My kind of cruise ship.
After many years of searching, I have finally my kind of cruise ship in Oasis of the Seas. The huge floating resort was in Southampton for one day this week and I was lucky enough to be invited on board and given a tour. Read on for my thoughts on the ship, or if you’d like to read customer reviews just click here
Now, she is huge and she really is slated by a lot of cruisers for being just too big but it was for this reason that I adored her. Cruising has grown and evolved over the years and Royal Caribbean have recognised that there is a market for customers that like large hotel holidays, like entertainment and variety and do not want the stereo typical traditional cruise. Oasis of the Seas fits this market perfectly.
With a gross tonnage of 220,000 tons she is the length of 4 football pitches and the width of 6 London buses parked end to end. This size makes you forget that you are on a ship and with 7 different neighbourhoods you can pick a different activity everyday. Unfortunately as I was only on board for a few hours I didn’t et to see everything (she really is that huge) but I did get a great feel of her.
The first thing that I noticed was how classy and sophisticated she is. I will be honest I had really expected her to be brash and tacky but her décor is up another level and I found Oasis to be much more in line with Celebrity’s Solstice Class ships than Independence and Brilliance of the Seas that I have previously sailed on.
The Royal Promenade (above) had plenty of bars and shops to peruse including the new Kate Spade store and the first Starbucks at sea. The ship was embarking for a transatlantic sailing ans the beverage package sales guys were doing a great trade with the all inclusive drinks package at $49 per person per night.
We were actually given out tour in terms of a competition which saw us racing from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. The spa and gym area was huge, spanning two floors and including a healthy juice and smoothie bar which is something that I haven’t seen as part of a well being area before. The gym I’m sure will cater for the 5500 passengers on board with a separate spin studio, private consultation rooms and around 30 cycle / running machines. This gym was larger than many of the local gyms that I’ve used.
For families there is the Boardwalk area – this is just as the name describes with great seaside feel to it, the traditional carousel provides the centre piece and the hot donut hut makes your belly rumble. You walk on through to the now famous Royal Caribbean climbing wall, only on Oasis there are 2 of them and the Aqua theatre.
Oasis also features Royal Caribbean family favourites – the Flow Rider, mini golf and H2O zone and the ice skating rink.
For adults there are also some great places to get away from it all. The Solarium has a wonderful conservatory feel and gives you somewhere to sunbathe or relax in the shade without all the hustle and bustle. It is home to it’s own bistro which serves a light lunch and turns into one of the speciality restaurants at night. The feel was light and airy and it had a nice ‘garden style’ ambiance to it.
There is also the Central Park area for a quiet retreat, relax on a bench amongst the plants or enjoy a drink or meal in one of the many different venues – choose from Vintages with it’s wide range of wines, or enjoy tapas in the 150 Park Cafe and an Italian meal at Giovanni’s Table.
( Although if it’s raining like it was on Wednesday a park bench is not the best idea)
In terms of dining Oasis of the Seas is moving over to the new ‘Dynamic Dining’ concept. With this you can dine when and where you want and with a choice of 5 included restaurants all with a different feel and different menu it again makes this stand out from the traditional ships were dinner is at 6.30 or 8.30 and you only have a choice of venue if you’re prepared to pay extra for it. The staff on board Oasis were at pains to point out that in order to get the best from dynamic dining you need to prebook via the cruise personaliser.
Now whilst I loved the feel of Oasis of the Seas for the fact that there was so much to see and do – I am a girl that needs a lot of entertaining. There were some downsides. Embarkation appeared to be a very slow process and the queues to get on board were massive. There was also a huge queue for guest services and for people waiting to amend their dining this though will be removed by Dynamic Dining. It was also raining which pushed everyone indoors and made the Royal Promenade really busy, to be fair to the staff though service was quick and getting a drink wasn’t too much of a problem. Fortunately the ship is normally is sunnier places.
Oasis of the Seas to me was so much more than a cruise ship and if you are someone that really doesn’t fancy cruising but does want a change from the normal 4 or 5 star beach resort that you visit in the Med or the Caribbean then Oasis is the ship for you. Oasis of the Seas is based in Miami offering Caribbean cruises but her sister ship Allure of the Seas will be in the Mediterranean in summer 2015. Just call me for details.
To read real customer reviews click here
(Apologies for the dark photo’s – I blame the English weather!)
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About Me
I have worked in the travel industry for over 25 years now since beginning as a holiday rep on a campsite in France and I have a real passion for travel. I've worked in all aspects of the industry including sales, marketing and management and I've specialised in most products…
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I was on it on the 23rd September was amazed by it what a ship the best I have been on would love to go back see what they have done to her the ship had everythink