LIVE from Sirena Oranjestad to Barcelona - March 20 through April 10, 2023

[JoePDX]

Great to be back on an R-Class ship.   We were last on Riviera in September/October 2022.  Our other Oceania Cruises have all

 been on Nautica-our favorite ship.   

 

We have been cruising since 2001 primarily on Oceania and Celebrity.   This is our fourth transatlantic cruise, and we have two more booked.   Yes, we love sea days.   
 

Jeff retired on Friday and we left on Saturday.  So a celebration voyage too.   🍾 

 

Embarkation:   Not the best.   For some reason no porters, guests expected to handle luggage from the cab, through a passport check, to a shuttle bus and then schlepped into the terminal.  Not sure why the luggage wasn’t taken from the port gate directly to the ship.  
 

Kudos:   My husband Jeff left his phone in the cab.   Right before the shuttle left the port gate the cab diver called me.   So I jumped off the shuttle to wait for him to bring the phone.   Jeff proceeded to the terminal.   While in the terminal Jeff was met by Executive Concierge Juan Carlos.   When he heard what was happening Juan Carlos walked over to the port gate to meet me and make sure I had gotten the phone.   This was an act of kindness and concern that makes us really love Oceania and their amazing crew all the more.  😊

 

First time we have been on a ship that has gone through OceaniaNEXT updates.   Sirena looks great and we love the new stateroom colors and glass door on the shower.   We are in 7006 - C1 Deluxe Oceanview.   Room is huge as what should be the balcony is added to the room.   Would book this room again in a heartbeat.  Although I should keep this a secret as there are only four of these staterooms on each R-Class ship.     I was able to stow our 3 weeks of must haves easily with a couple drawers to spare and no crowding.   It also got the Jeff seal of approval for no clutter.   🏆

 

Only OceaniaNEXT change we don’t like are the elevators. Not sure who decided they needed to be glaringly bright white?   I feel like I am off to an interrogation every time the doors open.   😎

 

Crew - uniformly excellent in every way.   So kind and so wanting to please.

 

Ate in Red Ginger last night.   Love that Sirena has Red Ginger.   Watermelon Duck salad!!!  Miso Glazed Sea Bass!!!   A great dinner.   A+

 

Welcome show was great.   Some real talent onboard.
 

Breakfast in the Terrace Cafe today.  All good except unsticky sticky buns!   What???    Is that even a thing?  Please I hope someone is listening…we need sticky sticky buns!    
 

Today was Curaçao.   Short call from 6am to 1pm.   I wanted into town and visited the Synagogue.   Well worth a visit, oldest in the Americas that is still in use.   Also a small museum that is  dry well curated.   Cantor spoke about the history of the synagogue at 11:00 am.   I spent all my time there before I needed to get back to the ship.   

Lunch in the MDR.   Excellent service again and the food excellent just as we expect from Oceania.  Jeff is really liking the Power Bowls.   I had a salade nicoise.   

 

Meet and Greet today at 2:30.   Our roll call was pretty quiet.   We will see who shows up.

 

I will do my best to keep up with this thread.  I tried on Riviera but that cruise was just too port intensive.

 

Happy to answer questions.

 

Joe

Edited March 21, 2023 by JoePDX

[Woofa]

Thanks for posting.  Have a great cruise.

[LHT28]

Enjoy the cruise

 Too bad about the port  entry

 

[MEFIowa]

Looked into 7006 while on Sirena 11/2022 in a B2 6012, because we've got it booked on Sirena in the Baltic in 9/2024. Great room for the price!

[AMHuntFerry]

My spouse had a power bowl almost every lunch we ate in Terrace last fall. He really liked that they offered something different from day to day and that he could customize if needed.

While waiting for the sticky buns to be fixed, keep your eye out for a special if the day pastry with apples...sorry, I can't remember the name but everyone was oohing and ahhing about them. It's shape is similar to a muffin but it is definitely not a muffin. It's really good that they weren't available every day or I would have gained a few more pounds.

