lj77346

We'll be on the Riviera in February. Could you post a picture of the revised Waves with the pizzeria? Also, in the evening when the pizzeria is open, do they serve only whole pizzas or by the slice as well? Thank you for taking the time to post so much useful information.

We cruised Alaska on the Regatta during the 4th of July week in both 2019 and 2022. From what we can remember, there were less than 20 children on each of those cruisers. Most of the children appeared to be in the 5 year old to teens age range. Although there was a "children's program" on each of the cruises, it seemed to consist of 2 people who had activities for children (looked like games and arts & crafts) in the card room once or twice a day - certainly not a comprehensive program like the mass market cruises have. Not surprisingly, the only children who seemed to participate in the activities were the younger children - it's not like they have video games or anything like that to entertain the children. From discussions with one or two families that had children on the cruise, it seems liked the families planned excursions in the ports that they felt the children would enjoy.

Same here - as long as "Captain Speaking" can get us safely from port to port, we're happy.

On an upcoming cruise on the Marina, we are in one of the 4 penthouse cabins at the aft of deck 7. As there are no other penthouses nearby, will butler service at that location be an afterthought or will it be similar to that provided when we had a penthouse on deck 11?

The Riviera goes from Japan to Vancouver in May 2025. Since the Regatta is on a grand voyage through August 2025, it looks like the Riviera will be cruising Alaska in the summer of 2025.

We started cruising in the early 1980's and remember that music from the 40's and 50's was being featured on the ships. We used to think - some of the people on this cruise are really old. Now it's the 2020's, we're in our 70's and when younger cruisers see us, they're probably thinking - that couple is really old. However, 40 years since we started cruising and we're still listening to music from the 1950's. It sure would be nice if the music choices at least moved to the 60's and 70's. It looks like the driving force behind developing new shows for Oceania is inertia.

There are two metal reusable water bottles in each room. You can use them to carry water with you on the ship or on shore excursions, etc. and they are yours to take home if you want to keep them.

It's pretty amusing that a topic that started out questioning whether any cabins are still saved for quarantine purposes on Oceania ships has morphed into angst about the significance of "waitlist." Specifically, the late year Marina cruises have been mentioned and my guess is that "waitlist" probably means that the cruises likely are fully booked. As many future cruise credits that were issued for Covid cancelled cruises need to be used by the end of 2022, it wouldn't be surprising if those credits are being used on the November and December cruises - that's what I and probably lots of others are doing. I'm sure that Oceania wants to get the FCC's off their books and start to get new revenue for cruises. As the Marina is used for Oceania's South America cruises, I would be surprised if any were cancelled as except for the limited cruises last winter there has been virtually no season in that area for years.

The CD does the afternoon trivia and someone on the production cast does the evening (usually 8:30) "brainteasers" trivia in Horizons on nights when there is no production cast show.

Due to Hurricane Kay approaching Ensenada, the itinerary for the Sept. 9 Regatta cruise has changed quite a bit. Rather than heading for Ensenada on Friday evening the ship is spending the night at the pier in San Pedro until 6 p.m. Saturday when it heads to San Francisco. The stops at San Francisco and Eureka are unchanged. However, after leaving Eureka, the stop in Santa Barbara will be skipped as the ship will sail to Ensenada where it will make a “technical stop” from 5 to 7 p.m. to meet its foreign port requirement. I’m happy to be on the ship, but essentially this is now an 8 day cruise with 2 ports.

If you look at Marina's scheduled itineraries through 2023, it looks like it is scheduled for refurbishment sometime in mid/late Oct. to Nov 12, 2023. Apparently Oceania management decided that the best scheduling was to use the Marina for the 2022/23 South America season and complete it's 2023 season in Europe before refurbishing prior to its Nov. 2023 trans-Atlantic cruise. Scheduling drydocks is done well in advance of the event, so once a decision on timing is made, it can't easily be changed especially with ongoing supply chain issues.

Keep in mind that the Regatta's production cast consists of 4 singers and 2 dancers and in general the small dance floor serves as the stage, so the production shows while enjoyable are not like the shows on the large cruise ships.

While I am surprised by the decision to allow non-vaccinated passengers to sail on Oceania, I am more concerned that when I fly to the cruise there's a chance that I might be sitting next to an non-vaccinated, unmasked passenger for 3 hours or more. On a ship I can stay away from other passengers if I want, on a plane, that's not an option. I don't know if masking makes much of a difference or not, but here are my observations from 4 Oceania cruises between Dec. 2021 and June 2022. The first two cruises had testing at the pier and the last two just had the 2 day pre-cruise test requirement. On none of the cruises were masks mandatory. Apparently most passengers were not too concerned with the transmission of Covid as I would estimate that only about 10% of passengers voluntarily wore masks. To me, wearing a mask has become a part of life so on a ship I'll wear one in elevators, in shops, or in any other situations where crowding is an issue, plus I find that I look better in a mask than without. So, if mask wearing can sort of be viewed as a rough indicator of how concerned people are about catching Covid, my non-scientific observation is that most Oceania passengers are willing to roll the dice and take their chances. Now that the rules have changed everyone needs to decide what is right for them - there is no one size fits all solution that will make everyone happy.

