Thought I'd share some thoughts with you all on my recent RCL Oasis cruise. To give you background, I have been on over 25 cruises w/ Crystal, RCL, Princess, and Disney. We are diamond members on Royal Caribbean and were looking forward to checking out the newest, latest, greatest ship!

Here is a brief recap.

Pros: Embarkation and disembarkation are a snap! They've got this perfected! The ship is truly beautiful. Cabins are nicely appointed and appear slightly larger than other ships due to layout design. Different 'neighborhoods' are appropriately themed and nice to visit. Vast assortment of restaurants is nice. The royal promenade is very large and can adequately hold the crowds it needs for parades, etc. The cruise director is Richard Spacey and excellent at his job, as was his cruise staff. The performers were also top-notch and enjoyed!

Cons: As this is the most technologically advanced ship, we ran into the most technical difficulties! Aquatheater was not working, main theater had technical difficulties, in room tv didn't match up to what was supposed to be playing, 'televised' lifeboat drill didn't run properly, and even future cruise consultants computer wouldn't work properly to book a future cruise. When we were told our reserved showing of the "Oasis of Dreams" water show was cancelled due to technical difficulties, there was no replacement show for the evening... (even though we received a letter during embarkation saying they were working on the aqua theater and replacing the show with a 'variety' show and to still show up for reservations...)

There was no special seating being enforced for suite guests as there is on other ships in the theater or pool area (which are SMALL for that many passengers!). Internet rooms are a JOKE with only 6 terminals on 3 floors for over 6200 passengers! The staff was the most apethetic we've encountered and found out from one staff member that over 500 crew members have quit since the inaugural sailing. The Solarium was consistently hot hot hot as it's enclosed in glass. The pool area is only slightly better as it's too enclosed with steel and small windows. Smokers are everywhere, as are people with no common courtesy. We encountered more rude large family type reunion groups than ever before. Kids were unsupervised everywhere.

I realize this ship is new but nowhere near the 'inaugural' sailing whereby most of these technical issues would have been understandable.

If any of you are considering this ship or the Allure, just thought you might like to know what you're potentially in store for!