Review of Oasis, The Good, Bad, and not so Ugly

[Mary Louise]

Hi,

 

I was on the Oasis on the 9/24 sailing. Here is my review. I will address the dining, entertaining, drink package, and other areas. Please feel free to ask me any questions.

 

Embarkation

 

I am from MA and have a home in Orlando. On Friday I arrived in Orlando. I am very fortunate that I have a family member who works for Disney. So on Friday evening we went to EPCOT. I was able to go on the new Soaring. Love it. Full of surprises. Enjoyed the food and wine festival. Canada had the cheese soup at their booth, Very yummy.

 

Saturday I picked up a rent a car from Dollar at the airport. Off we went to Port Everglades. The rental agency tried to sell me the toll pass. I knew that we could get to 95 without tolls. If you decide to do this, it does take about 15 mnutes longer. The rental car agent makes it sound like it will take you forever, but it really does not.It is about 3 1/2 hour drive with one bathroom stop. There was no traffic what so ever.

 

We arrived around 11:15 to Dollar and because the Oasis was the only ship in port, the shuttle was waiting for us. We got on the shuttle right away and was in line registering 11:35. It was very seemless. We we on board before noontime.

 

We went to lunch at Park Cafe. I think I read that Giavonnis was not charging for lunch on embarkation day. I wish I would have remembered that and gone there for lunch instead. I do love Park Cafe, nice salads and sandwiches. This was the second time for us on the ship. I really love this ship. It truly is a floating resort.

 

 

 

ML

[Clarea]

... I think I read that Giavonnis was not charging for lunch on embarkation day. ...

That would be a significant change. I've not heard that yet.

[Mary Louise]

After 1 PM we went to our cabin. I have stayed, inside, outside, and in balconies.We decided to splurge and do a balcony guarantee. We were assigned a cat 8 deck 6. Once we got our assignment I kept an eye to see if a more desirable cabin became available in the same category. An aft cabin on deck 7 became available and I was able to make the switch.

 

I loved the aft. It was very quiet and I do not mind walking to the aft from the elevators. Deck seven does have the extra public area to watch any of the water shows. Plus it is only two decks down to the walking track, which is very nice. One deck down to the boardwalk.

 

Our room had the bed next to the balcony. It was quite roomy. There is a difference in room size from an inside to a balcony. There is plenty of storage room. The draws are starting to show their wear and tear. Much of the finish inside the draws have worn off.

 

Our room steward was very nice. I requested to have robes and the first evening we had them. I always request extra towels and just about every evening we had them. We only had towel animals three evenings. I do like to have them, and wished we have them every evening.

 

Safe was a good size. Bathroom was fine, and the shower was big enough for us. I did place a face cloth on the rack in the shower so my soap, shampoo etc did not fall through. A balcony is very nice, but would still book and inside or outside.

 

ML

[Mary Louise]

That would be a significant change. I've not heard that yet.

 

I did not see a $ next to Giavonnis for lunch. I can not confirm it.

[Mary Louise]

i have never purchased a drink package before. Previously I have brought my own wine on board and purchased a wine package.

 

This time we decided to purchase the drink package. We were fortunate that we purchased the package before they went to selling the new package. We were able to take advantage of the fresh squeezed OJ and other premium coffees other than Starbucks. This was not included in our original package, but was because of their new packages.

 

There are no more wine packages. We paid $44 a day plus tip for the drink package. On board they were selling the package for $58 plus tip. I can not justify paying over $900 for the two of us for drinks for the future. $58 a day is really not worth it for us. We really do not drink that much.

 

We are not big drinkers, but decided to purchase the $44 a day package as we were not getting off of the ship in Jamaica or Cozemul. We did drink more than we normally do so we could get our money's worth. Max drink was $13.00. We were told that if you did not ask for Grey Goose or other top shelf liquor, they would give you a lesser one so we always asked for Grey Goose. We did have wine at dinner, and because the servers knew we had a package they replenished our wine without asking. Not a problem for us.

