Jump to content

5-person family trip on Oasis of the Seas - 9 October 2022


MattG

Recommended Posts

Hi everyone! We're off on another family adventure, this time on Oasis. It's me (mid-30s M), Dear Wife (mid-30s F), and our three kids (6F, 4F, and 2M). This is a sequel to our December 2021 trip on Anthem, and something i've been looking forward to since that trip (being honest - i've been looking forward to this trip before we even embarked on Anthem!)

There are some things that will be the same from that trip:

  • same family
  • same departure port (Bayonne, NJ)
  • same itinerary (Sea Day, Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco Cay, 2 Sea Days).

But there's a lot more that will be different:

Better wrangle of COVID: COVID was a burden for us last December - getting tests, testing in the terminal, everyone wearing masks, etc. They were all necessary steps, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. However, with vaccines now being available for kids under 5, everyone will be fully vaccinated by the time we cruise. We can't be more excited to have them "in the bubble" with us and be considered part of the fully vaccinated members on the ship. Also, we're definitely taking @Matt's advice and bringing a handful of COVID tests with us!

Oasis-class (from Quantum-class): On Anthem, I felt like we disembarked having done everything we could have done on that ship. COVID knocked out a lot of family activities, which came back throughout this spring based on the Cruise Compasses that have come out from Anthem. Every time I think about kids activies on Oasis, I lose track! I'm really excited for there to always be something to do (Ultimate Abyss, Splashaway Bay, Adventure Ocean, Merry-Go-Round, more pools)

Dining: On Anthem, our goal was to fully embrace the Windjammer and MDR for meals. We also really liked the consistency and structure of both venues when it came to routine with the kids. Our serving staff in MDR on Anthem were, without a doubt, the best part of the entire cruise. As parents, they made our lives as painless as possible. From a food perspective, Windjammer and MDR were good, but not great or mind-blowing. At the time, UDP on Anthem was $220/person, and specialty dining wasn't in the cards. Once we booked Oasis and I got into the Cruise Planner, I saw UDP for $167/day. With 150CP and Chops going for $60+, convincing DW that $24/day for specialty dining was easy, especially with the increased variety on Oasis.

Stateroom: On Anthem, we also had our nanny (20F), so we did two connecting interior staterooms. They were gorgeous and gave us room to spread out. By the time we cruise on Oasis, our nanny will have moved on, so it's just the 5 of us. When I browsed the Oasis deckplans, I saw some 5+ rooms, including Central Park Balcony rooms. It was break-even in cost to switch from 2x interior to 1x CP balcony, so we made the switch. We're very curious to see 1) how the 5 of us cope being in one room, and 2) how the balcony changes the dynamic of the room.

Price: Our price for 2 interior staterooms on Anthem (after taxes, before grats) for 3 adults and 3 kids was $3,228. On Oasis, our 5-person CP Balcony started at $4,471, but with several price drops, promos, and Kids Sail Free, our total on Final Payment Date was $2,332. Unbelievable. Endless thanks and praise to @Sharlaat MEI Travel for making this happen, and for putting up with my incessant requests to re-check pricing 🙂 Thank you, Sharla!

 

Our Goals on Oasis:

  • Truly embrace specialty dining: having our fill of WJ and MDR, we're going the polar opposite direction and going HAM on specialty dining thanks to UDP. Probably not the smartest idea, but we're doing it for SCIENCE!

  • Escape room: I'm a huge space nerd, and can't wait to check out the Apollo 18 escape room

  • Stress less about activities, especially for the kids: on Anthem, I felt like I had to always be planning the "next thing" for the kids. I don't feel I need to do that on Oasis, there's always some place to go or something new to check out.

  • See Aqua80s: I'm an 80s/90s kid, i've heard this show is fantastic.

  • Avoid Cats (maybe): Not sure if this will be possible, our kids loved all the mainstage shows on Anthem. Who knows, maybe i'll like it...

  • Embrace the uniqueness of Oasis: Splashaway Bay, water slides, Ultimate Abyss, super-tall rock wall (20% taller than Anthem), Central Park & the Boardwalk, etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.

So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.

Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.

Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.

Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.

After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.

Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.

We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?

We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.

I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!

We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.

Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.

After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.

Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).

Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I love that your shoe rack stays in place with the magnets.  I guess my magnets weren't strong enough b/c the whole thing kept sliding down the wall !!  I lost those magnets when my luggage was lost a few years ago on Liberty.  I guess I need to buy some bigger, better magnets !

Thanks! We use these:

Neosmuk Magnetic Hooks Heavy Duty,100 lb Strong Magnet with Hook for Fridge, Super Neodymium Extra Strength Industrial Hooks for Hanging, Magnetic Hanger for Toolbox, Cruise, Grill, Coat and Storage https://a.co/d/cCEmMI0
 

We don’t terribly overload it, and you could still drag it down with enough force, but it works well!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking forward to hearing about your trip.  The Anthem title got my attention as I remember your posts from your last cruise (and you were helpful when we were planning our Anthem cruise), but then saw you meant Oasis.  Interested in hearing how you find they compare.

Btw...I love the photoshop idea.  I often have great pictures to post of my kids and us, but I don't like putting pictures of them on public sites so just skip those photos.  That's a great way to still be able to post something but keeping your privacy.

Have a wonderful cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, WannaCruise said:

Btw...I love the photoshop idea.  I often have great pictures to post of my kids and us, but I don't like putting pictures of them on public sites so just skip those photos.  That's a great way to still be able to post something but keeping your privacy.

There’s an app called “MaskerAid” put out by the hosts of one of my podcasts. It uses AI to detect faces and then overlays an emoji. You can change the emoji to any in the standard library, as well as move and rotate:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1590163828

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Day 2 Morning

Rough night for the youngest, plus still getting my sea legs meant a rough night all around. Our middle child woke up around 5:30am, and the oldest around 5:45am. I got them to play quietly while I took a shower and got dressed, then got them dressed and left at 7:00am to go get a coffee for the Wife. Heading down to the Promenade for Starbucks, and it was EMPTY. I was surprised at how energetic the ship was yesterday, that the Promenade was so dead. No line at Starbucks, so we bring coffee back to the Wife, and then take the girls to the Windjammer.

We got to the Windjammer by 7:15am, and only one half was open. The second side opened by 7:50am, and most of the seating was taken by 8:00am. This Windjammer definitely feels smaller than Anthem - less seating, fewer service stations, and the stations themselves are smaller. I understand the intention of this, but still feels baffling (and glad they did an about-face on Wonder).

We wrapped up breakfast around 8:00am, and headed down to Oasis Dunes to burn off some time until Adventure Ocean. Drop-off at Adventure Ocean was painless for the two oldest, and the youngest took a little bit longer because he’s still a Nursery kid. Once everyone was dropped off, the Wife and I headed up to the fitness center to prep for this week’s reckless abandon with UDP. After the gym, we headed to the hot tub for a bit, then back to the room to shower and change for AO pickup and lunch at Izumi Sushi.

AO Pickup went smooth, and we headed down to Izumi. Table for 9, we shared with the other family in our party. Food was ordered within 10 minutes of arrival, and mains showed up 30 minutes after arrival. Great service, great timing. Kids were coursed with adults, but it wasn’t as noticeable because of the quick service. I got the vegetable fried rice, and the wife got the spicy shrimp spring rolls, enjoyed by all. For the mains, I got the sashimi and the poke bowl, and the wife got the champagne lobster rolll, also enjoyed by everyone.

Okay, everyone who says UDP is a lot of food: they’re not lying. The fried rice is a small bowl, but very filling. Both mains are a hearty size, and combining both is a crazy amount of food. Unfortunately I didn’t finish it all, because I’m not a masochist 😄 We closed with the strawberry mochi, and all the kids loved them. I have some photos on my phone, the wife has the food photos. Those are coming later.

