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Oasis Review: Spring break April 1-8 2018

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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Hi all -

 

Currently waiting for my turn to disembark after a great week on Oasis and though I’d give a review, as so many others have helped me over the years. I will try to hit on some of the more popular topics and then give a summary at the end.

 

Who: myself, DH (both recently turned 50 [emoji15]), my daughter and her friend (both 15). This is our 3rd cruise on RC (7th cruise overall) and our first on a “mega ship”.

 

Embarkation: we drove down the day before (we live in NC) and stayed overnight at the Residence Inn right near the port. The hotel was fine for a night’s stay - lots of cruisers there. We arrived at the port around 11am, off-loaded the luggage with the porters, parked, went through security, got Sea Pass cards and were onboard a little before noon. Very smooth process. We didn’t have any priority for this cruise other than being Gold C&A members (that and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks on the Promenade [emoji3]).

 

Cabin: we had two Central Park balcony room on deck 11 (11195 & 11197). This was our first time not having an ocean view balcony of some sort and I wasn’t sure how everyone would feel about it. I loved Central Park and didn’t miss the ocean view. The rest of my party missed the view. I loved being able to sit on my balcony at night and listen to the music below, look up and see the stars from above. The cabins themselves seemed tight. God bless those who fit 3 or 4 people in these cabins. It was tight with 2 people.

 

The closet was large with more than enough hanging room, but the only other storage consisted of shelves in the closet and two very small drawers at the vanity. The bathroom was small but adequate with shelves for storage. Shower is similar to a space capsule. Dropping something in there leads to an interesting predicament [emoji38]

 

The cabin stayed cool for the whole week as long as the balcony door was latched and the curtains were closed. Depending on the day, our side of the ship had sun on the balcony which made it too hot to sit out there until after dark. With the balcony door closed, we could hear very faint noise from below. Our cabin location and deck was really perfect - a quick walk to the forward elevators and I could be down to Starbucks on deck 5, or ground zero on the pool deck on 15. It was a little bit longer to get to the MDR, but not by much. When picking a Central Park balcony, I think decks 10 or 11 are your best bet - far enough from Central Park and the pool deck so noise is not an issue.

 

Food: we ate at 3 of the specialty restaurants- Giovanni’s (First Night Done Right), Chops and Sabor. All were delicious. The other nights we had MTD. After reading many negative reviews about the MDR food and the slow service, I was nervous. I didn’t need to be, as everything we had in the MDR was delicious (except for a piece of salmon that was a bit “fishy”). We actually looked forward to eating there! The service was outstanding and quick! We were pleasantly surprised and declared this to be the best MDR experience we’ve had on a cruise!

 

Taking a break to make sure my crew is up and getting ready to leave this great ship, but I will continue my review with entertainment, ports of call and an overall view of Oasis...thanks for reading [emoji4]

 

 

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Diana68

Diana68

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Hi all -

 

Currently waiting for my turn to disembark after a great week on Oasis and though I’d give a review, as so many others have helped me over the years. I will try to hit on some of the more popular topics and then give a summary at the end.

 

Who: myself, DH (both recently turned 50 [emoji15]), my daughter and her friend (both 15). This is our 3rd cruise on RC (7th cruise overall) and our first on a “mega ship”.

 

Embarkation: we drove down the day before (we live in NC) and stayed overnight at the Residence Inn right near the port. The hotel was fine for a night’s stay - lots of cruisers there. We arrived at the port around 11am, off-loaded the luggage with the porters, parked, went through security, got Sea Pass cards and were onboard a little before noon. Very smooth process. We didn’t have any priority for this cruise other than being Gold C&A members (that and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks on the Promenade [emoji3]).

 

Cabin: we had two Central Park balcony room on deck 11 (11195 & 11197). This was our first time not having an ocean view balcony of some sort and I wasn’t sure how everyone would feel about it. I loved Central Park and didn’t miss the ocean view. The rest of my party missed the view. I loved being able to sit on my balcony at night and listen to the music below, look up and see the stars from above. The cabins themselves seemed tight. God bless those who fit 3 or 4 people in these cabins. It was tight with 2 people.

