no fuss travel

We did not have to get off on Rome in May this year

We were on Nautica April and May just after the refit. Service was excellent as usual. Food sometimes was missing as they were having supply chain issues like everybody else. No complaints. You find those of us who are happy don’t write reports whereas those who love to complain always do

It does not seem to matter which ship line or tour company you travel on you usually will encounter some blips. You have to go with the flow. We took a Tauck tour and cruise to Antartica. Yes they used Ponant. The food, veggies in particular were tasteless. Oceania is definitely stronger when it comes to food. We mentioned to the tour director while on board that we were disappointed in the food. They had a meeting with the chef and management and it did improve. Now there appeared to be a class difference on the ship. If you were from France you got all the choice times for the excursions and if you were from North America, not so. I actually presented to the ship officer a tally of who went at what time for excursions and for the very last day of excursions improvements were made. If you are polite with your complaints they will try to solve them. To travel in post Covid times, you have to roll with the blips and count your blessings that you can still travel

No long weekends when you board, so you should be okay

+1

5 washers and dryers on the R ships, at least on the Nautica which we just sailed recently

We have done segments on the ATW’s twice. We found everyone to be friendly. If you play Trivia, you may have less of a choice for team mates, but that is not a big deal. We found those that participated in the sport events to be much friendlier than some of the others. Go for it and enjoy.

The mid cruises are definitely read and the staff sees your comments from that one and the online. Nautica was having an awful time with their internet system in April and it kept going down. Even the staff was locked out. Too many bugs in the system. It started to improve slightly towards the end of May. we were on 4 segments so I know the end of the cruise online comments were read as I had feedback from crew and officers. I was not in a suite or concierge Cabin, so I know all comments were read

Carson is on the Nautica. I think he is due for leave in July. He has an interesting bow tie collection

Yes we did overnight in Istanbul. Oceania supplied us with access to a continental breakfast if we wanted before we left the ship.

I have heard back from friends sailing on other lines and from what I have heard, Oceania has treated its passengers better. Nothing is perfect, if the world was perfect the world would be a boring place to live. Imagine having nothing to complain about. What would there be to talk about?

Oceania waited for the passengers that were delayed flying into Barcelona in April. Some of them didn’t have their baggage, but Oceania made sure it caught up with the ship. They were given private transfers to the ship

We had an 8:15 am flight and we were off at 4:10 am to catch our flight from Istanbul. The worst part was the Istanbul airport. More security checks and you have to walk and walk. Airport is huge. Most foreign airlines are flying in and out of airport that is much further from the city

I was on the Nautica for 4 segments. We had to be tested before we boarded,and Oceania tested us at the end of each segment except for the day of disembarkation as Canada did not require the testing.

They are super nice to you when you call them to book excursions. I have done this several times as I could not get the online booking to work

I have received 3 credits for my current cruise that I am on. The first one was an extended cruise of 23 days which I got 1 cruise credit for. The next cruise I added in after I booked the extended cruise was 11 days and I got 1 credit for it. The next cruise which I added on after another cruise was cancelled I have received 1 cruise credit. All in all it is 4 segments, 3 booking numbers, 3 cruise credits. The first two bookings were done within one week of each other, the last booking was done well after the other two. Oceania was very accommodating about changing the flights each time I added on to the cruise I am currently on and the staff on board made sure I got all the benefits I was entitled too. I am so glad to be back cruising and the Nautica is not sailing at capacity

We had our test late Friday and boarded in Barcelona late Zmonday afternoon their time. No problems at all