We came back to the room to change to bathing suits and do a little bit of “boat school” to keep the kids sharp. The wife headed off to the spa/salon to get her hair done (formal night tonight), and we have 150CP tonight. Talk to you all soon!

Random thoughts:

  • Definite sound spillover from the pool deck to the CP balcony rooms.
  • Everything here seems about 5% “off” - service isn’t as crisp, soap dispensers are empty, one of the interactive screens outside AO isn’t working. Coming from the impeccability of Anthem, Oasis feels a little more mainstream.
  • The carousel on the Boardwalk remains the favorite of all the kids.
  • Cruise Compasses are still MIA for us. I’ve seen B&W copies at some stands (like Starbucks or behind a bar), and I saw a live copy in the hand of another guest, but every request we make falls on deaf ears. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it feels they’re definitely pushing away from them.
  • This ship is big. Lots of walking everywhere. It’s exhausting 😄 

DIMG_1691.thumb.jpeg.7b864d4f771d40dbf2ef94933011b2b7.jpegIMG_1682.thumb.jpeg.f92fb4787b7195bacc97cdee6a97022b.jpegIMG_1680.thumb.jpeg.03123479bf3a1791ea737727f77bdc48.jpegIMG_1677.thumb.jpeg.b1993dd71d5cb138e482e745ce3462c3.jpeg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, MattG said:

There’s an app called “MaskerAid” put out by the hosts of one of my podcasts. It uses AI to detect faces and then overlays an emoji. You can change the emoji to any in the standard library, as well as move and rotate:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1590163828

 

Thanks!  Will check it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Lovetocruise2002 changed the title to 5-person family trip on Oasis of the Seas - 9 October 2022
37 minutes ago, MattG said:

Paging @Matt or @Lovetocruise2002 or @SpeedNoodles

Could I please get a topic title update from "Anthem" to "Oasis"?

Thank you!

Done. But I don't think you need us for this. I am pretty sure the site allows anyone to change their own titles. You just click and hold down on the title and it allows you to edit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Done. But I don't think you need us for this. I am pretty sure the site allows anyone to change their own titles. You just click and hold down on the title and it allows you to edit.

Thank you for making the change!

I just tried your click-and-hold-down method and it worked! It wasn't immediately intuitive, I was clicking, but nothing was happening. Once I held, it worked. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, MattG said:

Thank you for making the change!

I just tried your click-and-hold-down method and it worked! It wasn't immediately intuitive, I was clicking, but nothing was happening. Once I held, it worked. 

Also if you edit the very first post, that's where you can edit the title. Click the three dots and pick Edit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I have to get better about taking notes in the moment...

Day 2 Evening

It's taken me a while, but I'm finally realizing that while kids are pretty adaptable, tossing them into a new environment really throws them off. Everyone's bit groggy, over-stimulated, being pulled in different directions. Putting myself in their shoes, I can imagine it's hard to adapt when you're still learning the concepts of planning, strategy, where are we going to eat next, etc. The parents always figure that stuff out, but it may not be what you (as a kid) want. Our youngest (M3) came out of Adventure Ocean in a great mood, but by the time we got to lunch, he was really cranky. We first chalked it up to tiredness, but his crankiness read a little differently. We decided to bring him back to the room to nap while the older two did "boat school" (some school lessons while on vacation). I stayed back and monitored nap time while writing yesterday's Day 2 Morning post. He slept most of the afternoon, and the girls came back from the pool to change for dinner right around the time he woke up. 

We all changed for dinner, and went to 150 Central Park. What a classy place 🙂 They had our table for 9 ready, a 5-top and a 4-top, but similar to Chops, we put all the kids on the bench and wrapped four chairs around the other side and turned the 5-top into a 9-top. The servers adapted perfectly, and were fantastic. I ordered the garden martini, and it was sooo good. Super smooth, no taste of alcohol (but it was there!). All of the food was great - the wife got the scallops and the Tenderloin for one, I got the pork belly and the lobster Thermidor. The pork belly was a little tough, but had a great flavor. The scallops were smoky and wonderful. I'm a sucker for lobster, and the lobster Thermidor was a great hit. Then came dessert. 

You guys, the fried cheesecake is everything. All the reviews are true. It's unreal how good this dessert is. It's the fried sweetness of funnel cake, with the creaminess of cheesecake. I'm 100% going back again sometime this cruise to get it again, somehow. The caramel popcorn on top is a great garnish.

After wrapping up at 150CP, we headed over to the carousel to give the kids a few rides before heading off to bed. 

 

Insert record scratch here

 

 

We're coming to realize that, while dinner with our three kids is one thing, dinner with five kids (our three, plus two from the other family cruising with us) is a whole other beast. So many more dynamics to wrangle, while trying to teach good manners in a "fancy restaurant" and not bum-rush the cocktail cart. The youngest was also in rare form at dinner, both refusing to eat and saying he was hungry. I wrangled him and took him down to Cafe Promenade where we got him two apples, and he completely changed and turned back into a happy, bouncing boy. Kids are weird. Add to this that we've eaten at four different restaurants in two days (Playmakers, Chops, Izumi, and now 150CP), we're desperately missing the consistency of MDR. We LOVE the specialty restaurants, and want our kids to have these experiences too. We did MDR last cruise, and know the menus, know the food, and wanted to branch out and try ALL the specialty dining on Oasis, but the lack of routine is taking its toll on the kids. When we were on Anthem, it was a Windjammer lunch and MDR dinner every night and the kids thrived at that routine, and so did the MDR staff, getting to know our family and our needs.

After some discussion and sleeping on it, we may see if we can shimmy our way into a 5:30pm MDR seating for dinner starting Day 4. We want the kids to have a great time too, and if they're fried from the lack of routine, it kinda makes us all miserable. Happy kids, happy parents, happy vacation.

 

  

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 3 Morning

Everyone slept in a little later today, and got up around 6:30am. Dressed and out the door, we headed back to the Windjammer as it was the only real place open (Solarium Bistro is 9am, MDR is 8am, Johnny Rockets is 8am). There's always Park Cafe, but the consistency of Windjammer is what's getting the kids to eat. We got some food in them, and headed back down to mini golf to burn some time before 9am drop-off at AO. Our youngest is in AO Babies (the nursery), and they only let in one family at a time. Unfortunately this creates a bottleneck of parents trying to drop off toddlers. One of the families was in for over 20 minutes, and really ate into our reservation time. It would have been nice to have a second person checking in families right at opening time. 

This morning, I vowed to do all of the adult stuff I can't do with kids attached. Bathing suit donned, I headed to Deck 15 Aft.

  1. Ultimate Abyss: Super cool, a little slow, but I realized I have to lay waaaaaay back and pull waaaaay up on the front strap to gain speed. Gonna try that one again. 
  2. Racing Slide (Orange): I swear I launched myself down this slide, only to end up going sooo slow. I was wearing a rash guard, not thinking it would be causing more friction. Maybe try that again another time. 
  3. Supercell (The toilet bowl): What a drop at the top! Tore up my back a little bit, but spun around the bowl twice before dropping in to the landing zone. Definitely another try!
  4. Racing Slide (Pink): I ditched the rash guard for this one, launched myself down the slide, and FLEW through. Definitely ditching the rash guard going forward!
  5. Flowrider (boogie board side): I have never done this, but I have boogie boarded in the ocean. The concepts are the same, but staying centered all around is harder than it looks. I kept racing forward, then sliding back to the top of the ramp, then racing forward again. I ended up digging in my feet to control my forward/back movement. Wiped out a few times, but felt like I had better idea for the next time. 

