Oasis Review from A First Time Cruiser

[CleverEuphemism]

We just returned from our first cruise on Oasis. This forum was so helpful to me when planning I thought I would write a review and answer any questions. I am a first time cruiser so I certainly won't know all the answers, but I can try! I like lists so I will break it down into categories and add my tips that might be helpful for first timers.

 

The Ship: It really is amazing and you have to see it to believe it. There is so much to do and see, we tried to do as much as we could and still didn't even come close. I enjoyed the neighborhoods, it made things easy to find and remember where things were. i can see why some people say the ship is too big. A few times we wanted to get a coffee or snack but hesitated because where wanted to go was on the other side of the ship! Sometimes the ship felt very crowded--all those thousands of people have to go somewhere on sea days. By the end of the week my husband and I were completely over the throngs of people, crowded elevators, and pushing, rude passengers. Why people are so rude on their vacations I will never understand.

 

Dining: We did My Time Dining and ate mostly in the Main Dining Room. We traveled with a group of friends and family and never had to wait more than a few minutes to be seated without reservations, even with a large group of 12 the one night. The food in the MDR was fine, some dishes were excellent and some were just okay. I had reasonable expectations and was not disappointed. One time we did not like the dish we ordered, and the waiter got us another choice with no problem. I appreciated the advice I read on the forum of ordering two appetizers if you want. I got the shrimp cocktail almost every night and usually tried one other appetizer. We went to one formal night and less than half the men were in suits. I packed one for my husband complete with a tie and he didn't even need to wear it. That did not go over well with him! ;) He would have blended in fine with dress pants or khakis and a dress shirt. I saw people wearing everything from suits to jeans and even a few in shorts on formal night! It's nice to dress up if you want but a suit takes a lot of room in the suitcase and it really wasn't necessary.

We did eat at two specialty restaurants, Chops and Giovanni's Table. Chops we did the first night since the cover charge was half price (they offered it as soon as we walked on the ship). Chops was pretty good but I think I would have been disappointed if we had paid the full $35 per person charge. Giovanni's Table was great, lots of food and the steak there was as good as the one at Chops with a lower cover charge. We also tried the Dog House and liked it. Johnny Rockets was good but a little expensive--you have a cover charge to eat there and still pay $6 on top of that for a shake. For the two of us we paid $22 for lunch and just got burgers, fries, and a milkshake each. Some friends and family traveling with us went to 150 Central Park and did not have great things to say about it. The entire menu was lamb and fish, which were not their favorites, so I would suggest you look at the menu before you book. We did not go to Sabor or Izumi but heard good things about both of them.

 

Cabin: We had a balcony room on Deck 8 close to the elevators. I was glad we were close to the elevators. It made getting places so much more convenient. I was expecting a tiny room based on what I had heard from other people who had cruised, but the room was plenty big for us and had enough storage. We preordered our drink packages and our soda cups (and shore excursion tix) were waiting in our room. I did overpack a bit but wore most of my clothes. A few things I was really glad I brought:

• bag of medications (mostly purchased at Walmart for 88 cents each). I brought cold medicine, upset stomach medication, cough drops, antibiotic ointment, etc. We only used a few but I was glad to have them.
  
• Downy Wrinkle Releaser Plus: this helped remove wrinkles and also doubled as Febreeze.
  
• Comfortable Shoes--the ship is big and you will need them. I did not bring heels and wore dressy flat sandals to dinner.
  

 

Will continue in next post...

[cynthialanderson67]

Thank you I love reviews. Hope you had a great time and look forward to the rest of your posts. Did you take any pictures to share?

[CleverEuphemism]

Drink Packages: My husband bought the Preferred Package and I bought the soda package. I am not a big drinker, so I knew for me it would not be worth it to buy anything else. We paid $400 for my husband's package. Before the cruise, I looked up drink prices and didn't think it was worth it to buy one. But my husband insisted, and I think RCI won on this one. He averaged about four to five drinks a day and less on port days. So my advice is definitely do the math to see if it's really worth it to buy one.

[CleverEuphemism]

Thank you I love reviews. Hope you had a great time and look forward to the rest of your posts. Did you take any pictures to share?

 

I did, I will be uploading them in a few hours and will post some!

