Just back from 10 day Riviera. Our first cruise ever. We are hooked.

[Woofa]

I will post a full review soon but we just got off our first cruise ever (10 day Riviera) we had a great vacation.  Hated to have to get off but we did put down a deposit for a future cruise to be named later.  Flying back to Dallas tomorrow and I will do my best to answer any questions from this recent experience.

Quick notes (remember we have no previous cruiser to make comparisons.)

Service was exceptional.

Boat was like new after recent refurb.

Bed was amazingly comfy.

Fellow passengers mostly very friendly, we made some friends for life.

Food.  Specialties were excellent.  Waves, terrace and new waves pizzeria very good.  We found main dining room beautiful and service excellent but we had a few misses here.  When we did not have a specialty reservation we preferred the terrace, assuming, they had the grill going.  Lamb chops and shrimp my favorite.  Had smoked salmon every morning.  Great milk shakes by the pool.  My wife went to tea at least 5 times.

Baristas coffee amazing, everywhere else hit or miss.

More to come...

[MEFIowa]

Know exactly what you mean. Our very first-time cruising for us was on Riviera 12/2021. We booked our next cruise (Sirena 11/2022) while still on Riviera. And now have 3 more, two on Riviera (E. & W. Med 2023) and one on Sirena (Baltic 2024).

 

[PhD-iva]

Cruising on Oceania is just like eating potato chips. Once you’ve eaten one potato chip, its so hard to stop. Once you’ve been on an Oceania cruise, you just can’t stop! 🤪

[ToxM]

Welcome to your cruising addiction! I see you have gone straight to the Class A section 😉

[LakeRooseveltBrews]

Glad to hear you had such a great trip and looking forward to your review.  Would love to hear about what you did for shore excursions and how you would rate your choices for those.  We will be embarking in just under 4 weeks.  

[Woofa]

I may take this in pieces as we work our way home.  Regarding shore excursions I am afraid we did very little.  New to cruising and to keep our costs down we did cruise only fair and had basically decided to just get off the ship at each port.  However we were very fortunate to meet up with @CaptainR on our roll call and he and his wife invited us to spend our first stop, St Kitts, at a beautiful Hyatt resort.  It was about a 30 minute cab ride and felt like a completely different island.  We had a nice private cabana well shaded and access to the private beach and huge pool.  Some food and drinks were included and the poolside bar was available for anything additional.  It was a beautiful day and the resort was very private and quiet.  We made good friends that day and they kept a good eye on us throughout our first cruise.  Helping with the little things experienced cruisers learn.  In fact we were fortunate to make numerous friends throughout our cruise and ended up exchanging contact information with multiple people.  

Regarding the five other stops we basically just walked off the ship into the local town for an hour or two and then back on the ship for lunch.  Overall we found lots of jewelry stores, liquor stores and cheap souvenirs.  St bars of course had much more expensive stores but even there we really did not find anything to buy like nice local art or crafts in a nice but reasonable price range (low hundreds of dollars.). Now this was partially our fault as we really did no research and did not feel like exploring too far.

A note here on the tender for St Barts.  This was by far the worst part of our trip.  My guess is that we were very close to not being allowed to go to shore at all.  I don't know exactly what I thought the tender process would be like but sitting in a cramped lifeboat with fifty other people was not fun or luxurious.  Getting on and off was in my opinion dangerous as the step on/off often moved up or down by six or more inches as you took it.  The crew was very good about getting everyone on and of safely but I would not be surprised if people get injured regularly.  I don't have any easy solution for this and others let us know this is not always so difficult but we did let Oceania know our concerns.  

We docked everywhere else and getting on/off was quick and easy.

Another quick note is that on this cruise at least, we found it difficult, if not impossible to get shaded chaise lounges by the Pool deck, even on port days.  Very early on these were all taken and rarely emptied even when people went to lunch as they left their stuff.  Now we were not in a bad spot as we had an extended balcony with our own private chaise lounges.  Additionally I was not able to just sit in a direct sun lounger as I did not have enough of a tan.  I also really don't have a great plan for this either except add some additional shade on deck 14 over looking the pool.  this is probably not as big an issue on non Caribbean cruises.  It would not surprise me if the majority of people never got off the ship which added to this being an issue.

More to come...

[MEFIowa]

19 minutes ago, Woofa said:

I may take this in pieces as we work our way home.  Regarding shore excursions I am afraid we did very little.  New to cruising and to keep our costs down we did cruise only fair and had basically decided to just get off the ship at each port. ... Regarding the five other stops we basically just walked off the ship into the local town for an hour or two and then back on the ship for lunch.  Overall we found lots of jewelry stores, liquor stores and cheap souvenirs.  St Barts of course had much more expensive stores but even there we really did not find anything to buy like nice local art or crafts in a nice but reasonable price range (low hundreds of dollars.). Now this was partially our fault as we really did no research and did not feel like exploring too far. ...

