Tag: oasis of the seas

Oasis of the Seas: Day 7, Our Final Sea Day :(

Our final day at sea couldn’t have started off better. Once again, clear blue skies and beautiful water were all we could see. We’ve been pretty lucky with the weather all week, and this last day on board was no different.

Once again, looking to avoid buffet crowds and enjoy a more relaxed environment, we headed to Park Café for breakfast. This little spot really is nice, and while it doesn’t offer the selection the Windjammer does, it’s a fine substitute if you’re not looking for a buffet.

This final day at sea was fairly relaxed, with no shows on our agenda. After breakfast, we headed in for a round of trivia, followed by a towel folding demonstration. We enjoy these, but this one was pretty short. I think they quickly made two animals and ended it, lasting only about 5 minutes. Not sure what the rush was, and the guests around us seemed as perplexed about the rush as we were.

Next up, we headed for the zipline. This is something we’d been meaning to do since day 1, but decided to wait to avoid the lines for signing waivers (since the electronic waiver system in the cabin wasn’t working). Note that to do the zipline, you at least have to have socks on. If you don’t have closed shoes (tennis shoes, basically), but have socks, they’ll loan you shoes, but if you show up without socks, you’re not getting on. We were all set, and after a short wait in line, took our turns flying across the boardwalk! While not quite as exciting as the zipline in Labadee (we should have done this one first J ), it was still a treat to see the boardwalk from directly above it.

After a quick lunch in the MDR, we headed to the comedy club for Captain’s Corner, where guests could ask Captain Rob anything they wanted. It was a very entertaining hour, as he’s very well spoken and quite funny at times. I highly recommend attending this on any ship, especially this one.

After the talk, we headed to the Schooner Bar for progressive trivia. We thought we were in a good position coming in to the 3rd and final round, and scored 19 out of 20 on this one, only to find out we’d actually tanked the first round and ended up not placing in the top 3. Oh well, we had fun regardless!

After trivia, Bayley changed into a bathing suit, and we headed up so she could try the FlowRider. It wasn’t all that busy mid-afternoon, and she got on after a short wait in line. She was glad she did it, but took a hard fall into the rear barrier, and didn’t want to give it another go due to the resulting headache. We also watched the FlowShow later in the afternoon, where the Flowrider staff shows off their skills. If you have the time, this is really fun to watch, just be sure that you stand a bit back if you don’t want to get wet!

At dinner, it was time to say good bye to our wait staff. I can’t say enough good things about Gerson and Rydon’s work this week with us at table 649. They were very friendly and attentive, and they’re definitely one of the best MDR teams we’ve had in a long time.

We didn’t really have a lot on tap in the evening, so after a quick picture with King Julien and a stroll around the ship, we headed to the Promenade for the DreamWorks “Move it, Move it” parade. Even getting there 15min prior, the best spot we could find was near the aft area of the promenade, which was a mistake. If you really want to attend this, stay forward of the Prmenade Café, or you’re not going to see much of what goes on, in part because of the smoke they pump in at the beginning. Puss n Boots comes down in the Rising Tide, but he’s at the forward section of it facing away from aft.

I spent a little time after that walking around various areas of the ship, including a trip up to the Flowrider area to catch the sunset. Really, really amazing view from up there.

The rest of the evening consisted of the TV and Movie trivia round, held in “On-Air”, which wasn’t even close to the size they needed due to the large crowd that showed up. It was fun, regardless, even though we got knocked out in round 1. After that, it was time to pack and put our suitcases out, sadly.

That pretty much covers our final day on the Oasis of the Seas. Over the next couple of days, I’ll get our thoughts on debark and overall impressions of this cruise up and published. Hope you’ve found all of this useful and entertaining, I know we enjoyed experiencing it!

Oasis of the Seas: Day 1 Recap!

Our first cruise on Royal Caribbean in 8 years has us on the Oasis of the Seas for 7 days, and I have just one thing to say:

(Donald Trump voice) This ship is huuuuuuuge.

Having never set foot on any Oasis class ship before (outside of a very short tour Jen got to do of this one last year), we really weren’t sure what to expect as far as boarding goes. Boy were we shocked. We arrived at the port right around 11am, and by 11:25 were onboard the ship. A ship this size obviously requires a set boarding procedure, and Royal delivers in that regard. Here’s pretty much how it went:

  • Arrive at the terminal
  • Proceed through security screening
  • Go through check-in. We had priority check-in, but didn’t need it. No line at all.
  • Follow the signs and staff directions to Gold seating, at which point they tell you where to sit (no empty seats for bags appear to be allowed, BTW)
  • Here we waited maybe 10min before they started boarding our section
  • Walk up the gangway and get on the ship.