[CleverEuphemism]

Shows: We saw Come Fly with Me, Frozen in Time, the Comedy Show, and the Aqua show. The Aqua show (I forget the name) was my favorite. Frozen in Time was cute, I don't know how they do all those jumps on the tiny ice rink. Come Fly with Me was okay, the costumes were nice and I enjoyed the acrobatics but musicals aren't really my thing. Comedy Show was great as well.

We did not see Cats but unfortunately everyone who saw it did not have good things to say. Some of our traveling companions saw it and said when they looked behind them halfway through the show the entire row behind them was asleep! They said the actors did a good job, but that Cats wasn't a great choice for a musical for a cruise ship, something upbeat like Chicago or Mama Mia would have been better. I think Allure did one of those, it would have been a better choice.

We pre-booked most of the shows except the comedy shows. All of the shows, including the comedy show, were completely sold out by the time of the cruise. We were lucky to get into the comedy show on stand by, but I had no idea everything would be booked so early, so definitely book ahead. It's free to book and if you don't go, no biggie. The comedy show plays like three times every night and was sold out, I was not expecting that.

We also watched the Belly Flop Competition, it was very funny and the Cruise Director who hosted it is hilarious.

[trihawks1]

Awesome review. We have booked Oasis for December 2015. We always book a balcony and prefer a hump room. We booked on the forward hump but we were concerned about location. Was there any noise issue with your room being on deck 8? Just wondered because of the restaurants etc. We debated whether to do a Deck 6, 7, or 8 but Deck 8 had the best for 3 cabins. Not a whole lot of cabins were available to book 3 cabins close together.

 

 

 

 

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[Madsofa]

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to reading more. We're sailing on the Oasis next month, can't wait! :D

[CleverEuphemism]

Awesome review. We have booked Oasis for December 2015. We always book a balcony and prefer a hump room. We booked on the forward hump but we were concerned about location. Was there any noise issue with your room being on deck 8? Just wondered because of the restaurants etc. We debated whether to do a Deck 6, 7, or 8 but Deck 8 had the best for 3 cabins. Not a whole lot of cabins were available to book 3 cabins close together.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

We had no issues with noise from Central Park. I think the doors to enter Central Park and that Central Park is a pretty chill deck (vs. Deck 5) helped. We were just past the forward elevators on the ship so nothing but cabins around us. It was nice to walk right out to the cafe to grab a coffee or head up to the pool or down to the gangway.

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

Great review! Thanks for sharing. It's good to hear a first time cruiser's point of view. Sometimes we forget that first time magic. Thanks for reminding us what that's like again!

[Aussie Jeep]

Enjoying your review. A great first effort. Cant wait to get on OAS . Did you ise the Wifi? Was it at the new reduced prices? Thanks

Edited February 15, 2015 by Aussie Jeep

[sojodave]

What room # were you in? We have 8142 booked in September and I'm excited about being on the same deck as Central Park.

[CleverEuphemism]

Enjoying your review. A great first effort. Cant wait to get on OAS . Did you ise the Wifi? Was it at the new reduced prices? Thanks

 

We did not but some family we were traveling with bought small packages and had no problems with it. One did mention that she bought 30 minutes and used only 10 minutes thinking she could use more later, but apparently you had to use all your time in one sitting. She was not pleased!

 

What room # were you in? We have 8142 booked in September and I'm excited about being on the same deck as Central Park.

 

We were in 8540, about ten rooms past the forward elevators towards the front of the ship. It was a good location.

[CleverEuphemism]

Other Experiences: Perhaps some experienced cruisers who were on the same cruise can comment, but we had a few days where we were definitely rocking and rolling. They actually closed the pools because they were sloshing down into Central Park and going into Chops! That was on the last day and it was pretty disappointing to have to sit by empty pools and hot tubs. Kiddie pools were still open as was the one pool by the aft of the ship with the rocks surrounding it. We heard that the ship had to make an emergency stop in St. Thomas in the middle of the night on the way back to Fort Lauderdale to offload an ill passenger and my guess is they had to go full steam ahead to make up the time. Even one of the crew members remarked to me that all of the movement was giving her problems. The cruise director remarked before one of the shows that "We were rocking and rolling" and his advice was "To drink--it will all level out." :) Fortunately we do not get sea sick so it was more of an adventure for us than anything else.