We've been on four cruises (Riviera Dec. 2021, Marina Feb. 2022, Regatta May 2022 and June 2022) since sailing resumed and basically it was the Oceania cruise experience we were expecting. As others mentioned, there was some supply chain issues like no Guinness or Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey on one of the Regatta cruises, but nothing major - I even saved some calories by not drinking beer so I could use those calories for ice cream. As always the service was great and we were never in danger of going hungry. The Riviera and Marina cruises had pretty light passenger loads and both Regatta cruises, if memory serves me correctly, were sailing at 80%+ capacity. We are on the two California coastal cruises on the Regatta this Sept. and based on what I am seeing relative to vacant rooms appear to be close to fully booked. The enjoyment we get from cruising again outweighs any minor issues that may arise.

I've been on 5 Oceania cruises since cruising resumed and am more than happy to meet their protocols. I'm vaxed, boostered, and am in the minority of passengers who wear masks on a ship. I have no problem with being required to take Covid tests (when I'm working I get tested twice a week). However, in the FAQ's for the health and safety section, the following is on the website - T E S T I N G PR I O R TO T R AV E L A N D E M B A R K AT I O N NOTE: For voyages embarking from August 1, 2022, mandatory embarkation testing requirements will no longer be in place, unless specifically required by a destination, such as CANADA or GREECE. All voyages departing from Canada and Greece along with any voyages calling in Bermuda will still be subject to mandatory testing prior to embarkation. All I ask is that Oceania be consistent in what they post on its website. If there was consistency, this endless discussion on protocols would be unnecessary. As has been mentioned in numerous threads, if a topic tries someone's patience, don't read it.

Oceania continues to have conflicting protocols on its website. If you look in the "Additional Pre-Embarkation Health Screening" section it states that for cruises departing from U.S. ports after Aug. 1 and until further notice notice a pre-cruise Covid test is required. However, if you look in the SailSAFE FAQ's, it states that after Aug. 1 pre-cruise testing is only required for cruises that have a destination that requires a Covid test like Canada, Bermuda, and Greece. Apparently no one at Oceania proofreads what appears on its website for consistency. Although I enjoy cruising on Oceania, it's ability to communicate clearly leaves a lot to be desired. I have a horse in this race as I am booked on the Sept. 9 Regatta cruise which is Oceania's first cruise from a U.S. port after Aug. 1 that will not be visiting Canada. So, I wish Oceania would get its act together and let us know which is the real/correct protocol.

We were also on the June 27- July 8 Regatta cruise - extremely smooth sailing and great weather - a very enjoyable cruise. We had an extraordinary whale watching excursion in Icy Point Strait thanks to a show-off humpback whale that breached 20+ times and put on quite a show (of course YMMV as a performance like that is unusual). The nice thing about whale watching at this location is that you walk off the Regatta and the whale watching boat is at the pier about 100 feet away - no travel time to get to it. The pier that the Regatta uses for Ketchikan is in a remote location about 8 miles and a shuttle bus ride from the downtown area - not very convenient. We liked it better when the ship docked in town and you could just get off and walk around. In Skagway the ship docked, but because of damage to the pier you had to use a tender to get to town as you couldn't walk on the pier. It looks like a lot of the crew are coming to the ends of their contracts - when we were embarking in Seattle a busload of new crew members were coming aboard and the same appeared to be true when we were disembarking. The production cast will be leaving in mid-August and a new cast and CD will be coming aboard then.

When we cruised on Oceania to Dubai (pre-Covid), the shuttle did go to Dubai Mall.

We were on the Regatta and embarked in San Pedro on May 13, 2022 - a Friday. We were able to get off the ship by around 8:15 and took a cab to LAX. The drive to the airport took about 75 minutes because we were delayed by an accident on the freeway. However, we were at the airport a little after 9:30 and with TSA-precheck we were through security within minutes and had no problems making an 11:30 flight. As long as the ship is not delayed getting into San Pedro, a 12:25 flight is reasonable.

thepla - We did the test at Walgreens at 2 days and had the results within 2 hours.

We’ve used the Walgreen’s NAAT test twice for cruises on Oceania in May 2022 and currently on the June 27, 2022 Regatta sailing and the results were accepted.

Mid-cruise survey is still the sheet of paper that you return to the box near the guest services desk.

Both Alesund and Hammerfest are on the west coast of Norway, so the sea day will be in the ocean and not in a fjord.

Our May 3, 2022 Regatta cruise left on a Tuesday, so based on the chart that was previously in the FAQ's, we tested on Sunday at about 10 a.m. When we checked in on Tuesday, sometime after 11 a.m., the only thing that was looked at was the day of the test, not the time. As "Flatbush Flyer" mentioned, given that people are traveling to the ship from a variety of time zones, apparently Oceania meant within 2 days as "48 hours" is too exact a measurement, unless you were planning on determining a unique time for each passenger. IMO Oceania does a pretty poor job of communicating - seems like they strive to make the simple into something incomprehensible.

On the Regatta May 3, 2022 cruise there was dancing in Horizons during cocktail hour in the evening before dinner (I think it was from 5:15 to 6:00) with music provided by members of the Oceania band. Usually there were a few couples dancing.