RCL Oasis vs. Disney

mcmckuf

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
First, this is not a bash RCL thread or pump Disney post. No price, destination, or excursion discussions since those have been beaten to death on here. It's an honest assessment of a recent 7 night Oasis cruise from a Platinum Disney cruiser + wife with 2 girls ages 9 and 15. Outside Balcony room deck 10. Total cruise +/- 20 or so on many lines.

Itinerary: 7 day to Southern Caribbean (St. Marten, Puerto Rico, Labadee (Haiti)

The Good:
  • The pools - far more to choose from and not as crowded. We live in Florida so not a huge need for us.
  • Dining Options - We didn't even feel like we were on a cruise but more a floating hotel at sea with local dining to choose from
  • The ship - beautiful layout, central park is great, and easy sailing on rough seas. I cant say crowds were bad except at the buffets on board and on Labadee.
  • Select shows - Ice skating show was fantastic, "Come fly with me" aerial acrobatic show was good/great.
  • Adult relaxation area - think where the gym usually is on Disney (deck 4 on Oasis BTW), top deck, turned into an awesome eating and relaxation area with plenty of hot tubs and comfy lounge chairs.
  • Gym - Free, nuff said. no views really since lower down but who really cares.
  • Staff - for the most part, they were very helpful, great room attendant, servers in all dining areas, etc.
  • Boardwalk activities - 2 times they had events with balloon making, face painting, etc. Helped a little as my kids were flat out bored.
Not so good:
  • Aquatic show, a bit corny, felt embarrassed for the very talented swimmers and divers to have to go through the motions when not well, swimming and diving. Almost Monty Python level of odd.
  • walk up dining options - almost all were bland basic fare. Hot dogs, pizza (weird options there), and sandwiches, AND they were not convenient to the swim deck at all. Want Pizza, 10 decks away, literally!. Want Hot dogs, same...made no sense. There was an option way back on the back by the wave riders but that was a hike.
  • Buffet lines on Labadee - pretty much 75-100 people long from open to close, ran out of Mac'n'cheese early on in our line while another had plenty. Sorry, we are out. yep, not cool for the kids after waiting 30 minutes for food.
  • Kids clubs were small and at full capacity every time we went. Not once did my 9 year old get to go.
  • Scheduled activities didn't happen - what few non-drinking, non-merchandise selling activities we tried to go to, about half were no shows. This was mainly spa related stuff so YMMV.
  • No slides- go figure?! Heard they were getting them in an upcoming dry dock but nothing to back that up.
  • TV options - divided up by age. The 3-11 which should be for my 9 year old (yes, one channel per age group) played Glee constantly. That was not appropriate at all.
The Bad:
  • The BEDS! good lord they were bad. the queen bed was bearable, the sofa fold out had zero mattress. More a pad than anything. My 15 year old will need a chiro visit. The bunk had a thin mattress only suitable for a child. We tried moving the teen (5'2") up there and her head and feet hit the rails. My family is vertically challenged so it's not us.
  • Major gripe here - they closed the ice skating rink on 2 of the 3 sea days (only time open) because a group reserved it for another type of activity. The one day it was open sold out by 8 AM. see next item
  • Officer(s) in charge of customer service - went to the desk to complain about the ice skating situation. They were not aware it was bought out by a private party, then no ranking person that could do anything would even talk to me. The poor junior guy actually at the desk had no clue how to handle the situation and basically took my name and room number. never heard back from them. My 9 year old was not old enough for almost all on board activities except the pool and this. Being closed meant one more disappointment.
  • Activities - Here's where your families experience may vary...for us this wasn't a fun cruise. Most activities were geared for older teens and IMHO, boys. Rock climbing, zip-line, wave rider, whirl-pool type pool where your shoulders had to be like 5 feet. My 9 YO couldn't do any of those. Putt-putt and table tennis were it, though those only lasted so long. Kids clubs were full every time we went. Go download a daily planner from Cruise Critic and see for yourself.
  • Other shows - Cats was both confusing and well, not suitable for kids at all; Beatles tribute show, again, my parents would have loved it. My kids wanted out of there ASAP; Comedians - adult level comedy, not for kids. They put on a comedy show where they tried to clean it up and it was still appalling at the language and discussion of hitting your kids being funny. So 3 of the nights were a disaster. With the bullet above and this, it sealed it for us. No RCL again...

The irony here is we still managed to have a great vacation despite the RCL letdown because we just spent time together wandering around talking and people watching. The ports were some of our favorites and would do that on Disney again in a heartbeat.