 

In Nassau we had a heck of time getting back on the ship. There were huge lines to get through security. Actually, they weren't really lines but just masses of hot, cranky people trying to get back to the ship. One of the guards mentioned that Oasis and a Holland America ship were both leaving around the same time, but it was pretty disorganized for a place that deals with cruise liners coming all the time. Fortunately we headed back early to the ship and had plenty of time. We also had our IDs with us--some people were panicking because they did not bring them. We were told to bring them by other family members who had cruised, but RCI doesn't make it as clear as they should that you should bring them, so that is definitely a tip for first time cruisers to always bring your ID with you off the ship. We brought our driver licenses and had no problems (did not want to risk taking our passports with us).

[CleverEuphemism]

Some pics...

 

Sail away...

 

 

Arriving at Nassau at dawn

[CleverEuphemism]

Nassau

 

Missing these already...

 

St. Thomas

[CleverEuphemism]

Panoramic shot of St. Maarten:

 

Royal Promenade from the Rising Tide bar:

 

Living wall at Central Park, so pretty:

Edited February 16, 2015 by CleverEuphemism

[OCruisers]

Thanks so very much for taking your time to come back and doing a review!

Totally enjoyed reading! :D

LuLu

[Jimmers]

Thanks for the well done review. We're looking forward to returning to the Oasis in April, also a deck 8 balcony near the elevators (nice:)). So......do you think you will cruise again and if so, would you choose an Oasis class ship again or something smaller?

[Familygoboston]

Enjoying your review and photos! I like deck 8 near the aft stair/elevator for Oasis and Allure, because its a convenient location both vertically and horizontally to just about everything on the ship!

[CleverEuphemism]

Thanks for the well done review. We're looking forward to returning to the Oasis in April, also a deck 8 balcony near the elevators (nice:)). So......do you think you will cruise again and if so, would you choose an Oasis class ship again or something smaller?

 

I'm not sure--at times the ship felt really crowded, but I think we would get bored on a smaller ship with less activities. I would consider a smaller ship for cool ports of call, like Alaska or smaller Caribbean islands. We enjoyed the cruise, but after the cruise fare, airfare, hotel for night before cruise, excursions and booze, it was a very expensive trip. We might do all-inclusives for awhile. If we ever have kids I can see how a cruise is great vacation option with everything in one place. I would go again if we got a great deal and could go with a group. For this trip we traveled with friends and family so we did not get to pick the week we went. I did feel like the trip was relaxing--I liked how on sea days you kind of had to relax since you couldn't get off the ship!

 

Enjoying your review and photos! I like deck 8 near the aft stair/elevator for Oasis and Allure, because its a convenient location both vertically and horizontally to just about everything on the ship!

 

Yes, if we did it again I would have booked near the aft elevators as well--closer to Windjammer, MDR, and all the action!

Edited February 16, 2015 by CleverEuphemism

[Lionesss]

Well I must say for a first time review, you did very well.

 

Enjoyed your style and your pictures.

 

Thanks

 

Safe journey

[clawmachine]

Not to sound dumb, but is that drink in a pineapple from the ship? What is it called? Thanks!

[MOcruiserman]

You spoke about the great number of activities. Does the Oasis also have quiet places where you can go to read? We will be on a much smaller Royal Caribbean ship this fall and I'm looking forward to relaxing on the sea days.

[CleverEuphemism]

Not to sound dumb, but is that drink in a pineapple from the ship? What is it called? Thanks!

 

It was a Pina Colada. It was the drink of the day, $7.95 ($2.95 if you had the drink package and wanted the pineapple). They could make it with different types of rum, I had mango. They had them on the ship for two of three days, mostly they were days you were at sea. There was a table set up by the pool area where they were serving them.

 

You spoke about the great number of activities. Does the Oasis also have quiet places where you can go to read? We will be on a much smaller Royal Caribbean ship this fall and I'm looking forward to relaxing on the sea days.

 

Yes, the Solarium is pretty quiet. The upper deck above the pool was pretty quiet and I saw a lot of people chilling out and reading there. So I'm sure you will be able to find a little spot to read.