Travel and vacations - Oasis of the Seas trip report

This promises to be long.... so grab a beverage or your choice and dig
in, or hit the "next" key and move on.

As it turns out, I got two invitations to go on the Oasis of the Seas.

I belong to a travel agent consortium and they were combining their
yearly meeting with the first two day intro sailing departing on
November 20. I accepted this invitation although I wasn't sure I would
be able to go due to scheduling problems and frankly, I don't like
traveling so far just for a two day cruise. But then, this was the
OASIS and I really wanted to see her. Then... I got an invitation from
Royal Caribbean to go on the second two day cruise. Again, scheduling
problems.

Bottom line is that I was able to go but only at the last minute and
airfares were out of the question, so we had to drive. That added two
days to each end of the trip so we ended up doing the consortium
meetings and the original 2 night cruise and did not go on the second 2
night cruise. It worked out well.

I won't bore you with details of the consortium meetings but I did
manage to grab the ear of a few suppliers and have some interesting
talks. The rep from Viking River Cruise Lines took 8 of us to dinner at
the W hotel steakhouse... 954. It was excellent and I am very glad I
wasn't paying that bill. They had a Kobe Steak on the menu for $235.
We were a bit more restrained in our ordering.

Pier 18 - the new cruise terminal at Port Everglades is everything they
said it would be. Going through the doors, you can go left or right,
immediately through security. If I recall correctly, there are 6
security stations on each side. Once past Security, you are in the main
check-in area. The check-in desks are arranged in a "V" shape in the
center of the room and there are 45 stations on each side. Flat screen
TV monitors tell you which line to use, sorting people by which deck
their cabin is on. We were on Deck 12 and there were 6 station for that
deck. Once you go through the check-in procedure, you go up the
escalator or elevator to a waiting area (assuming the ship; is not ready
to board). There is seating there for 3000 people and a play area for
children and a lounge area for Suite passengers.

http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-003.html
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-005.html
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-008.html

At check-in, they take your photo right there so when you board the
ship, all you do is put your sail and sign card in the reader and go. A
LOT of the people working that day were new on the job.

The Oasis was late getting into the pier that morning because of
broadcasting for Good Morning America so we had to wait about an hour
and a half before boarding the ship.

Finally... we were among the first 50 people to board the Oasis of the
Seas. I am not going to describe the ship or the various rooms. There
have been a zillion conversations about this and another zillion
pictures. If you would like to see the photos I took, look at
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/photos/oasis/index.html What I will try
to do is point out some new things, plusses and minuses and general
impressions.

This two night cruise was to be a "soft opening" for the ship. This is
where they operate at less then full capacity in an effort to get the
ship and crew up to speed. There were only 2800 invited guests on this
sailing so I felt pretty pleased to be a part of the first group.

Aside from travel agents, there were a few Crown and Anchor people
onboard. The criteria was that they had a minimum of 50 Royal Caribbean
cruises under their belt... and it was announced that one couple had 150
cruises.

Of course, being first has good points and bad. The good is that there
were only 2800 people on a ship that will hold over 6000. We never saw
a crowd, never waited in line for anything and since all the drinks were
free and the bar staff was at full level, we never waited for a drink.
I can only guess, but I don't think that this ship will feel crowded
with a full compliment of passengers. There was a whole LOT of empty
space with 2800 passengers..... it actually felt a bit strange at times.

I expected the Oasis to "feel" huge and I was pleasantly mistaken. The
concept of "neighborhoods" effectively creates smaller, self contained
areas of the ship that have their own distinct personality.
Surprisingly, the lounges and bars were pretty small, but there are a
LOT of them all over the ship.

Not everything on the ship was ready for us. The information manual in
each cabin... wasn't there yet. Cabin service consisted of making the
bed and changing towels, no ice service, no room service was available.
The photo shop wasn't operational yet. They were working on the Aqua
Theater.