 

The closet was large with more than enough hanging room, but the only other storage consisted of shelves in the closet and two very small drawers at the vanity. The bathroom was small but adequate with shelves for storage. Shower is similar to a space capsule. Dropping something in there leads to an interesting predicament [emoji38]

 

The cabin stayed cool for the whole week as long as the balcony door was latched and the curtains were closed. Depending on the day, our side of the ship had sun on the balcony which made it too hot to sit out there until after dark. With the balcony door closed, we could hear very faint noise from below. Our cabin location and deck was really perfect - a quick walk to the forward elevators and I could be down to Starbucks on deck 5, or ground zero on the pool deck on 15. It was a little bit longer to get to the MDR, but not by much. When picking a Central Park balcony, I think decks 10 or 11 are your best bet - far enough from Central Park and the pool deck so noise is not an issue.

 

Food: we ate at 3 of the specialty restaurants- Giovanni’s (First Night Done Right), Chops and Sabor. All were delicious. The other nights we had MTD. After reading many negative reviews about the MDR food and the slow service, I was nervous. I didn’t need to be, as everything we had in the MDR was delicious (except for a piece of salmon that was a bit “fishy”). We actually looked forward to eating there! The service was outstanding and quick! We were pleasantly surprised and declared this to be the best MDR experience we’ve had on a cruise!

 

Taking a break to make sure my crew is up and getting ready to leave this great ship, but I will continue my review with entertainment, ports of call and an overall view of Oasis...thanks for reading [emoji4]

 

 

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Thanks for this mini review. We are driving across the state right now to board the ship. We are in 11199, so would have been your neighbors if we sailed a week earlier. I'm glad that you think this is a great location.

 

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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Thanks for this mini review. We are driving across the state right now to board the ship. We are in 11199, so would have been your neighbors if we sailed a week earlier. I'm glad that you think this is a great location.

 

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You will love that location and I hope you have Damian as your room steward - he was awesome!

 

 

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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Thank you for the review, we will be back on her next week then in October. Question, did you happen to notice the menu of 150 Central Park, is it the old or new menu?

 

 

 

I did not notice as we didn’t eat there - sorry!

 

 

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momofmab

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Continuing on...

 

Entertainment: The comedians were very funny! There were two, the funnier of the two was Landry - definitely one of the best I’ve seen on a cruise ship. Oasis of Dreams was an impressive thing to see on the back end of a cruise ship. The diving and tumbling talent was awesome but the plot was odd and hard to follow. Come Fly With Me was also great - a mixture of singing, dancing and aerialists. I believe the CD said our cruise was their debut on Oasis. It was a big production with lots of large props moving around, stage floors raising and lowering and cast flying through the air. The headliner was High Impact - 4 gentlemen from Argentina who performed a combination of dance similar to Irish dancing, drumming and doing things with whips. They were very talented at what they did, but it just wasn’t my thing. The Frozen in Time ice show was awesome and our favorite show of the week! It’s a mashup of Hans Christian Anderson stories, skating and modern music. Kids will love it! We did not opt to see Cats. I would advise prebooking reservations to these shows, although they do have a standby line for each.

 

Other Entertainment: we loved the bands and musical groups that played around the ship at night! The band that played above the Kate Spade store on the promenade was great, as was the string quartet that played in Central Park at night.

 

The Pool: it was a popular Spring Break week, the ship was full and the chair hogs were out in full force. Those who came out after 8am were out of luck finding a lounger on any of the levels around any of the pools. People were brazenly reserving large groups of loungers, which would then sit empty for 2 hours. My favorite was they guy who tied 8 loungers together with pool towels, disappeared for two hours and then acted like a victim when he came back to find that a rebel group had untied his contraption and taken the chairs! Finally on the last sea day RC pool guys, accompanied by security detail, were making note of chairs that were saved but unoccupied for longer than 30minutes, and proactively removing personal items from them. They security detail did not back down to anyone that tried to challenge them. It was great to see some action from Royal in this regard!

 

More later...

 

 

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NewMrsSwan918

NewMrsSwan918

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The Pool: it was a popular Spring Break week, the ship was full and the chair hogs were out in full force. Those who came out after 8am were out of luck finding a lounger on any of the levels around any of the pools. People were brazenly reserving large groups of loungers, which would then sit empty for 2 hours. My favorite was they guy who tied 8 loungers together with pool towels, disappeared for two hours and then acted like a victim when he came back to find that a rebel group had untied his contraption and taken the chairs! Finally on the last sea day RC pool guys, accompanied by security detail, were making note of chairs that were saved but unoccupied for longer than 30minutes, and proactively removing personal items from them. They security detail did not back down to anyone that tried to challenge them. It was great to see some action from Royal in this regard!

 

More later...

