Review of the Oasis of The Seas

Oasis of the Seas Thanksgiving Cruise

written by moviegal posted on 07/12/11

CABINS

The best cabin I've ever had on any cruise ship, period! We had a balcony room (10278) which had the good layout with the bed by the balcony door so we had plenty of room to access our closet. The bathroom is well laid out and felt spacious, and the balcony was the largest we've ever had. The balcony was wide AND deep and extremely roomy. I also appreciated the extra drawer space and cubbyholes all around the stateroom. The closet even had two racks for hanging and we had plenty of room for all of our clothes and gear. Bring an extra outlet plug for phone chargers, etc. since outlets are scarce.

SERVICE - CABIN

The service on a whole was excellent. Our cabin steward was incredible. I am difficult to impress and he impressed me. I won a bottle of champagne in the casino raffle the second night on the cruise. I wanted to save it to drink at Thanksgiving so I set it down in our stateroom. When we came back in, our steward had brought 2 champagne glasses AND a large separate bucket of ice for the champagne. We also never had to ask for anything more than once. The first night I requested 2 extra pillows and an extra towel and we had them all week. Another amazing feat: we were called / greeted by name all week long.

SERVICE - FOOD OUTLETS

The My Time Dining service was a bit spotty. We sat at the same table every night and had the same waiter / assistant waiter but they just weren't very good. We were practically ignored several nights (waited 20 minutes just to place an order, never got items we ordered, received the incorrect entrees, etc.). Several nights I sat with an empty water glass for over 15 minutes! On "lobster night" I ordered the lobster and a steak since I thought surf and turf sounded good and I asked for them to be served together. Alas, I was presented with the lobster first and only after I finished, they brought my steak -- but they removed my dirty silverware from my plate and set it down on the table to use with my second entree! I was taken aback by that. Normally waiters will bring fresh silverware. I've cruised with NCL many times and they truly "get" the freestyle concept. Royal Caribbean does not. I would not recommend My Time Dining since it's not "eat whenever you want." You have to have a reservation if you want to avoid waiting for a table -- and what's the point if you have to eat at a set time? The bar staff was friendly and the service at the specialty restaurants, including Johnny Rockets, was fantastic.

FOOD

Where to start? It's no secret that I think RCI has the worst food of any cruise line. I'm sad to say that the Oasis is no different. The food is just not good. The food in the main dining room was edible but not very tasty. I made a point to try everything on the "available every night" menu. The sirloin steak was adequate but had a weird texture. The roasted chicken was moist and tasty. Only the salmon was actually inedible and I had to order something else. Some of the menus were better than others, and some of the selections were better than others. Sugar free ice cream is offered in the dining room every night and the flavor changes daily. Food is subjective but RCI still has the worst food in the business.

The Windjammer buffet is absolutely disgusting, and I do not say that lightly. I took photos of the food and I wish I could post them here because a pictures really is worth a thousand words! The food was cold, bland and generally unappetizing. The Windjammer has the same soups / desserts as the main dining room on most nights so if there's something you liked at dinner, stop by the buffet if you need a midnight snack!

Sorrento's pizza had a good variety of pizzas and a made to order pizza bar. Promenade Cafe had poor quality cold sandwiches and desserts. Solarium Bistro had good vegetable options at their lunch buffet and a decent salad bar. Room Service was okay. The spinach dip and caesar salad were the best items on the menu. Avoid breakfast; we ordered it once and the bacon was served practicaly raw. The Boardwalk donut shop was really bad, but it was free.

The roast beef in the Park Cafe was good and I enjoyed the tossed to order salads (these salads aren't as good as the tossed to order salads in the main dining room at lunch time; go there and get big shrimp and premium ingredients like roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes and more). The service here was exceptional as well. We couldn't get reservations at most of the specialty restaurants but we did get to go to Giovanni's Table and Johnny Rockets several times. The food at Giovanni's was very, very good. Johnny Rockets had typical burgers but it was fun to munch on them while sitting out on the Boardwalk. Service was stellar at both. The best kept secret on the Oasis is Vintages, the wine bar! They have an extensive tapas menu of very tasty appetizers. We went there on several occasions. Ask for Ramona, she is wonderful and took great care of us. We were in Vintages almost every single night (Caymus cabernet by the glass for $25; combine that with a Gold member 2-for-1 coupon and it's a deal)!

ENTERTAINMENT

I didn't like having to make reservations for all of the shows. I made them before we left home for all of the shows but we only ended up going to Hairspray. I didn't like having a set time that I had to be at a show, so we just stopped going. Hairspray was good and fun; not Broadway quality but good for a cruise ship. The sets were awesome! We also enjoyed the improv show (no reservations required) and of course Quest! As an animation fan, I was always excited to see the DreamWorks characters roaming about. The characters pay attention to the kids as well as the adults so I got some great photos. The Dreamworks parade was a ton of fun, and it was a thrill to take a flash mob dance class and then get to join in as the entertainment one evening! Ride the carousel, listen to karaoke, mini golf, flowrider, play music trivia...there was so much to do we didn't have time to do it all! The casino, the nicest I've ever seen at sea (and I live in Las Vegas!), was large with a non-smoking side and lots of fun slots. The Aqua Theater shows fun movies at night (the Grease sing-a-long was a blast). I was sort of surprised at the low quality of the lounge acts and house bands.

THE GOOD

I was most impressed with, aside from the sheer awesomeness of the ship, the attitudes of all of the staff we encountered! Every single employee we dealt with, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, was happy, friendly, smiling and seemed very eager to please. I really feel like the crew of the Oasis tried really hard to make sure we had an awesome vacation. I did not encounter even one disgruntled employee. Not one. That is very rare on any cruise ship and I have never had that happen before. What really surprised me is that the ship never felt crowded. Embarkation and debarkation was easy, and our luggage was delivered to our stateroom about 30 minutes after we boarded. Amazing!

THE BAD

Aside from the food, my only major complaint was the time it took to get back on board after being in port. It was ridiculous, especially in St. Maarten where it took us over one hour to get back on the ship! RCI is serious about security, however, and they x-ray everything and wand you down before you get back on. Don't even think about trying to bring alcohol on board, they are crazy about stopping you from doing that. It was the worst liquor patrol I've ever seen on any cruiseline. I also hope the Oasis will start to sail different ports because our itinerary was overcrowded and not that fun (Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten). Of course, we've "been there, done that" so we were going mostly for the ship!

THE FREAKING AWESOME

Select pools and hot tubs are open 24 hours! Yes, 24 hours! We went swimming at 2:30 in the morning and it was awesome (the pools are freshwater, so no nasty salt in your mouth). There was also NO pushiness about shopping or recommended stores or any of that nonsense! I didn't hear one solicitation all week. I also majorly loved Vintages wine bar.

SUMMARY

All in all this was a great cruise and I'm ready to sail the Oasis again. One thing is for certain: it is going to be extremely difficult to ever go back to a ship that's not an Oasis class! This ship has spoiled me. Take the Oasis: you won't be disappointed. It is truly an amazing vessel.