OrcaPotter
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There have been several comparison threads, all of which I studied intensely before my family's Oasis cruise that left June 18th and returned last Sunday, June 25th. I always appreciated the more recent reviews, so I figured I would offer my thoughts to those who are planning or considering this alternative option out of Port Canaveral.
For context, I am a single woman in my 30's who travels with my parents. We have done 5 DCL cruises since 2012; prior to that, we did 1 Royal Caribbean on the Mariner of the Seas in 2007 and our first cruise was on the NCL Norway in 2003. We fell hard for DCL; however, my mother wanted a different experience for our vacation this year (and felt it was more socially appropriate for me). We had vowed to avoid the mega ships ever since they first came out; only, the Oasis was the only newer Royal ship out of Port Canaveral this summer. We only live 45-50 minutes from the port, so for my aging parents who can't travel far these days, Canaveral was vital.
So, we bit the bullet and decided to try the Oasis of the Seas--this time bringing my adult nephew along. Here was our experience:
Booking:
- The Royal Caribbean website is atrocious. Convoluted and glitchy, I gave up and ended up calling to book. This became my preferred method of doing anything with this company. I realized later that Dreams Unlimited now books RCI, but I felt like with all the necessary arrangements required by RCI (dining, shows, packages, etc) I wanted to have more direct control for our first time on such a big ship.
- All but 1 call to the 800 number resulted in clear, helpful communication. I received a ton of emails as things were scheduled, rescheduled, and cancelled. These emails were pretty unclear, though. Being able to talk to a human being with good communication skills was vital in this. They arranged all of our show times and made sure (prior to sailing) that our dining times were set. The ONLY thing I ended up doing online was booking a shore excursion in St. Thomas and ordering a water package for the room.
- All of your paid extras (packages, spa, excursions, etc) must be paid in advance. This was a big change from DCL and one I didn't necessarily like. There are folks that prefer this so as to avoid a big bill at the end of vacation, but I felt like the potential for problems was higher this way. What if I changed my mind later? What if the refund doesn't go through? I do agree, though, that this likely cuts down on folks who book everything up only to cancel last minute. It just meant less time to save up money and we didn't book as much as we normally do as result. The lines at the excursion desk were long all week on board; perhaps the crappy website was a factor?
Embarking:
- After going out of 2 other ports in the past, we still feel Port Canaveral is the superior port for ease of access and experience. This was our first time going to terminal 1, which is completely new/redone from the old aging terminals on that side of the port. We had family drop us off, and that process was clearly marked and effortless. Due to my father's use of the scooter, we had priority through the security line (which is twice the size of DCL's and would've taken longer had we not had that priority). You then go upstairs to the check-in desks.
- This was an enormous room with a chaos of lines and people. There were, however, plenty of people to direct you to where you needed to go. We arrived around 11 and they were already boarding; we are gold Crown & Anchor Society members, so ours was the last priority group being called--which happened to be at that moment. We were directed to the handicap line, so had a minimal wait before our photos were being taken and everything processed. There was, however, NO explanation of anything to expect on board. My mother was handed a white card with her Sea Pass (RCI version of KTTW), which looked a lot like a boarding number card. We were directed to board immediately, so I didn't question it. This would come in to play later.
- I had been warned that embarkation day is when you feel the crowds the most and to avoid the Windjammer buffet at all costs. We went up to the Park Cafe in Central Park first, which we read would have virtually no crowd. Well, everyone else must've read that advice, too. It was nuts, and we had to wait for an indoor table--it was much too hot and humid to sit outside while the ship was docked. There is also very, very limited things to choose from. The 1, albeit "famous", roast beef sandwich and a selection of salads. There were a few desserts to choose from, too. It was good, but nothing to write home about.
Stateroom & Service:
- We had a superior oceanview verandah handicap accessible stateroom on deck 9 forward. It was a great location, just off the elevator lobby. The room was a bit smaller than the HA 5A stateroom we had on the Fantasy last year; we could park the scooter and charge it with room to easily move around on the Fantasy. On Oasis, it became an annoying obstacle that we couldn't seem to figure out where to put it and charge it out of the way. On the Fantasy, it had two huge closets with room to access it. On Oasis, there was only one, with oddly placed sliding doors that made accessing things inside cumbersome. There was also minimal drawer storage and instead, one whole side of the closet was dedicated to small shelves. We ended up stuffing most of our things on these shelves. This led me to invest in packing cubes for future trips, as having these would've made the shelves less difficult. The vanity area had a larger TV than DCL, but this appears to be in favor of giving up shelf space. We had TONS of room for things on the Fantasy; on Oasis, I was glad we brought along a hanging shoe organizer (which I hung using strong magnet hooks from the wall). We ended up keeping a lot of our stuff in our suitcases or on the floor simply because there was no where else. The bathroom was a decent size, similar to DCL (their HA rooms have only 1 bathroom) with a lot of installed hooks for things and shelves deep enough to accommodate toiletry bags.
