1st Time Sailing Oasis of the Seas Western Review Completed

[verygfy]

We are just off the June 6th Western Caribbean on Oasis of the Seas. I love reading trip reports and I thought I would share our experience on Oasis for everyone. Let me tell you about the cast and how we got on the Oasis.

Last May we sailed the Fantasy. It was once again a fabulous cruise (our 3rd DCL) and we of course did onboard booking, but Disney had changed there policy to 18 months versus 2 years. DH and I discussed it and while our budget allows us the joy of every other year we decided to go ahead and do back to back years since DS would be 17 and probably won't be doing many vacations with us in the upcoming years.

When we got back many of our friends started asking if we could do a group cruise together and both DH and I were having a hard time swallowing our rate on DCL for an interior room. So we began looking at Oasis of the Seas. We had an interior for $5200 on the Fantasy for the 4 of us, Oasis was a balcony for $4700, plus we had friends that wanted to go with us, so we made the switch.

The cast with us was myself, DH, DD (9), DS (17). My bestfriend and her DH, another friend of mine, her DH and her DS (15).

Prior to the cruise we (I mean me) pre-booked all the shows, made reservations for Chops (adults only), and we were scheduled for the late dining at 8:30pm. With late dining pre-booking the shows was a bit of work. Unlike Disney they don't have the traditional early show and late show. We had the ice show scheduled for 5:00pm on the last day, CATS at 2:00pm (which I will tell you now nobody in our party went to because nobody wanted to spend 2 hours in the middle of our first sea day in a show). It was very different, but very doable and for the planner in me I did not mind at all.

If you have any questions ask away.

 

[verygfy]

Embarkation Day

We flew in the night before and stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites Cruise Port South. The hotel offered a shuttle from the airport to the hotel so we used that. They do have service to the cruise port for $10 per person. Since there was 6 of us, my family and my BF and her DH (my other friend lives in Ft. Lauderdale) we decided to book a couple of yellow cabs from the hotel to the cruise port. Each cab was about $20 to the cruise port.

We arrived at the port around 10:45am, quickly got our luggage handled and into check in. Check in was a breeze, just go in and straight up to the window for your deck and then it was upstairs in the waiting area until it was time to board. They began the boarding process about 11:15am and we were on the ship about 11:45am. So all in all it really wasn't bad at all.

We headed up to Windjammer for lunch despite the many reviews that I read about it being overcrowded. It really was not crowded, but trying to get a soda package was a mess. Let me back up for a minute prior to the cruise we all did the great drink debate. Do we need drink packages? Are they worth it? In the end all of the adults decided on one drink package or another and we were all getting the kids the soda package for the week. Prior to the cruise all of the adults bought there packages but we decided to wait for the kids soda packages because all of the reviews I read said that the soda cups are left in your stateroom and we knew the kids would want a soda with there lunch. So we decided to purchase those once onboard. Well you can buy them on Deck 5 at Boleros which had a massive line or you could buy them up at Windjammer which also had a massive line. We did eventually find one guy selling the cups inside Windjammer that did not have 20 people lined up and bought the package. Here is a tip though, you don't need the cups at all, ever on the ship. The only purpose to the cups is if you want to use the Freestyle machines. Otherwise, every waiter, every bar and every restaurant will serve you a soda as long as you show your card with the package.

We had a great lunch at Windjammer and headed out to do our usual, check out the clubs. Coming from Disney the clubs are very tiny and very different. DS did not like his club at all. Primarily because Royal's teen club is 12-17. He said all week the 12-14 year olds took over the club and it just was not the same. He prefers Disney's 15-17 policy. DD liked the clubs but definitely missed Disney because of the downtime. Royal is only open on set hours 9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm and then 7pm-10pm and after 10pm you have to pay by the hour. With the short amount of time Royal has something for the kids to do the whole time and DD really wanted some free time to just play Wii or color. But overall she did like the clubs and had a good time.









After checking out clubs we checked out the pool area. WOW did Disney really make a huge mistake on this one. The pool area is fantastic on this ship and while yes on sea days even these pools get crowded, it is nothing like on Disney. 4 pools, splash area, tons of hot tubs everywhere. Royal gets big big points for this one.

Before we knew it it was muster drill time and sail away. We went to the Dreamworks sail away party. it was eh, not bad, not great. The aquatheater is cool though.







Our dining room was the Grande dining room. Our waiters were fantastic the whole time. Sadly I don't remember there names, but they really were wonderful men who took good care of our party of 9 all week long. Unfortunately nothing really overly impressed or was amazingly presented so I did not take any food pictures all cruise long.