 

 

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We just disembarked from Allure this morning and had this exact experience with pool chairs on there. Our daughters were on the deck at 7:30 the morning of the last sea day and had to scramble to find two chairs. A man across from them was there reserving 9 chairs, and left. When DH and I came by 3 hours later, all 9 were still empty, and DDs said no one had ever been to them. They did eventually see some RC employees remove belongings from some chairs that had been empty for hours, and one lady actually told the RC employee she was going to kick his ‘you know what’. :o:o

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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Thanks for posting this review. We are on our way right now to board the Oasis. Glad you had such a wonderful time. We will try and take good care of her for you.

 

Safe travels home!

 

 

 

Thank you! Have a great cruise!

 

 

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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The Pool: it was a popular Spring Break week, the ship was full and the chair hogs were out in full force. Those who came out after 8am were out of luck finding a lounger on any of the levels around any of the pools. People were brazenly reserving large groups of loungers, which would then sit empty for 2 hours. My favorite was they guy who tied 8 loungers together with pool towels, disappeared for two hours and then acted like a victim when he came back to find that a rebel group had untied his contraption and taken the chairs! Finally on the last sea day RC pool guys, accompanied by security detail, were making note of chairs that were saved but unoccupied for longer than 30minutes, and proactively removing personal items from them. They security detail did not back down to anyone that tried to challenge them. It was great to see some action from Royal in this regard!

 

 

 

More later...

 

 

 

 

 

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We just disembarked from Allure this morning and had this exact experience with pool chairs on there. Our daughters were on the deck at 7:30 the morning of the last sea day and had to scramble to find two chairs. A man across from them was there reserving 9 chairs, and left. When DH and I came by 3 hours later, all 9 were still empty, and DDs said no one had ever been to them. They did eventually see some RC employees remove belongings from some chairs that had been empty for hours, and one lady actually told the RC employee she was going to kick his ‘you know what’. :o:o

 

 

 

I saw several confrontations between passengers over the chairs. I don’t understand how someone can expect 9 chairs to be empty three hours after reserving them. The cruise lines are going have to tackle this issue sooner or later.

 

 

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Diana68

Diana68

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You will love that location and I hope you have Damian as your room steward - he was awesome!

 

 

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We do have Damian, but we haven't met him yet.

 

 

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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We were also on this cruise and I am reading your review to my family as we drive home to NJ. So far, we agree with with your entire review from the entertainment to the food to the pool chair issues. Looking forward to reading more!

 

 

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Thank you for reading! Safe travels! Hope you’re not stuck on 95 like we are!

 

 

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momofmab Great Review Rare

momofmab

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I should backtrack a minute and mention that we didn’t have the drink package (dh did have the soda package) and other than breakfast, we did not eat in the Windjammer. Actually, I didn’t eat breakfast there, but would keep dh company while he ate. It’s a buffet - I don’t know why people look for a 5-Star experience there...it’s large trays of food that feed a lot of people, quickly. They do seat you, which I think is a good thing (hey, maybe they should do the same thing for the pool chairs!) but it sometimes resulted in lines to get in the Windjammer.

 

Back to the review.

 

Port Days: I’ve always enjoyed Labadee. The beaches, the blue sea, the mountains in the background - gorgeous! We had a later snorkeling excursion booked, so we left the ship around 10 am to get some beach time. Our previous trips to Labadee have been on smaller ships. With a ship large ship like Oasis, the beaches fill up fast - like a sea of loungers with not a lot of space to walk between, so if you want a good spot, get off early! We ended up at Compass Cove for about an hour and then headed back for our excursion. Snorkeling was meh in Labadee. I’d recommend saving it for another port.

 

Ah Jamaica...what to do there? We’ve already done the falls and dh did not want a long bus ride to an excursion. Originally I booked a day pass at a nearby resort that had good reviews but at a week out, everyone decided that they wanted to do do something active, rather than a beach day. The aforementioned limits on bus time led me to RC’s Family Thrill Seekers Pass & Adventure Falls excursion at the Good Hope Estate. Not knowing what exactly to expect, we headed out on a 20 minute bus ride to this adventure park that offered zip lining, river tubing through the rainforest,a waterfall, pools and a giant water slide. We did several of the activities there, enjoyed a jerk chicken lunch and headed back to the ship. Everyone declared it a fun day.

 

Cozumel - we had been here several times and as always we headed to Nachi Cocum for a relaxing beach day, and it did not disappoint! The weather was perfect and we took advantage of unlimited food and drinks while alternating between the pool and the beach.

 

Stay tuned for more...

 

 

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