Home From 10/22/17 Oasis - Some Thoughts

[cruzeluver]

Hello all! We are home from our Oasis cruise and I wanted to share some thoughts. Not a day-by day review. I will group by category so you can easily skip anything you are not interested in.

 

The Bad

There was nothing so horrible that it greatly impacted our trip, just a few minor annoyances. As has become the usual, most of the "bad" came from the behavior of some of our fellow passengers. The guy who sat next to me in the theater and recorded all 2.5 hours of "Cats" on his cell phone! Really dude? The older woman droning on and on in the elevator about the horrible children on board. Honestly, the behavior of some of the adults was far worse than anything I saw from a child. Our excursion booked through Royal in Falmouth was so rushed we could not get everything in that was supposed to be included and had five minutes to eat the included lunch (Adrenaline Zipline, river tubing, Adventure Falls and lunch). Did not get to climb the Adventure Falls, use the pool or the waterslide due to lack of time. Informed the excursion desk when we returned. The rest of the excursion was great. Tried to go to Jazz On 4 several times but even arriving 30 minutes early could not get a seat. Again, none of this was enough to really upset us.

 

Cruise Director Jeffrey

Keep in mind this is coming from someone who really does not care who the CD is. He/she has little to no impact to our cruises, but I had read several negative comments about Jeffrey I though I would weigh in. We liked him! He is not the typical hyper-spastic guy who screams catch phrases all day while running around like a maniac. His humor is very dry which I think some find off-putting but it was a nice change. He hosted the Meet and Mingle and was great! He is not as visible as some CD's but he also has a ridiculous number of staff reporting to him and could not possible host every event.

 

Ports

Thanks to a couple of hurricanes our itinerary was changed quite a bit. Not a big deal to us as we have been to most islands in the Caribbean and Bahamas multiple times. We ended up in Nassau where we walked down to Fish Fry for a great lunch and then just walked around town for awhile. In Labadee we hung at Nellie's Beach for most of the day. Our favorite beach anywhere! The sand is so soft and the water always seems to be the perfect temperature. Lunch buffet was the usual but very good and not too crowded. As I mentioned before we did an adventure tour in Falmouth that overall was a good time. Picked up some Blue Mountain coffee as well.

 

Food

Wow. Normally we are pretty traditional in that we always do late seating and request a large table to meet new people. We have always had good luck that way. This time we went way outside our comfort zone and it worked out well. We pre-purchased the 5 night dining package. When we went to book on board we were told Izumi hibachi is not included. I must have missed that fine print, but the woman helping us book saw our disappointment and said she would allow it. We went there the first night. The food was good, not great. The "show" put on by the hibachi chef as a lot of fun. Night two was at Giovanni's Table. In a word, terrific! Husband had the Bolognese and I had Carbonara. The waiter insisted we also share a risotto which did not disappoint. Great atmosphere there as well. Night three was our one night in the main dining room. While the food was perfectly fine, it was so loud and the tables so close together waiters had difficulty maneuvering. We had flexible dining and it was just so messy with waiters serving different courses and people constantly coming and going. Night Four was Chops. Very good filet for me and husband enjoyed his ribeye. Both were cooked perfectly. Night Five was 150 Central Park. My favorite space we dined in. Smaller than the others so very quiet even when full. My scallops were spot on and husband's black cod was great. Night Six was back to Giovanni's Table. Sat outside this time and enjoyed live music with dinner. Lovely! The filet at Giovanni's lives up to the hype. Oh man, possibly the best steak of my life! You could cut it with a spoon. Final night we ate at Solarium Bistro. for some reason I was not too excited to go there but would up loving it. My salmon with balsamic reduction was terrific and husband's fish (cannot remember what kind) was also excellent. We did mostly dining room for breakfasts. Did Johnny Rockets for breakfast one time but found in not very good. Eggs way over cooked, potatoes tasteless. Everything seemed pre-cooked and re-heated. We did lunch one and Johnny Rockets as we had a free lunch there as part of the boardwalk balcony promo. Very good and service was great. Wipeout Cafe was a great spot for a snack or quick breakfast. Never ate in the Windjammer. We are not buffet fans in general and our walk through Windjammer just reinforced that. They were making people wait to be seated for breakfast with tons of empty tables. It was nuts!

 

Service

Impeccable. Had one of our best room stewards in 19 cruises. Warm, friendly and very efficient. Service in all dining venues and bars was spot on. Lots of smiles everywhere and a genuine desire to make our cruise memorable. No complaints whatsoever.

 

Diamond Benefits

First cruise as Diamonds. Enjoyed several of the perks including among the first to board and pre-dinner cocktails in the Diamond lounge. Our waiter in the lounge was fantastic, took excellent care of us. Also met some very nice people. Really enjoyed our time in there.

