First RCL cruise Oasis of the Seas - where to start

[sal123]

We are looking at Oasis of the Sea from New Jersey in Aug 22 as a change to Disney/Universal and I’m already overwhelmed!

I was hoping you lovely people could help get me started.

We are a family of 4 2 adults and 2 kids (13 & 11) ideally wanting a balcony stateroom.

What things do I need to look at or be aware of? I have no clue over dining or drinks packages, tipping, additional extra charges, WiFi (do we need this, is it any good if we had it?), what things do we need to book in advance and generally anything else you can help me with prior to booking.

We’ve got a bit of time until we can book anyway as at the moment I don’t think my unvaccinated 13 year old can travel and we don’t have any dates as to when he will be eligible to get a vaccination so are wary about taking the risk booking until that is resolved so are using this time to get in a lot of planning. Really hoping we can book before Black Friday.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[Sleepy425]

You can book a refundable deposit for $250/person. Once you book, if price goes down they will reprice. I highly recommend booking now.
Oasis has three different balcony choices - Central Park , Ocean, and...is it Promenade? I forget the third but that sounds right. So you will need to decide which view you prefer. Central Park and Promenade assume will be louder because you will get the sounds of entertainment and people coming from below.
Tipping will be added to your room each day. $14.50/person/day I believe now. Or you can prepay it prior to the cruise. We have it added each day, and tend to tip extra also.
We do not buy wifi on board, I like to be disconnected while onboard.
My husband likes the Refreshment Package, and my mom likes the Deluxe Drink Package (alcohol), so we book those two in a room together and they get those. On Black Friday we got the Refreshment Package for $18 or $19/day and the alcohol package for $46/day. If you book and the price goes down in the Cruise Planner, you can cancel and rebook easily. Prices for everything (except tips, those vary if you are in a suite or not) will vary by ship and even the date you are sailing. My prices are for Anthem out of Jersey for Thanksgiving.
ETA: Parking is so easy in Jersey. $20/day, and getting your car after the cruise is very convenient. We got off Anthem in 2018 and were home in CT (near New Haven) by 10am.

 

[sal123]

You can book a refundable deposit for $250/person. Once you book, if price goes down they will reprice. I highly recommend booking now.
Oasis has three different balcony choices - Central Park , Ocean, and...is it Promenade? I forget the third but that sounds right. So you will need to decide which view you prefer. Central Park and Promenade assume will be louder because you will get the sounds of entertainment and people coming from below.
Tipping will be added to your room each day. $14.50/person/day I believe now. Or you can prepay it prior to the cruise. We have it added each day, and tend to tip extra also.
We do not buy wifi on board, I like to be disconnected while onboard.
My husband likes the Refreshment Package, and my mom likes the Deluxe Drink Package (alcohol), so we book those two in a room together and they get those. On Black Friday we got the Refreshment Package for $18 or $19/day and the alcohol package for $46/day. If you book and the price goes down in the Cruise Planner, you can cancel and rebook easily. Prices for everything (except tips, those vary if you are in a suite or not) will vary by ship and even the date you are sailing. My prices are for Anthem out of Jersey for Thanksgiving.
ETA: Parking is so easy in Jersey. $20/day, and getting your car after the cruise is very convenient. We got off Anthem in 2018 and were home in CT (near New Haven) by 10am.

Thank you, I hadn’t appreciated that it was a refundable deposit, I’ll take a look at that - I’m just concerned that my older son is not yet eligible here for vaccination and it looks like that, at the moment, is key.

We’d be flying back that night likely from Newark which didn’t look too complicated to get to, but would like to stay a few nights in New York before hand - we‘re meant to be there in October but looking likely it will be cancelled.

 

[starvenger]

Connecting (or adjacent) staterooms will probably cost more than a four person stateroom, but may offer more value as you'd get double the space and a second bathroom. My girls were 9 and 12 on my last cruise (seems so long ago now), and believe me there were times I was thinking that the second WC would come in handy.

I would highly recommend getting a travel agent to handle your booking - it costs you nothing extra and you should be able to set parameters on rebooking and what you're looking for, and hopefully keep you updated on the latest protocols. The board owners do book Royal cruises, but if you look locally I'm sure you can find someone as well. And whomever you choose, I am certain they will appreciate the business.

OK, some general stuff:

Oasis has three different balcony choices - Central Park , Ocean, and...is it Promenade? I forget the third but that sounds right. So you will need to decide which view you prefer. Central Park and Promenade assume will be louder because you will get the sounds of entertainment and people coming from below

Boardwalk is the third, overlooking the, well, Boardwalk with slightly obstructed views of the purple slide and aqua theatre. Promenade does have a view, but it's window only.

