live2vayk

On other cruise lines, we have always arrived about 11 and often we have gotten right on the ship. I am getting the sense from this thread that Princess holds to a Noon boarding time? Makes sense, just wondering.... thanks.

I was told there were no theme nights on the 5 day cruise? is that incorrect?

Hello! I am unsure if they were "officially" theme nights, not sure if there is a distinction to that. I can tell you that they had a 70s dance party in the centrum one night lead by the CD and staff, and they did a disco party in one of the lounges following that. They had things going on in the centrum area each night.

Thanks for your review we are going from Tampa on Mar.7th-same deck! I found conflicting info. about smoking in the casino. Do you remember if there was an actual smoke free night at casino during your trip? I've read there is a smoke free area but is meaningless since its open area. Thanks in advance!

There was not a specific night that was smoke free in the casino on this cruise. There is an area that has no smoking, and it is tucked into the corner that leads out of the casino on one side, so while smoke of course wafts over there, it really wasn't bad. I realize that is very subjective, if I were really sensative to smoke it would not have been OK probably. But, it was mild and I didn't stink after I left..... that I noticed! :)

Great question for me too OP! Like you, I have been on at least 10 cruises, and most have been on RCCL, a couple on Carnival and one each on NCL and Disney. My very first Princess cruise is coming up, and I can't wait! I am following this thread with much interest..... :)

What shuttle service did you use to get back to the airport after the cruise? We will be doing this sailing in April :D.

Taxi's were available, so that would certainly be easy to do. But because we were a group of 10 I pre arranged a shuttle with "super shuttle". I did it all online, it was easy. That morning they sent me a reminder email and confirmed the time, and when we got out of the terminal we were pointed in the direction of where we could expect our shuttle. There was a worker from Super Shuttle there in a uniform, and he called our driver and told him we were ready to go. It was very simple and for 10 of us with tip the total was $100.00. I would recommend them if a shuttle is what you would prefer. But as I said, taxi's were very easy to be had.

Couple things: If you get it, *everyone* in your cabin has to get their own package too--no sharing.

 

That being said, there were 3 other useful offers for us: frequent 2-for-1 on 'boat' drinks by the pool (mango mai tais, etc.); drink of the day for $7 (also boat drinks);and if you're a repeat guest, a benefits package pre-loaded onto your seapass that includes one-time use of: 2 for 1 drink, a discounted drink, and a discounted special coffee. Look for the letter in your cabin describing these, the day you board.

But make sure that you're picking what you want to use them on (tell the bartender), otherwise they automatically get deducted first time you order a drink.

This was not what we experienced, I didn't buy the package special, but my cabin mate did.... we didn't share of course, I just paid as I went. And I had a few of those buy one get one specials on my letter in my cabin, but I had to ask them to apply the discount, they did not automatically do it for me. Not a big deal, but I had to ask them for the deal.

They offered a one day drink package on the last day. The cost was $55 I believe, not sure if that included the tip or not as we did not purchase it

It was $55.00 a day, but the bill for it was around $65 when all was said and done with tax and I think they also added gratuity....

Boarding March 7th, excited! Did they offer daily drink (adult) specials (discounted prices)? I heard their drink prices have gotten stupid expensive, and trying to decide if a drink package would be best? Thanks for the review!

AHHH!! Drink prices/packages! I forgot to mention those!! So I found the drink prices to be high on cocktails, not bad for beer/wine. I did not do a drink package. I can not for the life of me figure out how people can handle the calories alone from drinking enough everyday to break even on buying a drink package, so I just can't do it. I typically drink more on vacation, but I max out at about three drinks a day.

For the beverages I did buy: I got an amaretto sour one night, that was $13.68. I think that was my most expensive drink. I had a few other cocktails, they mostly were around $12.00. I bought a bottle of wine one day, $43.00 that I shared with my group. Glasses of wine were anywhere from $7.00 on up. I also had brought on two bottles of wine, so that is another reason a drink package didn't make sense for me.... buckets of beer were $37.00 for 6 (pretty sure it had 6 in it). My friend drank bud light, not sure if they prices are different for different kinds. What I found very odd about the buckets of beer is each bar seemed to have their own price. One bar charged $41.00 for the same bucket of beer! Another charged us somewhere in between those two prices. That was a little weird. There were margarita specials in Rita's Cantina, but I didn't see many other drink specials other than that. But they did offer a "one day beverage package" purchase on our last sea day. A few members of our group bought it, but they all found that they likely only broke even.

I often see a lot of folks justify the drink package by saying "I don't want to have to worry about my bar bill, I want to just have it all included". Well fiscally for me that makes zero sense. I am not going to pay more than I will use only for the ease of not having to deal with a bar bill at the end. For me, I would have to drink 5 adult beverages to about break even, over that to see a return on my investment. I simply can't drink that much and fit back into my pants at the end of the cruise!! :)

Thanks for your post! Quick question - did you use the cinema, and if so, was it difficult to get a seat?