The line for the water slides takes you to one of the highest points on the ship, where this morning we were coming up on the Space Coast. The VAB was immediately visible, as well as SpaceX's SLC-40 (which I mistook for LC39-A at first). As we got closer to port and I got re-oriented, I found ULA's SLC-41, re-found SLC-40, and in the distance found SLC-39A and SpaceX's new launch tower. Pretty cool for a space nerd. As we also got into port, 

With all of those items checked off, I headed back to AO for pickup. After pickup, we headed to El Loco Fresh and Portside BBQ for lunch. Half of us went to each, and met up at the tables behind facing Oasis Dunes. It was at this time that there was a ship wide announcement that, due to a water pipe burst, there was no running water throughout the ship

Oops. 

We got our food, and I have to say that Portside compares favorably to Mission BBQ for those on the eastern side of the US. Good tenderness on the brisket, the chicken is moist, and the sides are all good. The burnt ends are fantastic. 

The kids are still adapting and getting punchy, and some of the grownups have spa appointments, so we divide and conquer. Our middle child is super sleepy, so we take her and our other family's youngest back to nap, while the other three go to Splashaway Bay. Word on the street is they had a BLAST! Mid-afternoon, we do a shuffle for spa appointments, and I take two to do some quiet tablet time while the oldest do some boat school. Tonight is Giovanni's Table for dinner. 

Random Thoughts:

  • No sign of Starlink antennas anywhere on the top of the ship. I've walked the length twice, and can't find anything looking like a Starlink antenna as shown on the other ships. 
  • No idea on headcount yet, but it's gotta be close to max capacity. 
  • AO Babies (the nursery) is fully booked on Day 6 and Day 7, so we've got the littles all day. The nursery said we can check-in a little after opening, and if there are no-shows, we can drop them off. Unfortunately we had the Escape Room booked for Day 6 morning, so we're going to play that one by ear. 
  • I'm a bit disappointed at some capacity caps. Specialty restaurants are understandable, but when it comes to entertainment, I feel like there should never be a circumstance that all of the shows are fully booked. We've been struggling since Day 1 to get Frozen in Time and Aqua80s booked, and the app just kicks us out of the reso process saying there's a problem. When I call the Reservation Help Desk, they tell us "Oh, those shows are full." Or "The only one with space left is the last day at 10:30pm". I'm bummed that the kids won't be able to experience both of these shows. I'm not sure how to resolve this, other than opening reservations the morning of? 
  • Starting to feel the fatigue of being on the Oasis class, and completely understand the draw of the smaller ships. Everything here is a hike. On the other hand, I'm also very grateful at the opportunities I have here that don't exist on Vision/Radiance-class. 
  • Trying to remember to take photos. I love the liveblogs chock-full of photos, and I have a bunch, but most are family photos I'm not comfortable putting online, and I don't want to duplicate photos that are already out there. Any requests?

In the meantime, here are more food photos 😄

IMG_1734.thumb.jpeg.9887d79416c47d7b4e92a9f1ac043046.jpegIMG_1735.thumb.jpeg.80d2debdf369a87febf4c208c0f313f3.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Day 3 Evening

After Boat School and nap time, we get everyone dressed and head down to Park Cafe for a snack before dinner. The Wife is not quite back from her spa appointment, so myself and the three kiddos head down to Central Park to burn some time before dinner. We grab a kummelweck (duh), some kiwis, and some chips, and enjoy the scenery and some snacks. The Wife and our other family joined us at 5:00pm, and we enjoyed Central Park for a few minutes before heading into Giovanni's for our dinner.

Giovanni's was the place I was least interested in visiting on UDP, but ended up being our favorite so far, simply because the atmosphere and waitstaff were so cool. All of the uptightness I felt for the past few days melted away, and our servers just made everything easy. It could also be because the kids are finally adapting to cruise life, but this was the first meal that felt easy. I'm gaining confidence in asking the waitstaff to make modifications to the kids selections that are more appropriate for our particular kids, and the staff has been amazing at accommodation.

For dinner, I went with the mussels for an appetizer, and the bucatini alla bolognese as the main. Both were really good. Apologies for the lack of photos. For dessert, I went with the chocolate torta and the cannolis. The torta was an amazing combination of flavors (probably amplified by the several glasses of Chianti). I can't praise the waitstaff at Giovanni's enough - they handled our kids like pros. One of the chefs even came out and chatted with us for 10 minutes, really engaging us and the kids in conversation.

Pro tip to any RC staff: any amount of engagement with our kids makes us parents happy. The more you engage our kids, the more loyal we are to RC. This includes housekeeping staff, bar staff, wait staff, etc. Chat with our kids, make our kids laugh, and you've got us hooked.

After Giovanni's, the wife and her BFF headed out for a "night on the town", and us dads hung back with the kids. We headed to the Boardwalk and hit up the carousel for a few rides, before calling it a night and heading back to bed.

Sorry i haven't taken more photos today, I will try harder over the next few days.

 

Random Thoughts:

  • Day 2 felt really stressful as everyone adapted to cruise life for the week. Personally, i'm an over-planner: A project manager at heart, I have to make sure everyone is happy. The first 36 hours on the ship was all I had to go on, and it was a bit rough. However, going into Day 3 evening, everything started to relax and it felt like we finally "took a breath". The kids are finally starting to adapt to ship life.
  • The late night live instrumental music in Central Park is just wonderful. Central Park really reminds me of The Via on Anthem of the Seas - a quiet, serene place to relax. I think I prefer Anthem because its indoors, but Central Park is so well curated and designed, it has to be acknowledged how perfect of a space it is. I'm glad they're doing something similar on Icon of the Seas
  • I've only now just noticed there's no giant TV/big screen near the pool deck on Oasis. On @Matt's Wonder of the Seas walkthrough, I recall there being a TV overhanging Central Park that's visible from Central Park as well as the aft part of the pool deck, but nothing like that exists for Oasis. I wonder why, it's such a typical staple of RC ships!
  • The number of Genie sightings is high! Thanks to all you wonderful Star Class cruisers, the Genie wardrobe is so easy to pick out, and i'm pretty sure i've spotted three of the four Genies on Oasis. Two of them were facilitating their guests dining experience at Giovanni's. While waiting for their guests, I mentioned how awesome they are at their job (from what i've heard from other cruisers here), and we chatted for a bit about their love of the job. I didn't get any names, but rest assured, if you're cruising Star Class on Oasis any time soon, you're in good hands.
  • Late-night Sorrento's pizza can't be beat. 

We just left cellular range of Port Canaveral, and Wifi is misbehaving, so no photos in this post. Sorry!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, MattG said:

 

  • Day 2 felt really stressful as everyone adapted to cruise life for the week. Personally, i'm an over-planner: A project manager at heart, I have to make sure everyone is happy. The first 36 hours on the ship was all I had to go on, and it was a bit rough. However, going into Day 3 evening, everything started to relax and it felt like we finally "took a breath". The kids are finally starting to adapt to ship life.

