My family sailed out on March 31, 2012 from Port Everglades. We stayed over Friday night at the Embassy Suites in Fort Lauderdale so we would be able to board the ship early on Saturday morning. We boarded the ship at 11:30 am no problems and our check in took about 10 minutes. I first want to say that we were so amazed by this ship. Everything you read about it is true. My family would love to go back on it and hopefully see everything. The size of the ship is so big that you have no possible way to experience everything in 1 week. We had two connecting ocean view balcony cabins on deck 8. They allowed you to get into your staterooms at 1:00 pm, and luggage showed up around 2:00 PM. We went up to the pool area and encountered our first surprise. The pool area was amazing but in ordering our first drink we find out that a gratuity is already put onto our bill. Most people are unaware of this since they put your sea pass through to pay and fold over the bill for you to sign. For the first day we paid additional gratuity until we caught on. I would have given them a dollar per drink but was annoyed that they put gratuity on there, so they only got the gratuity they put on. The cupcake cupboard also put a gratuity on. The spa puts a gratuity on. Any place where they can add a gratuity they do and it really feels like you are getting taken advantage of.

My children are 11 so they were looking forward to Adventure Ocean. First Adventure Ocean is great for the kids. Unfortunately on the Oasis of the seas the staff seemed overwhelmed. My children thought some of the staff were mean. My one son kept complaining that they would do one activity (gaga ball) for 1 hour and if you got out in the first 5 minutes you had to sit for 50 minutes until the next game started. I would be annoyed and bored as well. They did not seem to have enough staff for these kids. Many times they only had 2 staff members to handle what looked like 40 plus kids. Another annoyance was that after 10:00 pm they charged $6.00 per child per hour. Not such a big deal but when I would drop off my kids at 11:30 and picked them up at 12:30 they would try to charge me from 10:00 PM - 12:30. This happened every single time. I was getting annoyed having to correct them. You really have to watch your bill.

Lets get to food. The food was a big let down. I have read reviews and people always say the food is not that great. I would have preferred not that great. The food was Disgusting. I can't even begin to explain it. The cuts of meat, the seafood just disgusting. The veggies and deserts were fine the meat was gross. We had amazing dining room staff. I felt so bad not eating my plate every night, I think they took it as a personal insult. They always want to get you something else. We did my time dining. It was nice to be able to eat at different times but you still waited on line for a table. I think it's better to book the traditional way and if you miss your dining time just go up and wait in line for my time dining. We did eat at Chops Grill one night. I ordered the 18 ounce porterhouse steak. When my steak came it was thin and maybe 7 ounces if even that. Needless to say a disappointment. The side dishes we ordered were cold. My husband and son ordered Fillet Mignon and thought it was OK. Read more