Some Quick Oasis Thoughts

[Cindy]

I LOVED the ship. It is an absolute engineering marvel. Nobody pushes the envelope like Royal Caribbean when it comes to ship design and innovation.

 

The food was very good. For dinner, we ate in the dining room once, Coastal Kitchen twice, and at Giovanni's Table, 150 Central Park, Chops, and Solarium Bistro. We enjoyed all our dinners, but I did think the MDR on Oasis was the loudest and most crowded I've ever been in.

 

Coastal Kitchen and the Suite Lounge will be a big hit with people. The service in there was very attentive, and the food was excellent. I think they are committed to making the new concept a success, and they will be tweaking things for quite a while trying to get it right. I think eventually they will need to have two menus like they're going to do in the dining rooms on Oasis, and they seem undecided about what they want to do with their wine list. They opened for breakfast early in the week, and opened for lunch the next day. Food at those meals was also very good.

 

Staff was great...the only exception to that was IMO the cruise director (Drew) who was like a phantom. We never saw him. The staff seems to have settled back in to their regular routine, and the service problems from the TA have been fixed.

 

I was blown away by the entertainment. Every performer was extremely talented, and we were in awe at the creativity and imagination of the shows. The aqua show and Come Fly With Me were both amazing. I thought the comedy show was "OK" -- the male comedian was very funny, but the second performer (the comedienne) was pretty bad.

 

We loved CATS, but I think we're in the minority and the show in it's current state is going to struggle. I get that...it just doesn't have the same mass appeal as something lighter like Mamma Mia. I think it would help a lot if they would print a mini Playbill that lists the characters and has a brief synopsis. Knowing the story might help the people who were lost and confused. I thought the cast was fantastic, and I felt bad for them when they came back after intermission to a fairly empty theater.

 

We were lucky enough to grab an Aqua Theater Suite on a late upgrade. It was incredible! I'm forever spoiled by that balcony!

 

A week wasn't enough time. If we do one of the big ships again, we'll do a B2B so we can take things at a slower pace and really enjoy what the ship has to offer. I feel like we missed a lot!

 

 

Cindy

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[mrpayroll]

Thanks for your thoughts. Have three more cruises booked before we get to try Oasis in Jan 2016..

[LABCHICK]

Thanks Cindy for your info. We sailed the Oasis a few yrs back. Will be doing a B2B on her in Oct. and Nov. 2015. Looking forward to sailing on her again.

 

I read a little about Cats so I wouldn't be too confused. Hope I read enough.

[buckeye rob]

Thanks Cindy. Sounds like a great time. Those dining venues you chose are the exact ones we looked at. Maybe Chops at the end of the list because of mixed reviews We've seen. I know its subjective, but could you rate them perhaps 1 thru... ? Any pics of the aft GS' ? Thanks Gerry

[tomko2]

Enjoyed your post - thanks for sharing.

We are on the Oasis January 2016 for the first time. Generally we sail on the Liberty however we did have a 5 night cruise on the Allure several years ago.

Looking forward to learning all about dynamic dining etc.

Kathy:)

[cruisingagentone]

Cindy

I have a quick question...is the Concierge Lounge open again? And can the Diamond Plus still go there?

Thank You

[setsail]

Thanks for the CK and SL info.

[cruzkitty]

Thanks for your thoughts and especially your Good comments about the Coastal Kitchen! Looking forward to dining there on our 3rd trip On Oasis in September! You had a great Suite!!:

[Big_G]

We enjoyed all our dinners, but I did think the MDR on Oasis was the loudest and most crowded I've ever been in.

 

Good to hear about the quality of the food. For what it's worth, we've done MTD and traditional on Allure and it just didn't seem as loud during MTD as during traditional. We were close to the center of the dining room for traditional and the noise was almost unbearable. Location, location, location. :p

[shoylman]

Thanks Cindy for your great review on the Oasis. We have our shows booked for our January 2015 cruise but haven't been able to book our dining time. We wanted the early seating in the main dining room to fit our show schedule. How early were you able to book your dinners? The website and our TA said it isn't time yet? How soon could you make your reservations?

[Cindy]

Sitting at the airport in Houston waiting for the baggage carousel to start turning...it was a bumpy flight, and I'm glad to be on the ground before the storms hit!

 

To answer a couple questions...I liked all the specialties! I thought Chops was good, but I chose the wrong steak (the strip) and didn't think it was great, but the people who got the filet were thrilled. All the food was great other than that, so it's hard to rate them because they're all so different.

 

The one night we ate in the MDR, they walked us all the way down to deck 3 to an empty table because the reservation line for MTD was so long. The noise was almost unbearable!

 

 

Cindy

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[golfpccc]

Cindy, did y'all have MTD or Traditional Dining. We are on the Oasis b2b in Jan and have late traditional dining, just wondered if traditional dining is still the same as before. Have they devided the MDR into different restaurants yet or is it still one large dining room?

