Oasis LIVE (one month later!) Review

[Ocean Boy]

where can I read your review

 

Have you tried the beginning of this thread?

[ewpsrp]

I love the idea for your planning spreadsheet. What an awesome idea. I already made my for our Allure trip in May 2013. I wish I had known of this idea when we sailed on Freedom. I feel we missed a lot. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed your review.

[like2cruise]

Is there a link to the spreadsheets that I am missing? If not, would you please send them to like2cruise@dwx.com. My daughter has started an excel sheet for our May cruise on the Oasis and we would really appreciate any help in our planning as well. Thank you for your time and efforts...an awesome service to us all :D

[mini-canadian]

Is there a link to the spreadsheets that I am missing? If not, would you please send them to like2cruise@dwx.com. My daughter has started an excel sheet for our May cruise on the Oasis and we would really appreciate any help in our planning as well. Thank you for your time and efforts...an awesome service to us all :D

 

 

Me too...would really appreciate the excel sheets. laura001@pppoe.ca

 

Also, I remember somewhere in the review you mention that there is one night that you would recommend to make your alternative dining plans, was that night #5? Which nights are formal nights?

 

Thanks so much for the review, loved it and learned a ton.

[Wildcatfish]

A Gino Vannelli concert! Wow, that's a blast from the past... uh, I mean preschool, maybe pre preschool, yeah, that's about right, uh huh.:rolleyes:

 

Thanks for a great review! Thanks for letting us tag along on your cruise.

[love2cruise56]

I'll post Day 2 tomorrow...and after work today can answer any questions!

 

 

Your review was great and I enjoyed your pictures. I could not see the spread sheets or your schedule of before and after. I would like to see then if you let me know where to look. I was looking at the cruise compass for the Allure for the time frame I will be going this year. I am a planner

and I know I will not be able to do everything I want to do in one cruise.

I appreciate any help I can get in my planning. My email addy is camp708@yahoo.com. Thank you

Edited February 20, 2012 by love2cruise56

[Guest]

Well, I for one, am just a bit disappointed with the Flowrider round of pictures.;););)

Although impressed by a hilarious review, I too am disappointed. I was hoping for a full moon rising photo on the Flowrider.

One cruise we were on My wife saw a lady in line for the Flowrider dressed in just a bikini, so she told the husband that his wife's bikini was surely going to come off, and that he should go and tell her.

He replied " No way, I am going to get my camera"

When she was washed to the top, she was missing BOTH top and bottoms of her bikini, trying really hard to cover everything with her hands and forearms.

[JoyB]

What a great review!!!! you are too funny...I cant wait to go

[lornalu]

Oh Gosh... you are miles away from Dazzles, you'll need a charter flight to get there;) Just kiddin! You will love that location, very quiet and I found 10 handy to everything.

 

As a fellow cruise and spreadsheet junkie....may I request copies of your spreadsheets???? lebeau@surewest.net Thank you so much!!!!

[Familygoboston]

Hey folks, glad to hear you are fellow planners:D

 

All this popped up on the thread while I was cruising the beautiful Jewel of the Seas...amazing cruise and ship...had a wonderful time! When I return to New England I will either email the spreadsheet or since there are so many requests I may ask my DH to post them as a doc online and post a link here. In any case I will do my best, after I get home, get settled and of course Ive got to get busy on a Jewel review too:rolleyes:

[Iluvcruising2]

Awesome review.

 

Thanks much.

[obsessedsc]

I loved your review. I've been reading it a little at a time all week! Just when I thought I had our allure cruise all planned out I found even more things to add!! Thanks for that!

 

I also loved your spreadsheet! I had a word document from our mariner/freedom/monarch cruises that I was using but I liked your spreadsheet idea so I re-formatted mine! This will be easy to print for the whole family. I may go closer to the cruise to add what to wear each day (usually a pool/ beach outfit, day outfit, and dinner time...and sometimes for after dinner)! LOL! Yes, I take it that far!

[powelweb]

Just gotta say I loved your review- the details were wonderful and the photos were incredible.

 

We've sailed royal for years and still haven't made it past voyager class yet, but my DD is anxiously awaiting the zipline on Oasis.