After dinner every roamed checking out the different neighborhoods and the ship as a whole. I will be back to post Day 2 at Sea

 

[verygfy]

Day 2 at Sea

The one benefit to a Royal Caribbean over a Disney is not much goes on first thing in the morning, so no huge rush to wake up at 7am while on vacation!! Today was a very relaxing day of trying to learn the ship. This ship is massive and took a little bit of time to try and navigate. We did not have the best weather all cruise, and today would be the rainiest of them all. Turns out those umbrella's in Central Park really do come in handy.

Since the clubs are not open on the first night, DD was anxious to go check out her club first thing in the morning. So we ordered room service breakfast of danishes, bacon, coffee, and milk. At 12pm we picked up DD and headed down to Central Park for one of the famous roast beef sandwiches. They were delicious and we all probably had 3 more during the cruise. Park Cafe was one of my favorite spots to grab coffee, soda, a sandwich, the yummy made to order salads.









After lunch we headed down to ice skate. This was so cool. Come on how often can you ice skate at sea!!





Some more exploring!



Tonight was formal night. We all got dressed up.







After dinner the adults had the comedy show so the kids went to there clubs or hang out with there new cruise friends (DS). The comedy show was hysterical, we all had a great time and laughed very hard. The venue is very small and there was a long line for standby so this is definitely one to book ahead of time.

Up next, Labadee

 

[verygfy]

Day 3 Labadee, Haiti

Today we were on Royal's private island Labadee. This is kind of misleading as it is not an island just a peninsula off of Haiti and while they do have a fence around the area they let a lot of the locals into the area. There is a lot to do on the island such as the waterslide, water park, zipline, dragon coaster. I had done a lot of research on the island and knew the sandy portion of the island was at Nellie's beach and Columbus Cove. DS and I had a snorkeling excursion booked for the morning. The rest of the group went over to Columbus Cove to stake a spot for us for the day.

DS and I did the Speed Boat Snorkeling Excursion. This was fantastic and the highlight of the whole day. We were taken on about a 10 minute high speed boat ride and given snorkeling equipment and instructions on flipping off the side of the boat. Once off the boat we enjoyed crystal clear waters with a beautiful reef for about an hour. We did have a woman on the excursion that was not a strong swimmer and with the distance we were swimming she was having a hard time keeping up with the group and grew very tired. The waters were extremely calm and the snorkeling was great, but if you are not a strong swimmer I would have to say don't do this excursion due to the distance. Unfortunately I forgot my underwater camera was open and when I flipped off the boat it filled with water and I was not able to take any pictures of the reef.









After our snorkeling DS and I headed over to Columbus Cove. Columbus Cove is a nice area. The beach area is kind of small with a nice bay area roped off. We spent the day lounging and floating. We did have the barbecue on the island which was nice with plenty of space to sit and eat. We left the beach area around 1:30pm, we tried to take the shuttle from the Columbus Cove area but the tram never seemed to come so we walked up to the next stop. We had to walk through the Haitian Market area. Expect a lot of lady come here, lady I have this just for you... We finally got the tram back to the boat and took a dip in the pools before getting dressed for the Oasis of Dreams show and dinner at Chops.





We had a great fly by by the US Coast Guard



Tonight we had the Oasis of the Dreams show, this was fantastic and I only wish I had taken pictures of it, but honestly I was so mezmorized by it that I completely forgot to pull out my camera. It really was a great show.

The adults in the group decided to do Chops tonight. I took DD to Windjammer prior to the Oasis of Dreams show and they had a great selection and really were not crowded at all. After the show DS took DD to her club while he went out and hung out with his friends.

Central Park at night is just stunning..







Our dinner at Chops was not that great. Those big baked potatoes, yeah we got the bottom of the bag tiny potatoes that even our waiter laughed at and had to bring us a couple more so everyone could get a potato. I ordered the New York Strip and it was tough and fatty. They no longer have an included Porterhouse on the menu and DH had to order the additional $19 one and he was not impressed with it at all. The restaurant itself was very nice, but overall we all left kind of feeling like ehh... It was okay.

Up next: Falmouth Jamaica

 

[Grumpy92]

Enjoying your report. Cant wait to read more.

 

[LemonNeko]

Great pictures.

