We sailed on the Regatta, round trip Los Angeles, on April 24. It was our first cruise on Oceania and we were looking forward to trying a new cruise line. Here is my long review.
Our overall impression is that the Regatta has great cuisine, as promised, but it is let down by other areas. The osso buco and carbonara in Toscana and beef bourguignon were some of the best meals on a cruise ship, maybe anywhere. There were two wine tastings that were also excellent. We thought the included wines were quite good. Only a couple salads were a miss. The sommeliers were very good and service was great in the GDR, Toscana, and Polo Grill. The “two for one” cocktail hour was not what we expected. It was literally two identical drinks—we needed to order identical drinks in order to take advantage of the deal. So they did what they promised, but I was assuming that if my wife and I got different drinks they would charge us for the higher priced one and not make us each have the same drink or each get two drinks at happy hour. This was the rule in Martini’s and the Horizon Lounge. We only got to one afternoon tea, but enjoyed it.
Entertainment was a mixed bag but overall pretty good. There were no production shows due to Covid, with at least three entertainment staff in quarantine, according to CD Julie. The pianist/singer in the martini bar, the string quartet, the enrichment lecturer and the comedian were all very good. So was the jazz show the CD did. One problem we had was that the shows were all at 9:30, quite late with nothing to do between then and dinner. We usually eat at 7:00, so were were done by 8:30. Several nights we just retired to our cabin and skipped the show rather than wait an hour for it to start.
Embarkation was slow. That’s not unusual in Covid times. We were told to arrive at 11am, which we did. There was already a long line outside the terminal. AS far as I could tell, nobody checked to make sure we didn't arrive early. We heard several reasons for the delay. Port workers told us (1) there were covid cases on the disembarking cruise so they had to do a deep clean, (2) the ship arrived late into port and (3) this was the ships first time embarking in San Pedro so it was taking longer. We finally got on around 12:30 and the announcement on board was that the delay was due to circumstances beyond their control. So take your pick, it was probably all four reasons. During the announcement to demonstrate the emergency signal, you could hear the CD over an open mike say “I can’t hear the signal, the signal isn’t working” until finally the test signal sounded. That wasn’t an experience that inspired confidence. Some cabins weren't ready for occupancy until 4:30. Luggage was lined up at the beginning of the hall; we just found our bags and brought them to our room.
Ah, our room. This was the worst part of our cruise and the worst cabin we’ve had on any of our previous 28 cruises ocean or river. Yes, the bathroom was small and the shower tiny; it is impossible to appreciate the tininess until you've experienced it.
The bed was comfortable and the the AC was fine. The lighting was good. The layout of the closet and bathroom opposite each other made opening the bathroom door while someone was using the closet very difficult. Our table by the sofa had rust on the legs. Storage was limited for a nine day cruise. The USB ports by our beds didn't work. The TV wouldn't allow us to watch any news channels. The current weather conditions always showed “N/A”
Worse was our safe. I couldn't use our normal security code since some of the numbers didn't work OK, we used a different code. Then, when I went to get my wallet out before an excursion, the keypad failed and I could not open it. A hurried call to Reception got someone up from security to open it but they couldn't actually repair it, it needed replacement. This was where our bad room and bad service began to intersect.
Normally, Security needs to be in the room to access the safe. That makes sense. Knowing that, after we returned from our excursion, we removed everything from our safe and we let Reception know that so that Security could replace the safe without us having to wait around for them to show up. We were out and about around the ship for the afternoon. When we returned, we had two messages. One was that Security couldn't access the safe unless we there there, then another that they could access the safe if everything was removed. Huh? That’s exactly why we told Reception we took everything out. Back down to Reception to tell them again. Ultimately, the safe was replaced or fixed and we could use our normal security code. Until—the last full day on board, when I went to replace items in the safe after our excursion, the number pad wouldn't work again! At that point, I was fed up and just left it.
Worst, though, was the shower. The first morning, the shower was either scalding hot or barely lukewarm for both of us. Since we had an early excursion in Ensenada (more on that later), we made the best of it and headed out. We thought maybe we weren't doing something right or it was because so many people were showering at once. Morning two was the same, so I tried again after we returned to the ship with no better results. This was now unacceptable. We told our room attendant, who checked it and agreed it was not working correctly. He said he would call to get it fixed. When we returned after dinner, he let us know it could not be fixed that evening, but would be fixed later the next day. So day three we skipped the morning shower and went on our excursion. When we returned, our room attendant told us someone fixed it, so we tried it. It was not fixed. We found our room attendant, had him try it, and he agreed. At this point, we decided to head to Reception to let them know too, and to escalate a repair since we at least wanted to shower before dinner. They originally told us three hours for a fix but finally agreed on two hours. Finally, it was fixed with a completely new shower assembly.