 

i can't imagine doing a cruise with kids (as i have none of my own thus far) but i know this feeling; you're the one taking stock of the day, the outline of events, the general mood of the people in your group, etc. it is A LOT to manage. (and again, i say this with the full knowledge that i don't have a single child, much less multiple, as is the case for you and your group.) glad you guys are hitting your vacation stride 😎

i find that when we are on vacation it takes a good 24-36 hours just to unwind and tell my brain this is not a trick! you are really on vacation! so rest assured you are not alone!!

kudos to you for navigating all of the unknowns and helming the arrangements! i am sure those in your group are grateful that you take the lead. hopefully you can get some relaxing time in too! 😎

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, asquared17 said:

i can't imagine doing a cruise with kids (as i have none of my own thus far) but i know this feeling; you're the one taking stock of the day, the outline of events, the general mood of the people in your group, etc. it is A LOT to manage. (and again, i say this with the full knowledge that i don't have a single child, much less multiple, as is the case for you and your group.) glad you guys are hitting your vacation stride 😎

i find that when we are on vacation it takes a good 24-36 hours just to unwind and tell my brain this is not a trick! you are really on vacation! so rest assured you are not alone!!

kudos to you for navigating all of the unknowns and helming the arrangements! i am sure those in your group are grateful that you take the lead. hopefully you can get some relaxing time in too! 😎

Thank you! My planning strategy is to have a few "anchor events" (meals, family activities), with pockets of time in between to fill in during the cruise of spontaneous activities. Unfortunately, a lot of the activities we wanted to are being completely ignored by us because some other circumstance takes over, like an unplanned nap, or a show being full, or AO missing a reservation, etc. 

We have to big challenges on this trip: The first is making sure everyone's having a good time - I think I'm starting to hit my own personal limit of how to make sure a 6 year old, 4.5 year old, and 3 year old are having fun doing the same thing. All three have different, unique personalities that need nurturing in different ways, so finding an activity that makes all three happy has been a challenge. The second one is that our 3 year old has developed a skin rash of some kind. It's very mild, nobody else is presenting symptoms, and his demeanor hasn't changed other than a tiny bit of lethargy. We're thinking it's an allergic reaction to something on the sheets, but he's become a bit of an unknown variable. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review. It's challenging travelling with kids and the focus is doing things for them, but it's so wonderful having these holidays together and creating lasting memories.

Thanks for posting the room picture. Curious what you prefer..  2 connecting interiors or 1 CP balcony room? We had a similar one booked but never got to try the central park one due to covid. We often go through the same dilemma of 2 interior vs 1 balcony...esp cruises these days with prices going up. 

Also interested in your cruise as we'll be on Oasis is March. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry for the lack of posts, I haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and write the narratives I like to write 😆

 

Rest assured, I’ve been taking notes so I can write them later, and taking more photos. 
 

On 10/13/2022 at 7:42 AM, WannaCruise said:

Great review. It's challenging travelling with kids and the focus is doing things for them, but it's so wonderful having these holidays together and creating lasting memories.

Thanks for posting the room picture. Curious what you prefer..  2 connecting interiors or 1 CP balcony room? We had a similar one booked but never got to try the central park one due to covid. We often go through the same dilemma of 2 interior vs 1 balcony...esp cruises these days with prices going up. 

Also interested in your cruise as we'll be on Oasis is March. 

I have lots to say on this 🙂  let me write some things up and get back to you. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/13/2022 at 7:42 AM, WannaCruise said:

Great review. It's challenging travelling with kids and the focus is doing things for them, but it's so wonderful having these holidays together and creating lasting memories.

Thank you! I write these because I get so much info from the other live blogs, I feel the need to give back. 

 

On 10/13/2022 at 7:42 AM, WannaCruise said:

Thanks for posting the room picture. Curious what you prefer..  2 connecting interiors or 1 CP balcony room? We had a similar one booked but never got to try the central park one due to covid. We often go through the same dilemma of 2 interior vs 1 balcony...esp cruises these days with prices going up. 

In 2015, we had an Oceanview Balcony on Grandeur, and really loved it. With the family now, balcony staterooms are a "nice to have", and we'd rather save the money or put it towards a family-inclusive activity. That leads us to start at Interior rooms. 

This is the first time being on Oasis. Last cruise on Anthem we had two connecting Interior with Virtual Balcony rooms. We were also traveling with another adult in our party (so 3 adults, 3 kids across two connecting rooms). The connecting rooms made sense as it gave our other adult room for her clothes, her own bathroom, her own bed, etc. When we looked into this cruise, we initially booked two interior connecting rooms again (cheapest at this time was Interior Central Park View) , but a few months later realized our third adult wouldn't be joining us. I started considering other options, and saw 5+ rooms throughout the Oasis deck plans for non-suite staterooms. When I went to price out 5+ rooms, the 5+ Central Park Balcony staterooms were cheaper than 5+ Oceanview staterooms, so that's what led us to the room we have now.

So, about the 5+ room: There's the normal "big bed", the sofa bed that folds out, and there's also a bed that, when stowed, sits flush with the ceiling. When unlocked by the stateroom attendant, it unfolds to a vertical position, then the bed nested inside unfolds again to be parallel with the ceiling. It provides a great afternoon activity space if we're in the stateroom in the afternoon, or if the girls are up earlier than the boy and want to play together. There's a free-floating aluminum ladder with hooks at the top, you can attach it to the side of the bed nearer the "big bed", or on the side near the TV. It stows with the bed when not in use. 

We watched a few stateroom tours of a standard Oasis room, and gauged our storage. There was enough for the Wife and I in the wardrobe, but not much else for the kids. Anthem had these great over-bed cabinets that don't exist here. The past few family trips, we packed the kids clothes in gallon ziploc bags - Day 1 Morning, Day 1 Evening, Day 2 Morning, Day 2 Evening, plus jammies, bathing suits, and extra sets of clothes. So basically each kid had ~20 ziploc bags with clothes. Then we put all their ziploc bags in their respective suitcases (actually duffel bags that collapse). When we get on the ship, we open the suitcase, stand up the ziploc bags, and sort them based on when they need them, then slide them under the "big bed". When it's time to change, each kid knows where their suitcase is, pulls it out, pulls out their outfit, and pushes the suitcase back under the bed. 

We have a giant (it can fit multiple bodies) collapsable duffel bag that we unfold and use as a laundry bag. It's actually a stroller gate check bag for Southwest. The kids (and adults) put all dirty clothes in the duffel, and at the end of the cruise, we zip it up and take it home with us. We then take the kids empty duffel bags and stuff them into one of the parents suitcases, so we have less luggage to travel home with. We also brought, like 25 magnet hooks and a hanging shoe organizer, and we're using a LOT of wall space. There's never anything on the walkable floor in this room. 

I say all of that to say: There's enough space in this 5+ stateroom for 2 adults and 3 smaller kids. We could probably pull this off until the kids are 10, and then we'd need more space. We could stretch those ages a little later if we had a Jr Suite, as the extra square footage and storage space would go farther. If we had older kids, we'd need more room for larger clothes, more space for getting ready, more room for accessories/electronics, another shower for getting ready, etc. 

I hope I answered your question! If not, let me know and I'll try again 😄

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, MattG said:

Thank you! I write these because I get so much info from the other live blogs, I feel the need to give back. 

 

In 2015, we had an Oceanview Balcony on Grandeur, and really loved it. With the family now, balcony staterooms are a "nice to have", and we'd rather save the money or put it towards a family-inclusive activity. That leads us to start at Interior rooms. 

This is the first time being on Oasis. Last cruise on Anthem we had two connecting Interior with Virtual Balcony rooms. We were also traveling with another adult in our party (so 3 adults, 3 kids across two connecting rooms). The connecting rooms made sense as it gave our other adult room for her clothes, her own bathroom, her own bed, etc. When we looked into this cruise, we initially booked two interior connecting rooms again (cheapest at this time was Interior Central Park View) , but a few months later realized our third adult wouldn't be joining us. I started considering other options, and saw 5+ rooms throughout the Oasis deck plans for non-suite staterooms. When I went to price out 5+ rooms, the 5+ Central Park Balcony staterooms were cheaper than 5+ Oceanview staterooms, so that's what led us to the room we have now.