We did not use the cinema, but I did pop my head in once on the way by and noticed there were seats to be had at that point in time....

Hello fellow Vermonter :)

Thanks for the review. it's always fun to read them!

Hello! I am glad you enjoyed reading it, I also enjoy reading reviews. It is always interesting to me to find out what other folks enjoyed, or didn't enjoy, on their journey.

Bundle up this weekend! Sub zero temps have arrived to our neck of the woods!

We were on the same cruise. It was not fog that delayed our departure. It was some boat traffic that caused the delay. The captain made an announcement.

Good to know! I couldn't hear the announcements in my cabin, so I missed that one. Thanks for letting me know, I was curious!

Thank you for info about large group dining. We're your reservations linked?

Hello! Yes, I had linked all the cabins together on all reservations at the time of booking. That was not an issue. He flat out said they just can't (won't?) accommodate a party of 10 in MTD during peak times. My issue wasn't that they couldn't, my issue was that I would have liked to have known that about MTD before hand to make a better choice. Not a big deal, but good to know for future travels.

Thanks for the review. Where is the long winded version posted?

LOL! I got a bit long winded on this one too didn't I! Believe it or not, I wrote a longer one for the actual review section of cruise critic. I don't think it has been posted yet, I just wrote it yesterday.

Hello fellow cruisers! I wrote a long winded review of my cruise already, but thought I would just post some comments about it here too.

I was in a group of 10 woman who left behind husbands/kids to go have a girls only cruise to celebrate a member of the groups 50th bday. This was my first time sailing out of Tampa. I loved the area, and everything was fine but honestly I may not sail out of Tampa again unless the deal is good. I was very nervous about fog issues. We didn't have any, but it was overcast and foggy on the way out and we didn't sail away on time. Now I have no idea if that was fog related or not, but I did wonder! We were about 45 minutes late sailing out. No big deal, other than that I fretted the cruise might be cancelled.

We stayed the night prior to sailing at the Country Inn and Suites on Benjamin Road. Clean and comfy with a free airport shuttle, free breakfast, and they arranged our transfer to the cruise port which was very handy. With tip it was about $10.00 each for that transport. There were two bummers with the hotel, it really wasn't close to much you could walk to, and the hot tub was COLD. ;( BUT, the front desk staff was top notch, and they gave us cookies. All good.

We were at the port at around 11, pretty much walked right onto the ship. Hit the bar a bit, then grabbed lunch at the WJ, and by 1 PM our balcony cabins were ready. That was all as smooth as could be.

I loved Brilliance. I have been on Serenade in the past, very similar. I was on Oasis last October. Mind you that is a beautiful ship, but I think I prefer the smaller ships. Brilliance was in good repair and clean. The staff was great.

Weather was a bit of a bummer, but we had enough activities on the ship to keep busy. The super bowl was on. Nothing I care about but the ship did a good job around the super bowl and it could be watched in several locations. Many in my group did watch. I did not.

Our one stop for this short voyage was Cozumel. We went to Playa Mia for the day. Rest rooms were very clean (important detail for me!) and the food was good. I have been to nicer places in Cozumel, but this one was fine.

So a few hits/misses: I had booked Anytime Dining. Well, for a party of 10 you have very limited options apparently. I had pre booked a 7 pm seating, but when I went to check on it, I was told we couldn't have that time, because of the size of our party we had to do early or late. Well OK, had I known that I would have just done trad dining. Not a huge deal, but annoying. If you can't accommodate large groups in MTD, then don't offer it to large groups.

I also found it annoying/odd that the first day we were hounded to make reservations at the fee restaurants. This was new to me, I have been asked in the past, but usually just once, and in a non sales pitch way. This time my group was all asked multiple times to book at the fee places in an aggressive sales sort of way. Not sure what is up with that, but I didn't like it. I hope that doesn't become the norm on RCI.

We had some rough seas, nothing horrible, but the ship really creaked at night I assume from movement. Nothing ear plugs couldn't handle. Our room location was on deck 8 mid ship. Loved it.

Leaving the ship was fast and easy. We had pre arranged Super Shuttle to take us to the airport. We were off so fast we had to wait a bit for the shuttle but that was fine.

All things considered, we had a GREAT time, and I certainly would recommend Brilliance of the Seas!

I am happy to elaborate if there are any questions!

What I find the crew do NOT do frequently enough is maintain/refill the Freestyle machines.

That was a problem on my last cruise on Oasis. One machine was out of order most of the time, and the other didn't have ice. There was a sign on the working machine to ask for ice at Sorrentos, but apparently no one informed the guy working at Sorrentos of that, he wouldn't give anyone ice and was put out that he was asked!

