Very disappointed! :(
Oasis of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 52
7 Night Western Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: February 03, 2019
Ship: Oasis of the Seas
Cabin number: 14301
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
My husband bought our family, my son's friend, and my daughters family of four a cruise for Christmas. We were all very excited since this was our first time sailing with Royal Caribbean (our other cruises were all with Carnival) and we had heard that RC was better quality than Carnival. 1) The stateroom: We had four in our room and when we arrived there was only sleeping arrangements for 3. I had called twice before we cruised to ensure that we had a room for 4. We were supplied with a rollaway bed which blocked the balcony and took up much of our room space since it was positioned awkwardly. Very cramped the whole time and frustrating. We spoke with guest services and nothing else was available. The state room also smelled very badly. The bed smelled like vomit (no exaggeration), the bathroom smelled like urine, and the room smelled like smelly shoes/feet. We knew that it would be outdated so I'm not rating it based on that. I could smell the lingering odor of vomit on my clothes after getting out of bed. The chair had stains all over it (including white/crusty stains). 2) For Fee Dining Options: Many of the services on board were offered for a fee. For example, there are more dining options with a fee than there are without a fee. Many of the options without a fee were fast food/greasy food options (hotdogs, pizza, hamburger etc). One can only eat that kind of food so much. Many of these places had very long lines and closed early. We usually had to wait a long time in line and then it was hard to find seating. Carnival had many more options without a fee. 3) Children's Program: We have grandchildren aged 3 and 5 years old that went into the children's program. Their parents signed them up initially. However, we (the grandparents) dropped them off and picked them up several times throughout the cruise. We were never asked (except once) for our identification, sea pass or child's sea pass. The only information we were asked was the room number. Additionally, ALL of counselors never seemed happy and appeared as though the children were an aggravation. Many of the activities that were supposedly scheduled did not happen (example: face painting) and the children were really disappointed. 4) Shore Excursions: We chose a RC shore excursion in Haiti where we rode a boat to an area were the Haitians were supposed to explain their culture. Throughout the entire excursion, instead of focusing on the history, the locals were focused on soliciting the tourist. It was an obvious tourist trap as it was just a little walkway straight up a hill about 300 yards, where every corner you turned was locals asking for more money. Our son was wading in the water and even then the locals met him in a canoe asking for money. This was not our idea of learning their culture and was a very uncomfortable situation. Even the tour guide was pressuring everyone to donate/buy since the locals were poor. We ended up giving money at least 6 times during that excursion.Embarkation
Smooth and quick
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Randy in main dining room was wonderful. Too many "for fee" dining options. Too many eateries closed early, had long lines and/or couldn't find seating. Very aggravating to have to pay for many of the options when we already paid for the cruise.
Onboard Activities
Many activities to choose from! Teens loved it!
Entertainment
Many shows, loved the game shows. Disliked having to make a reservation to see them. We missed a few reservations and the app wouldn't let us reschedule so we were running back and forth on the ship several time to try and get into a show but most of them were full.
Children's Programs
The counselors did not seems happy at all and seemed like children were an annoyance. Many of the scheduled activities did not happen (face painting, bouncy, etc). They did not play with the children, just watched them. They really need to get people in there that actually like kids.
Service and Staff
Randy and the assistant waiter were wonderful! Always happy and made us feel welcome. Some of the other staff did not seem like they enjoyed their job.
Ship Quality
Hand sanitizing stations everywhere and at the entrance of many dining rooms was an attendant with a bottle of sanitizer offering some to each person that walked it. Loved this! Bathrooms were clean. The ship really needs updating though and not that impressive. The layout was fairly easy to get around in. The elevators always had a very long wait.
Cabin / Stateroom
We only had enough room to sleep 3 even though we had 4 people so they brought us a rollaway bed which blocked the balcony and took up most of the room. The bed smelled like vomit, even after changing the sheets. The cloth chair and carpet had bad stains (even white crusty ones). Stateroom smelled like smelly shoes and urine and needed to be updated badly.