Cheers!
 
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We are also Platinum DCL and decided that we also had to try another line. We booked RCL on the Oasis for a NYE cruise and without boring anyone or beating a dead horse we came to the same conclusion. Never again for us. We had sub-par service, We had to sign out the towels!!! where are we going to go with them????? they're not that nice, Kids club was a joke. My wife happens to speak the language of most of the counselors and played "wall on the fly" with them after listening for a while we would never let out child be alone with them.

on a positive note
Found most food to be pretty tasty, enjoyed most shows we saw,and really enjoyed our time in central park but they are not that much less than DCL for us. We'll spend the extra and get a product that we know suits us and our travel style
 
This is pretty balanced, I think. I prefer Royal over DCL, I don't think you're saying anything too out of range of what others have said.

Question - when exactly did you go? Curious about the crowds. I never get to go around this time, as it's busy season for my wife's job.

- Kind of surprised that you didn't like the Aqua show - it seems to be the favourite amongst the cruisers. But I suppose if you were expecting more of a diving show and less of a Cirque-style show, it would be disappointing. Probably good that you didn't go on Harmony, because the Spinning Guy in the aqua show is... something. I don't know what yet, but he's definitely something.

- So yes, Wipeout Cafe is basically your pool-level option for food. The hot dog stand is indeed inconvenient and apart from the "Boardwalk" aesthetic I'm not sure it needs to be where it is. The pizza, however - the placement makes sense, as the bars, casino and evening things are in the Promenade area, so you don't have to go elsewhere on the ship to get free food. Or in the case of the pizza, "food".

- Your buffet issues with Labadee, I seem to have with every new private beach I go to. Had this issue there, and had it at Castaway Cay. Second time around at Labadee though, no issues. I guess experience is a factor here.

- I'm surprised the TV options are in "not so good". It's pretty much terrible for kids programming. I think I saw Megamind about 6 times over 3 cruises. I now dislike it almost as much as I dislike Jessie.

- Ice rink being booked up kind of sucks. We've never gone to the ice rink, but we live in the Toronto area, so it's no big deal if we don't do that.

- Not sure what was up with the Adventure Ocean being full. I've seen it filled up, but never full. Kind of a shame - your child probably would have enjoyed it. I believe that the rock wall requirement is 6yo. No height or weight restrictions, so your child might have missed out on that, or was given incorrect information. Zip line they are quite strict with - my 10yo couldn't do it until last year as she wasn't 52"/75lbs - so I'm not surprised there. Usually the solution for this is to put them in AO, but as you noted, it was full.

- The Musicals and comedians are most definitely not geared towards kids. I know the comedians are going to try to tone it down for the "family friendly" show, but with the ones they book, there's just no way they can keep it that clean. Not sure why Royal even has them try.

- I don't think the featured performer has ever been good on any of the Royal cruises I've been on. Good at what they do, sure. Good as in "appeals to families"... definitely not.

We had to sign out the towels!!! where are we going to go with them?????
It's part of their attempt to control towels being left everywhere and to curb chair hogging. I don't know exactly how successful it is, but honestly it's something that is curious the first time, then you kind of go with it after that.
 
I really appreciate that you took the time to write this up, and glad your family still had a good vacation :)
 


First, this is not a bash RCL thread or pump Disney post. No price, destination, or excursion discussions since those have been beaten to death on here. It's an honest assessment of a recent 7 night Oasis cruise from a Platinum Disney cruiser + wife with 2 girls ages 9 and 15. Outside Balcony room deck 10. Total cruise +/- 20 or so on many lines.

Itinerary: 7 day to Southern Caribbean (St. Marten, Puerto Rico, Labadee (Haiti)