- There is a paper newsletter on RCI, but this is their megaship--which means you will have a lot of reservations. NONE of this is on paper. I strongly recommend printing your reservation itinerary before you leave home, because the only way they provide this information to you is through the interactive TV. What they don't share is that your information is not accessible on this system until after you leave port; I kept hitting the menu on the remote only to get an error message. Otherwise, the only thing you have on paper is your pre-purchased excursion tickets. Our water package was already in our room.
- Service overall on Oasis wasn't nearly as genial or as personable as on DCL. Now, this subject is subjective. Your level of need is different from my family's and vice versa, so what one thinks is equal service to DCL may be perceived differently than others. On DCL, no matter who you walk by on the ship, they greet you with a smile and a salutation. I did not experience this on Oasis. Most of the crew I had to directly interact with, however, were nice. Our room attendant was great, though we did not get a towel animal on the 1st and last night. Not sure why. The door of our closet came off its hinges; I had brought a dry erase board for messages and wrote one for him to have it fixed, which was taken care of upon our return that evening. On embarkation day, I had several questions regarding our 3 night dining package, the missing VOOM log-in information that was not in our room, and our interactive TV being unavailable. I went to guest services, only to be stopped by a yellow shirt crewman fielding people's needs before they got on line. For each of my needs, he directed me to three different people all over deck 5. I then proceeded to have a wild goose chase, for each of these three people I saw, couldn't help me! They directed me to someplace else! I was overwhelmed and very annoyed that something guest services should be able to help me with was getting me no where.
- The breakdown of my 3 issues that might help you: only our room attendant seemed to think that the solution to the interactive TV was to wait until after we set sail. Everyone else suggested calling maintenance. Once we were in open water, I turned the TV off and on again--which confirmed that it needed to be reset. Seems to me that this is something common that the crew would be more aware of? As for our pre-purchased VOOM internet package, which became vital for communicating onboard (the Oasis does not have an app with a messenger service like DCL--yet), that unexplained white card handed to my mother before we were whisked onboard apparently had the log-in information. It was NOT a boarding number card. I ran all over deck 5 before finding a rep to explain this to me. Mom was embarrassed that she didn't read the card. As for our dining package, it took half the week to get that straightened out. Basically? I ended up going to the individual restaurants to make our dining times; save yourself the grief and just go to guest services once the craziness dies down. When I finally did that, the rep made all of my remaining arrangements for me--which should've been done from the getgo. PS: The Japanese hibachi is NOT included in the dining package we got. This was not communicated at all.
- The dining service in the MDR was OK to poor. Our servers only had 2 tables, but our main server always seemed overwhelmed and our drink server was inconsistent. One night, they forgot to take my nephew's order! Once they got mine, he whisked away, leaving my nephew blinking and bewildered with the menu still in his hands. Our drink server, once we flagged her down, took his order and chased down the main server who gave a confused apology. He was also extremely difficult to understand. The service in the paid for restaurants, with the exception of Sabor, was wonderful. Bar service everywhere was prompt, too.
- Our experience on the pool decks on DCL is that there were always attendants cleaning and repairing. This was not as consistent on Oasis. Pool decks were frequently flooded and extremely slippery--I saw plenty of people falling. You must also check out pool towels and return them, unless you want to be charged $25. I find this ridiculous, and we ended up getting monogrammed towels at our local department store and used those. We had a set of Boca clips for all of us, so we just secured them to the chairs of our verandah to dry them daily. This way we had a towel to wear back to the room and no risk of unwanted charges. There are, however, lifeguards at all the pools like DCL, so it was good to see other cruise lines finally following suit with such a necessary safety feature.