Ports of call
Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)
I'm giving it a 2 star because of the free lunch that was offered on this private island. The Royal Caribbean excursion (Haitian Experience) was a disappointment. We tried to support the locals as much as possible but every corner we turned, they wanted to sell us something else or for us to donate. Not enjoyable and we felt very pressured.
Thumbs Up
3
We took a trolly tour and the tour guide was great! She was upbeat and informative. She made the tour fun. We had 2 stops (a church and the water)
The whole island is commercialized and just shops. We paid for a tour one of the buses and they dropped us off at more shops where they wanted you to "tip" and buy stuff. We just wanted to see the history but got this instead. Highly disappointed.
Disembarkation
Very smooth and fast.
9 Comments
TheArdens 5 years ago
Thanks for all of the replies! My review definitely is not a fake review as someone had suggested. I stayed in cabin 14301 with a boardwalk view. The only reason I mentioned Carnival is because that is the only cruise line I had to compare it with. One of the Carnival ships (Dream) was wonderful and the 2nd one we went on was not good (Conquest).
Just to clarify, we loved the food in the main dining room and never had to wait that long; they were very efficient there. It was some of the other dining options that I was referring to. Maybe we didn't see all of the free dining options because I don't remember a MDR. That would definitely be our error for not researching more while on the ship. However, our frustration came in when one morning we tried to eat breakfast (can't remember which place) and they closed at 9:30 so we had to go to a different restaurant. Then we tried to eat a little after 5:30 at the Park Cafe and they had just closed so we had to go somewhere else. That happened about 3 times at different places so that is why the closing/opening timing was mentioned. Yes, I know the buffet and pizza was always open but was just looking for something different.
As for the comment about the fake review and how they find it hard to believe about the smells and that we should have reserved a suite next time: We researched the rooms online and most standard state rooms fit 3-4 people. Since it mentioned 3-4 I called both Cruises.com and Royal Caribbean to confirm that our room would fit 4 people and they both confirmed that it would. So, I feel we did our research on that. The smells in the stateroom were very real! Like I mentioned, the whole ship seemed to do excellent job in trying to keep things clean and sanitized. However, the stateroom was totally different. We did make some great memories and it definitely was not all bad, many things about this ship was great. I think the room and the excursions were the main issue. I don't like leaving negative reviews and I feel I rated the good things and the bad things and was just trying to be honest.
janepatricia 5 years ago
Our first cruise was on Royal Caribbean Oasis Of The Seas ,and we loved it,we travel a lot and to many places around the world,we had never cruised before as we thought we would feel restricted, But we thought dont knock it till you've tried it,everything about Oasis we found good.Food wether in MDR or Buffet was nice,plenty to choose from to in the Buffet,all nicely presented.i dont know how the person can say food places closed early,as the Buffet is open all day till late at night,in the MDR,we had Jhon & Maria,who couldnt do enough for you,there service and food was exceptional.highly recommend, would deffinatly cruise on this ship again.
jyearsley 5 years ago
Wow. We were on the same cruise and could not have had a more different experience. We cannot wait to go again. Just as an example of the difference, we travel with a service dog. On entering our stateroom (same deck) we saw immediately that the dog's kennel would not fit well. Our room attendant leapt into action, rearranged things and made it work well for all of us. We did My Time dining and never waited. One night we chose a for pay option (Giovanni's) and had a superb meal at an appropriate cost. I'm sorry that your experience was so disappointing
Shh813 5 years ago
This could very well be a FAKE review as no cruises are listed and she states that they have gone on Carnival before. I find it hard to believe the cabin would have all those horrible smells and after calling a couple of times to check on how many in the room and they still got not wrong. Allso,not much free food? None of this review sounds true.
CVCruiser 5 years ago
Its a shame you had a bad time. It is confusing when you say the Oasis has less free dinig options than pay options? And the comment that all of the free options were burgers, hotdogs, and pizza? I'm guessing you didn't explore the whole ship.... I was a Carnival cruiser, then tried NCL, then RC Oasis class ships... and out of all of the ships Ive been on, the Oasis class is by far the most impressive, most to do, most free food options, and most pay food options, and less crowded feeling.