Got off the ship yesterday and felt icky today. So I figured it was review time. I loved Oasis. I loved it so much we booked Harmony for next year, and Freedom for the year after. I do love Disney still, but I'm finding it hard to find value. A lot of people seem to be jumping ship right now, so to speak, so I hope this helps someone. I am going to make a second post about Labadee at some point.
I added this review to my blog also, which is here: http://thebookofholly.wordpress.com/ There is a Princess and an NCL review there too (also in my signature).
Overview: I took a seven night cruise on the Oasis of the Seas from September 12-19. It visited Labadee (one of Royal's private "islands"), Falmouth and Cozumel in that order, with a sea day sandwiched between Falmouth and Cozumel. I actually really liked this as it broke up the itinerary. In total for a Neighborhood Balcony Guarantee room, we paid approximately $2000, and received $300 OBC. With an inside it was around $150 cheaper but only $25 OBC when we booked, so the balcony ended up being a better deal. We couldn't pick our room and ended up with a Central Park balcony. More on that later. I'm not 100% sure when the room was assigned. It was definitely before final payment date.
Embarkation / Disembarkation
I arrived at Port Everglades at approximately 12.45pm. Since I ended up doing the four and a half hour drive on my own, I didn't leave as early as I would like because usually I can sleep part of the way in the car. When I arrived at Port Everglades, it was very easy to find your way to the baggage drop off point which I did before I parked. For Oasis (and I would guess Allure also), there is only uncovered parking. When we parked at Port Everglades when we sailed Princess, there was covered parking, so I was a little disappointed in this because Florida in September is HOT and SUNNY. Still, it was easy to find a spot. Parking was $15 per day, so $105 for the week. Not too bad. The walk back to the terminal was also extremely short, and I entered the incredibly huge terminal You are then divided into two areas; some decks are sent to the left to go through security and some decks are sent to the right. I ended up going to the left. There was a HUGE line to get through security but it moved pretty fast. Royal seem to have this down to an art form for their large ships. My worries were definitely unfounded. For anyone bringing wine onto the ship, there are desks after security where the alcohol is checked over. Since I didn't have any, I headed upstairs, which is where the check in desks are.
I am Gold with Royal, but for some reason it didn't print out on my Set Sail documents. Royal has different lines at check in for each Crown and Anchor level, and I was so thankful I wasn't in the deck 10 line for new cruisers because that was long. The lady manning the lines was incredibly unhelpful as she kept saying I needed to go into the new cruiser line. Eventually I just signed into Royal's website on my phone and showed her that I was Gold and she finally let me into the Gold line. It was still faster than waiting in the new cruiser line, which probably had 40-50 people in it. There was no one in the Gold line, and I got seen after maybe a two minute wait. Score! After check in there are no signs to the gangway so I walked around all of the check in desks until I found one. There are a group of photographers who will try and take your photo but just like on Disney, you can say no and they will move on. Eventually I did find the gangway (more signs please, Royal!) and boarded the ship. There is no "welcome to the ship" like Disney has, and there is not even music and crew to greet you like NCL had. Embarkation was actually pretty smooth and it took around 45 minutes from car to ship. I would guess that would be longer if you arrived at the port earlier.
Disembarkation was also fairly smooth. I had offered to drive my friends to the airport, since it is only ten minutes from Port Everglades, and their flight was later in the day. They were staying in a suite, so we stayed in the suite lounge until 10.10am and it took us around 40 minutes to disembark. It was made a little faster because of the suite luggage tags, as it skipped us most of the line to get to the custom agent. I would say that 40 minutes is a fairly standard disembarkation time, so for such a huge ship I am giving Royal definite plus marks on this.
Verdict: It was a lot better than I thought it would be! I would rate it as similar to Disney if you are sailing from PC (and soon Oasis will be sailing from PC too).
Food
Ah, the most subjective of topics. We had My Time Dining and a party of nine. I would guess we would have had long wait times if we hadn't had some suite guests within that group. This is where Royal shines with their suite privileges. Suite guests get priority seating in the MDR if they are doing My Time Dining. They have a separate check in desk. We only ate in the MDR twice, but we didn't wait more than around five minutes for each seating. On Royal I would either recommend My Time or early dining, because late dining would run into their shows which, unlike Disney, do NOT take place right before or after dinner seatings. Oasis has three main dining rooms - American Icon is for My Time Dining only, and Grande and Silk are for traditional dining. Each dining room has a different theme but before dry dock and the failed implementation of Dynamic Dining, it used to be one huge three story dining room like you will find on the other classes of ships The food was on par with Disney in the MDR. They seemed to have an obsession with cold fruit based soups which actually turned out to be delicious and more like a smoothie than a soup. I'm not a huge dessert person but they do have a chocolate souffle on one of their MDR menus, and all five of us that had visited Palo agreed that it didn't compare at all. Royal's menus are similar to Disney. Some more adventurous items but a lot of basic fare also, and they do have a section of the menu which is available every day with plainer items.
Windjammer Buffet was my first stop when I boarded the ship. The Windjammer is probably a little better than Cabanas, but has an awful layout with TINY stations. This meant that lots of stations were backing up or had huge lines. The worst offender was definitely the meat on the bone station. Every day that had a line, so I never tried it. There also isn't enough seating for the amount of people on board. I ate breakfast and lunch in there, but not dinner. Breakfast was okay. Royal apparently doesn't understand crispy bacon, and their sausages were awful, but I loved their breakfast empanadas and hash browns. Lunch was fine, and had a different "theme" each day. They had some really good cold Asian salads every day which quickly became my favorite section. Anyone who was gluten free would have had a great time at Windjammer, because they had a whole station devoted to gluten free dishes! I thought that was a really great touch and something that other cruise lines could try and implement.
Park Cafe was my FAVORITE all week. I could have lived there, except they closed at 6.30pm each day. Not cool. I ate here almost every day as it was closest to my room. For breakfast they had some hot sandwiches (this changed each day), pastries, yoghurts, muffins, and my ultimate favorite, which was the make your own bagel station. They had different kinds of cream cheese and toppings and bagels and I was in bagel heaven. I would recommend this 100%! I also loved their hot beef sandwich at lunch. When we sailed Enchantment in January, you could find this sandwich as a late night snack in the Solarium but sadly not on Royal. I looked. I honestly don't know what else they served for lunch, because, hot beef sandwich.
Solarium Bistro is another included venue, which is in the 16+ Solarium area on the pool deck. It supposedly has "healthy" fare, which to me meant that it tasted of nothing. I only tried breakfast but it was mostly inedible, with undercooked turkey bacon and gritty sausages (seriously Royal, how can you not cook these two items?!) I didn't go back for the rest of the week. In the evening, it has an upcharge and a Mediterranean cuisine I think. I didn't try it.
