Detailed RCI Oasis vs Fantasy (vs Magic and Disney) Review

[SapphireMind]

We didn't go to the casino, but just having to walk through it to get to the theatre was a problem. My son is asthmatic and gets triggered by the smoke so I don't look forward to that. :/ Otherwise you could go up more floors to avoid the casino if you were trying to walk across, but again, kind of a pain.

 

[riggins]

Hey PS17 - We were on the same cruise! We just got back Saturday from a week on the Oasis. We did a lot of comparison between it and DCL too and my thoughts are pretty similar. It was a fine trip and there were things we really liked, but we're going back to DCL next time. My biggest complaint was that I felt like a "money making opportunity" rather than a "guest." I was irritated that I had to wait in line to check in a towel or be charged $25. I was also turned off that I had to tip someone to get a chair on Labadee. Then you add in $4 for ice cream, more for a cupcake, and then $200 for soda packages, $25 for a steak in the MDR, $5 for a burger at Johnny Rockets, $15 for a yoga class, $20 for a scrapbooking session, $3.50 for fresh squeezed orange juice ... you name it, I felt like there was always some way for me to spend just a little more money!

 

[Candleinthewind]

I have never been paged to come get my child out of the kids club except on DCL. Food is subjective, but we found the food on RCI to be far superior,

As far as nickle and diming, DCL is just as good as getting money from you.

 

[ps17]

Our intent on providing starting this thread was not to start another contentious thread between RCI and DCL lovers. It was merely to provide information and "give" back since this board has been so invaluable to us in planning - also since we have long monitored DCL vs RCI, we thought we would provide our take.

I think that right at the top, we disclaimed that much of the informatoin is subjective and it is up to the prospective reader to take all information and decide for themselves.

On costs, to review, when we booked Fantasy for Spring Break 2013 during our Xmas cruise, we booked at $8900. Because we just got done spending over $12000 on the Christmas cruise, we decided to do something else or explore cheaper options. We ended up at around $5500 or so for this last minute cruise on Oasis. For this particular booking for the same class of room, the diferrence was over $3000.

At the end of the day, you need to decide for the date you are going to sail the differrence in that price and determine what is of value to you.

For us, yes, service is not as good on RCI, they nickel and dime you and that is aggravating; Castaway Cay is 1000% nicer than Labadee; so on and so on, but we made a judgement and went with it; were happy with it, and knowing what we now know, we have determined that Oasis and Allure will get some of our vacation money. Pools, restaurant variety, activities, deck space, and relaxation were huge factors for us. Sitting have cocktails, reading was of huge value over fighting for deck chairs, sitting on the ledge of the pools watching 100s of screaming kids in a small pool.

Oh yeah, one small aggravation of the Oasis - they have a nice sports bar BUT, there is only one channel showing whatever international ESPN decides to show. So... You'll probably get the superbowl and final 4, etc. But if you wanted to see the women's regional final for example, you were out of luck. Fantasy and DCL sports bars have some variety on the top sports events.

Again, just plusses and minues that you have to weigh in. There isn't a perfect ship out there but there is enough on Oasis/Allure to take this family that has been on 8 DCL cruises and also with kids getting older.

 

[caribear]

My family and I were on the Oasis in 2010...the best vacation we have had to date. My kids ( DD8 and DS3, at the time of the cruise) had a wonderful time in the kids clubs. DS3 had never been at a daycare...so I did not know what to expect. He cried at first, but then saw all the other kids playing and wanted to go join them. There is a small slide in the 3-5 room....plus lots of shaped mats....that they put together and the kids roll down/slide down, jump on them....and tons of craft activities. I felt much better leaving him in this type of environment (small number of children of a like age...contained in one room) than I did about leaving DD when she was that age on the Wonder (larger room, tons of kids). On our first Disney cruise my DD did not want to be left at the kids club. The large number of children running all over the place did not make her feel comfortable. We were constantly called to pick her up...and then she would not stay unless we stayed with her. This was in contrast to a cruise we had gone on 5 months prior, Princess Cruise Lines, where she loved the kids club and would run and hug the couselors whenever she got there. I think the large size of the Disney clubs can throw some kids off....especially those that are shy or have never been in daycare.

My DD was 8 when we went on Oasis....and we could not get her to leave the kid's club. RCCL does charge $6 hour (or is it more??) after 10pm. DD wanted to stay until midnight most nights. They would play all kinds of games (not electronic/computers) and she loved it. The played bingo several times...and she came home with an RCCL hat, keychain, and an octopus. She also made a pillowcase, tons of other projects.....spider webs, caribbean-type masks, goo....she was always bringing something back to the cabin. One day they went to the basketball courts....DS3 also rode jeeps/4x4's in the basketball area one day. Each age group had a parade on the Boardwalk. DD's group were pirates and they sang pirate songs...then there were little games set up on the boardwalk for all to play plus face painting and a balloon artist. DS3's theme was a circus. Each child was a circus animal...it was so cute!!! They sang a song too..and jumped through a hoop...I have the cutest video! I think my kids went on the carousel a zillion times before the week was up.

