** Live Review ** Oasis of the Seas June 10 - 17 2018

[jasonandhaley]

Congratulations, this is one of the best reviews I have ever read. Its nice to see someone who enjoys the experience and doesn't get upset by the inevitable issues that come up on any vacation. I get tired of people who go on cruises and then post complaints about anything and everything. We have sailed on Oasis/Allure three times and it is by far our favorite class of ship, and Central Park is one of the things that make it so special. So nice of Jason to pick that spot for his proposal, it is perfect. We are getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary next year and of course it will be on a RCCL cruise. I smiled at every post and hope you have a good trip home, we live in Long Beach and so from one Cali to another have a great life, and again thanks for a great post.

 

 

 

This is so special to hear, thank you!! [emoji5] We try not to dwell on the bad, of course nothing is perfect. We have loved Central Park so much, and though I don’t mind sailing on other RC ship classes, Central Park would be what I miss the most. I hope you have a fantastic 50th anniversary cruise, how special!! ❤️

 

 

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[jasonandhaley]

I left off with our dinner at 150 Central Park. Like I mentioned, we got a complimentary dinner from our TA (Costco).

 

We had reservations at 5:30 and were the first guests there. Our server wasn’t the most hospitable, she was nice but overall seemed a bit salty and sick of her job—I asked how her week was and she said “long, very long, and the next two days are sea days, so it will feel even longer”.

 

Anyway, 150 Central starts off with sampling salts with unsalted sourdough bread and butter. I love salt, so this was fun. One salt tastes exactly like a hard boiled egg, which was really interesting. Jason really liked the black, smoky salt, which tasted like barbecue.

 

 

For our appetizers we had the lobster gnocchi, veal ravioli, and tuna tartare. We love sushi/poke, so the tuna tartare was our favorite. It was much better than Chop’s tuna tartare. The other two were okay, but nothing special. The presentation at 150 is really nice though!

 

 

For dinner we had the beef tenderloin for two. At this point, our server was rushing around trying to serve large tables. We had been told by many of the staff that our cruise especially had huge parties, and we found this to be true. So many people had parties of 10+ guests, which I think caused a lot more chaos than normal in the dining rooms.

 

Anyway, so our waitress was quite busy with others so from dinner onward, we were attended by other servers. This was a bit awkward, because no one directly overtook our table, we had 3 other people assist us throughout the night. At least they were trying to help keep our dinner going smoothly, but it also seemed a bit unprofessional.

 

So another server sliced our beef. They slice it tableside, which I don’t quite see the point of, especially with how poorly she sliced the meat. The cart she used was uneven, so the cart rocked with every slice she made. Furthermore her knife skills were sadly quite poor and the knife didn’t seem sharp enough, and I bet she felt just as embarrassed as we did. When she was done the slices were completely uneven (thin at the top, thick at the bottom). Luckily this didn’t cause us to not enjoy the taste!

 

 

The beef itself was so delicious and melted in your mouth. It was very close, but we thought the filet mignon just barely beat out this tenderloin. The bone marrow reduction sauce was to die for, and the garlic broccolini was fantastic. Overall, our entree was fantastic.

 

Finally we couldn’t decide on dessert, so we got the main four available.

 

 

 

The chocolate tart was absolutely wonderful. I didn’t care for the lychee tres leche, but Jason didn’t mind it. The panna cotta was really bright and refreshing. The warm donuts weren’t special to either of us—which Jason loves donuts, but they were very dense and not as airy as normal donuts.

 

Oh!! And I cannot forget. We ordered coffee with dessert and it was by far the best tasting coffee we’ve had all week. Order the coffee! It is wonderful.

 

Overall, I think I would pick Chops over 150, but Jason liked 150 more. I think I found 150 to be enjoyable but also felt a bit over the top at times. It’s also a very different dining experience with upscale dishes, so it’s worth a try if you have an adventurous palette.

 

We finished dinner and headed to the comedy show in the comedy lounge. The two comedians were great, and both had some great cruise jokes, which Jason and I enjoyed a lot. Even though it was only 7:30 show, two unrelated women in the front were pretty drunk and rowdy, and kept interrupting the poor comedian, who naturally let them have it, but it got old with him trying to manage them.

 

It was cool to have a small venue. I asked a cruise activities staff member if the show material each day is generally the same each day besides each comedian’s improv and they said yes, but the last sea day they had a new routine in the main theater that didn’t require reservations. I was unsure when we were booking though the cruise planner if all the comedy shows available were the same act, so the answer is yes.

 

We finished the night by going in the hot tubs that overhang off the ship. They weren’t too crowded. I will admit, I always wish they could warm up the hot tubs at night! They are never warm enough for my liking in the evening, but they’re enjoyable in the day.

 

And that’s day 5! Day 6 is one of two sea days to round out the trip.

 

 

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[jasonandhaley]

Congratulations! And thank you for the live review. We leave July 1. Please post how you get back to the airport (or if anyone else has recommendations. I would think Uber will hike their price because everyone is leaving at once. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your engagement cruise!

 

 

 

It’s 8 am on debarkation day, and we checked the price of an Uber and it’s $75 for an UberX. So we just decided to take the recommendations from others in this thread—I just called Cortrans, and they can get us on no problem. Getting to the port was much cheaper for us for some reason, but a shuttle seems to make sense getting to the airport.