Wipeout Cafe is hidden at the back of the pool deck near the basketball courts, and has your standard pizza, burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and free soft serve. I didn't try it the whole week. There is a hot dog place on the Boardwalk (I don't remember the name!) that has five different kinds of hot dogs and other than the bread, they were surprisingly delicious! I tried The Sicilian and Coney Island, and both of the sausages were really tasty, which makes it even weirder that they were so bad everywhere else on the ship.
Sorrento's and Cafe Promenade are both found on the Royal Promenade and are your late night options. Sorrento's does pizza, which I didn't like on Freedom and didn't try on Oasis, and Cafe Promenade has some snacks and I think sandwiches also. I didn't try either one of them. One of Royal's most disappointing things is that the Windjammer closes at 9pm. There are very few late night food options. I know it's the same on Disney, but NCL and Princess definitely spoiled me with the late night snacks!
Verdict: Uh, neither? They are honestly very similar. Royal probably has more options that are better quality than Disney but Park Cafe isn't open late enough for me to vote this in favor of either. Princess has the best food that we have tried, and NCL has the best late night options.
Specialty Dining
This is where I hoped Royal would shine! Since we had pre-paid gratuities, and I had so much OBC, I was talked into dining at Chef's Table, 150 Central Park, Johnny Rockets, Chops Grille and Giovanni's Table. Oasis also has Izumi, which is hibachi and a la carte sushi, Sabor, which is a la carte Mexican, and Solarium Bistro in the evening, which is healthier fare.
Chef's Table was $95 including the wine pairing. Oh my life. I would do this again and again if I could afford it! I don't drink much wine, and I only ended up only liking two of them, but the food quality was spectacular. The venue is the suite lounge. It comes with a complementary glass of champagne before you are seated, and the sommelier asks about any allergies. We had Srjdan as our sommelier and he was excellent. Each wine is explained before it's poured by him, and then the chef explains each course as it is brought out. There were five courses, and we all left very full. We asked how long the menu is left in rotation and it can be anywhere between six months and a year, so if you eat there twice in the same cruise then you will get the same menu. The only think I didn't really like about this was the location. The suite lounge can be noisy as first, since once side is the lounge with free drinks, and the other side is Coastal Kitchen. It did quieten once happy hour was over though. This is easily on par with Remy.
150 Central Park was $40 and had a set menu also (you can pick between two things for the entree only). The chef in charge on this restaurant owns a farm in Florida and everything in 150 come from this farm. There is an optional $50 wine pairing. I did not choose to have the wine pairing for this, but did decide on the signature cucumber martini to start with. It is an incredibly refreshing drink and I would definitely recommend this if you want to dine at 150. I thought it was a very tasty meal other than the lamb main course that I had, which didn't really taste of lamb at all. That was the only disappointing thing.
Johnny Rockets has a cover charge for lunch and dinner only. Breakfast - which I didn't try - is included. I actually don't remember how much the cover charge was though. Milkshakes are also not included in the cover charge. As a Gold member I had a BOGO on their milkshakes, which I did use. (They are delicious.) I had the Smoke House burger which, after eating cruise food for several days, I really needed! Their fries were a little underdone but their onion rings were spot on. So was the chocolate milkshake. It's a tiny venue, maybe with eight booths and some bar stools, and I dined there on a port day and it was packed! I know I can go to it on land, but I really wanted a good burger. You can order multiple things while you are there if you are hungry too, which would be nice if they didn't give you the onion rings and fries first.
Chops Grille was $39 on Oasis. I believe it's less on Freedom class and smaller. It was an easy comparison to Cagney's on NCL, because they're both steakhouses. However, Cagney's was so much better than Chops it was hard for me to find good points about my whole dining experience there. Our waiter was borderline rude. They only offer four steaks and only two cuts, and if you want to order more than one entree then it's $10 additional. You could also have larger/different cuts of steak for another $18 (or lobster for $21) but if I'm paying $39 already I am not paying anything additional for a larger steak. Their largest steak included was a 12oz strip or a 9oz filet. At Cagney's I had a 18oz bone in rib eye that was included in their lower cover charge. I split the 9oz filet and the 12oz strip with a friend and the strip ended up being full of gristle. The filet was good, but I prefer the tastier cuts. We were told at Chops that the sides came "family style", which we assumed meant they were large portions. This turned out not to be the case at all, although the Gruyere tater tots were amazing. They were probably the best thing I ate that evening.
Giovanni's Table was $15 for lunch and $25 for dinner with the exact same menu. So we tried it for lunch. It was actually really good value for $15, and the mushroom risotto rivaled the one at Palo. Sadly, the antipasti didn't compare at all to Palo's plate of heaven. I'm sure you could order more courses but I was stuffed by the end of it. They also cooked my steak perfectly and it had a ton of flavor! The gorgonzola butter was also a nice touch. Giovanni's is only open for lunch on sea days.
The last restaurant I am adding here is Coastal Kitchen. It's technically included, but you can only dine there if you are a suite guest (although I believe they are looking at adding junior suites also). Since half of our group were staying in suites, we did manage to dine here for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is cooked to order, and the eggs Benedict were actually delicious and one of the best things I had eaten all week! Dinner was also really good, with the chipotle shrimp being a standout dish. The really nice thing about it was that the servers were happy to provide any of the free drinks served in the lounge at happy hour, so if you dine there before 8pm it also includes the drinks.
But like I said, you can only dine there if you are a suite guest.
Verdict: Other than Cagney's, Palo is still the best at sea restaurant I've dined in. I loved the Chef's Table. It was a great experience and I wish Disney offered something like this on their smaller ships since Remy is on the larger ships. I did love Johnny Rockets, since I am a sucker for a good burger and you could tell it was fresh! Coastal Kitchen is a great suite perk on Oasis and Quantum class. Royal could look to NCL for improvements to their speciality dining.
Drinks
Soda is not included on Royal Caribbean. On Oasis - and most ships that are based in the US for most of their sailings - they have the Freestyle machines. I tried them on Freedom and Enchantment and I really liked them because they have (flavored) sparkling water. I didn't do it on Oasis, but apparently it's $8/day for adults and $5.50/day for kids. That includes an 18% gratuity. The Freestyle machines were EVERYWHERE. You couldn't miss them. I don't drink soda, so the included soda on Disney is a waste for me. They put a sticker on your card also so that you can get the basic drinks from bars/cafes without having to carry your cup around if it's Coke/Fanta/Sprite that you want. I'm not sure on the cost of an individual soda, but usually to break even it's three per day. All of Royal's drink packages work on Coco Cay and Labadee, although neither include the souvenir cups if you choose an alcoholic package. You can always ask for a drink without a cup though.
