*Review* Oasis of the Seas 9/10 (Pictures)

[ohem]

Hi Everyone!! My husband and I just returned home from our cruise on Oasis of the Seas.

A little about us: I'm 26 and DH is 30 and live in Las Vegas. We’ve been married for a few years - no kids, but do reside with two overly spoiled Great Danes. I ended up booking this cruise for his 30th birthday. He's never cruised before and I've done Alaska on HAL and Hawaii on NCL. I’m a very plan-type person and want to know what we’re doing before we go whereas DH is more of ‘figure it out when you get there.’ Needless to say, there were some… interesting moments. HA!

 

I originally had us booked on NCL’s Escape leaving out of Miami so naturally I booked airline tickets into Miami’s airport and booked a hotel by the port. When I ‘jumped ship’ and went with Oasis I couldn’t change airline tickets without almost a $800 charge, no biggie I just got a car. I booked a sedan through Driven Miami for the airport transfer ($100) and an SUV for the ride to Port Everglades ($125). They upgraded us to an SUV for the airport transfer and it was a brand new Chevy Suburban LTZ. We ended up having the same driver the second day and honestly couldn’t have been happier. Super easy to book, on time, professional and the driver text me as soon as we landed (15 min late) to let me know our baggage carousel number. I would book them again in a heartbeat.

 

 

Pre-cruise hotel

After going back and forth between hotels, I ended up booking a room at EPIC hotel in Miami and was pleasantly surprised. It was perfect and we got a GREAT deal on it. The hotel sends a couple emails before your stay to offer you an optional upgrade for $35+ depending on what level of upgrade you want. I opted out but was shocked when we checked in and the lady told us we were upgraded to a water view on the top floor. It was gorgeous. The only thing I could see being an issue is there is a VERY popular pool day club, lounge and restaurant on property and the tiny driveway becomes PACKED. We didn’t have a car so it wasn’t a huge issue to us. There are tons of places to eat within walking distance and took a chance on a this little Italian place called Fratelli Milano. Hands down some of the best Italian food we’ve had.

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Day of Embarkation

We (well I) decided to head over to port fairly early and left our hotel in Miami at 0930. We got to Port Everglades at roughly 1015 and was through security and check in by 1030 (definitely thought it’d take longer), we were then directed upstairs and alllll the way around the other groups of priority boarding and finally to a seat. At 1135 they called our row to head on to the ship! Yaaaay!

(I will say they kept this very organized and only one row was allowed to stand up at a time and proceed on through to the ship.)

The paper they gave us when we checked in said rooms are available at 1pm so we headed over to Sabor for some drinks (strong!) and guacamole before heading to find the room.

Ahhh so close!

 

 

 

The cabin

After we ate and walked around a bit we headed to our room. I originally booked a Central Park Balcony, but when prices dropped I took a chance on an Ocean View Balcony guarantee for not too much more, and in my opinion we lucked out. Our room was on deck 14, room 550. I was originally worried about the childrens place being across the hall (couldn’t ever hear anything) and then the solarium being directly above us, but again no noise issue - I only heard chair noise once in the middle of the day for no more than 15 seconds. Since it was DH’s birthday (on the day we set sail) I ordered the birthday cake package and we happy to see the decorations all set up (as well as the water I prepaid for). My only complaint is we didn’t actually get the cake! HA! I didn’t even realize it until the day before we were supposed to get off the ship and by then guest services line was forever long. Oh well.

 

The food

I made our one and only specialty dinner reservation at Chops for the first night, and too be completely honest it was just ‘meh’, for $84 I expected some pretty decent steak. Maybe we’re spoiled with all the good steakhouses in Vegas, but I was definitely expecting more. Not necessarily bad, just not as good as I was anticipating.

The MDR - DH was 90% happy with everything he ordered. I thought it could be better. Everything seemed fairly bland and all the meat was EXTREMELY overdone. Again - not bad, just not great either. I will say they have these pumpkin seed rolls that are fantastic and the Strawberry bisque was my favorite soup.

