Just got back from Insignia inaugural cruise

I will try to give a little overview for now.

Being on all major cruise lines I can say that Oceania experience is certainly different. The most important difference is the size of the ship. Compare to all these new megaships it is small.

It has its advantages and disadvantages. It's great not to have thousands of people on board, but on the other hand you will experience a lot more motion on the small ship as we have had at least two very rocky days on the way to Portofino and Florence. This has resulted in being two hours late in Florence and missing Portofino. But thanks to the Captain's extensive knowledge of the area instead of Portofino we've ended up in a beautiful town of Portovenere. So, for those of you who are tend to get seasick it is something to keep in mind.

Service was excellent in all respects, crew attitude was very positive and accomodating.

Food was great, but not spectacular. They are certainly trying to distinguish themselves in this area. But other then wonderful pastries we have found no big difference between Oceania and Celebrity.

Ship's condition is very good. It is not new by any means, but they are trying to keep it in great shape. Inside decor was too conservative for us, but this is just a matter of personal taste.

Entertainment was not as good as it should be, because the only choice you have is 9:45 P.M. presentation in Insignia lounge and 11 P.M. dancing in Horizon lounge. Who would want to dance at 11 P.M. after long days of exploring on shore? They need to rethink their entertainment options.

Overall it was a great cruise, but in my opinion it's not yet worth to pay a double or triple rate Oceania is charging compare to Celebrity or Princess. Will we go again? Definately Yes, but only if price is right.

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<MARQUEE direction=left width=95%>....Till Celebrity Cruise!!!</MARQUEE>

How disappointing about the food. Though I guess that it's all very subjective. But to hear it's on a par with Celebrity is less than satisfactory . We were hearing up until now that the food was as good as Radisson or Silver Seas. Our friends, who usually sail on Crystal, Silver Seas or Radisson, will be very unhappy with this part of the review. We are a group of about thirty people who are trying out Oceania on the August 17th cruise because we heard the food was superb and that the owner's suites and penthouse suites are roomy. I hope the comparison made to Celebrity Cruiseline food is not really the case. We tried that cruiseline once last year ( the Constellation ) and the food is totally inferior to the above mentioned cruiselines. We already have come to terms with the nightlife on board being dull. If the food is like the Celebrity's, my group will have second thoughts about going.

8/16 Insignia Barcelona to Venice

The food on REGATTA last fall was certainly up to luxury-ship standards. If that isn't the case on INSIGNIA, it's probably because the ship just launched.

For what it's worth, the reviews that I've seen of the new QUEEN MARY 2 have also mentioned culinary lapses; I think it just takes a little time for any kitchen or other service operation to get up to speed. If you expect perfection, it's never a good idea to be first!

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Durant Imboden

Europeforvisitors.com

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cruzemaven:

How disappointing about the food. Though I guess that it's all very subjective. But to hear it's on a par with Celebrity is less than satisfactory . We were hearing up until now that the food was as good as Radisson or Silver Seas. Our friends, who usually sail on Crystal, Silver Seas or Radisson, will be very unhappy with this part of the review. We are a group of about thirty people who are trying out Oceania on the August 17th cruise because we heard the food was superb and that the owner's suites and penthouse suites are roomy. I hope the comparison made to Celebrity Cruiseline food is not really the case. We tried that cruiseline once last year ( the Constellation ) and the food is totally inferior to the above mentioned cruiselines. We already have come to terms with the nightlife on board being dull. If the food is like the Celebrity's, my group will have second thoughts about going.

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8/16 Insignia Barcelona to Venice

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Maven. I would not worry much about liking the food on your cruise. If you read past posts from just about everyone that has posted on these boards you will not find many that have not been empressed with Oceania's food and service.

My wife and I live in Las Vegas and have dined in most of the citys best restaurants due to our jobs. We both enjoyed some very very good meals while on Regatta in Jan. We will try just about anything on any menu and found many wonderful dishes while on our cruise. The filets in Polo you could cut with your fork and cooked to perfection. The sea bass in the Grand Dining room was some of the best we have tasted anywhere in the world. If we were to have gone out to fine dining for 10 Nights here in LV and paid for dinners like we had on Regatta, I am sure we would have paid just about as much as we did for the cruise if not more and probably had a few dinners we didn't like and not have been able to send it back without feeling like fools. We did not send anything back on Regatta and we found just about everything we tasted to be very good. The Toscana was not our cup of tea but most people liked it. We are not big pasta eaters.

My wife and I will be waiting for your review of your cruise.

PS. My wife and I are not empressed very easy with anything food or service related and Oceiana empressed us a bunch. After 11 cruises and watching the food go down hill on all other lines we had sailed. Oceania restored our faith that a cruise line could still offer a high quality dining expierence at a fair price.

Tom and Mary

I also just returned from the Insignia's inaugural cruise and we were quite impressed with the food and service. We've already cruised aboard Regatta several times and thought that the food was 90% on par and the service about 80%. They obviously still had some fine tuningto do, but overall, I thought everything was just about sublime.

It was great to see so many familiar faces from the Regatta and a nice surprise to see Toscana totally re-done and brand new furniture to redecorate both levels of the lobby.

Captain Lemi and his officers were very charming and as pointed out, his intimate knowledge of the Italian coast proved to be a great asset when the need to find alternate ports arose.

If I have one complaint, it would be the entertainment. Oceania should stick to the cabaret type acts and ditch the half-hearted attempt at producing shows and stop trying to be something thay are not. I also thought the new orchestra was not as good as the Glen Jacoby on Regatta.

Overall, two thumbs up and we're going back for the Black Sea cruise this fall.

Hi vadim77777,

We just cruised on the Celebrity Infinity for two weeks and the food was not the same quality as the food we had on the Regatta last August. I guess the galley might have had trouble trying out the recipes since it was a new crew and a new ship. When we were on the Regatta it was like dining in a fine L.A. restaurant every night. We enjoyed our dining experience very much. Celebrity is not anything like Oceania.

Glad to hear Regatta is not like Celebrity foodwise. We are planning our first Oceania cruise in December. We have given up on Celebrity after experiencing a noticeable drop in quality of the food. From what we're reading about Oceania and Regatta, we think we may have found a home.