 

Did E. Caribbean on Sirena 11/22. Wife and I really engaged each stop, either in the port city (Roseau) or on an excursion (St. Vincent & Puerto Plata). As for St. Barts, too bad you didn't walk to Fort Karl which overlooks Shell Beach. The view amazing. We went to the other fort, too, though it is used by the local police. And we spent the afternoon enjoying Shell Beach, covered in shells, not sand.

[LakeRooseveltBrews]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

Did E. Caribbean on Sirena 11/22. Wife and I really engaged each stop, either in the port city (Roseau) or on an excursion (St. Vincent & Puerto Plata). As for St. Barts, too bad you didn't walk to Fort Karl which overlooks Shell Beach. The view amazing. We went to the other fort, too, though it is used by the local police. And we spent the afternoon enjoying Shell Beach, covered in shells, not sand.

MEFlowa - I read your trip review and couldn't tell if you did all your ports on your own or any on an organized excursion?  We have booked one excursion to go to Nevis from St. Kitts, but nothing else yet.  Any recommendations?  Thanks!

[Stem to Stern]

1 hour ago, Woofa said:

our first cruise

I am so sorry, but I am unable to locate your review.  

Could you or someone else please post a link to it?

I am loving reading this thread with your notes from your perspective of someone who had never cruised previously.  You are off to a wonderful start with your fair review.  Keep the details coming.  We just came off our first cruise on a former R class ship.  In some ways we really appreciated the small ship atmosphere, but some aspects left a bit to be desired.  This leaves me curious about the mid-sized O class ships.  How did you find the included adult beverages?  Did you see any need to upgrade your drink package?

[MEFIowa]

24 minutes ago, LakeRooseveltBrews said:

MEFlowa - I read your trip review and couldn't tell if you did all your ports on your own or any on an organized excursion?  We have booked one excursion to go to Nevis from St. Kitts, but nothing else yet.  Any recommendations?  Thanks!

My wife set up our excursions. We did Black Rock Point/Tunnel on St Vincent, Whale Watching off Domenica, and the Mountain/Cable Car at Puerto Plata. We did our own walking about in Gustavia, Roseau and San Juan. Sadly, we were forced to miss St. Kitts. Had an excursion to Brimstone (a UNESCO World Heritage site) planned.

[Riverroad]

2 hours ago, Woofa said:

I may take this in pieces as we work our way home.  Regarding shore excursions I am afraid we did very little.  New to cruising and to keep our costs down we did cruise only fair and had basically decided to just get off the ship at each port.  However we were very fortunate to meet up with @CaptainR on our roll call and he and his wife invited us to spend our first stop, St Kitts, at a beautiful Hyatt resort.  It was about a 30 minute cab ride and felt like a completely different island.  We had a nice private cabana well shaded and access to the private beach and huge pool.  Some food and drinks were included and the poolside bar was available for anything additional.  It was a beautiful day and the resort was very private and quiet.  We made good friends that day and they kept a good eye on us throughout our first cruise.  Helping with the little things experienced cruisers learn.  In fact we were fortunate to make numerous friends throughout our cruise and ended up exchanging contact information with multiple people.  

Regarding the five other stops we basically just walked off the ship into the local town for an hour or two and then back on the ship for lunch.  Overall we found lots of jewelry stores, liquor stores and cheap souvenirs.  St bars of course had much more expensive stores but even there we really did not find anything to buy like nice local art or crafts in a nice but reasonable price range (low hundreds of dollars.). Now this was partially our fault as we really did no research and did not feel like exploring too far.

A note here on the tender for St Barts.  This was by far the worst part of our trip.  My guess is that we were very close to not being allowed to go to shore at all.  I don't know exactly what I thought the tender process would be like but sitting in a cramped lifeboat with fifty other people was not fun or luxurious.  Getting on and off was in my opinion dangerous as the step on/off often moved up or down by six or more inches as you took it.  The crew was very good about getting everyone on and of safely but I would not be surprised if people get injured regularly.  I don't have any easy solution for this and others let us know this is not always so difficult but we did let Oceania know our concerns.  

We docked everywhere else and getting on/off was quick and easy.

Another quick note is that on this cruise at least, we found it difficult, if not impossible to get shaded chaise lounges by the Pool deck, even on port days.  Very early on these were all taken and rarely emptied even when people went to lunch as they left their stuff.  Now we were not in a bad spot as we had an extended balcony with our own private chaise lounges.  Additionally I was not able to just sit in a direct sun lounger as I did not have enough of a tan.  I also really don't have a great plan for this either except add some additional shade on deck 14 over looking the pool.  this is probably not as big an issue on non Caribbean cruises.  It would not surprise me if the majority of people never got off the ship which added to this being an issue.