The H2O zone is great!!! Lots of kid friendly water play areas.....not to mention all of the other pool options on the Oasis class ships.

If you are deciding between Dream/Fantasy or Oasis/Allure....I do not think you can go wrong either way. I feel that Oasis/Allure has a lot more to offer in terms of activities.....but Disney is special in their own way.

If I can find my pictures I will post a few from our Oasis cruise.....

 

[caribear]

I apologize for the huge pictures!!! Not sure how to make them smaller.....

Here are some pics for those that are interested:

Flowrider in background of golf course

Central Park

My husband and DD rock climbing

Play area inside the cruise terminal....you board so fast that my kids wanted to stay and play!

 

[Miz Diz]

Thank you! I have only read the first post, but will continue reading. I have been wanting to try Oasis or Allure. We did NCL Epic last year and we did enjoy ourselves, but it just wasn't Disney. Although, in our opinion, Epic's entertainment is far better. Can't really beat Blue Man Group and Legends.

We just got off the Fantasy and it was our best cruise.

 

[ps17]

Caribear,
Thanks much for posting the pics. It looks like you guys enjoyed the boardalk as you have a lot of pics of that. If you have just a couple more including views of central park from afar as well as some promenade pics, that would be helpful to some of those that have enquired. We think that the promenade is an impressive venue.
ps17

 

[perfectmatch300]

Thanks for the review & comparison. While we love Disney & Disney ships, I am looking to try one of the RCI big ships one of these days. I enjoyed the Oasis pics, too. Thanks for posting them.

 

[Dogsambam]

We have been on the Allure and followed up with the Wonder. We are booked on the Fantasy for next March.

Our kids, moreso our 7 year old compared missing thing on the Wonder when we first got on, then she forgot most of the differences.

The Service and the "Disney" effect are what sold us on Disney. The ship was beautiful and we are excited for the Fantasy, but my wife and I still would never hesitate to go on a RCCL ship. We are diamond RCCL members soon to be diamond plus, so they must be doing something right.

I fear the Disney pool situation. Our kids love the pools, and this has nothing to do with any recent events, it sounds like give pool situation o. The Fabtasy is horrible. This is am area where RCCl has gotten it down. Are the pools as crowded and undersized as every reporter seems to say? It is making me think of changing our reservation to the Allure or Oasis. If my kids are not going to be able to enjoy the outdoor space, I really do not know.

Any feedback for me. I hope someone has some positive reviews of the Fantasy outdoor space.

 

[hart6066]

So much has already been so well said!!! We were on Dream last April and then Oasis this July. On the Dream, it was just DH, DD7, DS10. On the Oasis we also went with both sets of grandparents.

Funny enough, our opinion is that for an extended family stay, we'd rather be on Oasis, but for just our immediate family (no grandparents or anything) we'd rather be on DCL. Two main reasons--I think DCL is just completely set up for a family to enjoy--the rooms are so spacious for 4 (we just had family sized room with large porthole), split bathrooms are perfect, storage incredible--rooms win BIG time! The other reason (though another poster had a different experience) is that while my kids LIVED in the Dream clubs, they did NOT like the Oasis ones. They are set up very differently, with set times to come (like 9-12, 1-4, etc) and they are only open at night with an added fee. There also wasn't much else to do in the club if your child didn't like the scheduled activity. They had a list each day of what activities they would do during each session, and they did seem to go from thing to thing. So if you didn't like the activity, there wasn't much else to do but wait for the next one. DD only went 1x the whole week, and DS gave it 2 tries but that was it. They did try a special sports night once, but interestingly DD said the whole thing felt "too much like school"--having to line up, counselors reminding everyone to be quiet, couldn't do something other than the planned activity, etc.

So our thought for the future is to do DCL when it's just the 4 of us and they have great whole family entertainment, a place for kids to go when adults want their own time. But the Oasis really had SO much to offer for a longer cruise, and the adult options were so much better (and we never even went by casino--honestly I think you could spend a week there and never even find it) and we were happy we had grandparents there to be with the kids when we went on our own. Kids even stayed in a room with my mom--rooms are not set up for families like on DCL.