 

Shows

Due to an issue with one of the show technicians, they were forced to cancel "Come Fly with Me". As a substitute they had the headliners (two comedy jugglers) come back and do an additional brief show plus several of the cast from "Cats" sang for us. They did a really good job. The Aqua show and ice show were both excellent, not to be missed. And now for the much-maligned "Cats". Lots of folks love to dump on "Cats". We are theater nuts and my degree is in theater so we definitely appreciate a well-done show. And "Cats" on Oasis is very well done. I would put it up against any Broadway touring company. Vocals were strong and dancing was even stronger all around. May not be the most plot-driven show (there barely is one) but not an issue for us. I hade read that half or more of the audience bales at intermission but that was not our experience. I would say at most 10% did not come back for Act 2.

 

Boardwalk Balcony

We booked under the promo that included soda, lunch at Johnny Rockets and rock wall lessons. enjoyed the room very much. We were in 12325 which is nearly all the way aft, so we had a decent ocean view, great view of the Aqua Theater and the boardwalk. The room was comfortable and noise was not an issue.

 

Oasis Class

This was our first time on an Oasis class ship. Have always avoided them. None of our concerns came to pass. Both embarkation and debarkation were among the smoothest and fastest we have ever experienced. We pulled into the port at 10:15AM and were on the ship by 11:00, even with a mandatory coast guard drill taking place. We had no problems finding seats near the pools even in the middle of sea days and plenty of room in the pools and hot tubs. Other than Jazz On 4 no issue getting seats for any shows. Only time we felt a bit crowded was after muster drill and during big events on the promenade, but even then not a serious issue.

 

I think that is everything, but if anyone has questions I am happy to answer. We had a marvelous week and would certainly book Oasis again!

Edited October 30, 2017 by cruzeluver
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[Keith1010]

I enjoyed reading your balanced review.

 

Keith

[molly361]

Great review Thanks- love the Oasis

[Ned11]

Thank you for that. I’ll be on her in 4 weeks and really looking forward to it. I have a Boardwalk balcony too at the opposite end and was wondering about noise but you have answered my question. [emoji41]

 

 

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[Clarea]

Thanks for the informative report.

[gingersvp]

Thanks for the review! We're on Oasis in early December and I'm voraciously reading all the reports.

[deliver42]

Thanks for the review. I'm glad you don't let the little things bother you,or ruin your cruise. We loved the Oasis a coule of years ago, and the Symphony is next.

[Ashclan]

Great review, thanks! We will be on Oasis in early December and have also purchased the 5 night dining package. Did you have any trouble getting the times and locations you wanted? I was planning to skip Izumi anyway, but am surprised it isn't included. I didn't see anything about that either. We are planning to hit Giovanni's twice and will have to see which of the other two we prefer to go to a second time. My husband is a picky eater, so I'm not sure if he's going to like 150 CP, but I'm hoping he does, as that would be my choice (and sounds like it would be yours, too). I think we'll save Sabor for a lunch, as it's not really worth using a dining "credit" considering the low price.

 

Thanks again for your balanced, informative report!

[Foodluvr]

Great review, thanks! We will be on Oasis in early December and have also purchased the 5 night dining package. Did you have any trouble getting the times and locations you wanted? I was planning to skip Izumi anyway, but am surprised it isn't included. I didn't see anything about that either. We are planning to hit Giovanni's twice and will have to see which of the other two we prefer to go to a second time. My husband is a picky eater, so I'm not sure if he's going to like 150 CP, but I'm hoping he does, as that would be my choice (and sounds like it would be yours, too). I think we'll save Sabor for a lunch, as it's not really worth using a dining "credit" considering the low price.

 

Thanks again for your balanced, informative report!

 

We had the Unlimited dining package and with the exception of one formal night where Chops filled at our desired time, was able to get into all the restaurants we wanted. We did have to compromise on times and days, but we booked on board.

[mcrcruiser]

Really enjoyed your review:D .We plan on being on Oasis Dec 2 nd & Dec 9th,2018 on a B2B Eastern & Western Caribbean :)

[cruzeluver]

Great review, thanks! We will be on Oasis in early December and have also purchased the 5 night dining package. Did you have any trouble getting the times and locations you wanted?

 

 

Hi! Nope, no issues at all with reservations. We went to Izumi and the woman at the desk there took care of all our reservations for the week. We were able to get to all of them and get times that worked for us. For the most part we had booked late shows (9:00 or later) so most of our dinners were between 6:30-7:30. It helped that we had a print out of our cruise planner calendar to make sure we took shows into consideration.Have a great time, we absolutely fell in love with Oasis!