[LHT28]

@JoePDX  were you the person that asked about boarding later in the day?

 What time did you arrive at the port  ?

 

 

[JoePDX]

4 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

Looked into 7006 while on Sirena 11/2022 in a B2 6012, because we've got it booked on Sirena in the Baltic in 9/2024. Great room for the price!

It really is a great room.   Enjoy!

 

Joe

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

@JoePDX  were you the person that asked about boarding later in the day?

 What time did you arrive at the port  ?

 

 

We arrived about 11:15 for our 11-11:30 time slot.    The actual check in portion was quick and efficient.

 

Joe

[Toze]

@LHT28 That was me.  We just got back yesterday.  We arrived at the port around 4:00 p.m. Our taxi drove right up to the ship. We were quickly processed and went to our room.  Bags arrived shortly after.  We noticed that people arriving after us had a long way to walk with their bags.  There was no shuttle at that time.  Someone later told us that not all taxi drivers have the proper credentials to drive right up to the ship so they are let off at the gate by the road.  We definitely lucked out with our driver.  We had no idea.

 

In relation to other threads about time changes, food shortages etc. Sirena arrived and departed at the times noted on the itinerary.  The only very minor change was we had to tender instead of dock at one port. I can't remember which one.  I didn't notice anything missing except maybe hot sauce. Lots of jam!

 

@JoePDX We were on deck 7 as well.  If Patricia is your room steward you will be very pleased.  She is on top of everything.

 

 

[JoePDX]

2 hours ago, Toze said:

 

@JoePDX We were on deck 7 as well.  If Patricia is your room steward you will be very pleased.  She is on top of everything.

 

Our steward is Cheryl.  Also excellent.   

 

No shortages evident for us so far.    We have 19 more days to investigate.   😀

 

Joe

[ToxM]

Have a great cruise! 

 

I agree about the sticky buns, not sure what has happened to them but had 3 O cruises since the restart and the sticky bun of yore is gone sadly it would seem 😞

[JoePDX]

2 hours ago, ToxM said:

Have a great cruise! 

 

I agree about the sticky buns, not sure what has happened to them but had 3 O cruises since the restart and the sticky bun of yore is gone sadly it would seem 😞

We had great ones on Riviera in Sept/Oct 2022.   This morning they were stickier but not ooey gooey as I think they should be.  But I will keep trying them.   😀

 

Joe

[JoePDX]

We had about twenty show up for the Meet and Greet.   Cruise Director, General Manager, Executive Concierge and Restaurant Manager all showed up.   Great conversations with very interesting people.    One of the joys of Cruise Critic in my opinion.   We had to break up just before 4:00 pm as they were setting up for Tea.

 

Captains Welcome Party at 5:45.   Was held in Sirena lounge with the Captain and Senior Officers all present to be introduced.   Complimentary drinks in all lounges between 6pm and 8pm.

 

Dinner last night in MDR, restaurant was hopping.   Food excellent and well presented.  I was forced to have the nightly Soufflé.  😀 Malibu Coconut.  You might see a trend here…   Jeff had the Oceania 20th Anniversary dessert which was a macron with lime cream filling and raspberries.   Yum.   Crew happy and engaged and professional.   A lovely meal.   As Jeff said this is part of why we cruise.   
 

We are enroute to St. George’s, Grenada docking at 2:00 pm.   Just poured down rain 

on the pool deck while still sunny.   Now back to sun.   
 

All is good on Sirena.   
 

Joe

[Twiga]

We were on the Sirena from January 11 to February 7, 2023.  We had wonderfully sticky "Sticky Buns" every day.  The apple pastries were also delicious!  We, too, loved the new furnishings in our stateroom, a B1 7069.  The glass shower doors were great!  They were double doors which moved in both directions (in or out or half and half), so I could push them both into the shower out of the way during the day.  Our stateroom attendant, Michael, was wonderful.  The servers in the Terrace Cafe were fabulous, especially Marilyn, Joefe, Judy and Jennina.  If you see any of them, please tell them that Nancy & Roy say hi!   I know you will have a fantastic cruise!

