OASIS OF THE SEAS - A REALLY LONG REVIEW...

My wife and I, in our early 60's, took the four day Oasis loop to
Haiti. It was a wonderful cruise. Here are our observations for your
perusal...

The Oasis is all that it claimed to be and more. It is like three
Freedom Class ships rolled into one. That is not without its
problems, however.

THE NEGATIVES;

1) You MUST have reservations in advance to attend the shows. Please
advise your other customers to do so on line or assist them with
this. I stumbled on that information about 4 days before the cruise,
and was unable to book all of the shows, as they were full. The
comedy show looks like it only seats about 150 or less, and with 6,000
guests it fills up fast. The main showroom seats about 1300 as nearly
as I could tell, and so it can fill up as well, but it never was
completely full on our cruse. The outdoor theater where the aqua pool
is located seats about 800 I would guess - just guessing on that one.
It was not possible to see that show, as it was full.

2) There were long lines - but only on the first day and only to get
tickets for the shows and/or to adjust dining times. There had been a
lot of snafus in the dining time reservations - I am sure that will be
correced quickly for future cruises.

3) The cruise compass was a mess - never right. I suspect they will
fix that soon, though.

4) Dining room was not able to meet my wife's dietary needs as well as
previous cruise ships of all RCL classes were (we cruise a lot) - but
they were OK. Just not as helpful or responsive. The ability to meet
her needs seems to rest with the head waiter, and this one was not
very helpful. I noticed they only seemed to have one head waiter for
the entire dining room on our level. There used to be two. Where is
Shamus when you need him??

5) Seating reservations for dinner were a bit confused, as I mentioned
- I think that is due to the newness of the ship. Finally people just
moved around to tables that were vacant, and from that point on
everything seemed to go fine.

6) We took the inaugural on the Freedom and it was flawless. This
ship did not seem quite ready for prime time in their organizational
areas, but to be fair, they had a lot of new stuff.

7) No towel animals and no chocolate on the pillow - not a big deal to
us, but we noticed the difference.

8) The room steward required that we stick a card in the door when we
were gone or the room did not get cleaned. That was a first, although
on the last cruise the room steward 'suggested' it.

THE NEW HI TECH AND CLEVER STUFF

1) There is an electronic cruise compass near each elevator bank. It
is a touch screen, and if you touch the activity, it displays a map on
how to get to the location. Very clever and very helpful. But
unfortunately, it was often not correct. I think that will be fixed.
That display was also used on departure day to show what color tags
were ready at the dock. Also it was not quite correct, but when it
gets working, it will be great.

2) They encouraged departing guests to remain in their rooms until
departure time. Very cool and a huge improvement over lugging things
to a lounge and waiting for hours. You were asked to go to the
departure lounge, but they suggested 10 minutes before departure time,

3) The reservation system for shows is good and bad. Kind of
frustrating when you cannot get a reservation, but it did make the
shows much less of a hassle, as there were adequate seats when you got
there.

4) Photos were stored in books - you gave them your card, and they
pulled out a book that had all your photos in it. I think they are
using facial recognition software. On the first day they asked for
your card when you got photographed, after that the did not. I cannot
figure out how they got all of the photos into the correct book unless
they were using that kind of software. They probably do not mention
it because the privacy people would go ballistic. When I asked, they
just said 'its magic.'

LOW TECH CLEVER STUFF

1) The ship is basically 3 areas front to back - the font has the
solarium and the workout room, the middle has the main street, the ice
rink, the casino, and Central Park depending on the floor you are on,
and the back is open with Boardwalk and the Aqua pool and the sports
courts above. I understand there is a conference area also, But I did
not see that.