14th floor is right under the Lido deck. Closer to the action, but also louder.

Cruise Planner has "sales" every week. Rule of thumb is that if you see something you like and the price seems fine, book it. Then if you check back and the price is cheaper, rebook it. I would say that, based on my anecdotal "research", Black Friday and Boxing Day (day after Christmas) have the best sales.

You are not beholden to that $14.50 per person per day gratuity charge btw - you can go to guest services and adjust as you see fit - but the amount Royal charges feels fair to me and I'll usually prepay so that it gets lumped in as part of my actual cruise cost when budgeting. If you decide to tip over and above, think of an amount per day you want to give, multiply that by the number of nights, and round to the nearest 0 or 5 (or go to the casino to get singles).

Wifi on board the larger ships is quite good. If you're looking to keep up with your social it should be no problems. I believe Oasis will have three (four?) flavours of wifi in 2022.
- Free (you can use the Royal Caribbean app and access activities, book restaurants and view menus)
- Messaging ($) (you can use the in-app chat for a fee)
- Surf ($$) (Good for social media and browsing)
- Stream ($$$) (Good for streaming video, although I figure geo-restrictions might come into play)

Dining - Ultimate Dining Package is probably worth looking into on Oasis, as there are several venues you can eat at, and you can eat at more than one per day. I think Matt at Royal Caribbean Blog outlined a strategy at some point, but I can't fully remember on that.

I'm not certain how excursions and ports will work in 2022. Everything keeps changing so keep reading the cruise websites (or watch YouTube) to keep up.

 

[Frozen2014]

Another tip for a family of 4 on Oasis (or Allure). I agree that 2 rooms is better than 1, but sometimes the cost is significantly more (esp if you want a balcony). On Oasis, you can check for a 5+ room. There are a few in the Promenade (interior), Central Park, Boardwalk and Balcony staterooms. Theses rooms have a sofa bed plus a pullman. They are a good option if sticking to one room but then each kid gets their own bed. You probably have to call for these as they often don't pop up as available in general searches (or work with a TA)

 

[HopperFan]

Thank you, I hadn’t appreciated that it was a refundable deposit, I’ll take a look at that - I’m just concerned that my older son is not yet eligible here for vaccination and it looks like that, at the moment, is key.

We’d be flying back that night likely from Newark which didn’t look too complicated to get to, but would like to stay a few nights in New York before hand - we‘re meant to be there in October but looking likely it will be cancelled.

So you will still have one unvaccinated even if your oldest is? Have you explored all the requirements of parties on RCL who include an unvaccinated guest? I would make sure you research how your trip will be impacted, what you can and can't do etc. Testing requirements etc. Having been on RCL a number of times including Oasis, at this moment, if my party included an unvaccinated guest I would not be going. I want the full experience and access to everywhere.

Balcony, we always opt for Oceanview and get one of the "hump" cabins because they come with the larger balcony and are in middle of ship. Good location for any movement (although on these big boys you don't feel much unless water rough) and easy to get anywhere. Central Park is beautiful and peaceful with occasional music so that might be nice but Boardwalk can be noisy and I personally wouldn't book there.

 

[sal123]

Connecting (or adjacent) staterooms will probably cost more than a four person stateroom, but may offer more value as you'd get double the space and a second bathroom. My girls were 9 and 12 on my last cruise (seems so long ago now), and believe me there were times I was thinking that the second WC would come in handy.

I would highly recommend getting a travel agent to handle your booking - it costs you nothing extra and you should be able to set parameters on rebooking and what you're looking for, and hopefully keep you updated on the latest protocols. The board owners do book Royal cruises, but if you look locally I'm sure you can find someone as well. And whomever you choose, I am certain they will appreciate the business.

OK, some general stuff:

Boardwalk is the third, overlooking the, well, Boardwalk with slightly obstructed views of the purple slide and aqua theatre. Promenade does have a view, but it's window only.

14th floor is right under the Lido deck. Closer to the action, but also louder.

Cruise Planner has "sales" every week. Rule of thumb is that if you see something you like and the price seems fine, book it. Then if you check back and the price is cheaper, rebook it. I would say that, based on my anecdotal "research", Black Friday and Boxing Day (day after Christmas) have the best sales.

You are not beholden to that $14.50 per person per day gratuity charge btw - you can go to guest services and adjust as you see fit - but the amount Royal charges feels fair to me and I'll usually prepay so that it gets lumped in as part of my actual cruise cost when budgeting. If you decide to tip over and above, think of an amount per day you want to give, multiply that by the number of nights, and round to the nearest 0 or 5 (or go to the casino to get singles).

