup our naughty iron so we go and do that and head back up to the room to getour stuff. We leave the room around 9:00and head downstairs to wait for our number to be called.

Oh, I almost forgot. When we checked our charges at the end of the cruise there was a chargefor $35.40 or something from the dining room. We went to guest services, there was no line at all at this time. I asked about the charge and he printed thereceipt our, it was for a glass of wine. I told them we certainly did not have a 43-dollar glassof wine (we are cheap and only oncedid we get a glass that was over $13 and that was on the last night and thischarge is from the first night). He got a supervisor. I explained we had the drink package and wehad wine every night but each of them were $13 and under except for the onenight we had one glass of $17 wine (that there was a charge for which we knewabout). She said sorry, it says it righthere, the drink package only covers up to $13. I said, I know how the drink plan works, that’s why we only drank the cheapwine! Trust me, I would remember drinkinga $43 GLASS of wine!!! She says sorry, it was not included in thedrink package limit. Grrrrr. I told her,we did not drink it and we are not paying for it (there was no signature oranything on the receipt they brought up, I know we didn’t see or sign anythingother than the one day we got the $4 charge for the $17 glass) and I know we did not drink a $43 glass ofwine. She hummed and rolled her eyes andtook off the charge. I don’t usuallymake a big deal of things, but I wasn’t going to leave the ship until it wastaken off so I am glad we didn’t have to go through a big scene!

Ok all done at guest services and they are behind incalling the numbers. We wait, and arefinally called to get off just before 10am. Not so bad. We depart, last bing,goodbye Oasis! We get off the ship and weare in a line, a giant line, to wait to get our bags. Maybe 45 minutes. Ok, got the bags. Next line is for customs. Another giant line. Maybe another 45 minutes. So ya, an hour to an hour and a half to getoff the ship. That’s crazy!! Maybe not? Like I said, I usually self-debarkand walk off and out in like 15 minutes so maybe that is normal? Anyways, we get out to the lot and find theman with the Cortrans shuttle sign. Wewere taking this shuttle to the airport. It was $20 a person. It isabsolute mayhem out there, he explains that it will take hours if we have towait for a shuttle to come in and take us out (which I believe, if you rememberthe beginning of my story). So, we walkout of the covered parking area and into the street part (I am not going toexplain this well). Anyways, it is justa 2-minute walk, there is a guy there that stopped us but the Cortrans guy talkedhis way into having him pay no attention to our little group of 6 waiting inthe road for the shuttle. The shuttlecomes and takes us and off we go to the airport. It worked out really well, apparently, thisport is a disaster every week-end. We are at the airport around noon. Just enough time to get through security(this was a half hour wait), get some lunch and we are on our way home.

I will post a little bit more later on some final thoughts and do a drink packageand a bar breakdown .

I have almost the same room booked. Really glad that you enjoyed the view. This will be the first time in awhile that I didn't have an ocean view but I see that you can see out the back of the ship. Did you feel you could see the aqua show from your room? Thanks for your review.

I loved the view, maybe even more than a regular ocean view! You can see ocean and people watch! Yes, you can see the aqua show from the room. We stared watching he first day and I said let's not ruin it for ourselves so we stopped watching and then it was cancelled all week. We should have just watched it from the balcony!

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Can you tell me if the Park Cafe had the coffee drinks or did you have to go to the Promonade Cafe all the time for them (or where else?) We sail April 1 and my DH drinks about 10 cups a day on vaca so hoping for Park Cafe since our cabin is close on deck 8. Thanks for posting the review!

 

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Sorry, I can't remember! I only have one coffee a day which was the specialty coffee I got on deck 5 (promenade cafe).

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Just something to consider for your next cruise, if you decide to rent a car. You can join the rental agencies different programs that allow you to bypass the line and go straight to the cars. National has Emerald Aisle, Budget is FastBreak, etc. I have it and just used it in Dallas, where we just checked the board, went to the section that was listed next to our names, and took whatever car we wanted from the lanes. Easy peasy.

 

 

Yes! Good point, when I travel for work I use National and the emerald aisle is the best!! Unfortunately, we booked this cruise just a few weeks before sailing and when I logged into my National account it said there were no cars available?? I didn't even think to check if Budget had a similar "quick grab and go" option. Next time for sure!

We are almost at the end...