So, about the 5+ room: There's the normal "big bed", the sofa bed that folds out, and there's also a bed that, when stowed, sits flush with the ceiling. When unlocked by the stateroom attendant, it unfolds to a vertical position, then the bed nested inside unfolds again to be parallel with the ceiling. It provides a great afternoon activity space if we're in the stateroom in the afternoon, or if the girls are up earlier than the boy and want to play together. There's a free-floating aluminum ladder with hooks at the top, you can attach it to the side of the bed nearer the "big bed", or on the side near the TV. It stows with the bed when not in use. 

We watched a few stateroom tours of a standard Oasis room, and gauged our storage. There was enough for the Wife and I in the wardrobe, but not much else for the kids. Anthem had these great over-bed cabinets that don't exist here. The past few family trips, we packed the kids clothes in gallon ziploc bags - Day 1 Morning, Day 1 Evening, Day 2 Morning, Day 2 Evening, plus jammies, bathing suits, and extra sets of clothes. So basically each kid had ~20 ziploc bags with clothes. Then we put all their ziploc bags in their respective suitcases (actually duffel bags that collapse). When we get on the ship, we open the suitcase, stand up the ziploc bags, and sort them based on when they need them, then slide them under the "big bed". When it's time to change, each kid knows where their suitcase is, pulls it out, pulls out their outfit, and pushes the suitcase back under the bed. 

We have a giant (it can fit multiple bodies) collapsable duffel bag that we unfold and use as a laundry bag. It's actually a stroller gate check bag for Southwest. The kids (and adults) put all dirty clothes in the duffel, and at the end of the cruise, we zip it up and take it home with us. We then take the kids empty duffel bags and stuff them into one of the parents suitcases, so we have less luggage to travel home with. We also brought, like 25 magnet hooks and a hanging shoe organizer, and we're using a LOT of wall space. There's never anything on the walkable floor in this room. 

I say all of that to say: There's enough space in this 5+ stateroom for 2 adults and 3 smaller kids. We could probably pull this off until the kids are 10, and then we'd need more space. We could stretch those ages a little later if we had a Jr Suite, as the extra square footage and storage space would go farther. If we had older kids, we'd need more room for larger clothes, more space for getting ready, more room for accessories/electronics, another shower for getting ready, etc. 

I hope I answered your question! If not, let me know and I'll try again 😄

Also realized I never actually answered about the ACTUAL balcony experience:

 

the CP balcony is nice to overlook the park, but on deck 12 you get a LOT of spillover from the pool deck, including the live band when they’re playing. I would recommend deck 10 if you’re doing a CP balcony. Additionally, when in Nassau, the exhaust from the neighboring ships spilled over into the pool deck and into Central Park, which was unpleasant for the day. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@MattG i'm in awe of your storage/setup/packing situation.

i think you should write a book! or maybe start a youtube channel with all of this -- it's so impressive! you're definitely making me re-think the way we pack 😅 and also i am very grateful that we finally got magnet hooks this time around, although there will only be two in our cabin, which seems a bit overkill after re-reading how you all put it together. sounds like even your kids could give me some tips! i love the planning!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for sharing your room experience!  I know what you mean...love the over the bed cupboards on Anthem.  Such a smart way for Royal to create additional storage space.

We booked connecting virtual interior rooms on Odyssey.  Look forward to trying those (even if not a real balcony).

Wow...and I thought I was organized.  Very impressed...amazing with the all the daily ziplock bags for your kids!  So smart too with the duffle bag for dirty laundry and then of course the magnets work well for additional items.

The bed setup looks good and can see how it would work for 3 kids and 2 adults.  We've stayed in a boardwalk balcony but with all our cancellations have yet to try the Central Park one.  They do seem nice too.  Have heard that warning too about deck 12.

Hope you're having a wonderful cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re-visiting my "TIPS FOR NEXT TIME" from the last cruise:

Quote

Leave the Yeti tumblers at home - you brought them to keep the drinks cold, but in reality you're finishing the drink before the ice melts.

Did this and don't regret it one bit. 

Quote

Magnet hooks are KING! The wife got a 6-pack of 25lb magnets, and I got a 10-pack of 100lb magnets. We used them CONSTANTLY - hanging up clothes for the next day, hanging bathing suits in the bathroom to try. 

Magnet hooks continue to reign supreme. We lost about 25% of our hooks from the last trip, so we got another 10-pack of 25lb hooks and brought everything, and we're using all of them:

image.thumb.jpeg.2dc4ed4c584c460563f1d8e77ec05149.jpeg

Quote

I brought two wall-hanging shoe organizers, and they worked great to keep little stuff off the floor and desk: hairbands, hair brush, Kindle, phones, chargers, all the kids shoes/flip-flops, jewelry. We just hung it with the 100lb magnet hooks.

Another win. One of the shoe-organizers was heavy, and used most of the magnet power before loading down, so we left that one home. The standard one has been in constant use with kids shoes: it gives them a place to put them (NOT ON THE FLOOR!) and they can easily pick the pair they want. We also use it for hairbrushes, hair ties, chargers, cables, etc:

image.thumb.jpeg.61e093b08a2001082255e8f7a50741bc.jpeg

Quote

Keep using the duffels for packing - when empty, they nest into each other and disappear under the bed. Use the biggest one for dirty laundry throughout the week. 

Still doing it!

Quote

Pack more underwear. Seriously, like double it. 

Definitely did this, but not enough socks this time. 

Quote

Don't go hard on the drink package on Day 1. Trying to sleep while your body is adjusting to the rocking of the ship AND metabolizing alcohol just doesn't mix. 

I paced myself on Day 1, but kinda forgot about this later in the week, especially the late-night drinking and affecting sleep. I realized this by Day 5 and cut myself off after dinner, and that helped sleep quality a lot.

Quote

Downloading MANY of Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street onto the iPad got you through several mornings and naptimes. Download more episodes than you think you'll need. 

I forgot to refresh the downloaded content before we left, but we haven't had nearly as much screen time on this cruise as last time, so the content already downloaded plus the brief VOOM connections have worked out well. 

Quote

The internet package was a savior at dinner when the youngest wouldn't sit still. Definitely doing Surf & Stream again. 

Can confirm - VOOM is a savior at dinner. 

Quote

Surf & Stream for one device was plenty for us - we just shuffled around and "took over/kicked off" the last device. 

We got a 2-device package for this cruise as we're sharing it with another family, though being able to bring another device online without kicking the other (like a kid's tablet) has been awesome

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Day 4 - CocoCay

We’ve settled into a good rhythm in Windjammer breakfast. The quality is okay, the selection seems thin, but when the goal is to get food in kids stomachs, sometimes you have to make do. We’re a bit forward, so sometimes we walk down the stateroom corridor to the mid-ship elevators,  sometimes we walk up to the pool deck and walk across. Our docking time was 9:00am, with gangway down at 9:30am, so we were approaching Coco Cay as we walked into the Windjammer at 8:00am. 

IMG_1776.thumb.jpeg.7838b5b5e69fadf95d94eba91cb2f8fb.jpeg
The future “Adults Only” section is still a pile of sand, with little in the way of progress or anything looking finished: 

IMG_1779.thumb.jpeg.27c6284a5bc1fb66dc808ffe52b3de34.jpeg

 We finished up brekkie and went to the room to change into bathing suits, and then headed to the promenade to wait for the cringe-worthy song (sorry) telling us the gangway was down. While waiting, the Wife pointed out a numbered facade on the Promenade, and inquired if it was some sort of inside joke among cruisers - she said it reminded her of Club 33 at Disney. Does anyone have any idea what this is?

