Aussie Gal

Hi Cynthia,

I had a sore throat for about 5-6 days beforehand and had been taking Panodol but the the flight home didn't help and I awoke on Thursday to an ear which seemed blocked. Nothing I could do would help it so I finally succumbed to a visit to our GP. I am now on Amoxil and hopefully it will be better soon.

Jennie

Very good decision- I can tell you that if you went on the Regatta you would likely come back feeling like me- never again on Oceania!

I didn't return home feeling like that though I have now come down with a middle ear infection which developed a day after leaving the ship, I am sure the air conditioning needs checking as some public rooms were freezing whilst others were a good temperature. The Regatta Lounge and Horizons were two very cold venues.

I love the small ships and the interior of the ship was beautifully decorated. Our PH was in excellent condition and they did quite a bit of work on our balcony when we were in the various ports so they are trying to keep the ship like new though it is extremely hard with it being at sea constantly and of course it was one of the first of the "R" ships built, back in 1998.

Having said that, I wouldn't book another cruise on the Regatta. We decided that we prefer being on a newer ship and that the Marina suits us now with its size and the number of passengers on board. We booked a cruise on her for next year as I felt that our experience on the Regatta just wasn't normal. It had arrived down to Sydney after the trouble with the engine or engines and who knows what else. So it was more less jinxed from the start of our cruise especially when we couldn't leave Sydney on time.

Hopefully when we board the Marina in Amsterdam next year, we will have the true Oceania experience that we have enjoyed before.

Jennie

Jennie - just to be fair. This is most likely due to Amex policy rather than Oceania’s (speaking from prior similar situations with credit card refunds).

It may take a few days before it’s credited.

I am sorry to hear about your less than perfect cruise :(

I don’t like hearing these types of things about Oceania as I am not anxious to start with a new cruise line this late - but I will if necessary.

Paul,

We too are so disappointed as I have been telling everyone that Oceania is our favourite cruise line. I am hoping that it was just a glitch. We have booked to go on the Marina next year in September and in the meantime we are going on Viking in April next year as well so that will be a good comparison.

Jennie

Cynthia,

We too were so excited about showing you Kangaroo Island plus we wanted to revisit that wonderful island. I just couldn't believe it when we discovered we weren't going to get ashore! There was even some doubt about Eden but at least we did get there and what a surprise that little town was to us.

On another note, Oceania is very eager to take our money for our shore excursions, it comes out of our credit cards immediately, but they are very slow to credit the money back to us for the shore excursions we didn't use. It is now eight days since we left the ship and as yet no money has been put back into our Amex account. I wonder when that is going to appear!

Jennie

You may want to write to customer service I did and my travel agent said they will offer me money on a future cruise or a reund of some sort. I had an issue with my cabin too. The cruise was an overall disaster for us because we were in the back of the ship and the pollution from the smokestack made it impossible to use the terrace. Oceania was bought by Norwegian (NCL )a budget line. They are obviously cutting costs and quality to pay for the enormous amount of debt they took on to make that purchase . I believe there is also a mold issue on the ship. I was also unhappy that 2 ports planned Cairns and Darwin were both closed for Christmas and New Years ( poor planning) - Personally we will never go on an oceania cruise again a future credit would not matter to me but a refund would—

Thanks for your advice and also the email addresses of whom to send my letter of complaint. My main complaint will be the food though there are a couple of other things. We were fortunate in that our PH suite was fine. No smell in the cabin or outside but then we were right next door to where the Captain and Officers enter to go their quarters and to the bridge. As we walked down the passage to get to the second set of elevators, we did smell some odd smells along the way.

We too were disappointed in that both Cairns and Darwin were scheduled for Public Holidays. I am sure the powers that be could have avoided that by switching us over to New Guinea first before we arrived into Cairns. As it was we missed Townsville which was on the original itinerary, probably due to arriving there on Christmas Day.

It is all very well for those in Miami to map out an itinerary but they do need to know the ports and the Country before doing so. I am sure half of those over there have no idea of the distances that are involved when circumnavigating Australia. It is a huge country, nearly as big as the U.S. and a lot of logistics are involved. March/April would be the ideal time to do the cruise but that is the time when Oceania's ship are sent elsewhere, unfortunately. Still on the positive side, we did have wonderful weather, the sun shone on most days and we didn't experience any rain.

