Oasis adventure May 22 Bayonne

[D Alt]

At bayonne early and the crowds are already here. Dropped off luggage. No parking in garage. I was routed to another section and prepaid. 

My checkin was at 11. Good thing i got here early. Took 10 mins to go thru checkin. 

Now i sit and wait. 

[D Alt]

This is a great port. View of Manhattan is so nice. Here's a view from my stateroom. 

Follow.me on tiktok for videos and live. @dara_alt.666

[D Alt]

Oasis has sustainable plastic straws! No more paper! 

[D Alt]

5800 is what i hear onboard.

Seems like it. 

[D Alt]

[JC Pats]

Dara - when you get a minute, can you advise what the drink package price on board is? Thanks

[LovetoCruise87]

Have a great cruise. Looks like you are stopping in my neighborhood tomorrow....Port Canaveral

[Kirsten]

I was just on from the 15-22.  I think we had about 5400 on board.  Enjoy!

[Carrie22]

Looking forward to hearing how your trip goes! We were supposed to go on the Oasis next week but just cancelled because of fears of being sick and quarantined (my bf) and fears of Royal Caribbean not being totally prepared for full capacity in terms of staffing and supply chain shortages (me). Hopefully our fears are unsupported and you have a great time!

[D Alt]

On 5/22/2022 at 7:03 PM, JC Pats said:

Dara - when you get a minute, can you advise what the drink package price on board is? Thanks

Ill see. I had already purchased drinks ahead of time. 

[D Alt]

Dinner at 150 Central Park last night was good. I had high expectations for the Lobster Thermador and honestly I wasnt impressed. The fried cheesecake however was amazing and decadent. 

[D Alt]

Today we didn't arrive to Port Canaveral until like noon. Was hoping most people would get off the ship but didn't really happen. It's HOT! 

I was disappointed in Windjammer today too. Breakfast went until 1 so when i went for lunch, one side had lunch and one side breakfast still. Nothing very appetizing so i came to Playmakers for lunch. And they were short staffed so i had a wait. 

[MattG]

Been following Oasis a bit for the past few months, seems like the cast/crew may have been shaken up as the ship shifted to its new home port? No Cats, no Aqua80s, dining has been hit-or-miss…Dara I hope your experiences prove me wrong! We’re on Oasis in October, hoping things shake out over the summer. 

[D Alt]

We have all the shows on this cruise. The main dining has been great and the specialty restaurants for the most part are good too. Just some glitches. 

Keep it tuned here for more experiences. 

[MTNeedsAVacay]

Following along! We will be on Oasis in a few weeks!

[D Alt]

The hibachi place was OK. I only paid $10 because i had UDP. 

But for those who were wondering if they should pay for the specialty dining or save money...for fear of missing out...trust i would not pay for these extras unless the package price was outstanding. The food in the MDR is great. IMO the specialty places although good should have been so much better for the extr cost. 

Ive been on 3 RC cruises now and im still not blown away with the SD. So for me it's a balance of cost. 

I can honestly sayif i was a more frequent cruiser id be eating less onboard because you just get sick of same foods. 

Also i thought Oasis would have a nice display as you walk into WJ and it didnt. 

I gotta say WJ on this ship needs to do better. 

Sorry to be so critical but i really expected more from seeing others experiences. 

[D Alt]

My favorite spots on Oasis:

Central Park just beautiful and peaceful. it gets windy on sea days. 

Jogging track is always my fave spot but on Oasis passengers cannot access helipad.  

Boardwalk is really cool spot too.

Music Hall is cozy and good place to hide during the day if you want a quiet spot. 

Sun deck and Solarium is a great spot! No kids and it has a beautiful atmosphere to it. 

[Marlena]

How are you finding the MDR? Hearing long wait to be seated even with a reservation and very slow service. Making me worried.

[FamilyCruiseFan]

My parents are on this Oasis cruise as well (May 22, out of Bayonne). They have been on over 40 some cruises (most Royal Caribbean) so they know what to expect and they have been disappointed by many things this cruise. The ship is under staffed for sure. Windjammer has been having long lines due to not enough seating. Not opening the time they were suppose to.  My parents who are diamond plus were not able to get a seat at all on many of the shows even through the concierge service. Even the concierge service noted they were definitely understaffed. My parents somehow got My Time dining which they never do (they tried to change it to an earlier time) they said basically they were not able to, but the lines are longer. They did book a night a Chops to finally enjoy a sit down meal. They've never really had issues with dining in the past so they were a bit surprised. 

Aside from that, my parents did comment that port day on the ship was very busy, didn't seem like many got off.  They had heard 5400 - 5500 approx for passenger count. Just FYI stuff!

I hope you have a great rest of the cruise! I am enjoying following the posts. My whole family (party of 8 ) go on Oasis again in Oct, so I am just comparing experiences! 

[WAAAYTOOO]

39 minutes ago, FamilyCruiseFan said:

My parents who are diamond plus were not able to get a seat at all on many of the shows even through the concierge service. 

They were not able to sit in reserved seating areas ?

