Expanded Oasis cruise review: February 18, 2018

[Cindy fan]

We rushed to get straightened up after we returned from Labadee to go to the rescheduled Oasis of Dreams show. My mom and I were the only ones who went, as the rest were either not interested or worried about our dinner reservations. They watched a little from our room and then met us at Giovanni's. It did show this time, although we were surprised since it was still windy. This was another show with technical difficulties and my Mom and I started to worry about dinner reservations. We enjoyed the show once it started. They performed a shortened show and we made dinner without any trouble.

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

Dinner was our only specialty restaurant meal from our travel agent. We love Italian food so we picked Giovanni's. We enjoyed our meal, but were glad we had not spent money on it. We missed our waiters from the MDR and only found the food to be slightly better. We were at a table in the corner and the lighting was very poor. It was also extremely loud. They were very busy when we first arrived and the waiter was very rushed and short with us. After the large group at the table next to us left, the loudness decreased and our waiter was much better. This was after we had already ordered, however and ordering had been very frustrating. In fact I had to order for my parents as they could not see the menu or hear well enough to order.

 

We shared our appetizers and ordered the caesar salad, pork belly, and mussels. All were tasty. For our pasta course we shared bucatini, risotto, and lasagna. My children did not really enjoy the bucatini, which was the closest item ot american spaghetti on the menu. The risotto was good and gluten free so my husband enjoyed it also. The lasagna was as good as everyone on this board says it is. It is not on the menu but they said they have it nightly now.

 

Everyone at our table either had steak or osso bucco for the main course and both were excellent.

 

Desserts were fine nothing too special.

 

It was the one night that I overate and I wished we had ordered less food, but it was very chaotic when we were ordered.

 

 

 

 

After dinner the kids went to teen club, my parents listened to music in Central Park, and my husband and I tried to go see the headliner: ElGaucho. We were late by the time we left dinner and it was standing room only. He was ok, but we were standing so we did not stay. We went to our usual hangout for the first time this week: the piano bar. On the Oasis, this is in the schooner bar. Chester is good, but at the times we went, there was limited sing-along moments. Just our luck maybe, a lot of his times were after we went to bed.

 

[Cindy fan]

Breakfast on Wednesday was at Johnny Rockets. We enjoyed our breakfast and ate there again for breakfast later in the week.

 

After breakfast, my son and I ran up to the room to grab our golf balls and then we met everyone on the sun deck to watch us dock in Falmouth. It was incredibly windy there so we left and went to the pool deck and watched out the windows instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

A few more Labadee pictures:

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

During the morning we enjoyed the very quiet pools, watched the flow rider briefly, and tried to play minigolf, but it was too hot and sunny and we forgot the suntan lotion. The man on the flow rider was very good.

 

 

 

 

 

The mini golf course is surprisingly good and we went back again after dark (pictures will follow). There are weak spots around the course as it is built up from the deck and actually has elevation changes. We had to keep a close eye on my dad so he wouldn't fall, however he still beat us all. There are nice statues around the course.

[Cindy fan]

After a good lunch in the Windjammer, we went ashore a little bit so my daughter could say she saw Jamaica.

 

We bought some coffee and jerk seasonings and two very nice paintings from an artist in the square. It was windy again, so we had to be careful and the waves crashing over the gangplank were funny. Seeing the Oasis behind the buildings was astounding.

 

 

[Cindy fan]

We went mini golfing after our MDR dinner and then watched Oasis of Dreams again. The kids were at Teen club again.

 

This time we got to see the full show and really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

I have kind of lost Thursday in the shuffle. I know we did Sabor guacamole class in the morning and then I saw the Splish Splash show, but I am not sure what else we did. We don't have many pictures either. At night we ate in the MDR before my husband and I and my parents went to see Come Fly With Me. It was a good show.

 

Sabor guacamole class: large quantities of great guacamole, my husband got to help demonstrate, they will make a strawberry daqueri as your included drink, which I enjoyed more than others at the table liked their drinks off the menu, lunch was great with too much food again. I loved my empanadas, they could have been my full meal. I left before dessert as I would have missed the Splish Splash show otherwise. My husband brought my churros back to the room and my children enjoyed them with me. The avocado tool is not included and there is a bit of a sales pitch.

 

Splish Splash show: cute and lots of great diving. I got there 15 minutes early and there was nowhere to sit.

 

Note on Thursday: I felt the scheduling of activities was very uneven through the week. There were no movies the first half of the week: on Thursday there were 5 including Cars 3 being shown twice. Some nights we had a hard time choosing activities from a long list, other nights there was very little we were interested in.