There are surchages for more things on Oasis, but it was not at all unreasonable, and there were some that were amazing. Our favorite thing to do was sit outside on Central Park at the Tappas bar and get 2 small plates just enjoying the moon and be out at sea at night--really amazing! And the variety and availability of open pools and deck space, flowrider (which was AMAZING), rock wall, ice rink, areas to wander and explore, etc---so much more to do and with extended family, a little bit for everyone to enjoy.

 

[mcd2745]

The tipping for MDRs was automatic regardless of whether you went there or not (actually convenient, did not have to bother with forms, envelopes and such). Other things that weren't automatic upcharges but we were compelled to get were those days in MDR we did not like what was on the menu so we ordered from Chops (you can order steaks and lobsters etc. from Chops for a surcharge).

So, if you only got to the MDR 3 or 4 nights out of 7, you are still tipping MDR servers for 7 nights of service?

What if you chose My Time Dining? You'll have a different server every night, correct? Do you know how gratuities would work then?

 

[hart6066]

We did my time dining, and had the same serving team each night. We were a large group (7) and we ate within a half hour each night, so I don't know if that made it more likely to have same servers, but we had the same staff (even the 2 days it was just kids and grandparents when DH and I had date nights). I have to say our severs were AMAZING!!! We had some difficult people at our table and the servers went above and beyond!!!

We prepaid our tips for MDR ahead of time--I can't remember about tipping on the nights we ate at speciality restaurants??

I also think the tipping thing is the same on DCL--right? Even if you go to specialty restaurant or just do room service you still pay the MDR tipping,correct?

 

[Candleinthewind]

So, if you only got to the MDR 3 or 4 nights out of 7, you are still tipping MDR servers for 7 nights of service?

What if you chose My Time Dining? You'll have a different server every night, correct? Do you know how gratuities would work then?

Tipping on RCL is automatic now. $12 per person per day. Higher in suites.

 

[ps17]

hart6066 - It is really starting to sound like the kids club is highly a matter of taste, more so than food is. For our 10YO, he loved the clubs on the Magic and even moreso than the Fantasy. He does like his video game and computers though. Many of the times, we found him at the DCL clubs, he was either off with a friend he met or on his own playing the games. He did the actvities some time but not always.

For this Oasis cruise, upon taking the tour, the time we were there, the 9-10 room was much smaller than Fantasy's equivalent. There were no counselors there at the particular time; It was an empty room and not a large one at that (I suppose that if you combine it with the science lab it does get bigger).

As a result, he did not want to go to the club. By day 2 of the cruise, he had met other friends and their prefferred activity was to swim, do the arcades, play their own games in the cabins (nintendo DS) etc. etc. If he would have partaken on the activities, he may have liked them but for this particular cruise, he wanted no part of them.

As far as extended family cruises/reunions go, our perception is that since we think that DCL is so centered around MDRs the atmosphere is conducive to that. In Oasis, our teens preferred doing Johnny Rockets, pizza, or windjammer on their own.

To the poster above enquiring about pools, if we had to pick between Fantasy and Magic, we would take Fantasy hands down (since we have been on Magic so much) - we think that the enterainment and variety and MDR quality and the whole experience for Fantasy (activities) is so much better. We are however disapointed in the pool situation on Fantasy. The only pool advantage for Fantasy over Magic is that if you have very young kids, you can hang out at the Mickey pool and still see the Dumbotron. Otherwise, Fantasy pool designers blew it big time: Bigger ship with more population - same pool space for kids. Less pool space for adults and mostly shady for that matter. Sattelite falls is OK but does not hold a candle to Oasis' Solarium.

One other thing regarding pools - for the Magic, for adult time, adult pool was an option and you had to find something for the kids to do. For Oasis, the regular non-adult pools weren't terribly overrun (if at all) by the small kids since many of them were off at the H2O zone or the circular whirlpool. Furthermore, for one of he pools, the adults can get loungers on a tiered deck and easily overlook their kids swimming in the pools (no need to hover on the side of the pool). Many of of the Oasis pools in the main area offer the best of having adults our age - (30-40somethings) coexisting with their kids but still enjoying other adult company if that makes any sense.

Finally, Oasis has so many hot tubs (including huge cantilevered tubs over the ocean) that unlike DCL, you don't have to share a hot tub with 20 other kids in it.

 

[woody73]

. . . I also think the tipping thing is the same on DCL--right? Even if you go to specialty restaurant or just do room service you still pay the MDR tipping, correct?

That's correct. Your service team is there to serve you, whether or not you show up for dinner. Plus, the entire service team has responsibilities throughout the day at breakfast, lunch and at other food venues.

Woody

 

[ps17]

Don't quote me but I thought I read on another thread that even for RCI, on my time dining, you get the same servers - however I can't imagine them satisfying that request in all cases depending on who requests to eat at what time....