Some thoughts from a First Time Cruise on Oceania

[seven1113]

I will be on the sirena in June, Can anyone please tell me how to select the Olife excursions that are included in my package? Not sure how this works. Thank you,

Carolyn

[keithm]

Terry - just a word of caution. We have 25+ cruise on Oceania and have cruised on every single cruise line out there but Crystal. We think and believe that Oceania’s food is indeed best at sea but as a poster in another thread is currently posting, they were very disappointed with the food. Part (but not all) of it probably had to do with very high expectations, probably based on posts like mine :)

Food is obviously a very subjective matter and it is important to have realistic expectations.

Also, the R ships have only 2 specialties vs 4 on O class ships. Hence, you will not experience Jacques (our favorite) - restaurant, not lunch Bistro in MDR and you will also miss Red Ginger.

Just saying...:)

Richard & I will be on the Riviera in 2 weeks. We're both in the food industry, so we're NOT subjective when it comes to food. Either the food IS gourmet standard or it is not. For those who mostly dine at places like "Applebee's/Texas Road house/Longhorn" & God forbid..

"Golden Corral", sorry but those people wouldn't know true gourmet food if it bit them in the a##! For us the best meals we had at sea, were dining for 11 nights in the Queens Grill on the QM2. Frequently we ventured "off menu" to try out the chefs' skills. For the most part they excelled with flying colors. We've done Cunard/Celebrity/ Princess several times. Celebrity had good to very good MDR food. The specialty rest. were always excellent. This year the quality diminished terribly this time around. They have a new Ex. chef from Jamaica on the Eclipse. The Maître D actually "paraded" him around the dining room on our last trip to have him explain to the disappointed pax.

The Regal Princess had generally very good MDR food(early seating) The specialty restaurants, though,were rather average. The beef was no more than "select" grade at best. Celebrity uses "Choice" & at times "Prime"(for extra fee) Hearing what we hear overall about Oceania & being very familiar with Jacques Pepin, we have high expectations & we'll see how they do. I'll have a very in depth review on the food & the overall experience.

Edited December 30, 2017 by keithm
additions

[Paulchili]

Given your background in food industry, I look forward to hearing about your experience and opinion on O’s food.

Don’t miss having at least one La Reserve dinner..

[Paulchili]

I will be on the sirena in June, Can anyone please tell me how to select the Olife excursions that are included in my package? Not sure how this works. Thank you,

Carolyn

 

You can book any excursion that is not designated as OS or OE (up to your limit)

[LHT28]

I will be on the sirena in June, Can anyone please tell me how to select the Olife excursions that are included in my package? Not sure how this works. Thank you,

Carolyn

Sign into MY ACCOUNT on Oceania website

Make sure your cruise is added to the BOOKED Cruises section

Then look at the excursions link click on the port & if the excursions are listed then choose the ones you want any with letters like OE FW etc are not part of the free ones

put in the shopping cart & when you check out I believe they want a CC but your balance will show as $0

 

I have never booked them so maybe someone will correct me if wrong

[seven1113]

Sign into MY ACCOUNT on Oceania website

Make sure your cruise is added to the BOOKED Cruises section

Then look at the excursions link click on the port & if the excursions are listed then choose the ones you want any with letters like OE FW etc are not part of the free ones

put in the shopping cart & when you check out I believe they want a CC but your balance will show as $0

 

I have never booked them so maybe someone will correct me if wrong

 

Super. Worked great. Thank you.

[keithm]

Given your background in food industry, I look forward to hearing about your experience and opinion on O’s food.

Don’t miss having at least one La Reserve dinner..

We booked the full tasting menu for one night. At $195pp I'm hoping it blows my socks off. (or 3 buttons off my shirt!)

[TERRIER1]

We booked the full tasting menu for one night. At $195pp I'm hoping it blows my socks off. (or 3 buttons off my shirt!)

 

 

Wow, did the cost increase. We booked La Reserve in 2012 when it was introduced and the price was $112 per person.

[pinotlover]

Terrier

 

There are now 4 different menus each having its own pricing. Things change in 5 years. A couple of those menus are still in the $110 range, give or take. The other two are more expensive.