 

My parents and children both watched movies on the Aqua theater screen from our balconies with a slightly obstructed view.

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I forgot to note that my mom and husband really enjoyed 2 lobsters each as this was formal night.

[kbklcamp]

Your pictures are terrific. I especially like the one of your son in his sunglasses with the reflected scenery. Such a cool picture!

 

 

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[FunTimeCruising1]

Thank you so much for the reviews! Especially the gluten free option. my daughter is 12 and allergic to wheat. She squealed knowing there would be gluten free bread at dinner and options in the windjammer.

 

Beautiful pictures too. Thank you for taking the time to share.

:)

[Cindy fan]

Your pictures are terrific. I especially like the one of your son in his sunglasses with the reflected scenery. Such a cool picture!

 

 

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Thank you

 

 

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[Cindy fan]

Thank you so much for the reviews! Especially the gluten free option. my daughter is 12 and allergic to wheat. She squealed knowing there would be gluten free bread at dinner and options in the windjammer.

 

 

 

Beautiful pictures too. Thank you for taking the time to share.

 

:)

 

 

 

She will have a great time and probably eat a lot.

 

 

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[Cindy fan]

A few other things, we did buy a drink card when it was offered on night 3.

My husband liked the beers offered in the Globe, ask what they have that is not on the menu. He got one that he really liked that was not on the menu.

[Cindy fan]

Friday we woke up and had an early breakfast in the Windjammer before we disembarked in Cozumel. My parents had previously decided they would stay on the ship this day. It was a good decision, because it would have been very hard to push my Dad's wheelchair as the sidewalks were rough.

 

We were due to meet our tour guides from cozumelcruiseexcursions.net at 9am so we disembarked around 8:30. The port area is a maze and the security guards were not helpful. One pointed us one way another one pointed a different way. In the future, I would recommend trying to find a map as the shopping area is very circular. We finally made our way out and found our tour guide on the opposite side of the road from the port.

 

We walked as a group to the parking lot where we picked up our jeep. The jeep was in great condition, however three in the back seat was a little crowded. The jeep was a shift car. My husband had to drive us out of Cozumel due to taxi regulations. He had no difficulty with driving with our guides directions. We had an excellent driver and tour guide for the rest of the day. His name was Carlos and he did a great job. We had a great day.

 

 

[Cindy fan]

We first went to a tequilla factory. It was interesting, but we would have preferred to skip this stop, but were not really given a choice. We were told we could have added on/substituted a chocolate tour, however that was a sig. extra cost.

 

 

[Cindy fan]

Next was a trip to the other side of the island. Our driver shared many interesting facts about the island along the way. Two facts we found interesting are that there is limited power and cell coverage on the other side of the island and the poles abruptly stopped half way across due to past hurricane damage. My husband asked about underground wires, however they cannot put wires underground as most of the island has water if you dig underground.

 

We saw beautiful wavy and rocky beaches, including a blowhole on the other side and experienced little to no crowding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

Punta Sur was the next stop on our tour. It was beautiful to drive through and we enjoyed climbing the lighthouse, though it is slightly clautrophobic and tiring to climb in the heat. The view from the top was beautiful. I was amazed we were allowed to be that close to the original fresnel lens. We did feel this stop was slightly rushed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

The lighthouse had a nice museum in the basement. I would have loved to spent more time there. On the way out, we stopped briefly at a tiny Mayan ruin.

 

We then proceeded to our lunch and beach stop at a small beach club near the port.

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

We had an included lunch at the resort, drinks were extra. Lunch was fine, but we were approached multiple times by salesmen.

 

Snorkeling was fine. It included the equipment and there was a nice ramp to walk down to enter the water. We snorkeled for about a half hour and saw some nice fish before packing up to return to the ship.

 

We did a little shopping near the parking lot and in the port area before reboarding the ship.

 

 

[E23NK1]

We are also from WNY, NT to be exact. We have had the Beef on Weck from the Park Cafe and although good, it cannot compare to back home. Good review.

 

 

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From Cheektowaga here and will be sailing Oasis April 15...tough for anyone to beat our Wings and Weck for sure...but I will give them a shot...lol

[cruisingnay]

What a terrific review so far!

[Cindy fan]

 

 

 

 

[Cindy fan]

From Cheektowaga here and will be sailing Oasis April 15...tough for anyone to beat our Wings and Weck for sure...but I will give them a shot...lol

 

Have fun.

 

Yes, we have some great food here in Western NY. Not gourmet, but very tasty.

[Cindy fan]

What a terrific review so far!

 

 

Thank you so much. It is helping me relive our vacation and organize my pictures.