The Good:
  • The pools - far more to choose from and not as crowded. We live in Florida so not a huge need for us.
  • Dining Options - We didn't even feel like we were on a cruise but more a floating hotel at sea with local dining to choose from
  • The ship - beautiful layout, central park is great, and easy sailing on rough seas. I cant say crowds were bad except at the buffets on board and on Labadee.
  • Select shows - Ice skating show was fantastic, "Come fly with me" aerial acrobatic show was good/great.
  • Adult relaxation area - think where the gym usually is on Disney (deck 4 on Oasis BTW), top deck, turned into an awesome eating and relaxation area with plenty of hot tubs and comfy lounge chairs.
  • Gym - Free, nuff said. no views really since lower down but who really cares.
  • Staff - for the most part, they were very helpful, great room attendant, servers in all dining areas, etc.
  • Boardwalk activities - 2 times they had events with balloon making, face painting, etc. Helped a little as my kids were flat out bored.
Not so good:
  • Aquatic show, a bit corny, felt embarrassed for the very talented swimmers and divers to have to go through the motions when not well, swimming and diving. Almost Monty Python level of odd.
  • walk up dining options - almost all were bland basic fare. Hot dogs, pizza (weird options there), and sandwiches, AND they were not convenient to the swim deck at all. Want Pizza, 10 decks away, literally!. Want Hot dogs, same...made no sense. There was an option way back on the back by the wave riders but that was a hike.
  • Buffet lines on Labadee - pretty much 75-100 people long from open to close, ran out of Mac'n'cheese early on in our line while another had plenty. Sorry, we are out. yep, not cool for the kids after waiting 30 minutes for food.
  • Kids clubs were small and at full capacity every time we went. Not once did my 9 year old get to go.
  • Scheduled activities didn't happen - what few non-drinking, non-merchandise selling activities we tried to go to, about half were no shows. This was mainly spa related stuff so YMMV.
  • No slides- go figure?! Heard they were getting them in an upcoming dry dock but nothing to back that up.
  • TV options - divided up by age. The 3-11 which should be for my 9 year old (yes, one channel per age group) played Glee constantly. That was not appropriate at all.
The Bad:
  • The BEDS! good lord they were bad. the queen bed was bearable, the sofa fold out had zero mattress. More a pad than anything. My 15 year old will need a chiro visit. The bunk had a thin mattress only suitable for a child. We tried moving the teen (5'2") up there and her head and feet hit the rails. My family is vertically challenged so it's not us.
  • Major gripe here - they closed the ice skating rink on 2 of the 3 sea days (only time open) because a group reserved it for another type of activity. The one day it was open sold out by 8 AM. see next item
  • Officer(s) in charge of customer service - went to the desk to complain about the ice skating situation. They were not aware it was bought out by a private party, then no ranking person that could do anything would even talk to me. The poor junior guy actually at the desk had no clue how to handle the situation and basically took my name and room number. never heard back from them. My 9 year old was not old enough for almost all on board activities except the pool and this. Being closed meant one more disappointment.
  • Activities - Here's where your families experience may vary...for us this wasn't a fun cruise. Most activities were geared for older teens and IMHO, boys. Rock climbing, zip-line, wave rider, whirl-pool type pool where your shoulders had to be like 5 feet. My 9 YO couldn't do any of those. Putt-putt and table tennis were it, though those only lasted so long. Kids clubs were full every time we went. Go download a daily planner from Cruise Critic and see for yourself.
  • Other shows - Cats was both confusing and well, not suitable for kids at all; Beatles tribute show, again, my parents would have loved it. My kids wanted out of there ASAP; Comedians - adult level comedy, not for kids. They put on a comedy show where they tried to clean it up and it was still appalling at the language and discussion of hitting your kids being funny. So 3 of the nights were a disaster. With the bullet above and this, it sealed it for us. No RCL again...

The irony here is we still managed to have a great vacation despite the RCL letdown because we just spent time together wandering around talking and people watching. The ports were some of our favorites and would do that on Disney again in a heartbeat.

Cheers!

Totally out of subject question: What's inappropriate in Glee? I remember the show to be quite family friendly... :confused3 (And Cats?)
 
I'm glad you had a good vacation. I've so far had good experiences on Radiance Class ships on RCCL (between DCL Classics and DCL Dream Class size wise)...but I have no desire to try the larger ones.
 
Totally out of subject question: What's inappropriate in Glee? I remember the show to be quite family friendly... :confused3 (And Cats?)

I had the same question about Cats. It's not the greatest show ever, but I can't think of anything inappropriate in it.

I was a total Gleek when it was on, but without going into the political realm, I can see why some people would have issues with Glee.
 


This is pretty balanced, I think. I prefer Royal over DCL, I don't think you're saying anything too out of range of what others have said.

Question - when exactly did you go? Curious about the crowds. I never get to go around this time, as it's busy season for my wife's job.

-----Just left the ship this past Sunday

- Kind of surprised that you didn't like the Aqua show - it seems to be the favourite amongst the cruisers. But I suppose if you were expecting more of a diving show and less of a Cirque-style show, it would be disappointing. Probably good that you didn't go on Harmony, because the Spinning Guy in the aqua show is... something. I don't know what yet, but he's definitely something.

-----I did like it overall, just was odd watching buff swimmers dance around as though they were ballerinas at times. My 15 year old liked it, wink wink.

