we drive to Bayonne and got to the cruise terminal without difficultly. We had an 11:00 check in, so I figured we would be there early enough to get a parking spot in the garage. Unfortunately I was told the 900 parking spot garage was for guests with disabilities only, so we had to park in the open lot. Check in itself was easy, and we were happily aboard by 11:30. A quick lunch at Windjammer and an announcement was made that all staterooms ship wide were ready for guests by 1:00. 3 of our 4 bags were there, and our 4th arrived relatively quickly thereafter.

we made reservations for Aqua80, Cats, and the ice show. Aqua80 was amazing, and I can’t say enough great things about it. It was the best live performance of any type I have seen in a long time! Cats was a train wreck! it was 90 minutes of just the songs from the show which the performers did a good job on. Without any spoken word to hold the songs together there was no story, and all four of us sat there fairly confused to the point of what’s we were watching (We hadn’t seen Cats before). I would skip it unless you are a big fan of Cats. The ice show was average. They told the story of some of Hans Christin Anderson’s most popular works. The performers were fine but my kids were completely board. There was a Styx tribute band that we saw that was fine, and they performed other songs from the 1980s. Some of their playlist was repetitive of the songs from Aqua80 a few nights later which was unfortunate.

Overall we found the entertainment…lacking. My wife and I were traveling with our two boys(ages 11 and 13) and there were few family friendly options. The comedians were adult only, and there were nights we were actually board. Laser tag was good, but we waited almost 2 hours to play our 7 minute game.

Coco Cay was fine. We bought tickets for the water park, and my kids absolutely loved it. Of the 6,000 guests on the ship there were only a couple hundred in the aqua park, and my kids and I never had a line longer than 5-6 people in front of us! Lunch was hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken sandwiches. At about 2:00 we explored the rest of the island after spending 6 hours in the water park and we were very disappointed. The beaches were dirty, and the water at Harbor Beach smelled like rotten eggs! The pool at Oasis Lagoon was beautiful but incredibly crowded. They had incredibly loud night club music playing at the swim up bar, and we could hear it at Chill Beach! Other than the amazing water park the rest of the island was disappointing.

The supply chain issues were REAL on the Oasis. The Coke Freestlye machines were only about half filled with the options, with some machines better stocked than others. At no point did I see any that were fully stocked. The wine and beer selections were pretty poor. Our head waiter said they have really been struggling with all sorts of food and beverage shortage, and he wasn’t sure when it would get better. I don’t hold the supply chain issues against Royal Caribbean, but be prepared for it.

The entire staff was incredibly helpful, friendly, and was completely and consistently doing their best to do their very best. I just can’t say enough positive things about every person working on the ship!

In a Q&A on Thursday the captain said the ship was between 95-96% capacity, and they were working toward 100% as soon as they had enough crew trained. He also said they had 50 confirmed Covid cases at that point. I woke up today not feeling great, and a couple of hours later when I got home I tested positive myself. I can’t imagine I was the only person, so if you are concerned keep it in mind.

UPDATE: My wife had joined a Facebook group with over 700 people for our trip. As of today there were over 400 people within that group who had tested positive for Covid in the 5 days since they came home!