The cabin looks typical, but the doors to the cabin open outward into
the hallway instead of inward into the cabin. The shower has a movable
European shower head, but you can not adjust the height of the shower
head, it is in a fixed position. They do not have a clothes dryer cord
in the shower, they have two hooks. They do have shelves and drawers in
the bathroom, but of course they are small. They have a couple of
outlets in the cabin, but they are located under the desk, which will
make it hard for the handicapped or elderly people to reach. I don't
know what they were thinking when they designed this but it stinks.
Bring a 3-way plug and an extension cord or a power strip.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-214.html

Dinner the first night was a mess. There was only one seating at 7:30
and dinner took almost 3 hours. I think this was he first full-scale
seating they attempted and it showed. As we left the dining room, one
service area looked like a bomb zone... a far cry from the neat and
efficient stations you are used to seeing. The second night.... MUCH
better! Service was almost as good as you would expect from a seasoned
crew. Things like this do not bother me. I know how hard it is to get
any new business up to full working speed, and a cruise ship isn't any
exception.

INNOVATIONS: Sail and Sign Cards - Your Sail and Sign card takes on
a whole new importance on the Oasis of the Seas. Before your even leave
home, you can make reservations for shows and dinner reservations
online. You aren't issued any tickets.... you just show up when you are
supposed to and ship's crew with hand held scanners scan your card and
confirm your reservation. Very simple, very fast, nothing to it.

All the muster stations for safety drill are in lounges. When you
arrive, your card is scanned. You do not have to bring your life vest
to the safety drill, in fact, there weren't any life vests in our cabin.
They are all stored at the muster stations. Also, your muster station
location is printed on your Sail and Sign card. This is the most
pleasant way to do a safety drill that I have ever seen.

You can also use your sail and sign card to purchase wine from a vending
machine that is outside the dining room.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-125.html

Also, on your Sign and Sail card is a number for your photos. Our
number was 6-44 (tower #4, slot #44) You go to the photo shop, find
your tower and slot number and your photos will be there in a folder.
You find them instantly, no more looking through hundreds of photos for
yours.

INNOVATIONS - Interactive Information Displays. Near many of the
elevators is a touch screen, interactive monitor display. On it, you
can see on a deck plan where you are and touch the location of any venue
on the ship and it will map directions telling you how to get there.
You can enter your stateroom number and it will map out how you should
get there.

http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-069.html
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-070.html

You can pull up the daily schedule.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-065.html

You can check out how busy various restaurants are! Really... you can
look at a graphic display that shows the occupancy level of every
restaurant on the ship at that moment.

INNOVATIONS - It appears that you will be able to access the internet on
your TV in your cabin. This looks like the system already in place in a
lot of hotels,,, the keyboards were in the cabins but the system was not
operational yet. Add to that the WiFi capabilities of the ship and the
internet "cafe" is almost unnecessary. Royal Caribbean is thinking that
way, because the internet room is tiny, out of the way and has only 5
stations.

The big ship is even more impressive because of small things. I was
very happy and surprised with the amount of small details that I found
in the design of the ship. There are small details on light fixtures,
signs hidden in amongst the plants telling you what they are.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-152.html

There are numerous hand-washing stations located outside of most of the
eating venues and they are pretty attractive.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-165.html

Small wonders... a number of displays that you view through special
telescopic viewers. These are scattered throughout the ship; and are
very interesting.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-122.html

The Solarium is 2-stories tall with plenty of rattan chairs and
ottomans, plus they have chaise lounges and those big, round seats tjat
are big enough for two people, like they had on the Solstice. The
Solarium has its own eating area, with turkey bacon, turkey sausage,
grilled vegetables, and layered fruit/yogurt cups.

Disappointments..... I have only two. I had expected to see a show at
the Aqua Theater and didn't. They had it operational for the Good
Morning America taping, but they drained the pool and there were a lot
of construction-type people working on and in it both days. I also
wanted to see the show "Hairspray" which Royal Caribbean has been
touting... but they didn't run that while we were onboard either.

If you hung in there through all this, there is one more photo I would
like you to see.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot.../magcover.html

Getting off the ship Sunday morning was easy. They cleared the ship at
7:20 and we walked off. Since it was a two night cruise to nowhere, we
only had a couple of light bags and there was no Customs to deal with.
We were on the road by 7:35 and had an uneventful trip home.