- I'm surprised the TV options are in "not so good". It's pretty much terrible for kids programming. I think I saw Megamind about 6 times over 3 cruises. I now dislike it almost as much as I dislike Jessie.

-----I didn't want to come off as bashing. Wasn't really on the ship for TV but when we did turn it on you were correct. Very limited.

I believe that the rock wall requirement is 6yo. No height or weight restrictions, so your child might have missed out on that, or was given incorrect information.

-----She tried it, just wasn't really into it and most of those doing it were much older.
 
Totally out of subject question: What's inappropriate in Glee? I remember the show to be quite family friendly... :confused3 (And Cats?)

For a 15 year old, nothing. She binged watched it on NetFlix and my wife and I were fans. The episodes playing though were not for a 9 year old, at least mine. Rocky Horror picture show tribute and another about rape. Not gonna happen.

RE: Cats
It wasn't that it was inappropriate as Glee was, but the jump for her from Disney cruise shows to Cats was a leap. She kept asking me what the heck they were saying the first 20 minutes. After the first 30, half the crowd had left.
 
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-----Just left the ship this past Sunday
OK. March Break crowd. Explains why AO was packed.

RE: Cats
It wasn't that it was inappropriate as Glee was, but the jump for her from Disney cruise shows to Cats was a leap. She kept asking me what the heck they were saying the first 20 minutes. After the first 30, half the crowd had left.
Allure used to have Chicago. Just imagine how well that went over with little kids.
 
I had the same question about Cats. It's not the greatest show ever, but I can't think of anything inappropriate in it.

I was a total Gleek when it was on, but without going into the political realm, I can see why some people would have issues with Glee.

Political? Not sure what you mean...
 
Thanks for sharing. I have looked at RCL many time, but can’t pull the trigger. The pool areas look great. I am a little confused on the dining. It seemed you need to do a lot of pre-planning for anything special. I also, saw that if you are in certain suites you get special access to certain dining.

My sons are older, so they may really like RCL. But lately, we have being doing cruises with just DH and me, next up NYC to Bermuda. And since we live in Jersey and RCL goes out of Bayonne, it may happed in the future.

Thanks!
 
For a 15 year old, nothing. She binged watched it on NetFlix and my wife and I were fans. The episodes playing though were not for a 9 year old, at least mine. Rocky Horror picture show tribute and another about rape. Not gonna happen.

RE: Cats
It wasn't that it was inappropriate as Glee was, but the jump for her from Disney cruise shows to Cats was a leap. She kept asking me what the heck they were saying the first 20 minutes. After the first 30, half the crowd had left.

I don't remember an episode about rape (but it's been a while so...)... I thought the Rocky Horror Picture Show had been "toned down" to be more family friendly but once again maybe something fell under my radar. They were teaching us pretty much everything in school when I was younger so... What might not offend me may offend someone else. :)
 
Thanks for sharing. I have looked at RCL many time, but can’t pull the trigger. The pool areas look great. I am a little confused on the dining. It seemed you need to do a lot of pre-planning for anything special. I also, saw that if you are in certain suites you get special access to certain dining.

My sons are older, so they may really like RCL. But lately, we have being doing cruises with just DH and me, next up NYC to Bermuda. And since we live in Jersey and RCL goes out of Bayonne, it may happen in the future.

Thanks!

We bought a 5 night package before cruising that was a great deal, then added one more night using another special they offered. I think it was $115/person for myself/wife/oldest. Then just paid the cover for the 9 year old at each which was $10. Easily the best deal dining wise. So much better food, attentive staff, atmosphere, etc. Only way I would do dining on RCL again. I can't comment on the suite question. We saw another option on board but honestly can't see how we really missed anything given how great the on board restaurants were. For you and your family, my guess is your sons would really enjoy it.
 
Thanks for sharing. I have looked at RCL many time, but can’t pull the trigger. The pool areas look great. I am a little confused on the dining. It seemed you need to do a lot of pre-planning for anything special. I also, saw that if you are in certain suites you get special access to certain dining.

My sons are older, so they may really like RCL. But lately, we have being doing cruises with just DH and me, next up NYC to Bermuda. And since we live in Jersey and RCL goes out of Bayonne, it may happed in the future.

Thanks!

I've never done the specialty dining on RCCL - the MDR and buffets have been sufficient for me. But I have not done "behemoth class" - only Radiance Class. The larger ships *might* have a suite-only dining room, but I've honestly not heard of that on RCCL. Celebrity, yes. They definitely have a suite-only dining room.
 
