Oceania/Nautica: 1st Timers!! Tips, Secrets?

While we have never sailed with Oceania, we have a booking made for Nov. 16-Dec. 6, 2018, Athens to Dubai with stops in Rhodes, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, etc. This offers many exciting stops for our first visit to these parts of the Middle East. Would love to hear more from any experienced and smart travelers about the Nautica, Oceania and/or these locations. Have a few questions related for us and another couple from Central Ohio as first-timers with Oceania.

1. What is the biggest "secret", favorite place, best tips, etc., to maximized and enjoy time on the Nautica? Ours would be a twenty-day cruise with five sea-days.

2. The basic balcony room on this ship are little smaller than what we have previously done with Silversea, Celebrity, etc. Any tips to maximize on this limited cabin size or best places to find away from the cabin for hanging out, escaping, making your "haven", etc.?

3. Did the any-time dining work well in the evenings? Which of the two speciality dining places was your top favorite? Why? Favorite meal treats while with Oceania? Will the main dining room do any "special requests" with advance notice?

4. For evening entertainment, any special highlights, super loves, best tips, aspects to avoid, etc.?

5. Are ship speakers on the ship for this type of journey generally pretty good, interesting and approachable for chatting, etc.?

6. On ship tours with Oceania, how "full" or packed are most of the buses with their tours? 15-20 people? 30-35 on the bus/tour? Or 40 or so?

7. Have heard great things on the staff. Is the staff on the ship fairly experienced or having a higher mix of "newer" people? Are most of the dining and room service staff from Europe or Philippines/India? Or, a wider mix? Most speaking fairly well in English?

8. What else should I have asked? Or, most need to know, understand, expect, etc.?

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Lisbon, NWSpain, Bordeaux/Brittany: Just finished June 2017 sailing from Portugal to France along the scenic Atlantic Coast, plus great pre- and post-cruise experiences. Many interesting pictures and details on history, food, culture, etc., from my live/blog at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2511358

If you are used to a larger space I would uprade to a PH

The bathrooms on the R ships are very small

If the open dining was not working I would think Oceania would have changed it years ago

Unless you have some food allergy I do not believe you can make special requests for different meals like on the Luxury lines

If people gave away the location of the secret spots then everyone would be there

enjoy

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We traveled on a repositioning cruise on a different cruise line from New Jersey to Dubai stopping at all the locations you mentioned. Don’t miss Petra, in Jordan. Traveling through the Suez Canal was a once in a lifetime experience. We had a great time on our 30 day cruise. December will be more pleasant in Dubai than June. Have fun!

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If people gave away the location of the secret spots then everyone would be there

That's a pretty common question on other boards. Most people are thoughtful enough to share the answer for newbies in order to help them feel welcome.

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Terry,

I'm a newbie too. Will be taking my first O cruise on Insignia in 2.5 weeks. Really excited to try a new cruiseline, but am also unsure if I'll like the small cabins. I usually sail in full suites, but can't on O because it's so much more expensive. BTW, I live in your area too. :D

That's a pretty common question on other boards. Most people are thoughtful enough to share the answer for newbies in order to help them feel welcome.

Well it is a small ship & there are not many secret hideaway spots

Many people love the library but hardly a secret spot ;)

I can understand people wanting a special hideaway on a larger ship

Terry, I’ve read and enjoyed your trip reports for years.

We love the Oceania product and have few complaints after a double digit number of cruises with them.

I’ll take a stab at this.

You have chosen a most interesting cruise. We haven’t taken a lot of ship excursions with O as we enjoy smaller private tour groups or DIY.

We were in just in Israel and Greece with Oceania. We toured for three consecutive days with Guided Tour Israel and we were pleased with the content and expertise of our guide. There were 10-12 passengers each day in a comfortable mini bus. If I had a do over I would pay extra for a smaller group for the day in Jerusalem, it was most chaotic in the old city.

We were in Egypt seven years ago on another cruise line and used private tour guides. But I have no idea what is going on there now and my recommendations are too dated.

You have been given good advice to book a PH for extra cabin and bathroom space on the R ship. You will have access to a lounge as well.

The ship has lots of cozy seating areas around the ship including the beautiful library, Horizons (like a Crows nest) and living room type areas on the 4th and 5th floors. Poolside loungers are very comfortable.

Open dining in the Grand Dining room works fine.

The two specialty restaurants require reservations. You have an opportunity to book a certain number a couple months before sailing date. If you are in a PH you can prebook extra reservations or have your butler serve in suite food from either specialty. I love Toscana, steak lovers may prefer Polo.

Everyone speaks good English, there will be a mix of staff nationalities.

Oceania lecturers are typically excellent. Trivia is very popular and taken very seriously. Evening entertainment is low key. We don’t go to many shows on port intensive itineraries.