Entertainment/Amenities:
- There are several pools and over 20 hot tubs on Oasis. Despite this, on sea days, nearly all of them were "people soup" (which is how the pools on DCL are frequently referred to). It was HOT during our cruise, so pools and shade were in high demand. Every square inch of deck space on this ship is dedicated to loungers, to a point that it made walking around challenging--especially with a scooter. There is very little shaded lounger space, and the solarium, while beautiful, was basically a sauna in June. The only shaded area in this space is on deck 16 and people camped there. I was disappointed that I didn't use this area as result. If you like quiet, that's the only place you'll find it, too. The DJ/live band is played at high volume everywhere else on deck 15. This is also one of the only decks that you'll have views of the ocean outside of an oceanview room. Almost all the indoor spaces have no exterior windows. We stayed on the ship in Nassau, and this turned out to be the best day to use the pools with minimal crowds.
- Unlike on DCL, pool deck food was hard to come by. You have to go to the back of the ship (which had good pretzel dogs one day) for a small buffet, or up to deck 16 to the Windjammer also at the back of the ship. The solarium all the way forward had a bistro, but we never made it in there. The soft serve machines are in the center (2) and I always seemed to time it when an attendant was servicing them! People don't read directions either to make sure the handles are placed upright after use. People kept leaving the levers down, which caused the ice cream to melt and become soup. This resulted in the machines getting shut down frequently (there were 2 more in the Wipeout Cafe at the back of the ship). Now I understand why DCL went to having ice cream being served by an attendant.
- I will say this, if you like to be active and do a lot of things, this is the ship for you. The nightclubs were hopping every night and there were a lot of active things (rock wall, ice skating, zipline, wave machine, etc). Our sailing was full, though, and unlike what I was told--we dealt with crowds and lines all week. Most nightclubs were standing room only OUTSIDE of the bar. Trivia contests had people sitting on the floor and on top of tables. If there was a parade or event on deck 5, you gave up trying to cross until it was over. If you like LOUD music, and quite a mix of it (we called it Casey's Top 40 from 1970-2010), this was your ship. Want something a bit more refined, for a few short hours, there is live string music in Central Park. Be prepared to fight for seats in front of that, too.
- My family was most disappointed in the entertainment. Because it's almost all done by reservations, there are some nights you don't have a show to go to. Not that there was nothing else to do, but my parents missed the routine of dinner + stage show. CATS ... now, people either love it or hate it. We struggled to find seats even with our reservation. The performers were great, however, the story is impossible to follow and it just doesn't make sense. You can skip it; it's essentially about cats competing to be chosen to go to heaven. My nephew felt tortured, and bemoaned the experience for the rest of the week. Try to see the dive show early in the week, because chances are high your time will be canceled. Weather and technical difficulties canceled our show TWICE. We lucked out on the third try when they gave us a special showing at 10 pm the last night. This show was great, because it's just so unique. The ice skating show was great, too. The headliner--an ABBA tribute band, was fun but nothing to get excited over. We also had reservations for the comedians, which were good. Overall, though, you just can't compete with Disney as far as entertainment. No by-the-pool movies ... you had to time it just right to watch one at the Aqua Theatre. No on-board theatre. We enjoyed The Quest, though---which is a must see on all cruise lines.
- The spa is vastly superior on Disney. The one on Oasis was like visiting a JC Penny. They also forgot that I had an appointment after taking my mother back for a mani-pedi 30 minutes late. I waited an additional 30 minutes before they realized I also had an appointment. It took almost 3 hours for our mani-pedi, with no ocean views, so we were almost 45 minutes late to our first specialty dinner in Chops (Which was delicious btw).
Food
- You can tell that the uncharge restaurants is where cruise lines want us to go to get the really outstanding food. I wish that they would just roll this in to your once all-included fare, because it makes the MDR's almost non-desirable. We felt the food in the MDR to be good and more basic than DCL, but we preferred the taste and selection on DCL more. We've always had great service on DCL, too; some better than others, but this duo on Oasis was sad. We ended up in Chops, 180 Central Park, and Sabor ... and wished we had invested in doing additional nights at the other restaurants.
- All of the other food locations on the ship were in line with Disney. Due to the size of the ship, though, I felt the accessibility of these options was limited. I hope that DCL does not go much bigger than Dream class.
Shopping, Misc
- If you like designer purses, watches, perfume, and clothing ... you'll love shopping on RCI. That's all you'll find. They have a super, super small general store with basic brand t-shirts and a few other small things. You'll have to bring your lanyards from DCL for your Sea Pass like I did, otherwise they have a large assortment for purchase. I saw a lot of fellow Castaway Club members this way. One day was a 2 for $20 t-shirt sale which was nothing special. On another day there was a special benefit sail for the WWF of an exclusive sea turtle shirt and plush or plush panda with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity. I took advantage of that.
