Oasis of the Seas May 7, 2017 Review

I figured that I would try and do a review of our recent Oasis cruise. I have some ready to go and will work on posting it along with pictures.

We are a family of 3 – 2 adults and a 6 year old. Before having our son, we cruised exclusively on Princess. We took him on a Princess cruise at 1 yo, but quickly decided that Princess was no longer the best fit for our family. We took several Disney Cruises after that and they were great, but Disney is so expensive. In 2015 we decided to try Royal Caribbean in large part to being able to cruise on Freedom out of Port Canaveral. We were quite surprised to find that while it was not quite at the same standards as Disney, we still loved the cruise and were more than happy to spend 50% of the Disney cost. We cruised Freedom again in 2016 and were so excited when Oasis was slated to take Freedom’s spot at Port Canaveral. We booked this cruise on the prior Freedom cruise.

Room: We chose a Boardwalk Balcony. We are a family that does tend to spend quite a bit of time in our stateroom. I loved the idea that we could watch the shows & movies at the Aqua Theater, people watch, and see the ocean from a Boardwalk Balcony. Originally, we had a room that was close to the midship area of the Boardwalk, but I continued to check for room openings and about 5 months out I spotted 10729 available. This room is the last Boardwalk Balcony on the starboard side of deck 10. I was so excited for the views.

As the cruise got closer, I started getting more apprehensive about our choice. I was worried that the room would be too noisy. Our son is extremely sensitive to loud noise and I was terrified that he would hate the room, the balcony, ect. At that time, it would have been about $700 to upgrade to an oceanview balcony. My husband convinced me to stick with what we had and make the best of it (he was really looking forward to the Boardwalk view and didn’t want to spend the extra money). I am extremely happy that we chose to keep this room.

*

As far as noise goes I would describe it as follows:

Movies: Inside the stateroom we could hear music in mostly. It reminded me of a TV being on in our downstairs while we are upstairs behind a closed door. I knew it was there, but didn’t really hear it.

Outside, we needed the closed captioning on the movies was very helpful as it was slightly difficult to hear all the dialogue over the other outside noises.

*

Oasis of Dreams (water/dive show): The music was very audible inside our room, but it was instrumental and never obtrusive to us. We were able to sleep through it without a problem. Outside it was loud enough you had to raise your voice just slightly to talk to someone on the balcony.

*

Other events at the Aqua Theater (Muster drill, Belly Flop, and Sexiest Man competition): These were pretty loud in the room. I had no problem hearing everything that was said. It was like having the TV on in the room. Fortunately, these took place mid-day and didn’t cause any problems for us. However, I did comment to my husband that I was glad we were out of the mid-day nap stage with our son or I would likely have felt different about the loudness of these events in the room.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Room itself: I was concerned about the size of the room. This would be the smallest stateroom that we have ever had. Our first cruise on Freedom we had the Deck 12 Family Panoramic Oceanview room and on our second we had a pie shaped deck 12 Large Panoramic Oceanview stateroom.

To help with storage I brought an over the door shoe holder that we used for all sorts of small items. We also packed our small clothing items in packing cubes. This let us keep things like underwear, socks, all of my son’s clothes on the shelves in the closet. This really helped with storage since drawer space is extremely limited.

I also picked up a plug in USB adapter with 3 slots along with 3 ten ft charger cords. We plugged this in at the plug in behind the phone and ran one of the cords along the top of the bed between the bed and the wall so that there was a charger for both nightstands. This also let us keep our desk free of clutter.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

I’d seen pictures of the balcony rooms with the couch pulled out into a bed and there is just no room to move. Since we do often spend time in our room, especially in the evening, I did not want to deal with that. I asked the room steward to just put a sheet on top of the couch and let my son sleep on the couch as a couch instead of pulled out into a bed. This worked great for a 6 yo, but there wasn’t a lot of extra space even for him. Next year, we may ask the steward to show us how to pull the bed out and do it ourselves right before bed. I want to be able to get to and from the balcony without crawling over a bed.

Not the best picture, but you can see the sheets on the couch.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Following....we just got off the Harmony and are booked for the Oasis for this October.

Food:

Food is so subjective that I won’t spend much time on it. We enjoyed the food and never found ourselves hungry. We all felt the food on Oasis was better than Freedom. We too full advantage of all the multiple venues on Oasis that were complimentary.

*

Breakfast: We ate at Johnny Rockets (Excellent, but arrive early or you may have to wait especially later in the week), Windjammer (Crowded, food was fine. This was our least favorite), Solarium Bistro (the premade sandwiches were decent, the bagel station was better. The lines were often long for the bagels and my son didn’t really like anything there except for pastries so we only went twice), Wipe Out Café (our overall favorite). *

*

The Wipe Out Café was our overall favorite because it was never really crowded and we could always find a table (and see the water). The selection of food was fine – normal breakfast items like bacon, sausage, pancakes, French toast, waffles, fruit, pastries, oatmeal, yogurt, cereal, and it is the only place to feature made to order omelets. When you order one they give you a number sign to put on your table and bring it out to you when it is ready.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Lunch -

Wipeout Café: Food was good if you are in the mood for what they offer. They served things like pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and ice cream.

