In addition to the Boardwalk area on Oasis, there are two other "neighborhoods" on the ship: Central Park and The Promenade. The Boardwalk is on the far aft end of the ship, and on deck 6. These others two areas are in the center of the ship, sitting one directly atop the other.
Up on deck 8, in the open air, is the very un-shiplike Central Park. I really liked this area with it's many plants and some trees and a very calm and relaxing feel. It was a great place to just take a stroll at any time of the day or night.
Other than during tours of the park itself with the groundskeeper (which were very well attended and looked too crowded to be worthwhile in my opinion), the park area was never overly crowded. There are a variety of things to do in this area, other than just stroll and enjoy the atmosphere.
The counter service restaurant (Park Cafe) serves both breakfast and lunch. We have eaten at the copies on other ships (not the same feel when not in park!) but did not end up eating in the real thing. The serving space is small and cramped and always had a pretty long line at meal times (I did bop in to grab some chips mid afternoon a couple of times, by then the lines are short). It was also hotter than Dave and I like for eating in, and nearly all of the seating is outside in the park (which would be lovely on a cooler day in the Med, and seemed to be just fine by most people; we are wimps about the heat). The few seats in the a/c were all full any time we went in. The food looked good though and is the same as on other RCI ships with a salad bar (they mix it up for you) and a variety of hot and cold sandwiches.
If you are wanting to pay an upcharge for some fine dining, you have four options in Central Park. The first, Vintages, is actually a wine bar, not a restaurant. It has very pleasant seating both indoors and out (lovely at night with the soft lighting in the park) and serves an array of tapas at decent prices. David and Marika split the combinations a couple of times and enjoyed them (these cost anywhere from 8 to 11 dollars depending on which set you choose and include several small servings). They also have a very large wine list, and many good choices (as well as several that are included on the drink package, if you have one). We found ourselves drifting into Vintages often in late afternoon or late night. We jokingly referred to it as "The Staff Bar" as, at night time, there were always more officers and entertainers in there than passengers; we figured you KNOW you have found the quiet and relaxing spot onboard when that is where the officers are hiding out (we never could get a cozy table off to the side--staff had them every time we were in and would hand them off to other staff before leaving).
If you are looking for a real meal in Central Park, you have three upcharge places to choose from: Giovanni's Table (an Italian place, we did not dine at), Chops Grille and 150 Central Park.
We've eaten at Chop's Grille on some other RCI ships and it is always a favourite of Rio's. Rio and I had one dinner there (at a price of $35 per person--it's gone up) and it was very nice. Rio thought the steak was excellent, and my chicken was quite good. The menu has changed some and several of the side vegetable side dishes that I really enjoy are gone now, replaced with pretty much nothing but starches (about six varieties of potato and also a creamed corn, the only green veggie was a creamed spinach that tasted canned). The potatoes and corn were good, but I missed green beans and broccoli and, well, just about anything that felt like it had some nutritional value. Contrary to things I had read online, Red Velvet cake was still on the menu. It is a different recipe, a smaller portion, and not nearly as moist and good as it once was, but it was still tasty. Rio had fresh baked cookies for dessert which tasted heated in a microwave and were very dry. He didn't much care because he was so full of Filet Mignon anyway. Overall, the food ranged from good to great (other than the cookies), and the service was absolutely top notch--striking that perfect balance of being attentive and friendly without being smothering or unprofessional. We enjoyed our meal very much.
150 Central Park is the most expensive specialty restaurant in the RCI fleet (other than the Chef Table meals that are not technically separate locations). We decided to treat my in laws to a meal there for their 50th anniversary (and, we selfishly wanted to give it a try ourselves). I knew going in that the menu was very limited, and that was going to mean I left hungry (I am pretty picky), but I chose that and can't comaplain. The starters (everyone gets them, no choices) were various tapas (4 bite sized items), asparagus with grapefruit, then mushroom tortellini (this was the starter that got very high marks from our group). This was followed by two half portion entrees. For the first you could choose a fish in clam sauce or chicken and for the second boneless ribs (that everyone loved) and I think the second option was a pork, but no one ordered it so I am not sure. For dessert there was a choice of Lemon Tart and a Chocolate something that was really good.
Overall, three food items were standouts as excellent (the tortellini, ribs and chocolate dessert) and the look of the restaurant was nice. We had the bad luck of getting a particularly bad waiter though. He came up immediately as we were seated (we were still figuring out where to sit our purses) and wanted to know what we thought of the menu and had we made any decisions yet; we hadn't even opened the menus yet! . Even though the restaurant was only half full the entire time, and we had a very early reservation (so it was not near closing time) he continued to rush us. We ordered drinks and then I ended up having to leave suddenly to sort out a minor issue that came up for what turned out to be 7 minutes (I happened to glance at my watch on the way outm then checked on the return since he was being pushy); David tells me he came by several times while I was gone, pushing for our order and Dave was actually trying to guess what I wanted when I got back because he was not taking "wait" for an answer. There were multiple (three, I think) times in the course of the meal in which plates were removed with half the food remaining and fork still in hand (once we did call him back and insist on getting to finish that course). It was a frustrating and odd experience to be pushed through a 6 course meal in about an hour and a half and very much the polar opposite of how we were treated over at Chops. So much for the flagship restaurant!
Other things you will find in Central Park are an small outside bar, The Trellis Bar,The Rising Tide Bar which moves up and down between Central Park and the Promenade (yes, a giant elevator which is a bar), a photo studio and a couple of high end shops (Coach, etc). Mostly, it is just a pleasant place to wander. Here are a few photos for you:
(the large glass "bumps" are skylights that let in lots of natural light to the Promenade Deck below)
(outdoor seating at Park Cafe)
(My favourite little relaxing spot on the ship--it was always quiet)
(wall of plants across from the Trellis Bar)
(The Trellis Bar)
(View from our balcony)
Looking up at our balconies (we had those two in the lower half of the photo)
Central Park view balconies are generally the least expensive of the three views (the others being Boardwalk and seaview). I guessed, correctly, that for our group we would really enjoy looking out over this calmer area and we truly did. It was particularly nice in the evenings with the low level lights on. We also found, down on deck 10, that the live music up by the pool was a very pleasant volume when we sat on our balcony in the day time--it drifted down just loud enough to hear clearly but soft enough to easily carry on a conversation. They also brought a piano out into the park one night for a concert (I have no idea if this is typical, or was special for the crossing) and we had the BEST place to enjoy that. If we were to sail an Oasis class ship again I would book Central Park views a second time around.
--Hadley
No comments:
Post a Comment