 

[DnA2010]

Really enjoying your trip report - we did Oasis a couple of years ago and just dud the fantasy last month

 

[verygfy]

Day 4 Falmouth, Jamaica

Today was a port day, no excursions, no beaches just get off the boat and get back on! We always have one of these on our cruises and since all of the reviews of Falmouth were very poor or down right scary it just was not worth risking it. Plus, all of the excursions we were interested in were over 5 hours + in length and we really like to stick with that 2-3 hour max. We had a bite to eat at Windjammer with the gang before heading out to the port area. DD loves the coupon shopping so we had to do the DI and other stores that were giving away the freebies. DD also finally got her hair braided (this is one of my favorite things to do on a cruise so I don't have to worry about doing her hair everyday). DD got a beautiful heart wood carving and an outfit for her American Girl Doll. DS got a t-shirt along with DH.

















After our tour of the port area we headed back on the ship. To mix things up a bit we all decided to have lunch at Johnny Rockets. The food was good and our waiter was a super sweet older man. It took sometime to get our bill correct but eventually we got it all worked out. We spent a little time playing on the Boardwalk (you can't help but feel like a kid in this area)







After playing around it was time for me to zipline!





Then it was off to pool before DD club time for Pirate night. Since we had the late dining we let DD go to the club from 7:00pm-8:15pm so she could participate in the pirate activities.



Tonight our show was the headliner show at 10:30pm. He was horrible. Basically he was just a lounge singer and when he destroyed a John Legend song we all decided it was enough. We headed over to Dazzles because the navigator said it was a Rock Band tonight, it was an asian band singing footloose. So after our interesting night we decided to turn in and try again tomorrow.

Up next Another Day at Seas

 

[verygfy]

Day 5 Sea Day #2

You want a great way to start your morning. Head down to Park Cafe.



It was so quiet, so pretty and peaceful. This was how I started my day from here on out. I don't know why it took me 5 days to comprehend that Central Park was one deck below us but as I was debating that morning on where I wanted to go for coffee it hit me. So don't make the same mistake as me, put Park Cafe on your morning must do's.

For those of you that like the Disney Cruise activities today would be your day. They had parades, shows, movies, everything under the sun today. I sat in Central Park with my pen and compass and just kept circling. Funny thing, we never did any of it. Not sure how the day became so lazy, but it did. But for those of you looking for things to do this is the day.

We took DD to her club this morning and just hung out, then I picked her up and we stopped at my new favorite spot for lunch.



After our wonderful sandwich and salad we headed back up to play around of mini golf.





I spotted one of the boys playing basketball on the sports deck.



We stopped by the flowrider to check out what was going on. This guy was fantastic and the crew was having fun challenging him on the waves!





We spotted Chris Nunez from Miami Ink. We had seen him around all week but he was always carrying his baby so we never wanted to bother him. But my DH did get to talk with him a bit on the cruise and said he was a really nice guy.



We had the wine tasting at 3pm. Forgive me for not remembering the name of the wine! It was $30 per person. The presentation was ehh, and our friends who love wine way more than I even said it was ehh.. I don't know if I would recommend it for the price tag.



After our wine is back up to deck 15 for our spot in the pool and hot tub.



Tonight was semi formal night or as I like to call it, LOBSTER night! We had the Come Fly with Me show at 7:30pm. Again, no pics (darn it). While Royal's shows seem to have no story line they really are fantastic shows. I highly recommend this one also.



Our dinner was fantastic, it was the best meal of the whole cruise. After dinner we tried again to go to the clubs and decided to try the jazz club tonight. We walked in a there were 3 people total in the bar. The band was taking a break. We decided to hang out until they came back and when the singer came back he said due to the disco party in the promenade they were shortening there set. They played about 3 songs and that was it.

Disco night in the promenade was definitely the place to be, we just were not feeling it that night and with our bust at the jazz club we decided to call it a night.



Up next Cozumel

 

[verygfy]

Day 6 Cozumel, Mexico

Today was the day I was most looking forward too. DD & I were swimming with the Dolphins at Chankanaab. I had booked the push, pull and swim excursion. I had looked at booking it on my own prior, but it was only a $2 difference and we would not get the buffet. Since I wanted to be back on the ship before lunch time I thought it would be best to book through the ship.

We woke up to a massive thunderstorm. I went to our balcony that was soaking wet from the the rain and looked out hoping to find a glimpse of blue sky that would save the day but none. It was just dark gray skies as far as the eye could see and nasty rain. I went down to Guest Services to cancel the excursion and the line was wrapped all the way down the promenade up the elevators. They had 2 guys working and everyone was in line to cancel there excursions that day. I grabbed my first Starbucks of the cruise and began the long wait. The captain came on the speaker and said that the weather looked like it would clear up in about 2 hours around 10am. Since our excursion was scheduled at 9:30am I decided DD and I would take the chance.