More to come...

Do you know how your friend made arrangements to spend the day at the Hyatt in St. Kitts? We would like to do the same when we are in St. Kitts in March.   

[jonthomas]

We are also just back from the Riviera Jan 4 to 14 cruise.

 

Very good cruise.

 

Best part, meeting so many wonderful people. Really needed more time. 

 

Yes to Pizza from Waves Grill. Many salads did not have sea food in them, so had lots to chose from. Staterooms very nice. 

 

Very easy immigration back in Miami, took only a couple of minutes, no line ups, not like we experienced in San Juan.

 

Our next on O is to Alaska, Sept 4. It is included in the anniversary sale but at a higher price, so no sale for us. 

 

shout out to Fred and Sue, RobJames, I didnt get to see you after the meet and greet, where were you...lol...

 

hoping to see many familiar faces again on our next one....

[mauibabes]

@Woofa

 

Simple fix, use the Cabanas in the Spa at the front of the ship.  We have found them to be available most often and enjoy that much more than the Pool Deck lounging. Your extended balcony lounging sounds a lot better than the pool area anyway, IMHO. . 
We will have an extended veranda ON Vista in October so we will see how we like it. 
Glad you enjoyed your introduction to Oceania.  I am sure in the many months before your sailing and reading all the responses to your posts from me and others, you were wondering if all those “positive” comments could possibly be true? Well WELCOME to the Oceania family. It is not that things are always perfect and without a glitch, they are not, but it is just that everyone on board tries very hard to make your experience fantastic.  
 

We board Marina in a few days and are really looking forward to our South American adventure that has been three years in the planning and execution phases. Now we just need Mother Nature to accommodate us with calm seas and put Rogue Waves on hiatus 😇🙏

Enjoy your next Oceania cruise. 
Mauibabes

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, mauibabes said:

@Woofa

 

Simple fix, use the Cabanas in the Spa at the front of the ship.  We have found them to be available most often and enjoy that much more than the Pool Deck lounging.

Have they put cabanas on the O ships??

They took them off the R ships  a while back

[mauibabes]

Last April I thought they were but we did not use the area because we were in the Caribbean and I don’t do well in oppressive heat and humidity. We board Marina on Wednesday so I will go check for sure but maybe someone on an O ship will answer the question first. 
Mauibabes

[Jim and Monika]

We were on last trip as well, had a great time as usual.

I did not see Cabanas, but there were some connected loungers with "visors".

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, mauibabes said:

Last April I thought they were but we did not use the area because we were in the Caribbean and I don’t do well in oppressive heat and humidity. We board Marina on Wednesday so I will go check for sure but maybe someone on an O ship will answer the question first. 
Mauibabes

well you should not give mis information if you are not sure  then say nothing

 If you are thinking of the sunbeds with the shades  they are NOT by any stretch of the imaginations cabanas

https://www.cruisecritic.com/photos/ships/riviera-607/spa-terrace-311100/spa-terrace--v14124136/

JMO

[mauibabes]

Oops, you are correct.  The Sun beds with shades are what I called a cabana. Bottom line, that Sun bed is there to be used and is a nice way to lay out and relax without fighting for a lounge by the pool. 
Enjoy,

Mauibabes

[PhD-iva]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

well you should not give mis information if you are not sure  then say nothing

Harsh. Better to say nothing.

[susiesan]

2 hours ago, mauibabes said:

Oops, you are correct.  The Sun beds with shades are what I called a cabana. Bottom line, that Sun bed is there to be used and is a nice way to lay out and relax without fighting for a lounge by the pool. 
Enjoy,

Mauibabes

Don't you have to pay extra to access the spa terrace? 

[schmerl]

13 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Don't you have to pay extra to access the spa terrace? 

 

Not if you stay at concierge level or higher. 

Edited January 16, 2023 by schmerl

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, mauibabes said:

Oops, you are correct.  The Sun beds with shades are what I called a cabana. Bottom line, that Sun bed is there to be used and is a nice way to lay out and relax without fighting for a lounge by the pool. 
Enjoy,

Mauibabes

Except  there is no shade  or  drink other than water or sodas  like  at  a beach club cabana

YMMV

[mac_tlc]

On 1/15/2023 at 11:49 AM, Riverroad said:

Do you know how your friend made arrangements to spend the day at the Hyatt in St. Kitts? We would like to do the same when we are in St. Kitts in March.   

One site is 

 

www.resortpass.com

 

 

Looks pretty nice. Cabana is the way to go !

