Live reporting oasis eastern Caribbean 6/11-6/18

[hunan6]

Thanks for all the information, I have enjoyed following along this week! If I were to do a live or semi live report from our upcoming, it will be full of comparisons with NCL. That's an aspect of your review that I have had fun reading. Although I think we're too cheap to do Disney!

 

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I look forward to reading, when I watch videos on the big NCL ships, they look very appealing.

[hunan6]

Day 7

Day at sea

After three straight port days, it was great to have another day to take in the hugeness of the Oasis.

For breakfast we ate in The MDR. There are two options for breakfast: order from the menu, or a buffet. There are two different lines, with the menu line having a wait, and none on the buffet side. I am sure you can utilize the buffet from the menu side, but not vice versa. We chose buffet. The options were mostly the same as other locations on board, including the windjammer. The difference here being the pace and crowd being slower and smaller, respectively. It was more relaxing than the windjammer. We also got a table at a window, which was nice. This is a very nice option for breakfast.

Our goal for the morning was to get the two oldest girls onto the zip line. There was practically no wait, which surprised me due to it being both a sea day and the last day. The zip line is run with great efficiency, helping to maximize the number who can use it. Like their brothers/cousins, the girls loved it.

Lunch in the windjammer was again manageable and good, at the meat carving station they had a roast pork loin that was outstanding.

After lunch, my son and wife hit the climbing wall, and I hit the hot dog stand while they waited. I ran again today, so no judgement! Besides, calories don't count on a cruise. As with other onboard sports, the climbing wall had but a short wait, and they had both sides going as well. You wouldn't catch me dead on that thing, but they both had a blast.

The ladies took in the afternoon showing of Beauty and the Beast in the Aqua Theater (the recent, live action version).

Dinner for our last night was in the MDR. I might have skipped out and done something quicker, had it not been for the amazing service we have received this week from head waiter Min, and her assistant Qui Qui. We had delicious roast turkey. For desert, I had asked Min last night of I could have the chocolate cookie with ice cream, easily ,y favorite desert of the week. Even though it was not in the menu for tonight, Min brought one for everyone at the table as a sort of desert appetizer, and then gave us our desert menus. Terrific. The dining room had a celebration of thanks for the staff. It was cool to sea all three levels of diners (our table looked all the way down) on their feet, cheering and clapping for the staff. It really testifies to the overall atmosphere in board. It was a cool moment. While fun music played, Mini and Qui Qui danced with my four year old niece for about ten minutes, with all three joyously laughing.

I appreciate that Royal seems to encourage their staff to take time to talk with the guests. It humanize them, and I hope me. Part of the thrill of cruising with my children is the chance to have them meet people from around the world. Like many Americans, we sadly live around people who mostly look and do things like we do. I want their horizons to be broadened. Cruising provides a great opportunity for this. That is part of why we always walk around and explore in cruise ports, rather than take a bus to an excursion. Ok, back to the point.

After dinner we hit the pool. We have done this every evening. It is amazing how few people are up on deck at night, even around eight o'clock. It is so peaceful up there, and we usually had the pool and/or a hot tub all to ourselves.

After one last late night snack run, it was off to the room for final packing and sleep.

Random thoughts

-the cantilevered adult hot tubs (16 and up) near the solarium swerve almost always empty at night. One of them, I believe on port side, was usually open.

-my son has read this, and wants me to point out that he has enjoyed the teen club, and made a good friend there. Sure enough, when we were in Labadee, he ran into this kid and they were able to play.

-I have to say that with the exception of night one, the crowds in the Windjammer have not been at all bad.

-the staterooms are definitely smaller than those on Disney. If we had been in one, it would have been tough. Two adjoining cabins however made our space huge. Two cabins on Oasis were bigger and cheaper than one on Disney. Plus, we now had two bathrooms, two couches, and two televisions. Sure we didn't have the curtain to separate us, but now we had a wall and a door. Again, advantage Royal.

[RicknDayla]

Thanks for all the information, I have enjoyed following along this week! If I were to do a live or semi live report from our upcoming, it will be full of comparisons with NCL. That's an aspect of your review that I have had fun reading. Although I think we're too cheap to do Disney!

 

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I would like to read a review comparing RCCL to NCL. We will be on the Oasis in November but have only sailed NCL.

 

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[Riveyman]

Good info, thanks for taking the time to do the review. Head out on Oasis in less than two weeks with the same itinerary.