[TERRIER1]

Terrier

 

There are now 4 different menus each having its own pricing. Things change in 5 years. A couple of those menus are still in the $110 range, give or take. The other two are more expensive.

 

There were only two menus when introduced. Each menu was offered only once during the cruise.

[Paulchili]

Wow, did the cost increase. We booked La Reserve in 2012 when it was introduced and the price was $112 per person.

 

I think that most of the cost of these dinners is related to the quality (as in price) of wines served rather than the food itself.

[TERRIER1]

I think that most of the cost of these dinners is related to the quality (as in price) of wines served rather than the food itself.

 

Agreed. I wasn't overly impressed with our Discovery Menu. In fact, several nights later the MDR had braised short ribs that were actually better than in La Reserve. It was a fun night with good table mates so the experience was fun.

[cruisingxpert]

Agreed. I wasn't overly impressed with our Discovery Menu. In fact, several nights later the MDR had braised short ribs that were actually better than in La Reserve. It was a fun night with good table mates so the experience was fun.

 

There were 3 La Reserve menus until December and 2 of them were still $95 +Grats to total $112. I think Keithm has signed up for the Connoisseur menu which is $165 + grats so approx $195 total.

I agree the Discovery menu was the least interesting and I'm pretty sure the new Bourgeoise dinner is going to replace the Discovery menu. The Discovery menu was also always done the day after boarding with that 72 hr braised short rib on the menu. Given that the ship has to go through inspections sometimes and kitchens have to be clean and nothing cooking, how are they braising for 72 hrs. Also true, the 72 hr braised short rib on the dining room menu and in the terrace is better than than what they had in the Discovery menu.

[Ken the cruiser]

I've been reading a lot about how small the showers are in the veranda cabins on the R class ships and was wondering if anyone either has any pictures of these showers or where I can find some?

 

Both of our previous O cruises have been on the Riviera, but have a 34 day booked on the Nautica and a 16 day booked on the Sirena in C1 cabins. So it would be nice to see just how small they are. By no means will it be a show stopper, but it would be nice to see what everyone is complaining about.

 

We cruised on the Diamond Princess a couple of years ago and they had pretty small showers where the curtain wanted to be your friend at times. But it was tolerable. I would say the floor pan was about 4' x 3'.

[Mura]

I don't have a photo but I have said many times in the past, ever since Renaissance days (1999-2001) the small showers in the veranda cabins bothered me. They ARE small. If you are very tall or very wide, you can have a problem.

 

But when we had a downsell on Nautica to a B1 in June 2016 I discovered I no longer minded the shower as much as I once had ... and I'm certainly not smaller than I was 20 years ago!

 

There isn't much room ... OTOH, if you drop the soap it isn't hard to find!

 

The curtain bothers me now more than the size of the shower. But it's an irregular shape so a door probably would have been very difficult to install.

 

One positive for me was that while the bathroom itself is very small, when I exit the shower and dry myself off -- there's just enough room to spread out my arms and use the towel! And there IS (at least for us) adequate storage in this small bathroom.

 

Jim&Stan may have some photos for you ...

 

For all that I have said, yes,I prefer a PH on the "R" ships! But I now feel that I won't complain about a lower level cabin the way I once did. Which may be a surprising statement from someone who HAS gotten used to bigger suites in recent years ...

 

Mura

[Mura]

There were 3 La Reserve menus until December and 2 of them were still $95 +Grats to total $112. I think Keithm has signed up for the Connoisseur menu which is $165 + grats so approx $195 total.

I agree the Discovery menu was the least interesting and I'm pretty sure the new Bourgeoise dinner is going to replace the Discovery menu. The Discovery menu was also always done the day after boarding with that 72 hr braised short rib on the menu. Given that the ship has to go through inspections sometimes and kitchens have to be clean and nothing cooking, how are they braising for 72 hrs. Also true, the 72 hr braised short rib on the dining room menu and in the terrace is better than than what they had in the Discovery menu.

 

I don't know about Discovery always being scheduled immediately because we just had the experience rather late in our November cruise on Marina (Rome to Barcelona, Nov 7-21). I agree that the short ribs were good but not spectacular. But we DID enjoy the menu more than I thought we would. My favorite remains the Connoisseur, but then that one is a lot more expensive! We will try Bourgeosie on Riviera in May.

