An O newby sails Regatta - April 6, 2022. Trans pacific, Papeete to Los Angeles

[jondfk]

I’ve learned much reading these boards since we booked our first O cruise back in November 2020.  Thought some might benefit from our first timer impressions which I intend to capture and post in real time.  We’re sailing 18 days trans pacific on Regatta from Papeete to Los Angeles.

 

Some background about us.  We’re 60s, retired, childless and in non Covid times cruise 3 or 4 times annually.  Home is the greater Bay Area.  We’ve cruised with Princess a couple dozen times, mainly because of their strong west coast presence and our preference for longer voyages.  Our last 10 or so Princess sailings have been in suites or their Club Class minis which took us in the direction on a Penthouse mini on Regatta.

 

We have high expectations set in part by O marketing but probably as much by strong positive impressions posted here.  We are not especially hard to please however, we appreciate good service and comparatively simple cuisine, if O even remotely approach their promised level of service we will be happy campers.

 

Happy to answer any questions, one thing I could not find were current menus for the GDR, I’ll post them if I can find them displayed in public areas.  Couple of notes, I don’t do food photos (I find photography in the dining room … distracting) and likewise I don’t post cabin videos, there are plenty on YouTube.

 

There’s little doubt I’ll say something’s that may offend O loyalists, please know I don’t intend to be provocative but do intend to record our actual experiences.

Edited April 4, 2022 by jondfk

[kibutzer]

It has been a pleasure "getting to know you". Here is to safe travels, we hope to be outside Martinis at pre dinner on 6th. 

[jondfk]

So, why this cruise?  Why O, and why now?

 

We’ve sailed to and loved French Polynesia twice before, with RCCL, on Vision of the seas, in December of. 2001 and 2002.  We said we’d go back, but time passes and ….

 

We were originally scheduled on a medium length itinerary with Princess on their R ship Pacific for fall of 2020, but that got cancelled, and then the ship sold off.  We started looking for alternatives and were intrigued by the idea of eliminating one long flight.

 

Why O.  Frankly, Princess have left us feeling disappointed as they have grown, we still love them but our two week stay at Travis, and how they handled us, left a mark.  Something smaller appeals, something moderately casual suits us, who doesn’t like great food and service?  Yup, definitely time to try O.

 

As to why now, to be honest we booked a lot of adventures through the shut down and watched them get cancelled one after the other.  For most of the 19 months we held this booking I assumed it would never happen, but we hung in and swallowed hard when final payment day came in November without any sign of a restart by Regatta.  
 

But here we are, at the IC Papeete all tested for boarding . . .

[Clutj]

Look forward to your reviews.  You said you didn’t see GDR menus on the site.  The Preismans’ site has a recent Riviera cruise, and there is always a link for menus.  See https://www.thepreismans.com/riviera_21_menus.htm 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Clutj

[vlthom]

We are onboard now and continuing on from Papeete to Los Angeles.  This first segment has 517 passengers of which approximately 200 have sailed with O before.  Our experience is that is a fair number of newcomers.  Our most recent past O cruise had 80% repeaters.  I hope that jondfk finds the boarding process to be smoother than we did.  Otherwise our cruise is going very well.  I made some comments in the mid-cruise feedback concerning the poor internet connectivity in our cabin and within 24 hours there was a tech in our cabin checking it out.  He did something to the router which improved things for us.  I was impressed that they acted quickly and cared about our concerns.  I’ve heard no reports of COVID onboard, though our cruise director, Julie, disappeared on day 2.  I’m not sure why but we have not seen nor heard her since.

[mauibabes]

Jondfk,

We will hope you have an outstanding experience on Regatta.  We have sailed on her numerous times and expect the staff to be quite attentive and very happy to be aboard with you. 
With all your Princess sailings, you have proven to be quite patient and accepting. We left Princess and our Princess Comodore friends behind 15 years ago after two failures on Ruby Princess.  
I expect you should find Regatta and Oceania to be what Princess was 25 years ago.  While you are on board, be sure to visit with the Oceania Club Ambassador to book some future cruises. The $250 deposit instead of $750 and $100 in SBC is always welcome when booking a future cruise on  board. Check out Vista too, she looks to be AMAZING. 
 