- I did my virtual runDisney 5k on their jogging track, which was nice but not nearly as scenic as on the DCL ships. Your view is mostly of the life rafts. The back of the ship has worn Titanic chairs without cushions that many people found as a rare quiet spot to watch the ocean, but you're squeezing off to the side of the jogging track to do this.
- My nephew and I did the fast cat snorkeling excursion in St. Thomas. We had a lot of fun, but there were FAR too many people on this excursion. At least 50+, which made it frustrating at times and no seating on the boat. I wish they would include in excursion explanations how many people the tour takes.
- There are only forward and aft elevators, but they are standard size and we didn't have to wait for one to accommodate a scooter often. While the size of the ship is enormous, it is an engineering marvel and very beautiful in its own way. We prefer to see the ocean as much as possible, though, and missed this part of our trip.
- RCI has the Dreamworks characters on board and I was shocked at how little they took advantage of such a partnership. They had a for-fee character breakfast and several appearances, plus 2 parades. That was it. A channel on the TV had non-stop Dreamworks movies. The kids' gift shop sold a selection of small plushes and a few t-shirts. That's it. I expected a lot more merchandise and more integration of the characters on board, but I guess their main demographic isn't sailing for Dreamworks--unlike Disney.
- This was the first cruise that we had someone walk off with some of the door magnets I made. That never happened on DCL, though I know it has happened to others. I only made a few Dreamworks ones for our door and all of them were personalized with our names. Around day 3 or 4, mine and my mother's disappeared. I checked our whole deck on port side, and while there were a few other doors decorated, our magnets were gone. I had even placed them near the top of the door to discourage little hands--and I used the ultra-strong magnets, too. Oh well! I make all of my magnets on the computer, so it's no big deal to make duplicates.
Final Thoughts
- I went into this cruise knowing it would not be the same as DCL and to approach it like I approach a day at Universal Studios. A fun time, but not the same. It was exactly as I expected and I only found myself comparing things to DCL when things were particularly bothersome.
- The kids clubs seemed really busy, but teens were ALL OVER the ship getting into mischief. They loved to hang out in the wee hours on the pool deck blasting their own personal music and we would happen upon groups of them hanging out in random places or playing in stairwells. Age levels were more in my range, though there were plenty my parents' ages too. They found themselves exhausted and overwhelmed daily, and it took them a while to get comfortable traversing the ship solo. I did not see hoards of intoxicated people causing problems; however, this ship stays up LATE and I'm sure there were people getting sloshed long after I called it a night. Our stateroom, however, was quiet and we had no problems with noise there.
- My conclusion is that I had a lot of fun. It was not relaxing, however; it would take up to an hour to find a place on the pool deck with an ocean view ... so most of my relaxing was on our verandah. There are a lot of unique features to this ship that Disney doesn't have, but I feel the balance of tech and amenities to your connection to the ocean is better on DCL. I still feel that service is superior on DCL. Food is comparable, to better on DCL. If you want quality swimming time, do it in your own personal pool or at a hotel pre or post cruise. You just won't get it on a cruise ship when not docked at port and everyone else is off. Stage shows are better on DCL, but more varied on RCI.
... Price? Out the door, we paid close to our fare on the Fantasy for the same time period last year. Comparable room, though better on DCL. We paid extra on Oasis for the internet 3 device package and 3 nights specialty dining. We paid the same amount for water last year. We did an excursion for 2 of us and purchased more alcoholic drinks on Oasis than we did on the Fantasy. We also had 1 person extra than last year. Was DCL more? Yes, ultimately, but not by much. We felt our time on DCL is of higher quality and with an older family, we felt this is much more important. Can we afford DCL in the summer? Not at a non-discounted rate. The prices they were charging for this summer were outrageous; a lot of FL resident deals have come out and I regret that we don't have the spare cash to pull one off. Plus, as a teacher, it's a challenge to get a week off during school. But I think my family is convinced that it's worth it to hold out for DCL. Now, I would not say no to RCI again. However, my parents do not wish to do the megaships again. I would also insist on moving up to a suite. My family requires room, and we do enjoy relaxing in it. The HA room on Oasis was better than if we had a regular room, but not as comfortable as DCL.
I think everyone should experience an Oasis class ship; you'll have a great time if you set your expectations up appropriately. I am, however, excited for my first trip on the Magic in January for Marvel Day at Sea.