IMG_1790.thumb.jpeg.5124c64afaa58c47309b44beabf3b556.jpegIMG_1791.thumb.jpeg.84f4dfb83fcf1b8bc131e860ce3af1b9.jpeg

I didn’t get any photos of getting off the ship, but I did grab a photo of Oasis from the bridge to Chill Island:

 

IMG_1793.thumb.jpeg.6a17a4a5d3f82a53ab1c08f299d2ffd4.jpeg

When we got halfway down the pier, I looked back at Oasis and said outloud “holy f*ck that’s a big ship.” It’s just like to took a skyscraper and laid it on it’s end, it’s just unconscionable that something like this exists, but there it is. 

We were lucky to be solo in CocoCay, no other ships joined us. It made the entire place feel comfortable and not overwhelmed. We posted up at the same place as our last trip, the back portion of the middle (smaller) of the three coves on Chill Island. There’s a cluster of palm trees that, with the umbrellas, provides  us shade all day. 

We got ourselves situated then went down to the beach to play for a bit. The water was cool, but nice and clear. The weather was mid-80s, and plenty of clouds in the sky to provide relief every few minutes. It was truly a perfect day. 

IMG_1797.thumb.jpeg.6a90356cc360c17ab2e020e595a8cec0.jpeg
After about an hour at the beach, we went (with a Coco Loco stop in between) to Captain Jill’s Galleon, the pirate ship at the Welcome Plaza. It’s a play area for smaller kids where Splashaway Bay may be too intense. There’s water jets, a few water slides, a rope climb, and a crow’s nest to climb to. All of the kids had a blast here for another hour before we headed to Splashaway Bay.

IMG_1808.thumb.jpeg.a0fed9e03753acdd600185d436135bbc.jpeg
Splashaway Bay is one of the neatest kids water parks that I’ve been to, it’s large enough to accommodate age groups up to teens, who would then be better served by Thrill Waterpark. One downside is the moment you set foot on the proper “park” portion, you’re going to get wet, as there are sprayers/misters everywhere. 

IMG_1811.thumb.jpeg.12c2e6a2fc2d269c80baa118d4b92356.jpeg
Our middle child doesn’t care for that, so she happily played in the perimeter sand while the oldest went up and down the adjacent water slides for another hour. Unfortunately, we were told adults can’t go down these slides, which was different than we were told last December (I definitely went down these slides!): 

IMG_1812.thumb.jpeg.7768ce42ae4efe5db1f02dd7371dcd17.jpeg

After a bit more time at the slides, we went back to our chairs, then to Chill Grill for lunch. We brought out food back to the chairs and ate while the kids played in the sand, being careful to keep food covered so we don’t get a seagull bombing (which happened twice in 10 minutes!). 

It was difficult to get more photos from this point, as I didn’t want to carry my phone and get it wet. 

After lunch, we went back to the beach for a bit, then our youngest fell asleep at the chairs. I took the girls over to Oasis Lagoon and swam for a bit, before our middle child wanted to go back to the chairs and play more in the sand. After passing off to the Wife, the oldest and I played more in the pool, before wrapping up to head back. Curious about South Beach, we walked out the south end of Oasis Lagoon and took the tram road down to South Beach. This was my first time here, and I really liked it! It was more of a traditional beach, still having chairs but directly facing the ocean (no cove cut-out). The distance between the chairs and the water was much deeper too, giving more room for activities. South Beach is not very large, the entrance is right next to the overwater cabanas and goes for a little ways. It has its own Snack Shack for food. Due to its size, it’s very quiet and feels very secluded, you get no noise from Thrill Waterpark, Splashaway Bay, or any of the music/DJs of Oasis Lagoon. It feels like a different world. 

After touring South Beach, we grabbed the tram back to Chill Island to pick up the rest of the family, and head back to the ship at 2:30pm. It was much earlier than the all-aboard at 5:00pm, but the kids were fried, one was still napping, and we didn’t want to push prepping for dinner. 

Once the girls were ready for dinner, we saw that there was an open ice-skating session, so we decided to take it for a spin:

IMG_1843.thumb.jpeg.36a0c854027423060ea7aafbbcf8480f.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.e333088168e31e065d3707ea96207cb6.jpeg

There’s a waiver you need to sign at the entrance of Studio B, and they add a sticker to your SeaPass card. Depending on how busy the ice skating is, you can pick from one of four 20-minute skating sessions to participate. Because it wasn’t busy, the staff gave us passes for the current session. Once your waiver is complete, you head down into the open end of the ice rink to show the attendant your sticker, then pick up your skates and helmet. We went around the rink with the girls twice (well, the girls hanging onto my arms or the wall because they can’t really skate yet 😄 ), and we wrapped up and headed back up to the stateroom to pick up the rest of the family. 

Tonight was dinner at Izumi Hibachi. It’s located on Deck 4 in the same location as Izumi Sushi. When you walk into Izumi, you turn left towards the Hibachi tables. There are three tables with 10 chairs each, and it’s not a large area at all: 

IMG_1856.thumb.jpeg.74f6aa8251d238c3890281360efb2d40.jpeg
Overall, it was a good show, and the food was okay. The fried rice was (and always is) my favorite part. There’s no fire like a normal hibachi show, and the chefs all did the same tricks. Some of the other chefs were more improvisational and had more outgoing personalities. The kids loved it. 

After the kids went to bed, it was close to the first seating of Aqua80s. I didn’t have a reservation, but I figured I’d find standing room somewhere to watch the show. There was a line for “No Reservation Guests” that was only about 10 people deep, and the host said “You can stand upstairs at the rock wall, or in the splash zone”. I asked how “splash” the splash zone was, and the host laughed, then with a serious tone said “we give you towels for a reason”. I went up to the rock wall, and not being impressed with the distance to the stage, headed down to the splash zone. I found a seat in the third row on the far right side, imaging I’d be safe. 

IMG_1875.thumb.jpeg.5ae4c2632ce82ee37cb5ef6e7c05ac8d.jpeg

I sat down just in time for “Power of Love” start and see the flying rig in action. After Marty left, the opening act began, and guys, when I say this soundtrack is 🔥, I’m not kidding. I would pay cash money for a copy of this soundtrack, the mashups are SO GOOD. The choreography is good, the lighting is top notch, but the star of this show is the soundtrack, my goodness. Here’s a few more show shots:

IMG_1879.thumb.jpeg.b576eb3a629b0fe405a7b90b69608333.jpegIMG_1878.thumb.jpeg.080eb7cbb10e5b376c2662741b4b0f00.jpegIMG_1880.thumb.jpeg.2eeb2f1fca22fbb9288423a60bcef2a8.jpeg

I have to insist anyone going on Oasis has got to see this show, it is a MUST DO!

After Aqua80s, I headed down to the Royal Theater for the Love and Marriage game show:

IMG_1884.thumb.jpeg.1fa37289358f1b7014bd6ef68b525621.jpeg

It was a great show, and the youngest couple won! The first time I had seen that happen, usually it’s the oldest couple that wins, but this young couple was on fire tonight. 

Tomorrow is Nassau. We have no plans to get off the ship, see you then!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Going post-liveblog now, thanks for your patience!

Day 5 - Nassau

Because we've got little kids, it becomes a bit of a chore to "go out": Do we have water bottles? Does anyone need to use the bathroom? Do we need to bring snacks? Because of this, we usually treat Nassau stops like another sea day. 

A bit exhausted by the Windjammer, this morning we went in the Main Dining Room for breakfast. The line was short, the sunlight was beaming into the room, and we felt like we were back on Anthem again. The kiddos did well, everyone had pancakes (fresh!). I had the Harvest Bowl, which is all veggies topped with two over-medium eggs. It was a smaller portion, but still very filling. 