 

Yes, folks, there ARE price differentials between the various menus.

 

It is still a lovely experience, and an excellent way to meet sympatico fellow passengers,.

 

Mura

[Go-Bucks!]

I've been reading a lot about how small the showers are in the veranda cabins on the R class ships and was wondering if anyone either has any pictures of these showers or where I can find some?

 

The showers are teeny tiny! I measured ours and it was 3'x2'! And the ceiling isn't very tall either. The entire bathroom was maybe 6'x3'. Luckily we were just on a 7 day cruise, but it became a deal breaker for us. After just one shower each, we both took the rest of our showers in the spa. There are 2 large nice showers there and have shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and big towels. Since we had booked the same type of cabin for our next cruise (161 days), we decided we needed to move to a cabin with a larger bathroom. We were very blessed indeed and able to secure a PH suite. Some people do fine with this shower, so hopefully you'll find it acceptable. If not, there's always the spa (but they close at either 8 or 9 pm).

Both of our previous O cruises have been on the Riviera, but have a 34 day booked on the Nautica and a 16 day booked on the Sirena in C1 cabins. So it would be nice to see just how small they are. By no means will it be a show stopper, but it would be nice to see what everyone is complaining about.

 

We cruised on the Diamond Princess a couple of years ago and they had pretty small showers where the curtain wanted to be your friend at times. But it was tolerable. I would say the floor pan was about 4' x 3'.

I've had Princess' small showers too, but they are not nearly as small as Oceania. I took pictures of our B1 cabin but forgot to take a picture of the bathroom - sorry.

[LHT28]

I've been reading a lot about how small the showers are in the veranda cabins on the R class ships and was wondering if anyone either has any pictures of these showers or where I can find some?

The Preismans do a good job on photos of the ships

check their blog

http://www.thepreismans.com/china_japan_page3.htm

http://www.thepreismans.com/bermuda_regatta_page1.htm

[Go-Bucks!]

 

 

Here are 2 pictures from Mike Preisman's review.

[Ken the cruiser]

 

 

Here are 2 pictures from Mike Preisman's review.

Yup, it looks pretty small. Reminds me of our shower in our Lance pickup camper. Definitely a motivator to move up to a PH cabin if you can afford it. But, since we can't, I guess we'll just have to make do. Thanks for the pictures!!

[Redtravel]

You are right. The bathrooms on the Nautica and R ships are tiny. My spouse refuses to book on an R ship unless we book a suite. We like the M ships. The cabins on the M ships are excellent. We hope that Oceania will build more M ships.

[Paulchili]

You are right. The bathrooms on the Nautica and R ships are tiny. My spouse refuses to book on an R ship unless we book a suite. We like the M ships. The cabins on the M ships are excellent. We hope that Oceania will build more M ships.

 

I am sure you mean the O class ships (Marina & Riviera) :)

[Holly2]

Will miss the food but glad to return to Celebrity cabin.

[rigs32]

Why not just choose another cruise line that has better cabins that will suit you better ?

There are several that do World cruises

 

 

 

Yeah, but O is the only 180 day, 90+ ports with several overnights world cruise.

 

Princess is 111 days with only 41 ports.

 

Holland America is 113 with only 40 ports.

 

They really aren't comparable if you have the desire, time, and money, to do a true world cruise, imo.

[keithm]

I think that most of the cost of these dinners is related to the quality (as in price) of wines served rather than the food itself.

We chose the Connoisseurs dinner in Le Reserve. It's $195pp for a 12 course tasting paired with wine. I'm not much of a drinker, so I'll tell them to go light on the wine. My partner, Richard can go "Full Hog" on the wine. Last Labor Day, we stayed at the "Lincoln Inn at the Covered Bridge", a non descript small inn in Woodstock, VT. It's claim to fame, was the fact that Paul Newman & his family vacationed there each summer. The new owners do a fantastic dinner there on weekends. On holiday weekends, it's a 12 course menu at $195pp. Wine & gratuity are extra. Without a doubt the most spectacular meal we ever had was at that place. The chef is a Russian woman professionally trained at Michelin star restaurants in Europe. Check the inn out at Trip Advisor to get a feel for it. Easily one of the finest rest. in the country. All our dining out meals are measured against it.