[mdaviswv]

I would like to read a review comparing RCCL to NCL. We will be on the Oasis in November but have only sailed NCL.

 

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Hey RicknDayla! We've been regulars on NCL for around 10yrs now. But our next two cruises are the Oasis and the Carnival Horizon. We tried to really appreciate the Gem a couple weeks ago since we knew things were going to change for a little while. Anyway, we're on Oasis 11/19. How about you?

(My apologies to the others on this thread, I don't know how to message others on here directly.)

 

 

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[DoctorWhoGirl]

Thanks for the great trip report, I found it very helpful. My family is traveling on Oasis over Christmas this year to celebrate my grandfather's 99th birthday on Christmas Eve - 14 of us total including 4 kids ages 9-14. Your cruise style sounds much like what we are planning. Even with some help from our TA, planning for 14 is no easy task! Hope our trip is as wonderful as yours was.

[gingersvp]

Absolutely love the review and am thoroughly enjoying your random thoughts each day. Your posts have great detail that is super helpful. I prefer to stay away from crowds, so hearing about the quieter dining venues is great!

 

We're 20 days away from an NCL cruise, but we'll be on the Oasis December 3rd for my cousin's wedding (we'll be a mixed group from 2-65 years old, about 30 people). I'm very excited because I've never sailed on an Oasis class ship. It's been many years since my last Royal cruise, but I remember being struck by just how great the service was and how warm and welcoming the staff were. Sounds like that's still the case!

[Ned11]

Absolutely love the review and am thoroughly enjoying your random thoughts each day. Your posts have great detail that is super helpful. I prefer to stay away from crowds, so hearing about the quieter dining venues is great!

 

We're 20 days away from an NCL cruise, but we'll be on the Oasis December 3rd for my cousin's wedding (we'll be a mixed group from 2-65 years old, about 30 people). I'm very excited because I've never sailed on an Oasis class ship. It's been many years since my last Royal cruise, but I remember being struck by just how great the service was and how warm and welcoming the staff were. Sounds like that's still the case!

 

 

 

I'm on the same cruise and can not wait. I'm loving reading everyone's reviews too.

 

 

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[gingersvp]

I'm on the same cruise and can not wait. I'm loving reading everyone's reviews too.

 

 

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We'll be the crowd overtaking Dazzles on the second night. She's going all Great Gadsby for her theme.

[mac_tlc]

It's 50% off (however, if you see Giovanni's at $21 in the cruise planner, I'm pretty sure you still pay $15, not $10.50) so it's not technically as good of a deal but if that's the only specialty restaurant you want to eat at, it's still a savings.

 

 

 

Maybe there is some inconsistency here, but on our Oasis cruise in April, my wife and i paid $15pp for FNDR and ate at 150 Central Park, which is $45 regularly. We were assigned there, not that we complained! It was awesome!

 

mac_tlc

 

 

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[OCSC Mike]

Maybe there is some inconsistency here, but on our Oasis cruise in April, my wife and i paid $15pp for FNDR and ate at 150 Central Park, which is $45 regularly. We were assigned there, not that we complained! It was awesome!

 

mac_tlc

 

That's great! Hope I'm wrong. Glad you enjoyed it.

[hunan6]

Thanks for the great trip report, I found it very helpful. My family is traveling on Oasis over Christmas this year to celebrate my grandfather's 99th birthday on Christmas Eve - 14 of us total including 4 kids ages 9-14. Your cruise style sounds much like what we are planning. Even with some help from our TA, planning for 14 is no easy task! Hope our trip is as wonderful as yours was.

hi D.W.G. My son had his seapass card attached to a doctor who lanyard all week. They are on amazon. I was nervous about traveling as a large group, particularly about our ability to see each other. It worked great. We did not take Walkie talkies, nor make elaborate plans every day, we just picked a spot near the kids pool, and tried to meet there some time between breakfast and lunch. It worked great, and we managed to spend great quality time together.

[newtampagirl]

We were on your sailing too and loved everything about it. We had a party of seven including our 12 y/o grandson. He was very excited about the kid's club (he had a fantastic time two years ago) but this time he was in the 12-17 year old age group and he didn't feel comfortable in that group. I also was surprised that the zip line on the last day had short lines. The jazz band on deck four did a fabulous set of Beatles songs one night. The warm chocolate cookie was to die for and our server, Leoncia, brought more out the last night too. We weren't constantly bombarded for the ten rating and my husband said the post cruise survey specifically wanted to know if we had been and by whom. Great cruise overall and we are looking forward to the Harmony the end of September.