We hae done both the Oasis and Disney as a family (as well as others pre-kids). The first DCL we went on, we had a great time - however I walked away thinking "This is it? I spent how much money on this?". So, we decided the next summer to take the Oasis since the kids saw all the commercials for Royal and thought it looked amazing. The boat was impressive with the boardwalk, central park area, shopping promenade, etc. We enjoyed the Aqua show - however didn't like how we had to book ahead of time and felt like it went on a little too long. My family hated Cats - and left halfway through (along with a lot of others in our seating area). My husband and I enjoyed the casino (one thing we missed on the DCL cruise) however hated that we had to walk through it with the family at times during the day to get to things since it reaked of smoke (maybe just our bad navigation skills - LOL!). All the activities that we saw on TV that sold them on the idea of Oasis class were just "Meh". My daughter LOVES rock climbing - but times were limited and lines were always slow for this. Flo rider was fun - but they had an age/height restriction that prevented them from surfing (or participating in total for my youngest) although they have done the same exact attraction at a hotel with no issue. The zip lining was WAY overrated. We enjoyed the pools since they were much less crowded, but missed the movies playing on deck. Overall, at the end of the cruise - I realized why the DCL cruise was worth the extra money. Even though it didn't have as many showy attractions - my family had FUN. We felt the DCL service was 10x better, the food (in our opinion) was better on DCL, the DCL ship felt cleaner, etc. This year we are going back on another DCL. However, we will most likely return to Royal at some point in the future as well, but we know that it has to be looked at as it's own type of vacation - not as a direct comparison of Disney.
 
We enjoyed the Aqua show - however didn't like how we had to book ahead of time and felt like it went on a little too long.
I think the booking shows ahead of time throws people off because we're used to the traditional set time for a show on a cruise ship. But it does make sense on the Oasis class because there are different shows being presented on any given day. It can be confusing as heck though - I actually make a spreadsheet to chart all of this.

OK, I lied, I make a spreadsheet anyway, so I can figure out excursions, dinner and such. Showtimes just happen to be an add-on to that.

My family hated Cats - and left halfway through (along with a lot of others in our seating area).
This is why I sit in the balcony in the theatre now - easier to make a "graceful" exit should I not like the show. I'm not really a Broadway musical person anyway. I think I liked Les Miserables, The Lion King, Aladdin (on the Fantasy) and that's about it (musicals turned into movies are a different story). I think I probably like the "jukebox" musicals better, although I have my doubts about Mamma Mia on the Allure (not an ABBA fan).

My husband and I enjoyed the casino (one thing we missed on the DCL cruise) however hated that we had to walk through it with the family at times during the day to get to things since it reaked of smoke (maybe just our bad navigation skills - LOL!).
I hate that a Blackjack pays 6:5. Not that I get a lot of blackjacks, but anything that increases the house edge I don't really like. But I digress.

I did the same thing first time on the Allure. Easiest way to get from the dining room (if you have fixed dining) to the theatre/ice rink is through the casino. On Harmony the ventilation is much improved and you barely smell any smoke on the non-smoking side, but on Allure it was unavoidable. It was kind of a pain to go up one flight, walk through the promenade, and back down to the ice rink or the main seating at the theatre (which again, I don't do anymore), but worth it to avoid the smoke.

Flo rider was fun - but they had an age/height restriction that prevented them from surfing (or participating in total for my youngest) although they have done the same exact attraction at a hotel with no issue.
Agreed. I saw this at a SurfStyle in Clearwater and I think there were less restrictions, but I guess the legal team at RCI thought differently. Not much we can do, unfortunately.

The zip lining was WAY overrated.
I do wish it were longer. Like Abyss and Aquaduck, it's worth trying once, and maybe skipping afterwards.
 
I really hope the OP is right because my brother and his family are joining us on our DCL cruise in May. Last year, they (without kids) did a cruise on the Oasis and loved it and if DCL doesn't measure up by comparison - I'll never hear the end of it!

For what it's worth, I don't doubt DCL will hold it's own. I sailed RCL once and although it was nice, we didn't have any itch to cruise again. After our first DCL cruise, the entire family couldn't wait to get back on one of their ships.
 
I really hope the OP is right because my brother and his family are joining us on our DCL cruise in May. Last year, they (without kids) did a cruise on the Oasis and loved it and if DCL doesn't measure up by comparison - I'll never hear the end of it!
Well, if they love it, you'll never hear the end of it either. :)

Kids will have no frame of reference and will probably love the ship. So no matter what happens, focus on that. :)
 

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