The food cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 8

Helpful Votes: 116

Review summary

This was my 4th Royal Caribbean cruise and my 9th cruise overall. This was my and my wife’s first cruise and vacation together without our 3 year old daughter since her birth so this cruise was all about relaxation. This was our first cruise out of Bayonne, NJ so it was our first time having an embarkation experience out of NJ. This was also our first Oasis Class ship experience. Embarkation overall went extremely smoothly. The only warning I would give is if you do not get to the port area between 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM, the traffic in the port area will make you wait between 30 minutes to an hour. There is really only one road in and out with no way to avoid the traffic and since this is a large ship which had a passenger count of over 6,300 (double occupancy of the ship is 5.400) you will be waiting in your car to park or be dropped off. Once we were parked it was 10-15 minutes from curb to ship with the check in process. We had a standard central park balcony cabin on Deck 12. The room had the standard two twins, or when combined, one king size bed and the room had a couch. The balcony had two chairs and a little table and was surprisingly extremely spacious. Also included are the safe, phone and tv which were all functionally easy to navigate. The bathroom was a standard small bathroom with the normal circular shower had the plastic/glass closing enclosure. There was just enough storage space in the bathroom for two people. In the shower there was a combination soap/shampoo dispenser. I would advise bringing your own soaps and shampoo products. Since this was going to be our relaxation cruise, we purchased both the drink package and ultimate dining package. We attempted to experience as many restaurants as we possibly could on the ship, both complimentary and specialty although we stuck to specialty for every dinner. Complimentary dining: Windjammer Buffet - This was probably my least favorite buffet on any cruise ship I have been on. Due to the multitude of dining venues on the ship, Royal intentionally made the windjammer smaller on most Oasis class ships and the small size of the windjammer is extremely noticeable, both with lines at breakfast and lunch, available chairs, and the more limited dining options. The food quality was on par (mediocre to good) with the other Windjammer buffets I have experienced, but the options were so limited by comparison. That is why we only did lunch at windjammer twice and breakfast once. Solarium Bistro - The best way I can describe this area is as a mini windjammer by the solarium. Sometimes they did offer some slightly different items, but overall it offered the same stuff as the main buffet just on a smaller scale and usually much less lines. It does have an egg station but the station is not labeled so you just have to ask where to order. Park Cafe - Located in central park this was a great quick grab and go option. Not a ton of options but there were enough. Bagels were not great (sort of like supermarket quality) but the sandwiches (both breakfast and lunch) were good. Also the fact you could get salads was a nice addition. El Loco Fresh - The complimentary mexican food restaurant on the pool deck. You could get pre made burritos or you could make your own tacos and nachos. Quality was good not great and lines could be long on sea days but maybe that was due to the capacity of the ship being at over 6,300. It is definitely a nice complimentary option. Promenade Cafe - This is standard on most Royal Caribbean ships with some limited sandwich, snacks and dessert grab and go options. Food quality as always is good not great. Sorrento Pizza - I must say as a NJ native the pizza at Sorrento’s is always surprisingly good. Obviously it’s not up to NJ/NY pizza but it is good. Boardwalk Dog house - My wife tried the hotdog here and was not impressed. It was far from Sabrett and more like a standard super market hot dog. However, if you have kids and they want a hot dog, by all means it is a very convenient to grab a dog. Main Dining Room - We only did one breakfast at the MDR due to our Ultimate Dining Package. However, I will say these two things regarding the MDR. It was our favorite experience. Also, every person we talked to who had My Time Dining said they had longer than normal wait times for a table during peak dining times. Specialty Dining: Giovanni’s Table - This is the Italian Restaurant which we ate at twice. Our server, nicknamed Gnochi, was phenomenal. He brought us without asking additional entrees each time for us to try. Food quality was superb. Compared to the other RCL Italian Restaurant I ate at (Jamie’s Italian on Mariner) I preferred the options and quality more at Jamie’s Italian but that does not take anything away from this restaurant. 150 Central Park - This was by far hands down the best restaurant on the ship. We ate hear twice with another fantastic server, Leonardo. The Lobster, Filet Mignon, Pork entree, and every other appetizer and entree we had were phenomenal. The only regret with this restaurant is we didn’t get to try everything on the menu. Chop’s Grille - The standard RCL steakhouse which we ate at once. As always this was very good food but in comparison to the other big specialty dinner we had, this was our least favorite. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t disappointed by any means with our meal, but compared to 150 Central Park, I’d choose 150 Central Park every time. Izumi Hibachi - We do enjoy hibachi and this did not disappoint. My only warning is to make reservations as soon as you get on the ship if you want to go here because there are only three hibachi tables on the ship which almost always has over 5,000 people. Port Side BBQ - We weren’t impressed with the BBQ. We ordered the pulled pork sandwich, mac and cheese, fries and corn bread. None of what we ordered stood out except the mac and cheese which stood out because it was extremely bland. Other passengers informed us we ordered the wrong items (smoked turkey was highly recommended) but we didn’t go back to try. Playmakers Sports Bar - Very good bar food. Wings, sliders, onion rings, dessert all were good. We would have been happy without a dining plan to eat here as the price isn’t bad. Entertainment and Activities on Royal are always great. You can make reservations for all the shows when you get on the ship (through the app). Although there are lines at each show for those who do not have reservations, good luck getting into many of the shows without reservations if the ship is as full as ours was. We went to both the ice skating show and the 80s Aqua show which both were phenomenal. We passed on the Broadway show in the main theater because it was Cats and we have no desire to see Cats. Cats is extremely dated and Royal should probably update the main theater show to something more contemporary. We also so one comedy show which was definitely worth seeing. Other entertainment like the guitar or piano player in central park in the evenings really hit the spot for ambiance in that neighborhood. It was also nice to listen to from our balcony. In fact all the musicians we experienced around the ship were always good quality. We also tried the ultimate abyss and the zip line. Both I would consider novelties but I would recommend doing each. Make sure you have closed toe shows with laces if you want to do the zip line. I did partake in the casino one night. It was large, it was fun, it was pretty crowded but it was smokey. I was also stuck in the smoking side because of the table game I play only was on that side so that may have been part of the problem regarding the smoke. Pools and deck space were extremely packed during sea days. If you wanted a shaded chair on the pool deck you needed to be up by 9:00 AM or you weren’t getting one. Pools got extremely crowded but for the most part everyone, including the children were considerate so the crowds both in and out of the pool were not bothersome. One big drawback of the Oasis of the Seas for us was there are really no shaded chairs in the solarium except for a very few by the bar on the second level. The solarium was pretty and the pool/hot tubs were nice but without a shaded area for the most part we did not get to enjoy the serenity of the solarium. Ports - The only port we got off the ship was Coco Caye, Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas. We paid over $400 for entrance for both of us (including gratuities) for the Coco Beach Club area so we spent the entire day there. It was fantastic with the infinity pool, bar and beach all within 30 second walk of each other. The bar was well staffed so even when numerous people were asking for drinks you didn’t have to wait more than 2 minutes for your drink order. Your drink package works on the island and the restaurant was included with your beach club entree fee. The food at the restaurant was top notch but you need to make reservations. If you didn’t do the reservations before you arrived or immediately upon arrival you were stuck with whatever times were not booked up to eat. The biggest draw back regarding food at the beach club was that there are no quick serve available items other then danish type items when you first arrive. If you get there early you can get one of the 6 or 7 cushioned loungers at the infinity pool. Otherwise you get a normal beach chair which do have numerous umbrellas. The infinity pool appears to be heated (though I’m not 100% on this) as the temperature seemed too perfect to be natural. If you want that type of experience I describe above, the beach club is worth the money. Overall a great cruise on a great ship. Keep in mind the capacity of your ship when you get on so you understand what kind of lines you will be facing and how early you need to get up to get a shaded chair if that is important to you. If you want to skip lines at dinner and kick up a notch the food quality, specialty restaurant dining is the way to go. Book online a dining plan to make the specialty dining more affordable. Production shows at all venues were surprisingly few with only 3 for a ship this size, but the two we saw were phenomenal quality. Make reservations on the app when you board for the shows you want to attend so you aren’t trying to get lucky in the line seeing who doesn’t show up. Enjoy!

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Disembarkation

Other reviews of this sailing