DAY 7. It isthe last day. Boo!! How did that happenso quickly!?! Morning started off with a trip to the wipeout café forbreakfast, it is just a little buffet, but there you can have made to ordereggs. Again, I’m not a breakfast eaterso I just had some cheese, I do love cheese. Anyways, usual routine, got my latte and off to the pool. The ship, she was a rocking today!! Don’t letthem tell you that you don’t feel movement on a big ship. I didn’t find that it was any different than anyother ship I had been on. It doesn’tbother me, I kind of enjoy the gentle rocking, especially when I amsleeping. Anyways, it was kind of achilly morning (I wore a light sweater all morning at the pool), and there wasbarely anyone in the pool because it was making WAVES. A few times it made a big giant wave andwater went all over the deck (so you couldn’t leave your bag or shoes on theground, they floated away)! They kept trying to re-do the water show in theaqua theatre but from the looks of the pool deck there was no way that washappening, and it was cancelled again!! So, if you ever see the show going on early in the week, stop and watchit because it gets cancelled A LOT!

Went to the windjammer for lunch. I did enjoy the buffet for lunch, they had avery good variety and I found that it changed up quite a bit, enough that I hadsomething different all cruise. And if Ihaven’t mentioned it we ate the coconut ranger cookies every single day, thewould sometimes walk around with them on a tray handing them out saying “itscookies time”. That made me laugh. Anyways, desserts in the windjammer I didn’tthink were so good, but the cookies are yummy! And don’t forget there is the soft serve ice cream on the deck you canhave which we also ate almost every day. Ya, I am going to wait until next week to get on the scale... Once lunch was done we went back out to thepool. Because we weren’t going to go inthe pool today we decided to grab some chairs one deck up and sit by theocean. I can’t believe how easy it is toget a chair anywhere you want!! I know I have said it before but my biggestfear with trying this big ship was that I was going to be in lines and crowdedall the time. I can’t tell you how wrongI was! They told us that they ship wasfull, but it never felt that way! It wasso enjoyable to not have to wait for things, and not have to worry about gettinga seat anywhere. I never felt like I hadto rush to do anything or get anywhere, you don’t have to save your spot with atowel, it was amazing! The afternoon was warmer and we sat up there for a couplehours until we decided to go back to the room and start packing. Yes, it was time to think about going home L

We got our tags and we were #31. According to the chart they should call us toget off of the ship at 9:30. Our flight isn’t until 2:30 so we were good withthat. This is the first time in yearsthat I am not doing self-debarkation, so we will see how this goes… We getready and pack up, get the suitcases in the hallway, then go for dinner.

We usually stop for a pre-dinner drink at theChampagne bar but it’s the last night and we realized that we didn’t try theSchooner bar yet so we head up there to get a drink instead. It is busy up there, I am not clueing inwhy. So, we get some drinks and sit downnear the railing, we sit with another couple. As we wait, it is getting busier, and people are standing around, and standingaround us (this is the first time I see a crowd anywhere). Ahhh finally we clue in, there is going to bea parade! The parade starts at 7:45, itis entertaining, there are the characters from kung fu panda, and some otherones I can’t remember, there is also an aerialist and some other cool stuffgoing on. It is about 15 minutes longand then we are off to dinner.

Dinner is goodas always, we say goodbye to Sherman our waiter (who was super great all week),and tonight in the main theatre there is a comedy show. So, on this ship you pre-book all of yourshows. We booked this cruise 6 weeksbefore so some of the shows were already sold out, so we weren’t able to book acomedy show all week. It was nice thaton the last night they had it in the theatre so that others can attend. I canunderstand why the shows get booked up so quickly, where the comedians normallydo their shows (on the 4th floor), is a tiny room that fits maybe 45people. Why they did that I don’tunderstand?? Anyways, tonight both comedians are doing a routine! The show was good, both were pretty funny, Iam glad that I got to catch the show! The only other show I didn’t see was CATS. I love musicals, but for the life of me I can’tunderstand why they would put CATS as the show?

So, when the comedy show is over we do a littlewalking and drinking as usual then have our last slice of pizza and go tobed.

Next up...we have to leave :(

DAY 6. Day at Sea. Wow the week is quickly slipping away from us… We woke up and went to Windjammer for breakfast, it was the same. I am getting sick of breakfast at this point (he loves the buffet breakfast), I am not much of a morning eater anyways so we eat and then get our morning latte. At this point we have also discovered that they make a pretty delicious mocha Frappuccino at the coffee place so he has swapped his coffee for that (including the whipped cream). It is no surprise that he gained 7 pounds this week, I am still scared to check the scale! LOL.

