The Promenade on Oasis looks pretty much like it does on other ships, only large and with the excellent addition of natural light from those skylights in Central Park:
It is a big, open space (2 stories) that does not feel cramped. Unlike the Boardwalk or Central Park, the Promenade had a steady stream of people at nearly all hours (we lost an hour at noon for 6 days in a row on the transatlantic sailing and many Americans seemed to not even be trying to adjust, which makes sense to me if you are just going to fly home at the end, so by mid cruise the places was still hopping at 2:00 a.m. every night). Nonetheless, on this not fully sold sailing it only really felt too crowded when there was a party (70s party), parade or big sale going on. I don't really understand the allure of the sales, but 100s of people would stand behind rope barriers around central kiosks waiting for those ropes to drop so they could paw through t-shirts that were "only $10" for "one day only!" (note: an hour later the Promenade was nice and quiet and there were still tons of t-shirts to be had at that price if you wanted one).
The Promenade features:
-Shops. There were many. I am not a big shopper and find the merchandise on RCI cruises to be rerepetitiverom ship to ship and rather boring, so I did not even enter most and have no comments on them
-Guest Services. The biggest I have seen on a ship. There were often multiple lines (like McDonalds) and confusion about where to wait, which I did not care for. I wish they made one queue like on other ships. It was also pretty busy nearly all the time, but the times I had a need to speak to them, lines moved quickly.
-The Champagne Bar. In much the same was that Vintages was the "staff bar" on our cruise, The Champagne Bar was the "gay bar" on our particular cruise--so perhaps if you are ever looking for "friends of Dorothy" when a meeting is not scheduled, this could be an excellent starting place (I am pretty sure the actual meetings were scheduled here too, which might be why it evolved as it did). We're not Champagne drinkers, so we were not in often, but it was pleasant and the staff were very nice when we were there.
-The Rising Tide Bar. This is the big elevator platform with a bar on it that rises and sinks slowly between the Promenade and Central Park. It stops for 10 minutes or so, with posted times for the next lift off, to let people on and off and then starts again in the opposite direction. It was sort of interesting to sit there and have a drink in transit once or twice, but really pretty much a gimmick with not much atmosphere to speak of. We were also surprised that it quit running around midnight every night--even with many people out and about and ordering drinks.
--The Promenade Cafe. This is the source of 24 hour snacks and drinks. Water, iced tea, coffee, instant hot chocolate and hot tea are available here (at no extra cost) day and night as are light snacks (morning fruit and pastries and small sandwiches and lots of bite sized sweets the rest of the time). I really liked that the sweets were truly bite sized (except the cookies, which were standard sizes). I liked being able to try something without feeling wasteful (and they were always happy to give you several of something if you asked). I wasn't very fond of any of them other than the oatmeal cookies. Most of our group really liked the cheesecake "lollipops" though. I should mention that you can also buy better quality coffees and teas here (these are included on some of the drink packages as well).
--The Cupcake Cupboard. Where you can pay extra for a variety of cupcakes offered for sale (and also sign up for a decorating class, for a fee). I have a weakness for cupcakes and bought two during the trip. They were good.
--The Globe and Atlas Pub. Modeled on a classic British pub, this is the place to find a huge variety of beer on board. We were always able to get a seat during the daytime, but it was never empty. At night there was always some sort of live music (most often a guitarist) and we were never able to get a seat but it could usually hear it pretty well from the tables at Sorrentos, right across the way.
--Sorrentos. Sorrentos served pizza by the slice from midday until late at night (I am not sure how late, it was always still serving when we were up). They also have a "make your own" option with a variety of toppings to choose from. It takes about 15 minutes for a "make your own" to be brought out to you, and we found that the crusts for these were not very good. We did like the pizza slices ok. There were nothing fantastic but were fairly tasty as a late night treat. Parmesan , peppers and oregano shakers were on the tables, which we liked. There is a bar here, which almost never had a wait, and two freestyle soda machines to fill up your cup if you bought a soda package, as well as dispensers kept full of ice water and iced tea. We found ourselves at Sorrentos, enjoying a bite to eat and people watching for some point of nearly every evening.
--The Shore Excursions desk. I never stopped by it, and likely would not have done so even on a trip with more than one port, so I can't say much about it.
--Starbucks coffee where you can pay for that taste that it seems many people love. You can also pay for pastries here. I do know that this coffee is not included on any drinks package. No one in my group drinks Starbucks on land so no one felt a need to pay for it at sea.
--Boleros bar. There was a good Latin band here most nights, but it was so LOUD that we tended to just scoot in for a quick drink and leave again. If they had cut the volume in half I would have happily danced the night way many times.