Like I said, 25min start to finish. Easily the most efficient boarding procedure we’ve seen on any ship to date, and got us here in record time:

After boarding, we took a walk down the Royal Promenade and stopped to sign up for beverage packages. We got one soda-only, and one Royal Replenish. We’ll see if they end up being worth it, but one of the nice things about this ship is the presence of Coke Freestyle machines, so we can a variety of sodas. So far, the lines at them have been hit or miss. There are a couple on each side of Windjammer, and a couple down by Sorrentos, with those being the busiest so far.

Anyway, after purchasing the drink packages and walking around the boardwalk area, we headed up to Windjammer to get some lunch. Fortunately, we arrived just as it opened, and were the first people in. Shortly after, the place filled up, and they started queuing people outside, forcing them to wait until there were tables available, so take that as a tip, if you’re hungry, head there right away or you could end up waiting a while. The food itself was pretty good for buffet food, too.

After lunch we did some more exploring, heading to the pool and then down to Central Park before the rooms were ready. That was a mistake while carrying a bunch of heavy bags, as Central Park can get really humid due to the design (open-air, no wind at all). Fortunately, 1pm arrived pretty quick, and we headed to our room to drop our bags and relax. For this ship, we chose a boardwalk balcony on deck 12 at the back of the ship (12729), as the ability to watch the shows at the Aqua Theater sounded intriguing. The cabin itself is a bit tight, and I’m not sure how you could fit all of the stuff a full family of 4 might bring, as the 3 of us had a fun time trying to organize our stuff, but we made it work. Our cabin steward had put up the birthday decorations I’d ordered for Jen, too, so that was a nice surprise for her when we got to the cabin. Here are a few pics of it, along with the view you get of the boardwalk and Aqua Theater:

The rest of the afternoon pretty much consisted of more exploring and some unpacking. We had early seating at dinner, so we headed down at 6pm and were promptly seated. So far, MDR service is much better than the MDR on the Divina, a welcome change. The food was just as good as we remembered, with my prime rib being outstanding. Interestingly enough, I was also given a survey to fill out at the table on how my meat was. I’ve never seen that before, but was glad that they spot-check their work!

My only complaint about dinner was that something else I’d ordered, a birthday cake for Jen that was supposed to be delivered at dinner, wasn’t there. I spoke to the waiter about it afterward and he said he’d never gotten any notification about one, but that he’d take care of it and will have it there tonight. I’ve heard about Royal “forgetting” various items people pre-ordered recently, so was disappointed to experience this myself. It’d give me pause about ordering anything from their catalog for clients.

We’d set show reservations up well ahead of the cruise, but already had one change that impacted the first evening. We had been booked for Cats at 2:30pm on the first sea day, but that show got cancelled, so they moved us to the 8:45 show on boarding day. After dinner, we headed back to the room to change, and before leaving for Cats, hung out on our balcony a bit to watch the opening show in the Aqua Theater. Really cool stuff, and it’s awesome to be able to hang out in the room and watch stuff like this:

After that ended, we headed to Cats. I’ll preface all of this by saying that I’m not in to musicals. At all. There’s the rare exception every now and then, but this is not one of them. I can see why Royal’s having trouble keeping the theater filled for this, and it’s not because of the performers, they’re obviously talented, it’s 100% the play itself. I really don’t get the love-fest for it, and a lot of other people didn’t seem to either, as there were plenty of open seats at the start of the show, which only got worse over the course of the first act. At intermission, we left, as none of us could really take it anymore. I feel bad for the performers, as I’ve read that this isn’t a popular show on the Oasis. I can see why.

Our half-a-play over, Jen headed to the room while Bayley and I made one last pass of the ship. One thing that really stuck out, the Windjammer buffet closes at 9pm, so after that, your only free options appear to be Sorrentos and the café on 5. There are over 6000 passengers on the ship, but the main source of an evening snack closes at 9? Wow. Oh, and I should also mention that the pizza on Oasis doesn’t even come close to any of the 3 styles available on the MSC Divina. Sorrentos is more like me making pizza at home from scratch, and I think all of the pieces we tried were a bit undercooked. I’m really missing the Divina’s pizza right about now. Small issue though, we’re still on an awesome cruise ship, right?

That about covers day 1. More to come as our journey aboard the Oasis of the Seas continues!

Oh, and If you’re not following us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, you’re missing out on some great shots of the ship!

Is the MSC Divina Right For You?

After cruising with MSC out of Miami twice in a three months, one thing stands out, and that’s the fact some people don’t seem to be doing their research before booking on the Divina, or their travel agents aren’t doing it for them :). Understanding the differences between the various lines is important, regardless of who you end up booking with. Proper expectations play a key role in one’s happiness with something as expensive as a vacation, so why would you book a cruise based simply on the best fare, and not at least partially on others’ experiences? I recognize that you can’t trust all reviews, but if you read enough of them, you can identify positive and negative patterns and learn to filter out the noise.

