Good, but not great

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 5

Review summary

Having cruised before on RC, Celebrity, Disney and Carnival... I have to say this cruise was only "average". I am highlighting a lot of the negatives with hope that they will be improved, but please do not think that the cruise was "bad"... it was good, it just wasn't great; so if you get a good deal and want to just chill on a big boat, this cruise may be perfect for you. The Spa - The Spa was terrible, avoid it! For being one of the biggest cruise ships in the world, the Spa seemed like an afterthought. First the treatments were all premium priced, not bad in and of itself, but it set expectations high. $120 for 50 minutes isn't exactly cheap, but its not ridiculous either. What was a shocker is that this DID NOT include access to the steam rooms! That costs another $30. I have never heard of a Spa that didn't offer a "Day Pass" with their treatments. The steam room area could apparently only hold 30 people, and I will say it was tinny! It had 1 dry room, 2 rain showers, 2 steam rooms and 4 heat beds. There were only 8 people in there when I went and it felt full. This to me is a joke, other ships (including from RC) have included the Steam room and the rooms were bigger. Each actual steam room on the Oasis could only sit about 4 comfortably. There also were not enough lockers went. My treatment was great, I had 50 minutes of Reflexology and it put me to sleep (good!) but at the end they gave me the hard sell of body detoxification mumbo jumbo. The therapist said based on my feet reading, I needed to spend $150 to $200 a month for 6 months to clean my system. I did the polite No thank you and she continued, I did the polite I will think about it and she continued, I looked ready to walk out and she continued and then stopped. As I was checking out, I saw what appeared to be the head therapist berating some poor guy over the head with how much he needed to buy the treatments, how diet and exercise for him, simply were not enough. The cure, of course was $200 a month in pills and baths for 6-12 months. I could hear the annoyance in the guys voice. So to sum it up, the Spa sucked and only made things worse, by trying to up sell me and others every chance they got. The Casino and Poker This casino came with 3 fully automated poker tables (no dealer). While I missed having a dealer and the feel of chips in my hand, you get used to it. Thats not really the problem though, the problem is that rake (or what the house takes each pot). The rake payout was not clearly posted and based on what I and others saw was approximately 10-15% up to $10 per hand. For anyone that plays poker, this is HIGH (way high). May casinos only take $4 or $5. So at this table, the average game was playing 8 handed, with the average buy in of $100 (it was rare to have people buy in for $200 or more). This means that at any one time, there is about $800 at the table. With the average pot being about $100 and the average hand taking 3 minutes the table looses $10 every 3 minutes to the house! So with players just trying to have a good time, over the course of an hour the rake was taking out 2 players per hour - 60/3 = 20 * $10 = $200! It is amazing at how fast this killed the action at the tables and how much fun this took from the experience. I am a big poker fan and so were the 50 or so regulars that were in the casino each night. Me not being able to have fun playing poker on this trip definitely reduced my overall fun on the trip. To the bean counters at RC, this fun tax on the poker game cost you easily 3 drinks a night from me and based on my conversations the same from the other 10-15 people I spoke with. So the $200 rake instead of a $100 rake, actually cost you at least $300+ in bar tabs.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Pros: The staff, the ship, the shows

Cons: The Spa, The Casino, The Crowds

Recommends Oasis of the Seas? No.