Wooo! 9/1 & 9/8 B2B Oasis Review w/ pics!

[shonandsuzie]

I can barely contain myself! So excited to share the details of our fantastic cruise vacation on Oasis of the Seas. We got home on Sunday but we took SOOOOOOO many pictures that it seems they will never finish uploading. But... I can wait no longer so I'll start with what we have. I will try to do this in order but for some things I will compare both weeks on the same post. Hopefully, this will be easy to follow and not sound all confusing and things...

 

 

So here we are; Shon and Suzie (and a fuzzy friend). This is my 22nd cruise and Shon's 20th (haha! I'm winning!) We are 40 (eek!!!) and celebrating 20 wonderful years together. I swear we're still 30 but then again, we need naps now and our knees and hips ache occassionally so maybe we are really this old...

 

Shon and I cruise each year on Labor Day week for our anniversary. For the past few years we've done Carnival with friends but this year we were determined to use our "next cruise" certificate AND sail the Oasis! We had the friends and family onboard credit certificate for the lucky friends/family we could convince to sail with us. We couldn't convince everyone but we convinced our road dogs Cece and Gary (who we met years ago on CC and have cruised a few times with) to jump onto Royal for the first time. Then the planning began.

 

 

One of the most difficult things for us when booking Oasis was the cabin types. TOO MANY CHOICES for us. Pros, Cons, blah, blah, blah. But after reading millions of reviews and viewing millions of pictures, we decided the Boardwalk balconies- as close as possible to the Aquatheater- would be most fun for us. (Well, the Aqua Suite would have really been the most fun but clearly we couldn't afford that!! Lol) We do not regret our choice. It was fun but we sure missed our ocean view balconies. There is just something about the serenity of laying in bed staring out at an endless sheet of peaceful water that makes our hearts happy. In the Boardwalk balcony, we could see the ocean and waves but it took a little effort. If we layed in bed and stared out we saw people's swim suits drying on balconies :rolleyes:. If we sat up in bed we could see the ocean (and Aquatheater). But I must say, it was cooler than we thought it would be with a nice breeze out there most of the time.

For week 1 (9/1) we had cabin 11727. For week 2 (9/8) we had cabin 11723. Both of these cabins had the bed by the balcony. I had hoped that one would have the bed by the closet and one would have it by the balcony but it didn't work out that way. We did check out some of our neighbors' cabins and much prefered the layout of the bed by the closet. No biggie though.

 

 

[spg112357]

Welcome back to land guys. It was great meeting you both. We had a great time too.

[shonandsuzie]

 

 

 

 

 

[shonandsuzie]

More views from 11727

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the bed :)

 

[shonandsuzie]

We had a pretty active roll call thread here on CC. We all panned an informal Meet and Greet for Sailaway, The CC/RCI Meet & Mingle, a slot pull and a cabin crawl. Lots of people participated in everything which makes the cruise even more fun since you "know" so many people onboard.

 

For our sailaway get together, we met up on the portside aft balcony on deck 11. (One of the "secret" balconies). Too bad it wasnt on our side of the ship because that "secret" balcony was literally 2 doors from ours!

 

 

 

 

[shonandsuzie]

I am already getting sidetracked!

We went to the park place cafe prior to sailaway. Yum. Loved the roast beef sandwiches and really loved the salad bar there. Shon loved the flavored waters but they were too sweet for me. They had cool "to-go" coffee cups here which was cool when you are a coffee addict like myself!. Throughout the 2 weeks, the Park Cafe was a favorite for us. We loved the selections each day for breakfast there too! We tried Park Cafe, Chops, Main Dining, Johnny Rockets (for breakfast) and the donut shop. We also got room service about once each day.

 

Park Cafe:

 

 

 

[VacaDream]

Thanks for taking the time to post the pics and doing the review. We sail Oasis in less than 3 weeks, so I just cannot get enough pics right now! :DLooking forward to seeing more from your cruise!!!:D:D

[Classynfun1]

Great review so far!!!

 

BTW, you do know the secret balconies are on both sides of the ship, right?? I hope you figured that out during the cruise! :-)

[LissyTx]

How is the B2B? Had you done that long before? The longest we've done is 7 nights. Starting to discuss a B2B, but we're worried it might seem too long, especially on the same ship.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to the rest of your review and pics.

[Just The 3 Of Us]

What a great start - love the pictures - can't wait for our turn on this ship!!! Lucky you doing a B2B, too!!!

