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Oasis of the Seas

Freedom of the Seas

Mariner of the Seas

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Independence of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

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Monaco (Monte Carlo)

I chose this cruise because I have been on the Harmony, and am going on the Symphony,so I wanted to go on the Oasis.  It has gotten such good reviews and I remember when it was released all the news around it.  The Oasis is a beautiful ship!  I took my two grandsons, ages 11, and 13.  The boys tried going to the pools, but never got in, because they were so crowded.  I know its spring break, but...There was plenty to do for the 13 year old, but the 11 year old didn't want to go to the kids club,so he was quite lost.  Our cabin attendant,Vincent, was wonderful !!  We had dinner in the main dining room, and our wait staff was great!!!  Our waiter, Richard, and assistant Raveen could not do more for us.  We had a problem in the dining room one night , but it was a problem with the bar service, which we had a lot of other places.  Loved the 70's party and the prohibition event.  My biggest complaint was the size of the rooms.  This is my 15th cruise and NEVER have i been in a smaller room.  If I hadn't bought  extra storage, we could not have done it.  Although it was a good cruise,I don't think I will go on the Oasis again.

Spring Break 2019 Oasis of the Seas

Cruised on Oasis from Port Canaveral to Eastern Caribbean 7 day.  Nassau, Saint Thomas, Saint Maarten.  

Check in was delayed by one hour for extra cleaning do to some passengers getting sick on the prior trip.  I want a clean ship so that was fine.  That delay made things a little chaotic in the terminal since everyone that showed up early was not able to board and backed things up for a little while.  Still only took a little over an hour to get on the ship.  We arrived at the terminal at 11am.

Stayed in a standard ocean view balcony stateroom, 12th floor forward, port side.  The room was comfortable with adequate room for two.

Overall the ship was in good condition,  All the staff was very friendly and ready to help.  Dining rooms nice and food excellent.  Buffet was also good with so many options it was hard to decide what to get.

There are too many things to do on this ship to list

This ship is huge.  However, I think the size makes it seem less crowded than some of the smaller ships.

My only complaint is that the smoking areas were right in the middle of all the activities.  You could not walk on the main pool and open deck, port side, without walking through the smoking areas.  Depending on the wind direction, the smell would travel to all nearby areas.  Not Good!  Didn't really detract from my trip but be warned that this is the case.  

My favorite port of call was St. Maarten for sure.  Easy to get Taxi/Water taxi.  St Thomas taxi area was a joke.

I would definitely cruise on this ship again.

Excellent trip except for the smoking!

We choose this cruise to go on a huge ship. It was huge!

......you would not have known there was 4500 passengers....alot of people must have stayed in the canins with balconys.. Balconies are a good size.

Only problem, one outside pool, kids everywhere, could never get e seat ...

Great for kids not for Dinks....

the Windjammer restuarant was always packed and a frenzy at meal times..far better to eat in the dinning rooms.

Spending on the ship is in US dollars and when converted back to AUS expensive..

1 us dollar to AUS 66cents

Better to get a drinks package if you like a drink..otherwise average 10 bucks a drink, 15 for cocktails and all in us dollars.

Lots of up selling.

Never had a massage on board..did this time and it was about $220 AUS each.wow!

Orginally booked for 4 ports, one was dropped before we left. one we couldnt get to because of weather..disappointed

Huge Ship, lots of activities, but watch spending as its all US dollars.