 

Will keep my eyes out for your Jewel review as I think that will be our next royal cruise- looking at booking her westbound TA that returns her to Boston in 2013 when they are released later this month.

 

Thanks again for the great read!

[Familygoboston]

I loved your review. I've been reading it a little at a time all week! Just when I thought I had our allure cruise all planned out I found even more things to add!! Thanks for that!

 

I also loved your spreadsheet! I had a word document from our mariner/freedom/monarch cruises that I was using but I liked your spreadsheet idea so I re-formatted mine! This will be easy to print for the whole family. I may go closer to the cruise to add what to wear each day (usually a pool/ beach outfit, day outfit, and dinner time...and sometimes for after dinner)! LOL! Yes, I take it that far!

I've been seeing your posts and I can tell you are a fellow planner after my own heart:p Glad the spread sheets are useful, BTW, I have a version that has a column for day wear and dinner wear, but I dont share it because not everyone plans to that degree! I call them "costume changes" and DH just laughs:rolleyes:

 

Just gotta say I loved your review- the details were wonderful and the photos were incredible.

 

We've sailed royal for years and still haven't made it past voyager class yet, but my DD is anxiously awaiting the zipline on Oasis.

 

Will keep my eyes out for your Jewel review as I think that will be our next royal cruise- looking at booking her westbound TA that returns her to Boston in 2013 when they are released later this month.

 

Thanks again for the great read!

Thank you! Here is the Jewel Review...the pics are not near as good, because no DH on this cruise, so it's just my sorry photos!

Enjoy Oasis, we made the jump from Voyager class to Oasis too...skipped right over Freedom class, the only class RCL is still sailing that I haven't sailed! But I haven't been on a cruise yet that wasn't fun;)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1582079

Edited March 10, 2012 by Familygoboston

[ilandlvr]

Day 1 Sat Dec 3 Embarkation: is as Advertised and a Vigorous Defense of the "Outlet"

After our nice Marriott breakfast, we checked out the stairway balcony to see that Oasis had arrived. So around 10 AM we headed out to see what we could do about transport to the port. The Marriott has a shuttle for a price of $6 per person. We opted for the cab after the front desk said it would cost $12-15 for the cab. If you have more than 2 people this is a no brainer, you are much better off in the cab. We arrived at the pier within moments ( you could walk if you wanted to drag your luggage) we had to show photo id to the officer through the cab window, and the taxi fare did get up to the $12 range because of the wait for the taxi to make its way around to the drop location. We gave him $15 and left our luggage right at the pier. Interesting C & A note- our luggage was tagged with our Emerald status (but no red carpet!) and the rep told us to expect it in 2 hours (it was 11 AM at this time). My cousin who is a new RCI cruiser (but we got 'em hooked NOW!) was told not to expect bags for 4 hours, as were other cruisers around us. I was not aware of expedited luggage delivery for C&A members, but there was a difference in both what the told us and the actual delivery times as compared to my cousin!

 

Embarkation was as advertised...we were grinning like total goof balls as all those happy people just kept waving us around to the next step...Step one, show your id; step 2 get your hand luggage scanned; step 3 they take your "welcome aboard" photo against an Oasis back drop and that is the photo that allows them to do the face detection to match your photos with your folio in the photo shop. All your photos end up in your folio, so you don't have to search walls of "early dining" or "Bahamas pirates" looking for your photos. You folio number is written on your seapass...you find the rounder with your # on it and then the folio number on that rounder and all your photos will be in there...this is an ingenious system!

Step 4 step up to the counter (this time they waved us up to the "regular" rep because the C&A rep for Platinum and Emerald was waaaaay done the other end and it would be silly to go down there when there was NOBODY in line! We briefly considered suggesting they do a training program for American Airlines reps, but... not our job!). More idiotic smiling on our part, photos taken for the Seapass identification, picking up the weekly planner and getting our Seapasses at the counter. Then we were waved (more idiotic smiling on our part) through to the Platinum/Emerald waiting area. The waiting areas are also divided by C&A status. A big cushy roped off area with real furniture for suite guests, regular airline style waiting seats for the D +/Pinnacle area and Diamond area just in front of us. Took us 15 minute to get from curb to lounge and it would take you 10 minutes to physically walk it anyway.