 

Here is an observation. We did have fresh squeesed OJ at the Promenade Cafe. Often they gave us 12 ounces, however they did not have it priced for 12 ounces only for 16 ounces. Not a big deal for us, but if we were paying each time for fresh squeezed OJ I would make sure that I had the 16 ounces.

 

It was nice going and asking for bottled water and not worrying about any additional charges.

We did see some passengers get very drunk and did see some protein spills in the elevator. Maybe the drink packages do encourage people to drink more to the point of no return. I also noticed that there were not as many servers by the pool area. Hubby often had to go to the bar to get our drinks.

 

I did not use any of the coke machines that were through out the ship. I never removed the wrapping from our tumblers.

 

ML

[Mary Louise]

I must say in all of my 25 plus cruises, this ship had the most deck chairs available. During sea days we hung out at the Solarium. There was never a problem getting a chair. In fact there were many available chairs. If you hung out at the beach pool on sea days security and the pool attendants were monitoring the chairs. The attendants had clip boards, most likely keeping track on how long chairs were left empty. Security had body cams on as well at this pool. On port days we hung out at this pool. It is nice to have umbrellas and tables. There were one ot two tables missing umbrellas. Some of the lounge chairs at the beach pool were in disrepair.

 

I did see them repair the blue and white chairs but not the orange beach chairs. The sports pool was closed one day in port for painting. The hot tubs were never crowded. The cantilevered ones had tvs on the walls. To put the jets on you had to cover the black switch with your hands. There was no push buttons.

 

Many passengers enjoyed the chairs in the shade. I never heard anyone complain of not enough empty chairs. For the first time I left my chairs at the solarium to go get a quick bite to eat as there were enough empty chairs to go around.

 

Suite and pinnacle guests had their own private deck space on the 17th deck. You could see it from the solarium. Not sure how these guests felt about it, but I thought it was a nice area. At one time there use to be space by the main pool area reserved for suite guests which made some guests upset as it was under utilized. This new area seemed nice and private.

 

At times the pools exceeded the bathing load. The beach pool bathing load was 12. It really is not a realistic number. The solarium pool had a laimit of 28 and often there were close to 40 passengers in the pool.

 

There were plenty of towel stations.

 

ML

[Robo1098]

So you are saying Starbucks is not included in the new package?

[Clarea]

So you are saying Starbucks is not included in the new package?

Beverages from the Starbucks licensed venues are not included in the beverage packages.

[Mary Louise]

This post is about activities on the ship and not entertainment. I will address that in a different post.

 

There is plenty of activities on the ship that are free. I enjoyed the flow rider and the zip line. I also played minature golf, and trivia. There was a small wait for the flow rider the staff were very friendly and helpful. I did notice that there was a special line for suite and pinnacle guests. Never saw anyone in that line.

 

The zip line was fun. No line what so ever when I went. Staff could have been a lit bit more friendlier. They were more interested in talking to each other than helping guests.

 

There is a 9 hole minature golf course. When I went it was not busy. I did not play ping pong, but did notice that the tables were quite busy as well as the basketball courts as well.

 

I love trivia and played quite often. I did notice that some guests were using their phones and tablets to look up the answers. It kinda p****ed me off. Really you need to cheat for a highlighter. Only one cruise staff mentioned that tablets and phones could not be used. There were some standard games like the Not so Newlywed game. It looks like they took a play from Carnival. John Held would always find a guest named Dick Woody and same here. One of the makes was named Dick. Of course always funny. I did not go to quest. Been there done that and this time decided to pass.

 

I took a ride on the Carousal (kid at heart). Again no line but fun to do. I did not go to the casino, too smokey for me.

 

There were paid activities but did not partake in them. There was something for everyone.

 

ML

[Mary Louise]

Beverages from the Starbucks licensed venues are not included in the beverage packages.

 

 

Starbucks is a stand alone kiosk so it was not included. Promenade Cafe did have lattes and expressos that were included in the drink package.