Most beer and cider on Royal Caribbean was $5.50. Wine was in the $7 range but mixed drinks tended to be in the $10 price range, making them a little expensive. Oasis has a lot of bars and most of them have their own drinks which are only available on the menu for that bar. Rising Tide - which takes you between the Promenade and Central Park on a rising platform - had some really interesting and yummy drinks. I think my favorite was the Cucumber Fizz. I never actually found Royal advertising a drink of the day but I'm sure they do have one. The Premium Package that Royal offers is $57 per day, so you would break even after 5-6 cocktails but you would need to drink approximately 10 beers per day to break even with that. If you are doing the Western route, I think it would be easier to break even since drinks are included on Labadee also. Bottled water is also included in the $57, and one 500ml bottle is $2.95, so if you drink a lot of water (and like my husband, can't drink the ship water), it may be a good choice.
If you wish to bring your own alcohol on board, you can bring two 750ml bottles of wine per guest over the age of 21 onboard. This has to be checked at the start of the cruise. You can buy alcohol in ports, but it will only be returned to you at the end of the cruise.
Verdict: Since you can't bring liquor on Disney anymore, and since I am allergic to most of their cocktails, I have to give this to Royal. You could easily pay the soda cost with the cruise price difference and still have change. I would consider the drink package if I got a great deal on a room since I tend to drink 2-3 cocktails a day anyway, and would probably drink more if I had a package and didn't worry about the cost.
This is a really helpful link about drink packages if you want to learn more: http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf
Room
I didn't get to pick my room. When we booked we booked under a Neighborhood Guarantee balcony, which means that our room could either be in the Central Park or Boardwalk districts. Central Park has a view of the Central Park area only while from the Boardwalk balconies you can see a little of the water. We usually sail in inside rooms, so I didn't care which we ended up with, and it ended up being a Central Park balcony room (C1 category, 10199). The room was a great size for me alone, and I believe some of the Central Park balcony rooms can sleep three or four people. My room did not have a sofa bed or a pullman bed, but did connect to the room next door. I heard some noise from my neighbors occasionally, but no worse than Disney. My bed was nearer the bathroom, like the beds are on Disney, but some rooms have the bed near the balcony. I personally like the space near the balcony. The main area had a huge closet with around a million hangers (take note, Disney!), two small bedside "tables", a mini fridge and three drawers underneath the desk area, although one was already used to hold the hair dryer in the room. There were shelves in the closet also and the safe was in there too. There were two small narrow cupboards next to the desk but I couldn't find a use for them as they were very shallow. There is a lot of storage in the room but I think it could use more drawers and less shelves. Another set of drawers would have made it so much easier to sort clothing. This was the general consensus of our group. The bathroom was probably the same size as Disney but had much more workable space as there was a shower with glass doors instead of a tub. The sink was very low, and I am not that tall, but it had shelves above and below the sink and there was plenty of space to store my bathroom items. However, they only had four hooks to hand items to dry - no cord like they do on Disney, so some items did take a while to dry. The room was in great condition but the ship was only in dry dock last year, so it was not unexpected. The room overall was very modern and bright and had a good size balcony. One thing to note about the Central Park balconies is that they don't get much sun because of the shade from the rest of the ship. In the evening you also hear the music coming from Central Park and it makes a really nice atmosphere. The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes during the day you can hear the music from the pool decks even with the balcony doors closed, which I did not appreciate when trying to nap.
I also got to see the inside of a Grand suite (soon to become an AquaTheatre suite). This was a very nice room with 2-3 times the amount of storage space and they also had a huge set of drawers. The suites also have tubs and a shower curtain, not the glass shower doors which I prefer. The furniture in the room was very comfortable and the balcony was huge and was supplied with around eight to ten chairs so you can entertain your guests. It has a master bedroom and then a sofa bed in another room, so very similar to the Cat T ships on Disney I believe (although I have never stayed in one).
Verdict: Very similar, but the Grand suite is definitely cheaper than the corresponding suite on Disney. I thought the balcony rooms were a good size and a great price for someone who needs to be able to see outside but doesn't necessarily want to see the ocean. The insides on Oasis are smaller than those on Disney and we are trying that on Harmony next year. The only thing that I could see as a downside is that some rooms on Royal only have a sofa bed but still sleep four people, but the deck plans show that on them as they have rooms with different setups. I personally prefer the glass shower than the tub and curtains on DCL (the round tubs on the Dream/Fantasy excluded) because it gives more space in the shower AND in the bathroom.
Layout and Decor
Before I sailed on Oasis, people kept telling me that I would get lost. I did not get lost ONCE. Other than failing to remember what deck Boardwalk was on multiple times, Oasis is very easy to navigate. It has a layout that makes sense. The Promenade on deck five flows nicely into the Boardwalk on deck six and then the casino, Studio B, Blaze and the comedy club are all on deck four. By the way, if you don't want to visit the casino, it's placed completely out of the way on the ship. I walked through it twice - once after my muster drill, which was in Studio B, and once to take photos. I didn't even notice it was there the other days. There is zero smoke smell on the rest of Oasis. I found the same thing on Freedom, whereas Enchantment was much too smoky for me as the casino was centrally placed and you had to walk through it to get to certain areas. Royal have done a great thing making the casino not in your face on their newer ships like NCL does (although I didn't smell much smoke on NCL either). Central Park is on deck eight and has most of the speciality dining with Chops Grille, 150 Central Park and Giovanni's Table. The pool deck on Royal had two family pools, a sports pool, a kid only pool/area in H2O zone and an adult only (16+) pool/area in the Solarium. I never saw groups of teenagers in the Solarium like you would expect. (Most of them seemed to be on the Flowrider.) I never had a problem finding a pool chair either, even on sea days. At the back of the ship there is the sports deck. For such a huge ship, Royal has thought hard about their layout and the flow of the ship. There are also 24 elevators (12 forward and 12 aft), and I had minimal waits for them, even after the muster drill. Since there are so many decks, I made a deal with myself that if it was five or less decks I would take the stairs and any more I would take the elevator. There is no true atrium on Oasis, and the Promenade takes its place.
Much like NCL Epic, Oasis of the Seas is a very insular ship. There are very few places to truly view the ocean unless you happen to go up to the pool deck or go to the AquaTheater area on the Boardwalk. Even on the pool deck, it was hard to find areas to take photos of the ports because of the walls of glass that line the deck.
For a ship that holds 6,000 people, it was NEVER crowded. I had the same feeling on Freedom also. Royal does a great job with their public areas and they do make them larger than they need to be. It's one of the things I have really enjoyed while sailing Royal. While the Dream class especially on Disney can feel crowded and small, especially on the pool decks and between dinner seatings in the atrium, I never felt that Oasis needed to be larger to cope with the amount of people onboard.
Verdict: Oasis of the Seas is a beautiful, modern ship, but I like to see the ocean. However, they have done a great job with layout and flow of such a huge ship. I expected it to be a lot more confusing and a lot more lines. I'm not sure that Freedom is necessarily better for that, though, and you would probably have to go to a much smaller Royal ship to be able to see the ocean as much as you do on Disney. However, Oasis (and Freedom) also use their public areas much more effectively and there never feels like there are as many people onboard as there really are. What I would like them to do is hand you a map on check in. I think that would be really helpful for the first few days.
