Planning first RC cruise and have a few questions

iambrink

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
I am headed out for my 8th DCL vacation in November and have that planning down pat. However, I decided to book a RCL on Oasis for April 2018. We got a great deal and I really wanted to give another cruise line a chance! But after planning 8 Disney cruises, I feel somewhat lost planning for next April. I have tried to do lots of reading on this forum and another similar forum website. So if anyone can help with some of questions, I would appreciate any help I can get...
  1. Are there transfers from MCO to port and if yes, where do I find that info? If I use transfers from MCO like the Disney ones, do they take your luggage as well or does it go on the bus with us?
  2. What kind of toiletries do they have in the cabin? shampoo? conditioner? what about a hair dryer?
  3. Do they make up the room twice daily like Disney?
  4. I can't find anywhere when I can book show times...How soon before my sailing can I reserve?
  5. Do they play movies on the pool deck?
  6. There are no wave phones or no app for communicating, so how do I keep in contact with kids? I guess the old fashioned post-its?
  7. Do I still need to make a reservation if I have my time dining?
  8. When do we check in at port?
  9. Are the pools people soup like the Disney ships?
That's a lot of questions, but I am a planner and I feel like these questions are the ones that have come up so far. I am looking forward to trying a new cruise line and really have an open mind. I have read many threads with comparisons and I feel like we will still enjoy our trip. If anyone has first hand knowledge of some of these answers, please share! thanks so much.
 
1. Call them. it's about the same cost per person as Disney.

2. Not all ships have toiletries. Not sure about oasis. I bring my own. Yes they have hair dryers.

3. They absolutely do the room twice a day.

4. Show booking is confusing. I would check on cruisecritic for oasis info. They change things up.

5. Yes.

6. We either don't communicate or we bought the internet package and communicate that way.

7. I do. First time with MTD, once onboard, I made arrangements for the first night and the guy convinced me to do it for all nights. And o got to bypass the line for "stand by" seating, got the same basics area, same basic people around us, and same servers. It was good.

8. I recall checking in at PC around the same time we wound have done for Dream.

9. No. Pools are bigger. Also not heated. Kids deal with that a lot better than adults. :) I won't let my kid into a Disney Cruise Line pool. Ever. Too small and dangerous. And he's 13. But on royal, go for it.
 
We love Royal! After 7 sailings with DCL, we have made the switch to other lines, and after our Freedom sailing we were hooked. We are on the Oasis next week!

1. Royal has transfers from MCO. Your luggage goes under the bus.
2. The shower has a dispenser with a shampoo/conditioner/body wash combo (some call it "goo"). And there are bars of soap.
3. Yes, they make up the room twice a day. Some stewards will even do towel animals.
4. Show times appear randomly after the paid in full date. Usually about 60 days out. But there's no predictability about it. You have to Keep checking.
5. Sometimes. Sometimes it's sports. Sometimes it's whatever is happening at the pool. But often at night there will be a movie.
6. Nope, no wave phones. Some ships have an app you can use. We use a combo of notes and phone calls. Our kids call the room and leave a message before changing locations. There are phones all the ship they can use.
7. You don't HAVE to make reservations, but it's recommended for large parties. You can make them in advance or when you are on the ship.
8. Check in whenever you want after 11:30. After 1 is when it's the least busy.
9. As for pools, I have found them to be less crowded than Disney, but this is totally subjective. And we always sail off-season
 
I have not sailed Oasis but have done her sister ship, Allure -

Movies - these are not on the pool deck, but are shown in the theatre in the far aft where they do the diving show.
The app does not work on Oasis. We just bought the wifi package for two devices - gave one login to our teen and DH and I shared the other.
Check in is at about the same time, but works a little differently. They have separate seating areas for the different loyalty levels, and will take in order of highest to lowest. New cruisers are the last to board.
Oasis class ships have several pools, so each never seemed quite as crowded. Some of them are salt, though, so don't be surprised!

