Fizzlewicket’s Adventure on Oasis of the Seas

[Fizzlewicket]

Hello everyone and welcome to my guided tour of the Oasis of the Seas and second cruise review for my wife and I’s second cruise. So many lessons were learned, but also so much fun was had. From beginning to end, it was a proverbial roller-coaster of frustrations mixed with wonders and excitement. Hopefully, our lessons learned through our adventure will help others get through their cruise experience a little smoother.

 

 

Shall we get started?

 

 

To get the full story, let us go back to all the pre-cruise activity. Like any typical excited and eager cruiser, I had taken my suitcase out days before the cruise and started packing. I had made a checklist and just good ol’ Saint Nick was going over my list not once, but twice just to make sure everything is present accounted for.

 

 

The day were we were supposed to take our pre-cruise flight (Friday, 15 Jan 16), I did a double check on all our cruise documents and luggage items. I took out my passport from my folder and my wife doubled checked hers. Everything seems ok until I turned it over. I noticed two holes in the front of the passport meaning it was not my current one, but my expired passport that I have neglected to destroy after receiving my new one. This was still early in the morning and we still had about five hours until our flight. Thinking I had just picked up the wrong one, I went back to the desk door where I normally keep my passport and I could not find my new one. Needless to say, a major panic attack struck. I had been researching cruising for four years and this ship was the one I had been looking most forward to sailing since the very beginning. To not be able to cruise due to a missing passport would be devastating, to say the least.

 

 

We had just moved a few weeks earlier and we still had many boxes throughout the house, the garage and in storage. My wife, my mother in law and I spent the next 6 hours tearing through every box, drawer, and cabinet looking for my new passport. We drive down to our storage unit which housed some of our belongings and checked there. We even went to my office to see if I had left it there, but to no avail. As my wife and I were heading back to our car, after scouring my office, a friend I worked with asked why we were still here and we told him the situation of missing my new passport. He mentioned that he knew someone whose daughter got to the cruise terminal and forgot to bring her passport. Luckily, she had her birth certificate and was still able to board. We rushed home and I called the travel agency I booked the cruise through and asked them if it was true that I could board with my original birth certificate. At the same time, I searched cruise critic and rest of the internet for the answer to that same question finding no real concrete answer. My cruise agency POC assured me that boarding with your birth certificate and government issued ID was perfectly acceptable and very common and can be done as long as the cruise began and ended in the same port, which ours did.

 

 

I found out our flight was delayed, but even with the delay, at that point we only had about 45 minutes to make our flight. Driving there would take an hour alone, not to mention the time it would take to drop the car at the long term parking area. I called the airlines and tried to get another flight that Friday, but everything was booked and they offered us early flight on Saturday morning on the same day as our cruise. With trepidation, I took the last two seats left on the earliest flight and cringed as I felt my credit card screamed in pain as they charged flight change fees as well as an enormous additional cost of the Saturday flight. I also called our hotel we had booked and had to pay for a hotel room I could not use. I was charged a cancellation fee for that also. I cradled my bruised and beaten credit card in my hands and tried to give solace to its agony, but the wounds were very deep at this point.

 

 

Knowing we had secured a flight for Saturday and we have a few hours of wiggle room before the Oasis departed was slightly comforting, but because I did not know with absolute certainty that my birth original birth certificate would allow me to board, sleep that night was extremely hard to come by. I spent much of the midnight hours repacking and straightening up the house after destroying the house looking for that new passport and ensuring that all of our needed documents were present and accounted for. I even put everything in a folder with each document in plastic paper protectors and in the order they would be needed with the flight document first followed by the sail pass documents and birth certificate. All the require documents for excursions and port resorts followed to the rear in the order of the port. Well, if I could not sleep, I was still being productive with my time.

 

 

Why am I telling you all this pre-cruise stuff? Well, it did affect some future parts of our cruise and how we approached the how we ate and what we did (or did not do) in the ports. I will get to that part as I review each part of our cruise.

 

 

Well, Saturday arrives and we headed out very early to the drop our car off at Winner Airport Parking. It was valet parking, so after in processing the car with the customer service rep, our valet hoped into our vehicle with the little space that was available in the rear seats and helped direct us to the airport. When we arrived, I gave him a tip for his service and he drove our car back to Winner. All in all, it was a very quick and easy experience and I would recommend them to anyone looking at long term parking for a Philadelphia Airport flight. With the coupon on their website, parking was $8 per day.

 

 

Well, let’s speed this along, because I know everyone is eager and ready for the ship tour.

 

 

We headed out from Philly and arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport around 2:30pm. We gathered our luggage and caught a taxi to the port. I believe the cost was a little less than $20 for the taxi. We dropped our luggage with a porter and give him a few bucks for this service. As we approached the cruise door, anxiety was still the ruling feeling in my mind. Would my birth certificate truly work? What if it doesn’t and we have fly back tonight and incur all those change flight costs? My heart was racing like I had just run a marathon at full speed as we went through security and up to one of the counters. Long story sort, my birth certificate and government issued ID worked fine and boarding time from curb to ship was less than 15 minutes. Needless to say, it still took me several cruise days to fully recover from that whole experience.

 

 

So here we are aboard the Oasis of the Seas. What shall we do now? Explore the ship? Well, after all the plentiful recent and wonderful Oasis of the Seas reviews, I certainly hope I can do it justice.

 

 

Well, we entered the ship near the Starbucks kiosk on deck 5, so how about we start there? The Royal Promenade is one of my favorite places on the ship anyway.

 

 

Just like my other tour, I will present comments and personal experiences of each area we visit. But as we travel, PLEASE BE WARNED to watch out for falling abstract concepts, confusing comments, aimless banter, and highly biased personal opinions. :p Thank you.

 

 

Here ... we ... go!

[Fizzlewicket]

Welcome to the Royal Promenade on Oasis of the Seas.

 

 

Here is Starbucks.

 

 

When my wife and I were researching this ship a couple of years ago, we were watching a ship tour on YouTube. As they panned through the Royal Promenade, they had shown the Starbucks kiosk. My wife asked me to rewind the video and replay it. Once she knew it was a Starbucks, she immediately stated “That Ship! I want to go on that ship”. I guess Starbucks has that effect on coffee drinkers and my wife partook in a Starbucks beverage at least once a day. My wife loves to sleep in late and when she had to get up early on the ship, she desperately needed her “wake up juice”. As for me, I don’t drink coffee or type of adult beverage for that matter. My hardest drink of choice is half diet mountain dew and half orange juice. Hey, don’t knock it until you try it.

 

 

 

And here is their pricelist for coffees, teas, hot chocolate and other delectables as of January 2016 (in case anyone was curious).

[Fizzlewicket]

Let start with port side of the Royal Promenade and work our way around to the starboard side. Well, look at me using all these fancy shmancy ship terms. I feel like an experienced cruiser already.

 

 

Over there to our right, we see the On Air Club and Bar where they played sport games on a multitude of television screen inside the space and out.

 

 

 

 

There was plenty of hooting, hollering and cheering during sport events made by some, well, slightly inebriated passengers. I bet it was loads of fun, but for some strange reason I am missing the male DNA that cares a wit about sports games of any type, so I chose not to patake in the excitement.

 

 

And also was plenty of entertainment during Karaoke which showcased that there were some surprisingly talented people on the ship as well as others who … Hmm, how should I phase this? Well, let us just say they gave it a valiant effort and are much braver than I!

[Clarea]

Nice tour so far.:)

[Fizzlewicket]

On several sea days, a face painter would set up a table in front of the On Air Club.

 

 

You could also find a balloon artist near her table or wondering around the promenade creating a wondrous variety of balloon animals, swords, bicycles, and hats.

 

[Fizzlewicket]

Up next we have The Shop, Solera and Port Merchants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are basically one large shop with connecting areas that offered perfumes in Solera; basic snacks and toiletries along with Royal Caribbean labeled clothing and souvenirs in The Shop; and all kinds of adult beverages in Port Merchants.

 

 

My wife seems to love getting a new bag in every port and ship we visit and this was no exception. She said she “needed” one for her towel and other items when we went to the beach in Labadee. I do not understand the need to own a million different purses and bags, but it was only $20 and like a good husband, I did the right thing and swiped my sea pass card for the bag. (We agreed not to charge anything without the other person knowing and agreeing to it first.)

[Fizzlewicket]

Let’s we move on to the Globe and Atlas Pub.

 

 

 

 

 

I was impressed with the English Pub on Liberty and I was no less impressed with the one here. If you stand with your back to the promenade you can imagine yourself in an old English pub in some small English town. There was also a guitarist named Jimmy Blakemore, who entertained pub patrons in the evening, who if I can recall correctly, was the same gentlemen who performed when we were on the Liberty of the Seas

[LuCruise]

Great tour and pictures so far. Thanks for sharing.

Unfortunately I read in another post that the balloons artists and face painters will be no more as of April.

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk

[Fizzlewicket]

And there is shop for Kate Spade merchandise.

 

 

I’m sorry, but I have to rant a bit here. The concept that placing a certain designer’s name on an item which makes the item more valuable escapes me. If I took a Michael Kor or Kate Spade bag and removed there name and added mine to it (disregard the highly criminal nature of that action), how valuable is it then? Would people still pay $900 for that bag? It makes no sense to me. The same goes with the posters all over the Promenade that show famous people wearing watches. Just because John Travolta endorses a certain brand and model of watch should make me want to buy that one too? I bought my watch at my Base Exchange for $35. Mine tells the time and date just like his. It also has a sports timer and three different wake up alarms. Does his $3,000 watch do that too? Humph ….. Ok, stepping off my soapbox now before I get myself in trouble.

 

 

(Well, I did give everyone a warning about my highly biased personal opinions. :p)

[Fizzlewicket]

After the very tiny Kate Spade shop is the Royal Promenade Café.

 

 

 

 

Here you could get variety of breakfast pastries in the morning ...

 

 

 

and in the afternoon and evening, they offered different types of sandwiches (like my favorite Jive Turkey) and various desserts and cookies.

 

 

 

But for me, only one item truly stood out and become my every night before bed obsession … The delightful, delicious, and delectable Cheese Cake Lollipops.

 

 

 

Such a wonderful way to complete an evening … Two lollipops and a carton of skin milk that always snagged for myself each morning when I became room service for my better half.

[Fizzlewicket]

Next is Guest Services.

 

 

 

 

 

There were several times I had to speak with a Guest Services Representative and found them to be extremely professional and helpful. I had to call Guest Services once due to a backed up toilet and within five minutes someone else (outside our cabin) caused our toilet to flush and the problem was solved. I actually was very surprised hearing the toilet flush on its own.

 

 

The main time I had to interact with customer service was the third day of the cruise after I had reviewed our OBC account in the television. It was showing we owed $216 at that point. I was wondering when our $200 OBC what we received from booking the cruise would show up and offset the account. I went to Guest Services and inquired about this. The Guest Services Representative told us that it did show we did have an OBC from the initial booking, but because we upgraded from an inside room to a balcony and received other discounts (such as a military discount) with the room change, the $200 was no longer honored. She stated that an email was sent to the cruise travel agency regarding this situation. I told her it was only cruise receipt. And she stated if it was, she would happily reinstate the OBC to my account if I could bring her a printed copy of the receipt showing the OBC. She mentioned there were computers and printers in the Seven Nine card room on Deck 14 to the aft of the ship.

So at this point, let us take just a slight detour from the Royal Promenade and take a look at the Seven Nine card room on desk 14. Printing documents here does not cost a thing.

 

 

[Fizzlewicket]

And if you don’t mind, since we are talking about desktop computers and printing, let us take another slight tangent to someplace else I found.

 

 

Later in the week, as exploring the ship and poking my big nose in places that I probably shouldn’t poke it, I came across a door on deck 7 which led into some inside cabins. Since I happen to be more curious than Curious George, I wandered in for a bit of a look see. As I turned the corner to the first right, I saw something interesting. It was a small Royal Caribbean Online computer room with several desktop computers and printer.

 

 

 

 

I went back out to look at the signage for this area and found this was not even marked on the deck plan sign.

 

 

 

 

Why do I mention things like this? Well, maybe, just maybe, if 50 people read this tour/review and maybe, just maybe, one person may sail on the Oasis in the future and remember this information and it would make their cruise easier, I would consider documenting all of this worthwhile.

[Fizzlewicket]

Ok, let us veer back to the topic at hand, The Mystery of the Disappearing OBC. I only bought one Zoom account, so my wife logged off her account and I logged in to one of the desktop computers in the card room to check my email where my receipts for the cruise resided. I did a quick search and two receipts came up. There was one after we upgraded to the balcony showing our current cabin we were in and an OBC of $200 near the bottom. And there was the most recent one which was send to us after we made our final payment. Guess what was missing from this receipt? Yep, the $200 OBC and no mention to where it may have gone. Being completely exasperated from recent events, I decided to take my bruises and not pursue the OBC (the Guest Services Rep offered to call the travel agency in the morning). It would be less frustrating to walk away at this point than try to battle Godzilla with a thumbtack.

 

 

So we had a dilemma, we wanted to keep the amount owed at the end of the cruise as small as possible, since we had learned a very expensive lesson at the end of our Liberty of the Seas cruise. We also had wanted to avoid the MDR during the whole cruise and focus on the specialty restaurants for evening dinners. But, at the same time, we also did not want to have a $200+ bill at the end of the cruise. This was only night three and more sea passes charges were seemingly inevitable. Now it was time to figure out how we could someone bring this amount owed down. After a bit of discussion, my wife and I came to agreeable solution. We would cancel our prepaid Jet Ski Tour in Labadee to the tune of $200. We also cancelled two dinners at Sabor (we LOVE Mexican food) and our remaining prepaid specialty restaurant, the Solarium Bistro (which I found out later, my wife was not looking forward to since she did not find anything on the menu she liked). This event changed how we dined from that point forward and we agreed to only eat at the Windjammer and other complimentary restaurants throughout the ship. My wife mentioned later, she was perfectly happy with this arrangement and did not like all those long sit down meals and just preferred to grab and go at the Windjammer. All and all, it was extremely easy to avoid the MDR and specialty restaurants all together and still have some excellent food throughout the ship.

 

 

Ok, I needed to get that off my chest to help make sense of my commentary as we tour the ship. So with that …. Back to the tour.

[Fizzlewicket]

After the Guest Services area is the Regalia watches.

 

 

 

I have already made my strange view on this type of shop known, so I’ll just zip my lips on this one.

[Fizzlewicket]

As we go around these stairs …

 

 

 

Wow … just wow. It is me? Or are these stairs just … Wow.

[Fizzlewicket]

If we climb on the stairs just a bit, we can get a great overall view of the Royal Promenade and the area below the Rising Tide Bar.

 

 

 

 

The fountain changing colors is simply fascinating.

 

Hey, look at that. The Rising Tide bar is on its way down now.

 

 

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review. Glad you made it onboard with your birth certificate. Not finding a document you need would make any cruiser shake in their boots.

[Fizzlewicket]

Moving on to the Starboard side of the Royal Promenade, we have the Champagne Bar.

 

 

 

 

I went in there one evening on a whim to see if they had my wife’s preferred sparkling champagne on hand, Asti Spumante. The very helpful bartender knew about this adult beverage, but said she did not have it in stock, but she was able to recommend a sweet champagne that my wife did enjoy shortly later. Also, I found the seats in that bar very comfortable. They were only second to the Schooner Bar chairs which we will see in a bit.

[Lionesss]

What a beautiful thread

 

 

I am really enjoying this.

 

Thanks so much.

 

 

Keep it coming.

 

Safe travels.

[Fizzlewicket]

Enjoying your review. Glad you made it onboard with your birth certificate. Not finding a document you need would make any cruiser shake in their boots.

 

Thank you very much. My biggest fear now is that people might be getting Oasis review fatigue. I have never seen so many Oasis reviews in such a short time. :eek:

[Fizzlewicket]

Next is the Michael Kors shop.

 

 

 

 

This place … well … ok … I have no comment here.

 

 

Moving on … there are the stairs down to the Royal Casino. And more stairs up to Focus which is the place where you can purchase your photos. There are always plenty of different ways to get around the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm? What’s that thing to the right of the stairs? You have a good eye. Well, I will talk about those later.

[Fizzlewicket]

Next to Michael Kors is the Regalia jewelry shop.

 

 

 

 

I’ll be over here next to his antique car with the stuffed teddy bears while you admire that shop …

 

 

[Fizzlewicket]

As we continue, we come across Sorrento’s Pizza.

 

 

 

 

We ate more Sorrento’s Pizza on the Liberty than on the Oasis. I think we had about two slices during the entire week. There are just so many places to eat on this ship. It is unreal. It tasted the same as the Liberty Pizza. Not the most spectacular pizza in the world, but is great for a snack or even a meal since there was an area to choose your own toppings for your own pizza. That place always seemed to be busy when it was open and I never heard a single complaint about the pizza.

 

 

 

And right next to the dining area of Sorrento’s are two of the six Coca Cola beverage machines that we found on the ship. The other four being in the Windjammer.

 

 

 

 

They were never out of order during our cruise and the line at its worst was only 3-4 deep and went very quickly. Sometimes, if one machine was out of a certain flavor, the other would have it. I never had a problem oversaturating my system with Coke Zero. All in all, easy cheesy lemon squeezy.

[Gradelady]

Thank you very much. My biggest fear now is that people might be getting Oasis review fatigue. I have never seen so many Oasis reviews in such a short time. :eek:

 

Enjoying your review! Not fatigued at all!

[Fizzlewicket]

Next is Price and Green.

 

 

 

 

Not much to say about this place. It is just your typical overpriced clothing and misc. fashion products store … IMHO.