Entertainment / Activities
On Royal you can be as busy or as relaxed as you want. Their Cruise Compass comes PACKED with activities on sea days, although on port days they are light on things to do. (Admittedly, so are other cruise lines.) There are two Flowriders - one for stand up surfing and one for boogie boarding - which operate with long hours on sea days and reduced hours on port days. We tried them on a sea day and rarely waited more than ten minutes for a turn. There is also a zip line, mini-golf, a basketball court and table tennis in the same area, none of which I tried. I did want to try the mini-golf but sadly ran out of time. We also attended a few trivia events and one day I even read my book while working on my sunburn. Studio B also has several ice skating sessions on sea days; I did try this and I was absolutely terrible. The afternoon sessions are busier than the morning sessions and they let 50 people onto the ice at one time, which to me is way too many. If you do want to try it, I would recommend the first session of the day. There is also rock climbing on the Boardwalk, and there are two walls for this with three different climbs. For most of these activities, you have to sign a waiver and get a wristband. The line is initially long but I found that they put the band on me loose enough that I could take it on and off when I needed to. There are plenty of opportunities to meet Dreamworks characters on the Boardwalk, the pool deck and on the Promenade and I never saw more than a handful of people waiting other than after a Shrek and Puss in Boots party on the Promenade.
The pool decks were actually great. I recapped a little earlier, but the sports pool had constant activities. They do lap swimming, water aerobics (which was a lot of fun), volleyball and a handful of other things in that pool. The H2O zone for kids is a great size and has a small lazy river along with a shallower pool and splash pads. The two main pools were a good size and I rarely saw them full. All of these pools were much larger than anything on Disney. The only slightly disappointing pool was the one in the Solarium, which is small compared to the rest of the ship. At times, I did see this full. There are also plenty of hot tubs scattered around the pool decks and I love the cantilevered tubs that stick out from the side of the ship. One pool and one hot tub is open 24 hours on Royal, which is a nice touch.
The entertainment during the cruise was mostly good. I'm going to start with the worst thing which was Cats. It felt like two hours of my life I am never getting back. It was well produced, well sung, well danced... but it had no plot and other that Memory, no memorable songs. Literally half of the people in the theatre left at the intermission. I'd seen Cats when I was very young and I realized why I remembered nothing from the show I saw in the West End. There was literally no plot to speak of. I would rather see any other Broadway production than to see Cats again. (As an aside, Liberty has Saturday Night Fever and Allure has Mamma Mia. Or go on NCL, where Breakaway has Rock of Ages, Getaway has Legally Blonde and Epic has Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I've seen all five of these and they are all fun and what should be on a cruise ship.) I'm hoping that Harmony has something fun, like Grease. I think Grease would be awesome on a cruise ship! Come Fly With Me was the other big entertainment in the Opal Theatre, which was an odd mixture of singing, dancing, gymnastics and aerials. It felt like it was trying to be Cirque Dreams on NCL Epic, but not quite getting there. It also didn't have a plot. So while some parts were good and entertaining, other parts were... not.
However, the other three entertainment pieces of the week were a lot of fun. Frozen in Time is the ice show on Oasis, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen stories. This was impressive, a lot of fun and basically awesome to watch. I love figure skating, and I loved the show on Freedom (Freedom Ice) and I was not disappointed in Oasis's offering! Oasis of Dreams was the water show in the AquaTheater, which was also impressive with different diving tricks and synchronized swimming. We watched from the balcony of the suite and got a different, interesting view of the show. The last thing that was really fun was Ronn Lucas, who I have seen three or four times on Disney. His show on Oasis was a little more adult than the Disney version, but basically the same. But it's always a lot of fun!
Love and Marriage sadly conflicted with the Chef's Table but I caught a repeat on the television. It's essentially the same as Match Your Mate. Quest is always a lot of fun and hilarious. Since there are so many people who go on Royal, it's held in Studio B and the room is divided into teams. Each team has a male and female captain who do all of the running. This is DEFINITELY more adult than the Disney version, and there is also a camera man who replays the best parts on the giant screen. There were a lot of theme parties on Oasis but I ended up not going to any of them as we were always doing something else at the time. I know there was a Glow party one night and a 70s party another night, and probably some more things too. We caught part of the 70s party on the Promenade and everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun.
Verdict: Not even a comparison. Royal kept me busy all week and I still didn't see or do everything that I wanted to. The last few cruises with Disney, there hasn't been much more adults to do whereas Royal seems to have a better balance between family friendly and adult fun.
Kids
No one in our party had kids. I didn't see many kids on the ship either. Whether that's because there weren't many or they were all off having fun, I don't know. There was one group of teenagers who always seemed to be enjoying themselves, whether it was getting soft serve in Wipeout Cafe or playing basketball or on the Flowrider. They definitely didn't look bored and I never saw any groups sitting on the staircases like they seem to on Disney! Most of the kids onboard looked to be younger than five, and they were generally well behaved other than a few incidents of screaming children while parents ignored them. The teens have their own club, and also a disco, and the younger kids have the whole of deck fourteen forward to themselves, in Adventure Ocean.
Verdict: No kids, so I'm not going to make a comparison. But everyone looked like they were having fun!
Service
This is really the only time I missed Disney. Service on Freedom and Enchantment was great. On Oasis, not so much. The two times we ate in the MDR, it took them around 45 minutes to take our orders. Both meals were almost three hours long. It was insane. Since we had no plans to go back, we didn't complain. Whatever was wrong with the MDR staff, it seemed to resonate through the whole crew. Future cruise booking staff were unhelpful. Guest Services was hit and miss depending who you got. However, we had an issue with a shore excursion, and the Shore Excursion Manager was one of the most helpful people we encountered the whole week! There were a few standout crew members - my stateroom host was one of them - but overall no one acted like they wanted to be there.
Verdict: We have had some truly awful service on Disney on some cruises. But not overall as poor as Royal. It's probably my worst cruise, crew wise. (Well. The second cruise we did on the Dream was pretty awful too.) It may just be hit and miss, but I've read a few times recently that Oasis has had poor service, and I'm guessing it may be due to the amount of non-English speaking cruisers on the ship. There was a huge Asian and Spanish-speaking population.
Overall
I really enjoyed Oasis. It may be a little too big for its own good at times, but overall there is so much to do. I ended up booking two cruises while on board - one for Harmony in November 2016 and one for Freedom in January 2017. Currently, we do not have any Disney cruises booked, which is telling considering we are Platinum on Disney now. We also plan to do Bermuda on NCL next year. I considered Anthem but it was the same price for two fewer days, so NCL won. I'm hoping we can squeeze the Carnival Vista in too. I would not hesitate to book a cruise on Royal if you are finding that Disney is squeezing you out price wise, or not offering enough activities, or even you want to visit some new ports! I wouldn't take kids on one of the older Royal ships though. I believe Voyager, Freedom, Oasis and Quantum classes have the Flowrider and that's what I would stick to. Enchantment was small, old, and smoky, and it barely even seemed like the same cruise line as Freedom and Oasis. Royal has come a long way, and that's definitely a good thing!