I am glad that we have been right around our country and it has left us with some great memories. We still rate our 35 day cruise on the Nautica back in 2008, when we cruised from Hong Kong to Athens as our best cruise and our second best was our 34 days on Marina from Tahiti to New York in April 2016, even though we missed Easter Island for the 2nd time. Due to missing so many ports on this cruise - 25% of the voyage - and the disappointing food in the Dining Room, this is well down on our list of cruises we have enjoyed.

Jennie

I was following along with this review. I’m on the Azamara Journey cruise down to Sydney presently and was told by a tour operator today that the day that was cancelled in Esperance was completely flat and calm. So make of that what you will.

 

 

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I was following our cruise on our Bureau of Meteorology website so that I could see what the temperatures were going to be in each port. As it was, those on the bridge got the temperature wrong in every port. I think they must have been using some other weather reporting station but I do know that our Bureau is always spot on and does the reporting for Antarctica as far away as Ushuaia.

Anyhow, when we were in Fremantle on our first and supposedly only day, the Captain decided early in the afternoon that the seas would be too rough in Esperance to tender and we would stay another day. Later on that afternoon, I went into the BOM website and found that the seas had calmed and it was going to be a lovely day on the Monday. :)

By this time, the Captain had made his decision and we were moved to another berth and had to stay the extra day - Saturday - in Fremantle. When we left that night, we took a different route, further south than Esperance, so we missed that part of the coast altogether and the seas were calm once we rounded the Cape. Of course on the Monday around 5pm, we suddenly had to return back two hours to Albany for a medical emergency, but that is another story.

We were all so disappointed at not going into Esperance but not nearly as disappointed as missing Kangaroo Island. I am following a blog of the Captain who is taking HAL'S Round the World voyage on the Amsterdam and already he has managed to get into two tender ports that are normally too hard to tackle just by being patient and working out how to move the ship around and finding what he calls "the sweet spot" for tendering.

Jennie

We too found the food not to be to the standard that we enjoyed on the Marina in April of 2016 when we spent the same amount of time on her as we did on the Regatta this cruise. The food on that cruise was outstanding and we were expecting a similar experience. Instead we found the food in the Main Dining Room to be very ordinary, not even as good as when we were on Princess last April, 2017.

We did enjoy the food in Polo though and we ended up eating there at least 6 times and in Toscano 3 times.

We being Australians, we couldn't understand why they weren't loading on to the ship our wonderful produce of fresh fish, scallops, prawns, meat and fruit and vegetables. We live in a country where bananas are plentiful and yet we ran out of them within a few days of leaving Sydney. We also ran out of yoghurt and other odds and ends. Also the fish served up was that awful frozen dover sole or sea bass, both unappetising and as for the frozen lobsters, why serve up those tiny ones from the East coast of the U.S. when they could have bought wonderful crayfish when we were in our southern waters.

I agree, I do think that NCL have had a big impact on Oceania and what was once a wonderful cruise line is now becoming just like all of those average lines where quantity outweighs quality.

Jennie

We were so lucky with the weather we had in Burnie as when we arrived up into the National Park the sun was shining and it was 25C. Down in Burnie, it seemed to have been a cloudy day and when we returned at 4pm, it was trying to rain.

We left the area around Makers Mark at 9.30am and we arrived up at the car park at Cradle Mountain at 11am. We returned the car back at 4pm so we were away 6.5 hours. We spent about 45 minutes over lunch at the Cradle Mountain Resort Hotel.

It was a great day out in the fresh air and we loved our short time in Tasmania. We are lucky as we will be returning in early April. We will be driving our lovely U.S. friends from Denver around this special island which we always love to visit.

Jennie

I have to put in a plug for our wonderful Victorian wines. Both the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula make great Pinot Savignon's as well as any wine made with white wine grapes as well. Then our friends who own the Barrwon Ridge winery near Geelong make fabulous chardonnay, shiraz and sparkling white wines. Also in the north east of Victoria we have our fortified wines so we have the best of all worlds in our small State.

