After reading the latest reviews, I felt compelled to get a review off asap because of our great experience-we just got back Saturday. First let me start with this was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean and we've been wanting to do this Oasis of Seas for a couple years now so finally did it. We were a party of 8-4 adults and 4 kids-ages ranging from 14-23. This Oasis cruise was the best vacation we've ever had. That's saying a lot because we've been to Europe multiple times, twice yearly to Hawaii at best resorts and lots of other trips around the world at 5 star resorts. Think this cruise was the most fun for 3 reasons-the crew was amazing, there were activities for all ages all the time and our family was together. We flew all night and were going to take cab but ran into Go Airport Shuttle guy who lied and swindled us into taking his van which cost triple what we'd pay for cabs (it was $68 plus tip of $12 and 2 cabs for 8 people would have been $30 plus tip). We met people on flight who told us you can store bags at the Hyatt Pierr 66 for a few hours while you have breakfast and hung out at pool, lobby until you leave so we did just that and left for the ship around 11. Hyatt wanted $7 pp for their shuttle but a cab was $10 total for 4 so $20 for 8 people. It's a 5 minute ride from Hyatt to ship. First time boarding Oasis is a bit crazy because nobody is outside to advise and help you-tell you where to go and what to do with your bags etc.. We figured out to give bags to porter who will get them to your room by 1 which is when all rooms are ready. Embarking was a breeze and basically took about 1/2 hour. We heard about Park Café from all the reviews so went there and had the famous roast beef sandwiches (and yes they were as good as reviews said-I had them daily at 2pm when on ship). Park Café was my favorite restaurant on ship because good healthy food-made to order salads, paninis, breakfast sandwiches-good soups, cookies, chips etc.. Be bought the soda packages right away which for $66 I feel it's worth it. Never had a problem getting soda on ship as there are drink machines on decks 5 and 15 plus you can get soda from any of the 12 plus bars on the ship. Went to our room around 1 and bags there so were ready to roll. We had the D2 superior ocean view balcony cabin with bigger balcony in middle of ship on Deck 9 and it was best cabin I think. We had a couple of those next to each other and then kids had 2 central park view rooms with bay windows across way. Next time we'll get all balconies because everyone kept coming onto our balcony. It was fun to have the partition open between balconies so you could go back and forth. Room was better than expected-spacious enough to walk around, comfy bed, couch and decent size bathroom/shower. We rested a bit, checked out the ship, had the mandatory ship training and then everyone was on our balconies with champagne for shipping off-so fun! Next the adults went to the Solarium Pool (adults only) and hung out until dinner. We got some cheese/crackers from Windjammer for a snack since dinner wasn't until 8. We chose my time dining in American Grill because we didn't want to be tied to the 6 or 8:30 seatings in Silk or Grand Dining Room. We usually ate around 7:30-8 and every time we went into dining room we were pretty much seated within 5 minutes and we were always a party of 8. The first night we had top notch wait staff-Adil was our main waiter and Dheeraj was assistant waiter. These guys really took to our family and waited on us hand and foot with the best service of our lives. Someone in our party had a medical emergency at the table so we had to leave before main course. Jacob, the head waiter, made sure to send up all our dinners to our room after we got back from emergency room. We had planned on eating at a few specialty restaurants but after our great experience at American Grill, we decided to eat with Adil/Dheeraj at our same table every night. There was one exception where we needed to eat at 7 because of a show and our table was booked for early seating so we were put with Emmanuel and he was great too. Service a little slower with him as we were so spoiled with Adil/Dheeraj but he was a comedian. Adil made sure our table was available every night after and it was cute because Emmanuel said he was jealous so stopped by our table nightly to chat. It's always nice when multiple waiters vie for your attention:-) Jacob stopped by nightly to chat as well and later in the week we met Tramaine (bar services) and he took to our kids and brought them free smoothies, did tricks with them etc.. The food on the ship was much better than expected. I'd read such bad reviews that I'd wanted to get a suite just to eat at Coastal Kitchen but missed doing that. American Grill was hit or miss-more good meals than bad. Steak definitely more hit/miss but had good chateaubriand, rack of lamb, jerk chicken, horseradish salmon, grilled salmon, seared halibut and all you can eat lobster night where tails were great. Most of us had seconds. I'd say the appetizers were the best with coconut shrimp/shrimp cocktail/escargots/crab cakes best and lobster bisque worst. The deserts were the biggest disappointment except for grand mariner soufflé and other liked chocolate cookie with ice cream. We ate breakfast everywhere-room service for muffins/coffee/fruit, Park Café for healthy alternatives, windjammer for variety and main dining for decent buffet or order off menu. Lunch was at Solarium, Park Café or Windjammer, Wipeout open all day with decent burgers, hot dogs, fries, soft serve ice cream. Also shout out for all the bartenders we had. We didn't get alcohol drink package because we were off ship 3 days and don't really drink during day. We brought wine on ship (you can bring 2 bottles of wine per room so we had 4 champagne and 4 wine). One night we brought it to table. I bought a couple of the 10 drink cards which were good deal because $93 with service charge so saved about $3 a drink. All drinks were $11 plus $18% sc. Bahama Mama my fav. Next time adults who drink will do