Oasis Review -- including our cabin mirror falling off the wall!!

Well this is a bit over due, but here is our Oasis cruise review from July 16th to the 23rd. A little bit of background. . . my wife and I were the ones traveling, I’m 39 and she is 35. We’ve done 10 cruises, this was our 3rd with RCI. We’re from Ontario, Canada. This is the first time we’ve had an "issue". . .read down below to find out what it was.

We flew down the day before embarkation and stayed at the Embassy Suites on 17th Ave which is our normal hotel stop. We ate that night at the Outback and strolled over to Publix for a few small items. We took a taxi the following morning to the airport to board the Oasis.

Embarkation went smooth. We arrived at approx. 11am and were on the ship by 11:30. Porters were great with the luggage and we were guided to the entry doors. The fact that we had suite access was a definite perk. We boarded at the atrium and felt like we were at the mall. We had to kill a few hours as they do not let you go to your room till approx. 1pm, different than Princess, but not a bad thing. Unfortunately it meant that we had to drag our carry on with us. Luckily it was a small bag, but when you have the buffet full of people with 1 bag each it gets pretty full rather quick. Buffet food was so-so and we actually only ate there that one time for the whole cruise.

Muster drill was unique.... nothing like any other one we have been to. No life jackets and very noisy. Thank goodness we know how to put on a life jacket. Actually they weren’t even in our room.

Our room, 11240 an Owners Suite, was rather luxurious. The biggest one we have ever had on in a cruise ship. Our washroom had a bidet, whirlpool tub and a real shower with no curtain, but glass all around. Lisa turned on the bidet tap only to shoot water across the washroom and sprayed the cabinets at the sink vanity. I heard her laugh in the washroom from the livingroom and 2 days later I did the exact same thing to my own laughter. Our balcony was extremely large, almost triple the size of a normal balcony and had great furniture and awesome space. Our cabin steward, Rolly, was always working hard with a smile on his face.

Sail away was great with nice weather. We went to the Aqua theater show that night and it was really good, but it was hard to stay awake as we haven’t been up past ten in what seems like years.

The Ship: Well laid out and very clean. Sailing was very smooth, felt very little movement of the ship. Never waited long for a elevator, or to eat at any venue. On one of the days, someone got sick in the beach pool and they took it very seriously. Fully disinfected the area, and drained the pool. Was open and ready the next day. Lots of space for lounging – never had a problem finding a chair. Did miss having a "promenade" deck though. Ship never felt busy or full – hard to believe there were over 6000 passengers on board.

Where we ate:

Chops twice and both times it was really good. I thought the staff was right on. My steak the first night was way over cooked and in less than 10 minutes I had a nice medium rare steak and a nice visit from Junior the chief with an apology. On our second visit Junior came out to greet us and the meal was perfect.

150 Central Park once and it was well worth the price of admission. I am not a "foody" but throughly enjoyed the food with wine pairings. Our waiter is the head of Sorentos Pizzeria during the day and has spent many years on cruise ships as a waiter moving up the ladder. Chef Daniel, from Ohio, came out and spent a nice amount of time with each table. I asked him if he "had to throw all the cards down on the table where would his favorite place to eat on the ship be?" His response aside from 150, was the roast beef sandwich at the Park Café.

Park Café is where we had many snacks and lunches. A hidden gem. They made salads to order with or without proteins. Fresh brisket beef sandwiches, small bags of chips and nice desserts. It was always busy but worth it.

Johnny Rockets is where we went for breakfast almost everyday. They had fresh made breakfasts at no extra charge. We ate there for a few burgers as well. Milkshakes were really yummy and worth the price. Staff were great, and did a nice job dealing with a lady who loudly complained about her scrambled eggs being hard and not soft like she requested. I never knew that there was such a thing, and that it made such a difference.

Sea food Shack had bar type seafood that was deep fried and it also had really good chicken wings.

Ports Of Call – what we did.

Nassau - didn’t get off the ship and enjoyed the quiet time around the beach pool.

St Thomas - took a taxi to Meagans Bay. We’ve been here many times and love it.

St Martin - beach right down from the town taxi pier. $20 got us 2 cushion lounge chairs, 5 drinks, 2 umbrellas, and access to toilets and a fresh water shower. Best spot we’ve found there yet.

Entertainment

Aqua Theater put on a great diving show. We also watched the splish splash show and the water jet and light show.

Ice show was nice.

Comedy Club was great, I could do that every night.

Headliner Show was Abbacaddabra and they did really good job. If you closed your eyes you would have thought it was ABBA.

Casino was giving enough, but after our small donation we were done.

Bingo Lisa won $166 and didn’t have to split it. Yah

70s Dance Party was a lot of fun and that is normally not my type of thing.

Come Fly with Me was a well worth going to. It has old classic hits as well as modern music such as U2 along with aerobatics and dance moves.