We are a family of 6 with our exchange student with us.  Thus we needed adjoining rooms.  We the kids in one and my wife and I in the other.  First issue is that RC won't combine adjoining rooms into one reservation.  Second issue is that you must have an adult in each room.  This would have been easier to work thru had it been communicated when we booked our rooms last summer.  They got our money but failed to inform us of these details. When we went about getting final details done a few months ago this room arrangement became a big problem that they could NOT fix on the computer.  They could not move me or my wife to the other room.  But without an adult in that room we could not finalize that rooms reservations.  We spent hours on the phone with this issue. What a complete pain in the you know where.  Another big problem was the bait and switch on an excursion.  A large group of our friends were on this cruise and we had booked an excursion thru RC for a catamaran to take us to a private beach and back in St. Maarten. When we get off the ship they herded us onto a bus and trucked us to a beach. We protested to the lady that we had a catamaran trip and she looked at us like we were nuts. These two issues put a damper on our experience with RC.  As far as the food goes, the main dining is equal to Carnival and Disney but not better. We paid considerably more for RC and there was not one thing that stood out and being worth the extra money.  Cabin size.  These were the smallest state rooms we have ever stayed in. The bathrooms are tiny.  Heavy set people would probably have trouble getting in and out of the shower.  The sink is 1/3 the size of a standard sink.  Clothing storage. There is very very little.  For a 7 day cruise they need more. There are only 3 drawers.  There are 3 cubby holes in the closet and about 10 clothes hangers.

Was underwhelmed and very reservations were very difficult for adjoining rooms.

We enjoy Oasis of the seas for our teenage children. There is so much to keep them busy. All kinds of activities all the time and with several sea days, this gives them time to enjoy everything. My boys liked hanging out at the basketball courts and the table tennis, my girls enjoy the pool deck.  They all enjoy the rock climbing, dive show and other shows, bingo, listening to the musicians and the planned activities. There are always other kids around to hang with and they really enjoyed making new friends. They also love the pizza shop, hot dog shop, ice cream cones, and eating in the main dining room.

Having said that, we have cruised a LOT and this is NOT our favorite ship. It is very crowded at all times and there is a line for everything. From the snack/coffee shop, to getting a slice of pizza, be prepared to wait. It was difficult to find pool chairs on sea days, the bars got crowded and we had to wait for drinks around dinner time, bingo was absolutely ridiculous, there were so many people playing that someone got bingo after only 5 numbers were drawn which really takes any fun out of it. The service was spot on as we have come to expect with Royal Caribbean, from the state room attendant to the servers in the main dining room and the bartenders, everyone gave 5* service. I, personally, just prefer a smaller more intimate ship (without so many lines). 

But for a family adventure this is certainly the right ship!

Very nice ship with lots to do...but crowded.

We went on Oasis of the Seas in March. It's a beautiful ship with amazing activities and entertainment. This was our tenth overall cruise (we've also been on Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, and Norwegian) and our first with Royal Caribbean. We enjoyed the cruise overall, but had a very inconsistent customer service experience and a number of issues during our cruise.

PROS:

-Gorgeous ship.

-So many activities on board: carousel, DreamWorks characters and parade, zipline, flowrider, children's splash area, daily trivia, and much, much more.

-Amazing shows. The highlights were Oasis of Dreams, Come Fly with Me, the sand artist during Frozen in Time, and the adorable glow-in-the-dark children's puppet show.

-Dedicated children's TV channels, which not all cruise ships have. Made a big difference when we were in the room.

-The food was the best we've experienced on a cruise. Wide variety and good quality. We didn't try the specialty restaurants.

-Seamless embarkation and debarkation experiences.

-My kids loved the dedicated playroom. This was a great feature not all cruise ships have.

-Babysitting for younger children--even my 15 month old--so parents can enjoy a night out.

-Dining: Once we were finally seated, service in the main dining room was generally excellent. Since we have young children, the dining room staff made sure we received our meals quickly, which is not often the case on other cruise lines--including Disney. One of our servers remembered our preferences after the first night and provided excellent service.

-Our stateroom attendant formed a bond with our children--they were eager to see him each time we left our room.

-Central Park: Very unique and beautiful feature for a cruise ship. We stayed on deck 8 and enjoyed walking through the park to get to the other end of the ship.

CONS:

-The buffet was always crowded, particularly during breakfast. It was very hard to navigate and find a table, especially with two young children and a stroller.

-Ports: There was little communication when we arrived in port, which was surprising, given our past cruise experiences.

