Christmas/New Years on Oceania questions

[longduo]

We are booked to sail on the Marina Dec. 22 - Jan. 3 over Christmas and New Years. We would love to hear from anyone who has done a holiday cruise on Oceania. Do they make it festive? Are there special events?

 

 

We have sailed on Celebrity over the holidays and it was wonderful.....special meals, caroling, decorations, the best New Years Eve party ever!

 

We are very excited about sailing on the Marina! I believe it will be amazing, but would like to know how Oceania handles holidays.

 

Also, does Oceania have more children sailing at that time of the year?

 

We sailed on the Insignia from Santiago to Buenos Aires around Cape Horn. The cruise was great. The food and service were unbelievable. However there was very little entertainment other than staff members putting on shows. The lecturers were quite disappointing as what they talked about had nothing to do with where we were going.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[RetiredFL]

We just did a holiday cruise on Insignia. This was our observations but remember Marina is an unknown at this point.

Ship was decorated nice, trees, garlands, gingerbread village, etc.

Menu was standard except for Christmas eve when they had turkey and the fixing and Christmas day when the had roast goose and prime rib.

I believe there were also some special deserts, yule log, etc.

 

We had quite a few large groups on board and about 38 children/teens. Not a problem except for dressing for dinner. Teens will be teens!

 

The lecturer talked about S. America so he was relevant.

 

We did not see much in the way of adl entertainment but we usually do not go for the entertainment.

 

New year's eve there was a party, originally on the deck but moved to the lounge due to weather. We did not go and it appears most people were in bed by midnight! We were told the next day that the party was "well attended" but sedate.

 

Remember most of us regular cruisers do not go on Oceania because it is a party boat with great entertainment but because we like the ship size, ports and general atmosphere on board.

[longduo]

Thanks to RetiredFL for the information. We are not big party people, but New Years Eve is special.

 

We would love to hear from anyone who has gone to an Oceania New Years Eve celebration as well as any other comments about holiday cruises.

[Leonid]

We just did a holiday cruise on Insignia. This was our observations but remember Marina is an unknown at this point.

Ship was decorated nice, trees, garlands, gingerbread village, etc.

Menu was standard except for Christmas eve when they had turkey and the fixing and Christmas day when the had roast goose and prime rib.

I believe there were also some special deserts, yule log, etc.

 

We had quite a few large groups on board and about 38 children/teens. Not a problem except for dressing for dinner. Teens will be teens!

 

The lecturer talked about S. America so he was relevant.

 

We did not see much in the way of adl entertainment but we usually do not go for the entertainment.

 

New year's eve there was a party, originally on the deck but moved to the lounge due to weather. We did not go and it appears most people were in bed by midnight! We were told the next day that the party was "well attended" but sedate.

 

Remember most of us regular cruisers do not go on Oceania because it is a party boat with great entertainment but because we like the ship size, ports and general atmosphere on board.

 

Totally agree with this post. DW & I did the Buenos Aires to Valparaiso sailing for Xmas - NewYears, 2008-2009. Could not have been better.

[joan24]

Hi longduo,

My husband and I will be on the cruise with you. We've never been on Oceania over the holidays, but we're really looking forward to it.This will be our fifth Oceania cruise. There is a Roll Call started, and although there aren't many people on it yet, it's a great way to meet others on our cruise. Looking forward to meeting you.

Joan

[Joanzzzz]

Looking forward to being on this cruise with you also. I bet they make the guests festive season perfect.

 

Joan and Jim

[tanny18]

Hi, we sailed with Ed (RetiredFL) this past Xmas/NYs...It was great fun...the ship is decorated with many trees, there's a gingerbread village with all kinds of goodies around it. And New Year's has parties, champagne and petit fours!!! Noisemakers and party hats. And you can drink as much as you want. You only have to navigate the elevator!! You should have a great time. It was our second New Year's with Oceania and we're going to do it again this year!!! Arlene;)

[longduo]

Hi, we sailed with Ed (RetiredFL) this past Xmas/NYs...It was great fun...the ship is decorated with many trees, there's a gingerbread village with all kinds of goodies around it. And New Year's has parties, champagne and petit fours!!! Noisemakers and party hats. And you can drink as much as you want. You only have to navigate the elevator!! You should have a great time. It was our second New Year's with Oceania and we're going to do it again this year!!! Arlene;)

 

Thanks so much for your reply. You make it sound quite festive! We will look forward to sailing and will checkout the rollcall. Some friends will be sailing with us.

[JackfromWA]

I just sailed on Nautica over Christmas and New Years and it was delightful. As others have mentioned there were gingerbread houses on Deck 5 just above reception, there were at least 20 Christmas trees on the ship (Polo had one, Toscana had one, theatre had two, lobby had two etc.) and bannister rails, picture frames and many other surfaces were festively decorated. I don't know where they got them, but there were also many live poinsettias thoughtfully placed.

 

There is only one thing I would do differently. I didn't book Polo or Toscana on Christmas Day or New Years Eve as I wanted to enjoy the special menus in the Grand Dining Room. That was a mistake. The special menus for both Christmas and New Years were available IN ADDITION to the regular menus in Polo and Toscano, so with the benefit of hindsight I would definitely book the specialty restaurants. Particularly on Christmas, the dining room was crowded and noisy, and a quieter, more intimate dinner would have been nice.

 

New Years Eve was the latest I had seen so many people up on the ship! Nautica offered three parties: big band in the Nautica lounge, piano in Martinis and the Olympic Duo (pop) in the Horizon Lounge. The biggest party was definitely in Horizons. By 11:15 it was so packed it was very hard to find a table, which was fun to experience—I'd never seen so many passengers dancing and having fun in the Horizon Lounge! There were elaborate ice sculptures, special appetizers and free champagne. Also at midnight the ship sounded their alarm/whistle so earlier in the day the cruise director advised anyone going to bed early not to run out at midnight with a life jacket on worrying about an emergency! It was really a great evening.

 

Oceania also left gifts for us on Christmas Eve. All in all I would do it again in a heartbeat! I am sure you won't be disappointed.