I will say the Windjammer was borderline miserable for breakfast. It was so insanely busy that you could barely get your food. We didn’t try it for any other meal. We ended up going to Park Café most mornings because they have bagels and smear, breakfast sandwiches, yogurt, fruit, and pastries.

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Labadee, Haiti

It was GORGEOUS. I was very surprised with how much I enjoyed this port. I ended up booking the ‘Haitian Cultural Tour’ which was supposed to leave around 0930. We hurried off the ship and waited until probably 1015 (trying not to burn – half ginger here) until our tour guide came over and loaded us on the boat. The ride was max 15 minutes and pretty smooth. They pulled into the cove (seriously one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen) and anchored the boat and you walk onto shore in knee deep water. They had chairs/loungers laid out (not enough for everyone), a bar to get your ‘free’ welcome drink, and people playing their native instruments welcoming us.

(Sorry! Picture overload, I just couldn't get over how pretty it was!)

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Labadee, Haiti (cont.)

We decided to take the 2nd walking tour and hung out on the beach for 45 minutes or so. When it was our turn the guide leads you over a small foot bridge and up some pretty steep stairs (I could see this being an issue for people). At the top they’ve replicated their villages to show what their houses used to look like to what they do now. We also got a sample of their home made peanut butter (they put cayenne pepper in there) and bread made out of yucca (was pretty good). You then are BOMBARED with about 7-8 people trying to get you to buy their souvenirs, and be warned they ‘don’t have change’. They’re VERY insistent.

 

All in all the tour was extremely cheesy. I really thought we’d see some real culture and not everything replicated. The cove/beach though was well worth it to me. It was seriously gorgeous. It was a fairly short tour and we were back at port by 1pm. We ate at the buffet on shore provided (pretty good) and then got back onto the ship and promptly took a nap.

 

 

Falmouth, Jamaica

For how much I stressed over our shore excursions I changed them last minute and has some mild panic over them once on the ship. Originally we had the dolphin swim, but knew we wanted to swim with dolphins in Cozumel instead. So when we got on the ship we went and book the Cozumel one and cancelled out Falmouth excursion. We (really DH) figured we’d figure it out when we got there (my plan everything personality looooved this). When we woke up that morning we looked throught the shore excursion pamphlet in the room and saw one to rent a dune buggy. We headed down to the shore excursion desk (deck 5 in the middle of the royal promenade) and no one was there. We asked a couple of workers that were standing around and were told we could book it once off the ship. We got of the ship and went to a couple information booths (I say a couple because the first two, I’d ask a question and the woman would look straight at me, roll her eyes, answer and then literally turn her back to me). Their answer was it had to be booked on the ship… oooookay then. Finally at the third one a friendly lady told us about Chukka’s Good Hope Pass (I read about it on royals excursion website and Chukka’s website) and said we can just pay the entrance fee and figure out what we want to do once we get there. I was desperate so I’d said yes to anything at that point. Again we waited for a good hour before we boarded the oldest bus in the parking lot and headed out.

 

I remembered why I didn’t book it because it had a 265lbs weight limit for zip lining and my husband at 6’4” is roughly 20lbs over that. When we got there they offered zip lining to us didn’t say anything about a weight limit so we took the offer. The tour was roughly 45 minutes and we had a blast! We then decided to try their jerk chicken and I’m pretty sure DH fell in love again. When we were eating a guy sat down and started up a conversation and asked if we went zip lining, we said yes and he asked if DH was in the weight limit (weird) because he said they wouldn’t let someone go earlier (but we saw some pretty big people zip lining throughout the day). So it doesn’t sound like there is consistency at all. We headed back after lunch around 3pm, strolled around the shops right at port and got back on the ship.

 

I didn’t realize how poor the city of Falmouth was and was shocked as we drove through it to Chukka (20 min). It was my least favorite port and really have no desire to go back. Again they ask for tips everywhere. I always imagined the water to be clear (maybe in other parts of Jamaica), but it was VERY murky.

(I don't have many photos, they told us to put our phones in the locker [$5 charge], they again to enforce this people had their phones out the entire time zip lining.