We dropped the kids at Adventure Ocean, and I headed to the spa for a deep-tissue massage. This is my first deep-tissue massage - everyone i've gotten in the past has been good, but I still wanted more. Well, this was DEEP. The masseuse DUG into my muscles, and worked out everything. My calves felt like I had just come from the gym for a few hours, and my shoulders felt released and relaxed. Unfortunately, I timed the massage just as the staff decided to test the emergency horn/bell, so I had two rude awakenings during my massage. It didn't bother me much, but was bad timing on my part. 

After the massage, I went back to the stateroom and changed into my bathing suit to hit the hot tub for a bit before picking up the kids at AO. Walking back, I saw something billowing down INTO Central Park - like mist or steam. I chalked it up to pool maintenance, and headed up to the Solarium. It was here that I realized we were docked next to Freedom and Independence, and our pool deck was at the same elevation as their smoke stacks. Due to the wind, their exhaust was blowing straight onto the mid-ship pools, and down into Central Park. Not pleasant at all. 

image.thumb.jpeg.0ac39152d52ececb120217fa9b36de92.jpeg

We had lunch at El Loco Fresh and Portside BBQ, and the youngest fell asleep mid-tortilla chip. The wife took him back to the cabin to nap and for her to do some work, and I took the girls Splashaway Bay for some pool time:

image.thumb.jpeg.dfaf935101878a1d09fd0a5eb1681ff5.jpeg

After going back and changing, we headed to Adventure Ocean to ask for a copy of the scavenger hunt:

image.thumb.jpeg.f111d841ef7a5285f590d96609016fe3.jpeg

The girls and I had a blast walking throughout the ship answering the questions. We did it somewhat lazily - we would end up on the Boardwalk for a question, and hang out and ring the carousel or watch Aqua80s rehearsal.

image.thumb.jpeg.4dc4f5fe11fdd16dc74aa8eec31baa10.jpeg

Then we'd go up to the FlowRiders for question, and say and watch the surfers for a while. I got them a virgin Coco Loco to split, and they thought it was the best thing ever!

image.thumb.jpeg.1931bfa287ae114bfcd615ac2780861b.jpeg

After the FlowRiders, we went to the Sport Court and did some of the archery. It's pretty neat, they use suction cups to stick to a plastic board. When we walked back to the stateroom to get ready for dinner, I noticed a half-dozen Central Park Balcony rooms not in service: 

 

 

image.thumb.jpeg.f8473aba908fa75b5f6d0086973ec481.jpeg

Not getting the obvious, I went to the stateroom corridor with these missing stateroom, and noticed the lack of doors:

image.thumb.jpeg.955d0a17a55e6d3ca6a938b609cfaed8.jpeg

Walking for a bit, I saw an access door and lots of machine noises behind it. It was this point I realized that the pools are where these staterooms would be. Duh. Still interesting they don't dress the Central Park-facing area up at all. 

The girls and I headed back to the stateroom to get ready for dinner. Tonight was our first repeat of UDP at Chops. Our first night was on Embarkation Day, and the service was choppy then. Tonight, it was still inconsistent - 30 minutes from sit-down to ordering apps, lots of different faces, I wasn't sure who our server was. This time I got the "jumbo lump crabcake" that didn't have jumbo lump, or any lump. I got the branzino as my main, and it was really, really good. Total time to dine was 2 hours 15 minutes, and I feel a lot of that time was waiting - we were done courses and they just...sat. Not a great impression. 

As we wrapped up, it was windy and POURING RAIN in Central Park! We grabbed some umbrellas and shuffled into the elevator lobby. By the time we got back to the stateroom, the rain and wind had stopped. Super weird squall!

Once we put the kids to bed, I was super exhausted, but the wife wanted to go out. We handed off to our travel friends and scoped out the Aquatheater to see if the late show of Aqua80s was still running. We saw it letting out at 9:30pm, almost 30 minutes later than expected. The host said they had technical issues that delayed the show, but still finished it, and still plan to run the next show on time. To burn some time, the wife and I rode Rising Tide twice, and I was so fried I couldn't make it to 10:30pm for the next Aqua80s show.

Random Thoughts:

  • The scavenger hunt with the kids was wonderful, and really gave me the breath of fresh air i've been looking for this cruise so far. I wish I had done this on Day 2!
  • There's a consistent trend i've noticed of not everything being at 100% functionality. While it's lots of little things, they're all adding up:
    • about 30% of the video games in Challenger's Arcade aren't functioning
    • Two of the eight water faucets in one of the Windjammer entrances weren't sensing hands
    • Lots of soap dispensers are out of soap
    • Some of the water jets in Splashaway Bay are really weak, several others not working at all.

Don't get me wrong - when you look at Splashaway Bay, you see lots of kinetic activity - the water bucket, the water slides, water jets everywhere. But when you look closer, you see lots of things not working as well. It makes me wonder how amazing this experience would be if all of these things were working. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NOTE: This will be a picture-heavy post, i'm making up for prior posts!

DAY 6 - Sea Day

Today was our second sea day. Normal wake-up time, and headed to Windjammer for breakfast. It was miserable outside, clouds, wind, rain and fog:

image.thumb.jpeg.a6ce232eb693676ba64222ce8d49ebe9.jpeg

The pool deck was pretty empty around 8:30am

We dropped the oldest two off at Adventure Ocean, and kept the youngest as the nursery was full with reservations. We stayed and played at the "Play Place", which is an open playroom that anyone can come to at any time. A really cool idea that I hope comes to all ships:

image.thumb.jpeg.8b1eb050338a7ca7f2dbffaabf2a481d.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.bb1fa88976915d72797deea674ef878a.jpeg

We walked up to the Solarium, and through the Solarium Bistro. The Solarium Bistro's breakfast is the same as the Windjammer, just paired down slightly. It's a nice, quieter place to eat breakfast.

image.thumb.jpeg.03a3bc3517f50c0c98f453e51295127d.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.8125a4a844eb03c7284c1370df5cdfd6.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.7c0cdea9bdf1548646a5f26fe7403e7f.jpeg

Chef's Table is in one of the alcoves at Solarium Bistro:

image.thumb.jpeg.4fcdaf0a7366fa7c0c8d82753824179a.jpeg

The bridge wings weren't open, not sure if it was too early, or due to weather:

image.thumb.jpeg.3f59c94bb15e7f46cc5299ba7c10df18.jpeg

We continued our walk around the pool deck, and saw the storm we just passed through:

image.thumb.jpeg.24f8c5c30fb29fed7a0029b593a2b021.jpeg

Splashaway Bay was not open yet, and about 1/4 of the water features were turned off (compared to earlier days). This meant the existing water features had a lot more water pressure.

 

The wife, youngest, and I swung byimage.thumb.jpeg.fd22adbad620322d42ba800d98b5a2a1.jpeg the Schooner Bar for some general trivia. We didn't do great, getting 10/20. After trivia, we did a lazy walk to the Music Hall to watch the housekeeping staff do a towel-folding demo. There was an emcee who narrated each step as individual members built their animals, then showcased them:

image.thumb.jpeg.78ed1249328a6b1e80cfb4db561178cb.jpeg

The Music Hall on Oasis has a bit of an odd shape. It's "T"-shaped, meaning you walk in the main entrance down a walkway with chairs on either side, until it opens up when you get to the dance floor and the stage. The view behind the stage to the Boardwalk is gorgeous.

image.thumb.jpeg.d0824347c900c9fc2c4d6153581f5f49.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.d1d6a43f575625eed2c33f7baaeab2da.jpeg

I do rather prefer the Music Hall on Quantum-class ships - it's much more of an open space, this feels very tight.