 

ML

[Mary Louise]

Embarkation Day we ate at Park Cafe for lunch. I like this venue. Great roast beef sandwiches, salads and potato chips. I ate here a couple times including breakfast. They have quite a variety of bagels for breakfast. I also like the fruit in the cups.

 

MTD The last few cruises we opted for MTD, This is on the third floor. We made reservations prior to leaving for the cruise. This was a good move as the line for no reservations was quite long. The food is ok, I never had a problem finding something that I ould not eat. The new menus is laid out so you select one appetizer and one entree. We always selected two appetizers and an entree and never had a problem. The dining furniture than the dining area on floors 4 and 5 but still very comfortable.

 

They no longer have the savory bites for bread. however the assistant chef was coming around to the tables to see if you liked the food and I mentioned it to him, and the next night I has a dozen of them. on the whole bread did appear stale. I did not have much bread the rest of the week. Ice cream selection was limited to chocilate, vanilla and strawberry every night.

 

The first night we had a great table by the window and service was good. The server actually said to us that if we liked the table to please request her for all nights. I never had a server inform us of this. We typically always ask for the same table and never had a problem with it. This time we rotated through 3 different tables. I was disappointed in this. I understand and get it. They can not hold a table when there is a long line for passengers with no reservartions. one night we actually had to wait even with a reservation. This was the first time ever for us. There were so many passengers waiting that they were bringing them upstairs to decs 4 and 5 to be seated.

 

Johnny Rockets Only went there for breakfast and it was horrible. All the food was premade and it was cold.

 

Windjammer Only went here a couple of times. Good selections, but ithe traffic pattern does not flow right. For example the lettuce is at one station and all of the salad fixins are at another. Then you go back to the first station for dressing. They do have hard pack ice cream on wheels. They had different flavors like coffee and pastachio.

 

There was no omlet station, but they did have premade omelets and eggs over easy.

 

Went to dining room for breakfast one day that was good.

 

I did go to the Bistro for breakfast and lunch. i am really not a fan of the offerings at the Bistro.

 

Room Service Ordered room service for breakfast. They were on time, food as hot and on time.

 

we did not do any specialty dining, but Chops was $42.00 per person.

 

Soft serve was at the Wipe out Cafe.

 

My husband did like make your own pizza at Sorrentos. Each day the selection was different.

 

We never experienced long lines except for that one night for MTD.

[MomtoCCC]

Thanks for your review - looking forward to hearing more. We will be boarding Oasis soon :)

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Nayola]

I am enjoying your review. Thanks for posting it!

[Mary Louise]

Our first stop was Labadee. Love this private island. It has expanded since the last time we were there. We took the shuttle to Columbus Cove. What a nice beach area. It is very sandy and there is plenty of shade. We rented floats and it was well worth the $13. He water was warm and we spent most our time in the water. There were two bars by Columbus Cove. The one directly behind the beach mostly served beer. The other by the food station had more choices. They really were not full service bars.Limited selections.

 

The food was quite poor. Long lines for burnt burgers, and hot dogs. Do yourself a favor and eat on the ship. RCCL needs to improve on the shuttle service back to the ship. It was a free for all, people pushing to get on the shuttle. Perhaps a roped off line might be better. Passengers were squeezing extra people on so they were literally hanging off.

 

Where we were sitting for the barbecue if you looked over the wall there were native children with bags asking for food. It broke all of our hearts. Security left their station so some passengers could walk there and give them food through the fence. I only hope those children survived the recent hurricane.

 

I did not get off the ship in Jamaica or in Cozumel. In the past I have gone to Nochi Co Com and always had a great time.

 

ML

[perfect match]

Thanks for your Oasis review! I loved hearing everything you had to say about her. We will be boarding in a few weeks! I can hardly wait! :D

Edited October 12, 2016 by perfect match

[chemmo]

Thanks for your review. We are cruising on Oasis in January after a few years gap from RC. Look forward to further comments...