Perhaps this is a good point to mention that often the volume levels on the ship were painfully loud, much more so than we have encountered before and many people were complaining about it. If we ever sail Oasis again we will bring quality ear plugs for all of us. It was outrageous in this club, at the cabaret singing shows, at parties, etc. The one time Dave happened to have his phone in his pocket, he used the decibel reader ap and got a reading of 97, and this was a simple cabaret act, not in the loudest part of the room or near the speakers, and that was not even the loudest event on the ship by a long shot. (that was in the Dazzles nightclub). I found this surprising, especially given the number of people complaining about it.
--On Air Club. This is a small venue built primarily as a karaoke club and used for that as well as some trivia games and other games, presentations, etc. Anything that needs to use a video screen is done here. It's an odd space. The chairs are not that comfortable and large support poles block the view of the little stage from several areas. A short wall running through the middle of the room and used for bar seating makes it an odd choice for participatory games as it keeps half the room from being babe to participate and the space is not being enough to have enough willing guests in only the front section. On the bright side, having a dedicated karaoke space and equipment meant that the sound and visuals for that actually WORKED, which was pretty awesome.
On deck 6, a few spaces are off to the side and look down on the promenade, so I will include them here in my discussion of the area.
--The Diamond Lounge. This is a space for frequent cruisers who have gained Diamond (or higher) status to relax and enjoy better quality coffee, cold breakfast items, evening snacks, etc and also have access to a staff member who can help with dining reservations and the like. We had heard a lot of hype about how wonderful this space was on Oasis, having been built for the purpose (many such lounges are later additions on older ships). We were not impressed. This may be partly due to the very high number of Diamond and higher cruisers onboard (the highest ever), meaning it was always full, there was generally a line 10 minutes long for coffee (I am not exaggerating) and longer to talk to the staff members, etc. RCI had not really done much to prepare for the (known to them long beforehand) onslaught of Diamonds on this sailing and really needed more staff working in there. However I think my lack of enthusiasm was more that the furnishings were bland and it just did not feel in the least bit inviting.
--Focus photos. Most cruise ships have umpteen photo opportunities and on most cruise ships they print out all of those photos for people to browse and consider buying. We nearly always refuse to have our photos taken because the wastefullenss of printing all of those unwanted photos really bothers us. Oasis has a system similar to Disney's Memory Maker (which I posted about here: http://hadleyswanderingsandramblings.blogspot.de/2014/09/disneys-memory-maker.html ) in which photos are all only digital unless you specifically want to purchase one, and then it is printed. Everything is on a facial recognition system, all you do is scan your card and all photos that the ship's system recognizes as you pop on a screen. Pretty cool. Here is the Focus area on deck 6:
--Schooner's Bar. On every RCI ship we have been on there is a Schooners and on each one this is the place where most of the trivia games are held. We love trivia, so we end up spending a lot of time here. Schooners on Oasis is not nearly as big as on some ships (it was huge on Serenade) but it was big enough to be crowded but not intolerable for trivia (even if some of us did sit on the floor from time to time). The bar staff in the area was also very nice and did a great job winding around through trivia teams who kept reorganizing chairs. The sound system was very good, for a change, so it was pretty easy to hear questions no matter where in the room we were.
We were impressed with the cruise staff who made a real effort to not repeat questions and quizzes and to create some new and different trivias just for the long sailing (note: progressive trivia was 10 days' worth and held in a larger venue, Dazzles. Rio loved it, the rest of us opted out of having to be there for a team every.single.day).
Schooners is also the traditional piano bar on the ship. We never went up in the evenings to listen so I have no idea of the quality of the player, nor of crowd levels to report.
(The awesome thing about trivia is that you meet great people. Here we are with the group we drifted in and out of all week. Groups are limited to 6, so depending on who all was there we might split into two or have some of us join other teams, etc--but this was our core gang and they were awesome. Hi Andrew, Angie, Debbie, Pia and Chris!)
That's it for the spaces in the Promenade. I think I will wrap up this post by saying that one other "venue" on deck 5 is the nearly half mile long jogging and walking track that circles around the outside edge. It was a nice track and I walked several laps over the week. It was well used and lots of people took part in the Make a Wish fundraiser, donating and then recording their laps to see if passengers could "walk the distance" to Malaga faster than the ship could sail it (we did, much faster, and we were told it was a record setting Make a Wish fundraiser for the ship).
On the far aft end of the ship, where the outside area widens a bit there are some chairs set out between the deck and the rail--this is an excellent place to enjoy the view of the ocean once in a while.
--Hadley
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