 

At 11:30 AM the suite folks were invited to board, followed by the Pinnacle/D+ and then Diamond, then the Platinum/Emeralds. This was probably 200 people in total so the regular boarding would have commenced within 15 minutes after that. After boarding, I had no sense of people being treated differently based on C&A status, other than the Diamond lounge access, some special events for repeaters, and whatever in cabin amenities you are entitled to. I was glad about this...after our embarrassing red carpet issue!

 

Once on board, you enter right into the Promenade, there is lots more goofy smiling on the part of everyone...its tough to be jaded when seeing this incredible space for the first time, even if you have achieved kryptonite C& A status! (photos of Prom)

 

 

There was a big sign at the Guest Services desk that the ship was full, no upgrades available...so if you don't see it, go for it if that's what you want. We headed straight to the Box Office, which is a couple of cruise staff with laptops set up in Studio B. We needed to switch our and (DC's) Comedy show reservations in order to accommodate Quest (can't let the newbies miss Quest!) This was painless because we were the 3rd party in line. We made the quick change on the itinerary and I was feeling ready to check out the spectacular ship! I like to do a bit a of planning, (you can see my planning tips on my earlier tips review at this link

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1530368 We went to the Boardwalk...rode the carousel (wheee!) and relaxed in the Adirondack chairs in front of the Seafood Shack. A quick text from my cousin and her husband who were up on the pool deck, so we met them up there and relaxed and enjoyed being away together on this beautiful ship!

 

At 1 PM we went to our cabin, Deck 10 194, a D1 balcony, with the bed by the balcony. (photo of cabin)

 

Amazingly, our cruise never went down in price (which I hear is typical for Oasis and Allure) so we paid about the same price a year ago for that D1 balcony as my DC did for her cat. N interior cabin booked 6 months later. SO the lesson for me is, the sooner the better for booking Allure and Oasis (and where else in the travel world can you go back and get the new lower price after you've booked??!??) Our room is the same size as every other balcony cabin, but the cabin is on the hump and 80 sq feet vs 50 sq feet for the other cat D balconies. It was our first hump cabin (again something I never would have considered had I not joined Cruise Critic!) and we loved the panoramic view from the hump, the larger space for our sand chairs (remember the chairs?) and the regular chairs and the regular height table, not the dinky ones that are tough to have breakfast on in other ships. It seemed all the balcony cabins had tables this height based on a survey of the CP and Boardwalk balconies we saw. We thought the deeper balcony provided more privacy from the other balconies nearby. We did notice that it heated up very quickly if it was on the sunny side of the ship in port, which made it uncomfortable to sit out. But it was more protected from the wind when and warmer when we were underway.

 

(photo of balcony)

 

We found the size and amenities of the cabin were just perfect for us. We are not large people (other than the tall thing) and the goal on this cruise wasn't to stay out of each others way! The bath was a much better set up than other ships; love the bar in the shower and the "star trek" (shhhup... open...shuuup... closed) shower door

 

(photo of bath) .

It comes with a shampoo dispenser, but our attendant also added a little bottle of shampoo, conditioner and hand cream each day. Either that or they were multiplying like yeast on the counter top over night. In any event, those were the toiletries provided, I think largely so after the cruise Donald could pass them out to his friends and save a trip to the expensive Walgreens in FLL. (more speculation on my part!). The bath lacked the clothes line, but honestly I had more "hanging" room with 2 hooks right next to the sink, 2 in the shower, and 2 on the door, plus two right by the door outside the bath. There were also several little cubbies and a teeny, tiny drawer (honestly it was sooo cute!) by the sink. So we found loads of space for our stuff. The sink is low and very shallow (we built kitchen height counters in our house- remember the tall thing again?) so even I (only 5 foot 6) found it a long giraffe-like stretch down to the sink.