There was never any appreciation or concern exhibited by Reception of either of our issues. A weak apology was it. We mentioned this on our mid-cruise comment card, plus a concern about an excursion. The Destination department called us to follow up but nobody from the Hotel department called about our room issues.
So, we asked who else we should speak with, and told we should talk with Juan Carlos, the Executive Concierge. We met with him and explained our difficulties and lack of any apparent concern for the issues. We said a bottle of champagne would be a nice gesture. He apologized but no champagne was forthcoming.
Unsatisfied with this, we let our TA know. She was very concerned and promised to pass our concerns along. The next day, there is a bottle of wine in our room (but no corkscrew or wine glasses) and a letter signed by Juan Carlos apologizing again and offering us $1,500 of shipboard credit each! Letting our TA know certainly paid off. This was much more than we were expecting. However, since the Regatta crew apparently takes two tries to get something right (the safe, the shower, the wine with no corkscrew), we postponed our trip to the boutiques to spend our funds on board until the credit posted.
A couple days later, a single credit of $150 posts to our account. So, back down to Juan Carlos again with his letter in hand. Oh no, that was a mistake, he said, we would not get that much credit for that kind of an issue, that’s not our policy. I pointed out he signed the letter, and again, he replied it was a mistake and that was that. That’s a big mistake! And another example of lack of attention to detail by the Hotel department. He wanted to take the letter back, but I kept it. I emailed our TA again with this development, who got back in touch with Oceania shoreside people, who replied it was a mistake and $150 was all they could do. We got another letter from Juan Carlos apologizing and a bottle of house champagne but by that point, the moment had passed and the first impression was sealed, and in a bad way.
We’ve never had so many issues, and never had so many trips to Reception, on any cruise before. Two tries for every solution and even then the solution is left wanting.
The shore excursions were a mixed bag, mostly not good. When we booked this cruise, Covid was a bigger deal so we booked ship excursions in case we needed to be in a bubble. Having done that, and navigated the somewhat confusing pricing options with passport and package options, we just kept what we had even when things were opening up. The Ensenada wine tasting left the ship at 9:00, we were tasting wine by 10:00 and starting lunch by 11:00. Way too early. We were back to the ship by 1:30 or so. This could have started an hour or even two later with better times and still plenty of leeway to get back before all-aboard time. We let shore excursions desk know, they apologized, blamed the provider and excuses, but nothing else. We didn’t do an excursion in San Diego. Catalina was much waiting around to get on the tender then about 30 minutes at the dock before the glass bottom boat tour even started. Walking around Catalina was very nice. San Francisco day one, Muir Woods and Sausalito, tour guide was very lifeless and didn't really guide us. He either miscounted or left two people behind at Muir Woods, we never found out for sure. (I think he miscounted, not a good sign.) San Francisco day two, we couldn’t go to the planned second winery so went to one winery plus a tasting room in town with mediocre wines. We went in two groups to tasting room, one group got a museum visit, our group did not. There are 300 wineries in Sonoma and we went to only one, surely another could have been found for a substitue. Santa Ynez was a very good tour with a good guide with two wineries and an extra olive oil stop.
Public areas were very nice, especially the library. The stairways and elevators were nice and didn't look like a cruise ship but rather a nice boutique hotel. There were some tight passages through casino and martini bar, though. The restroom in the casino and nearest the Regatta Lounge was only one at a time, that seems strange. There is only one laundry room on board with four washers and four dryers. At least one of each, if not two of each, were out of order the entire cruise.
Disembarkation was fine.
So at the end, the food and beverage high notes were let down by the problems in the stateroom, the lack of a first-time fix, and lack of any real concern about the problems or the need for two tries to get it right.
Some of this may sound like a rant and maybe it is. We don't complain often and don't cruise in order to find fault. We wanted to enjoy this cruise but really resented having to keep addressing issues in our room, which took time away from enjoying the cruise. We only got to one afternoon tea, for instance. We spoke to several other veteran Oceania cruisers who agreed, without us prompting, that this cruise was not up to unusual standards. Too bad. We only have this experience to go on. As a result, we’ve canceled another cruise we had upcoming on Oceania. There are plenty of other options.