--

George Leppla

Countryside Travel http://www.CruiseMaster.com
Blog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CruiseMaster

George Leppla wrote:
This promises to be long.... so grab a beverage or your choice and dig
in, or hit the "next" key and move on.

As it turns out, I got two invitations to go on the Oasis of the Seas.

I belong to a travel agent consortium and they were combining their
yearly meeting with the first two day intro sailing departing on
November 20. I accepted this invitation although I wasn't sure I would
be able to go due to scheduling problems and frankly, I don't like
traveling so far just for a two day cruise. But then, this was the
OASIS and I really wanted to see her. Then... I got an invitation from
Royal Caribbean to go on the second two day cruise. Again, scheduling
problems.

Bottom line is that I was able to go but only at the last minute and
airfares were out of the question, so we had to drive. That added two
days to each end of the trip so we ended up doing the consortium
meetings and the original 2 night cruise and did not go on the second 2
night cruise. It worked out well.

I won't bore you with details of the consortium meetings but I did
manage to grab the ear of a few suppliers and have some interesting
talks. The rep from Viking River Cruise Lines took 8 of us to dinner at
the W hotel steakhouse... 954. It was excellent and I am very glad I
wasn't paying that bill. They had a Kobe Steak on the menu for $235. We
were a bit more restrained in our ordering.

Pier 18 - the new cruise terminal at Port Everglades is everything they
said it would be. Going through the doors, you can go left or right,
immediately through security. If I recall correctly, there are 6
security stations on each side. Once past Security, you are in the main
check-in area. The check-in desks are arranged in a "V" shape in the
center of the room and there are 45 stations on each side. Flat screen
TV monitors tell you which line to use, sorting people by which deck
their cabin is on. We were on Deck 12 and there were 6 station for that
deck. Once you go through the check-in procedure, you go up the
escalator or elevator to a waiting area (assuming the ship; is not ready
to board). There is seating there for 3000 people and a play area for
children and a lounge area for Suite passengers.

http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-003.html
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-005.html
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-008.html

At check-in, they take your photo right there so when you board the
ship, all you do is put your sail and sign card in the reader and go. A
LOT of the people working that day were new on the job.

The Oasis was late getting into the pier that morning because of
broadcasting for Good Morning America so we had to wait about an hour
and a half before boarding the ship.

Finally... we were among the first 50 people to board the Oasis of the
Seas. I am not going to describe the ship or the various rooms. There
have been a zillion conversations about this and another zillion
pictures. If you would like to see the photos I took, look at
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/photos/oasis/index.html What I will try
to do is point out some new things, plusses and minuses and general
impressions.

This two night cruise was to be a "soft opening" for the ship. This is
where they operate at less then full capacity in an effort to get the
ship and crew up to speed. There were only 2800 invited guests on this
sailing so I felt pretty pleased to be a part of the first group.

Aside from travel agents, there were a few Crown and Anchor people
onboard. The criteria was that they had a minimum of 50 Royal Caribbean
cruises under their belt... and it was announced that one couple had 150
cruises.

Of course, being first has good points and bad. The good is that there
were only 2800 people on a ship that will hold over 6000. We never saw
a crowd, never waited in line for anything and since all the drinks were
free and the bar staff was at full level, we never waited for a drink. I
can only guess, but I don't think that this ship will feel crowded with
a full compliment of passengers. There was a whole LOT of empty space
with 2800 passengers..... it actually felt a bit strange at times.

I expected the Oasis to "feel" huge and I was pleasantly mistaken. The
concept of "neighborhoods" effectively creates smaller, self contained
areas of the ship that have their own distinct personality.
Surprisingly, the lounges and bars were pretty small, but there are a
LOT of them all over the ship.

Not everything on the ship was ready for us. The information manual in
each cabin... wasn't there yet. Cabin service consisted of making the
bed and changing towels, no ice service, no room service was available.
The photo shop wasn't operational yet. They were working on the Aqua
Theater.