From there we headed to the pool where we lazed and went in and out of the pool. Today we wanted to try somewhere different for lunch so we went to the park café. They have a nice selection of sandwiches and paninis, and I had to go and try that famous beef sandwich everyone raves about. I will say it was quite tasty, I didn’t care for the bun it was on, I wished I had asked for different bread. Anyways it was good!! The absolute best part about park café is that they have little bags of chips!! Ruffles, sunchips, doritos. I wish I discovered this earlier in the week!!! Ok back to the pool, swim, drink, nap, swim, drink and it is time to go back to the room and get ready for the evening. It is the second formal night.

So, we have dinner which is good as always, it is Lobster night if anyone cares (I had the lobster it was good), then we have a show booked which is the Come Fly with Me show in the theatre. This show was pretty good, not my favourite, I kind of didn’t get the story line. Anyways, the show was a mix of the singers and dancer and also had some pretty awesome acrobatics that part I really enjoyed!

Man cold still wasn’t feeling so great so we didn’t stay out too late, a drink and pizza and off to bed for us.

DAY 5. St. Martin. Got up and went to Park Café for breakfast. They have a station for bagels and you canget whatever toppings you want, they also have breakfast sandwiches, breakfastwraps, breakfast panini, you get the picture. They also have cups of fruit, and yogurt. Pretty good. Then we were off to get a latte and off the ship to St. Martin.

We debated staying on the ship today, wethought we should get off at least for a little while so we decided just to goto the beach that is right in town. Youtake the ferry over to town (which was I think $7 for a round trip). On the ferry you can get cold water or popfor $1 and a beer for $2. That is cheapcompared to the ship if you don’t have a drink package, so don’t purchase anywater before you leave the ship! Onceyou get off the ferry there is tons of shopping and tons of bars and chairs forrent along the water. The water is not thatgreat but it is fine for a quick beach stop. We walked down the strip for a little bit and then took some chairs infront of a bar, I can’t remember the name, they are all the same so you canstop anywhere. For $25 we got 2 chairs,an umbrella, free wifi, access to showers and a bathroom and 5 beers. Pretty good! We settled in, it was a nice day and there was a nice breeze. The negative (for me) on this beach is thatthere are a million people that come up to you and want you to buy theirstuff. They are polite, and not toopushy, so if you say no they will keep on going, there will be another personby in a few minutes to ask you again! Theyare all either selling hats and dresses, wanting to give you a massage or braidyour hair. I was in the lounger with myeyes closed most of the time so they didn’t bother me too much. The positive for me on this beach (besideseasy access and cheap beer) is that there are tons of shells to collect! I spent a lot of time “catching shells”. The shells aren’t washed up on the beach butare in the water, so as a wave comes up it brings shells along with it and youhave to “catch” the ones you like. Itwas actually quite entertaining and we got some really good ones!! We ended up staying until around 3:00 whichwas much later than we anticipated! Wedidn’t plan to do any shopping on this trip so we headed back to the ship.

Up to thepool we went when we got back, not many people up there again. We were hungryas we didn’t eat on the island so we went to the wipeout café and grabbed aburger and fries. They also had somekind of hot dog wrapped in a pretzel that looked pretty good but I don’t eathot dogs so we didn’t try it. We alsospent some more time in the solarium for sunset and then back to the room toget ready for the evening. This night wedidn’t have a show planned, however the surprise second headliner was going tobe in the theatre. Again, not sure whatto expect, it ended up being a ventriloquist! It was a good show! Funny, andsome audience participation, entertaining show!

After the show,I am going to go out on a limb here and say that we had a drink and some pizzaand went to bed. I will mention that wewent to Central park every night as well. We usually went there after dinner for a walk to get us moving aftereating all that food! We usually just walked around, sometimes we stayed for asong or two (there was someone there that would play music, like apianist). It is lovely there, especiallyat night. Very quiet. I just wish Vintages wasn’t so darn expensiveor we would have spent more time there I think.

Maybe nowis also a good time to talk about pictures. We don’t like to get all the pictures taken, but if you are planning onbuying some or getting a package there are plenty of people asking to take yourpicture. There are the usual backdropones all over the promenade. Each nightat dinner they come and take your picture. Strolling around the ship in the evenings they are trying to find you totake a picture, so there is a lot of opportunity to get them done! It is nice how it is organized, instead ofhaving to search through a million pictures on a wall that all look the same,each cabin has a numbered book. You grab your book and look at yourpictures. It is not a foolproof system. We had some that weren’t us, and were missingsome. But there is also a kiosk whereyou put your card in and it will pull up on the screen all of yourpictures! Pretty cool I thought, so youcan see them even when the picture place isn’t open.

