Good but there's room for improvement
Oasis of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
7 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 08, 2016
Ship: Oasis of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 11612
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review summary
I have some suggestions:
1) I would suggest upgrading their mattresses to Tempur-pedic or the like, and their pillows as well. The bed was not at all comfortable, and I was immediately missing my own bed and my goose-down feathered pillows, which made me, enjoy the cruise less. With a foam mattress, there would be no seam between the two twin beds pushed together for one king size. The current mattresses, pushed together, are terribly uncomfortable with the two edges pushed together. The stateroom should be supremely comfortable. When a person is well rested from a good night's sleep they're apt to do more, spend more etc. on board, rather than trying to recover from a night of tossing and turning due to an uncomfortable bed and thin, flat pillows.
2) When you have purchased the Deluxe Beverage Package, bottled water in your stateroom ought to be included, not extra. Also, the Deluxe Beverage Package ought to be all inclusive, not up to $12, which negates the idea of a Deluxe Package. It's irritating to find that you've paid for an all-inclusive beverage package, only to find out that it is not all inclusive, nor is it unlimited. I was told I could only get one bottle of water at a time and the only size available was a 16 oz. bottle. I drink at least 64 oz. of water a day and having to purchase a 12-bottle case of 1 liter bottles of Evian, in addition to the Deluxe Beverage package angered and annoyed me. It's bad form, it's not good customer service and all together a shabby way to get more money out of passengers. If increasing the cost of the Deluxe Beverage Package translates to bottle water in the stateroom, more than one bottle at a time, a variety of sizes, and all inclusive, beyond the $12 limit for alcoholic beverages, then I'll pay it. It's more honest. Offer different levels of beverage packages if you must, but a Deluxe or Ultimate Beverage Package should be just that. It's shabby of RC to charge me for a package and then tell me I still have to pay for more once on board.
3) The 'My Reservations' feature on board via the television should update with new reservations for restaurants, shows, excursions, activities, etc. It serves little purpose when you are unable to see what you've scheduled all in one place.
4) When you make a reservation for an activity / excursion, on board or ashore respectively, you should receive a confirmation message via the television 'emails'.
5) In this day and age of rapid technological communications advances, Royal Caribbean should have an app (whether it uses the Internet or RC's own Intranet) where the passenger can see on their mobile device, deck maps and directories. For instance, if a passenger is in their stateroom, on deck 14, and they want to go to a particular shop on the Royal Promenade, they could look it up on the directory (in the app) and then get walking directions for how to get there (like google maps), from their current location. Or if there is an on board activity the passenger is signed up for, they would get an alert from the app on their mobile device alerting them it's about to commence, like a 15 minute warning. The app could even include an immediate customer survey after the activity/show/whatever, asking the passenger to rate their experience and would they recommend to others, etc...
6) For all the merchandising and commercial products available, why not sell things that are exclusively Royal Caribbean experience related, for example, the different salts that are presented at 150 Central Park (which by the way - was EXCEPTIONAL!!!). RC could sell the salts in their gift shop. When you experience something like that, you want to be able to replicate that experience at home afterwards. It reminds you of the excellence you experienced on your cruise and instills the idea that you'd like to take that cruise again to enjoy those things again. I would also suggest they sell those shrimp crisps in the shops too. They were yummy.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Pay for the Specialty Restaurant package for the majority of your evenings aboard. The quality of service and food is bar none. Also, pay for the most inclusive drinks package available. Totally worth it.
15 Comments
idalia1960 8 years ago
canigo 8 years ago
twangster 8 years ago
kknorr0320 8 years ago
mban 8 years ago