Oasis of the Seas Review 7/19/14

[tampacruiser]

Booked this last minute, 2 weeks prior to sail date of 7/19. Flew to FLL on the 18th, stayed at the HI Express on SR84, been there before, clean room, good breakfast, airport shuttle. They had port shuttle for 8.00 per person but opted for a cab which was much quicker and cheaper....9.00 to the port.

 

 

Got to Terminal 18 at 10:30, through security, checked in, up the escalator and took a seat in the Gold section. At 11:30 they started boarding and by 11:45 we were eating in the WIndjammer

 

 

This was our 8th cruise, 2 previously on RCI, 2 on HAL, 2 on Celebrity, and 1 on Carnival.

 

 

I will start by saying I did a lot of reading of reviews on here and what I found were people nit pick a lot. If you were to believe all you read you would never cruise again.

 

 

The ship was amazing, huge but never crowded. People on here say no seats in the Windjammer, odd I never waited once for a seat and the ship was full.....People say MDR food marginal....I thought it was good. actually better than my last 2 cruises on Celebrity Solstice. People said the service was poor and the staff looked like they were just going thru the motions? I didn't meet one staff member that wasn't anything but friendly and helpful? People said pools were crowded and there were chair hogs....funny in 7 days I went to the pool everyday and yes on sea days there were quite a few people but I never had problems finding 2 chairs within 20 feet of the pool. I ate in 150 Central Park and Giovanni's Table and both were excellent and worth the upcharge. Entertainment was probably the best on any cruise I have been on. I wont talk on the ports (Labadee, Falmouth, Cozumel) I really didn't do much there had been to all of them before and this trip was more about enjoying the ship. Room attendant did an amazing job, Waiter and Assistant were amazing.

 

 

Get the luggage Valet...best 20 bucks per person you will ever spend. Got my luggage tags, bags out of door at 11pm, next time I saw them was on the belt at the airport in Charlotte....no lugging anything around

 

 

Disembarkation. Since the bags went luggage valet, we walked off the ship at 6:30am, we were thru customs in under 5 minutes and back to FLL in 10 minutes

 

 

Overall amazing week, amazing ship, will definitely sail the Oasis class of ships again.

[MandyMooToo]

I totally agree about reviews. If I had listened to all the complaining about how crowded Oasis was, how terrible the food was and how you don't feel like you are on a ship....I would have never gone! So glad we went and formed our own opinion! We liked Oasis so much we are booked on Allure for later this month. Thanks for the review, right to the point.

[delirious9876]

Great comments. Thanks.

 

I'm on Oasis for the first time soon and am so excited :-)

[Iamthesea]

Me too! :D

 

Thank you for the review.

 

Got to Terminal 18 at 10:30, through security, checked in, up the escalator and took a seat in the Gold section. At 11:30 they started boarding and by 11:45 we were eating in the WIndjammer

 

Isn't 11:30 a little late for boarding to start? All the Compass's that I have read show that bars, etc. open at 11:15 that first day. I was thinking that if we arrived early (around 10:00) that we would be onboard by 11:00. ;)

[Grandma Dazzles]

Me too! :D

 

 

Isn't 11:30 a little late for boarding to start? All the Compass's that I have read show that bars, etc. open at 11:15 that first day. I was thinking that if we arrived early (around 10:00) that we would be onboard by 11:00. ;)

 

We were on the same cruise. Boarded as Diamond Plus, just behind the suites, and we were on board at 11:35. I think they began boarding right around 11:15 a.m.

 

Not sure your C&A status, but 10:00 seems too early, even if you have a suite. We arrived around 10:45 a.m. We went straight through pre-boarding, set-sail passes, etc., but had to wait for the boarding to officially begin. They began boarding suites around 11:15 a.m. give or take a few minutes.

[Brewster]

I was on the same cruise last week. I agree completely with your review. I was previously on 5 RCL, 1 Celebrity, 1 Carnival and 1 Norwegian. I do have to say, despite the amount of people on board, Oasis did not feel as crowded as the other cruises. I do have to say that this ship far exceeded our expectations in every area.

[riclop]

Totally agree with your thoughts and yes there are alot of nitpickers.

[Iamthesea]

We were on the same cruise. Boarded as Diamond Plus, just behind the suites, and we were on board at 11:35. I think they began boarding right around 11:15 a.m.

 

Not sure your C&A status, but 10:00 seems too early, even if you have a suite. We arrived around 10:45 a.m. We went straight through pre-boarding, set-sail passes, etc., but had to wait for the boarding to officially begin. They began boarding suites around 11:15 a.m. give or take a few minutes.

 

I meant to say that we would leave the hotel by 10:00. Should take 15 mins. max to get to the port. DH wants to beat the crowds arriving. :D

 

We are Diamond with a regular balcony, so the wait could be long. Better there than in a hotel room. :) If boarding starts at 11:15 for Suites, that sounds about right. ;)

[tampacruiser]

If you are Diamond you will be on pretty quick, Like I said we were gold and were eating by 11:45, we left our hotel at 10:00, by the time the cab came and we unloaded at the port it was close to 10:30, the security checkpoint line took about 5 minutes. Our check in at the counter took another 5 minutes. Once upstairs they sit you in an assigned section and they fill in every seat. They start with suites and then they start with the crown and anchor levels. they stand people up a row at a time and send them on their way. Very organized. I am Gold which is the lowest level so if I was on by 11:45 that should give you an idea. in 2009 we did Celebrity Solstice out of this same terminal, They basically made an announcement and everyone rushed the entry, total chaos. This process they are using for Oasis was very efficient and gets everyone on pretty quickly. Bars and food do get up and running at 11:15. If you don't have all your show reservations, (especially the comedy club) head to Studio B that opens at 11:30 and make reservations. The comedy show and the headliner show was showing full online, however when I got to Studio B they had seats available.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[CruisnMamaMel06]

DH and I were on the same cruise. I totally agree with your review. We loved every minute it and can't wait to go back! Boarding was so easy and much quicker than we thought. We are Platinum and were on board about the same time you were.

 

I also completely agree with you about the nit pickers. Any trip is what you make of it. Yes, there are some bad experiences (have had them myself) but if you nit pick every.little.thing it makes for a not fun time. And I'm all about having fun so I take the bad reviews with a grain of salt. Can't please everybody all the time I guess! Too bad for them because we had a blast! :)