DAY 4. We are in St. Thomas. We didn’t get there until 11:00am so we hadkind of a lazy morning. We went toJohnny Rockets for breakfast. The eggsandwich was good, and we shared some kind of hash browns with cheese and stuffon it, they were good too. Then we got our morning latte, hung out on thebalcony, then got ready to get off the ship. There were 5 ships in port that day and we were the last to arrive. I was concerned that it was going to be a zoowherever we went so I was prepared for hordes of people. We decide that we will go to Megan’s Bay,that is where we usually go when we stop in St. Thomas. It is a nice beach, beautiful sand, clearwater, you can rent loungers, they have bar service on the beach and there is foodif you want for purchase. We docked inCrown Bay. It was $10 a person to get tothe beach, then it was $5 to get into the beach (I am fairly certain it was $4last year so I guess it went up in price). Anyways, we got there and to my surprise it was not that busy!!! Score!We paid $26 for 2 lounge chairs (then got $10 back when we returned them so itwas $8 bucks a person for a chair). Weset up our chairs and then just relaxed, it got hot fast and the water wasbeautiful, we walked the beach a few times, got a few drinks, it was a nice andrelaxing day. There is always a steadystream of cabs heading back so when we had enough of the sun we grabbed a cabback to the ship and were back on around 5:00. For this port and the next (St. Martin), you have to stay on ship timewhich is an hour difference from local time. So, don’t pay attention to what your phone is telling you!

We headedback to the ship and went to the pool for a little bit, waited for the sun toset and took a few pictures on the sun deck (I think this is on deck 14 at thefront of the ship). Cool place to watchsail away and we watched the ship dock in the morning from that deck as well.

Went todinner and tonight was the headliner show in the Theatre. I had no idea what to expect from a headlinerso I had no expectations. We grab adrink and find a seat, I don’t remember the name of the headliner but he comesout and he’s a singer, before he comes out you watch like a music video that hedid. I was thinking oh dear, this isgoing to be painful… No, Carla, give him a chance, maybe it will be ok. When he came out I thought it was just goingto be him on stage singing, but I was wrong, he did impressions. He was very good, and funny, and it was avery enjoyable show!! I do think that they entertainment on Royal is way aboveany of the other cruise lines, and there is something to see every singlenight, and something good too, not just the same comedian 5 times. I liked the show, and to my delight, therewas going to be a different headliner on another night! I marked that down in my calendar of things todo.

Speaking ofa calendar, I try to be pretty organized when I travel. I did have a spreadsheet for the week whichwas marked up with the different shows and things that we were doing so I didn’tmiss anything. Thanks to Harry Fat forthat one (he is one epic reviewer)!! Inother reviews people say that the ship is so big you will never be able to doeverything, and they are totally right! I really thought that I would get to do all of things on the ship but itturns out I barely did anything I thought I was going to!! There is just somuch to do, or you can do nothing at all, I chose the more relaxing route thistime, that is what is so great about cruising! Next time, we will probablybring the kids and we can do more of the activities and things. I would bring the kids on this ship for sure,we did love the big ship! I do have tosay we are eyeballing the Harmony for a family trip, that baby looks prettycool, either way I don’t think you can go wrong, great ships for families!! Everyyear I say we should take the kids, and then every year we leave without them,so I say that we will take them now but I might change my mind again next year!We love them dearly but it is nice to get away without them.

Thatreminds me, remember those little germ balls on the plane that I talked aboutearlier, the ones who were coughing their little heads off without coveringtheir mouths? Well today the boyfriend wakes up and says his throat issore. By the end of the day he is fullysick, with a man cold, and he is a little bit miserable. A man cold is not something I want to dealwith on my vacation so I tell him he is going to have to suck it up (I know Isound very loving and caring right now). Who gets a cold in the middle of the Caribbean???Anyways, we always take every drug imaginable with us when we travel just incase so luckily, I have some Tylenol cold and flu with me. I say luckily because I think it was like$17.99 to buy it on the ship. I keep himdrugged up for the rest of the cruise and he is pretty good. I know he wanted to complain more but didn’twant to ruin the vacation J It justsucks to spend so much money and then get sick, nothing you can do about it, wewashy washy’d all the time, it happens I know, I am still blaming the germykids on the plane ride!!

