Awful ship (OASIS), poor food, overcrowded

Item: Oasis of the Seas
Rating: 3
Author: palmda

Oasis of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

palmda

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 39

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

7 Night Western Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 21, 2018

Ship: Oasis of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 9700

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

I was very disappointed with this cruise. The ship was overcrowded and congested in all areas. I could not find room at the buffet on all visits. Many children running yelling screaming with out adult supervision. Saw one you boy getting a drink (none alcoholic) at a bar without parents. Elevators slow and skipped floors making for long waits. Tables in buffet were in need of repair and sticky because the varnish had worn off. Saw broken chair in bar and ripped seats. For the most part workers were unfriendly and avoided conversations, maybe they didn't speak or understand English, I'm not sure. I don't know if Royal Caribbean ships are all like this but this one was terrible. I tried to get information about a panama canal cruise and they had not brochures? I have been on Carnival, Holland America, Princess, this is the worst cruise I have ever been on. The ship is beautiful but in need of repair, the staff is not friendly and my complaints went no where.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Easy on considering the number of people.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Noisy and hard to get around because the table were all jammed together. The food was poorly cooked. I ordered a steak that was so overcooked it was gray, cold, and dry, this happened the two nights I ordered stake so I gave up. Never got my drinks or desert one night. The bars and wait servers were excellent so If you don't like to eat but like to drink this may be your ship.

Park Cafe

5 out of 5

Excellent sandwiches and soup.

Boardwalk Dog House

2 out of 5

Hot dogs were boiled not cooked on rotisserie. No brats just so called German sausage with tough casings. Attendant did not speak or understand good english.

Johnny Rockets

1 out of 5

Just what you need a restaurant that you have to pay for on a cruise with food that should be free and good but was not.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment was excellent, great show, great music.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Great. 7th Heave was the band on the ship and they were great.

Comedy Live

1 out of 5

Never could get in too small. They took reservations but none were ever available. Seats about 50 on a ship of 6700 people.

On Air Club

1 out of 5

No entertainment except for European socker. They charged me for drinks when I had the drink package and I had to come back and waste my time getting this resolved.

Theater

3 out of 5

Could have been better if they opened before the shows and let people sit in the theater like human being instead of creating a herd mentality by opening at a published time and making people stand in line for an hour.

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Most were unfriendly, did not hold a conversation, seemed to be rushed and overworked.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Very poor when it comes to delivering photos. All the photos were thrown in bins and you had to search through thousands of photos to find yours. They had a electronic retrieval process that no one explained and I could not find any pictures.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Cabin was nice and clean. Good size shower.

Ship tip

If you like fine dining in peace and quite don't take this cruise. If you dislike unruly kids running around without supervision don't take this cruise. If you want good food prepared in a good fashion don't take this cruise. 2 out of 7 days we could not go outside because the weather was so bad. If you enjoy a morning breakfast prepared to order don't take this cruise (NO eggs to order or omelet station.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

3 out of 5

Long walk crowds everywhere.

Thumbs Up 0

Falmouth, Jamaica

4 out of 5

No overpriced excursion. Hot and Humid ok if your looking to buy buy overpriced jewelry.

Thumbs Up 0

Cozumel, Mexico

1 out of 5

Typical Mexico full of hucksters.

Thumbs Up 1

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Easy on and Easy off

20 Comments

Woobiescoobie 6 years ago

Yeah lew934 September-October is a great time for the northern New England and Canadian coastlines. That's my neck of the woods and I grew up in the NH Seacoast area. I know all of those ports by land but a cruise is always better. I have enjoyed this part of the Atlantic since before I can remember. Just being on the ocean makes it good.

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lew934 6 years ago

Thanks always do !!!

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Woobiescoobie 6 years ago

Allure ought to be a treat or you. When we were on Oasis, this ship was more of the adventure than the Caribbean itinerary! Allure and Symphony are sister ships. You'll get all of the big ship features and plenty of restaurants to choose from. Have a blast!

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lew934 6 years ago

But loved Oasis as well

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lew934 6 years ago

Been on Freedom, Independence, and Liberty loved em

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lew934 6 years ago

Great cruise, we went in early Oct, weather was awesome Sept would also be great, but the places visited were finominal, you would love it specially the seals and Cadillac Mt

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Woobiescoobie 6 years ago

Yeah lew934 I know what you're saying. We really enjoyed Freedom Class size on Liberty. Everything was just right. But it's even better when you go for the ship's itinerary, like you say. That particular cruise you did is one we're interested in. Longer itinerary and a few days at sea are OK for us. When I was a kid we went fishing on the ocean.