We are all so disappointed at not making Kangaroo Island. Peter and I have been here before and spent 8 days on this lovely island.We were so looking forward to showiing our friends around instead we are moving at around 3 knots as we cannot make it into Adelaide until 7pm!! The sea has calmed right down and there isn't a ripple on the surface. Just our luck! :mad:

Jennie

With all our missed ports and Medical Emergencies happening, we are still enjoying our time on the Regatta. The weather has been disappointing due to the Cyclone up near Broome and Exmouth but that is par for the course as this is the cyclone season in Northern Australia.

Tomorrow in Kangaroo Island we are expecting 25C-28C and in Adelaide on Wednesday it is going to be 37C. Melbourne on Friday will be similar so we will soon be back to an Australian summer!

We had dinner up in Polo last night and had a great meal. We have also eaten a few times in Toscano and most nights in the Grand Dining Room. Our favourite meal each day is breakfast in the dining room where most tables are for two and we can enjoy a very leisurely meal.

We ate lunch out in Fremantle both days and enjoyed the meals. On the first day we went to a restaurant overlooking the water where we had delicious oysters and calamari. On the second day we ate at a little cafe and had a delicious salad roll and home made carrot cake.

Western Australia does have great wines from Margaret River, South Australia also has great wines, Victoria has wonderful cool climate wines from the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula as does Tasmania. The food and produce from each State is delicious and varied and it is a pity that Oceania doesn't provide some of the wonderful fish that is found in this part of our continent. Instead they only offer Dover Sole, Sea Bass and those very small frozen lobsters from the U.S.

At the moment we are cruising in waters where the best crayfish you can eat is caught and not far away is Coffin Bay where the most wonderful oysters are grown! If we want to enjoy this type of produce and wines, we have to take a land trip as cruising doesn't provide these wonderful products. Still, we haven't gone hungry though the ship did run out of yoghurt and a few other prodoucts for a couple of days before we reached Fremantle.

Overall, Peter and I have enjoyed this cruise, especially seeing our country through the eyes of our Canadian and U.S. friends We are of course disappointed in missing the 3 ports though yesterday we booked a trip to Fraser Island so life isn't too bad. . We just need to all pull up our socks and try and do better at Trivia!!

Jennie

I had always wanted to do a cruise right around our beautiful country having gone as far as Perth to Darwin in a number of cruise but my DH wasn't so keen until our gorgeous Canadian friends, Cathi and Bruce, told us that they had booked this cruise over a year ago. We looked at the itinerary and Fraser Island stood out, so we went ahead and booked it. Of course, the only port cancelled at this point has been Fraser Island. It is the largest Sand island in the world and the make up of the island is most interesting. Anyhow, we will just have to make a trip there in the future which isn't such a big deal.

The cruise has been absolutely wonderful. We are on our way down the West Coast of Australia and so far we have been blessed with sunny days and the calmest of seas. We are going to be visiting three ports along the way that we have never been to - Exmouth, Geraldton and Esperance - plus we will be returning to delightful Kangaroo Islandl which is a great place to visit. Also, on this cruise you get to see the capital cities of 5 of our 6 States, we are mssing Hobart, though we are going to Burnie which is close to the lovely Cradle Mountain in Tasmania.

Plus for those who have never been to our Top End, Darwin is a lovely city and a very surprising one. Of course there are two added bonuses as well, the side trip to New Guinea and of course to lovely Bali.

So if you are thinking about coming down here and seeing Australia, then this is a great cruise. The cruise after this one also includes New Zealand so you could combine the two and see both countries.

As far as the standards on the Regatta are concerned, we have only found politeness and friendliness from the crew and have enjoyed most meals. Our two room stewards are excellent and our Butler so far has had little to do as we don't really need a butler but when we have asked him to do something he has been so happy to please.

We have our breakfasts in the Main Dining Room and most of our Evening Meals except when we go to Tosccano's or Polo. Within a few days, the wait staff and the lass at the desk knew our names and our likes and dislikes.