STATEROOMS

!) We had an outside balcony. I would recommend AGAINST the inside
balconies. Noise (I am told) and limited privacy. As I looked out
the window from Dazzles nightclub, I could see people in the jammies
getting ready for bed in the inside staterooms overlooking Boardwalk
if they had not pulled the curtains. I heard from others that these
inside staterooms had more than their share of noise from below as
well

2) My stateroom felt small I don't really know why. However the
balcony was very nice, and the bathroom, although small as always,
actually 'felt' a bit larger. I could have used more storage space in
the bathroom. I am married,

BOARDWALK/SPORTS COURT

1) The boardwalk experience was magnificent. I had been to Atlantic
City 40 years ago, and they have recreated the experience very well
with the merry-go-round, the street vendors (things were free from
them), and even a brass band. I danced on one of those huge pianos
that played notes when you stepped on the keys. There was always
something going on there - always free. Beanbag tosses for the kids,
steel drums to play on, a bagpiper strolling through, etc., etc. The
restaurants there had a small charge - Johnny Rockets, a seafood
place, a donut shop, etc. We only used the Johnny Rockets - I noticed
someone said the seafood place was free - not sure.

2) The aqua theater is at the back end of the Boardwalk. Above the
boardwalk is the sports court with a zip line - you can hang from the
zip line and zip across the boardwalk about 7 stories above it.

3) The Sports court above the boardwalk (I forget how they did that as
the Boardwalk seemed open to the air above). It had a full basketball
court, a very nice miniature golf course, two flo-riders (they were
each a little smaller than the Freedom class ships), 8 ping pong
tables, and two rock climbing walls.

4) My 63 year old wife tried the zip line. Very cool. You really
need to get reservations for this on the first day though, as there is
always a waiting line, and they are very, very slow in launching
people - it can be 5-10 minutes between launches. Walk ups are
theoretically possible, but totally impractical for most.

5) The Aqua theater had two huge TV screens to show the swimmers from
above. I suspect those could be easily used for outdoor movies - RCL
- are you listening?

SOLARIUM/SPA/GYM

1) The solarium was not very busy. The weather was beautiful and it
was a bit away from the main flow of the ship. It was OK, but why use
it in good weather?

2) The spa looked much larger than usual. We did not use it this
time. My wife went to the gym every day - she said they had every
piece of equipment she could ever want, but she was disappointed that
there were no windows (just portholes). She liked to ride the
elliptical bike and look out at the sea on other ships.

CASINO

1) Twice as large as usual. Very friendly dealers - lots of high
dollar minimum tables. Someone told us they had offered a big
discount to high rollers on this cruise, which could be why. 1/2 no
smoking, 1/2 smoking, but the no smoking area was always packed full.

2) Three large blackjack dealing machines. I had not seen these for
many years. They were on a hallway that lead from the casino to the
ice rink. Most people walked thru the casino to get to the ice rink,
but it was possible to get there another way.

ICE RINK

1) The talent in this ice show was staggering. All of the ice shows
we have seen have been wonderful. This show was perhaps less glitzy
(although the costuming was superior to any we have seen), but the
talent was amazing. No weak skaters here - every one of them was
featured at some point, and we saw some ice moves that we had never
seen on TV - amazing stuff.

2) You could only see the show once. (but they allowed walk ups in
5-10 minutes before the show if you did not have tickets)

SHOW THEATER

1) We saw the headliner shows - people we had seen before, but they
were very good. The feature show is Hairspray' - a show that was a
bit controversial in its day because of the story line involving
interracial dating, but not so controversial now. The talent was
WONDERFUL at this show. Once again, every person in the show seemed
to be a very skilled actor, dancer, singer. I judge musical shows and
activities professionally, so this is not a casual comment coming from
me.

2) Seating is OK, but they did not allow room for the waiters to get
into the center seats, and the sections are very wide. Drink waiters
have a tough time serving - not well thought out in this area.

3) Two levels of balcony. Good view of the stage in general, but
there are some support poles at inconvenient places in the balconies,
make it necessary for some people to lean right and left to see parts
of the show around the poles.

4) They limited your ticketing to ONE SHOW ONLY for everything - you
could not see the ice show twice, for example, nor could you see
Hairspray twice. However you could wait at the door, and 5 minutes
before the show, they allowed walk-ups in, even if you had seen the
show before.