Thank you for the information! Finding out prior to boarding the ship allows us to bring on (or try to bring on if they don't confiscate it) a small amount of the soda that we prefer. I know the freestyle machine has it, but the guns at the bar do not. I appreciate your help, now we will try and bring a few cans.

Happy Sailing!

Hello,

I have been researching the ship information on RCI, but none of them (that I could find) list if they have the free style soda machine or not. My friend only wants to plan on buying the soda package if there is a machine. We will be on Brilliance of the Seas soon. Does anyone know if this ship has any of these machines?

Thanks so much!

NCL and Princess even though different companies Are all under the same Carnival umbrella company.

 

Handy to know they don't provide a beach bag. Enjoy your cruise

Actually NCL is not part of the Carnival Corp. There are many cruise lines that are, but I don't believe NCL to be one. But that is here nor there, I really don't think anyone cares if someone is making use of something that happens to have another lines logo. I wouldn't think twice. I used my NCL lanyard on my last RCI cruise. I like the length of it so it is the one I use.

Happy sailing!

I recently took a short voyage on Oasis. I was a little concerned that there would be a bit of a party vibe with associated drinking that would create a rowdy crowd, that did not happen at all. Of course there were a few folks who could have worked on their manners a bit, but for the most part we only witnessed very courteous folks.

As for Crown and Anchor, I am almost to Emerald. Trust me, it doesn't mean squat (according to the chart of benefits). And Diamond doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. Diamond plus and Pinnacle look like they offer some decent benefits, but by the time you have paid RCIs cruise prices to get there, you could have enjoyed the cruises on another line and bought many of those benefits several times over. Just my opinion of course.

Actually, I love the ships but not a fan of the gym layout with no views. My favorite has always been the Freedom Class gyms. On the Oasis class, the area around the cardio machines isn't bad but the weights and weight machine area is cramped and feels a bit claustrophobic. Just my own preference. I do like the track on five because on other ships, I would never attempt a run on the top deck unless it was at daybreak.

 

Almost forgot, nice review OP.

I think you nailed it! The gym felt smaller to me because there were no views. I honestly think the gym was smaller than the Freedom class, but maybe not... maybe it was just the layout and the fact that there were no (or very few) windows. I love to run on the treadmill while looking out at the beautiful big blue. Or, doing a very early morning jog out on the upper decks and watch the sunrise. If I get out there early enough I can get in a decent run and am almost by myself out there! Love that. Did not enjoy the enclosed track, it was a little dark in sections when you are an early bird...

...Thanks for your review. I do agree there were times the ship felt crowded but those were short lived for us as we mostly use the stairs instead of elevators and I made reserv. For all shows.

I had made reservations too, but trying to get through the throng of people who had not, that were waiting to get in just outside the doors was a trick! I also usually use the stairs most of the time, always like to burn a few extra calories here and there. This time my sister was traveling with a slight injury to her leg, nothing that would prevent her from a flight or two of stairs, but when we were on deck 3 or 4 and we wanted to get back to our room on deck 14, well the elevator it was!

I posted this review, but thought I would share my experience here as well FWIW.

When I saw a short cruise on Oasis of the Seas being offered for a Oct. 21 sailing, I jumped at the chance to see this class of ship for myself. I wasn't willing to pay what a 7 nighter is demanding, but the ship was chartered for 3 days prior to this cruise leaving RCI with days left in the week to fill. So they offered up a 3 day cruise, and I booked it.

I couldn't talk my husband into going as he is busy this time of year, and my kids were in school, so my two sisters joined me. We flew into FLL the night before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Cruise-Airport. We found the property to be clean and comfortable. This hotel was near the port, and offered an airport shuttle. We opted to rent a car since we had an evening to wander around. The one day rental was only $50.00, I had to put about $15.00 in gas, and when we returned it we grabbed a cab to the terminal for $20.00. I will always rent a car, I like having my own wheels to do what I want when I want.

We arrived at the port at around 10:50 am. We were checked in and on board by 11:30. I am platinum with RCI, but that really doesn't mean much.... I am almost to Emerald, so I can loook forward to a beverage and snack, woo hoo! (sarcasm).. anyway...We had to sit in the waiting area for just a few minutes and then they let us board. Painless. First stop was to the Park Cafe to try one of the roast beef sandwiches that everyone raves about. Mission accomplished. It was OK. I didn't ever feel the need to have another, I will leave it at that. We wandered the ship and before long it was time to drop our carry ons in our room.

We had an ocean view balcony on deck 14. Our room number was 280. Our cabin steward introduced himself right away, and was very pleasant. He took great care of our room. I will say that I was a little concerned with the location of our room, I had picked it and realized after that it was just below the teen club. But we never had a noise issue, the room was a good location for us.