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lew934 6 years ago

We went on an east coast cruise on independence of the seas last time, arguably one of the best cruise's I've been on, Nova Scotia. Halifax, Bar Harbor etc, just saying Freedom class ships perfect although we enjoyed oasis and looking forward to Allure

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Woobiescoobie 6 years ago

I have never seen a totally negative review for Oasis. First time for everything I guess. We thought the food and dining options on Oasis were great when we sailed on her. We selected my time dining on Oasis, not a good idea. We did the 8:00 pm seating in the MDR on Liberty and that was awesome. Ship too crowded? Big ship, over 5000 passengers doing a 7 day Caribbean cruise, so lots of kids and families aboard, figure it out because when you board Oasis you are sailing on a huge floating resort city with a few different neighborhoods and multiple attractions, yet there are plenty of areas where you can disappear for some down time. We really enjoyed our balcony stateroom during peak hours and liked the quieter hours on decks as the afternoon gave way to sundown. Embarking and debarking can take a while if things are running slow in port, but considering the amount of passengers we took it in stride. The Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal where Oasis docks is just as big as the ship! I would say to anyone going on their first cruise to do a little research on the ship as well as the ports you'll be visiting. For us, we've been visitors to the Carribean several times but only cruised there twice. It's more laid back if we can stay for a week 😎 and kick back. And we liked our cruise on Liberty better, but that's not a negative to Oasis. The itinerary was longer, more days at sea and we made a few different choices, that's all. Our next cruise will be on Rhapsody - much smaller ship and again with a longer itinerary. I think you're going to see the good points and disadvantages with any ship or any mode of travel. But cruising is a huge bang for the buck if you go for the itinerary and know what the ship offers. Oasis class ships are huge and they cater to the masses who want to be in the Carribean and have lots to do on board. I also agree with seattlerocks when it comes to maintaining and refurbishing the current ships already in the line. The mega ships doing the 7 day Caribbean cruises get used pretty hard. On our last Transatlantic it was normal to have crews at various parts of the ship every day doing maintenance work while we were at sea. Doesn't seem to be time for that kind of work on a shorter cruise. I've been told the life of a cruise ship is about 25 to 30 years. RCL does seem bent on outdoing itself with yet another bigger ship..... But I still can't believe palmda's experience was all bad. Could have been the wrong ship and the wrong itinerary for him more than anything.

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RTBusek 6 years ago

Where else does @palmda want kids to get their sodas? 🤔😆

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seattlerocks 6 years ago

Going on Allure soon, 1st cruise in 10 years. For all the money RCI has, I wish they could afford to keep current ships in perfect condition instead of being focused on breaking their own records building another billion dollar ship.

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CruisingGs 6 years ago

I’m sure that’s true jimnkathy I wish they would designate one of the dining rooms for each style They would probably help with that issue

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jimnkathy 6 years ago

Since my time dining started service in the MDR isn't what it once was because now they have a constant flow of people coming in and out and they have to clean up and change the table cloths over and over. You get much less time with your waiter than before my time dining. Just my opinion.

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flatfoot0158 6 years ago

We just got off the Oasis a week ago . I can confirm that many of the tables in the Windjammer are sticky 100% of the time. We had them wipe and clean our table but our plates still stuck to the table like glue. The Finish was clearly worn off of them and in need of repair. The tables that had a clear shiny finish were fine. We ate only three times in the MDR because the service was poor. We sat at table 313. The ship was very clean, the shows were very good and the staff was friendly. There are some repairs that need to be done. Many of the deck lounge chairs and footstools were missing 1, 2 or 3 of the rubber feet making then uneven. However, none of these minor complaints could ruin our cruise. It was very enjoyable.

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cjordan36 6 years ago

Like others I don't pay attention to negative comments when the majority of the comments are positive. When I read several hundred comments that are positive against 2 or 3 that are negative it hard to put any truth to the post. We cruised on the Oasis last June. Like many of you above we loved the Oasis. Never had any of the problems described by the OP despite having over 6000 guest on board for our cruise. We found The Staff was always there to answer our questions and would go out of there way to help us when we needed it. We found this to be true from our Cabin Attendant, our Waiter in the MDR, the Crew, to those in Guest Services. The Oasis was our first BIG cruise ship. In fact we had such a good time that we booked our next cruise on the Oasis for this December. We will miss the Oasis when it transition to Miami in 2019. I just hope the Allure will be just as nice.....

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eling 6 years ago

We LOVED Oasis! Everything and everyone was perfect! The only complaint we had was embarking-lines were so long and confusing what to do -and some “official” guy, was selecting people to go through the express line—-and hmmm-he was “selecting” cute young women It took the rest of us close to an hour just to the TSA part But once on the ship, everything was amazing!

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Punkis 6 years ago

Oasis is one of the best cruise ships and so much fun always something to do it’s a 5+

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CruisingGs 6 years ago

Yeah this is weird- I don’t know if I’ve really seen a bad review on the oasis When we cruise we ask people what their favorite ship is about 75% say the oasis- it actually annoys us a little because we like oasis but think anthem is the best- lol Hope this isn’t a fake review? If not sorry you didn’t like her Sounds like the big ships are not for you Most of your issues seem to stem from not knowing how the ship works (ie: making show reservations before your trip, who to ask for help on the ship etc) or because the big ship with lots of people & kids is not your scene Good luck on the next one!!!

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lew934 6 years ago

Same here had a fantastic cruise..no issues with overcrowding, booked Allure next can't wait

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jimnkathy 6 years ago

My wife and I cruised on that ship last year and didn't find any of the issues we mentioned. We both loved that ship. I think I did a little more than my wife. The only time we found the Windjammer over crowded was the first embarkation day at lunch. The rest if the time it was no problem. I think we had less trouble getting a seat in the Windjammer on that ship than the smaller ones.

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Other reviews of this sailing

Amazing ship

OASIS SHIP*BIG SHIP*BIG COST*TO MANY PEOPLE!!!

Wonderful cruiseline!