[hunan6]

Day eight

I am sad to see this come to an end. By this, I mean the blog. The cruise ended yesterday. It has been a blast. I hope it has been helpful.

I am going to focus on the disembarkation process. If you do not know, there are two ways to get off the ship, aside from jumping. You may do "self assist," in which you carry your own bags off between 6:45 and 7:45. If you do not want to carry your own, then you place your bags in the hall the night before, anytime between 7-11. You are given a number. The higher the number, the later you disembark. The times ranged from 8-10:30. Members of our group chose each way, so I will try and share some insights from both.

Before I start, let me talk about food on the last day. There are a surprising number of options, some of which open as early as five a.m. The options include windjammer, MDR, and park cafe.

We started our day in windjammer at 6:30. We left the bags in the room until after we ate. It was busy, but there were plenty of open tables.

After breakfast, we got the bags from the room, hopped in the elevator (no wait), and met my parents in the promenade on deck five. There you scan your Seapass card for one final time, and walk down the gangway. We did so approximately 7:15. Once inside the terminal, there was a long line to get through customs, but it moved very quickly. If you have not heard, at Port Canaveral you are no longer required to fill out a customs declaration form. In addition, our bags were not scanned. He literally looked at our I.d., and waved us through. We were promenade to curbside outside the terminal in 10-15 minutes. From there, we hopped on the shuttle and were to the lot and in our car by 7:45. The entire process from the ship to our offsite parking was thirty minutes. Very, very easy.

My brother and his family opted to use the porter service. The had a departure time of 9:15. In this case, you are expected to be in an assigned waiting spot, such as a lounge, by 9. They keep coffee and pastries out, which is a nice touch. They sat down to eat in the MDR at 8:30. Before they even finished, their number was called. As soon as they finished eating, they walked straight off the ship, and they said they had no problems finding their bags. They also were very pleased with the experience.

A breakdown of our bill was waiting for us in the morning on the door. They had it exactly correct. If you have a credit card on file, they automatically charge you on the morning of disembarkation. There is no need to go down and wait in line unless you are paying in cash.

One final thing. My parents live in South Carolina, close to Savannah, GA, and about four and one half hours from Canaveral. We were able to be to their house for a late lunch. My point is, it seems to me you could make it to a noon flight in Jacksonville with ease, barring traffic problems. I say this because we thought about doing so. Orlando would be even easier. Do so at your own risk, obviously. You could also make it to Magic Kingdom for rope drop.

I will post one more entry with some final and overall feelings/ideas/tips. For now, here are some more random thoughts:

-I am glad we invested in the soda package. The kids enjoyed it, and the cup makes a great souvenir. Shirley temples are included with this, by the way, and Min had them waiting for the kids each night in MDR.

- I am equally glad we opted to not get the deluxe beverage package. This was a kid focused trip, and we found ourselves drinking way less than we expected. We spent maybe $75 on alcohol, and the drink package would have been a combined $700 plus for the two of us.

-I highly recommend checking your account and reading stateroom messages everyday on your television.

-gas on Astronaut Drive near the port was the cheapest I saw in Florida. Fill up before hitting the road.

-if you are a science nerd like my son and me, head up on deck sixteen before leaving for a great view of NASA's iconic vehicle assembly building (the VAB). Look north from the ship; you can't miss it.

[OCSC Mike]

Glad you had such a good time! Enjoyed your reports even though I live an hour from Canaveral and was just on Oasis the week before you.

 

Wife and I used self-assist on the last two cruises before that one and even though the traditional method went smoothly as usual, you really can't beat wheeling yourself right off (which we'll be doing next month).

[hunan6]

Trying to post some pics, can't figure out how.

[hunan6]

[OCSC Mike]

Trying to post some pics, can't figure out how.

 

I believe you have to upload them to a hosting site and then use the "Insert image" button which asks for the URL of your uploaded photos.

 

Hopefully someone who knows more about posting pics chimes in.

[cleophus12]

I will also add a comment here about FNDR. We ate at Chops and when our check came, it was for $0. We tipped our fantastic waiter somewhat generously, and the tip was the only amount to show on our bill.