So back upstairs to get dressed and ready for our day. I had ordered room service the night before and it had showed up while I was out. I woke DD up and...



Doesn't she look thrilled!!

We got dressed and headed out to meet at the end of the pier. They had everyone meeting under tents and it got crazy crowded right before our taxi's showed up.



About 10 taxi vans showed up and we were off to the park. We got all of our instructions on the life jacket, putting our belongings in the free lockers and where to meet for the taxi's when we were ready to leave.

We made it down to our dock where we got to spend some quality time with our dolphin.



















After our run with the dolphin we went to the manatee encounter. We had the manatee swim around and one of the trainers was feeding the manatee and he swam by us. I wish they would have a taken a picture because really how many opportunities do you have to be up close and personal with a manatee.

Once we were done we were immediately taken to see our pictures. Now going into this I knew I was going to spend a lot for the pictures, I knew there was going to be high pressure to by them, but what I would have really liked was to get dressed before all of this. I will say the high pressure to buy really was not bad. The park had rows of computers lined up and you were assigned one, they used the numbers on your wrist band to find your pictures asked you to select the ones that you wanted and that was it. The girl would come back by and say how much it was take it or leave it basically. DD and I really wanted to get our cover ups back on so we passed on the pictures and went to look around the park.


Up next part 2 of Cozumel

 

[verygfy]

Part 2 Cozumel, Mexico

When I last left off, DD and I went to dry off from our swimming adventure and go explore the park. This is a beautiful park and there are loads of things to do here. I have always said I love Cozumel because there are so many things to do on the island and I could keep coming back and experiencing new things.















DD and I roamed around and checked out the outer ring. Because we both wanted to try and catch the 11:45am taxi back to the ship we didn't really explore as much as we should have. We both agreed if we came back we would definitely spend the day here.

We headed back up to the main building to now purchase our pictures. This took much longer than we had expected, while they were very fast in processing the pictures it was very crowded and only one guy was working the checkout area which really slowed everything down. So DD and I finished up at 12:00pm which meant we had 45 minutes until the next taxi ride back to the port. DD and I opted to rent our own taxi and head back ourselves versus waiting. It was only $12 and about 10 minutes. We walked through the mall area and were back on the ship just in time for lunch. A quick bite at Park Cafe and we stopped at the Boardwalk again.













Tonight we had no shows and some of us adults opted to skip the dining room for dinner and just grab food around the ship. I took DD up to Windjammer for dinner before dropping her off at the clubs and the rest of us decided to just roam and enjoy the ship.

We stopped at Sabor for some tableside guacamole, tacos and margaritas. This is hands down the best value on the ship. DH and I only spent about $15 total for our dinner and it was delicious!









After roaming and eating we went to the Quest game show. This was hysterical and loads of fun.







Up next, Final Day at Sea!!

 

[Batgirl67]

Thank you for the report so far. Will be on the Oasis with this itin. next year.

 

[kstaack]

Great review. We were also on the same sailing. I have a trip report on cruise critic. I agree with you the weather was the worst out of any cruise that we have been on. However, we had a great time, loved the ship, and cannot wait for the Oasis to be in Port Canaveral.

 

[verygfy]

Enjoying your report. Cant wait to read more.

Thank you for reading along!

Great pictures.

Thank you!

Really enjoying your trip report - we did Oasis a couple of years ago and just dud the fantasy last month

They are both amazing ships! Thank you for reading!

Thank you for the report so far. Will be on the Oasis with this itin. next year.

Thank you for reading! Have a great cruise!

Great review. We were also on the same sailing. I have a trip report on cruise critic. I agree with you the weather was the worst out of any cruise that we have been on. However, we had a great time, loved the ship, and cannot wait for the Oasis to be in Port Canaveral.

It really was bad weather all week, but we lucked out with Cozumel. I thought for sure the day was done when I woke up. I will pop over and read your review. Thank you for reading!!

 

[verygfy]

Day 7 Final Day at Sea

The last day of a cruise is the worst. You want to wake up early so you can enjoy the last day from beginning to end, but by the time you reach this day you just want to stay in the comfy cozy bed enjoying the swaying of the ship. I woke at 7am ready to go but no one else in my cabin was budging. So down to Park Cafe for my coffee and quiet. Back to the room and everyone was still not budging... I really wanted breakfast in the dining room this morning so I managed to get DD up and out and we got to dining room about 30 minutes before they close. It was so nice to have a nice relaxing breakfast and be served!!

