Our party consisted of 2 adults (male59/female53) and 2 teenagers (female18/male16). Having sailed on the Enchantment and the Freedom, we are not RCCL "experts", but had very positive experiences on both, and were looking for a truly top notch experience on the much hyped flagship of the fleet. While I still consider the overall experience to be very good, it seems the quest for a larger market share has perhaps begun to take it's toll in a few areas.

On the positives, the ship is as impressive as touted. Our sailing was only 6 people shy of 100% maximum capacity, yet there was not the crowded feeling you would expect. With the exception of meal times in the Windjammer, one or two waits at the elevators, and a pretty full pool area on sea days, we did not feel the huge passenger load. The Promenade is huge and was always comfortable to walk through. Central Park became the immediate favorite area of both my wife and myself. The ambience was completely removed from being shipboard, especially with the lighting at night; it was never crowded,the greenery is wonderfully lush, and the seating is very comfortable.We did not dine in any of the specialty restaurants there, so cannot comment on their food. On deck, we did not care about having to be in a "poolside" chair, so we were easily able to find deck space in the condition of our choosing; sun or shade. The entertainment was excellent in our opinion. Fortunately, my wife ignored my objections to being on "too much of a schedule", and booked the shows ahead. We were both disappointed by "Hair Spray", but the majority of passengers we heard seemed to love it. Don't miss the Aqua Theater performance. The ice skating show was entertaining, but would have only rated as a toss up for me, until the performance of the "sand writer" artist; what a talent. The "over 18" comedy acts were enjoyable; too bad they did not vary the shows a little more for repeat viewers. If you grew up in the early glory days of oldies/rock and roll, the performance of the group "The Unexpected Boys" will really be enjoyed. We finished the last night with the "Come Fly With ME" production, and it was a great finale for the week. The staff to passenger ratio seemed to be stretched a little thinner than on our previous ships, but they were always courteous and willing to help. For the negatives; some may seem trivial, but I heard quite a few other passengers who noticed the same things. Although this is not something the cruise line has control of, I found the ship to be overpopulated with lots of rude foreign passengers; not all of course, but those in this category were irritating enough that they dominated my opinion. They would cut in front of you in food lines, reach over your shoulder, step on your feet, or just push you aside, and think nothing of it. When the elevator door would open and reveal a full car, they were cramming 4 or 6 more of themselves in; damn anyone who was trying to exit. On the cruise lines negative list... Storage in the cabins is terrible. Access into the closet is extremely poor via the almost useless sliding doors. The nite stands with drawers have been replaced by undersized tables with useless open shelves, and the tall cabinet flanking the dressing area is only deep enough to store bottles of water and suntan lotion. The narrow shelf above the tv and the "magazine rack" style wall storage is nice, but the majority of storage, even in the bath area is open shelving, and prone to items falling off when the ship rolls(depression/tropical storm/huricane Alex was ahead of us, wind speeds were 35 to 40 knots for about a day and a half with periods of 8 to 14 foot seas; easily and comfortably handled by the ship, but keeping you aware of what you set on the shelves). The most annoying pet peeves for me were two things I atribute to the cruise line's fear of hurting someone's feelings and perhaps alienating them. First, there was way too much tolerance, in fact total ambivilance, to smoking around the ship in other than designated smoking areas. Second, there was an "anything goes" attitude for the dress code in the main dining room.I understand that everyone doesn't have, or wants to wear, a tux (myself included), or maybe even have a suit or sport coat; but I saw things that were totaly disrespectful to everyone who made the efforts for formal nights. Short pants and tee shirts,ok; one late teen/early 20's guy with an impeccable suit on...and a backwards facing baseball cap kept on for the entire seating,ok (I finally gave him the benefit of doubts for some medical condition, until the next night when he had shed the cap and had his hair moused up into 5' high spikes); girls in short shorts and tank tops,ok......hello..wake up RCCL, there are plenty of casual dining venues availabe other than formal nights in the main dining room for these people. Aside from what many may consider my trivial pet peeves, I did have what I consider the one major dsappointment on the ship....the food was just extraordinarily ordinary; the service was very good, but the food could use a definate upgrade. This is after all the "biggest cruise ship",flagship of the fleet vessel.

Overall, a very positive experience, and I would recommend the Oasis.