[reedl]

(snip)

Saturday I picked up a rent a car from Dollar at the airport. Off we went to Port Everglades. The rental agency tried to sell me the toll pass. I knew that we could get to 95 without tolls. If you decide to do this, it does take about 15 mnutes longer. The rental car agent makes it sound like it will take you forever, but it really does not.It is about 3 1/2 hour drive with one bathroom stop. There was no traffic what so ever.

 

I am wondering about your time listed from MCO to the port.. It should only be a 45 minute drive using the Beeline Expressway (route 528). If you use 520, that avoids the tolls, but is about 20 minutes longer but uses more gas (probably the same amount of gas as the toll costs.

 

But you list a 3 1/2 drive. It is certainly not that far.

 

But the best idea if you travel to Florida is to purchase a sunpass in walgreens and put that in your rental. I always do that and it gives you a discount on the tolls.

[Dawniepoo]

I am wondering about your time listed from MCO to the port.. It should only be a 45 minute drive using the Beeline Expressway (route 528). If you use 520, that avoids the tolls, but is about 20 minutes longer but uses more gas (probably the same amount of gas as the toll costs.

 

But you list a 3 1/2 drive. It is certainly not that far.

 

But the best idea if you travel to Florida is to purchase a sunpass in walgreens and put that in your rental. I always do that and it gives you a discount on the tolls.

 

You must be thinking of Port Canaveral. The Oasis is in Port Everglades until November, so it is that long of a drive.

[reedl]

You must be thinking of Port Canaveral. The Oasis is in Port Everglades until November, so it is that long of a drive.

 

Yup, you are correct. My mistake. But my suggestions on buying a Florida Sunpass still stands. We go to Florida probably once a year, and it has saved us at least $50 in two years because the tolls are discounted with Sunpass, and you do not have to pay the Car rental surcharge on the toll pass.

 

You do not have to think about having exact change coming from the airport at MCO.

[Mary Louise]

Yes we traveled from MCO to Port Everglades. We paid no tolls and it was not far off of the beaten track.

 

 

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[Mary Louise]

Thank you everyone for your kind words. My next topic is shopping.

 

I have purchased alcohol in the past while on the ship. Always found it to be quite reasonable. This time, I did not really find any deals so I did not buy any alcohol. My husband bought a $10 digital watch. It did not come with any directions and he had a difficult time programming it, so he ended up returning it without any problems.

 

Shopping had changed from years ago. There are more high end stores. There is now a Tiffany's as well as Kate Spade, Coach, and Michael Kors. I did not find any bargains however I am fortunate that I do not live too far away from Premium Outlets and can find great bargains there. The stores were always busy. One day the MK store had a sale and there were lines waiting to get in. Many of the prices were full retail, so I am not sure if not paying tax was attractive to the passengers. RCCL had sales and the people who were there reminded me of Black Friday. People were pushing to look at all of the sale items. They also had sales on Gucci bags. If you want to shop on board get there early.

 

ML

 

 

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[Jen1000]

Where do they serve made to order omelettes on the Oasis?

 

I always get made to order omelettes in the buffets on ships so I was surprised to read not on Oasis.

 

Thanks!

 

Thank you everyone for your kind words. My next topic is shopping.

 

I have purchased alcohol in the past while on the ship. Always found it to be quite reasonable. This time, I did not really find any deals so I did not buy any alcohol. My husband bought a $10 digital watch. It did not come with any directions and he had a difficult time programming it, so he ended up returning it without any problems.

 

Shopping had changed from years ago. There are more high end stores. There is now a Tiffany's as well as Kate Spade, Coach, and Michael Kors. I did not find any bargains however I am fortunate that I do not live too far away from Premium Outlets and can find great bargains there. The stores were always busy. One day the MK store had a sale and there were lines waiting to get in. Many of the prices were full retail, so I am not sure if not paying tax was attractive to the passengers. RCCL had sales and the people who were there reminded me of Black Friday. People were pushing to look at all of the sale items. They also had sales on Gucci bags. If you want to shop on board get there early.

 

ML

 

 

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[gkny]

Thanks for your review.

[Mary Louise]

The only place I think you can get omelets made to order is the dining room.

 

 

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