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Cozumel, Mexico

I originally had my heart set on the Xplor park, but when I went to book the excursion it sold out. I then figured I’d try my luck when we got on the ship, but after researching as much as I could and taking into account the $200pp price tag we figured we’ll have to go back and do that when we can fly into the area to have more time there. We decided on the Dolphin Push, Pull, and Swim with Manatee encounter at Chankanaab. It was AMAZING and we’d go back in a heartbeat. Dolphins were tons of fun and the manatee was pretty neat, but they don’t give you much time with it. They just feed it and go back in forth in front of everyone a couple times so you can pet it.

 

After dolphins you’re brought into the picture area and sold your pictures for an exorbitant amount of money. We opted for the CD of our 77 photos and paid $140. I noticed the more people in your group the more you paid. The 3 ladies next to us were quoted $190 for their CD. DH wanted to snorkel really bad so we rented snorkel gear ($15 pp) and headed over to the area. They head tons of little straw hut shades and chairs. We grabbed one and headed out to the water. Man, was it beautiful. I have major ear problems and can’t go underwater so I mainly just swam around and would sometimes try and stick just the front of my face in the water. DH loved it though. They had waiters walking around offering drinks and food. I ended up getting a Pina Colada in a Pineapple and a plate of chips and guacamole. They allowed us to bring our own water so we had a couple of bottles with us.

Dolphin area:

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Cozumel (cont.)

 

We then noticed a little massage hut behind us and ventured in. They always are 2 for 1 so we signed up for both of us to get massages. Seriously heavenly.

 

 

Sea Days

We spent our sea days usually exploring or lounging in the room. We’re not huge pool people and didn’t get the drink package (something we’ll definitely do next time). We went to the casino a couple times and ended up playing mini golf and I zip lined across the back of the ship. We also enjoyed watching people attempt the FloRider (we’re not brave enough to tempt that) and took our fair share of naps. They also held a free Johnny Walker tasting that DH went to (he wanted to try blue label) that he enjoyed.

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For people interested in buy bottles onboard:

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The end is near

We couldn’t believe how FAST this vacation went and didn’t want to leave. We again had no plans (I swear I’m usually on top of this) for the Saturday we got of the ship since our flight in Miami wasn’t until 530 that evening. We looked into the excursions offered by Royal and was interested in the Air Boat ride but then read it’s only 30 minutes on the boat and that people have been dropped off at the airport before 2pm. I ended up hopping online (I pre-bought the internet surf package for two devices – SO worth it and they give you’re your code at check in on embarkation day.) and renting a car from budget that’s a $6 cab ride from port. We ended up getting off the ship a little too early and waiting outside the budget car rental place for a half hour until it opened at 0800. Customs took all of 2 minutes and getting a cab was easy. That day we were reminded of all the reasons we disliked Florida (we lived in Tampa for 4 years) – the weather [read humidity] and the traffic. I thought we’d venture down to South Beach and walk around. After driving down Ocean Dr. for a little bit and realizing there really is no boardwalk or anything other than bars/restaurants we decided to head to the zoo. We had a great time and ended up getting the car back to Miami airport and to our departure gate fairly early.

Miami Zoo has these cool little things for rent and I had to get one. DH was not thrilled. LOL.

 

 

Our complaints

The bed. Oh my lord. There are no words… it was like sleeping on concrete. We were sore every day we woke up. This is obviously subjective, but for us it was extremely uncomfortable.

 

Elevators. Woah! If you could catch one they were insanely crowded and people just keep stuffing themselves in there. Many times you would see them pass up or down without stopping or you’d get in and it wouldn’t let you press the floor you needed to go to. On that same note it was SO crowded. I know, I know… it’s to be expected and I did – to an extent. But man the Windjammer, Royal Promenade and elevators were so packed you could sometimes barely move.

 

 

After everything is said and done, we had a GREAT time. I mean we’re on vacation who wouldn’t?! I will say we’ll probably try a smaller ship next time and I really want to take him to Alaska (something not so hot. HA)

 

If you've stuck it out this far, you're a trooper! Thanks for reading!!

[disnemimi]

Fantastic review with wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting. We go on the Oasis in June 2017 and wondering if you went to any of the shows onboard?