If you have questions, particularly about something not related to kids (as I simply have no input in that), please feel free to ask. I hope this helped a few people!
For context, I am a single woman in my 30's who travels with my parents. We have done 5 DCL cruises since 2012; prior to that, we did 1 Royal Caribbean on the Mariner of the Seas in 2007 and our first cruise was on the NCL Norway in 2003. We fell hard for DCL; however, my mother wanted a different experience for our vacation this year (and felt it was more socially appropriate for me). We had vowed to avoid the mega ships ever since they first came out; only, the Oasis was the only newer Royal ship out of Port Canaveral this summer. We only live 45-50 minutes from the port, so for my aging parents who can't travel far these days, Canaveral was vital.
So, we bit the bullet and decided to try the Oasis of the Seas--this time bringing my adult nephew along. Here was our experience:
Booking:
- The Royal Caribbean website is atrocious. Convoluted and glitchy, I gave up and ended up calling to book. This became my preferred method of doing anything with this company. I realized later that Dreams Unlimited now books RCI, but I felt like with all the necessary arrangements required by RCI (dining, shows, packages, etc) I wanted to have more direct control for our first time on such a big ship.
- All but 1 call to the 800 number resulted in clear, helpful communication. I received a ton of emails as things were scheduled, rescheduled, and cancelled. These emails were pretty unclear, though. Being able to talk to a human being with good communication skills was vital in this. They arranged all of our show times and made sure (prior to sailing) that our dining times were set. The ONLY thing I ended up doing online was booking a shore excursion in St. Thomas and ordering a water package for the room.
- All of your paid extras (packages, spa, excursions, etc) must be paid in advance. This was a big change from DCL and one I didn't necessarily like. There are folks that prefer this so as to avoid a big bill at the end of vacation, but I felt like the potential for problems was higher this way. What if I changed my mind later? What if the refund doesn't go through? I do agree, though, that this likely cuts down on folks who book everything up only to cancel last minute. It just meant less time to save up money and we didn't book as much as we normally do as result. The lines at the excursion desk were long all week on board; perhaps the crappy website was a factor?
Embarking:
- After going out of 2 other ports in the past, we still feel Port Canaveral is the superior port for ease of access and experience. This was our first time going to terminal 1, which is completely new/redone from the old aging terminals on that side of the port. We had family drop us off, and that process was clearly marked and effortless. Due to my father's use of the scooter, we had priority through the security line (which is twice the size of DCL's and would've taken longer had we not had that priority). You then go upstairs to the check-in desks.
- This was an enormous room with a chaos of lines and people. There were, however, plenty of people to direct you to where you needed to go. We arrived around 11 and they were already boarding; we are gold Crown & Anchor Society members, so ours was the last priority group being called--which happened to be at that moment. We were directed to the handicap line, so had a minimal wait before our photos were being taken and everything processed. There was, however, NO explanation of anything to expect on board. My mother was handed a white card with her Sea Pass (RCI version of KTTW), which looked a lot like a boarding number card. We were directed to board immediately, so I didn't question it. This would come in to play later.
- I had been warned that embarkation day is when you feel the crowds the most and to avoid the Windjammer buffet at all costs. We went up to the Park Cafe in Central Park first, which we read would have virtually no crowd. Well, everyone else must've read that advice, too. It was nuts, and we had to wait for an indoor table--it was much too hot and humid to sit outside while the ship was docked. There is also very, very limited things to choose from. The 1, albeit "famous", roast beef sandwich and a selection of salads. There were a few desserts to choose from, too. It was good, but nothing to write home about.
Stateroom & Service:
- We had a superior oceanview verandah handicap accessible stateroom on deck 9 forward. It was a great location, just off the elevator lobby. The room was a bit smaller than the HA 5A stateroom we had on the Fantasy last year; we could park the scooter and charge it with room to easily move around on the Fantasy. On Oasis, it became an annoying obstacle that we couldn't seem to figure out where to put it and charge it out of the way. On the Fantasy, it had two huge closets with room to access it. On Oasis, there was only one, with oddly placed sliding doors that made accessing things inside cumbersome. There was also minimal drawer storage and instead, one whole side of the closet was dedicated to small shelves. We ended up stuffing most of our things on these shelves. This led me to invest in packing cubes for future trips, as having these would've made the shelves less difficult. The vanity area had a larger TV than DCL, but this appears to be in favor of giving up shelf space. We had TONS of room for things on the Fantasy; on Oasis, I was glad we brought along a hanging shoe organizer (which I hung using strong magnet hooks from the wall). We ended up keeping a lot of our stuff in our suitcases or on the floor simply because there was no where else. The bathroom was a decent size, similar to DCL (their HA rooms have only 1 bathroom) with a lot of installed hooks for things and shelves deep enough to accommodate toiletry bags.