All Access Tour behind the scene tour that took us to places where passengers would never get to go. We saw places such as cold freezers, laundry, the Bridge, I75, crew cafeteria, gym, barber shop, bar, then the heli-pad and engine control room. It was good but not really worth the price of $150 a person. We have done the similar thing on Princess and it was just run much better even though we saw a few less places with Princess. I enjoyed it but would not do it on the OASIS Class again, perhaps on a different class of RC ship.

Disembarkation was so smooth. Our scheduled departure time was 8:45 and we headed down a couple of minutes early and all we did was join a line of approximately 30 people and off the ship we went. In 45 minutes, we left our room, got off the ship, found our luggage, cleared customs, took a taxi to the airport, checked in at Air Canada and went through security. We typically are on a ship with 3000 guests and it takes longer and we usually feel like we are seeing all of those 3000 guests. Not once on the entire cruise did we feel like there were 6000 guests on board.

Mirror Issue

Here is our interesting "issue" that happened on the cruise. It did not ruin our cruise, but gave us a great story to tell. Many people may have let it ruin their holiday, but we did not.

On the night that we were in St Thomas we returned to our room just after midnight and fell into bed exhausted. Lisa was asleep and I was almost as well when I heard this strange nosie at 12:15 am. I looked to my right with my eyes barely open and then all of a sudden there was a shattering noise. The large vanity mirror fell off the wall and landed on our bed. It shattered into many pieces of large and small size. We called the front desk and they transferred us to house keeping.

Housekeeping arrived 20 minutes later with a small plastic bag and a vacuum. When they rounded the corner into our sleeping area from the livingroom space the first words out of their mouths was "Oh sh*t". They cleaned for an hour – vacuuming the pieces of mirror off of our bed and floor, they changed the sheets and removed the broken mirror. They were extremely apologetic and extremely through. They left the room just before 2 am.

The next morning we talked with our cabin steward to explain to him what happened and what had been cleaned and then asked him to follow up to see how and when the mirror would be replaced. He too was extremely apologetic. We laughed and said that we are safe and healthy and other than a little less sleep we were fine. That day we were off to St Martin for the day. When we returned the mirror was not yet replaced and bingo was about to start so off we went to bingo. We stopped at the pursers desk after bingo to collect Lisa’s winnings ($165) and talk with a assistant manager about the mirror. We had a nice discussion with her as this was the first she heard of the incident. She had the assistant housekeeping manager meet us at our room 30 minutes later, but when we returned to the room the mirror had been replaced. We took photos of where the mirror finally came to rest on the bed and the floor. He said that he had never seen such a thing happen before and was extremely concerned. He said that the photos that we took would be extremely helpful and that he would send up another person with a memory stick, and that they would use them for training. A short 15 minutes later, the head of housekeeping payed us a visit. We showed him the photos as we downloaded them and he said that after being at sea for 20 years he had never seen something like this happen.

My bigger concern and he agreed was that this could happen in other staterooms – is this an isolated incident or one of many to come? Here at home we own a large family business that is people related, and safety is a great concern. That is the main reason why I took photos so it was documented exactly as it happened. After the mess was cleaned up I felt the adhesive that held the mirror to the wall and it had no stick at all. If you held a piece of paper to it, it would have fallen to the ground. Perhaps it was a bad tube of material when the cabin was constructed. Or did it just dry over time? Who knows but all the people who saw it all stated that it was a first. We were lucky as we had another way to leave the bedroom area in the suite, but in a regular room there would be no other way around the mirror. You would have had to wait in bed, until house keeping arrived.

Later that night I had a quick visit with the general manager at the pursers desk to let her know that all was well and everything was fixed. I thanked her for her help and we chatted for a few more minutes. She asked if we were enjoying ourselves and yes we were. She asked if we would be back and I said yes, but our young daughter has serious health issues so we can’t book to far in advance. I stated that perhaps next summer we would return. Later that night there was a message on our phone from the manager stating that we will be receiving a 10% discount for a future cruise. A nice gesture that we will gladly accept as we were uninjured and our room had been made whole to how it should be. Needless to say we put a deposit down for a future cruise. On the second to last night a bottle of wine showed up to our room as well and since we aren’t big wine drinkers our cabin steward was more than happy to enjoy it with a few of his friends.

In the next few weeks I will be sending a letter to RCI letting them know of the great help that we received – from the staff, crew, management – for fixing our mini disaster and their genuine concern for our well being. For us the situation was handled perfectly.

Over all impression is that RCI designers did an awesome job with this ship with a perfect blend of fun but more importantly they did it with great function. We found the crew to be in great spirits, which can be hard when they have to be on their game almost all day ever day. I think they nailed it and hit a home run from design to layout of the ship as well as the activities on board. We will be back as we have already booked our next cruise on the Oasis for May of 2012.

Andrew and Lisa

Thanks for the review. I am glad no one was hurt when the mirror crashed. You would think they would have sent someone up immediately to check out the situation though instead of transferring you to housekeeping. Glad it didn't ruin your vacation though.