drink package but do it before get on ship because 20% discount-same with internet-we did this early and got discount but added devices on ship and no discount. The activities on the ship were the best and kept all of us busy. Our boys loved the basketball court, mini golf, flow riders (2 of them-boogie board and surfing), gym, rock climbing. Girls liked walking tack (12 times around and it's 5 miles) gym, Dazzles live band dancing, Cats Musical, shops. Adults liked Dazzles for live music/dancing, Cats, Frozen Ice Show, Singer at Pub, Bon Jovi impersonator was highlight. All of us enjoyed tons of pools/Jacuzzis, Aqua Show, mini golf (we had family tourney) etc.. We made reservations for all shows-Frozen, Cats, Aqua in advance and never had a problem except Aqua didn't check reservations so people walked in and there were no seats for reservations-it was ok but we had to sit apart. Only thing we didn't have reservation for was comedy club and lines too long so we'll do that next year. Also couple nights said strings concert on Central Park Deck but never there and dj not good nor was adult karaokee. As for fitness, there's a decent gym, walking track, free zumba classes, $25 spin classes, rock climbing, ice skating, basketball etc. As for the ports, we did Atlantis Waterpark and 2 beaches. I thought cost of Atlantis was high for day pass. Costs varied-Pass from Atlantis was $161 (high season) and ship excursion was $190 which included transportation. We read reviews and opted to get room at Comfort Suites for $340 (3 adults/1 child-4 adults was $390) and just check in get passes to Atlantis and never use room. We paid about half price. Plus if you opt to get passes at Atlantis-you have to get them when you arrive and they're not guaranteed-could run out. Comfort Suites never runs out. Atlantis was one of the greatest experiences of our life and worth $500 pp. The 4 water slides are so fun and the lazy river with roaring rapids/waves which takes about an hour was great too. The beach was nice and you can rent boat, banana boat or jet skis (jet skis way too much at $70 per half hour so bargain for these). Make sure to allow enough time to get back on boat-customs in Nassau is long wait. On St. Thomas we took cab ($8pp) to Megan's Bay which was awesome. You pay to go onto their beautiful beach ($4 pp but worth it because no solicitors) and there's a bar ($6 drinks) and food. We also rented kayaks, paddle boards for cheap (paddle boards were $20 hour and kayak $30 an hour). Lots of iguanas so beware. You can rent chairs/lounges too. Bring towels. On St. Kitts, we went to Friars Bay and hung at Carambola Beach Club which was awesome. Great Caribbean bay and rented lounge chairs, umbrellas, chaises etc.. Do this online because if you don't there won't be umbrellas left (chaises were $10 each, umbrella $15 and lounge chairs $20 per day). No jet skis to rent there but decent food/reasonably priced drinks. Cab to Friars was $7 pp. St. Kitts was lovely and Friars Bay was in very exclusive area so was our favorite. We'd like to go back and stay at Marriott there. St. Thomas had good and bad parts. So to sum up Oasis is spectacular and we're planning same cruise next year and will do Atlantis again, take ferry to St. Johns and then new port is St. Martin. This ship has it all and is a great family vacation. We thought we wouldn't see our kids much but having rooms together helped and we'd generally eat breakfast, dinner together, do excursions together and meet up here and there daily on ship. Everyone can do own thing for meals but our favorite thing of day was getting dressed up and sitting at our same table with Adil and Dheeraj serving us. We gave all our waiters a nice extra tip which was well deserved. All crew work 7 days a week for 7 months coming from various countries for 7 months and going home for 3 months then repeat. They work so hard. Forgot to mention our cabin steward Wilson who was great too. Loved having our room cleaned and fresh towels twice daily and he always had some gag animal made out of towels on our bed at night. Crew is 50% of reason why we liked the ship and they're like family. We are going to keep in touch with our waiters and make sure to sit in their section next year. Last thing is dining/food which I was dreading because of bad reviews but pleasantly surprised. First day of cruise they offer 50% off of all specialty restaurants so that's good time to do that. Also remember that the chefs are cooking for 6700 people. We never had problem with slow service or cold food. Room service came very quickly in am. Crew consists of around 2200 so basically it's 1-3 ratio for service. Forgot to mention cleanliness of ship. Crew was constantly cleaning everything-balconies, floors, public bathrooms so clean always. Also ship never felt crowded which is strange with 6700 passengers. Even on crusing days, you could find lounge chairs by pool. With all the neat neighborhoods/restaurants/venues, it's impossible to feel crowded and we were there in high season in summer. Felt cruise moving but never enough to get sea sick although lots of people in Dr. office for sea sickness. Should mention Dr. wasn't too helpful when we had emergency one day and needed to find Opthamologist in St. Thomas so we could get treatment and be back on ship to sail. Ended up going to ER at hospital on island. This cruise isn't really about the excursions but about the ship and being with family. I wouldn't recommend it for singles or honeymooners because no privacy. Perfect for families or friends. Forgot to mention casino which adults went to. Mom/I played blackjack and my husband did poker tourney ($100 buy in) which is really fun. They also have black jack tourney for $20 buy in so I'll do that next year. As for embarking, most everyone sent their luggage night before so 3 different times. We ended leaving rooms at 8:30, eating leisure breakfast, playing ping pong, mini golf and then waiting in Opal theater until last time which was 10:40 am so not long line and took about hour to disembark. Took cab back to Hyatt for day until night flight.