 

mac_tlc

Edited January 16, 2023 by mac_tlc

[shepherd really]

20 hours ago, LHT28 said:

well you should not give mis information if you are not sure  then say nothing

 

And I think anyone who has not cruised since precovid should preface every post by a disclaimer that says they really are not sure because their info may be out of date. JMO

[Woofa]

We are back home now and getting things back to normal.

Today a little about the ship.  Of course we did not see it before the refurbish but it was beautiful.  I believe we were full but other than a few crowded spots it seemed relatively empty.  We watched a video on board about the refurbish and this was an intensive redo.  All public areas looked great, our room was spacious enough and we over packed for sure.  Having the ability to place the open suitcases under our wonderful bed gave us plenty of options and that is where we stored dirty clothes.  We did one load of laundry on day 9 and had no problem getting a washer and dryer.  We did see someone utilizing the iron so that is available in all laundry rooms.  Plenty of extra drawer room in the night tables, the desk and the bathroom.  Fridge came stocked, as per our request with dr. Pepper and coke zero.  However coke zero was not easily available in all venues.  No problem, I can drink diet coke.  I highly recommend you tour the ship to look at the art while you are on it.  The collection is extensive, tasteful and varied.  I never did the art contest but saw some who did.  I was able to find a book in the library on the art for marina and Riviera and it is well worth a look.

The library was a beautiful area, often with no seats available.  One note, I guess I expected hundreds of what I would call vacation or resort books.  Grisham, etc.  This was not the case. This is a real library with plenty of non fiction, art books, etc.  If you plan to read a few bestsellers by the pool, bring them yourself.  I was able to finally read a copy of American Gods which I had wanted to read since seeing the first season on tv.  

Casino is small but nice.  A friend of ours did some gambling and there were poker tournaments on sea days.  We. Only went to the theatre once, to see the comedian which was fine.  Seats are spacious and comfy. In fact every seat on the ship we tried was comfortable.  Chaise lounges enough so to fall asleep (more than once.)

Bars looked nice, we only bought two drinks the entire cruise both Martinis for my wife who felt they were excellent.  Total spent on board, about $34.

I will discuss the restaurants when I get to for but all beautiful, specialties more intimate.  As I said pool deck was most crowded but you could always get a single chaise if you were willing to sit in the sun.  I loved the pool.  It is not large but rarely that crowded, most, like me hopped in for five or ten minutes at a time then back out.  The pool itself is uniformly deep except for the stairs.  Listed at 5'11" and that seemed about right as I am about 5'10" and it was slightly above my head.  The water is extremely salty and I found this made you very bouyant.  I was able to float freely and easily when there was room.  My favorite part was when the boat is moving and the water swishes around over the inner pool but within the surrounding guard rail, which many people sat on and dipped their feet.  It created almost a wave pool like experience which I very much enjoyed.  Plenty of little sitting areas if you walked around the ship.

Shops are limited but have the basics, stuff goes on sale as the cruise comes to an end.  You can certainly spend some obc on Toblerone or some jewelry, a handbag or a watch, higher level included ORIS.  We toured the gym and spa area on the first day (expect the spa deck) and while we did not use it the gym is nice and the open to everyone showers, sauna and quiet areas with the heated stone loungers looked comfortable.  

There is a nice game room nice to the barriers lounge and we saw people playing games, puzzles, etc.  While I am at it Baristas is wonderful.  Coffee is easily the best on the ship and we got to know the few guys working it quickly.  I saw the artists loft and a friend of ours did utilize it and it is spacious.  We took a cooking class and the space is large and they don't crowd it.  More on that when I do food.

Walked around the upper deck and saw the pickle ball court and the miniature golf.  Not sure how much they were utilized but it seems a nice space.  Horizons is beautiful and my wife went to tea five or six times.  Also we did the new passenger happy hour there and our CC meet and greet.

Back to our room we had the replacement full shower without tub and is is spacious.  If you were over maybe 6'1" you might have a height issue.  Shower had both the rain faucet and a detachable movable spray.  Water was always warm enough.  There was no bench as previously mentioned here and I don't think I saw handles so if mobility is an issue, it could affect you.  As I think I mentioned previously the bed is super comfortable and the pillows, sheets, towels, etc, all high level.  I can see why people buy their beds and sheets.

Tv is large and easily viewable from the bed or the couch.  Adequate programming including plenty of Oceania stuff and some movies, tv shows and news channels.  Assuming you are not holed up in your room all week watching tv, it should be more than adequate for most.  We did have to wait on elevators during the "rush hours" but we were fine using the stairways going down or if only up a few floors.  Note about the elevators, the doors close fast.  More than once we missed getting on an elevator with open space as a less mobile person was getting off slowly.  Not a big issue for us.

Still unpacking but more to come.  Again, I will do my best to help with questions that I can.