Also - do make reservations in advance online for the shows - especially the comedy and diving shows. And DO NOT MISS THE QUEST!
 


Communication - we bought some magnetic whiteboards and put those on our doors for some not-real-time information. Worked fine.
 


I was stressed about our Oasis ship too. I was able to get all our shows no problem. I agree, check as you get closer. I ended up making an excel spreadsheet w/ our schedule as I didn't like how it was organized on the RC website.

I didn't like that we had to prepay for excursions, it was weird since I had booking credits but it ended up working out.

Our family got the internet package, they will probably go on sale as your cruise date nears and I think it was totally worth it. We were able to use FB messager to communicate with all in our group since some didn't have iphones, but if you all have iphones you could just use imessanger. And internet service was fast and it was nice keeping in touch.

We had a suite and had great shampoo, conditioner, etc. I did not like the hair dryer... was glad I brought my own.

Pools were easy to get a seat around and plenty of room to actually swim. The pool situation was much better than Disney.

Movies only play on certain nights, when they aren't doing the diving show.

We pre-purchased a three specialty restaurant package but honestly I really liked the main dining room. The only restaurant I really liked was the hibatchi at Izumi (we also did Chops Grille and 150 Central park).

I would recommend making reservations w/ my time dining. We made a reservation for around the same time every night and ended up at the same table w/ the same servers every night which was nice. Also the wait to get to eat was very short, there was a much longer line for those w/o a reservation. But if you find that you aren't ready for dinner my time is nice since you can cancel the res and just eat later.

They do make up the rooms twice, we got towel animals about 3 times, not every night like Disney.
 
I was stressed about our Oasis ship too. I was able to get all our shows no problem. I agree, check as you get closer. I ended up making an excel spreadsheet w/ our schedule as I didn't like how it was organized on the RC website.

I didn't like that we had to prepay for excursions, it was weird since I had booking credits but it ended up working out.

Our family got the internet package, they will probably go on sale as your cruise date nears and I think it was totally worth it. We were able to use FB messager to communicate with all in our group since some didn't have iphones, but if you all have iphones you could just use imessanger. And internet service was fast and it was nice keeping in touch.

We had a suite and had great shampoo, conditioner, etc. I did not like the hair dryer... was glad I brought my own.

Pools were easy to get a seat around and plenty of room to actually swim. The pool situation was much better than Disney.

Movies only play on certain nights, when they aren't doing the diving show.

We pre-purchased a three specialty restaurant package but honestly I really liked the main dining room. The only restaurant I really liked was the hibatchi at Izumi (we also did Chops Grille and 150 Central park).

I would recommend making reservations w/ my time dining. We made a reservation for around the same time every night and ended up at the same table w/ the same servers every night which was nice. Also the wait to get to eat was very short, there was a much longer line for those w/o a reservation. But if you find that you aren't ready for dinner my time is nice since you can cancel the res and just eat later.

They do make up the rooms twice, we got towel animals about 3 times, not every night like Disney.

Thank-you. That is helpful insight...
 
I do not sail on Oasis until next November. Long wait! Anyway, just wanted to add, check the pricing from time to time as my sailing just went down nearly $400 and we were able to get the OBC offered with the "sale" RCL had on Friday. I intend to keep checking periodically for any other drops. You never know!
 
Looks like you got most of your questions answered. We used a private shuttle, a van with a luggage trailer, was the cheapest we could find, i'll try to dig for the name but that was last november.

If you are sporty, I highly recommend the private flowrider lessons. Withjn an hour my daughter and I were standing up and made the rest of the week such a blast at the open hours.

You will have a blast on that ship! So much fun stuff to do. If you want a good workout the rock climbing wall had me pretty sore and tired.
 
Thanks for the additional replies. Not sure what will happen with our ports, but that is a long time away. I really was interested in experiencing Royal Caribbean, so we should be all set...
 

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