The drink steward up in Horizons, also knows what our little group likes in the way of drinks so as far as we are concerned we haven't found any standards slipping on this ship.

Our Cruise Director, Julie James is excellent and we enjoy each afternoon at Trivia with her presiding. So all in all it has and is a wonderful journey around our Island Continent.

Jennie

Jennie

Ken,

We have just been so incredibly lucky. Usually the cyclones up north of Australia start to develoop around this time though the cyclone that devastated Darwin in the 70's arrived on Christmas Eve. The cyclones and storms can affect all the top half of Australia, anywhere from north of Mackay in Queensland to north of Exmouth on the Western Australia coast. The one cyclone doesn't do the whole of that area. Usually you will find one cyclone affecting the East Coast and a different one affecting the West Coast.

Often they are the tail end of cyclones which have affected Fiji, New Caledonia or Vanuatu so it is just luck if you have a smooth trip. I haven't looked at the weather for our trip down the West Coast as yet but today is just perfect and we are only a couple of hours from Bali. Again it is the wet season here and yet there isn't a cloud in the sky! We may even miss out on the afternoon showers which occur here most days at this time of the year. We were in Bali in November and most afternoons around 4-5pm, the heavens opened and down came the rain.

So all I can say is that Mother Nature has her own ideas and you just hope that she will be kind to you when you do this wonderful cruise.

Jennie

Jennie..I have an Aussie question for you. Will it be rough waters in May when we are sailing from Melbourne to Burnie, Tas. Then from there to Picton, NZ? Thanks.

 

Francie

It is hard to predct the weather though May can be a lovely time in Melbourne. The Tasman Sea can be extremely rough even at this time of the year. It is just up to nature and what she decides to do.

We did the trip from Auckland to Sydney in May last year - and even though it was very rough after we left Auckland, the Bay of Islands visit was cancelled - we found the trip racross the Tasman to be quite smooth. We also did it in January a couple of years ago and it was also smooth. It is just luck.

Jennie

Hi Jennie

 

Have been following and enjoying this thread and the blog thinking of you on your travels! Hope Perth puts on a nice day for you - Vera

Vera,

Happy New Year to you and Ian. We have been just so lucky as we are having wonderful weather so far with the smoothest of seas. In fact, it is hard to believe we are in a ship on the ocean. We are anchored at Komodo Isand at the moment and the sea is like glass!

Of course, we know it is the cyclone season so anything can happen on our way down the West Coast. We hope our luck continues with the weather but we are prepared for anything that nature decides to do.

Jennie

We are loving the Circumnavigation of our country on the Regatta, especially showing some of the highlights to our Canadian and U.S. friends. Cynthia is a great blogger and Pete and I are enjoying reading where we have been. Dave takes wonderful photos so if you are enjoying Cynthia's blog, go and see the great photos that he has taken.

Jennie

When we had dinner with them and their Canadian friends, we did notice that they received a slightly different meal from us but there weren't any complaints at all. In fact he seemed very happy and was enjoying the wines and beer.

In the end we did have more to do with their friends from Canada who were a lovely couple.

Jennie

I am sure we had dinner with the poster of the review a couple of times and he is a youngish man in his late 40's and he certainly didn't wear any hearing aids.

Jennie

We were on that very same cruise and other than the horrible weather which our Cruise Director did say was the worst that they had ever experienced, I cannot fault the staff or the Gem. We found our bedroom on the second level to be quite spacious especially the bathroom. I wonder what A.J.Smith would have thought of the Scenic Diamond which we boarded after our Gems of the Seine cruise as the bedrooms and bathrooms were so much smaller.

Yes, the meals were small and we were surprised at the standard of the meals which wasn't as high as we had been led to believe but we certainly had plenty to eat. We loved our dinner at L'amour, both the food and wines were excellent.

Yes, sometimes the "Tailormade's" didn't work but you only had to return them to the desk and they would replace it immediately.

I didn't hear any loud passengers at all and we mixed with a lot of people. We found the majority of the passengers to be widely travelled and very polite. We particularly enjoyed the excursions we chose which included a visit to the Somme, a visit to the Normandy landings, a walking tour or Rouen, a visit to Monet's Garden, a visit to the Palace Chantilly and a visit to the Vaux le Vicomete Palace.