Windjammer: I found the selection to be somewhat lacking compared to other ships that we have been on. The food was fine, but nothing really stood out and this was my least favorite.

Sorrento’s Pizza: The pizza on Oasis was way better than it was on Freedom. The crust didn’t taste like it was premade and previously frozen. I wouldn’t eat the pizza on Freedom, but actually enjoyed it on Oasis. It is not great pizza by any means, but it is decent. I did really enjoy the create your own pizza line. This was my son’s favorite venue on the ship.

*

Park Café: This place is a winner. Hands down my husband’s and my favorite lunch venue. The roast beef sandwiches are excellent. I also really enjoyed the salad bar (you can get your salad and then ask for some slices of roast beef to put on top). They do have some pannini’s and other sandwiches if roast beef isn’t your thing. I usually got my son a 4 cheese panini (grilled cheese sandwich) and he was happy. They also offer small bags of chips here. Grab some to take back to the room for enjoying on your balcony later

Park Cafe roast beef and salad

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Dinner –

MDR: We had MTD and only went to the MTD twice. Service was fine, as good as I would expect given the situation. The food was always good. No complaints.

*

Windjammer: As with breakfast and lunch, it is OK at dinner. I actually felt that dinner was the best meal that they offered. We went on the first formal night and they offered a crepe station with lots of toppings which was really good.

*

Solarium Bistro: A week or so before our cruise the fee for the Solarium Bistro was dropped. We booked 2 nights. The appetizers & desserts here are offered from a buffet and the main entrée is ordered from the menu. I could make a meal out of the appetizers and desserts alone, but that didn’t keep me from ordering steak. We were also able to order kids meals from the MDR for my son. They warned us that these can take a bit to get there, so we were asked to order them right away. This was our favorite dinner venue. That said, I wouldn’t have paid $50 for our family to eat there if the surcharge was still in effect.

*

Sabor: I have mixed feelings about Sabor. We dined there on Freedom and it was amazing. It was still good on Oasis, but it was lacking somewhat. We were dining there on the 2nd formal night and the first disappointment came when we were told that they were out of fresh avocados for the handmade guacamole. We were instead brought a premade avocado paste with some seasonings. It was not great, it wasn’t even good. Thankfully, we were not charged $6 for this. Second issue was the reluctance to let us order the drink of the day as they complained about having to go to the bar that is right outside of the restaurant to get this. When my husband said that he would go get it and the waiter realized we weren’t just going to order his recommended margarita, he said that it would be fine and he would get it. (For those that don’t know the Sabor bar outside of the restaurant is 20 feet away. We were staring at it. Our server also only had our table, so it was not an issue of him being too busy. It really felt like he was just trying to upsell us since we didn’t have a drink package.)

We ordered the chicken, pork, and beef tacos. We loved the chicken, thought the pork were pretty good, but we were not fond of the beef tacos that had a chipotle BBQ sauce on the meat. We also ordered a cheese quesadilla for our son. The total bill was $20.

The cruise after ours the restaurant changed from an a la carte pricing to $19 per person. The restaurant was worth it to our family for $20 (or $26 if they would have had good guacamole), but I’m not pay $50-$60 next time we cruise. I can enjoy great Mexican food locally for much less money.

Solarium Bistro view

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Room Service: We ordered room service one evening. It is $7.95 per delivery. It was dinner time and it took 30-40 minutes from the time we ordered until it arrived. Some of the food was great, some was OK, and some was just bad.

Great: Chicken tenders, quesadilla, cookies, cheesecake.

OK: Chicken fettucine (it didn’t have much flavor and was a little dry)

Bad: Philly Cheesesteak (the meat was mixed with a brown gravy.)

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Still to come: Ports, ships activities, and whatever other random thoughts that I have :)

Enjoying your review so far. We will be on Oasis in October in a deck 12 boardwalk balcony so your thoughts on the room were especially helpful. Cannot wait for more!

Thanks for the review. Look forward to reading your other thoughts.

Enjoying your review so far. We will be on Oasis in October in a deck 12 boardwalk balcony so your thoughts on the room were especially helpful. Cannot wait for more!

You are welcome. Here are some more random photos from the balcony.

St Maarten

Breakfast at sea

Watching Star Wars Rogue One. (We brought a very small folding chair for our son to use so we could all sit while on the balcony)

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Also, the balcony was a lot larger than I expected. It wasn't big enough to lay on, but there was no problem moving around the table and chairs. We saw a family that had 2 cabins next to each other put all 4 chairs around the table on one balcony to play some card games. I'm sure that was snug, but it still worked. The balconies we had on Princess and Disney were barely big enough for the 2 chairs

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Nice review - we were on that sailing too. Did you try the miso soup in the Solarium Bistro for lunch? Very tasty, and you could ask for extra shrimp.