-Housekeeping always had bags of laundry and carts in the narrow hallways, making it very difficult to navigate with a stroller in order to get to our cabin.

-Communication issues: We didn't receive our Cruise Compass the first three days of the cruise and didn't get it until we complained to guest services, so we were a bit lost and missed out on some activities. (We didn't know it was formal night, didn't know we couldn't drop our daughter off at the kids club at certain times, and didn't know about DreamWorks character appearances--characters weren't listed in the app.)

-Wi-Fi/App: Constantly lost our connection and had to keep on reconnecting. 

-Babysitting: We were unable to use babysitting we had reserved for various reasons: one of our shows was canceled, we tried dropping off our daughter at the kids club at a time that was blocked out--unbeknownst to us because we hadn't received the daily schedule (and rather than being apologetic, the staff member simply told us we should have read the daily guide, which we never received), and one time Royal Babies & Tots failed to reserve our babysitting hours--even though we confirmed in advance. When we did drop off our 15 month old the first time for babysitting services so we could enjoy the comedy show, they called us multiple times during the show, forcing my husband to completely miss it.

-Shows: While the entertainment was great, you had to reserve everything in advance. Also, one of our shows (Oasis of Dreams) was canceled and rescheduled.

-My time dining was difficult. There was often a long wait to make a reservation or request a table. When we finally got to the reservations desk, the dining room kept mistakenly thinking we were part of a party of 13 and made us wait while they figured it out. Once our name was finally taken, there was often still a 15-20 minute wait for a table, which is difficult with young kids. We were given different information from different people about our reservation times throughout the week, which was confusing.

-Tiny, claustrophobic shower. This isn't surprising on a cruise ship, but the showers on Disney and Norwegian are better. Difficult to bathe young children in a tiny shower.

-Billing: We were mistakenly charged $200 for towels we had returned. They sprang this charge on us at the last minute--I checked our bill after 10:00 pm on the last night of our cruise and didn't see this surprise charge until we received our bill the last morning. When I addressed this issue with guest services, they weren't apologetic at all, but did remove the charge.

-Elevators: Elevator doors didn't stay open long enough. Once the doors opened, you had to run to get to the elevator or risked missing it, which was very difficult with a stroller. The sensors on the doors didn't work properly. My young daughter was hit with the elevator door once when exiting.

Beautiful ship, but inconsistent customer service experience

We are 60 something cruisers who enjoy a little time to ourselves.  We have been on cruises with many cruise lines and this is our third with Royal.  We chose this ship on a whim because we saw a Kelsey Grammer movie which featured the ship.  We arrived a day early and used the Cruise Line's shuttle to the ship.  It was smooth abet the gal loading the buses was a bit short with the clientele.  Upon arrival the entire process to get on the ship was smooth and seamless.  We were gold but the traffic in the terminal was as such that i dont think the priority would have made a difference.  We also did not get to use the key lounge since everything was going so well.  KEY was a program that Royal started and I recommend it to everyone (unless I am on the ship and then steer away from it).  Key got a great embark lunch at the Italian venue which was outstanding.  It has a few more embark features but we did not need them.   

Our cabin was on the 10th deck overlooking the Central Park.  I thought it might be interesting but never really saw much activity in Central Park.  Standard cabin with not any fanfare.  Got what I paid for.  The ship did smell of a cat urine smell the whole cruise that ended up on our shoes so we had to throw them away when we got home.  That is where many of the pay restaurants are located.  We ate at Johnny Rockets and it was the worst meal we had.  The fries and onion rings were old, cold, stale and rubbery.  Sandwiches were fresh and okay.  The only time to eat here is when the place is crowded.  Also ate at the Mexican place on the Boardwalk and seriously $56 for lunch fare was beyond fair. Hot Dog place was disappointing, recommend a deli there.   Had two drinks at a price of $23 so we instantly purchased the drink package.  Buffet was small and not much imagination for the reason I am guessing is that they have so many other venues that they are trying to get you away from the Buffet.  Main dining room was actually some of the better food on the ship.  