We generally take the air credit and book our own flights to avoid deviation fees and paying extra to fly from a non hub city. You probably want business class on such long haul flights. We prefer to just call our consolidator rather than deal with cruise air.

Planning is half the fun and you excel at that!

Also have enjoyed your post on the Silversea board. Welcome to O. Nautica is our favorite.

The coffee from the Barista handmade much better than the machines. Baristas are located in the Terrace during meals and near the GDR from 0630 to 1600h. If you crave a coffee at three AM you can get one from these automatic machines in Horizons and Terrace

Try the Lamb chops with Lobster Tails in the

Terrace for Dinner yum,,,

The croissants are to die for. I prefer the plain but many will steer you toward the chocolate ones.

As many said library is s nice quiet place to get away. But not a secret.

There is a huge library of DVDs. Many oldies and classics.

Do private tours. Cheaper and better than Os. If you have O choice tours I use them for the less interesting ports plus those that might be less safe.

Dubai is a great place to visit. Sitting in the JW in Deira right now. Also some of the less travelled Emirates are interesting. Spend some extra days here. People tend to go to the malls, the Burj and Jumeirah Beach. I prefer old Dubai the creek, gold Souk, spice market etc.

Also have enjoyed your post on the Silversea board. Welcome to O. Nautica is our favorite.

 

The coffee from the Barista handmade much better than the machines. Baristas are located in the Terrace during meals and near the GDR from 0630 to 1600h. If you crave a coffee at three AM you can get one from these automatic machines in Horizons and Terrace

 

Try the Lamb chops with Lobster Tails in the

Terrace for Dinner yum,,,

 

The croissants are to die for. I prefer the plain but many will steer you toward the chocolate ones.

 

As many said library is s nice quiet place to get away. But not a secret.

 

There is a huge library of DVDs. Many oldies and classics.

 

Do private tours. Cheaper and better than Os. If you have O choice tours I use them for the less interesting ports plus those that might be less safe.

 

Dubai is a great place to visit. Sitting in the JW in Deira right now. Also some of the less travelled Emirates are interesting. Spend some extra days here. People tend to go to the malls, the Burj and Jumeirah Beach. I prefer old Dubai the creek, gold Souk, spice market etc.

I'm not Terry, but am also an O newbie. Those are great suggestions - thx!

Hi Terry,

I was pleased to find you on the Oceania board. I talked with you about your Australia NZ cruise and whether to take the overnight excursion on the South Island in NZ. We are really interested in your choices for excursions as we are doing the same trip but in reverse in spring of 2019. We used to be your neighbor in PA but have since moved to SC as we could no longer endure the cold and snow.

We have been on the R ships several times. We spent almost three weeks on the Nautica in Iceland and Greenland in an OceanView room. We usually book a balcony but Oceania offered us a deal we could not refuse. The OceanView cabins are the same size as balcony cabins— just no balcony. We did not find the cabin confining. As a matter of fact we booked the same cabin for a cruise on the Insignia this past summer. No issues. I felt the shower was better even with the curtain than the shower on the Marina. And, we booked an OceanView for the Nautica cruise through the Suez Canal.

I will be anxiously awaiting your pictures and commentary about this cruise. The suggestions you have been given are excellent. I agree with booking your own air. We usually fly in a few days early and stay a few days later. That avoids the deviation fee. We also avoid the fee for flying out of our airport. This way we have control. We hope to book our flights for the Suez cruise with miles so we can get business class at least for the one to Dubai.

Good luck and fun with the planning.

Patty

Baristas-adjacent to GDR with some sofa seating as well as a few tables-was my favorite spot on Nautica and I went every morning at 6:30 when they opened on our recent cruise. A small group of early morning regulars made it a sort of "everybody knows your name" morning bar. Yes veranda cabins and bathrooms are small but for 14 days it was bearable. For a longer cruise, you may want to get a PH as suggested. Although 2 cruises on the larger Marina were also great, this smaller ship was even better. The Iberian cruise was my favorite of the 3. The staff had been together for some time so everything went smoothly and new crew fitted in easily. That is something you cannot control-just hope not to be on a cruise where there is a large changeover of staff.

We did Olife excursions on this cruise (usually do private). They were fine with good local guides but private tours are half the price and have smaller groups. We did the excursions because we did not think we could use up $800 OBC. Maybe if you do the spa or something with more sea days, OBC would be better but the shops on Nautica are small without much of interest to buy. Our cruise was so port intensive that there was only one lecturer who talked mostly about the ports. On our other O cruises, there were more lecturers mostly pretty good.

Do not miss the afternoon tea - especially on sea days.

Our favorites are Victoria cake and Paris Brest.

Enjoy your cruise - you just may convert to O :D

PS We too enjoy your posts and pictures.