 

Carla

[killtheump]

Cindy,

I agree with your post. This was the best cruise we have been on! The shows as you said were AWSOME! Like you I still have no idea what Cats was about but the dancers and singers were fantastic. BTW I stayed up the whole 2 1/5 hours of it! Too bad for the performers that many people were left by the end of the show.

 

Yes the Dinning Room was loud. I wear hearing aids and it was very hard to hear people at our table with all the back ground noise.

 

We did not see Drew The CD until Wednesday night at the Headliner, we thought the other guy was the CD.

 

All said I would not hesitate to book The Oasis again. I cannot praise the staff enough they were great. Now a few of the passengers may have been a problem, but i will leave that for another post!

 

So glad you had a great time too! Sorry we didn't get to meet, but we were very busy relaxing.

[TheMastodon]

IMO - Drew's activity manager should be a CD. Dude was hilarious

[killtheump]

IMO - Drew's activity manager should be a CD. Dude was hilarious

 

Agree! 😎

[denamo]

Cindy,

Thanks for taking time to come back and give us your thoughts on the Oasis. This is our favorite class of ship and glad you enjoyed it.

 

Did you ever catch any of the live music in Central Park during the evening? We love sitting out under the stars and listening to live music.

 

Thanks again.

[Oville]

Cindy thank you for you review and so glad you loved the ship. I recall you were disappointed about no Captain's Table but looks like you had a wonderful time.

 

Glad to here you liked Coastal Kitchen. What was lunch like and what hours are breakfast and lunch served?

 

Thank you.

[ehfl]

Thanks for your review. Cats was a big risk for RCL. Their passengers are generally used to live performances (Cats is historically done with lip-synching). Maybe it will work, but I think a safer alternative would be to go with a more live-performance show, so that people would not leave after intermission.

[seasearider]

Thanks for your review. Cats was a big risk for RCL. Their passengers are generally used to live performances (Cats is historically done with lip-synching). Maybe it will work, but I think a safer alternative would be to go with a more live-performance show, so that people would not leave after intermission.

 

 

Huh?

[Cindy]

Cindy,

Thanks for taking time to come back and give us your thoughts on the Oasis. This is our favorite class of ship and glad you enjoyed it.

 

Did you ever catch any of the live music in Central Park during the evening? We love sitting out under the stars and listening to live music.

 

Thanks again.

 

Mostly just when we were passing through. That's the kind of thing I wish we had another week for. It seemed like we were on the run at all times to fit everything in!

 

 

Cindy thank you for you review and so glad you loved the ship. I recall you were disappointed about no Captain's Table but looks like you had a wonderful time.

 

Glad to here you liked Coastal Kitchen. What was lunch like and what hours are breakfast and lunch served?

 

Thank you.

 

As things worked out, the Captain's Table would have probably been a bust for us. My husband came down with a bad cold, and he was pretty miserable Monday night, which was when we were scheduled. I had switched our 150 reservation to that night, and I savored every delectable bite while Jim sat across the table miserable because he had no appetite and couldn't taste anything.:(

 

Breakfast hours in Coastal Kitchen varied based on the port schedule. They opened earlier the day we were in St. Maarten, but on sea days they opened at 8:00. Lunch started at 11:30 or 12...sorry I can't remember. I do have pictures of the breakfast and lunch menus that I'll try to get posted sometime this week. I have to find them first!:eek:

[Karemark]

It's so nice to see a positive review of Oasis. We will be sailing on her for the first time in January and very excited. Thank you for positing!

[Karemark]

We were on the Grandeur in October and Ricky Matthews was the CD. We thought he was horrible because we never saw him and thought Andre, the AD, was so much better. Come to find out that cruise was Ricky's last one on the Grandeur (he will be on Oasis in January) and he was trying to put Andre front and center to help his career. When we saw Ricky, he was fabulous, so I'm looking foward to see him on the Oasis in January.

 

It could be that Drew was doing the same thing since he's leaving Oasis soon.

[RedHeadTexan]

Thanks for the review Cindy! We board on Saturday and are getting rather giddy at this point. Quick question...do you remember what time the M&M was at? The website shows it at midnight, but there is no way that is accurate. :rolleyes: Thanks for the help!

 

Lisa

[Cindy]

Thanks for the review Cindy! We board on Saturday and are getting rather giddy at this point. Quick question...do you remember what time the M&M was at? The website shows it at midnight, but there is no way that is accurate. :rolleyes: Thanks for the help!

 

Lisa

 

It was at 10:00 on Monday in Jazz on 4. There wasn't much to it. It was pretty much just the raffle drawing.:rolleyes:

[RedHeadTexan]

It was at 10:00 on Monday in Jazz on 4. There wasn't much to it. It was pretty much just the raffle drawing.:rolleyes:

 

 

That's fine with us...we are doing a cabin crawl and wanted to start it after the M&M. Thanks for letting me know. :)

 

Lisa

 

 

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