Shows were beyond good.  Key access got us the best seats in the house also.  

We only got off the ship in Haiti, with the exception of the overbearing sellers at the market it was nice.  Stayed on the ship for the other stops and basically had the ship to ourselves.  

Key made our debark incredible.   We had a special breakfast and they escorted us off the ship straight to Customs.  No wait anywhere.  We also used the valet service for the luggage and had no worries until we picked up our bags in St Louis.  Recommend this to all.

To recap, it was a good cruise but the ship was way too big and you had to search for some of the dining options.  It only felt crowed on sea days where there were not enough deck chairs. One more thing, we had a lot of smaller kids on the cruise.   No issues during the day but the parents kept them up way past bed time at night and they were cranky.  Parents dont do this to them and other passengers.   Hope this helps

Great Ship..Too Big For Me

My wife and 2 kids have Celiac, and thus can not eat gluten or have any cross contamination.  We heard Disney and Royal are the two lines to go on if you have that, so having already tried Disney it was time to try Royal.

Royals food was MUCH better than Disney in my opinion.  I do not have Celiac, so I got to try food that was specially prepared for my family, and the food that was made for the average guest.  I read a lot of reviews prior to going on this ship,  and saw that gluten-free chicken fingers apparently are impossible to come by.  That is UNTRUE.  We had it multiple nights and afternoons on the ship ( my 6 and 3 year old liked them ).  Ask for Robinson, he will help you out in the general dining room.

Gluten free waffles also can be done but has to be preordered.  Also we got doughnuts gluten free one morning, but didn’t taste that great.

We also did 2 specialty restaurants...Chops and Giovani’s .  Both were excellent.  Chops had the best filet I’ve ever tasted.  We went into the restaurant the day before and found out what is safe for Celiac and what they could make up for us.  It was a very easy going experience.  

My wife felt a little off towards the end of the cruise but we think it was just because of the AMOUNT of food and heavy dairy, but she didn’t get glutened.  Both of my kids were good too.  

The entertainment and overall cruising experience was absolutely wonderful, but just wanted to write a review for all the concerned parents out there with kids that have celiac.  If you cruise with Royal at least on this boat you will be fine.

Cruising family of 4 with Celiac

My husband and I chose to purchase 'The Key' on our Spring Break cruise this past March, Since  we did not want to spend the extra money on a Suite Class cabin, we chose to purchase some of the benefits that come with Suite Class staterooms. 

 Priority Check in was fast, easy and we did not wait in line at all!! We walked right up to "The Key" check in desk and it was about 5 minutes of standard check in information, then we were off to the ship. 

Carry-On drop off. We then proceeded to the carry-on drop off area where we dropped off some items (stroller, carry-on baggage). It was labeled and brought to our stateroom. 

 Off to lunch at Chops! (included with 'The Key') Our lunch at Chops Grill was amazingly yummy!! It also helped us avoid the chaos of the Windjammer lunch rush. The wifi that is also included with the key was high quality and one we appreciated throughout the vacation. 

The priority seating for all the shows was incredible and having a 4 and 6 year old helped us arrive minutes before showtime and have excellent seats. We also utilized the zip line, rock wall as well as the flowrider designated times without any wait times. Our overall impression of the key experience was amazing, and we will definitely purchase this again,

The Key Program 

Well here I am again writing a review for the Oasis of the seas – Sadly nothing has changed for the RCCL Oasis Class Cruise Ships. After careful consideration I have come to the conclusion that writing about the experience may not be as informative as identifying the short falls that seem to be plaguing these big cruise liners. So I have changed up the format a bit to “hopefully” provide a better insight. 