 

Our luggage had already arrived by 1 PM as promised curbside. The cabin storage flummoxed us a bit at first. Usually our standard plan is DH gets all the closet shelves and I work with all the vanity/desk drawers. Unfortunately, there are not too many drawers in the vanity/desk, and they are pretty shallow. The shelves are fairly deep, so his lawyers met with my lawyers and after some negotiation we settled on me using the really low shelves and DH using the really high shelves (Tall?...yeah, you know now!). This worked out well for us because we tend to bag pack things, for instance I keep all my workout gear in a 2 1/2 gallon clear bag so the whole bag can go in the drawer or on the shelf, same for bathing suits and foundation garments, costume jewelry etc.

 

(photo of cabin)

 

There are also a set of cubbies alongside the mirror in the vanity, these are perfect for holding lady things, and my toiletry bag is built as four clear approx 1 quart velcro pouches, so the pouches fit perfectly on the shelves of the vanity.

 

More Day 1 to come!

 

 

What side of the ship did they dock, port or starboard? Which had the better views. I can imagine pros and cons of both. Rather look at the island vs. inside the cabins of a ship parked next to us.

[Familygoboston]

Ilandlvr- see below a quote from a little later in my review ( given how I run on you would have come to it in about a week or so, hopefully sometime before your departure.:p) here is what we noticed during our cruise, but note that sometimes the crew has to do lifeboat drills in which case they may dock the ship differently that day to make sure the life boats land in the water and not come crashing onto the dock:eek:. But I've noticed in most review that its consistent with what we found! Happy choosing!:D

 

Digression about what side of the ship to book, skip right along if you are already booked happily, or don't need to book a balcony or OV.

 

Often people enquire on these boards as to which side of the ship (port/left or starboard/right) to book their balcony or OV cabin. We generally book port side cabins because that's usually the side in port (though not always) and we enjoy seeing the dock workers and comings and goings and runners at the end of the day. We usually like to send me ahead and have DH take a "where's waldo" photo of me on our balcony, like this one on NOS

 

(Photo of balcony on NOS)

 

 

So before I discovered Cruise Critic, I booked the port side of Oasis feeling smug, that I was an experienced cruiser, I knew what to book, I knew the inside secrets! Then I came home (from that NOS cruise in the photo up there) and read every review I could get my hands on about Oasis. And low and behold...did you know that Oasis built all of its pax embarking and disembarking infra structure on the Starboard side? SO except in very rare instances, OA will almost always be docked with the starboard side looking toward the port. Now obviously half the cabins are port and half are starboard (or the whole ship would list when we all went to bed and that could get really dangerous, but that's just speculation on my part.) So we can't all book on the same "good" side. Luckily for all of us, both sides have good and bad. I'm going to enumerate them so you can decide which team you'd like to be on...port or starboard.

 

Port:

-beautiful ocean views while in port in St Thomas, shady in the AM, sunny in the PM

-In St Martin we had views of the ocean, sun in the AM, shade in the PM

-we were berthed port side port in Nassau, but the view was largely other ships and we looked down upon their pool decks from our cabin on 10. She is backed in here as you can see form this photo I posted already.

 

(photo of Oasis in Nassau)

 

 

 

Starboard:

-dock and shopping center view in St Thomas, sunny in the AM, shady in the PM

-St Martin, not sure what you see there, but the balcony will be shadier in the AM, sunnier in the PM

-ocean/Atlantis view in Nassau

 

So choose your team, paint your face and come down and pick up your port or starboard jersey and let the battle begin! In the end though, either experience will be wonderful, so it's just a matter of you own preferences. Back to the review...but if you really want more digression, ask for my Dad's (Cptn Bud's) explanation of why it's called Port and Starboard. I posted it on a thread once about Port and Starboard and literally bored people straight to death. True story, not a single person replied to the thread after my post, they all literally died of boredom. (I needed quite a bit of recovery time myself after Cptn Bud explained it to me, and I have quite a bit of experience with long rambling stories that only one person finds interesting, being his kin and all!)

 

[Host Faith]

Incredible review and great photos! You got me even more excited to sail the Allure! :)

[Familygoboston]

Incredible review and great photos! You got me even more excited to sail the Allure! :)

 

Thanks, DH's photos! So I have to give him credit! You will love love love Allure ( or Oasis). I'm enjoying your Liberty review!