DAY 3. Sea Day. We slept in a little bit, got up around 9:00 and headed over to the windjammer for breakfast. Lots of options, lots of seats. We then went to the pool. Got there just after 10am and bam found 2 loungers right in front of the pool. All week we had no trouble getting any seat we wanted, it was great. The one concern I had with going on this big ship was that I would be constantly fighting crowds and lines but it was the complete opposite. This is the least crowded I have ever felt on a cruise, in all of the areas of the ship (except maybe disembarkation, more on that later)! Day was nice, there were a few showers but they were over quickly.

For lunch, we went to Johnny Rockets. We got a free lunch with our boardwalk balcony perks so I don’t know how much it would normally cost. I thought that the burger was pretty good. It was GIANT. I didn’t realize that it was a double burger, I felt bad I barely ate half of it! We didn’t get a milkshake although they did look really good!

In the afternoon since it was rainy off and on we took the opportunity to go into the solarium. It is awesome in there!!!! Lots of space and loungers and fantastic views. There are also some cool large infinity hot tubs, so we spent the later part of the afternoon in there and then headed back to our room to nap and get ready for dinner.

Dinner was good as usual. Tonight, we had the Oasis of Dreams water show booked. We watched a little bit of the earlier performance from our balcony, it looked like it was going to be really good. After dinner, we headed out to the Boardwalk and they had someone at the doorway letting everyone know that they show was cancelled due to weather. Boo!! I read in other reviews that this happens often so I was not surprised. We tried several times during the rest of the cruise to catch this show but it was cancelled every time.

I can’t remember what we did for the rest of that night. I think just the regular, hang out at the champagne bar for a martini, then to globe and atlas to see some singing? No, I remember, I think this was the night that they had the love and marriage game show. We went to that, it was pretty funny. Also, every single night before bed we went to Sorrentos and got a slice of pizza. I know, that is terrible, I am on vacation don’t judge my habits! The pizza from there was good, not super amazing but pretty good. Ok I ate it every night so it obviously, it was not that bad!

I just remembered I wanted to mention that I really liked the bathrooms in our cabin. The shower has a glass enclosure so there is no crappy curtain attacking you. The water pressure was AMAZING, I have super thick hair so this is a concern for me (I know I sound ridiculous), the pressure was so hard and the water got so hot, best shower ever!! Also, note there was just shampoo in the shower, no conditioner and no body wash, I bring my own stuff anyways but in case anyone was wondering. While we are talking about showers and the room again, my stateroom attendant Daniel was very good. He knew our schedule within a day, room was always done very nicely, we got a few cool towel animals, and when one of our lights was out he called and got someone to come right away. He also let us stay in our room until almost 9:00 on disembarkation day!

Day 2. We are in Nassau today, for a short time, from 8:30-3:00. Because it was a short stop we decided to do an excursion. We did the rainbow reef snorkel, it started early in the morning so we decided to order room service for breakfast. It was on time and it was pretty good, I like that you can order hot items for breakfast. We met in the theatre to wait for our excursion to start, after a little while we were able to debark the ship and were on our way. We took a boat over to the reef where we would do some snorkeling, I think it was about a 45 minute ride. We passed lots of nice houses and you could see Atlantis. Once we reached the reef we had about an hour to snorkel. There were lots of fish (they were feeding them I’m sure), but lots to see and we got some good pictures with our underwater camera. The water was a little chilly but when you are used to swimming in a very cold lake it was nice. We had a good morning!

We went back to the ship just after noon, headed to the windjammer for lunch, then went to the pool. There was barely anyone there. We got a few chairs near the pool and sat and drank and relaxed for the afternoon. We had very good bar service at the pool, there was always someone coming around asking if you wanted a drink.