We also didn't hear a lot of complaints and I am surprised that A.J.Smith wanted to leave after the fourth day which meant that we had only just arrived into Honfleur. I am wondering if the weather was what really made him want to leave as it was ghastly. Using a loud voiced male as an excuse for becoming deaf is hardly playing the game!! :mad:

Jennie

The harbor master decides where boats dock. So the captain may have no control over where and how a boat is docked.Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I can concur with that, but to just turn the boat around and face the other way, I am sure that wouldn't affect the Harbour Master.

We weren't the only passengers who were upset that we were always facing the dock. I spoke to loads of others who were also on the Starboard side and they said that was one of the complaints that they were putting into the survey which we all filled out before we disembarked for the final time. I felt so sorry for those on the bottom deck as it would have been far worse for them.

We have just returned home from two BtB cruises on Scenic. We did the 10 day Gems of the Seine cruise on the Gem and then the 10 day Beautiful Bordeaux on the Diamond.

This was our first experience of River Cruising after doing 30+ Ocean cruises, and it will be our last as we know for certain now that River Cruising is not for us. We prefer the laid back style of Ocean cruising where you can please yourself and do as much as you want or as little as you want each day. We found the two River Cruises were jolly hard work with the early mornings and the long bus rides.

We found the staff and service to be excellent and we had wonderful guides and bus drivers. We just felt that we were really on a Bus Trip and the only difference was that we came back to the same hotel room each night. We certainly didn't go very far on the rivers and we did expect more free time. Perhaps we hadn't received the correct information but I know we did get a huge shock when once on board, we discovered there was very little free time.

Even at night, we had to be up in the lounge at 6.45pm for the next day's briefing immediately followed by 7pm dinner.Some nights we only returned to the boat at 6pm. No wonder, the night life was practically non existent as everyone was so tired they were in bed by 9.30-10pm.

We were also disappointed with the food. It certainly wasn't gourmet food, I would put the food below the standard of a Princess cruise. We found the portions to be very small, very few vegetables were provided and on one night when my husband ordered fish, he received two very small pieces of 1" x 2". Our table companions on that night couldn't believe their eyes when they saw how small the fish portion was. We did put this complaint into our survey at the end of the cruise as we felt what he received was an insult to anyone. We couldn't believe that after seeing so many fresh fish at the markets around Bordeaux that we weren't served up any white fish.

We much preferred the smaller Gem to the Diamond. We loved the larger rooms, the bigger bathrooms and the more compact feel to the boat. The beds on both boats were very comfortable but we were disappointed in that the we really didn't do much cruising when in Bordeaux and only went to 3 or 4 ports. I just wish that we had been told about this type of cruising as we did expect to be going up and down the rivers and not spending multiple nights in one town.

Also, being on the starboard side, we were against the dock each time we tied up which was disappointing and we felt that the Captain could have been more fair and occasionally put the portside against the dock as with the 15ft tides each day, our view was often of what people had dropped into the river such as old tyres, rusty metal etc. It would have been nicer to have been looking out at the river.

Overall, we really don't feel that we received value for money. The cost of the two cruises was high and for the money we spent, we could have had a wonderful cruise on one of the luxury cruise lines such as Oceania, Silverseas or Seabourn. We had been referred to Scenic by friends who had done the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise which may or may not be completely different to our two cruises.

Would love to respond to the Scenic comments however its almost 3 weeks since we left the ship and 2 weeks since we wrote to scenic who were to contact us ASAP and we are still waiting. Perhaps its time for legal intervention to get them to address the injury and other issues we encountered.

 

New Scenic, Not Happy at all. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Were you on the Scenic Gem cruise that we were on which left Paris on the Thursday 7th September? If so, were you the gentleman that had the terrible fall going into the dining room towards the end of the cruise? I do hope that you weren't hurt too badly. That was the cruise that had the terrible weather.