Wifi on board the larger ships is quite good. If you're looking to keep up with your social it should be no problems. I believe Oasis will have three (four?) flavours of wifi in 2022.
- Free (you can use the Royal Caribbean app and access activities, book restaurants and view menus)
- Messaging ($) (you can use the in-app chat for a fee)
- Surf ($$) (Good for social media and browsing)
- Stream ($$$) (Good for streaming video, although I figure geo-restrictions might come into play)

Dining - Ultimate Dining Package is probably worth looking into on Oasis, as there are several venues you can eat at, and you can eat at more than one per day. I think Matt at Royal Caribbean Blog outlined a strategy at some point, but I can't fully remember on that.

I'm not certain how excursions and ports will work in 2022. Everything keeps changing so keep reading the cruise websites (or watch YouTube) to keep up.

Thank you thats most helpful. In terms of dining and activities, how far in advance do these things need to be booked and is it all done on the app?

 

[sal123]

So you will still have one unvaccinated even if your oldest is? Have you explored all the requirements of parties on RCL who include an unvaccinated guest? I would make sure you research how your trip will be impacted, what you can and can't do etc. Testing requirements etc. Having been on RCL a number of times including Oasis, at this moment, if my party included an unvaccinated guest I would not be going. I want the full experience and access to everywhere.

Balcony, we always opt for Oceanview and get one of the "hump" cabins because they come with the larger balcony and are in middle of ship. Good location for any movement (although on these big boys you don't feel much unless water rough) and easy to get anywhere. Central Park is beautiful and peaceful with occasional music so that might be nice but Boardwalk can be noisy and I personally wouldn't book there.

Yes we will still have one unvaccinated and I take on board what you are saying re what we can and can’t do. When I looked at it it wasn’t too bad on what we could do so the bigger concern is that the older one wouldn’t be allowed on at all unvaccinated, although they have announced today that one of the vaccines has been approved for use in 12-17 year olds so fingers crossed all will be ok.

 

[John VN]

We are looking at Oasis of the Sea from New Jersey [/b]in Aug 22[/b] as a change to Disney/Universal and I’m already overwhelmed!

I was hoping you lovely people could help get me started.

We are a family of 4 2 adults and 2 kids (13 & 11) ideally wanting a balcony stateroom.

What things do I need to look at or be aware of? I have no clue over dining or drinks packages, tipping, additional extra charges, WiFi (do we need this, is it any good if we had it?), what things do we need to book in advance and generally anything else you can help me with prior to booking.

We’ve got a bit of time until we can book anyway as at the moment I don’t think my unvaccinated 13 year old can travel and we don’t have any dates as to when he will be eligible to get a vaccination so are wary about taking the risk booking until that is resolved so are using this time to get in a lot of planning. Really hoping we can book before Black Friday.

Thanks in advance for your help

Why be concerned now for an Aug. '22 sailing? I would book now and keep checking for reductions in pricing as time progresses.

Have a GREAT TIME!!!

 

[starvenger]

Another tip for a family of 4 on Oasis (or Allure). I agree that 2 rooms is better than 1, but sometimes the cost is significantly more (esp if you want a balcony). On Oasis, you can check for a 5+ room. There are a few in the Promenade (interior), Central Park, Boardwalk and Balcony staterooms. Theses rooms have a sofa bed plus a pullman. They are a good option if sticking to one room but then each kid gets their own bed. You probably have to call for these as they often don't pop up as available in general searches (or work with a TA)

This is one reason why I recommend getting a travel agent for your first cruise - and I should've been more specific that it should be a travel agent that specializes in cruises - as they can navigate all of the stuff the cruise lines throw at you and find the best value, and you can determine what is acceptable.

Thank you thats most helpful. In terms of dining and activities, how far in advance do these things need to be booked and is it all done on the app?

I'm not sure how everything is working during the Time of COVID, but in the past, booking a dining package meant that you were randomly assigned to a restaurant for the first night, and you could change that (and schedule other dinners) once you were on board. But with 4 people I don't see an issue with you doing a walk-in.

It should be noted that some of the restaurants (Port Side, Johnny Rockets, Playmakers) don't require a reservation, and have a cap on how much you can spend each time you go.

For shows, you do book that via the Cruise Planner. Expect those to show up for booking about 90 days before sailing.

For other activities (like skating), those are booked on board.

 

[sal123]

Why be concerned now for an Aug. '22 sailing? I would book now and keep checking for reductions in pricing as time progresses.

Have a GREAT TIME!!!