MAIN STREET (PROMENADE)

1) Much the same as Freedom class ships. The parades were more
refined with circus trapeze acrobats added. If you viewed the Dr.
Seuss parade from the 2nd level aft, the trapeze people were only a
couple of feet in front of you. We stumbled on that by accident.
Amazing stuff, again.

2) There is a unique bar that goes up and down from main street, up
two levels to Central Park. You can get on the 'bar' on either
level. Too many drinks could cause a bit of a quandary for some (just
kidding)

3) Food on main street included the pizzas and other stuff - I think
it was all free, but I did not sample everything.

4) There seem to be shows often - always something going on on the
Promenade. The cruise compass was not accurate in many areas, so
there may have been others that we did not see. The entertainers are
high energy. Well done.

5) I had often suggested that RCL add someone to draw portraits. They
have done it! At least caricatures. If the cruise had been longer,
we would have taken advantage of that feature. He (or she) is on the
Boardwalk.

6) BINGO - I did not see or hear Bingo anywhere. In the cruise
compass it said that bingo would be late at night. I really dislike
being constantly bombarded with announcements about Bingo. WOW.
There were not any! I know the bingo-lovers may not be happy about
that, and I understand, but I sure liked it.

7) ART AUCTION - I think there was one of those - but happily, I do
not know for sure, because they did not blare it over speakers ever 20
minutes. I also dislike the thought of being talked into purchasing
mediocre artwork at inflated prices, and my compliments to RCL - if
they had one of those on board, it was very low key. On some ships
you have to crawl over rows of tri-legged stands with pictures of some
heavyweight boxer and obtuse views of people walking down streeets to
get anywhere - not the case here. Thankfully.

8) SHOPS - Mostly high dollar stores from big name 'Cartier' level
merchandisers. Their traditional low-dollar shop for take-home RCL
merchandise was very reasonably priced, I though, compared to previous
cruises ($40 range for an RCL golf shirt) - but the current designs
were not appealing. They need to say something besides 'innaugural
season' on their shirts - it is too crass for me. Freedom had the
best golf shirts ever! But they were pricier. I don't exactly know
what else I would have wanted in the shops, but none of the shops hit
my 'must have that' buttons.

CENTRAL PARK

1) Two levels above main street with a totally different quiet and
almost formal feel - like the setting for an upscale high school
prom. It is open to the sky, with lots of plants and greenery, some
of it anchored to the wall up seven or eight stories. A couple of per-
pay restaurants are accessed from this area. It is a lovely area with
strolling violinists and classical concerts in the mini-bandshell. It
is a nice romantic place to relax - amazing how different the feel is
between Central Park, Main Street, and Boardwalk. All good stuff.

SWIMMING POOLS AND HOT TUBS

1) We did not use either, but there seemed to be a huge number of
pools - some on upper levels, some on the sports deck. Lots of hot
tubs too, including a couple of cantilevered ones ala Freedom class.
There was also a 'lazy river' pool, a smaller circular pool with water
moving around it clockwise. Very nice.

2) Kids stuff - the kids pool with an octopus fountain looked
magnificent. What can I say - similar to Freedom but maybe one step
better.

KIDS

1) We did not see many kids on board. This is the 1st RCL ship to
accept infants into its nursery, we are told. That is a good idea.
If there were kids, they were out of sight most of the time.

2) Families with kids were told to use the 'any time dining' option
for fast service - also a good idea. We could see the any-time dining
restaurant above us and the service there was about twice as fast as
our service.

RESTAURANTS

1) I believe there are about 20 or so. For pay at moderate prices,
Johnny Rockets and a new seafood place, as well as several snack
places - all on the Boardwalk. We tend to eat in the scheduled dining
room (which is, as you would expect, beautiful), and in the WIndjammer
buffet. We had one meal at Johnny Rocket's - very nostalgic in its
setting, and appropriately located on the Boardwalk. Somehow Johnny
Rocket's at the mall seems to be a place of last resort, but Johnny
Rockets on the cruise ships seems very cool and appropriate.