In MSC’s case, their first couple of seasons in the US really didn’t seem to go well, at least from the perspective of American passengers. I can’t really speak to that, as we didn’t get to experience the Divina before she returned in 2015, but we’ve heard and read that it was still set up in a far more European manner than it sounded like people here wanted or were expecting. I get that a line starting operation in another country should be familiar with their market and adjust accordingly, and by not doing so they turned some people off. Personally, I think it would have been interesting to give that a try. I’ve read a few posts and reviews about those first couple of seasons, but one of the fairest I’ve seen comes from someone I’ve referenced before, Scott Sanfilipo, who sailed before and after their adjustments, and recapped his 2014 experience right before sailing again in 2015 in this blog entry. It’s definitely worth a read before continuing here.

Some of the things he talked about from the 2014 season have changed, and some haven’t. Just know that even now, this is a different product than the contemporary US-based lines. This isn’t Carnival, Norwegian or Royal, it’s MSC and they have their own identity. I can’t emphasize this enough: When booking any cruise, don’t just look at the cost, know what you’re comfortable with, what you want, and what each line offers. When looking at the Divina, I think the main question potential passengers have to answer honestly is:

Are you comfortable in a melting pot?

The ship appeals to Europeans as well as Americans, and in talking to a family from Sweden on our Christmas sailing, it was easy to understand why. For them it came down to an affordable way to get a feel for Caribbean cruising. On some Divina sailings kids sail free, so they didn’t have to pay for either of their boys. I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons too, but along that same “melting pot” theme, there are things you need to be aware of and comfortable with:

  • You’ll be surrounded by people speaking in other languages, more so than any other U.S.-based cruise we’ve been on. It’s not something that concerns me (and most of the time I don’t even notice), but on both of our sailings we overheard people randomly complaining about it when talking to each other about how their cruise was going.
  • Ship announcements happen in something like 5 languages. This happens during anything from Bingo to the muster drill. Frankly, this got to be a pet peeve of mine. Not that it happens, but how often I’d hear a fellow American complaining about it as it was happening.

The other big complaint in this area we heard more than once was that the crew and passengers were noticeably rude. We didn’t get that vibe at all. There are both rude and friendly people in all cultures, and frankly we didn’t see any more line cutting or rude attitudes out of passengers on the Divina than we’ve seen out of our fellow Americans on other sailings.

Some of the other big differences (good and bad) between MSC and the standard U.S. based lines that we noticed on our two sailings:

  1. No sail-away party. Actually, we didn’t notice this because we normally aren’t up on deck for it on any sailing, but we did hear it from a couple of people who were disappointed by it.
  2. No music constantly playing by the pool on the Divina. True, outside of music possibly playing when the entertainment staff is out there putting on events, I don’t recall constant blaring music by the pool all of the time. The one time I really appreciated this was on the last sailing. We were docked next to one of Carnival’s ships in Nassau, which was blasting canned music the entire time they were docked to an empty pool deck, while the Divina’s was quiet and peaceful.
  3. There’s still work to be done in the Divina’s MDR. At Christmas, they really had too many tables crammed too close together and not enough staff to handle the load. Our waiters were all friendly, but really couldn’t keep up with the number of tables they had. Even though we weren’t in the MDR on the last sailing, we heard similar complaints from those who were. 8/2017 Update: As mentioned in a recent post, the MDR experience on our August 2017 sailing was vastly improved, so to us, it looks like MSC has taken customer feedback and made positive change here!
  4. You get a more international selection of food in the MDR and Le Muse than you tend to on U.S.-based lines. Some meals were better than others, but it’s an interesting change of pace. One item I can’t rave about enough is the pizza. From a food aspect, I’d go back for that alone.
  5. The included shows were better than our previous 5 sailings (3x Carnival, 1x Celebrity, 1x NCL). I’m looking forward to comparing it to the entertainment on the Oasis of the Seas later this month, as it’s been far too long since we’ve been on Royal Caribbean for me to objectively compare the two.
  6. I’ve gone on a lot after both sailings about the Divina’s entertainment staff, and for good reason. They’re friendly, fun, and they know how to engage the passengers. We had plenty to do during sea days on both sailings. It was really nice to attend trivia without the same canned questions other lines use over and over, too. They’ve stuck in our memory far more than the entertainment staff on previous ships.

I think that about covers it. Really, it comes down to comfort level with a very diverse mix of passengers. I admit that before we sailed in December we were nervous after reading a lot of the reviews, but after both sailings, we’re quite happy we went. The differences made for some fun times, and we’ve enjoyed mixing things up and getting out of the comfort zone we’d built sailing on the contemporary lines. We look forward to the Seaside’s arrival next year and definitely plan to sail her.

For now, hopefully you’re more educated on what to expect from the Divina if you choose to sail with MSC! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll respond as time permits!