I added this review to my blog also, which is here: http://thebookofholly.wordpress.com/ There is a Princess and an NCL review there too (also in my signature).
Overview: I took a seven night cruise on the Oasis of the Seas from September 12-19. It visited Labadee (one of Royal's private "islands"), Falmouth and Cozumel in that order, with a sea day sandwiched between Falmouth and Cozumel. I actually really liked this as it broke up the itinerary. In total for a Neighborhood Balcony Guarantee room, we paid approximately $2000, and received $300 OBC. With an inside it was around $150 cheaper but only $25 OBC when we booked, so the balcony ended up being a better deal. We couldn't pick our room and ended up with a Central Park balcony. More on that later. I'm not 100% sure when the room was assigned. It was definitely before final payment date.
Embarkation / Disembarkation
I arrived at Port Everglades at approximately 12.45pm. Since I ended up doing the four and a half hour drive on my own, I didn't leave as early as I would like because usually I can sleep part of the way in the car. When I arrived at Port Everglades, it was very easy to find your way to the baggage drop off point which I did before I parked. For Oasis (and I would guess Allure also), there is only uncovered parking. When we parked at Port Everglades when we sailed Princess, there was covered parking, so I was a little disappointed in this because Florida in September is HOT and SUNNY. Still, it was easy to find a spot. Parking was $15 per day, so $105 for the week. Not too bad. The walk back to the terminal was also extremely short, and I entered the incredibly huge terminal You are then divided into two areas; some decks are sent to the left to go through security and some decks are sent to the right. I ended up going to the left. There was a HUGE line to get through security but it moved pretty fast. Royal seem to have this down to an art form for their large ships. My worries were definitely unfounded. For anyone bringing wine onto the ship, there are desks after security where the alcohol is checked over. Since I didn't have any, I headed upstairs, which is where the check in desks are.
I am Gold with Royal, but for some reason it didn't print out on my Set Sail documents. Royal has different lines at check in for each Crown and Anchor level, and I was so thankful I wasn't in the deck 10 line for new cruisers because that was long. The lady manning the lines was incredibly unhelpful as she kept saying I needed to go into the new cruiser line. Eventually I just signed into Royal's website on my phone and showed her that I was Gold and she finally let me into the Gold line. It was still faster than waiting in the new cruiser line, which probably had 40-50 people in it. There was no one in the Gold line, and I got seen after maybe a two minute wait. Score! After check in there are no signs to the gangway so I walked around all of the check in desks until I found one. There are a group of photographers who will try and take your photo but just like on Disney, you can say no and they will move on. Eventually I did find the gangway (more signs please, Royal!) and boarded the ship. There is no "welcome to the ship" like Disney has, and there is not even music and crew to greet you like NCL had. Embarkation was actually pretty smooth and it took around 45 minutes from car to ship. I would guess that would be longer if you arrived at the port earlier.
Disembarkation was also fairly smooth. I had offered to drive my friends to the airport, since it is only ten minutes from Port Everglades, and their flight was later in the day. They were staying in a suite, so we stayed in the suite lounge until 10.10am and it took us around 40 minutes to disembark. It was made a little faster because of the suite luggage tags, as it skipped us most of the line to get to the custom agent. I would say that 40 minutes is a fairly standard disembarkation time, so for such a huge ship I am giving Royal definite plus marks on this.
Verdict: It was a lot better than I thought it would be! I would rate it as similar to Disney if you are sailing from PC (and soon Oasis will be sailing from PC too).
Food
Ah, the most subjective of topics. We had My Time Dining and a party of nine. I would guess we would have had long wait times if we hadn't had some suite guests within that group. This is where Royal shines with their suite privileges. Suite guests get priority seating in the MDR if they are doing My Time Dining. They have a separate check in desk. We only ate in the MDR twice, but we didn't wait more than around five minutes for each seating. On Royal I would either recommend My Time or early dining, because late dining would run into their shows which, unlike Disney, do NOT take place right before or after dinner seatings. Oasis has three main dining rooms - American Icon is for My Time Dining only, and Grande and Silk are for traditional dining. Each dining room has a different theme but before dry dock and the failed implementation of Dynamic Dining, it used to be one huge three story dining room like you will find on the other classes of ships The food was on par with Disney in the MDR. They seemed to have an obsession with cold fruit based soups which actually turned out to be delicious and more like a smoothie than a soup. I'm not a huge dessert person but they do have a chocolate souffle on one of their MDR menus, and all five of us that had visited Palo agreed that it didn't compare at all. Royal's menus are similar to Disney. Some more adventurous items but a lot of basic fare also, and they do have a section of the menu which is available every day with plainer items.
Windjammer Buffet was my first stop when I boarded the ship. The Windjammer is probably a little better than Cabanas, but has an awful layout with TINY stations. This meant that lots of stations were backing up or had huge lines. The worst offender was definitely the meat on the bone station. Every day that had a line, so I never tried it. There also isn't enough seating for the amount of people on board. I ate breakfast and lunch in there, but not dinner. Breakfast was okay. Royal apparently doesn't understand crispy bacon, and their sausages were awful, but I loved their breakfast empanadas and hash browns. Lunch was fine, and had a different "theme" each day. They had some really good cold Asian salads every day which quickly became my favorite section. Anyone who was gluten free would have had a great time at Windjammer, because they had a whole station devoted to gluten free dishes! I thought that was a really great touch and something that other cruise lines could try and implement.
Park Cafe was my FAVORITE all week. I could have lived there, except they closed at 6.30pm each day. Not cool. I ate here almost every day as it was closest to my room. For breakfast they had some hot sandwiches (this changed each day), pastries, yoghurts, muffins, and my ultimate favorite, which was the make your own bagel station. They had different kinds of cream cheese and toppings and bagels and I was in bagel heaven. I would recommend this 100%! I also loved their hot beef sandwich at lunch. When we sailed Enchantment in January, you could find this sandwich as a late night snack in the Solarium but sadly not on Royal. I looked. I honestly don't know what else they served for lunch, because, hot beef sandwich.
Solarium Bistro is another included venue, which is in the 16+ Solarium area on the pool deck. It supposedly has "healthy" fare, which to me meant that it tasted of nothing. I only tried breakfast but it was mostly inedible, with undercooked turkey bacon and gritty sausages (seriously Royal, how can you not cook these two items?!) I didn't go back for the rest of the week. In the evening, it has an upcharge and a Mediterranean cuisine I think. I didn't try it.
Wipeout Cafe is hidden at the back of the pool deck near the basketball courts, and has your standard pizza, burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and free soft serve. I didn't try it the whole week. There is a hot dog place on the Boardwalk (I don't remember the name!) that has five different kinds of hot dogs and other than the bread, they were surprisingly delicious! I tried The Sicilian and Coney Island, and both of the sausages were really tasty, which makes it even weirder that they were so bad everywhere else on the ship.
