A review from a first time Oceania guest (Marina in the South Pacific)

[ceba]

Thanks for that very fair and balanced trip report.

 

Just a note: Vinod was our first butler experience and we also found him delightful.

he was ours on our Dec/Jan cruise. Very helpful!

[Mura]

Without beating the dead horse, whether in Europe, the South Pacific, or even Miami, many cruisers choose to ignore their assigned embarkment time. Unnecessary chaos, at embarkment, often seems to be the norm because of this. I love O, and am normally a cheerleader (not so much O Air), but O's decision to allow their customers to board at will creates several problems that abiding by the assigned boarding times would avoid.

 

Pinot, I have to say that I haven't discovered this to be the case. Maybe the difference is because of itineraries or embarkation points, I don't know. We tend to come in later than we could most of the time so that we can spend time in the embarkation port, but we're generally there for lunch. (When we arrived from Rome to Civitavecchia around 4pm we had a problem! Not in boarding, just in finding something to eat.)

 

Yes, we're usually in a PH, occasionally higher up than that, but when we have arrived we've never seen a long line. Well, there was one exception to that ... I forget which port but there was no one available to check people in -- everyone was taking a break! So that was a pain.

 

But in general we've not found long lines.

 

Mura

[Travelcat2]

Thank you for an excellent review! Tahiti is one of the places in the world I would love to go to - but probably never will. It was nice to "experience" a tiny bit of it with you...

 

I am very surprised that you have not visited that part of the world. It is definitely a highlight of our travels. We have been to Tahiti four or five times - only once by cruise ship. As beautiful as Tahiti is, my favorite place on earth remains Fiji. Tahiti may beat it out in terms of beauty but the people in Fiji are the warmest we have met anywhere (and it is beautiful as well).

[takemewithyou]

We are boarding our first Oceania cruise Saturday after having sailed on Celebrity more than a dozen times.

I've been looking at the 2016 sailings of this cruise and after reading the review we may decide to book it.

 

I hope you will come back and tell us you liked your first O cruise!

We are X cruisers who will be trying O soon, too......would love to hear your thoughts when you return!

 

Have a great cruise. :)

[hypercafe]

Thanks for your review, glad you enjoyed your trip. I would love to go there however long plane rides are not for me so we go the Crib and use our imagination. You did not mention the Terrace, did you not eat there?

 

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[Paulchili]

Thanks for your review, glad you enjoyed your trip. I would love to go there however long plane rides are not for me so we go the Crib and use our imagination. You did not mention the Terrace, did you not eat there?

 

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I hope you have a truly vivid and wild imagination as Carib and FP have nothing in common (other than being islands in the sea) :D

MrOZ - thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed review. Glad that you enjoyed your cruise.

[MrOZ]

.... You did not mention the Terrace, did you not eat there?

 

Neither of us much care for buffets, and while the Terrace seemed lovely (and far better than most buffets), we ended up skipping it.

 

We were going to eat there for lunch one day just to try it, but it seemed a bit chaotic in there, so we decided to go to Waves yet again.

[ORV]

Neither of us much care for buffets, and while the Terrace seemed lovely (and far better than most buffets), we ended up skipping it.

 

We were going to eat there for lunch one day just to try it, but it seemed a bit chaotic in there, so we decided to go to Waves yet again.

 

Funny you mention you went to Waves. Most of the time I would consider it much more chaotic than Oceanview.

[Paulchili]

Funny you mention you went to Waves. Most of the time I would consider it much more chaotic than Oceanview.

 

+1

In fact, on occasion when eating at the Waves, we have to find a table in the Terrace Café for lack of space at the Waves (especially after some tours return to the ship).

Edited January 20, 2015 by Paulchili

[MrsKruse]

So glad to read your review! Sounds like your trip was as we had expected ours to be - we'll probably consider Oceania for our rebooking, but probably Europe (I don't like to fly to start with - 8 or 9 hours in a falling apart plane might just put me over the edge!).

 

Safe travels!