This was our 13th cruise with RCCL and I am sure the burning question is “why do we keep cruising with RCCL if there is so much pessimism in my reviews” – The answer is simple, we have been fortunate enough to sail on Six of the Eight Class Vessels and 12 of the 23 ships available in these classes. We have reached Diamond Status with Royal Caribbean and with these personal experiences we encountered on these ships we believe we can give a fair and impartial review.  Although the Oasis Class Ships fall short of why we enjoy cruising with RCCL – there is still hope with the Freedom / Voyager and Vision Classes.

So let’s begin, I will start with the Memorable Experiences, we were a group of 6 during this latest adventure and we generally seek out the Employee that we feel goes above and beyond. This varies from trip to trip – and could be anywhere on the ship. Our first few days on board was disheartening, the lack of Bar Tenders – Workers and the sincere lack of One on One Customer service and personal one on one communications was nowhere to be found. Sadly my wife and I went on this cruise knowing these short falls, however my brother – sister-in-law, Nephew and his fiancé were very discouraged as this was their first trip on the Oasis Class Ship. 

The crew was not the most personable compared to the Freedom and Voyage Class Ships. The crew seemed weathered, wore out and not very enthusiastic. I get it, these people are working around the clock nonstop day after day, dealing with all types of diversity etc.  RCCL owns these issues as “IMO” RCCL is asking more from these people than RCCL “Company” can deliver. The Big Ships hold no comparison to the Freedom and Voyager Classes when it comes to customer service and one on one communications. 

Customer / Bar Service 

During our 7 Night Cruise we saw 3 Bartenders on the Pool Deck the whole week, needless to say although we received some service – Most of our drinks were self-Served at the bar.

The casino was much worse where waiting for an Hour for a drink was the norm or not getting a drink at all, I actually ordered a drink from a wait staff member and ended up waiting 4 Hours (During this time I was up and down getting my own) 

Windjammer

Nightly – No seating available, general wait time 15-20 minutes before sitting down, Lack of Workers to keep up with the Customer Demand.  


Dining Room Breakfast

Waited 1 Hour for our breakfast – Half Cold – Half Missing and Half Wrong. To top it all off I order Eggs Benedict and the eggs were hard boiled. The Manager of the Breakfast Room told me quote “That is the way they are served” – I looked at him and said you’re kidding right? I was so dumbfounded that I just had to walk away before I said something as imprudent as he just did. 

Next Cruise Office 

Honestly – we were treated like children, we were treated like we had no idea what we were doing, One of the Employees that was helping us put a whole new meaning on the word condescending. 

Casino

The Hostess were incredibly rude – condescending and most unprofessional we ever met, Pit Bosses? All they did the whole cruise was sit in the bull pen and talk to one another, a far cry from the Allure 3 months ago where all the pit bosses including the manager were very involved with passengers in the Casino.  Bad for business IMO.

With that here is what the Oasis Cruise Ship and other Big Liners are missing 

Customer Service

Customer Care

Professionalism

Cruise Passenger Interaction

The Basics that made them who they are

With ANY company, bigger does not mean better, especially when your company relies on customer service and fun filled adventure, relax let us do it for you ect.  I have a terrible feeling that RCCL and others like it are trying to race to the top with the biggest and best without any regards to what they are actually losing,  

In comparison to the Freedom / Vision Class Ships – We still maintain that the customer service is outstanding on the smaller ships. At least that is where we left it last we cruised with them. We will know in about a year whether that still stands but for now.  Because of our status and offers we have received from RCCL we will be on board the Oasis in December 2019 – Between now and then I do plan on writing letters to corporate with the hopes that things can improve.  Look me up late December as I will be sure to write another review. 

Note: We are not looking for anything – kickbacks etc.  We are simply trying to point out that RCCL Oasis Class Ships are missing what we love about cruising – The one on one personal interaction, we do not expect anyone in any field to wait on us hand and foot – that is not the type of people we are, we don’t expect special privileges.  We are just pointing out that our concern is that the seasoned cruisers can see what’s missing.  We still stay loyal to Royal – just hoping they can get back to the basics. 

Happy / Safe Sailing

Oasis class Ships are winning the war on Poor Customer Service

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