 

 

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[bobmacliberty]

It’s 8 am on debarkation day, and we checked the price of an Uber and it’s $75 for an UberX. So we just decided to take the recommendations from others in this thread—I just called Cortrans, and they can get us on no problem. Getting to the port was much cheaper for us for some reason, but a shuttle seems to make sense getting to the airport.

 

 

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My guess is supply and demand. Lots of people likely looking for the same Uber to the airport at the same time as you.

[generalchadwick]

Uhoh have we lost them? Has the fun claimed another live review?

 

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[jasonandhaley]

Uhoh have we lost them? Has the fun claimed another live review?

 

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Haha!! Yes this turned into a semi-live review. Don’t worry, I fully intend to fill you all in!

 

 

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[jasonandhaley]

Day 6 was our first of two sea days. We woke up early, around 6:30, and decided to get the day started. We decided to take advantage and grab a good spot on the pool deck. We got ready for the day, dropped off our items at the beach pool, and went to breakfast in the Windjammer. By then it was still before 8 am and the ship was still empty! It’s always relaxing when things are still quiet around the ship.

 

We promptly came back to our chairs (unlike the other chair hogs around us) and enjoyed the sun. The weather was great and it was nice to go in and out of the pool throughout the morning. Jason brought his study materials for his CFP (certified financial planner) exam. So studious [emoji23]

 

 

We ended up sitting next to a couple who had gotten married on the ship! Well, not quite on the ship, at a resort in Nassau, but they had a party of 30 or so with them. It was nice to chat with them and hear how their ceremony went.

 

Around 12:45 we decided to go to Johnny Rockets for lunch. We could care less about the burgers, but we both enjoy the onion rings.

 

 

The Splish Splash aqua show was starting at 1, so a lot of people were in the area. We waited over 30 minutes for a table, and it was apparent it was very chaotic and poor service. Our whole lunch experience was over an hour and a half including waiting for a table; our dinner at Chops was shorter!

 

It was pretty disappointing and though we enjoy the onion rings, probably not enough to come back. The waitress was kind and comped us one of the meals for our time. Surprisingly enough, the table of 3 next to us, (perhaps unintentionally) dined and ditched, which was kind of awkward! We asked our waitress if this happened often and she said no. I guess they were truly clueless [emoji51]

 

We went back to the pool for a little while longer, and finally retired back to the room to get ready for formal night. We spent some time getting a few “Instagram worthy” just-engaged photos on our balcony.

 

 

We tried getting some photos on the Promenade just before 6, but it was a total madhouse. I’d say 50 people waiting in multiple lines... it was completely shocking.

 

We ate in the MDR again, and from this night forward, we never had any wait to get a My Time Dining table. I guess we got lucky on timing.

 

Dinner was good. Besides for Joel, our waiter the first two nights we were in the MDR, our waiters seemed to not care to make any connection with us, knowing we probably wouldn’t be in their section again. I missed this part about traditional dining, where usually you get to know your waiters a bit better.

 

Anyway, it was lobster and prime rib night, which was delicious.

 

 

We took some photos in the Promenade, and then took some of our own in Central Park, before heading to the show, Come Fly Away With Me.

 

 

I have always enjoyed performances, and like musicals, but Jason and I both found this show pretty painful to watch. I’ve never felt that way about any performance I’ve seen. The singers were kind of mediocre, but I’d also blame the compilation of songs, many of which were not really meant to be “sung” so much as spoken. There was no consistent story, some of the costumes and song choices just were a bit odd. It also seemed like the show RC wanted to pull all the stops and impress with acrobatics and performers on rigs all over.

 

Furthermore, Jason and I had seats under the balcony level of the theater, which meant the ceiling blocked us from seeing the majority of the aerial tricks. If you’re interested in seeing this show, I recommend the main level seating or the balcony, but nothing under the balcony level.

 

After the show we went back to the room. Even on our sailing with Independence, we feel with RC evening entertainment there seems like very little to do between the first show and the late night event. This usually meant we got sleepy waiting for the next event, and we never made it back out of the room and fell asleep early.

 

In this night’s instance, we wanted to stay up for Quest, but it didn’t start until 11. We hate ending the night early, but since we don’t drink much, we get bored of sitting around the Promenade. So, tonight ends with our early bird selves falling asleep at 9:45 [emoji1] I will say, we at least know ourselves well enough to know we would be happier going to bed early than pushing ourselves to stay up late just for the sake of doing so on vacation! Can’t you tell we’re meant for one another? [emoji1]

 

 

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[generalchadwick]

Haha!! Yes this turned into a semi-live review. Don’t worry, I fully intend to fill you all in!

 

 

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Good to see, we were on that ship a few years ago. We had a boardwalk balcony the last one on deck 9(not one of the suites) loved sitting on the balcony people watching and watching the shows. Have you tried the Flo Riders yet?

 

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[j4giz]

Thanks so much for your reviews and pictures. We'll be on the June 24 sailing of Oasis of the Seas celebrating our 50th anniversary with our kids and grandkids. I hope we enjoy it as much as you two have.

[av8tr21]

Congrats on your engagement! Enjoying your review, keep up the good work. We'll be on Oasis on August 12th, first time on this class of ship!

[joand452]

Congratulations on your engagement! You two are very cute together!

 

We’ve been on Oasis for a total of 3 weeks (one b2b and one single week), and love that class. I hope you’ve checked out all the small wonders!

 

 

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[Cruisin4aTan]

Wow way to go Jason! Congratulations to you both!