Speaking of drinks, we did get the deluxe drink package. We ordered it on line before we boarded and I think we got it for 20% off. We also got the Voom internet package, which worked well all week, and thankfully nobody from work had to bother us! Back to the drinks… the package was for all drinks up to $13. It covered most all of our drinks. The only thing it didn’t cover was a few martinis we picked that were $15, and some wines. So, let’s talk about wine. We are wine drinkers. I wouldn’t say that I have a super sophisticated palette or anything but we enjoy our wine. We live near Niagara and visit the wineries often. There were some wines in the dining room and bars that were within the package limits. I think we tried all 5 or 6 reds that were $13 and under and one that was $17. I swear they all tasted the same, I could not tell the difference even when we ordered 2 different wines. I soooo wished that we brought on a couple of good bottles, we thought we would be able to find something drinkable with the package but it was not so good. So, bring on bottles if you are a wine drinker, or don’t be cheap like us and pay for a bottle that you can watch them open and pour!! Overall the wine prices were absolutely outrageous. I wanted to go to Vintages but it was just so overpriced I couldn’t bring myself to spend the extra! Wines aside we were happy we got the drink package. We for sure got our money’s worth especially when you factor in the bottles of water and sparkling water we drank daily, and the latte I had every morning which was nice. It was also nice to not have to worry about your bar bill at the end of the cruise, and we could try different drinks without worrying about loving it (especially at $13 a pop)!

This was formal night. We also had a show to see this night. We saw the ice show, which was called frozen in time. It was good. I am amazed at what they can do with that small ice and a moving ship! It was good. And surprisingly, it was not that cold in there! After the show and dinner, we went to Dazzles where they were playing a game show where they play a song and you have finish the lyrics. As they are announcing the game they are playing Drake. I think ok, this is the place for me. I decide I am going to even join the game show, I know lyrics to almost anything from the 80s onwards. I played this game on another ship and won. Lyrics are my thing! So, you pick a card which is the song you have to sing. There were 8 of us I think. Anyways, long story short, my first song was from the 50s or 60s I didn’t know it, I had heard it but didn’t really know it but tried anyways, everyone made it to the second round so I got another chance. I was hopeful for something good, but again got a song from the 50s or 60s that I had heard before but didn’t know the words to, I should have known that they wouldn’t play songs from the last 30 years but it was still all good fun! The entertainment people were very good! I really enjoyed when there were game shows and things going on, the staff was very good. Anyways after my epic loss we wandered around the ship and got a drink and watched some entertainment in the pub then headed to bed!

Ok DAY 1. We boarded the ship around 11:45. We headed up to the Windjammer for lunch, I knew that this gets really busy on embarkation day so we went quickly after we boarded. There was no wait, lunch was good, as we were finishing we noticed a line of people who had to wait to get in. That was a concerning moment for me but thankfully that was the last time I ever saw a line for food. Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe I eat at weird times? Anyways, we spent the next little bit wandering around the ship, checking things out, grabbing a cocktail or 2 until our room was ready (yes, we had the drink package, more on that later). At 1:00 the doors to the hallways were opened at we went to see the room.

We had room 11711 which is a boardwalk balcony. I LOVED this room!!! I usually get a normal balcony and I was worried about this room. But it was awesome. I loved that you can see out to the water, and the aquatheatre and everything going on down on the boardwalk. I would totally do this type of room again. Yes, you have to be careful because people can see into your room but just remember that and you are fine. There is some noise but not enough to bother me, and it was quiet by 11, I mean really quiet, like nobody is out at all after 11, more on that later… With the boardwalk balcony room we had the eat, play whatever package. There was nothing in the room that outlined anything about the package. It was supposed to be the pop package (we had the deluxe drink package so we didn’t care about that), a lunch at Johnny Rockets and a rock climbing session. We really only cared about the lunch so we went to guest services and they told us just to tell them at Johnny Rockets and they won’t charge us.

The rest of the day was exploring and then dinner. We had traditional dining, 8:00 seating. I like traditional dining, I like having the same waiters, sitting with the same people, interesting conversation etc. I was expecting to be seated at a table for 10 or 8 as I usually do. It was a table for 4. Oh no. That is totally awkward, right?? Anyways, a couple probably in their late 20s comes in, just married the night before, they tell us they were expecting a table for 2, ok even more awkward! I know I could have asked to switch tables or switched to anytime, or gone to the buffet or a specialty restaurant but instead we decided to make the best of it. They didn’t come to dinner for a few of the nights anyways. They ended up being really nice people, we just had nothing at all in common with them, but it worked out ok! Our servers were excellent, they knew what we wanted and had things ready for us before we even had to ask. Main dining room food was good, we enjoyed all of our meals. I was willing to pay to go to the specialty restaurants but I didn’t feel like we needed too so we never did end up trying any of them.

