A Review. Round the British Isles September 9th

I hope this is not too long. I will post on the review page too, but thought the regular contributors to O cruises might like to hear how we got on.

This is our third Oceania cruise. Our first two were on Riviera, but we have cruised on Nautica before when she was Princess’ Royal Princess many years ago.

We are English and live around two hours’ drive from Southampton. We arrived at around 2.30 pm at the terminal. Check in was pretty straight forward as there were no guests waiting and we were soon on board and in the Terrace Cafe having a bite to eat. Our bags were waiting when we got to our stateroom at 3pm.

THE ITINERARY

Nautica was sailing from Southampton UK and visiting Newcastle, UK, Edinburg and Glasgow Scotland, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, Liverpool UK, Holyhead, Wales , Waterford, Ireland, Portland, UK and finally returning to Southampton. There were two sea days.

THE SHIP

Nautica is very “old fashioned” in the best possible way. Her decor is comfortable and inviting. No glitz. No loud music. Just cosy. There are two sets of lifts and they all face the same direction so you never turn the wrong way to get to your stateroom (well hardly ever), There were only 580 guests on board, short by nearly 100. The majority of guests were American, with the rest made up of Canadians, Australians and Brits with a few Italians, Germans and French. All the British guests we met on board had not visited the ports before!

THE STATEROOM

We were in Veranda Stateroom 6084. This is the very last stateroom before the Owners Suits on the aft of deck six. The accommodation is small compared with Riviera. There is adequate drawer and wardrobe space, but the entrance, wardrobe and bathroom doors all open onto each other and when you exit the bathroom, you can easily “loose” your travelling companion inside the wardrobe!!

The bathroom is tiny and the shower cubicle even tinier. You learn to live with it, but it is not ideal.

Bed and bedding is wonderful, but bedside cupboard is ridiculously low and inaccessible. The general lighting needs modernising as it is quite gloomy. At certain speeds and/or wind direction this room is subject to quite lot of engine noise and vibration. I do not recommend it for that reason, even though most of the time it was quiet and comfortable.

SERVICE

I have read on here that service in the restaurant is not up to scratch; that there are queues at reception and long waits for room service. None of this happened to us. Restaurant service was exemplary. Jacqueline on the desk at the MDR remembered our name and room number within a couple of days. She was always charming. We always got a window table at breakfast. Alan a senior waiter was excellent. Irene was always smiling. There were others who impressed us, but I do not remember all the names.

Room service was astonishing. We counted two minutes from ordering our tea in the morning to it arriving in the stateroom……. every morning. The terrace cafe was never full. The cruise was not full to capacity, perhaps that helped.

PORTS

We enjoyed every port but one. We did not take Oceania’s tours they are much too expensive and not value for money, in our opinion. We used the shuttle bus sometimes and arranged private tours on other occasions. Surprisingly the least enjoyable port was Dublin. After the shuttle bus we took a Hop on Hop off ride. Dreadful traffic, cold and windy quite “run down” in many areas. Nowhere we wanted to have a closer look at. Disappointing. Everywhere else we found interesting and absorbing. We are so pleased we took this cruise. The sea was kind. with only one lumpy day.

ENTERTAINMENT

This was mediocre. We only tried three shows and walked away from two of them. Tuxedo was the only good one, and it was great. Generally our entertainment was a long leisurely dinner with interesting new friends. We were last in the dining room more than once!! I am sure the waiters were not amused, but of course, they never let us know.

To sum up. Excellent trip. Good weather. Oceania did not let us down.

Thank you for the report. How did you find the specialty restaurants? How would your rate the dining and food in the MDR and the Terrace Cafe?

Sounds like a great trip.

How did you find the specialty restaurants?

Go to the rear elevators, take one to the 10th deck. Polo is on starboard side, Toscana on port;p

We were on the cruise right before Jay, we enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for your review Jay.

Glad the weather was good despite everyone's worry.Tomorrow is 23c (73f)..

Thank you for reporting back to us.