You've got a lot of good information so far.

I think that PH lounge Sammiedawg mentioned on the R ships just might be the best kept secret on Oceania:confused:

Also, concerning the Oceanview cabins Pearl mentioned, there are two different size Oceanview rooms on the R ships. The E cat is 143 sq ft, the D cat is 165 sq ft as well as the C2 and C1 cabins, which just have a better location.

My best advice is to dig through the last few months, or farther back, of threads here.

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I think that PH lounge Sammiedawg mentioned on the R ships just might be the best kept secret on Oceania:confused:

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I agree :evilsmile:

Maybe Sammie knows something no one else does

I agree :evilsmile:

 

Maybe Sammie knows something no one else does

I think I misspoke when I referred to a lounge. I was thinking of the spa terrace on the R ships which is available to concierge category and up.

Waves grill has a great lunch/late lunch menu. We love the surf & turf.

Terrace Cafe has for dinner every night nicely grilled lobster tails, jumbo prawns, lamb chops and steaks made to order among many other dishes. Sushi is available most nights. The staff serve the passengers.

The specialty restaurants can be booked for additional evenings, ask your butler or the mattre d in the Terrace.

If you like O you may make a future booking while on board and receive an immediate $100 OBC for your current cruise. Reduced deposit also applies.

There is a happy hour every evening, two for one cocktails.

DVDs can be checked out at Reception, no charge.

Let your butler/steward know what beverages you’d like stocked in your fridge.

Try the iced coffee creama in Barristas. Sinfully good.

Afternoon tea in Horizons is outstanding.

The locker rooms have excellent showers, steam room and plenty of towels and sports drinks. No extra charge.

If you have a problem don’t wait, report it to staff. Our experience has been immediate resolution.

Tokens are required to operate the washers and dryers. They are available at reception. Soap is automatically added during the wash cycle, no need to bring your own.

. Soap is automatically added during the wash cycle, no need to bring your own.

do not know about the Nautica but on Regatta & Insignia you need to push the button on the soap dispenser with the corresponding number to your washer

Terry -

Best tip for the Nautica ... or any 'O' ship ... just enjoy your time onboard! Relax and be in the zone!

Best benefit of booking onboard is the best price guarantee till sailing (even after final payment). This is in addition to other benefits mentioned.

Do not miss the afternoon tea - especially on sea days. Our favorites are Victoria cake and Paris Brest. Enjoy your cruise - you just may convert to O :D PS We too enjoy your posts and pictures.

WOW!!! What a great range of super wonderful ideas, suggestions, details, tips and insights!! Keep 'em coming!! Always looking for more sharing and added thoughts. From Paulchili, bigmjh, LHT28, sammiedawg, ORV, tvmovielover, Pearl64/Patty, GoBucks!, PaulMCO and Mo_Cruising, you have already helped much in starting our preparations. .

So far, Classiccruiser777, PaulMCO and LHT28, might be nearly tied for "first place" in having given the widest and best range of excellent ideas and comments. All of these ideas are so beneficial. Will be copying to my trip file and sharing with Amy/Milt who are planning to be traveling with us on this "adventure".

Regarding sammiedawg, we do have a Concierge Level Veranda room booked. So, that will give us easy access to that front Spa area forward desk that will be nice as a location when doing the Suez Canal passage.

Nice to see the likes from Pearl64/Patty and others about my past pictures and live/blogging. Yes, will plan for doing a live/blog with lots of pictures and trip details. Like the sharing and interactive connections as we travel in such great areas.

Since we did the Panama Canal for the first time in March 2017, we learned so much on the history of that challenged construction project that involved the French diplomat and developer, Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte de Lesseps. He was the successful leader who got the Suez Canal built and opened in 1869. While Suez Canal is a sea-level passage, these histories on these two projects have interesting connections and twisted histories.

Will have more questions to follow. THANKS for these posting! Looking forward to more. Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Venice: Loving It & Why??!! Is one of your future desires or past favorites? See these many visual samples for its great history and architecture. This posting is now at 70,287 views.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1278226

There are a lot of good responses on here already but I'll add a few thoughts of my own.

I've never been on Nautica but I've been on Regatta twice. We had a A2 veranda cabin and although the cabin and balcony were nice, the bathroom was so small that I wouldn't book it again. After 16 days of that, we'd had enough! Our next Oceania cruise will be on Marina and we booked a PH.

You asked about Oceania shore excursions vs. private tours. We've always booked through Oceania but I'm strongly reconsidering doing it differently for the next one. It's almost always a large bus with about 40 people. Truth be told, most of the passengers don't move too fast. When you stop at several places on each excursion you spend an awful amount of time loading and unloading the bus. It feels like too much time is being wasted. This is my biggest gripe against Oceania so I'm going to take the advice of a lot of posters on this board and look into private tours.