Considering it now because it’s not a refundable deposit from the UK so is quite a lot of money for that and the flights to loose if it can‘t be moved for free and we wouldn’t be covered by insurance as it’s a known risk. If I could definitely move it free of charge I‘d have no issue just booking it

 

[John VN]

Considering it now because it’s not a refundable deposit from the UK so is quite a lot of money for that and the flights to loose if it can‘t be moved for free and we wouldn’t be covered by insurance as it’s a known risk. If I could definitely move it free of charge I‘d have no issue just booking it

SORRY. Did not realize you are UK. Agree with others about a Travel Agency and might not trip insurance cover cancelling?

 

[sal123]

SORRY. Did not realize you are UK. Agree with others about a Travel Agency and might not trip insurance cover cancelling?

Thats ok I hadn’t said that’s what’s causing the issue on booking as we are not yet vaccinating our 12-15 year olds although I have heard today that it may be starting soon which would then only give me an issue with our unvaccinated 11 year old but at least he can get on the ship!

I‘ve got a travel agent but I’ve had more helpful information from all you lovely people than I have them. I think I should look for a cruise specialist like someone suggested.

 

[sal123]

This is one reason why I recommend getting a travel agent for your first cruise - and I should've been more specific that it should be a travel agent that specializes in cruises - as they can navigate all of the stuff the cruise lines throw at you and find the best value, and you can determine what is acceptable.


I'm not sure how everything is working during the Time of COVID, but in the past, booking a dining package meant that you were randomly assigned to a restaurant for the first night, and you could change that (and schedule other dinners) once you were on board. But with 4 people I don't see an issue with you doing a walk-in.

It should be noted that some of the restaurants (Port Side, Johnny Rockets, Playmakers) don't require a reservation, and have a cap on how much you can spend each time you go.

For shows, you do book that via the Cruise Planner. Expect those to show up for booking about 90 days before sailing.

For other activities (like skating), those are booked on board.

Thanks again for your help - it’s much appreciate. I think im going to look for a cruise specialist. We have cruised before but not for many many years and not with kids so it’s all feeling very different (It probably isn’t I just can’t remember what we did for the others)

 

[John VN]

Thanks again for your help - it’s much appreciate. I think im going to look for a cruise specialist. We have cruised before but not for many many years and not with kids so it’s all feeling very different (It probably isn’t I just can’t remember what we did for the others)

DW and I sailed Oasis twice and it was GREAT!!! Hoping that things work out for y'all and here's some to help.

 

[sal123]

DW and I sailed Oasis twice and it was GREAT!!! Hoping that things work out for y'all and here's some to help.

Thank you!

 

[starvenger]

Thanks again for your help - it’s much appreciate. I think im going to look for a cruise specialist. We have cruised before but not for many many years and not with kids so it’s all feeling very different (It probably isn’t I just can’t remember what we did for the others)

I guarantee it will be very different. We had done a Princess cruise (pre-kids) back in 2006 and then didn't go on another one until Allure in 2013 and there were a lot of changes in between.

Since you're a Brit I'd recommend looking at videos from Gary Benbridge (Tips for Travellers) and Emma (Emma Cruises). Also Morgan (very unOfficial). Morgan is based in Germany but his travels might be applicable to you. And of course Chris Wong (no relation), who is currently doing a contract on Odyssey.

 

[sal123]

I guarantee it will be very different. We had done a Princess cruise (pre-kids) back in 2006 and then didn't go on another one until Allure in 2013 and there were a lot of changes in between.

Since you're a Brit I'd recommend looking at videos from Gary Benbridge (Tips for Travellers) and Emma (Emma Cruises). Also Morgan (very unOfficial). Morgan is based in Germany but his travels might be applicable to you. And of course Chris Wong (no relation), who is currently doing a contract on Odyssey.

Thanks for the recommendations I’ll take a look

 

[DizneyNutz]

Thanks again for your help - it’s much appreciate. I think im going to look for a cruise specialist. We have cruised before but not for many many years and not with kids so it’s all feeling very different (It probably isn’t I just can’t remember what we did for the others)

Just saw you may be looking a cruise specialist. We use Dreams Unlimited and our specific agent is Beth Fejer (sounds like Fayer). We have used her for probably 14 cruises. BethF@dreamsunlimitedtravel.com She specializes in Disney and Royal Caribbean.

 

[sam_gordon]

Oasis of the Seas was the first cruise ship DW & I went on. Not just first Royal ship, first cruise. It was almost 10 years ago (2013), and there's a link to the trip report in my signature. I'm sure they've changed things since we sailed her, but if you want a report from a "first timer", you might want to read it.

We later took our kids on Freedom of the Seas (actually twice) and find that Freedom worked better for us. I will say, while Oasis is big with a lot of people, we didn't really notice the people except certain times (following a show and muster drill).

We're booked on Mariner of the Seas for July of 22 and interested in what she has to offer.