Sorrento's and Cafe Promenade are both found on the Royal Promenade and are your late night options. Sorrento's does pizza, which I didn't like on Freedom and didn't try on Oasis, and Cafe Promenade has some snacks and I think sandwiches also. I didn't try either one of them. One of Royal's most disappointing things is that the Windjammer closes at 9pm. There are very few late night food options. I know it's the same on Disney, but NCL and Princess definitely spoiled me with the late night snacks!
Verdict: Uh, neither? They are honestly very similar. Royal probably has more options that are better quality than Disney but Park Cafe isn't open late enough for me to vote this in favor of either. Princess has the best food that we have tried, and NCL has the best late night options.
Specialty Dining
This is where I hoped Royal would shine! Since we had pre-paid gratuities, and I had so much OBC, I was talked into dining at Chef's Table, 150 Central Park, Johnny Rockets, Chops Grille and Giovanni's Table. Oasis also has Izumi, which is hibachi and a la carte sushi, Sabor, which is a la carte Mexican, and Solarium Bistro in the evening, which is healthier fare.
Chef's Table was $95 including the wine pairing. Oh my life. I would do this again and again if I could afford it! I don't drink much wine, and I only ended up only liking two of them, but the food quality was spectacular. The venue is the suite lounge. It comes with a complementary glass of champagne before you are seated, and the sommelier asks about any allergies. We had Srjdan as our sommelier and he was excellent. Each wine is explained before it's poured by him, and then the chef explains each course as it is brought out. There were five courses, and we all left very full. We asked how long the menu is left in rotation and it can be anywhere between six months and a year, so if you eat there twice in the same cruise then you will get the same menu. The only think I didn't really like about this was the location. The suite lounge can be noisy as first, since once side is the lounge with free drinks, and the other side is Coastal Kitchen. It did quieten once happy hour was over though. This is easily on par with Remy.
150 Central Park was $40 and had a set menu also (you can pick between two things for the entree only). The chef in charge on this restaurant owns a farm in Florida and everything in 150 come from this farm. There is an optional $50 wine pairing. I did not choose to have the wine pairing for this, but did decide on the signature cucumber martini to start with. It is an incredibly refreshing drink and I would definitely recommend this if you want to dine at 150. I thought it was a very tasty meal other than the lamb main course that I had, which didn't really taste of lamb at all. That was the only disappointing thing.
Johnny Rockets has a cover charge for lunch and dinner only. Breakfast - which I didn't try - is included. I actually don't remember how much the cover charge was though. Milkshakes are also not included in the cover charge. As a Gold member I had a BOGO on their milkshakes, which I did use. (They are delicious.) I had the Smoke House burger which, after eating cruise food for several days, I really needed! Their fries were a little underdone but their onion rings were spot on. So was the chocolate milkshake. It's a tiny venue, maybe with eight booths and some bar stools, and I dined there on a port day and it was packed! I know I can go to it on land, but I really wanted a good burger. You can order multiple things while you are there if you are hungry too, which would be nice if they didn't give you the onion rings and fries first.
Chops Grille was $39 on Oasis. I believe it's less on Freedom class and smaller. It was an easy comparison to Cagney's on NCL, because they're both steakhouses. However, Cagney's was so much better than Chops it was hard for me to find good points about my whole dining experience there. Our waiter was borderline rude. They only offer four steaks and only two cuts, and if you want to order more than one entree then it's $10 additional. You could also have larger/different cuts of steak for another $18 (or lobster for $21) but if I'm paying $39 already I am not paying anything additional for a larger steak. Their largest steak included was a 12oz strip or a 9oz filet. At Cagney's I had a 18oz bone in rib eye that was included in their lower cover charge. I split the 9oz filet and the 12oz strip with a friend and the strip ended up being full of gristle. The filet was good, but I prefer the tastier cuts. We were told at Chops that the sides came "family style", which we assumed meant they were large portions. This turned out not to be the case at all, although the Gruyere tater tots were amazing. They were probably the best thing I ate that evening.
Giovanni's Table was $15 for lunch and $25 for dinner with the exact same menu. So we tried it for lunch. It was actually really good value for $15, and the mushroom risotto rivaled the one at Palo. Sadly, the antipasti didn't compare at all to Palo's plate of heaven. I'm sure you could order more courses but I was stuffed by the end of it. They also cooked my steak perfectly and it had a ton of flavor! The gorgonzola butter was also a nice touch. Giovanni's is only open for lunch on sea days.
The last restaurant I am adding here is Coastal Kitchen. It's technically included, but you can only dine there if you are a suite guest (although I believe they are looking at adding junior suites also). Since half of our group were staying in suites, we did manage to dine here for breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is cooked to order, and the eggs Benedict were actually delicious and one of the best things I had eaten all week! Dinner was also really good, with the chipotle shrimp being a standout dish. The really nice thing about it was that the servers were happy to provide any of the free drinks served in the lounge at happy hour, so if you dine there before 8pm it also includes the drinks.
But like I said, you can only dine there if you are a suite guest.Verdict: Other than Cagney's, Palo is still the best at sea restaurant I've dined in. I loved the Chef's Table. It was a great experience and I wish Disney offered something like this on their smaller ships since Remy is on the larger ships. I did love Johnny Rockets, since I am a sucker for a good burger and you could tell it was fresh! Coastal Kitchen is a great suite perk on Oasis and Quantum class. Royal could look to NCL for improvements to their speciality dining.
Drinks
Soda is not included on Royal Caribbean. On Oasis - and most ships that are based in the US for most of their sailings - they have the Freestyle machines. I tried them on Freedom and Enchantment and I really liked them because they have (flavored) sparkling water. I didn't do it on Oasis, but apparently it's $8/day for adults and $5.50/day for kids. That includes an 18% gratuity. The Freestyle machines were EVERYWHERE. You couldn't miss them. I don't drink soda, so the included soda on Disney is a waste for me. They put a sticker on your card also so that you can get the basic drinks from bars/cafes without having to carry your cup around if it's Coke/Fanta/Sprite that you want. I'm not sure on the cost of an individual soda, but usually to break even it's three per day. All of Royal's drink packages work on Coco Cay and Labadee, although neither include the souvenir cups if you choose an alcoholic package. You can always ask for a drink without a cup though.
Most beer and cider on Royal Caribbean was $5.50. Wine was in the $7 range but mixed drinks tended to be in the $10 price range, making them a little expensive. Oasis has a lot of bars and most of them have their own drinks which are only available on the menu for that bar. Rising Tide - which takes you between the Promenade and Central Park on a rising platform - had some really interesting and yummy drinks. I think my favorite was the Cucumber Fizz. I never actually found Royal advertising a drink of the day but I'm sure they do have one. The Premium Package that Royal offers is $57 per day, so you would break even after 5-6 cocktails but you would need to drink approximately 10 beers per day to break even with that. If you are doing the Western route, I think it would be easier to break even since drinks are included on Labadee also. Bottled water is also included in the $57, and one 500ml bottle is $2.95, so if you drink a lot of water (and like my husband, can't drink the ship water), it may be a good choice.