After breakfast we went to see if the rest of the group was up and moving. Everyone was just waking up so I took DD to the clubs and went looking for a spot to hang out for the day. This was our first nice day of the cruise so the pool decks were packed by 10am.







We ended up finding a spot on the top deck and just relaxed until it was time to pick up DD. Once I picked her up we headed to Windjammer for lunch. They had a cake that they sliced up into huge slices for all the diners.



After our lunch we headed over the Aquatheater for the Belly Flop Competition. This was lots of fun and lots of laugh. It was funny, our cruise director came out to introduce the show and pointed out that this was our first sunny day on the cruise and everyone was sitting in the shade! I guess we all got used to that overcast for the week.





Never did get to Rock Climbing, guess I will have to book another cruise!



Then it was on to the competition!













We all had a good laugh with the contest!



Watching the zipliners from below.

The kids wanted to play in the arcade for a bit, so...



Continued in next post

 

[verygfy]

Final Day at Sea Part 2

The one thing I really wanted to see was the crew doing the Flowrider. Prior to the crew doing there demonstration they had the Best of Competition. Little did I know this was about to take the rest of my day!!

First up Boogie Board 360. Each of the contestants had to spin around as many times as they could without crashing.







After the 360 was the Stand Up competition. But before we got to the contestants one of the judges was the 3 time World Championship Flowboard Winner so we got a mini show from her.







She was fantastic. After her we had the guys go with the stand up surfing. After this it was 6:00pm. Ouch were did the time go... DD wanted one more dip in the pool before dinner, so...



It was time to get ready for dinner and put our bags in the hallway. After we were done putting our bags out we headed back upstairs to get some sunset pictures. Apparently we weren't the only ones







Tonight was PJ party in the club so I let DD go while we were getting the bags packed up and I let her just hang out in her PJ's for the rest of the night!





Our dinner was lovely as always tonight and we said good bye to our waiters. The one thing I don't like and Disney does it to is the really long plea on the last night to leave a 5 star rating for the staff. I understand that there contract renewals are probably heavily weighed on these reviews, but I hate the pressure talk. Kind of ruins the whole mood if you know what I mean.

On our list all week had been the rising tide bar. For some reason all cruise we just could not catch that thing moving. We would get on and it would never leave or we would just miss it or we would get on and there was no seats to be found. We decided one final try and finally we were able to get on! This is so great. Love how you get 2 totally different experiences.





After our ride and a stroll around the ship it was time to call it a night!

Up next: Final Thoughts!

 

[verygfy]

Final Thoughts

Having sailed only on Disney previously I was very nervous about switching cruise lines. I am happy I did it though.

I learned that I really like cruising. People waiting on you all day, having the cabin cleaned twice per day, friendly staff, being in the middle of nowhere, all of it. I don't think I ever really appreciated that part being on Disney.

This was by far the most relaxing vacation for me. As the resident planner of the family and group I am usually so busy running from place to place and this cruise I just did not feel like that is why I needed to be doing. We have a DCL 3 day scheduled for January and I am already planning on not sleeping just so we can enjoy it all!!

Royals shows are bizzare in the sense that they have no story line, but there main shows are fantastic when it comes to acrobatics and the wow factor.

After sailing only on Disney I never understood the whole cheesy cruise line lounger singer jokes. I totally get them now. Royal had some horrible cheesy lounge singer acts. This was not a totally horrible thing it allowed us to go see other things versus sitting in a show so I was good with it.

Crowds! WOW I have to give it to this ship. We never felt crowded. The only time I ever felt that there were 6,000+ people on the ship was embarkation at customs. This line was super crazy and people were everywhere. We ate at Windjammer, got off the ship right when we were cleared, in the Promenade during parties and really never felt anymore crowded than on any Disney ship.

The food was good. No one had any complaints.

My two major complaints about RCCL versus DCL was the kids club set hours and late night dining and maybe they kind of go hand in hand. DD has always enjoyed the clubs and she did enjoy RCCL club, I did not like the set hours. It just really did not work with how we normally like to do things. Plus it seemed like all family activities were always scheduled at 8:00pm or 8:30pm which was right at our dinner time. This drove me crazy all week. So if you are a family I would highly recommend either doing my time dining or early dining.

The neighborhoods are just fantastic, as you can tell we loved the Boardwalk and Central Park. Royal Promenade really is not our thing, but that's okay we just hung out in other places.

The pools get huge, huge points from me. They are fantastic and they will be even better when they add the waterslides!

Sports deck is awesome!!

All in all it was a great cruise and when Oasis moves to Port Canaveral I will definitely be looking at booking another cruise!

Happy Cruising!