Thanks again,

Karen

[YogisWifey]

Thanks for taking the time to post a great review! We love the Oasis class ships. Sounds like you all had a good time! :)

 

 

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[Bethers12]

Sounds like you had a good time!

 

One of my friends just got a job on oasis and has been posting pics on Facebook. I'm very jealous!. He's one of the DreamWorks characters or something.

 

 

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[ohem]

Fantastic review with wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting. We go on the Oasis in June 2017 and wondering if you went to any of the shows onboard?

Thanks again,

Karen

 

I totally forgot to post about the shows!! We went to CATS, Frozen in Time, Oasis of dreams, Come Fly With Me. All of them besides CATS were good, but pretty cheesy. We personally loathed cats and ended up walking out (I know, I know.. but I was falling asleep). We were so lost and didn't understand a single thing going on. The rest like I said were good.. not great. I feel like I've seen better. Both of our favorite was Come Fly With Me (make sure to sit on the bottom level, NOT the balcony).

[aubreyc1988]

 

 

Our complaints

The bed. Oh my lord. There are no words… it was like sleeping on concrete. We were sore every day we woke up. This is obviously subjective, but for us it was extremely uncomfortable.

 

 

I agree, the bed IS very very firm, like concrete. Several people on our 9/3 cruise said they felt the same, so its obviously somewhat of a problem. A tip for you next time, ask your room steward for the foam topper. We asked ours on the second day and it was AMAZING and made the bed much softer. I have no idea how we would have slept without it.

[perfect match]

Thanks for the review and pictures! I can hardly wait until it is our turn to sail Oasis! Seven more weeks to go! :cool:

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

[Clarea]

Excellent photos, thanks.:)

[yorkie.lady]

Thank you for your review! I loved all the pictures. I am very curious about the internet surf package you mentioned. Did you buy that through RCCL? I'd love to be able to send pictures back to the hubs who opted not to join us (our daughter and I) on the cruise.

 

Thanks again!

Kiy

 

Sailing: April 9-16, 2017

[thomasale]

Good review with all the highlights and some beautiful pics!

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for sharing your review with us.

[TishGiggle]

Your photos are BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

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[riclop]

Beautiful hotel .

[debshomespun]

Great review. We were also on the Oasis with you. Our biggest complaint was the smoking in the casino. It was horrendous. Even the non smoking side was terrible. We talked to several of the crew working in the casino, and they hated the smoke. And the smokers were so inconsiderate of anyone around them, blowing smoke everywhere. DH usually sends most evenings in the Casino, and he rarely went in the evenings. He went on the sea days and it wasn't as bad .

 

We enjoyed all the shows. Went to Cats and stayed for the whole show. It was very hard to follow, and I didn't get it. Best part was the intermission, we could go up on stage and get a picture with one if the older cats. The costumes were great.

 

This was our second time on Oasis. I love the Dream works characters, especially Puss N Boots. He is soooo cute! I was able to take pictures with him several times.

 

I spent my sea days at the beach pool. Yes, it was crowded, but I would go out about 8:00AM, and STAY until way into the afternoon. Several chairs would have towels on, and would be empty for hours. There was no chair patrol, shame on RC for this. One day, people were looking for chairs and i told them a couple with towels didn't have anyone for the last 2 hours. They used them, and no one ever showed up.

 

We had fantastic weather the whole week, especially considering it was peak hurricane season. We went to celebrate our anniversary which was on 9-9.

 

We went to Giovanni's and it was delicious. We ordered their steak and it melted in our mouth. We have done Chops several times and with the higher price tag decided to try Giovanni's. Great choice. We are Diamond + so used our coupon BOGO the 2nd night. Definitely will do Giovanni's when on Serenade in Feb.

 

We had on Ocean view balcony on 7 and enjoyed it very much. Our bed was very comfy, it already had an egg crate on.

 

We enjoyed our week in Oasis, was very relaxing for us, just what we needed. We do prefer the smaller ships. Too many people on Oasis class. We didn't use the elevators much, but at peak times, they were definitely crowded.

Edited October 2, 2016 by debshomespun