If you wish to bring your own alcohol on board, you can bring two 750ml bottles of wine per guest over the age of 21 onboard. This has to be checked at the start of the cruise. You can buy alcohol in ports, but it will only be returned to you at the end of the cruise.
Verdict: Since you can't bring liquor on Disney anymore, and since I am allergic to most of their cocktails, I have to give this to Royal. You could easily pay the soda cost with the cruise price difference and still have change. I would consider the drink package if I got a great deal on a room since I tend to drink 2-3 cocktails a day anyway, and would probably drink more if I had a package and didn't worry about the cost.
This is a really helpful link about drink packages if you want to learn more: http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf
Room
I didn't get to pick my room. When we booked we booked under a Neighborhood Guarantee balcony, which means that our room could either be in the Central Park or Boardwalk districts. Central Park has a view of the Central Park area only while from the Boardwalk balconies you can see a little of the water. We usually sail in inside rooms, so I didn't care which we ended up with, and it ended up being a Central Park balcony room (C1 category, 10199). The room was a great size for me alone, and I believe some of the Central Park balcony rooms can sleep three or four people. My room did not have a sofa bed or a pullman bed, but did connect to the room next door. I heard some noise from my neighbors occasionally, but no worse than Disney. My bed was nearer the bathroom, like the beds are on Disney, but some rooms have the bed near the balcony. I personally like the space near the balcony. The main area had a huge closet with around a million hangers (take note, Disney!), two small bedside "tables", a mini fridge and three drawers underneath the desk area, although one was already used to hold the hair dryer in the room. There were shelves in the closet also and the safe was in there too. There were two small narrow cupboards next to the desk but I couldn't find a use for them as they were very shallow. There is a lot of storage in the room but I think it could use more drawers and less shelves. Another set of drawers would have made it so much easier to sort clothing. This was the general consensus of our group. The bathroom was probably the same size as Disney but had much more workable space as there was a shower with glass doors instead of a tub. The sink was very low, and I am not that tall, but it had shelves above and below the sink and there was plenty of space to store my bathroom items. However, they only had four hooks to hand items to dry - no cord like they do on Disney, so some items did take a while to dry. The room was in great condition but the ship was only in dry dock last year, so it was not unexpected. The room overall was very modern and bright and had a good size balcony. One thing to note about the Central Park balconies is that they don't get much sun because of the shade from the rest of the ship. In the evening you also hear the music coming from Central Park and it makes a really nice atmosphere. The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes during the day you can hear the music from the pool decks even with the balcony doors closed, which I did not appreciate when trying to nap.
I also got to see the inside of a Grand suite (soon to become an AquaTheatre suite). This was a very nice room with 2-3 times the amount of storage space and they also had a huge set of drawers. The suites also have tubs and a shower curtain, not the glass shower doors which I prefer. The furniture in the room was very comfortable and the balcony was huge and was supplied with around eight to ten chairs so you can entertain your guests. It has a master bedroom and then a sofa bed in another room, so very similar to the Cat T ships on Disney I believe (although I have never stayed in one).
Verdict: Very similar, but the Grand suite is definitely cheaper than the corresponding suite on Disney. I thought the balcony rooms were a good size and a great price for someone who needs to be able to see outside but doesn't necessarily want to see the ocean. The insides on Oasis are smaller than those on Disney and we are trying that on Harmony next year. The only thing that I could see as a downside is that some rooms on Royal only have a sofa bed but still sleep four people, but the deck plans show that on them as they have rooms with different setups. I personally prefer the glass shower than the tub and curtains on DCL (the round tubs on the Dream/Fantasy excluded) because it gives more space in the shower AND in the bathroom.
Layout and Decor
Before I sailed on Oasis, people kept telling me that I would get lost. I did not get lost ONCE. Other than failing to remember what deck Boardwalk was on multiple times, Oasis is very easy to navigate. It has a layout that makes sense. The Promenade on deck five flows nicely into the Boardwalk on deck six and then the casino, Studio B, Blaze and the comedy club are all on deck four. By the way, if you don't want to visit the casino, it's placed completely out of the way on the ship. I walked through it twice - once after my muster drill, which was in Studio B, and once to take photos. I didn't even notice it was there the other days. There is zero smoke smell on the rest of Oasis. I found the same thing on Freedom, whereas Enchantment was much too smoky for me as the casino was centrally placed and you had to walk through it to get to certain areas. Royal have done a great thing making the casino not in your face on their newer ships like NCL does (although I didn't smell much smoke on NCL either). Central Park is on deck eight and has most of the speciality dining with Chops Grille, 150 Central Park and Giovanni's Table. The pool deck on Royal had two family pools, a sports pool, a kid only pool/area in H2O zone and an adult only (16+) pool/area in the Solarium. I never saw groups of teenagers in the Solarium like you would expect. (Most of them seemed to be on the Flowrider.) I never had a problem finding a pool chair either, even on sea days. At the back of the ship there is the sports deck. For such a huge ship, Royal has thought hard about their layout and the flow of the ship. There are also 24 elevators (12 forward and 12 aft), and I had minimal waits for them, even after the muster drill. Since there are so many decks, I made a deal with myself that if it was five or less decks I would take the stairs and any more I would take the elevator. There is no true atrium on Oasis, and the Promenade takes its place.
Much like NCL Epic, Oasis of the Seas is a very insular ship. There are very few places to truly view the ocean unless you happen to go up to the pool deck or go to the AquaTheater area on the Boardwalk. Even on the pool deck, it was hard to find areas to take photos of the ports because of the walls of glass that line the deck.
For a ship that holds 6,000 people, it was NEVER crowded. I had the same feeling on Freedom also. Royal does a great job with their public areas and they do make them larger than they need to be. It's one of the things I have really enjoyed while sailing Royal. While the Dream class especially on Disney can feel crowded and small, especially on the pool decks and between dinner seatings in the atrium, I never felt that Oasis needed to be larger to cope with the amount of people onboard.
Verdict: Oasis of the Seas is a beautiful, modern ship, but I like to see the ocean. However, they have done a great job with layout and flow of such a huge ship. I expected it to be a lot more confusing and a lot more lines. I'm not sure that Freedom is necessarily better for that, though, and you would probably have to go to a much smaller Royal ship to be able to see the ocean as much as you do on Disney. However, Oasis (and Freedom) also use their public areas much more effectively and there never feels like there are as many people onboard as there really are. What I would like them to do is hand you a map on check in. I think that would be really helpful for the first few days.
