mevelandry
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2013
- Messages
- 9,663
This info applies to the Oasis & Allure:
Check-in & Boarding out of FLL:
Check in goes very smoothly and quickly. After check-in you go upstairs and all kids must check-in and get a wrist band (whether or not they plan to go to the clubs) to ID their muster station. You then find a seat in a section based on your RCI status. Once boarding starts, section by section is called. It's all very organized (and civil)!
Excursions:
We usually book our own excursions but have done a few through RCI. We booked a Sea Turtle Release in Cozumel with RCI because at the time I only found it through them. Last year when my daughter and I cruised alone we booked tubing on the Rio Bueno in Falmouth, a dolphin excursion at Chankanaab in Cozumel, and an excursion to Paradise Cove in Labadee. All of the excursions were excellent. We waited to book until RCI offered discounts on excursions, which they do several times during the course of a year.
Complimentary Activities:
My daughter (she doesn't do kids' clubs on any cruise line) loved the carousel and rock climbing wall. She wasn't tall enough to do the flow rider without the boogie board so didn't want to do that but she's looking forward to doing it standing up in November. She hasn't gone ice skating yet but will likely do that in November as well. We really liked the shows, played some trivia, enjoyed the Madagascar greets/shows and enjoyed the Mardi Gras type parade around the promenade but we spent most of our time in the pool (love that they have so many on each ship). I also love that they have live music on the pool deck. Looking forward to the 3D theater on the Harmony too.
Shows:
We love the ice skating shows and the aqua/diving shows. There were 2 of each on our Allure cruise including an aqua show with the Madagascar characters. We also enjoy the musicals - very good productions. There is usually another main production show as well.
Pools:
This is a BIGGIE for us (as you might know from reading some of my posts complaining about the Disney pool). There are 3 family pools plus a good sized-kids' pool as well as a cool splash zone and a wave pool (think that's what it's called). We spent most of our time in
what is considered the sports pool. There was enough space to swim and it was never crowded. They offered water aerobics and volley ball
each day. They also had (for fee) scuba lessons there.
Complimentary dining:
On our last cruise we ate at the specialty restaurants 4 nights out of 7. The other 3 nights we ate at the buffet. It's easy and there are a lot of choices - some good, some okay. We had lunch at the buffet, Wipe Out Cafe, or Park Cafe. Park Cafe has a lot of options - salads, sandwiches, etc. and is good. Breakfast we ate in the buffet, Park Cafe, or Johnny Rockets. For snacks we ate at Cafe Promendade, Boardwalk Dog House, or Sorrento's. Food was usually good to very good and even if we had't gone to the specialty restaurants, we would have been satisfied.
Specialty Dining:
We never did specialty dining before but on our Allure cruise they offered a great deal the day we boarded. We took the 3 restaurant
package. My daughter (then 8) would either be free or small charge depending on what she ate. I loved that she could go to the specialty
restaurants with me and since it was just the two of us traveling it really was a special time for us. We selected Chops, Izumi (hibachi) and Giovanni's Table. We found out after we booked those that our TA had gifted us with a specialty restaurant so we choose 150 Central Park. We had a lot of fun at Izumi's and I loved the food at Chops. But 150 Central Park? Wow! It was such a great experience. We were seated in very high back chairs at a table for two. They had a sampler of 6 salts from around the world that you added to your unsalted butter for your bread. We had fun comparing all the salts and choosing our favorites. The service there was excellent. And the warm donuts for dessert? Who knew they could make donuts so delicious? In the end they charged very little for my daughter - nothing in Giovanni's, and little in the others, even though she always ate off the adult menu. It was definitely worth it for us. One other meal we enjoyed was the Madagascar character chocolate breakfast ($10 each). We'll be doing it again!
Shops:
Lots of shops and sales. We're not big shoppers so we didn't buy much although they did have a few nice things. The sales are one of the things that Disney people complain about but honestly it's easy to avoid (as are the smoke and the casino).
Staff:
We found everyone to be nice and helpful. We didn't have the same dining team each night but that's never been very important to us. If it is, I believe you can ask for the same team (in the same dining room).
Booking Dining/Entertainment:
If you go on an Oasis class ship it's recommended that you reserve at least your shows in advance (and you should!). It can be daunting the first time especially when you don't know what else might be going on at that time. What I do is look at the most recent Cruise Compass of our itinerary and compare that to sea/port days. If you don't reserve specialty dining in advance it's usually easy enough to reserve around
your show times as soon as you board. You can make changes to reservations if you need to either before you cruise or once on board. There are stand-by lines for each show but I'm more comfortable booking and getting a good seat!
Roll Call:
2018 - November 3rd - 7 night Western Caribbean - Harmony of the Seas
I added your date to the Roll Call.
I also read your review and cherry-picked infos here and there that I added to the original post.