[Marlena]

Any theme nights?

[FamilyCruiseFan]

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

They were not able to sit in reserved seating areas ?

This is what they passed on to me when I asked them about it....

2nd day of cruise,went to diamond concierge about getting reservations for the comedians and illusionsist show and he told us they were sold out. He said we could wait at door for cancellations and availability. Did get a reservation for aqua 80 on day 5. Lots of top tier cruisers on this ship.

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, FamilyCruiseFan said:

This is what they passed on to me when I asked them about it....

2nd day of cruise,went to diamond concierge about getting reservations for the comedians and illusionsist show and he told us they were sold out. He said we could wait at door for cancellations and availability. Did get a reservation for aqua 80 on day 5. Lots of top tier cruisers on this ship.

Hmm.  If they are D+ they shouldn’t have needed reservations to any of those shows.  It sounds like the D+ weren’t included in the reserved seating areas of those venues.  Thanks for the information.

[D Alt]

On 5/25/2022 at 9:44 AM, Marlena said:

How are you finding the MDR? Hearing long wait to be seated even with a reservation and very slow service. Making me worried.

Not long. Make reservations.

[D Alt]

I have had no issues with dining at specialty restaurants. MDR has been busy but it's quick.

I saw Aqua80 last night and no issues getting a seat. The show was fantastic! Great music and talented performers. 

Windjammer has been my biggest complaint. 

Did the Eco Tour to Blue Lagoon and for the price do not recommend. It was basically walking tour to a tower and other sections. I had to pay to eat and drink and it was pricey. But the beach was nice. The boat ride over was cool too. 

[D Alt]

The Frozen show was good and so was late night comedy. The comedian joked about how Blaze was an odd room to have a comedy show. He wasnt even on the stage and there were pockets of areas who could not see him. This reflects my thoughts as well on how some of the design options are weird on Oasis. 

2 more days and we're back. 

[Marlena]

You mentioned tons of crowds when you arrived. Do people who come to early tend to just crowd around the terminal and if you walk up you can find your line for your boarding time? Or do the crowd of people tend to get the the earlier lines and slow it down?  ( if that question made any sense!)

[AshleyDillo]

7 hours ago, D Alt said:

The Frozen show was good and so was late night comedy. The comedian joked about how Blaze was an odd room to have a comedy show. He wasnt even on the stage and there were pockets of areas who could not see him. This reflects my thoughts as well on how some of the design options are weird on Oasis. 

I don't think Blaze was originally intended to be the comedy club, which explains the poor layout. The Comedy Club used to be across the way where the Diamond Lounge is now before the refurb.  

[D Alt]

1 hour ago, Marlena said:

You mentioned tons of crowds when you arrived. Do people who come to early tend to just crowd around the terminal and if you walk up you can find your line for your boarding time? Or do the crowd of people tend to get the the earlier lines and slow it down?  ( if that question made any sense!)

There were people lined up outside the terminal by luggage and not sure why they hung out there. 

So when i went up to line person and figured it was almost 11 they said go in. Didnt seem to matter that i had an appt time. It went quickly. And by time i got to Windjammer i saw lines of cars waiting to get even to drop off area. So get there early. 

 

Side note; the carousel and zoltar are not working. 

[D Alt]

Learned from captain today:

The smoke stacks are retracted a couple of hours before we get to verrazano bridge. On way back about 5-530 am we hit bridge.

20 people on bridge to help captain navigate ship. 2 captains per ship. 10 weeks to 2 months vacation. 

5700 people on this sailing out of 6700 passengers. 

We took a detour through Bahamas before we hit Nassau because of Elon Musk and his rockets. 

This cruise director goes home tomorrow with us..his contract ends. 

 

[D Alt]

21 hours ago, D Alt said:

 

Side note; the carousel and zoltar are not working. 

It's running today at 2pm and 6pm. 

[USCG Teacher]

44 minutes ago, D Alt said:

It's running today at 2pm and 6pm. 

I think we all know what the problem was...

[D Alt]

Last day got a bit chillier temp wise. 

Early morning caught the bridge again. Go to my tiktok for videos.

And if course by 5:30 am there was a line to get off the ship! 

[D Alt]

The gangway opened at 6:30am, 15 minutes ahead of schedule because there was a line already down to the end of the promenade. Since I was in front of the line it took about 10 minutes from gangway through to customs as part of the self serve process.. All you had to do was the photo at customs. No other checks. I walked to my vehicle and bam I was out of there! Took less than an hour to get home.

 

[JC Pats]

21 hours ago, D Alt said:

This cruise director goes home tomorrow with us..his contract ends.

The captain/CD didn’t say who the new Cruise Director is? 

[D Alt]

29 minutes ago, JC Pats said:

The captain/CD didn’t say who the new Cruise Director is? 

If he did, I don't recall a name.  The CD that was on this ship said he's coming back in July, so not sure, maybe they have an acting CD in the meantime? 

[D Alt]

Norwegian racing past us this morning 

 

[AlexWinters]

Who is the cruise director who left and is coming back in July? Thanks!