Rio has had his eye on the Oasis and Allure ships for the past several years. He very much wanted to sail on these engineering marvels and try out all they have to offer. The rest of us suspected that the ship would be a bit too much like a resort and too little like, well, a SHIP for our tastes--and we were not willing to pay the premium prices for a week long sailing, nor pay airfare to fly out to Florida and sail around to the same old Caribbean ports that we have seen plenty and do not appeal overly to us (we are not sun lovers and rarely want a full day at a beach), so it seemed like a pipe dream for poor Rio.
As luck would have it, the Oasis is approaching her fifth birthday and must undergo a mandatory dry dock inspection. Nowhere in the Americas can handle a ship of her size, so she has been moved over to Europe for this requirement--and Rio was quick to realize that the transatlantic sailing to bring her over here was being offered at a bargain price (TAs usually are) and (MAJOR luck here) fell entirely into the last two weeks of his school summer holidays. With the 12 night sailing coming it in at about half the price of a typical week long in the Caribbean, and Dave's frequent flyer account holding just enough points for one way tickets for the family, Rio's dream suddenly became a reality--and, hey, if you are going to enjoy the ship, what better itinerary than 12 nights that includes 10 full sea days and only one port?
So that, my friends, is how we found ourselves sailing off on a huge, warehouse like ship, on Labor Day of this year.
I am not going to try to talk about the cruise day by day--it would take a novel! Instead, I'll just give some overall impressions of various things about the ship and cruise, along with some photos of the spaces.
One of the unique features of the ship are the various "neighborhoods" that it is broken into. These do a fabulous job of dispersing the people so that it rarely felt crowded onboard (though, our cruise was a rare Oasis sailing that was NOT sold out, which may affect that some).
In the back (aft) of the ship, is the Boardwalk. Here you will find the Aqua Theatre where two shows are performed (incorporating high dive acts, quite stunning at sea, and both good shows). This is also where outdoor movies are shown. I MUCH prefer this to the movies over the pools on other ships. It is easier to hear, the seats are comfortable, and the pool area does not have the intrusion of movie dialogue. Here are some shots of the Aqua Theater taken during the comedy dive show called Splish Splash:
It was a cute show and high dive acts are not something you see often, so it was extra fun to see this show and the more elaborate nighttime show "Oasis of Dreams" I had to wonder who came up with the idea of a 17 meter high dive act, with a deep enough landing pool, that would have movable platforms that come to the surface with dancers on them (who breath through scuba masks while awaiting cues) and how on earth they ever successfully pitched the idea--but it was fun to watch!
(the highest dive boards are all the way up on those side poles, barely in the photo--and they dive from those on a a moving ship! Yeah, not for the faint of heart)
Just above the theatre, still near the back of the Boardwalk area, are a couple of small play areas for children (note, behind these are the entrances to the stairwells which go up to the climbing walls--those can be tricky to find):
Here's a view of the Boardwalk when standing between those play areas. You might notice the many balconies on either side; a unique feature of the Oasis Class ships are the "interior balcony staterooms" Not only are there balconies overlooking the sea, there are fewer interior staterooms than you would expect and "inside" rooms on levels 10 to 14 can have balconies overlooking this Boardwalk area, or the Central Park neighborhood (which I will get to later). That's a pretty cool feature!
There are two "upcharge" restaurants out here. On one side is the Seafood Shack (rumor has it this will become something else during dry dock next week. We never saw anyone in there and looking at the menu that is not surprising. It was cute, but the per item prices were about on par with on land, which seemed like a lot when you have already paid cruise fare).
On the other sides is Johnny Rockets. They do a cooked to order breakfast here on the big ships, with no upcharge, that was delicious. I really liked the potatoes with cheese and onions and peppers. Mmmmmmm. Lunch and dinner costs an extra $6 (milk shakes not included) and that is for all you care to eat from their menu of burgers, hot dogs, chicken melts, fries and onion rings. For dessert ice cream sundaes and apple pie are included.
We never saw more than a handful of tables occupied at lunch or dinner (it was generally busy but with no wait for breakfast). We did have lunch there once and the food was good, but you pay the extra for the atmosphere really and perhaps this is why it was mostly empty for the cruise; our waiter could not have been more bored and slightly irritated to have to do his job if he had tried. The music cut off half way through the meal for no known reason. We were there well over an hour and the trademark dancing never happened. The atmosphere was downright dismal -- very much not what Johnny Rockets is supposed to be all about. The food was good and had the atmosphere been fun we would have gone back several times during the trip--as was, we left disappointed and confined our visits to breakfast time only thereafter. Oh well, RCI's loss in revenue there.
There is a candy store, ice cream store, photo studio for doing silly photos in costumes and a couple of shops (all carriyng extra charges):
The donuts in the donut shop (below) are included as part of your cruise fare and were surprisingly good (much better than donuts in the buffet on other RCI ships). I liked the Strawberry ones and grabbed one for a quick breakfast when I slept in on several occasions.
Finally, there is a handcarved wooden carousel (no brass rings though). It is really a kick to ride a carosel out at sea. Marika and I took several spins and rode about half of the animals throughout the trip. Rio and Dave joined us a few times as well.
(thanks Pia for this awesome photo)
I really enjoyed this area. It was bright and cheery and surprisingly quiet, with lots of fresh air and some of the few glimpses of the ocean from public spaces on the ship (back behind the theatre). It is a nice place to walk around or catch a movie or take a spin on the carousel.
--Hadley
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