- There is a paper newsletter on RCI, but this is their megaship--which means you will have a lot of reservations. NONE of this is on paper. I strongly recommend printing your reservation itinerary before you leave home, because the only way they provide this information to you is through the interactive TV. What they don't share is that your information is not accessible on this system until after you leave port; I kept hitting the menu on the remote only to get an error message. Otherwise, the only thing you have on paper is your pre-purchased excursion tickets. Our water package was already in our room.
- Service overall on Oasis wasn't nearly as genial or as personable as on DCL. Now, this subject is subjective. Your level of need is different from my family's and vice versa, so what one thinks is equal service to DCL may be perceived differently than others. On DCL, no matter who you walk by on the ship, they greet you with a smile and a salutation. I did not experience this on Oasis. Most of the crew I had to directly interact with, however, were nice. Our room attendant was great, though we did not get a towel animal on the 1st and last night. Not sure why. The door of our closet came off its hinges; I had brought a dry erase board for messages and wrote one for him to have it fixed, which was taken care of upon our return that evening. On embarkation day, I had several questions regarding our 3 night dining package, the missing VOOM log-in information that was not in our room, and our interactive TV being unavailable. I went to guest services, only to be stopped by a yellow shirt crewman fielding people's needs before they got on line. For each of my needs, he directed me to three different people all over deck 5. I then proceeded to have a wild goose chase, for each of these three people I saw, couldn't help me! They directed me to someplace else! I was overwhelmed and very annoyed that something guest services should be able to help me with was getting me no where.
- The breakdown of my 3 issues that might help you: only our room attendant seemed to think that the solution to the interactive TV was to wait until after we set sail. Everyone else suggested calling maintenance. Once we were in open water, I turned the TV off and on again--which confirmed that it needed to be reset. Seems to me that this is something common that the crew would be more aware of? As for our pre-purchased VOOM internet package, which became vital for communicating onboard (the Oasis does not have an app with a messenger service like DCL--yet), that unexplained white card handed to my mother before we were whisked onboard apparently had the log-in information. It was NOT a boarding number card. I ran all over deck 5 before finding a rep to explain this to me. Mom was embarrassed that she didn't read the card. As for our dining package, it took half the week to get that straightened out. Basically? I ended up going to the individual restaurants to make our dining times; save yourself the grief and just go to guest services once the craziness dies down. When I finally did that, the rep made all of my remaining arrangements for me--which should've been done from the getgo. PS: The Japanese hibachi is NOT included in the dining package we got. This was not communicated at all.
- The dining service in the MDR was OK to poor. Our servers only had 2 tables, but our main server always seemed overwhelmed and our drink server was inconsistent. One night, they forgot to take my nephew's order! Once they got mine, he whisked away, leaving my nephew blinking and bewildered with the menu still in his hands. Our drink server, once we flagged her down, took his order and chased down the main server who gave a confused apology. He was also extremely difficult to understand. The service in the paid for restaurants, with the exception of Sabor, was wonderful. Bar service everywhere was prompt, too.
- Our experience on the pool decks on DCL is that there were always attendants cleaning and repairing. This was not as consistent on Oasis. Pool decks were frequently flooded and extremely slippery--I saw plenty of people falling. You must also check out pool towels and return them, unless you want to be charged $25. I find this ridiculous, and we ended up getting monogrammed towels at our local department store and used those. We had a set of Boca clips for all of us, so we just secured them to the chairs of our verandah to dry them daily. This way we had a towel to wear back to the room and no risk of unwanted charges. There are, however, lifeguards at all the pools like DCL, so it was good to see other cruise lines finally following suit with such a necessary safety feature.