[marne-c]

Happily following this thread.  Thank you, @JoePDX!  My wife and I will be on a TA itinerary in 2024 on Sirena, departing from Miami.

 

--Marne

 

P.S.  Here's to a return of stickiness!

[jennybenny]

Thanks for posting on your cruise!! I would love this itinerary! Enjoy your cruise!

[YoPhilly]

I love the look of those "R" ships....THAT'S what a cruise ship should look like!

[JoePDX]

25 minutes ago, YoPhilly said:

I love the look of those "R" ships....THAT'S what a cruise ship should look like!

We love the R-Class ships…. They are home for us.

 

Joe

[davencl]

Have they mentioned how many are on this cruise?

[osandomir]

4 hours ago, JoePDX said:

We love the R-Class ships…. They are home for us.

 

Joe

Following with a great interest. We’ll be boarding in Barcelona on April 10 when you disembark. Can you please post about the temperature around the ship. Our last cruise, also Sirena, was in December and the temperature in all venues was very pleasant. Then, it was the Caribbean and can be much cooler elsewhere. Would like to hear your “live” opinion that can help me with packing right.

 

Thanks.

Edited March 23, 2023 by osandomir

[ak1004]

Curious about 7006 room - only the room is bigger or the bathroom too? 

[DeanoNorthPerth]

25 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

Curious about 7006 room - only the room is bigger or the bathroom too? 

I've cruised in this cabin on another R class and it is the room which is bigger. Space which is where the balcony would have been (if big enough) is now part of room. Bathroom is the same size as other Deluxe Oceanviews.

[JoePDX]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

Curious about 7006 room - only the room is bigger or the bathroom too? 

Just the room.   Bathroom is the same petite size.   😊

 

Joe

[JoePDX]

1 hour ago, osandomir said:

Following with a great interest. We’ll be boarding in Barcelona on April 10 when you disembark. Can you please post about the temperature around the ship. Our last cruise, also Sirena, was in December and the temperature in all venues was very pleasant. Then, it was the Caribbean and can be much cooler elsewhere. Would like to hear your “live” opinion that can help me with packing right.

 

Thanks.

I have found the temperatures in all venues to be very pleasant.   That said I do prefer on the cooler side, but I definitely wouldn’t say any place has been uncomfortable either in the warm or cold direction.

 

Public spaces were rather warm on embarkation day as they had the doors on deck 4 open all day…

 

I will try and comment again on this once we get out of the hot and humid Caribbean. 

 

Joe

[MEFIowa]

10 hours ago, ak1004 said:

Curious about 7006 room - only the room is bigger or the bathroom too? 

On the smaller R-class ships C1 cabins 6004 & 6005 and 7006 & 7007 have as interior space, "only the room", all of what would be the veranda on the A & B cabins next to them. If you study the deck plans you can see these 4 cabins expand outward to the edge of where the veranda edge next to it also ends. We've got 7006 booked in 9/24 and I went into 6004 while on Sirena 11/2022 (we were in B2 6012) to see what it looked like.

[ak1004]

49 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

On the smaller R-class ships C1 cabins 6004 & 6005 and 7006 & 7007 have as interior space, "only the room", all of what would be the veranda on the A & B cabins next to them. If you study the deck plans you can see these 4 cabins expand outward to the edge of where the veranda edge next to it also ends. We've got 7006 booked in 9/24 and I went into 6004 while on Sirena 11/2022 (we were in B2 6012) to see what it looked like.

 

Yes, I looked at the deck plans. Thank you.

 

So basically if the regular OV is around 165 sqft, and veranda is around 50 sqft, then those "special" cabins 6004 & 6005 and 7006 & 7007 have around 215 sqft of interior space?

 

This would be ideal for us as we don't use veranda anyway, and the regular OV cabins are a bit below our comfort level, but 215 sqft is a very respectful size.

 

I guess for some people being so far forward could be an issue? This is why I see those cabins still available on couple random voyages that I checked.