 

This has been a great review, by the way. I agree with virtually everything you said including your comparisons to Disney. We were afraid we might miss some of the Disney magic onboard the Oasis, and I must say Royal pleasantly surprised. It had been several years since we had cruised with Royal, and we were not sorry to be back.

[hunan6]

Overall trip summary/review

After a long drive from SC, we are back home in southern PA. It is hard to believe we were in Haiti on Friday. What an amazing trip. I will try to compose some worthwhile closing thoughts.

As you hopefully have detected, we were very pleased with our trip. I would give it a ten out of ten. Royal provides an amazing product for the money, and I can't wait to cruise with them again. That being said, there are a few things I think they could do better. First of all, they need to make much better use of technology across the fleet. To build such huge ships, and not provide an easier way to connect with each other is absurd. Disney's wave phones would be an easy fix. It seems like most of the Royal staff had something like this as they were often on a small phone. An app with free access would also solve the problem. They apparently have this on three or four of the newest ships, but not fleetwide. Also, and this is my wife's comment, there could be more and better organized activities. There are many planned activities, but most of them involved selling things or some other type of added cost. One last thing...the all call speaker system on board is horrible. We could almost never hear what was being said. This also seems like an easy fix.

Now for some other random thoughts I have thus far left out:

- muster drill...we could not see the video. We were stationed in the promenade, but couldn't get anywhere near the video. Good thing we didn't hit an iceberg.

-it is fairly easy to find some peace and quiet on board. The sun deck on fourteen, as I have mentioned already, is great. Another idea is go on the walking track on deck five. There are little spots along the way to hide out and watch the sea. There are some great chairs on both sides of the back of the ship on fifteen where it is peaceful. There seemed to be many people napping in these.

-I forgot to comment on Come Fly With Me. It was ok. Very impressive dancing and acrobatic performances. The song selection was a but of a confused mess of pop songs. Still enjoyable overall.

-Royal also beats out Disney for grab and go food options. As I recall, the Dream had a cars themed snack bar on the pool deck. Although it was very good, that was about it apart from the buffet and room service. On the Oasis, it seems like you could always grab a snack somewhere.

-I never once saw Shrek. In fact, unless you go out of your way, you don't see Dreamworks characters all that much.

-I enjoyed Sorrentos pizza. Not great, but good.

-I like strong black coffee. The complimentary coffee on board, Seattles Best, is very good. I would guess it is their number three or four roast.

Final Review of the Ship.

When you plan a big trip like this, it seems hard for it to ever live up to expectations. That is perhaps what was so exceptional about this trip. My enthusiasm for it was matched by just about all of our group, from age four to seventy. We have done many other big trips together, but this was certainly the most successful across the board.

The ship itself is fabulous. Despite its being eight years old, it feels brand new and cutting edge. As so many others have said, the neighborhood concept works brilliantly. Not only does it offer options, but it spreads the crowds out. I do not like crowds, and they never got to me on board.

We did enjoy the food. As I have said, it was not as good as that on the Dream. It still was very good. My oldest particularly enjoyed sampling foods he wouldn't otherwise have a chance to, such as lamb, baked Alaska, duck, peach soup, and strawberry bisque. My personal favorites in the MDR were escargots (appetizer), braised short rib (entree), and chocolate cookie. My wife loved the soups.

I won't get into this too much again, but the service was a definite ten.

The passenger demographic seemed to be many families and largely American. I did not see too many older people. It may have been the time of year. It might also have been the part of the ship where I spent time. I don't have numbers, but it seemed like half of the passengers were eighteen and under.

Although the pools are crowded on sea days, I was always able to find one where I could not feel like a sardine in a can. I recommend picking a home base near one pool, and then walking around each to find one that is the least crowded. They are all near each other, and you are never far from ice cream.

With the exception of the solarium, every neighborhood was a hit with our group. Again, it is laid out fabulously. It is simply too hot, loud, and crowded.

I am certain we will sail oasis again. It was a fantastic trip. Thanks for reading. I would be happy to answer any questions as best I can. Thanks also for all of the positive feedback. It means a great deal. Happy travels.

[hunan6]

[Bem15963]

Thank you for your review. We sail out in 12 days on OASIS - also from southern PA... near Philadelphia. Am so excited after reading all your positive comments. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[hunan6]

Zip line

[hunan6]

[jjtt]

Thank you so much for your review on Oasis!! We sail on her later this summer with our one daughter and her family. It will be our grandsons first cruise, they have talking about it for some time and are getting excited each day!! :D