2) The high dollar per pay are mostly accessed through Central Park.
They include a high-end multi-course 5 star chef-prepared place. Not
our style, but still very cool.

3) A couple of the per-pay restaurants were close to the general
dining area. I was told that the steaks are exactly the same meat -
just prepared more carefully. People seem to really like the
steakhouse. I did not hear much about the other places.

4) Menu in the scheduled dining room was RCL typical. Food was well
prepared. As I said earlier, though, asking for anything special was
questionable.

5) One kudo though - I really liked the Baklava (not sure if I spelled
that right - it is a desert with a crisp sugar shell and strawberry
compote), and told the waiter so. He made arrangements to have that
desert for me every night of the cruise. That was a first..

6) Windjammer - The buffet in the Windjammer was excellent. They had
a bit of trouble cueing people up for Omlettes in the morning - they
need to work out the bugs on that one. Food was varied, plentiful,
and excellent in every way. Waiter service following up with drink
refills, etc., was not perfect, but overall it was well done. And the
view from the windows of this monster ship was magnificent.

7) The 'Midnight Snack' for us each night was a piece of free pizza at
Sorrento's on the Promenade. I think the days of the midnight buffets
are gone...but that is fine by me. It used to be nice to see the ice
carvings and so forth, but frankly I do not miss them except for that.

BARS AND OTHER ENTERTAINMENT

1) Endless - and very nice. There were rooms with entertainment and
liquor everywhere - a jazz club, two clubs with Latin music, a piano
bar, a disco, the traditional lounge at the top of the ship with a pop
music band, etc. There was live entertainment in almost every area in
the evenings, and the ship is laid out so well that the entertainment
does not impose itself from one area to another (as Carnival does).

2) The novelty is the bar that moves from level to level. It seats
about 50 people, and when the bar goes to the upper level, there is a
beautiful fountain beneath the bar.

3) There is the 'On Air' Karaoke bar near the casino - a nice
convenient bar near the sports court - so many places to sit and drink
and relax that I cannot even remember them all. Waiter service
everywhere was good, and a bit less pushy than I have seen on other
ships. The only problem was getting drink service in the main
showroom, because the waiters could not get into the rows of seats
without difficulty.

BOARDING/DISEMBARKING

1) Effortless. We got there later than usual - about 2:30 - no lines,
no waiting, no problems boarding. Huge waiting area there - it was
vacant when we got there.

2) Disembarking, as I said earlier, was really easy since we could
wait in our rooms. We chose to disembark late (first time I have ever
not been in a rush). We ate a leisurely breakfast in the Windjammer
Buffet, then went back to the room to clean up and prepare, and by the
time we had done that, it was time to disembark. Customs was smooth
(probably because we only had the one stop in Haiti).

3) Instead of just color-coded tags, they have added numbers to the
tags - the sequence goes from 1 to 60 - they announce your numbers
rather than your tag colors for disembarking. This seemed to work
very well.

IN GENERAL

The ship is truly the destination. It is like a cross between Disney
and Vegas - there is a great deal to do. Lots of trivia games (which
we like), outstanding shows (but this is the first voyage - so the
entertainers may not always be at this level), and a varied layout
that is almost overwhelming. If you approach the ship trying to see
it all in a short time, I think you would miss the emotional grace
that comes with the ambiance of the areas.

The ship did not feel overly crowded, but it did feel crowded. There
were always people everywhere, but with the exceptions mentioned above
(tickets, flow rider, and zip line), there were no lines. I was told
there were about 4800 passengers on board, and the ship could handle
6300? Not sure of those numbers. They act like the ship is sold out
well in advance, but if you go on line, there are cabins available for
every cruise. I think the industry is approaching saturation,
especially in this down economy, and when I read of the new purchases
coming that will increase capacity, I do not know how they are going
to make it. That is good for the consumer, but somebody has to pay
for these ships. Maybe Carnival or Norwegian wll get a bailout...I
know, not funny. They seem years behind RCL in innovation and
entertainment for the mid-level cruising crowd.

