durante

Good food on Quest, really enjoyed their breakfast offerings compared to Insignia.

Also better choice of salad at lunch on Quest.

Dinner in the MDR more choice on Insignia. No issues with meat in MDR in Quest, however substandard quality and cooking on Polo on Insignia

We were on the Quest transatlantic in April and last week Oceania Insignia.

Both ships are great. Insignia has been restored beautifully. Love that the Insignia ceiling and wall murals in the MDR have not been overpainted the way Quest has.

However Quest had more comfortable sun beds on deck 9 and better (more responsive) bar service,despite the fact drinks are included on Azamara.

Baristas on insignia is now located on deck 5 just before entering the main dining room. The illy coffee there is excellent. If I have to choose, that coffee is better on Oceania vs Azamara.

Obviously, staterooms are same on both ships, however we thought the bed and pillows on Insignia were more comfortable.

We also had really horrible meat in Polo on recent Insignia cruise. Colorado rack of lamb was raw. We both always have our meat medium rare, however this was probably mutton, not lamb, judging by the size of the (large)bones, tasteless, raw and badly presented, and also laden with salt. We brought this to the attention of the waiter, who said we asked for medium rare...poor guy could not see the difference, thank goodness the maitre,d who offered us to choose again from menu- we then had lobster which was delicious.

On our Marina cruise last July we had bad rib eye steak in Polo. I don't usually like to complain as I really like cruising on Oceania,however I do feel their standard needs to improve.

Yes, we were lucky with the children on our cruise. It is a credit to the parents who are responsible for their behaviour.

Robert Powell is a legend in my eyes. Great actor, very witty and an excellent speaker. Try to see some of his films tv work beforehand.

We were on the recent Insignia 10 night cruise from Venice to Rome. There were quite a few children, and luckily, our experience was they were all well behaved, and also beautifully dressed for dinner in the MDR. We had dinner a couple of times in the Terrace, and again, well behaved, it was great to see families enjoying each other's company on vacation.

Not so great was the table of adults using their iPads while having breakfast in the MDR, literally iPad in one hand, fork in the other. Unhygienic? I was expecting kids might do this, but only saw adults.

Also a couple of beautiful babies were onboard, and on the one time one baby made a very small noise in the MDR, her father whisked her out of the room straight away.

I was on the very second cruise of Reflection back in 2012, and even then the loud music was deafening near the Guest Relations Desk. It is really disruptive, and how annoying it must be for the staff behind the desk that you have to sometimes shout at them, instead of talking quietly to them. Am sorry this is still continuing, however it is hard to solve this problem due to the open design, unless they take the radical and seemingly impossible step to turn down the volume?

Regarding the other issue re the public bathroom, I am glad you reported this.

You can definitely survive QV in casual clothes. And enjoy the experience. We have done over 15 Cunard cruises but had never previously thought about breaking the Formal nights as it has been fun dressing up for them and everyone looks fabulous.

However, last month we did a cruise on QV, and after eating in the main dining restaurant on the first night, because the service was so slow and the food dreadful, went to the Lido for the remaining evenings. Food was superior to MDR and it was really relaxing to be dressed casually sitting next to window. There were many other people doing the same thing.

Regarding going to the theatre etc in the evening, you would be fine as long as your clothes looked smart and your shoes were not obviously sport style.

Most people use Olbia to visit the spectacular Sardinian scenery and beaches.

Port side

Regarding food comparisons, my most recent cruises were on Cunard ( Queens Grills on QV Dec 2013 and Britannia on QE Jan 2014) and Azamara Quest(transatlantic Mar 2014). Have cruised many times on Oceania, most recently PHS on Marina Jul 2013. The Queens Grill restaurant on QV was great however I still thought the food was better on Oceania in the Dining Room. On Azamara, the food generally was comparable to Oceania, however my meat was always over cooked, and the fish mushy. I never had that issue with Oceania luckily.

I am so pleased you mentioned Waiheke Island! I rate it as one of the best places near Auckland, if not the world. It has a really special atmosphere. The wineries are fabulous and some have excellent restaurants. We did not take an organised tour, instead we caught the ferry over from Auckland, then used the local bus service mixed with walking to get around. We had an incredible lunch with wine at Mudbrick Vineyard.

Another highlight of Auckland is the suburb of Devonport, another great place to wander around and just a ferry ride over to Auckland.

Your review was so interesting and informative, I really enjoyed reading all the fine detail of your time on the ship as well as exploring Japan. :)

On the page where they asked you to tick which cruise lines you had been on, at the bottom, you could add in a cruise line if it was not on their list. Cunard in my case. This worked ok as Cunard always then showed up in the next lot of questions where you had to compare all your cruise lines.

Interesting, I was not aware of any dry dock facility in Nice?

You don't hear the traffic, only if people are talking loudly, in which case you would hear that from any room where they passed by.

Thank you for writing this, I totally agree.

What makes you think Oceania would be better at dealing with this particular situation?

It should tender off Giardini Naxos, but if the sea is thought to be too rough, then it will try to dock at Messina.

I wish you would and let us know how it compares.

Pacheco18 and JimandStan, you would make a great double act, but seriously,

you both offer excellent advice.

The background music, mainly classical, is there for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the QG restaurant. It's very nice.

I don't remember ever seeing Al Jazeera news on any Cunard ship? I also find they show a broader range of news stories than the big US and UK networks.

Might get more real information by doing your own research beforehand rather than rely on the destination "experts" onboard:)?

If it is the same as previous Oceania cruises which stated Olbia/Porto Cervo as a port of call, the ship will most likely dock at the cruise terminal in the town of Olbia.