Entertainment/Amenities:
- There are several pools and over 20 hot tubs on Oasis. Despite this, on sea days, nearly all of them were "people soup" (which is how the pools on DCL are frequently referred to). It was HOT during our cruise, so pools and shade were in high demand. Every square inch of deck space on this ship is dedicated to loungers, to a point that it made walking around challenging--especially with a scooter. There is very little shaded lounger space, and the solarium, while beautiful, was basically a sauna in June. The only shaded area in this space is on deck 16 and people camped there. I was disappointed that I didn't use this area as result. If you like quiet, that's the only place you'll find it, too. The DJ/live band is played at high volume everywhere else on deck 15. This is also one of the only decks that you'll have views of the ocean outside of an oceanview room. Almost all the indoor spaces have no exterior windows. We stayed on the ship in Nassau, and this turned out to be the best day to use the pools with minimal crowds.
- Unlike on DCL, pool deck food was hard to come by. You have to go to the back of the ship (which had good pretzel dogs one day) for a small buffet, or up to deck 16 to the Windjammer also at the back of the ship. The solarium all the way forward had a bistro, but we never made it in there. The soft serve machines are in the center (2) and I always seemed to time it when an attendant was servicing them! People don't read directions either to make sure the handles are placed upright after use. People kept leaving the levers down, which caused the ice cream to melt and become soup. This resulted in the machines getting shut down frequently (there were 2 more in the Wipeout Cafe at the back of the ship). Now I understand why DCL went to having ice cream being served by an attendant.
- I will say this, if you like to be active and do a lot of things, this is the ship for you. The nightclubs were hopping every night and there were a lot of active things (rock wall, ice skating, zipline, wave machine, etc). Our sailing was full, though, and unlike what I was told--we dealt with crowds and lines all week. Most nightclubs were standing room only OUTSIDE of the bar. Trivia contests had people sitting on the floor and on top of tables. If there was a parade or event on deck 5, you gave up trying to cross until it was over. If you like LOUD music, and quite a mix of it (we called it Casey's Top 40 from 1970-2010), this was your ship. Want something a bit more refined, for a few short hours, there is live string music in Central Park. Be prepared to fight for seats in front of that, too.
- My family was most disappointed in the entertainment. Because it's almost all done by reservations, there are some nights you don't have a show to go to. Not that there was nothing else to do, but my parents missed the routine of dinner + stage show. CATS ... now, people either love it or hate it. We struggled to find seats even with our reservation. The performers were great, however, the story is impossible to follow and it just doesn't make sense. You can skip it; it's essentially about cats competing to be chosen to go to heaven. My nephew felt tortured, and bemoaned the experience for the rest of the week. Try to see the dive show early in the week, because chances are high your time will be canceled. Weather and technical difficulties canceled our show TWICE. We lucked out on the third try when they gave us a special showing at 10 pm the last night. This show was great, because it's just so unique. The ice skating show was great, too. The headliner--an ABBA tribute band, was fun but nothing to get excited over. We also had reservations for the comedians, which were good. Overall, though, you just can't compete with Disney as far as entertainment. No by-the-pool movies ... you had to time it just right to watch one at the Aqua Theatre. No on-board theatre. We enjoyed The Quest, though---which is a must see on all cruise lines.
- The spa is vastly superior on Disney. The one on Oasis was like visiting a JC Penny. They also forgot that I had an appointment after taking my mother back for a mani-pedi 30 minutes late. I waited an additional 30 minutes before they realized I also had an appointment. It took almost 3 hours for our mani-pedi, with no ocean views, so we were almost 45 minutes late to our first specialty dinner in Chops (Which was delicious btw).
Food
- You can tell that the uncharge restaurants is where cruise lines want us to go to get the really outstanding food. I wish that they would just roll this in to your once all-included fare, because it makes the MDR's almost non-desirable. We felt the food in the MDR to be good and more basic than DCL, but we preferred the taste and selection on DCL more. We've always had great service on DCL, too; some better than others, but this duo on Oasis was sad. We ended up in Chops, 180 Central Park, and Sabor ... and wished we had invested in doing additional nights at the other restaurants.
- All of the other food locations on the ship were in line with Disney. Due to the size of the ship, though, I felt the accessibility of these options was limited. I hope that DCL does not go much bigger than Dream class.
Shopping, Misc
- If you like designer purses, watches, perfume, and clothing ... you'll love shopping on RCI. That's all you'll find. They have a super, super small general store with basic brand t-shirts and a few other small things. You'll have to bring your lanyards from DCL for your Sea Pass like I did, otherwise they have a large assortment for purchase. I saw a lot of fellow Castaway Club members this way. One day was a 2 for $20 t-shirt sale which was nothing special. On another day there was a special benefit sail for the WWF of an exclusive sea turtle shirt and plush or plush panda with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity. I took advantage of that.