The spa is one of my favorite quiet places on the ship. It's so much nicer than the spas on the mass market cruise lines. Very relaxing and quiet. Horizons at 10:30pm is also quiet. We'll go there occasionally for a night cap and there aren't many people up there at that time. I don't like Happy Hour in Horizons because it tends to be quite crowded and somewhat noisy.

The food is definitely a highlight on Oceania, whether it's the GDR or the specialty restaurants. You can't go wrong. Toscana and Polo are both fabulous.

It sounds like a great itinerary. Have fun and enjoy your cruise :)

Hi Terry,

I too have enjoyed reading your posts as you travel around the world, and you have been very helpful in my own trip planning. We have cruised on both the larger and smaller Oceania ships and found that we prefer the intimacy of the smaller R class ships, even though the rooms are smaller and the bathrooms really small, but functional. We have been in inside, oceanview, veranda and concierge level rooms. There are nooks and crannies for storage and even in the smallest rooms, we have found sufficient storage. During a 50+ day plus cruise with a drastic climate change, we kept our cooler weather clothes in the suitcase under the bed until it was needed. We found that we preferred the ocean view rooms when traveling in very hot or very cold climates, where we had little use for the balcony.

We do a mix of the included OLife and private tours. Oceania does not pack their buses like the mass market ships. The bus is usually only 2/3 full. We like to sit near the back where we can spread out. We went to some of the ports you will be visiting during our last cruise on the Insignia. We did private tours in Egypt and Jordan, which gave us much more time at the sites than the Oceania tours. We booked with Ramses Tours, which was advertised as a bus tour and were very pleased to find out that there were only 8 of us and were accommodated with a very nice new minivan. All the tour vehicles (Private tours and Oceania buses) had to meet and travel together in a caravan with armed guards all the way from Safaga to Luxor, so one was not safer than the other. There were no more than a dozen people at the Temple of Karnak and we were the only group at the Valley of the Kings (signs of the effect of the political problems in Egypt).

We also joined a private tour to Petra and were able to arrive early and spend much more time there than the bigger tour groups. We used the ship tours for Jerusalem, but in retrospect, should have joined a private tour. As another poster stated, it was really chaotic. There were just too many people stopping to shop and take pictures, getting lost, etc., which cut into the time. The Oceania escort didn't help much since she was one of the guilty ones :rolleyes:. We took a 1/2 day tour with Sunshine Tours in Muscat, Oman which we really enjoyed. There were 4 of us in a nice new minivan and we visited the mosque, drove to various sites in the city and then stopped at the home of the owner where we met up with several fellow cruisers who were on tours with other Sunshine drivers. We were treated to fruits, cakes, Arab coffee and given a big bag of dates as a "sweet souvenir." One of the best days we have in the UAE.

You'll enjoy Oceania. We have cruised many of the other lines and have decided that this is our preferred cruise line. Good food, nice people, great staff. Life is sweet.

Terry,

Since you'll be in an R class Concierge cabin, you'll be entitled to three free bags of laundry and three specialty reservations per restaurant on cruises more than 18 days which can be made 60 days before sailing.

Brief on the ports as the port boards have great up-to-date info:

1. Took private tour in Egypt. Originally intended ships excursion here due to travel time and no alternate routes if traffic incident. In the end we did have an excellent day with a private tour arriving back 1 hour before all-board which was our target. All three of the ships tour buses were late arriving perhaps 1 hour after scheduled sail away time with the third 30 minutes after that (ship waited). So whatever held up the ships buses can hold up anyone's buses I suspect. I much appreciated the private tour, the freedom it provided (and price) but this is one place I still might consider the ship tour. For the best experience come back on a land/river trip. If it is Ramadan,hopefully your driver will defer fasting (can be allowed as travelling); our almost fell asleep on the drive back after a full day with no food or water (and it was *very* hot)

2. Israel two days private tours both excellent days, traveled long distance with full confidence of excellent highways and safety.

Ship tips:

O's patissiers produce fabulous breads (and deserts). They modestly give the credit to the high quality flour, butter , etc.

Breakfast in GDR, lamb chops, (excellent) kippers, mixed fresh fruits ...,. relax and enjoy

Skip port "lectures" if given by Destination Services. I have only attended two on different cruises so maybe they are all not just self serving.

We just got home from a 17 day ATHENS TO Dubai cruise on the Azamara Journey and wanted to remind you that for six nights no passengers were permitted on the outside decks or balconies due to the threat of piracy. Now for the most part this was a non issue, however, some guests were upset that they could not use their balconies at night during this time. I believe all cruise lines enact these rules while sailing through pirate country.

As far as ports go, our favorite surprise was Muscat! It was incredible.