 

Patiently waiting for more ;)

[Host Faith]

Awesome! I always enjoy your reviews. This is the perfect way to pass the time until we sail this Sunday, lol! Happy Anniversary! Love your photos.

 

Just curious- you mentioned you preferred to have your bed by the closet. Why would you rather have that arrangement? We do actually have our bed by the closet for our cruise.

[Familygoboston]

2 weeks on Oasis!!

 

Love your detailed cabin photos, those will be very helpful to people wanting to book those cabins. Looking forward the rest of the cruises!:D

Happy birthday and happy anniversary!, BTW!

[johneeo]

Awesome! I always enjoy your reviews. This is the perfect way to pass the time until we sail this Sunday, lol! Happy Anniversary! Love your photos.

 

Just curious- you mentioned you preferred to have your bed by the closet. Why would you rather have that arrangement? We do actually have our bed by the closet for our cruise.

 

I liked the bed by the closet. It was easy coming in late at night and being able to fall right into the bed.

 

If it was near the balcony, I might have fallen into the ocean.:eek:

[gambee]

Loving the way you write your review! Keep those pictures coming :)

[shonandsuzie]

Wow. Thanks for all of the positive posts! And thanks for the anniversary wishes everyone. :)

 

 

Just curious- you mentioned you preferred to have your bed by the closet. Why would you rather have that arrangement? We do actually have our bed by the closet for our cruise.

I liked the bed by the closet. It was easy coming in late at night and being able to fall right into the bed.

If it was near the balcony, I might have fallen into the ocean.:eek:

Faith, with the bed by the closet, it made the sitting area larger and it flowed right out onto that huge balcony. Kind of more apartment like. I thought the bed by the balcony broke the room up to much and made it choppy kind of. Also, with the bed by the balcony, it felt a little freaky to be laying in bed right next to a huge window... ;)

 

And johneeo I didnt think of that but you are right. Walk in door-fall in bed!:D

 

LissyTX- We did a B2B on Adventure of the Seas for their southern routes. With that one we went down to SanJuan a few days early and stayed a few days after so that was our longest. I could do 3 weeks easy--if I could afford it. This one was perfect because I swear, it took us 3 days to just relax after such a long stressful work summer....

[reeran]

Thank you!!! Great photos and review!!!!:D

[Host Faith]

I liked the bed by the closet. It was easy coming in late at night and being able to fall right into the bed.

 

If it was near the balcony, I might have fallen into the ocean.:eek:

 

Faith, with the bed by the closet, it made the sitting area larger and it flowed right out onto that huge balcony. Kind of more apartment like. I thought the bed by the balcony broke the room up to much and made it choppy kind of. Also, with the bed by the balcony, it felt a little freaky to be laying in bed right next to a huge window... ;)

 

And johneeo I didnt think of that but you are right. Walk in door-fall in bed!:D

 

Good points! Thanks to both of you. :)

[shonandsuzie]

We are taking our grandson on a cruise for his 5th birthday in late January/early February so this cruise, we spent some time checking out the kiddy areas more. So... I will actually be able to review some of the kid stuff this time. Usually, we try to avoid kids as much as possible on vacation.... Lol!

Oasis has SO much for kids to do!!! BTW, on the week of 9/1 there were LOTS of babies and LOTS of kids on the ship. More than I have ever seen on Labor Day week before. There were less kids on the 9/8 week though.

I loved the layout of the many pool areas so that kids had a designated area set up just for them and adults had an adult only area. In between there were areas that kids and adults could use. I thought that was great. Most times the BEACH pool and MAIN pools had no kids at all and the SPORTS pool had a few older ones. The littlest baby people stayed in their area and frankly I wanted to play there too!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So.. I go to post ALL of the pictures of the pool areas and, of course, they arent on my snapfish site yet so I will break now to upload the rest quickly. Then I will post the rest of the pool area pics! There are so many....:D

[akcruz]

 

Faith, with the bed by the closet, it made the sitting area larger and it flowed right out onto that huge balcony. Kind of more apartment like. I thought the bed by the balcony broke the room up to much and made it choppy kind of. Also, with the bed by the balcony, it felt a little freaky to be laying in bed right next to a huge window... ;)

 

And johneeo I didnt think of that but you are right. Walk in door-fall in bed!:D

 

 

Great review, very nicely done.

 

A comment on the configuration, we had one of each on our Allure cruise. DH and I had an ocean facing balcony with the bed by the closet and our kids have a central park view balcony with the beds by the balcony. This worked out great for us.

