I wanted to post and tack on my opinions about Oasis. My housemate and I were not only on the inaugural voyage, but the pre-inaugural voyage. Both voyages were simply AMAZING to say the least.

We had a promenade view cabin (one of only 18, I think) and had a great view onto the promenade. Not a bad view, although we spent very little time in the cabin to begin with.....there was just SO much to do. I've been on cruises before, and there were times on those cruises where there was downtime to just sit and relax, but to be honest, I had all of 30 minutes during the cruise to relax and just people watch.

Let's see ..... some high points:

I personally love what they're doing with the muster drill now. You don't have to go to your cabin and get your life jacket! You just go to the muster station (in an emergancy, they pass the life jackets out at the muster stations). The sea pass card is scanned to make sure everyone is where they need to be. Really efficient and better organized.

Hairspray is a MUST SEE! In fact, if you can arrange for it, try to see it twice. (Although they want you to "reserve" tickets for a show, which doesn't cost anything, you can always get in standby as they release open seats 10 minutes before curtain.). The other main theatre show, Come Fly With Me is also really well done, and has some "wow" special effect moments in it. Oasis of Dreams (the high-diving show) is also really good, some of the things they do with that are amazing as well!

If you can arrange for it, a dinner at 150 Central Park is really worth the $35 surcharge! I heard Victoria and Alberts at WDW is doing something like a 12 "small" course meal for $200....150 Central Park's meal is a similar style, but (at least on the inaugural) it was only 6 courses, but REALLY good food. One of the courses we had was some Kobe beef pieces with shittake bacon. Our of our friends with us is a vegetarian and was open to tasting a piece of it and actually liked it (since it was not a meat product!). To me, it really did taste like Bacon! But one piece of caution, if you want to go there, either get your reservation in BEFORE you depart or as soon as you get onto the ship. They hold a thing called Oasis 360 where you can get all your special bookings done (spa, flowrider, zipline, dining, etc.). We went on the actual maiden voyage, and even though we were one of the first people on board (we were part of the consecutive cruisers group that still had to disembark but went back on as soon as the ship cleared customs.), by the time I got to the Oasis 360 people to make sure our reservation was still there (which because of some unknown problem had been lost), the best we got was on the Wait List. Thankfully, we did get to eat there. But get the reservation done EARLY and when you go to confirm make sure you have a printout of your confirmation!

Another event to not miss is something called The Quest. This is a VERY WILD scavenger hunt event and all the items you need are already in your posession (ex. Something with two hands (a watch), or a writing utensil from the ship....don't bother taking a bag of stuff you think they might need. I've heard they won't let you do that!) If I recall, they had two versions, a family version and a more adult version. I didn't make the family version (due to something else I wanted to do going on), but did get to the adult version (which I'd imagine was rated "R")....you can do a Youtube search for "Quest Royal Caribbean" and see some of the wilder things they do. It's well worth going to.

Another thing they do is in the comedy club that I really enjoyed. Some of the nights, instead of a late night 12:30 comedy show, they do an improv show. I was actually drug up onto the stage and placed in a game of Party Quirks with the intention of being a famous historical figure. Because of my looks (long hair, bearded, hippy-looking), the audience chose "Charles Manson". Not knowing who that was, I asked one of the performers from Hairspray that were also part of the show and they gave me the description of (who I found out later was) Jeffrey Dohmer (sorry, I don't know how to spell his last name). So I'm trying to play the wrong person....they got it right though!

Another thing that is a fun thing to do and a great way to learn more about the ship is a thing they call Live the Oasis. It's a book and walking tour throughout the sections of the ship, complete with trivia (where the answers are found during your walking tours). If you take the book and the answered trivia clues, they give you little buttons. (We got all 6 tours done and the associated buttons) And if you go for their Live the Oasis daily trivia sessions, they give away prizes (at least they did during the inaugural!)

One of my favorite memories from the trip was pulling into Nassau. I went out to see the ship pull in to port and saw the Disney Wonder docked next to us.....and got to see Goofy waving at our ship from there! (I guess even the Disney characters are amazed by Oasis!)

Unfortunately, due to a slight mishap on the zipline, I did get to see their medical facilities (we're still not sure what I did differently on my second ride on the zip line, but I did happen to come in contact with the pulley in a bad way.). They are really top of the line and their staff really took great care of me there (the head doctor even called our cabin to check up on me later in the cruise....I don't know if any of the other cruise line's medical departments do that!).

I could really go on and on about the things I liked, and the things I didn't like (yes, there were some things I didn't like), but that'd not only take me all night to type up, but I'd probably bore people. :-(

The 11 days were just not enough time to do everything on the ship (I didn't get to do the rock climbing wall for example), and 7 just wouldn't be enough either, I'm really hoping to go on another sailing on Oasis or even her sister ship, Allure of the Seas, sometime again soon.

Clayton Jackson
Dallas, TX