We liked the Oasis a lot. But my thought it that this is not a ship
for first-time cruisers, in my opinion. it is overwhelming, and would
make every other ship look like a toy boat in a bathtub. It is well
thought out, innovative, and cutting edge in many areas. The flaws I
think will be fixed within a few weeks. The most serious concern I
have is for cruisers to be aware that they need to reserve their shows
on line, WEEKS before their cruise, if they want to see all of the
venues.

Activities - there are so many it would be a huge feat to partake of
even half of them. From the traditional Quest and Hairy Legs contests
for the yuppies to trivia for us old folks, all of the typical
activities are there. And not just once or twice - two blackjack
competitions (I think), poker tournaments, belly flopping, karaoke,
video games for teens and wanna-be teens, basketball, volleyball,
minature golf, merry-go-round, table tennis, flo rider, zip line, and
the endless supply of well-prepared food that is typical of a modern
cruise ship. All included in the price of the cruise.

I recommend the Water Show, the Ice Show, and Hairspray very highly.
I understand they have another production show which is supposed to be
great, but because of the duration of the cruise, they did not show
the other production show.

FYI - to put this in context - I have never been on a cruise line or a
cruise ship that I did not like - I am convinced that enjoying a
cruise requires a mindset. I remember being on the last cruise of the
Tropical - the very last (the ship was tilted a bit due to a ballast
problem) before it was changing names and owners and moving to
Europe. We loved it, as as we got off the ship, we visited briefly
with another passenger who had nothing whatsoever good to say - she
hated everything about it. It was a lesson for us.

This ship is kind of like that too. It is so huge that some will find
it not to their liking. It is so long that it is quite a walk from
one end to the other - not a ship for those with bad knees or on
walkers for sure. But it is truly innovative in every way that I
could imagine. Now I am ready for a monorail to take you from the
front of the ship to the back - RCL - are you listening??

Hope this is helpful - I know that it is long. Hope you all enjoy
your cruises while we can still afford to take them...

I loved reading your review. I almost felt I was on board. Glad to
see you mention the Tropical. We also enjoyed our 3 cruises on her.
Thanks.

On 12/9/09 8:09 PM, in article
, "Dory Samuels"
wrote:

I loved reading your review. I almost felt I was on board.

I fully agree. Very well written and extremely useful for people considering
to sail on her. We'll take your advice not to take an inside balcony.

On Dec 9, 11:59*am, RJQMAN wrote:
My wife and I, in our early 60's, took the four day Oasis loop to
Haiti. *It was a wonderful cruise. *Here are our observations for your
perusal...

Wow, this is a terrific review chock full of detail and so well-
written. Thanks so much, RJQMAN!

I know we will definitely give the Oasis a try, it's just a matter of
when. I am glad you emphasize the necessity of making advance show
reservations. We are show people, and the very fact we last-minute
bookers could be prevented from seeing shows will force us to plan
farther in advance!

I love RCI's move to allowing you to remain in your cabin until
disembarkation (maybe it will work so well, they will extend it fleet-
wide). I hate the housekeeping card system (which could probably be
solved by a polite request to your steward...well, okay, likely a
request backed by $$$, argh).

You mention the flawless Freedom inaugural. We were on the maiden
voyage of the Serenade, which was also flawless, and we have been on
several early sailings of other RCI ships, all of which went of
swimmingly. Like you, I'm confident RCI will work hard to make things
right. It sounds like many of the flaws apparent on your Oasis cruise
relate to computerized management of all the people, places,
activities and information (dining assignments, show reservations,
interactive maps, the daily newsletter, etc.) The software systems on
that ship have to be amazing! I'm sure the techies have been tweaking
non-stop to work out all of the kinks.