We visited the speciality restaurants and enjoyed the food very much. Although we had suggested we would like to share when we booked, on each occasion we had no one join us. The Polo steak was very good indeed, but the steak was just as good in the GDR, In Tosca I had sea bream which was perfectly cooked. However the sole in the GDR was equally good.

We feel that to make it more special, it would be better to have Red Ginger and Jacques on Nautica and her sisters, as the food would be very different from that in the GDR. The service was perfect in both venues.

We did not try to visit either restaurant more than once,

The Terrace cafe for breakfast and lunch was OK but not outstanding. The staff were excellent. We mostly went to the GDR.

Not keen on Waves, hamburgers not my favourite. We ate there once.

I cannot stress enough how great the staff and crew are on Nautica.

We feel that to make it more special, it would be better to have Red Ginger and Jacques on Nautica and her sisters,

 

I would disagree but jMO

 

We did not try to visit either restaurant more than once,

 

Not keen on Waves, hamburgers not my favourite. We ate there once.

I cannot stress enough how great the staff and crew are on Nautica.

Did you not try any of the non burger offerings in Waves??

Some of their sandwiches are very good

PS the Royal Princess is now Adonia

Ah. Well we went on Royal Princess and she is one of the R 8 ships, so just the same as Nautica. I take your point.

We were late back from somewhere, Edinburgh I think, and the lunch time restaurants had closed. Waves did not seem to have anything other that hamburgers or salads.

If I am honest, I couldn't really work out what there was. The chefs were "hiding" in the galley. When one of them popped out, my husband ordered hamburger. Obviously we chose the wrong time to go there !!!!! J

Ah. Well we went on Royal Princess and she is one of the R 8 ships, so just the same as Nautica. I take your point.

 

We were late back from somewhere, Edinburgh I think, and the lunch time restaurants had closed. Waves did not seem to have anything other that hamburgers or salads.

If I am honest, I couldn't really work out what there was. The chefs were "hiding" in the galley. When one of them popped out, my husband ordered hamburger. Obviously we chose the wrong time to go there !!!!! J

Waves has an excellent surf and turf sandwich - sliced lobster tail and fillet mignon! Too bad you missed that!! :(

Yes, Waves has a number of non-hamburger sandwich options. Too late now! I doubt you suffered from the lack, however ...

Sorry Dublin was cold and windy as that may have impacted your impression. We found it a beautiful and thriving city.

We enjoyed it, too. We also did the HOHO bus and found it very worth while. We did have a main destination in mind that had been recommended by friends (the Chester Beatty Library) but also made a few other visits along the way. We had a lovely day there.

On a subsequent trip we scheduled a private tour outside of Dublin to Newgrange which was wonderful as well.

We'd LOVE to go back to Dublin. So sorry that you were disappointed.

Yes, Waves has a number of non-hamburger sandwich options. Too late now! I doubt you suffered from the lack, however ...

Quite right Mura, we did not suffer from the lack!!!!:D:D

We enjoyed it, too. We also did the HOHO bus and found it very worth while. We did have a main destination in mind that had been recommended by friends (the Chester Beatty Library) but also made a few other visits along the way. We had a lovely day there.

 

On a subsequent trip we scheduled a private tour outside of Dublin to Newgrange which was wonderful as well.

 

We'd LOVE to go back to Dublin. So sorry that you were disappointed.

I have come to the conclusion that we needed a private guide to show us Dublin. We had no idea what we were looking for. We were not interested in the Guiness tour. In all the other ports we had a goal. The weather certainly played a part in our disappointment. Maybe there will be a next time.

I have come to the conclusion that we needed a private guide to show us Dublin. We had no idea what we were looking for. We were not interested in the Guiness tour. In all the other ports we had a goal. The weather certainly played a part in our disappointment. Maybe there will be a next time.

Don't give up on Dublin; Trinity College should be toured and don't miss the Library. Both Dublin and Edinburgh have great walking tours available and otherwise are worth investigating; a little pre-tour research is well worth while. In Edinburgh we stopped at the "End of the World" on the Royal Mile and greatly enjoyed their version of Haggis.