Nice review. Thanks!

Wow your glass on the balcony is clean. When we had 9729 we could not see out the glass for movies. It was almost opaque. I thought it was just sea salt and got a wet cloth and tried to wipe it, but that did nothing. This was on allure though and not oasis.

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

Wow your glass on the balcony is clean. When we had 9729 we could not see out the glass for movies. It was almost opaque. I thought it was just sea salt and got a wet cloth and tried to wipe it, but that did nothing. This was on allure though and not oasis.

 

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

That would have been a bummer. I didn't notice that on any of the Boardwalk balconies on Oasis. As seen, we had no problems looking through the glass.

Ship Activities: We spent most of our time in the Casino, night clubs, and bars. Just kidding, we have a 6 yo who doesn’t go to the kid’s clubs. Our days were spent in a rotation of first breakfast, balcony, second breakfast, kids club family activity, balcony, lunch, walking around the track while answering the same 100 questions from yesterday’s walk, pizza, going to an activity just to leave because our son changed his mind, more pizza, a trip to the pool only to decide that it was too cold, too many people there, the sprayers weren’t working, and so on. In truth we are absolutely fine with this schedule, but it means that I can’t talk about much of the activities and such.

(There are 2 boats and 2 vehicles down on the Boardwalk that kids can play in)

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

We did do several of the family activities that were offered through the kid’s clubs. These activities are all on a space available basis and are in small rooms. There was not that many kids on our cruise and these still filled up quick. I didn’t see anyone turned away, but again there wasn’t that many kids on our cruise. If you are going on a cruise that is full of kids, I’d recommend arriving at least 15 minutes early to stand in line. The crafts were mostly paper, markers, glue, scissor type crafts. Nothing extremely special, but fun for kids (in other words I wouldn’t skip a whole lot of other things to do them). We also went to Family Bingo, which unlike the regular Bingo is free. Just to be clear about how this works, each child gets one Bingo card. We saw a family that had brought each adult in their traveling party and one child. They were arguing with the staff about everyone being able to play. DS got the first Bingo of the day and won an Adventure Ocean branded beach towel.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

There were also several days where the Boardwalk had family activities going on. These included games for kids to play (bean bags, cup stacking, hula hoops) and often included a person making balloon animals and face painting. I can’t stress this next part enough: If you want to get a balloon animal or your kid’s face painted get there early and find out where the line will start. One day we saw (from our balcony) people waiting almost 45 minutes for a balloon animal. I love my kid, but not that much. We went to the Pirate day activities, but didn’t stay too long because the music was very loud.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

The only complaint that I had with the kids and family activities was the Autism Friendly (Sensory Friendly) movie showing that they offered in the Adventure Ocean theater. It was supposed to be Moana. My son knows and enjoys this movie, so he was excited to try out a movie in a theater where the volume was going to be turned down low enough for him to hopefully enjoy. We arrived at the theater to have several other parents immediately tell us that they had changed the movie to “Princess & the Frog”. To many people this would not be a big deal at all, but those with Autistic kids understand how changing things at the last minute isn’t a good thing. I have no idea why this was changed, but we were disappointed.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Note about the pools: We only tried the kid’s H20 zone pool and area so this applies to that only. On Freedom we had been able to enjoy the circular pool that pushes the current around like a donut. This was actually our favorite because it was heated. On Oasis, there was a minimum shoulder height to be able to use that pool. (I’m sorry, but I cannot remember what it was. I think it was like 3’11”). There was a lifeguard there making sure that kid’s shoulders were above that line and if not, they couldn’t use that particular pool. Most of the kids using it looked to be 10+.

*

I felt like the space devoted to the kids pool was smaller than on Freedom. It just seemed more cramped. I don’t know if it is because of the design of the ship or the luck of the weather, but it was a lot windier in the pool area. More than half of the water sprayers were not working and I cut my finger on one that had a screw sticking out of the handle. I reported this, but when we checked later in the week nothing had been done about it.

(Cruise Critic's picture, since apparently I only took video of this area)

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

Characters: I love the Royal Caribbean & Dreamworks partnership. Characters are cool. Kids (usually) love seeing them, and on Royal it is a quick and easy activity. On Disney we literally organized our nights around standing in line for characters. One parent would have to go line up for one character for while the other kept the kid in another line to see a character. It was common to stand in line for 20+ minutes for each character.So much standing in line. I know that there are some who will disagree with this statement, but I often felt like it was worse than the Disney parks. At least the parks you go and do other activities before getting in another character line.

This is our 3rd Royal cruise on a ship with the Dreamworks characters and we have never stood in line more than 5 minutes. I’d say about 60%of the time we walked up and either went straight to the character or waited for 1 other family to finish before getting to see the characters. It is so nice. (We have traveled during times when there isn’t a huge amount of kids on board, so I don’t know what it is like during summer or holiday breaks).

We skipped the parades and the Dreamworks breakfast as they are both too loud for my son, so I don’t have any advice on those.