On the purely people side of things, though, it sounds like
entertainment and activities...always RCI's strong point, IMO...were
well-executed and a highlight. Was RCI's usual "new ship guy," Ken
Rush, the CD?

I'm intrigued, what is a blackjack dealing machine?!

Thanks, again.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

D Ball wrote:

On Dec 9, 11:59*am, RJQMAN wrote:
My wife and I, in our early 60's, took the four day Oasis loop to
Haiti. *It was a wonderful cruise. *Here are our observations for your
perusal...

Wow, this is a terrific review chock full of detail and so well-
written. Thanks so much, RJQMAN!

What she said

I know we will definitely give the Oasis a try, it's just a matter of
when. I am glad you emphasize the necessity of making advance show
reservations. We are show people, and the very fact we last-minute
bookers could be prevented from seeing shows will force us to plan
farther in advance!

I love RCI's move to allowing you to remain in your cabin until
disembarkation (maybe it will work so well, they will extend it fleet-
wide).

We were shocked to discover that RCI did not allow people to stay in
their cabins until called after two cruises on the NCL Crown and two
on the Maasdam and it was one of the things that was such a black mark
against the line that we haven't sailed on them again. We were told
to be out of the cabins by 8 and when we got back from breakfast at
8:05, our beds had already been stripped.

Thank you for your detailed and descriptive review. Just one thing, I
don't think that you had the traditional Greek Baklava. That is made
with filo dough which produces a very flaky pastry. It is then layered
with honey, nuts and more filo and then more honey and nuts. Sometimes
a clove is stuck in the topmost pastry. It is very sweet, crisp and
usually served as a small square or triangle due to the richness of this
desert. Homemade Baklava is the best!

--
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Brian M. Kochera
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Brian K wrote:

Thank you for your detailed and descriptive review. Just one thing, I
don't think that you had the traditional Greek Baklava. That is made
with filo dough which produces a very flaky pastry. It is then layered
with honey, nuts and more filo and then more honey and nuts. Sometimes
a clove is stuck in the topmost pastry. It is very sweet, crisp and
usually served as a small square or triangle due to the richness of this
desert. Homemade Baklava is the best!

I find that a lot of the food on the menu doesn't come out exactly
like the 'real thing'. Nice food, sometimes really good food, but
just not what it was called on the menu. Sometimes you can tell from
the listed ingredients, and sometimes not. For instance I don't make
my Waldorf salad with tomatoes, purple cabbage, lettuce and pineapple.
Just because it has apples in it, that doesn't make it Waldorf salad.

One example is the attempt to have a "Thanksgiving dinner", and it
isn't just a case of it being a different stuffing or something. The
last one I had was turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce (if they remembered
it), Brussels sprouts and carrots. I think they also had mashed
potatoes but no stuffing or else dressing and no potatoes.

And then of course there was the Surf and Turf, which had no Turf -
just two Surfs.

RJQMAN wrote:

WOW....what a terrific and complete review, thank you!!

4) Dining room was not able to meet my wife's dietary needs as well as
previous cruise ships of all RCL classes were (we cruise a lot) - but
they were OK. Just not as helpful or responsive. The ability to meet
her needs seems to rest with the head waiter, and this one was not
very helpful.

In what way did they not meet your wife's dietary needs? Kevin is a
diabetic and can manage ok, but when they work with him life is so much
better for him. Only on one cruise did he have problems getting what he
needed, but that was a dining room staff we all had problems with.

8) The room steward required that we stick a card in the door when we
were gone or the room did not get cleaned. That was a first, although
on the last cruise the room steward 'suggested' it.

I never heard of this before and don't like it. In a hotel I expect to
have to put out a "make up room" card, but on a cruise ship it is lovely
that they "know" when to make it up. Oh well, if this is the worst, it
isn't all that bad.

Thanks again and I can't wait untill Oct.

sue