After towel-folding, we did another lazy walk back up to Adventure Ocean, walking through Central Park. This space reminds me so much of The Via on Quantum-class ships: peaceful and serene, with a lot of small surprises:

image.thumb.jpeg.16258a369bd9fe620aee495ca44ace0c.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.27f9ec213af5eb6ec2c04365b961be23.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.77e2c373b699d9ccc991ff7ffb239e27.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.bcd1875bb18ed0bc20b0a69f941fc08a.jpeg

We played a bit more in the Play Place, then picked up the kiddos and headed to the Boardwalk for Johnny Rockets for lunch.

image.thumb.jpeg.7aefb59ee56725b1e5cda14153ac8cd9.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.69c92ced9c1e11fff2292f9f13d0a520.jpeg

It was the Boardwalk Celebration Party! I forgot about this event, and we picked a great time to go to Johnny Rockets 😄 There were a TON of people, along with a live band playing old-timey music.

 

image.thumb.jpeg.4f6ceaaaef1daabc5d952e9f43bb21e2.jpeg

 

There were some neat kids games, like hula hoops, giant Jenga/building blocks, bowling, Connect4, lots of interactive elements. We all got lunch and the kids came back and forth from the games to the food. It was a really good time!

After lunch, the wife took the girls to the art auction, and I took the youngest to the belly flop competition:

image.thumb.jpeg.c1ea5d597ff0d65c6b7ee0d8195d2def.jpeg

image.thumb.jpeg.3e2659f48ee5cfbcebb9a4f47290dd72.jpeg

There was a huge crowd all around the beach pool, and a great time was had by all! After the belly flop competition, we took the kids back to Splashaway for a bit, before getting ready for dinner at our second pass of 150 Central Park. Our youngest wasn't feeling well (he's also potty training, so we're pretty sure it's related), so the wife took him back to our room while the rest of us continued. 

This time I got the Lamb Wellington:

image.thumb.jpeg.16b58f3b19eea8cd05b582894005ca35.jpeg

It was interesting, a much smaller portion than I’m used to for Wellington. It was pretty good!

Of course, got the fried cheesecake again. It's sooooo amazing:

image.thumb.jpeg.7089fd827c5c353efbc757c8f86f2089.jpeg

 

Tonight was another showing of "Frozen in Time", so the girls went with our traveling family and I went back to the stateroom. Our youngest was doing MUCH better, so I tagged out with the wife and she headed down to the MDR with a book for some quiet time. 

Tomorrow is our final day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 DAY 7 - Sea Day

Today was our last full day. Everyone slept in laaaaaate. We're usually up and at breakfast by 7:30am. Today, we didn't get to breakfast until 9:00am. We first headed to the MDR, but the line was very long, so we aborted and went to the Windjammer. We were able to drop the kids off just before 10:00am, and headed to...

image.thumb.jpeg.16ce3524ec44d5675658b18f3b1667d3.jpeg

Apollo 18! The escape room! I'm a HUGE space nerd, so this was a MUST DO on our trip. The host started a few minutes after 10:00am, and there were about a dozen people in this group. It felt like a lot of people, but by the end, it you realize you do need that many people. You go in and start with a video briefing, then you have 50 minutes to finish the puzzle. Not giving away any spoilers, but there are some HARD puzzles in this room. This 100% requires teamwork of finding artifacts, sharing information, and relying on the unique knowledge and problem solving skills of each team member to figure out how to solve the problems. 

Here are some photos of the room, with light editing to remove any spoilers or hints:

IMG_1963.thumb.JPEG.3e4cecbbf1d8ad097de4088a0c8da23c.JPEGIMG_1964_LI.thumb.jpg.d439fbe611952d09cbc06d23498ddff3.jpgIMG_1966.thumb.JPEG.fcde1dd076a34a54dced7c1409784fd4.JPEGIMG_1967.thumb.JPEG.6715509550e72248966f5917a96bf51d.JPEGIMG_1968.thumb.JPEG.07afaeba3fc78e48a66f69d3fc06cbef.JPEGIMG_1988.thumb.JPEG.8e4c31a3f82662b0ec54f616c6e5caf0.JPEGIMG_1989.thumb.JPEG.76e1c922aa2b17eaa1dceaf1932d8e4b.JPEGIMG_1990.thumb.JPEG.1fbc44af0b17d5f150d553895efa3aae.JPEGIMG_1992_LI.thumb.jpg.bf46fbe2739049d4cf766749012d9f6f.jpgIMG_1994_LI.thumb.jpg.6f2e0062e152c1a52b7dc9db6b0401d3.jpgIMG_1995_LI.thumb.jpg.d11cb2e42451eae20c7b842223c3b90d.jpg

The host is there to nudge you along as you get deeper into the countdown. We solved the puzzle with 4m 24s remaining: 

image.thumb.jpeg.33e5e465f5ce831de7408711da3bf475.jpeg

It was super cool. Totally want to do it again (and i'll prob forget how to solve the problems by then!)

After the escape room, we lazily walked through Central Park, and found a secret spot on Deck 7:

image.thumb.jpeg.3ea786ed5696ec1009071b27c2253688.jpeg

We made our way back to AO to pick up the kids, then went to Solarium Bistro for lunch. It was a mirror of the Windjammer menu, but not nearly as busy. There was no menu service during lunch, but here's the menu for dinner:

image.thumb.jpeg.09db8bdea79004f6a4f41eda65d7f1d5.jpeg

 

We headed back to the room to pack and say goodbye to our stateroom, and this view:

image.thumb.jpeg.4ae5a6f3a34dd672cca33fa1043a39c7.jpeg

Our travel family wanted to stick with Izumi Sushi for dinner, and we wanted to try MDR, so we split for the first time on this trip. We headed to Deck 5 and were seated in about 10 minutes. Without fail, my first trip to the MDR starts with a shrimp cocktail and escargots:

IMG_2026.thumb.JPEG.9919d483510745d5e4edbfa5d26997d9.JPEGIMG_2025.thumb.JPEG.6c71709ff1e4ad054d55e703c692d09b.JPEG

All delicious. My last dinner on Oasis was the braised lamb shank: image.thumb.jpeg.29d411ac34c55804546083bb42f9cccf.jpeg

Tomorrow is disembarkation!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DAY 8 - Back to reality

 

We always seem to drag out our last day. We request the latest disembarkation time, and we stretch our morning a bit. We got up, showered and dressed, and crammed the remainder of our things in our carry-on bags, and headed down to the MDR for breakfast by 7:30am. There was a bit of a line but it moved quickly. I got the market breakfast bowl again, and it was delicious again. 

We said goodbye to our travel family, and headed towards Deck 5 to get off the ship. It was quick and orderly, and before we knew it, we were on the gangway headed back to the terminal. Down the escalator, shuffled through the suites waiting area, and into the luggage warehouse. We found our bags and flagged down a porter for help. We headed to Customs where they have the face recognition cameras. Everyone got the green light, and we followed the porter out to the garage. I grabbed the car, loaded everything up, and we were out in pretty quick time. 

Because we were so close to New York, we decided to drive north and see the city. We headed towards 81st street to check out some of the playgrounds on the west side of Central Park. We played between two playgrounds, then hopped on the subway to Times Square and hit up one of my favorite places in New York City:

image.thumb.jpeg.a3ec3acf9a84f9786354fbbbd99446fe.jpeg

After a quick lunch, we hopped back on the subway and headed down to Battery Park so the kiddos could see the Statue of Liberty. We almost hopped on the Staten Island Ferry to get a better view, but after doing the math we realized it would put us home after sunset. We settled for checking out the statue from the water:

image.thumb.jpeg.0981c4498a902e3d48c74364aae447f1.jpeg

In the distance, you might be able to see a familiar sight, a farewall call from our home for the week:

image.thumb.jpeg.2d576f15211b91db0c4a9ae7a3803352.jpeg

Next post: thoughts and reflections

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...