The cabin looks typical, but the doors to the cabin open outward into
the hallway instead of inward into the cabin. The shower has a movable
European shower head, but you can not adjust the height of the shower
head, it is in a fixed position. They do not have a clothes dryer cord
in the shower, they have two hooks. They do have shelves and drawers in
the bathroom, but of course they are small. They have a couple of
outlets in the cabin, but they are located under the desk, which will
make it hard for the handicapped or elderly people to reach. I don't
know what they were thinking when they designed this but it stinks.
Bring a 3-way plug and an extension cord or a power strip.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-214.html

Dinner the first night was a mess. There was only one seating at 7:30
and dinner took almost 3 hours. I think this was he first full-scale
seating they attempted and it showed. As we left the dining room, one
service area looked like a bomb zone... a far cry from the neat and
efficient stations you are used to seeing. The second night.... MUCH
better! Service was almost as good as you would expect from a seasoned
crew. Things like this do not bother me. I know how hard it is to get
any new business up to full working speed, and a cruise ship isn't any
exception.

INNOVATIONS: Sail and Sign Cards - Your Sail and Sign card takes on
a whole new importance on the Oasis of the Seas. Before your even leave
home, you can make reservations for shows and dinner reservations
online. You aren't issued any tickets.... you just show up when you are
supposed to and ship's crew with hand held scanners scan your card and
confirm your reservation. Very simple, very fast, nothing to it.

All the muster stations for safety drill are in lounges. When you
arrive, your card is scanned. You do not have to bring your life vest
to the safety drill, in fact, there weren't any life vests in our cabin.
They are all stored at the muster stations. Also, your muster station
location is printed on your Sail and Sign card. This is the most
pleasant way to do a safety drill that I have ever seen.

You can also use your sail and sign card to purchase wine from a vending
machine that is outside the dining room.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-125.html

Also, on your Sign and Sail card is a number for your photos. Our
number was 6-44 (tower #4, slot #44) You go to the photo shop, find
your tower and slot number and your photos will be there in a folder.
You find them instantly, no more looking through hundreds of photos for
yours.

INNOVATIONS - Interactive Information Displays. Near many of the
elevators is a touch screen, interactive monitor display. On it, you
can see on a deck plan where you are and touch the location of any venue
on the ship and it will map directions telling you how to get there. You
can enter your stateroom number and it will map out how you should get
there.

http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-069.html
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-070.html

You can pull up the daily schedule.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-065.html

You can check out how busy various restaurants are! Really... you can
look at a graphic display that shows the occupancy level of every
restaurant on the ship at that moment.

INNOVATIONS - It appears that you will be able to access the internet on
your TV in your cabin. This looks like the system already in place in a
lot of hotels,,, the keyboards were in the cabins but the system was not
operational yet. Add to that the WiFi capabilities of the ship and the
internet "cafe" is almost unnecessary. Royal Caribbean is thinking that
way, because the internet room is tiny, out of the way and has only 5
stations.

The big ship is even more impressive because of small things. I was
very happy and surprised with the amount of small details that I found
in the design of the ship. There are small details on light fixtures,
signs hidden in amongst the plants telling you what they are.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-152.html

There are numerous hand-washing stations located outside of most of the
eating venues and they are pretty attractive.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-165.html

Small wonders... a number of displays that you view through special
telescopic viewers. These are scattered throughout the ship; and are
very interesting.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot...oasis-122.html

The Solarium is 2-stories tall with plenty of rattan chairs and
ottomans, plus they have chaise lounges and those big, round seats tjat
are big enough for two people, like they had on the Solstice. The
Solarium has its own eating area, with turkey bacon, turkey sausage,
grilled vegetables, and layered fruit/yogurt cups.

Disappointments..... I have only two. I had expected to see a show at
the Aqua Theater and didn't. They had it operational for the Good
Morning America taping, but they drained the pool and there were a lot
of construction-type people working on and in it both days. I also
wanted to see the show "Hairspray" which Royal Caribbean has been
touting... but they didn't run that while we were onboard either.

If you hung in there through all this, there is one more photo I would
like you to see.
http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/phot.../magcover.html

Getting off the ship Sunday morning was easy. They cleared the ship at
7:20 and we walked off. Since it was a two night cruise to nowhere, we
only had a couple of light bags and there was no Customs to deal with.
We were on the road by 7:35 and had an uneventful trip home.

Nice review, George, and you're looking pretty nifty on that magazine cover.

Ermalee