janecambridge

Recently back from the star clipper. We concluded it really needed a good upgrade/makeover. Some passengers woke up one morning very early and their cabins were ankle deep in water. Leak overnight from top deck around the bridge. Rotten wooden floorboards and rain! Our cabin was quite dated, tatty and rusty in the shower room. The tips: You really are obliged to leave tips for cabin stewards and waiting staff. They get no wages and rely on the tips as their ‘salary’. I find it quite disturbing that we have to do this, especially when passenger numbers are low. Others on the ship get a salary and nothing from tips.! Only 2 of 4 tenders were good enough to use. This led to cancellation of beach bbq. A real treat normally and especially for the staff who love to get off the ship for a change. This and some more has made us think about using star clipper again.

These bottles of whisky, gin etc, are they the small airline type?

That is dreadful. Another way to ensure more income. We have no more Oceania cruises booked and don’t intend to book anymore in the near future.

If you have the rum punch (cocktail of the day), it is made with Bacardi not dark/sweet rum. It’s dreadful and quite a ‘fight’ to get dark rum. Apparently star clippers recipe is with Bacardi. And that is that.! 😂

Pailatsea, , how did the cabin and lifts workout?

Sadly we aren’t sailing Oceania again in the near future. We too were lied to on our Christmas Amazon cruise. I don’t trust a liar. I would have been mortified if still on Marina and missed Falkland Islands. Clearly when a tour operator is telling you day(s) before that tours are cancelled and you are being told not so, it’s untrue. I did send my ‘constructive suggestions’ to Oceania and never heard a thing and it continues. pinotlover is spot on

GerryL we have just booked the Greenland sailing too. Never been and quite excited.

No SusieSan but we have booked for next summer. solentrichard has a great blog on the very ship we will be on . Zagreb to Dubrovnik. Could be worth a read. just Google his name and lady Eleganza.

We did the cave tubing. It was fun but sadly not much water. It was slow and as you are tied together, not as exciting as we hoped. I’m short but managed the tube. There were lockers where we went in. I too would suggest a private tour, but you may need transfer to and from the port. You will need ‘beach’ shoes to walk to the river.

I agree with PaulMco. We were on the same cruise as him. Jacques became our favourite restaurant due to the highly trained and superb new head chef. Walked out of red ginger for many reasons. We sailed our first and last cruise on Seabourn last March. The spa suite cabin was superb as were the staff, but food was just mediocre except the raw, bleeding chicken carved at our table side in the specialist restaurant, which was not only inedible but dangerous. (The carver denying there was anything wrong with serving chicken and fresh blood! ) Sadly we had alot of issues on seabourn Encore snd the way they were handled was disgraceful. We have booked Regent for this summer and looked forward to our second sailing with them.

You also get ‘fizz’ at mealtimes by the glass with beverage package. We upgrade because we like to drink when we want. Not always much with a meal. We don’t want to be clock watching to be ready for 2 4 1 happy hour drinks or go to a cocktail party just for free drinks! 😂

No it’s not. When on our Amazon cruise, the company we booked a private tour with, emailed us all a day before we entered Manaus to arrange alternative times as we would be an hour or so late and doing tenders not docking! We did not hear from the ship until an hour before supposed docking time. If we had been told ‘officially’ by the Captain the day before, it would have been alot easier on passengers who had made private arrangements and those that weren’t physically able to do tenders.

Great, thank you. We did Royal twice from Barbados on different itineraries. The Caribbean is choppy! One thing we loved was that being on a small ship (compared to large ships), we docked in smaller harbours and before the large ships emptied out. Whilst at sea, another clipper came up beside us (The Star) and we had a great race!! The back deck into the sea was used alot on our cruise. We loved it. We are off to Costa Rica in a few weeks, on Star Clipper so will report back. Our amazing agent, has organised 4 days land tours across Costa Rica first. Twinsmom, I think your review is a fair review and what we too experienced. It is truly a great experience. Thank you..

Rest up. Will look forward to hearing your report when you are ready.

We did our first and only sail on Regent in the med and it was great. Didn’t need a top cabin/suite as we were out everyday. Always easy to get private tours or ‘do your own’ thing. We are booked on another Regent ship this year. For some reason we decided on Seabourn last year (first and last trip with them even though offered $1000 each afterwards compensation). Oceania had been our favourite but disappointed with a few things so going back to Regent . Go to the med, spring is a beautiful time.

I agree. Marina for us was not in a ‘terrible state’. Yes she had blips here and there, but she felt cosy and homely. Some of these new ships we have been looking at are gorgeous but minimalist and cold. Despite the ‘running’ of the cruise at Christmas being a bit negative, we never had cause to complain about our cabin/suite or any public space.

Our flight to Vancouver in August is a good example. Canada Air. We have to wait for it to be to ticketed. Our flight home we cancelled with Regent and booked our own virgin flight, using air miles to upgrade.

Look forward to hearing all about it please . 😊

Nope. We didn’t feel the need to get rid of it. I had a conversation with the artists and offered it. Felt good not to leave it to Oceania who had let us down on the Amazon trip. We left hefty tips and I gave out Christmas gifts. The six bottles of liquor we left in the suite. Only 3 opened.

Getting off a Princess cruise ship onto a tender is such a chore compared to the smaller Oceania ships.

Our 2 complimentary wines were not needed by us so we gave them to the two guys in artists loft. The 2 complimentary bottles of champagne, we gave to our friends who are on the ship from December to April!

Forgot to say , dobrazilright- the two day tour in Rio, got us into Sugar loaf mountain and Christ the redeemer via the vip entrances. No need to queue anywhere. In Salvador, if you decide to take the lift to the upper town, forget the long queue for the lift, go to the right of the queue and if you look old enough they just let you straight through as pensioners.If you can’t do that then get off the ship asap as other ships will be there and head straight to the queue. 😂

I understand there have been offers for extra land tours in Alaska- not sure if it’s only Brits. personally we would prefer an upgraded seat on long haul flights. To upgrade a seat from here, we have to wait for the flight to be ticketed - 70-90 days pre embarkation. We then may loose the opportunity as sold out or sit away from each other. BA also charged us last time $100 each to choose seats.

Regards the bio fouling, I spoke to a couple on one of the trips around NZ and Australia. Eventually the ship was cleaned but refused entry into NZ because they used a company that the NZ authorities don’t recognise as good enough.