This was our second cruise with Royal Caribbean. We loved our first cruise (Western Caribbean) and wanted to try some different ports and a bigger ship (we were on the Freedom class on our first one). We weren't too impressed with St. Maarten (really disappointed with this port) or Oasis of the Seas. First off, the Oasis ship was big -- too big. It had plenty of activities but there were way too many people crammed on the ship. On our first cruise, we never felt like things were too crowded, but we did on ship and this one was bigger! We really didn't like the solarium. The ceiling was glass and there was hardly any shade so you were roasting in almost any seat you chose. On top of that, the pool was way too small so it was always crowded. My husband and I ended up spending the majority of our pool time in the main pool area since we were able to find some decent shade over there, but it still just felt crowded 24/7. We were pretty disappointed with the pool situation. I felt like for the amount of people on the ship, there should have been either more pools, or bigger pools to accommodate more people (especially on the days where you're just sailing and everyone crowds at the pool).

For St. Maarten, it was a very lackluster port. There was a little shopping center but it seemed like every 2 or 3 shops were the same thing as the previous one (lots of liquor stores and jewelry stores). There were lots of salesmen as soon as you get off the ferry - trying to sell you a spot on the beach and wifi for $20. Not a bad deal but we didn't like feeling bombarded by every other person we walked past. I think we passed by 6 or 7 different sales guys, all trying to sell us the same thing. I know that's how they make their living, but it left a sour taste in my mouth (I'm just not a fan of pushy salespeople, never have been).

On a positive note, we really enjoyed the service on the ship. Just like our first cruise, all the ship employees were super friendly. We loved our balcony cabin and the food, as always, was amazing. The shows were great (we didn't like that we had to reserve tickets ahead of time - we didn't have to do that on our previous cruise but that's because there were just so many more people on the Oasis), and we really enjoyed the adult comedy show. The bars are always a fun place to spend a late evening - our favorite was the pub. We had a great snorkeling excursion at St. Thomas; it was well worth every penny. All in all, it was a good cruise but we will be sticking with the Freedom class from now on.