I've never heard of that happening before either! I'm so glad too that no one was hurt and it's great to hear about the very positive and helpful things that the cruise line did to make sure that you weren't put off by the event.

Thanks for the review. First time I have read about such an incident.

Great review! That is crazy about the mirror...thank goodness you guys weren't injured! Quick question for you - any idea what the name of the beach in St. Maarten was that you went to? We're on the Sept 10th sailing and have booked the Orient beach excursion thru the ship, but it sounds like you found a far better deal right there within walking distance!

It is so refreshing to hear from someone realistic and down to earth. I was expecting the usual type post with the "I want a full refund, I'm NEVER sailing RCL again, I was traumatized and getting a lawyer" ect. mentality. I sure hope our next cruise is with lots of people like you! :)

Would you happen to remember the name of the place where you got the beach chairs from in Saint Martin? Sounds like a great deal !!

Unbelievable about the mirror! So glad you weren't hurt and RC did a fine job in taking care of it.

Glad you enjoyed your vacation!

I love your review and I love your attitude. It is nice that you did not let it ruin your vacation and instead made a memory of it... Glad no one was hurt and glad you had a great time...

Kathy

Thanks for your Review-I enjoyed. :p We will be boarding her next Saturday, also in an OS. Can't wait!!

The beach is the one right downtown as you get off the water taxi. Just ask the attendants since most of the businesses facing the beach offer the all kinds of deals so you will stay to drink and eat there. We have done this same thing a few times in St Martin.

Nice review and nice response from RCCL. Glad to hear you were all ok too!

We ended up in front of the "Holland House Beach Hotel". That is where the washrooms were, shower, etc. The chairs had red cushions I think.

We have done this the last few times we have gone to St. Maarten and we found that if you turn right after you get off the water taxi that the beach is clean, lots of chairs are available and the price is good. Friends we met on the cruise went to the left side, and they complained that there were too many boats, jet skis, etc on that side.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Wish we were going on the Oasis again sooner than next May!!

We ended up in front of the "Holland House Beach Hotel". That is where the washrooms were, shower, etc. The chairs had red cushions I think.

 

We have done this the last few times we have gone to St. Maarten and we found that if you turn right after you get off the water taxi that the beach is clean, lots of chairs are available and the price is good. Friends we met on the cruise went to the left side, and they complained that there were too many boats, jet skis, etc on that side.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Wish we were going on the Oasis again sooner than next May!!

Great, we'll keep an eye out for that hotel/section of the beach! Now I just have to figure out how to cancel the RCI excursion we've booked, lol.

We were on the Mariner and had a wonderful cabin steward. We can not remember his name. Reading your "Rolly" rang a bell. Is this Rolly??

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Great review! I'm glad that you had an excellent cruise!

I would love to see more pictures about your stateroom and your balcony too!!

We were on the Mariner and had a wonderful cabin steward. We can not remember his name. Reading your "Rolly" rang a bell. Is this Rolly??

 

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Doesn't look like our "Rolly", but we've always had great room stewards, on every ship!!

Doesn't look like our "Rolly", but we've always had great room stewards, on every ship!!

Thanks for the response. We have as well, some stand out more than others. This one has been the best so far. Always smiling and working hard!

Great review! I'm glad that you had an excellent cruise!

 

I would love to see more pictures about your stateroom and your balcony too!!

Here's a few more photo's of the Owner's Suite:

Livingroom/dining room:

Bedroom (pre-mirror falling!! hahaha):

Bathroom (this shows the bidet and glass shower):

Balcony (one side had a table for 4, the other 2 nice loungers):

Thanks for your Review-I enjoyed. :p We will be boarding her next Saturday, also in an OS. Can't wait!!

Have a great trip. . . and if it happens to be room 11240, check your mirror!! hahaha

We have had a mirror fall at home when it became detached from the glue. I'd say it is pretty common. Ever since then, we now use hanging mirrors over our vanities.

We ended up in front of the "Holland House Beach Hotel". That is where the washrooms were, shower, etc. The chairs had red cushions I think.

 

We have done this the last few times we have gone to St. Maarten and we found that if you turn right after you get off the water taxi that the beach is clean, lots of chairs are available and the price is good. Friends we met on the cruise went to the left side, and they complained that there were too many boats, jet skis, etc on that side.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Wish we were going on the Oasis again sooner than next May!!

Thanks for the great review! The mirror thing looked very scary; glad that you were not injured.

Question about your beach day in St Maarten: could you use the pool as well?

Thanks!

Teddie

Just out of curiosity, did you book the owner's suite or were you upgraded? Either way, it looks amazing! I don't think I'd have left the room for the whole week!

WOW, what an addition to your review. Loved the review, and thanks for posting pics of the mirror and suite.

Happy Sailing!!!

Just out of curiosity, did you book the owner's suite or were you upgraded? Either way, it looks amazing! I don't think I'd have left the room for the whole week!

We booked the Owner's Suite. . . and we picked it again for the upcoming cruise in May. We like to know what room we have and where it is, rather than hope for the upgrade fairy!!