[r6girl]

Hey folks, glad to hear you are fellow planners:D

 

All this popped up on the thread while I was cruising the beautiful Jewel of the Seas...amazing cruise and ship...had a wonderful time! When I return to New England I will either email the spreadsheet or since there are so many requests I may ask my DH to post them as a doc online and post a link here. In any case I will do my best, after I get home, get settled and of course Ive got to get busy on a Jewel review too:rolleyes:

 

Hi, Familygoboston! AWESOME review! Your review is what sealed the deal for me and my hubby to book our Oasis for November of this year. I've been checking back to see if you had gotten around to posting the spreadsheet, but I'm not seeing it here. I know you were inundated with email requests for this, but can you add lajaxnjj@hotmail.com to the list? Thanks so much!

[jamon]

Great review ....thanks

[Familygoboston]

Great review ....thanks

 

Did you find the Compasses ok? I did a check and they are still posted on my DH's site. I hope they are still helpful, I haven't seen a recent Eastern full set, so I guess 6 months is close enough;) Enjoy your cruise!!

[graceinmelbourne]

Thanks so much for your very detailed review of the Oasis. Love the pictures too. We are going in September with our 2 teenage girls as part of a 3 week trip to the USA. I am looking forward to the cruise even more now after reading your fabulous review. Thank you!:)

[sdear]

I just have to say thank you for an awesome review and pictures. You should be a writer ! ( maybe you are? :) ) I am still laughing over your description of the flowrider ! :D:eek:

 

I would very much appreciate your spreadsheets....and again..thank you for taking the time to write such a great review !! olsen62758@verizon.net

 

 

Thanks again !

Sue

[Familygoboston]

Thanks so much for your very detailed review of the Oasis. Love the pictures too. We are going in September with our 2 teenage girls as part of a 3 week trip to the USA. I am looking forward to the cruise even more now after reading your fabulous review. Thank you!

Thanks, it's an old one, (6 months ) but came back because someone wanted the cruise compasses! I have to give DH credit for the photos!

I loved YOUR country! Can't wait to get back.

Enjoy your Oasis trip, I'm sure your girls will love it! I have two teens and we came home with a Next Cruise Certificate and immmedaitely booked Allure during their spring break next year, because we kept saying, the girls would LOVE this! Enjoy your trip!

 

I just have to say thank you for an awesome review and pictures. You should be a writer ! ( maybe you are? I am still laughing over your description of the flowrider !

 

I would very much appreciate your spreadsheets....and again..thank you for taking the time to write such a great review !! olsen62758@verizon.net

Thanks again !

Sue

 

Thanks Sue...I have high hopes about being a writer;), but really have a lot to learn! I do like to use a lot of detail, just because I think it makes the review so much more useful than; "this was good", and "that was bad", or even worse..."I liked this" ( well who am I? You don't know me, so how does my "liking" something help anyone??...maybe I also like to eat puppies:eek:...doesn't mean you will;)

Anyway, I digress! I will send you the planning spread sheet when I next get the computer- DH is processing Memorial Day weekend photos so I'm shut out on the family PC :rolleyes:

 

Oh BTW- just for future reference, you might want to enter your email address on the boards as "my name AT mymailclient DOT com" . Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people who write programs called "mail bots" that comb public websites and pluck out email addresses that it recognizes ( if they are in the site in the regular convention of name@mymailclient.com, it's easy to do:() Then the program starts sending out nasty emails to your address, claiming to be from Cruise Critic, or Royal Caribbean phishing for information or just to send a nasty virus...they can fool even savy people, because you might sort of be expecting mail from them...very frustrating!

It happened to me with my email address on a GS flyer that was published on a school website. The email I got back appeared to be from someone from the PTO, and it appeared to be asking questions about our event. I was very very glad we have a rule in Girl Scouts that no girl emails or addresses can ever be used in a public forum. I got tricked into answering the email, but luckily didn't give out any info! Meanies!:mad:

[courtneymd9]

Thank you for the review! Do you know what ship is next to the Oasis in the picture you posted in Nassau?

 

Thanks!