We didn’t have a show or anything booked for the night so we just walked around a few of the bars, it was pretty quiet but we figured it was the first night everyone was tired and called it an early night. This quickly became the theme of the cruise. After 11pm, there was nobody out. It was the quietest cruise ever!!!!!!! Now this is kind of an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage was there was always a lounger by the pool, rarely a line up for a drink, plenty of seats in any bar on any night, you can zipline and rock climb or flow ride whenever you want! Disadvantage there was literally no nightlife, honestly by 11:30 there was usually us and maybe one or 2 other couples in the bar (any bar). I was a bit disappointed because there were so many options and bars that could have been crazy good!! I was told that sailing out of Port Canaveral it would be kind of an older vibe so I was not expecting a party ship, but with 6,000+ people I was expecting somewhere in between? From talking to others on the ship (and those working on the ship) it was a rocking place when it left from Fort Lauderdale. Anyways, I was there to relax, so it was ok. We did really enjoy the shows so we looked forward to those after dinner!

Just off the Oasis of the seas (February 5-12). I will attempt to do a little review while I can still remember everything and answer any questions if you have any! Little background…I am Carla (40) travelling with my boyfriend (41), we have 2 kids who are 9 and 11 but they stayed at home!! This was an adult only cruise :) This was my 13th cruise, 3rd on Royal. The last time I was on a Royal ship was almost 10 years ago, I have been mostly doing Carnival cruises but have always wanted to try one of the big oasis class ships and the price was right so I went for it!!

We are from Ontario Canada so we left a day before to get to Orlando. We flew out of Buffalo on Southwest, which is our preferred airline, the airport is just over an hour from home and 2 bags fly free (we are chronic overpackers)! Being a flight to Orlando, it was packed with little sneezing and coughing germ balls, this will prove to be an issue by the middle of the week when sickness strikes… Anyways, the flight was on time and smooth and we landed in Orlando just after 5pm.

Once we landed and gathered our bags we made our way downstairs to the Budget counter where we had reserved a rental car that we would drive from Orlando to Cocoa beach. When we got down there the line was very long and we had to wait about an hour to get our car. So, next time I will send him down to the rental car place as soon as we arrive and I will wait for the bags upstairs. Waiting for the car wasn’t a big deal though, travel days are all about hurry up and wait!

We got our car and headed to Cocoa Beach. We stayed at the 4 points by Sheraton. This was a very nice hotel. The room was nice and well maintained, the was a nice on site restaurant, as well as lots of other restaurants close by. Parking was 6 dollars a night. We didn’t get in until almost 7pm so we were just looking for a clean nice place to stay and this worked well. We didn’t have time to do too much so we went and did a little bit of shopping to pick up some last-minute things and then ordered a pizza. We went to bed early and excited that we would be boarding the ship the next morning.

We woke up and got ready and brought the car back to Budget at 10am. The place was a bit of a zoo! Mostly with people coming off a ship and waiting for a car. We returned the car and waited for the shuttle. Shuttle comes and the driver takes everyone except for us and another couple who are going on the Oasis because he says there is no way we will get through the traffic, there is a second shuttle that is picking up people coming off the Oasis, he will take us. Ok, we will be patient. Next shuttle comes, he drops off and leaves to go back to Oasis, he can’t take us either it will be too long. Another shuttle comes, you guessed it, there is no way they are taking us to Oasis, it is too busy. A shuttle comes again, he leaves empty to pick up more people. At this point it has been an hour and 4 shuttles who won’t take us, we are getting a little annoyed. Shuttle comes back again, he finally agrees to take us to where he is picking up people and we can walk over to the side where we can board, sounds good. So, we finally get on a shuttle and where he is picking people up is literally right next to where you would board, I am not sure why he didn’t just do that to begin with. Maybe they can get in trouble for doing that?? Anyways… we have arrived!!!

It is just after 11am, we walk right up to an agent and she gets us our sail cards and our ticket with the boarding number, took literally 2 minutes. We sit down in the waiting area and they are just starting to call the first group to board, that was quick! We wait maybe a half hour and the gold numbers are called, and we are boarding at around 11:45am. Pretty good I think, embarkation was quick and painless!!

Will write more in a bit...

I know this is an old thread but I had to make a comment because it was such a good review and I am now EXTRA excited for my Oasis cruise is just THREE SLEEPS! Thanks for the wonderful review.

Drink Menu can be found at royal caribbean blog. I tried to post the link but it won't work on the forum.

 

Google search terms: royal caribbean blog new drink menu 2017

 

It will be the second link.

Awesome - thank you!!