 

In our cabin we had the beds put together so there was plenty of space (not a lot but plenty) by the closet and then it gave us the larger area for when the kids were in our cabin by having the sitting area and balcony next to each other.

 

In the kids cabin they had they beds split. With the configuration this way they were both able to get to the closet without any difficulties and used the sitting area as more of a clothes storage. Since we really didn't "hang out" a lot there it was fine.

 

So, I say it depends on whether the beds are together or apart and how you want to use the cabin.

 

Now back to the wonderful review! :D

[jobell]

A shonandsuzie review!!!!

 

My husband actually sent me your review as we've been thinking about trying RCCL. I have always loved your reviews (still lol at that giant margarita you guys had in Cabo) and can't wait to read more.

 

Happy Anniversary to you guys!!! :)

[FloridaMomma]

Loving it! I hope to take my kids one day!

[SailingSiren]

Thanks for the review! We are sailing Allure in a month for our honeymoon. Can't wait!! :D

[Ilovecruising31]

I can barely contain myself! So excited to share the details of our fantastic cruise vacation on Oasis of the Seas. We got home on Sunday but we took SOOOOOOO many pictures that it seems they will never finish uploading. But... I can wait no longer so I'll start with what we have. I will try to do this in order but for some things I will compare both weeks on the same post. Hopefully, this will be easy to follow and not sound all confusing and things...

 

 

So here we are; Shon and Suzie (and a fuzzy friend). This is my 22nd cruise and Shon's 20th (haha! I'm winning!) We are 40 (eek!!!) and celebrating 20 wonderful years together. I swear we're still 30 but then again, we need naps now and our knees and hips ache occassionally so maybe we are really this old...

 

Shon and I cruise each year on Labor Day week for our anniversary. For the past few years we've done Carnival with friends but this year we were determined to use our "next cruise" certificate AND sail the Oasis! We had the friends and family onboard credit certificate for the lucky friends/family we could convince to sail with us. We couldn't convince everyone but we convinced our road dogs Cece and Gary (who we met years ago on CC and have cruised a few times with) to jump onto Royal for the first time. Then the planning began.

 

 

One of the most difficult things for us when booking Oasis was the cabin types. TOO MANY CHOICES for us. Pros, Cons, blah, blah, blah. But after reading millions of reviews and viewing millions of pictures, we decided the Boardwalk balconies- as close as possible to the Aquatheater- would be most fun for us. (Well, the Aqua Suite would have really been the most fun but clearly we couldn't afford that!! Lol) We do not regret our choice. It was fun but we sure missed our ocean view balconies. There is just something about the serenity of laying in bed staring out at an endless sheet of peaceful water that makes our hearts happy. In the Boardwalk balcony, we could see the ocean and waves but it took a little effort. If we layed in bed and stared out we saw people's swim suits drying on balconies :rolleyes:. If we sat up in bed we could see the ocean (and Aquatheater). But I must say, it was cooler than we thought it would be with a nice breeze out there most of the time.

For week 1 (9/1) we had cabin 11727. For week 2 (9/8) we had cabin 11723. Both of these cabins had the bed by the balcony. I had hoped that one would have the bed by the closet and one would have it by the balcony but it didn't work out that way. We did check out some of our neighbors' cabins and much prefered the layout of the bed by the closet. No biggie though.

 

 

 

My sister and i were in cabin 11727 on 7/21/12 ! haha love the room and the view:D was your cabin steward Carlton also?

[shonandsuzie]

So, I lied. I still dont have all of my pool pictures so that will have to wait. But I will redeem myself with pictures from our roll call's cabin crawl!

 

Our roll call "kind of" planned out a cabin crawl while we talked on the boards the months leading up to our cruise. This is where I need to clarify my roll call role... I am no leader. Nope, never have been. I am a super secretary and "hype-man" for a roll call but I do not do well telling people what to do or when to do it or leading large groups. So when we all got together for the cabin crawl, people looked to me for direction. Oops. I looked back like, who is directing?! Lol. So I apologize because I know I sound all leader-qualified when I type but...yea, not so much.:o This is where Shon stepped up to the plate! He is a supervisor of many people as a profession so he has this skill. I have the gift of organization, gab and bubbliness---he has the gift of leadership and kindness (this is one reason we compliment eachother so well and have stayed in love so long....)

 

But anyway back to the cabin crawl story. A group of maybe 20 or more of us CCers got together and marched around the ship checking out the cabins of our CC friends. We tried to see one cabin of every catergory. We didn't get all of them but we got a bunch!!!

 

The AQUA SUITE: