Just off oasis

[Clarea]

Thanks for your information. We are sailing on 4/9. We've been on the Allure twice, now the Oasis. Is there a Vintages wine bar in Central Park on the Oasis?

Yes!

[cruisinrealtor]

I did see beer buckets but not coolers. We didn't get them though.

Vintages is in central park.

I will scan the cruise compass tonight hopefully. I'm having issues posting pictures though. If I can't figure out away to post pictures I will post a link to the flickr pictures.

[yuvraj]

We are sailing in two weeks and are looking at flights. What do you think is a reasonable departure time out of Miami? Our ship gets in to FLL at 6:15 a.m. but realistically how quickly can you disembark?

 

Thanks!

 

We were on the same sailing and flew back from Miami yesterday.

 

We left the ship around 9:30 am. Disembarkation was chaotic and involved a lot of queuing. Unusual and unexpected for RCI. Picked up pre-booked private transfer to airport at 10:15 am. Arrived at Miami airport at 11:00. Note this was on a Sunday. Expect traffic delays on other days.

 

I like to play it safe. Ship can arrive late and there could be disembarkation delays like the chaos we experienced. So I would aim for a late afternoon flight. Note that there is always a chance that things might get delayed at customs or at baggage claim.

 

In our case we had a very late flight (9:15 pm) so enjoyed the afternoon in Miami. There is a hotel at the airport terminal where you can book a day room and leave your belongings. Worked well for us.

[cruisinrealtor]

I've attached some of the cruise compasses let me know if you can see them. If so I will add more if not I'll figure out a new way to post.

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[izzypooch]

Do you remember what day they offered the small laundry bag special?

[Khsh08]

I can see the images when selected. Thanks

[cruisinrealtor]

here are more

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[cruisinrealtor]

these should be all of them

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[canadian-nurse]

Thanks you very much for posting all of those! I know how time consuming it is!!!

[TravelerThom]

...Disembarkation was chaotic and involved a lot of queuing. Unusual and unexpected for RCI...

I was also on this cruise, and I agree on chaotic but disagree that queuing was even possible. I have done about 100 cruises on many lines (D+ on RCI), and have only seen chaos close to this one other time. Apparently every time new luggage groups were ready in the terminal, those numbers were posted for passenger disembarking - unfortunately the Promenade was already full and more and more passengers were jamming into it with nowhere to go. When we got to the Promenade about 8:30 there were 2 staff members attempting to provide some direction, but they were overwhelmed and just left. It took us almost an hour to get through the Promenade (that was just the Promenade, not counting time in the luggage and customs queues).

 

This was our 5th time on an O-class Western Caribbean cruise, and hands down the least organized. We were told that the manager of the dive show (who controls the "go/ no go" signals in the Aqua Theatre) was hospitalized at the beginning of the cruise, and that there was NO back-up (REALLY:confused:). All Aqua Shows prior to Cozumel were cancelled, which then impacted other shows since the trampoline guys appear in both the Aqua and Come Fly With Me shows. IF they knew at sailing that Come Fly With Me was going to be moved earlier in the cruise, passengers should have been notified early on. We received a msg on our TV msg system sometime after Wednesday AM, that our Thursday Come Fly With Me was moved to Wednesday - nice to find the msg AFTER the show happened. Are we really expected to check for msgs every hour during what is supposed to be vacation? This was however better than when they changed the time for our Aqua show on "My Schedule" with NO msg letting us know -not that it made any difference since the weather turned bad and the Aqua shows were cancelled the last day (note that I fully accept that safety justifies cancelling shows).

 

IMO the single most important job of the CD is scheduling entertainment, and on this trip CD Dan Devine dropped the ball.:mad:

 

Thom

[Ocean Boy]

IMO the single most important job of the CD is scheduling entertainment, and on this trip CD Dan Devine dropped the ball.:mad:

 

Thom

 

We had Drew Devine as a CD on Oasis two weeks ago. I found him plain annoying. I didn't find his Quest even slightly amusing.

[yuvraj]

I was also on this cruise, and I agree on chaotic but disagree that queuing was even possible. I have done about 100 cruises on many lines (D+ on RCI), and have only seen chaos close to this one other time. Apparently every time new luggage groups were ready in the terminal, those numbers were posted for passenger disembarking - unfortunately the Promenade was already full and more and more passengers were jamming into it with nowhere to go. When we got to the Promenade about 8:30 there were 2 staff members attempting to provide some direction, but they were overwhelmed and just left. It took us almost an hour to get through the Promenade (that was just the Promenade, not counting time in the luggage and customs queues).

 

This was our 5th time on an O-class Western Caribbean cruise, and hands down the least organized. We were told that the manager of the dive show (who controls the "go/ no go" signals in the Aqua Theatre) was hospitalized at the beginning of the cruise, and that there was NO back-up (REALLY:confused:). All Aqua Shows prior to Cozumel were cancelled, which then impacted other shows since the trampoline guys appear in both the Aqua and Come Fly With Me shows.

IMO the single most important job of the CD is scheduling entertainment, and on this trip CD Dan Devine dropped the ball.:mad:

 

Thom

 

I agree with your comments and thank you for the insight. It is by luck that we managed to catch all the shows but the cancellations made a total mess of our schedule. It does look like poor management throughout.

 

I disembarked at 9:30 but it looks like it didn't matter when you got off. In contrast disembarkation from Allure last year was so simple and easy.

 

I also agree with your comments regarding the cruise director. Activities and entertainment around the ship (especially during sea days) was lacking. Venues were not fully utilised in the evenings. Not all events were advertised in the compass. Also expected to see more live music around the ship especially around the ship.

 

Still, I don't want to sound too negative. It's been my first cruise to the Caribbean after a long time. Weather was good as was the food and overall experience.

[Johnnyc_25]

Hi, I was on the same cruise, and with respect to the disembarking process:

-We had a 10:45am flight out of FLL, so just to be safe we chose to self-disembark early and take our luggage with us.

After an early Windjammer breakfast, we headed down around 7:45am, and we were out of our cab, through security and at our gate at FLL around 9:00am.

 

While waiting in line, one of the luggage valets working did mention to us that it seemed as though more people were self-disembarking than usual, as well there were not as many customs "lanes" open to go through.

 

We were slowly moving at the beginning, then it seemed like they opened more customs lanes and moved quicker closer to 8:15-8:30.

[cruisenlove]

Can't wait to read your review! My husband and I are boarding her on March 17th and we are reading mixed reviews. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope we do too! :)

[JillK]

Do you remember what day they offered the small laundry bag special?

 

I was also on this cruise and if I recall correctly the laundry bag special was on Day 3. I didn't check out the prices so can't advise further.

 

And for anyone wondering, the $79 for 10 drinks punch card ($93.22 with gratuity) was available for purchase at all bars beginning on Day 4.

 

Have to agree with TravelerThom about the organization with respect to the entertainment. They rescheduled our Aqua show booking early in the week to the last day of the cruise due to technical difficulties. Then they apparently rescheduled us from an evening show to an afternoon show but never let us know. It was a moot point since all the shows were cancelled due to weather.

 

My understanding is that only one or two shows were done during the week. I spoke with two other couples who were 10 minutes into the show when it was stopped and rescheduled, only to be cancelled. We missed the welcome aboard show the first night but I didn't realize we even had a cruise director until we attended the Headliner show. He just wasn't visible around the ship as the majority of CD's we had in the past have been.

 

Our experience with disembarkation was also long. We had an evening flight so had booked a Fort Lauderdale tour through RCI. We were asked to meet at 7:20 am. They had us sit in Studio B with the audio but no visual of CNN International playing until around 7:45 when they brought us up to disembark. Then it was stand and wait, shuffle, stand and wait, shuffle. We were on the bus at 9:00 am. Definitely the longest disembarkation process I've experienced in my 12 cruises, and that includes the good old days when you had to go pick up your passport in a lounge before disembarkation (remember when they used to take it at check-in to pass along to port authorities - maybe it was just international guests?)

 

Looking forward to your review cruisinrealtor!

 

Jill

Edited February 11, 2016 by JillK

[Disneygg]

We are going on the Oasis 3/5/16! So excited!

 

Thank you for scanning your planners! That is way marvelous!

 

First cruise on RCL. On Princess there is a service to put luggage out the night before and it would be sent straight to the airport/airlines and you wouldn't have to handle it. Does RCL offer anything like this? Our flight leaves FLL at 2pm. Also best transportation from port to FLL?

 

Thank you!

[Clarea]

We are going on the Oasis 3/5/16! So excited!

 

Thank you for scanning your planners! That is way marvelous!

 

First cruise on RCL. On Princess there is a service to put luggage out the night before and it would be sent straight to the airport/airlines and you wouldn't have to handle it. Does RCL offer anything like this? Our flight leaves FLL at 2pm. Also best transportation from port to FLL?

 

Thank you!

Royal calls this Luggage Valet, and charges $20 per person.

 

Best way to FLL is taxi, around $15 to $20.

[mazzworld]

Did you happen to notice if the beer/bag coolers were for sale? And how much they were if they were for sale? Thanks!

Thanks for the reminder about the cooler bag! I got one last year over March break on the Oasis and I want to say it was like around $5 and has a bottle opener attached to the bag so you can open your beverage when you are ready. I'm going to pack mine from last time to use again.

[Shone216]

We will also be on the Oasis 17/3/16, it's our first cruise and we're really looking forward to it. The info I've read so far is great especially the compass as it gives us an idea of what's on offer. Any tips would be greatly appreciated 😃🍸🍹

[Nire123]

We are going on the oasis April 9/16 for the first time. We have previously cruised with Princess and one of our favorite features was the giant movie screen by the pool so we could relax in the sun and watch movies all day, as well they played movies under the stars at night. So much going on at night on this cruise I'm not so concerned about that but was wondering if there are any outdoor movies playing at least during the day?

 

Thanks

[Reijo]

Looking forward to reading more of your post. We leave in 2 weeks with another Oasis cruise in September. We've been on Allure but this is our first Oasis cruise. Hope you enjoyed it.

[Ocean Boy]

We are going on the oasis April 9/16 for the first time. We have previously cruised with Princess and one of our favorite features was the giant movie screen by the pool so we could relax in the sun and watch movies all day, as well they played movies under the stars at night. So much going on at night on this cruise I'm not so concerned about that but was wondering if there are any outdoor movies playing at least during the day?

 

Thanks

I don't recall any day time movies but they do have some movies at night in the Aqua Theater when no water shows are scheduled.

[pajazz28]

Looking foward to your review pg 5

[Gradelady]

We are going on the Oasis 3/5/16! So excited!

 

Thank you for scanning your planners! That is way marvelous!

 

First cruise on RCL. On Princess there is a service to put luggage out the night before and it would be sent straight to the airport/airlines and you wouldn't have to handle it. Does RCL offer anything like this? Our flight leaves FLL at 2pm. Also best transportation from port to FLL?

 

Thank you!

 

We are on same cruise as you! Have you seen our roll call or signed up for the Meet and Mingle?

[nelblu]

Just off Oasis and we disembarked at 7:50am and even though the Custom line snaked 6 lines deep, we hopped on a cab and arrived at FLL at 8:30 am for a 11:10 flight. While on line with the masses, noticed an area for "Global Entry" that hardly anyone was using. Global Entry allows for expedited Custom clearance and includes TSA pre-approval. Just applied on line for $100fee and good for 5 years. I think it'll be a valuable tool for us, especially since I'm planning a Med cruise.