- I did my virtual runDisney 5k on their jogging track, which was nice but not nearly as scenic as on the DCL ships. Your view is mostly of the life rafts. The back of the ship has worn Titanic chairs without cushions that many people found as a rare quiet spot to watch the ocean, but you're squeezing off to the side of the jogging track to do this.
- My nephew and I did the fast cat snorkeling excursion in St. Thomas. We had a lot of fun, but there were FAR too many people on this excursion. At least 50+, which made it frustrating at times and no seating on the boat. I wish they would include in excursion explanations how many people the tour takes.
- There are only forward and aft elevators, but they are standard size and we didn't have to wait for one to accommodate a scooter often. While the size of the ship is enormous, it is an engineering marvel and very beautiful in its own way. We prefer to see the ocean as much as possible, though, and missed this part of our trip.
- RCI has the Dreamworks characters on board and I was shocked at how little they took advantage of such a partnership. They had a for-fee character breakfast and several appearances, plus 2 parades. That was it. A channel on the TV had non-stop Dreamworks movies. The kids' gift shop sold a selection of small plushes and a few t-shirts. That's it. I expected a lot more merchandise and more integration of the characters on board, but I guess their main demographic isn't sailing for Dreamworks--unlike Disney.
- This was the first cruise that we had someone walk off with some of the door magnets I made. That never happened on DCL, though I know it has happened to others. I only made a few Dreamworks ones for our door and all of them were personalized with our names. Around day 3 or 4, mine and my mother's disappeared. I checked our whole deck on port side, and while there were a few other doors decorated, our magnets were gone. I had even placed them near the top of the door to discourage little hands--and I used the ultra-strong magnets, too. Oh well! I make all of my magnets on the computer, so it's no big deal to make duplicates.
Final Thoughts
- I went into this cruise knowing it would not be the same as DCL and to approach it like I approach a day at Universal Studios. A fun time, but not the same. It was exactly as I expected and I only found myself comparing things to DCL when things were particularly bothersome.
- The kids clubs seemed really busy, but teens were ALL OVER the ship getting into mischief. They loved to hang out in the wee hours on the pool deck blasting their own personal music and we would happen upon groups of them hanging out in random places or playing in stairwells. Age levels were more in my range, though there were plenty my parents' ages too. They found themselves exhausted and overwhelmed daily, and it took them a while to get comfortable traversing the ship solo. I did not see hoards of intoxicated people causing problems; however, this ship stays up LATE and I'm sure there were people getting sloshed long after I called it a night. Our stateroom, however, was quiet and we had no problems with noise there.
- My conclusion is that I had a lot of fun. It was not relaxing, however; it would take up to an hour to find a place on the pool deck with an ocean view ... so most of my relaxing was on our verandah. There are a lot of unique features to this ship that Disney doesn't have, but I feel the balance of tech and amenities to your connection to the ocean is better on DCL. I still feel that service is superior on DCL. Food is comparable, to better on DCL. If you want quality swimming time, do it in your own personal pool or at a hotel pre or post cruise. You just won't get it on a cruise ship when not docked at port and everyone else is off. Stage shows are better on DCL, but more varied on RCI.
... Price? Out the door, we paid close to our fare on the Fantasy for the same time period last year. Comparable room, though better on DCL. We paid extra on Oasis for the internet 3 device package and 3 nights specialty dining. We paid the same amount for water last year. We did an excursion for 2 of us and purchased more alcoholic drinks on Oasis than we did on the Fantasy. We also had 1 person extra than last year. Was DCL more? Yes, ultimately, but not by much. We felt our time on DCL is of higher quality and with an older family, we felt this is much more important. Can we afford DCL in the summer? Not at a non-discounted rate. The prices they were charging for this summer were outrageous; a lot of FL resident deals have come out and I regret that we don't have the spare cash to pull one off. Plus, as a teacher, it's a challenge to get a week off during school. But I think my family is convinced that it's worth it to hold out for DCL. Now, I would not say no to RCI again. However, my parents do not wish to do the megaships again. I would also insist on moving up to a suite. My family requires room, and we do enjoy relaxing in it. The HA room on Oasis was better than if we had a regular room, but not as comfortable as DCL.
I think everyone should experience an Oasis class ship; you'll have a great time if you set your expectations up appropriately. I am, however, excited for my first trip on the Magic in January for Marvel Day at Sea.
If you have questions, particularly about something not related to kids (as I simply have no input in that), please feel free to ask. I hope this helped a few people!