I had asked for My Time Dining, but when I got there it was set for traditional each night for 6 pm. I went to see the host to get it fixed. I was surprised at the reaction I received. I was told I really didn't want that option, I should stay with the traditional 6 pm seating. Now mind you, if they had said to me, "Sorry, we are full, you have to stay with what we gave you." It wouldn't have been a big deal. But that isn't what she said to me. She literally told me she didn't recommend My Time Dining, and gave me my paperwork back to dismiss me. I politely insisted that she make the change if possible, and she did it for me, and that was the end of that. But the interaction was odd.

We ate in the American Icon two of the three nights and we were pleased with the service/selection. We ate at Sabor one night. The guac was excellent as was my margarita. But the fajita was pretty bad. I had to look really hard for any traces of chicken. We had lunch at the Park Cafe the first day as I mentioned, it was good. Johnny Rockets which we always enjoy the second day. And the windjammer for lunch on the final day. I do not like the layout of the Windjammer, and I felt like they were lacking on selections. But it was OK. We had our breakfasts in the MDR and that was fine.

The shows were all OK, and I spent a little time in the casino and enjoyed that. We didn't get off the ship in Nassau, as the ship was the destination for us this time. My sister enjoyed doing the zip line, but when I went to do it there was about 50 people in line, so I passed on it.

The gym facility was disappointing on this ship. Very closed in and very small for the size of the ship. Also, the jogging track is mostly enclosed. I didn't enjoy that.

Overall, I liked this cruise. But for me, I think this class of ship is too big. And the way it is laid out, I often felt enclosed. People have said it never felt crowded. Well, I am here to tell you that at times, it is very crowded feeling! You can certainly find areas that are not, but if there is a certain thing you want to do, chances are good many, many others do as well. And getting into shows was harder to do just from sheer volumes of people, as well as trying to use the elevators. I don't mind crowds for the most part, but this trip it seemed excessive to me. Trying to get a soda refill at the machine in the promenade always had a line, and several times the machine wasn't working. I let an employee in Sorrentos next door to the machine know that it wasn't working, and got a very snarky reply that he didn't much care it wasn't working. Well allrighty then!

I also wanted to mention that prior to this three day cruise I can't tell you how many times people posted stuff like, "short cruises are booze cruises", "get ready to be in a drunken mob" type stuff. I didn't see any more drinking on this cruise than any of the longer cruises I have taken. People were responsible. I am 44 years old and past the point of party cruises for myself pretty much, but I don't mind when others choose to live it up, but I never felt that vibe on this ship. In fact, perhaps it was the time of year, but it seemed like there were a lot of older passengers on this voyage.

Oasis of the Seas certainly a beautiful ship, and well maintained. Most all of the employees were kind and helpful. Would I go on this class of ship again? Probably not, unless it is a too good to pass up deal. But these days, RCI doesn't seem to have deals. Their sales are even expensive compared to other lines. And I know those that are "loyal to royal" feel the price difference is justified, and for them it is. We all have our own cost/value levels. But for me, I have been on Carnival, NCL, and Disney. Royal isn't any better or worse overall, in my opinion. I like them, don't get me wrong, I just don't think there is anything special enough to pay a lot more for them vs. other lines. But again, that is a subjective matter and that is my opinion.

I will close with the folks that I spoke to on the ship, many that were clearly Royal enthusiast, loved this ship.

I always use a lanyard and usually it is tucked under my swim cover up or shawl. Convenience always trumps fashion for me! I have never found a free lanyard on the ship, I always just bring one. I don't use plastic sleeves, I have guest services punch a hole in the card. Even if I don't happen to be wearing it around my neck having the card clipped to the lanyard makes it easier for me to keep track of. To each their own...

I am an advocate for insurance. I have used it twice. Once my Mom died while we were at sea, so we had to end our trip and book a last minute ticket home from Grand Cayman. Recently I just had to cancel a trip because my elderly father that lives with us fell and broke his wrist. He was unable to do things for himself, so we needed to stick around. Luckily I had purchased "cancel for any reason" for this last trip, so I was able to recover our expenses.

I will never understand the logic of not purchasing insurance. Sure, folks can self insure, but why would anyone do that? The price of the trip is worth enough to me to spend a fraction more of the cost to purchase insurance. If I had to "eat" the cost of the trip I could, but I would rather be able to recoup my costs. For us the cost of insurance is small, so the argument that you could take more trips if you didn't spend the insurance money doesn't hold weight with me.

Our experience is very different than the previous poster. I found the cake you can buy for celebrations to be very mediocre and not worth the extra cost. Unless cake means a great deal to the celebration person, I would skip it and pick a nice dessert off the menu. :)

This was also my experience. I was disappointed with the cake and from now on will just order a dessert from the menu to celebrate.