Jennie

We paid for it on our cruise on the Emerald Princess in January and loved it so much that we have booked Club Class again on our next cruise with Princess. The reason we enjoyed it so much was that we enjoyed eating in the smaller area of the dining room, there were loads of tables for two, we could eat our breakfast and lunch if we desired in that same dining area and best of all we could go anytime for dinner from 6pm onwards and always get a table. Every meal, including breakfast, the Head Waiter would make something special that wasn't on the menu.

We also got to know other Club Class cruisers as our dining room was very friendly and even though we were at a table for two along the wall, we could talk to couples on either side of us. We thought it was a great way to dine.

As far as dress code was concerned, it was the same in our part of the dining room as in all the other dining rooms, formal wear for formal nights, informal wear on those other nights.

We have cruised on Celebrity a couple of times and we have always paid to be in Aqua Class. I believe that Princess is creating the Club Mini Class to be more like Aqua Class or Princess/Queens Grill on Cunard which we have also used.

Jennie

Catherine,

I cannot believe that this thread has come to life after all these years. We did use Chen Shen Shen twice on that trip back then which was in 2009. The first time was when our ship was docked in Shanghai - Azamara's Quest - and he took six or eight of us around Shanghai. He was especially good when he took us to the wonderful restaurant for the best dumplings. We didn't have to stand in the long queue and we walked right up to the front of the queue.

We also used him when we returned to Shanghai at the end of our cruise and he took my DH and self to Suzhou for the day. I have just reread my diary and we had an excellent day with him where we used all Public Transport including the train from Shanghai to Suzhou.

We used Tansy whose address was at Beijing Service but whose new email address is tansy@chinatravelshangai.com. I believe it is the same company. We had a fantastic time using that Company with a private guide and driver in Beijing, one in Xian, one Guilan etc. They took us to the airport each time and made sure we were booked in for our next flight.

I have been in touch with Tansy as we were going to be doing a cruise next year which finished in Shanghai and we wanted to do the 3 Gorges cruise plus see the Pandas. We have cancelled that cruise for something better, but Tansy's quote was excellent and we were definitely going to use her Company.

Of the two guides, I would go with Tansy only because Chen Shen Shen's is hard to get in touch with him as often his email doesn't work and I think he may have been more expensive.

Jennie

I was on the Emerald Princess in January and it did not look like it was too popular of being used at all. Most of the time I saw that part of the dining room empty and not in use.

 

I have been in a full suite before and I personally would not be happy sitting in a separate part of the dining room for club class. I have met some interesting people on cruises who I often keep in contact with and I can tell you right now that none of the people I met and keep in touch with would have been in club class in the dining room. This is just my personal opinion of it and I think that it is snobbery and is out of touch with the Princess style. I have cruised in suites before and I will be cruising in them again and I can say one thing for certain is that I will never utelise the club class part of the main dining room ever.

I am not sure which cruise you were on in the Emerald in January but I can say that on our cruise which left Sydney for Vanuatu and New Caledonia on the 21st January, our Club Class Dining Room was fully utilised.

We loved being able to go to dinner whenever we wanted and we have enjoyed a similar way of dining on both Celebrity and Cunard. We travel a lot on Oceania, where that type of dining is not needed as all their restaurants are anytime dining and there is no traditional. I don't consider it snobbish to want to choose when you want to go to dinner and we have found on the larger Princess ships, that it is just too hard to get the time you want and so have stuck to Traditional until Club Class was offered. We cannot eat at 6pm and 8.30pm is far too late. We loved being able to go to dinner at 7pm without having to wait for a table.

Jennie

On the Emerald in January, there were 28 mini suite cabins that were designated as Club Class. During breakfast, only those passengers came to breakfast whereas for dinner the suite passengers also were present. The suites all went to Sabatini's for their breakfast. I am not sure about lunch as we always had our lunch at the International café.

The Club Class dining room was never full, as they have to allow for cruisers to go to dinner at anytime between 6pm and 9.00pm. We usually went around 7pm and we found the same people seemed to eat at that time every night. We got to know quite a few of the couples and it was a very pleasant way to dine. It was a leisurely meal, never rushed and as the Emerald had two shows a night, one at 7pm and one at 9pm, we found that we were in ample time for the second show.

Jennie