Entertainment / Activities
On Royal you can be as busy or as relaxed as you want. Their Cruise Compass comes PACKED with activities on sea days, although on port days they are light on things to do. (Admittedly, so are other cruise lines.) There are two Flowriders - one for stand up surfing and one for boogie boarding - which operate with long hours on sea days and reduced hours on port days. We tried them on a sea day and rarely waited more than ten minutes for a turn. There is also a zip line, mini-golf, a basketball court and table tennis in the same area, none of which I tried. I did want to try the mini-golf but sadly ran out of time. We also attended a few trivia events and one day I even read my book while working on my sunburn.
Studio B also has several ice skating sessions on sea days; I did try this and I was absolutely terrible. The afternoon sessions are busier than the morning sessions and they let 50 people onto the ice at one time, which to me is way too many. If you do want to try it, I would recommend the first session of the day. There is also rock climbing on the Boardwalk, and there are two walls for this with three different climbs. For most of these activities, you have to sign a waiver and get a wristband. The line is initially long but I found that they put the band on me loose enough that I could take it on and off when I needed to. There are plenty of opportunities to meet Dreamworks characters on the Boardwalk, the pool deck and on the Promenade and I never saw more than a handful of people waiting other than after a Shrek and Puss in Boots party on the Promenade.The pool decks were actually great. I recapped a little earlier, but the sports pool had constant activities. They do lap swimming, water aerobics (which was a lot of fun), volleyball and a handful of other things in that pool. The H2O zone for kids is a great size and has a small lazy river along with a shallower pool and splash pads. The two main pools were a good size and I rarely saw them full. All of these pools were much larger than anything on Disney. The only slightly disappointing pool was the one in the Solarium, which is small compared to the rest of the ship. At times, I did see this full. There are also plenty of hot tubs scattered around the pool decks and I love the cantilevered tubs that stick out from the side of the ship. One pool and one hot tub is open 24 hours on Royal, which is a nice touch.
The entertainment during the cruise was mostly good. I'm going to start with the worst thing which was Cats. It felt like two hours of my life I am never getting back. It was well produced, well sung, well danced... but it had no plot and other that Memory, no memorable songs. Literally half of the people in the theatre left at the intermission. I'd seen Cats when I was very young and I realized why I remembered nothing from the show I saw in the West End. There was literally no plot to speak of. I would rather see any other Broadway production than to see Cats again. (As an aside, Liberty has Saturday Night Fever and Allure has Mamma Mia. Or go on NCL, where Breakaway has Rock of Ages, Getaway has Legally Blonde and Epic has Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I've seen all five of these and they are all fun and what should be on a cruise ship.) I'm hoping that Harmony has something fun, like Grease. I think Grease would be awesome on a cruise ship! Come Fly With Me was the other big entertainment in the Opal Theatre, which was an odd mixture of singing, dancing, gymnastics and aerials. It felt like it was trying to be Cirque Dreams on NCL Epic, but not quite getting there. It also didn't have a plot. So while some parts were good and entertaining, other parts were... not.
However, the other three entertainment pieces of the week were a lot of fun. Frozen in Time is the ice show on Oasis, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen stories. This was impressive, a lot of fun and basically awesome to watch. I love figure skating, and I loved the show on Freedom (Freedom Ice) and I was not disappointed in Oasis's offering! Oasis of Dreams was the water show in the AquaTheater, which was also impressive with different diving tricks and synchronized swimming. We watched from the balcony of the suite and got a different, interesting view of the show. The last thing that was really fun was Ronn Lucas, who I have seen three or four times on Disney. His show on Oasis was a little more adult than the Disney version, but basically the same. But it's always a lot of fun!
Love and Marriage sadly conflicted with the Chef's Table but I caught a repeat on the television. It's essentially the same as Match Your Mate. Quest is always a lot of fun and hilarious. Since there are so many people who go on Royal, it's held in Studio B and the room is divided into teams. Each team has a male and female captain who do all of the running. This is DEFINITELY more adult than the Disney version, and there is also a camera man who replays the best parts on the giant screen. There were a lot of theme parties on Oasis but I ended up not going to any of them as we were always doing something else at the time. I know there was a Glow party one night and a 70s party another night, and probably some more things too. We caught part of the 70s party on the Promenade and everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun.
Verdict: Not even a comparison. Royal kept me busy all week and I still didn't see or do everything that I wanted to. The last few cruises with Disney, there hasn't been much more adults to do whereas Royal seems to have a better balance between family friendly and adult fun.
Kids
No one in our party had kids. I didn't see many kids on the ship either. Whether that's because there weren't many or they were all off having fun, I don't know. There was one group of teenagers who always seemed to be enjoying themselves, whether it was getting soft serve in Wipeout Cafe or playing basketball or on the Flowrider. They definitely didn't look bored and I never saw any groups sitting on the staircases like they seem to on Disney! Most of the kids onboard looked to be younger than five, and they were generally well behaved other than a few incidents of screaming children while parents ignored them. The teens have their own club, and also a disco, and the younger kids have the whole of deck fourteen forward to themselves, in Adventure Ocean.
Verdict: No kids, so I'm not going to make a comparison. But everyone looked like they were having fun!
Service
This is really the only time I missed Disney. Service on Freedom and Enchantment was great. On Oasis, not so much. The two times we ate in the MDR, it took them around 45 minutes to take our orders. Both meals were almost three hours long. It was insane. Since we had no plans to go back, we didn't complain. Whatever was wrong with the MDR staff, it seemed to resonate through the whole crew. Future cruise booking staff were unhelpful. Guest Services was hit and miss depending who you got. However, we had an issue with a shore excursion, and the Shore Excursion Manager was one of the most helpful people we encountered the whole week! There were a few standout crew members - my stateroom host was one of them - but overall no one acted like they wanted to be there.
Verdict: We have had some truly awful service on Disney on some cruises. But not overall as poor as Royal. It's probably my worst cruise, crew wise. (Well. The second cruise we did on the Dream was pretty awful too.) It may just be hit and miss, but I've read a few times recently that Oasis has had poor service, and I'm guessing it may be due to the amount of non-English speaking cruisers on the ship. There was a huge Asian and Spanish-speaking population.
Overall
I really enjoyed Oasis. It may be a little too big for its own good at times, but overall there is so much to do. I ended up booking two cruises while on board - one for Harmony in November 2016 and one for Freedom in January 2017. Currently, we do not have any Disney cruises booked, which is telling considering we are Platinum on Disney now. We also plan to do Bermuda on NCL next year. I considered Anthem but it was the same price for two fewer days, so NCL won. I'm hoping we can squeeze the Carnival Vista in too. I would not hesitate to book a cruise on Royal if you are finding that Disney is squeezing you out price wise, or not offering enough activities, or even you want to visit some new ports! I wouldn't take kids on one of the older Royal ships though. I believe Voyager, Freedom, Oasis and Quantum classes have the Flowrider and that's what I would stick to. Enchantment was small, old, and smoky, and it barely even seemed like the same cruise line as Freedom and Oasis. Royal has come a long way, and that's definitely a good thing!