Looking forward to your posts next week and I don’t think people on this Board will be taking you to task for expressing your opinions/perceptions about your cruise.  We all have expectations and we hope yours are met because none of us Platinum level members of the O family have adopted O if it wasn’t an awesome cruise line. 
Your GDR menus are available daily on line on your TV. Enjoy Polo and Toscana too  Since you are in a PH, your Butler will get you additional reservations as often as you desire. You are from the Bay Area so you may be familiar with the Humphrey Slocumb ice cream but if not, it is absolutely the best and made fresh daily. 
Enjoy,

Mauibabes

[Traveller94]

jondfk, Thanks for doing this! We have our first Oceania cruise booked for August. We are also West Coast cruisers who usually choose Princess and have booked a PH on Oceania. I’m really looking forward to hearing what you think and any tips you have for first timers. Have a great cruise!

[jondfk]

1 hour ago, Clutj said:

Look forward to your reviews.  You said you didn’t see GDR menus on the site.  The Preismans’ site has a recent Riviera cruise, and there is always a link for menus.  See https://www.thepreismans.com/riviera_21_menus.htm 

Thank you for this, I devoured their earlier posts but had missed the 2021 version, still, I’ll post what I’m able.

[kibutzer]

9 hours ago, vlthom said:

We are onboard now and continuing on from Papeete to Los Angeles.  This first segment has 517 passengers of which approximately 200 have sailed with O before.  Our experience is that is a fair number of newcomers.  Our most recent past O cruise had 80% repeaters.  I hope that jondfk finds the boarding process to be smoother than we did.  Otherwise our cruise is going very well.  I made some comments in the mid-cruise feedback concerning the poor internet connectivity in our cabin and within 24 hours there was a tech in our cabin checking it out.  He did something to the router which improved things for us.  I was impressed that they acted quickly and cared about our concerns.  I’ve heard no reports of COVID onboard, though our cruise director, Julie, disappeared on day 2.  I’m not sure why but we have not seen nor heard her since.

Have you net anyone who used O air , arrived at 5:30 am? Curious what they did with folks until boarding time ?

TIA for info.

[Jancruz]

5 hours ago, kibutzer said:

Have you net anyone who used O air , arrived at 5:30 am? Curious what they did with folks until boarding time ?

TIA for info.

Please take good care of the ship as we board April 24

Jancruz1

[jondfk]

1 hour ago, Jancruz said:

Please take good care of the ship as we board April 24

Jancruz1

We will look after the ship, as for the bars however, here’s hoping they have a full catering planned as we will make a best attempt to drink them dry 😂 

[Host Jazzbeau]

50 minutes ago, jondfk said:

We will look after the ship, as for the bars however, here’s hoping they have a full catering planned as we will make a best attempt to drink them dry 😂 

Thanks for the warning.  Just bought more shares of Diageo!  🤣

[JoePDX]

In pre-Covid times, at night along with the next days "Currents" newsletter you would also receive a copy of the dinner menu for the Grand Dining Room.  

 

Have a great time, I will be following your reports.   We sure love the R-Class ships and have been sailing on them for more than 20 years, first time in March 2001, pre-Oceania.

 

Joe

Edited April 4, 2022 by JoePDX

[YoPhilly]

I'm following...I'd love to do this itinerary someday. 

[jondfk]

Boarding day is tomorrow, time for a few more comments.  

 

First, about the booking process.  O had been marketing to us for a few years, always including a cruise consultant in the material, though we had never sailed with O, I knew his name from the repeated mailings.  When the time came I called him, yes I know there are a great many independent travel agents who specialize in O, and we likely will use one in the future, but for this first booking I wanted to test O end to end including their in house service team.

 

O newbies are probably uniformly confused by the OLife alternatives, my advisor walked me through the options.  Shore excursions, we’ve been to all ports but 1 previously and would likely use independent operators, so no thanks.  Beverage package, DW can’t drink a drop of alcohol, I asked whether we could take it for me alone, told no effectively we’d be paying twice for my drinks, my advisor suggested I just buy the package of my choosing for me alone, good advice, that’s what I did.  Option 3 is onboard cash, effectively you’re just prepaying some onboard spending, this didn’t make sense to me.  So no OLife for us on this sailing.  

 

He then walked us through OLife air.  Unless we paid for an air deviation we would certainly be booked on Air Tahiti Nui from LAX.  After a working career which took me around the world dozens of times, I still have a large bank of miles with UA, given that they now fly direct from SFO to Papeete we were sure to arrange business class on our own, so no OLife air for us.  

 

Mr advisor walked us through the cabin options, we were more or less set on a PH, we wanted to avoid the pool area fearing chairs being dragged overhead, this led us towards the lower categories saving a tiny amount.

 

Mr advisor was patient through all of this, at no point did I feel rushed or hurried.  He answered the phone the vast majority of times I called, when he couldn’t the call back came within 15 minutes, my travel agent is no where near as available or responsive.

 

I phoned a final time about 15 days prior to sailing when I repeatedly tried to purchase a beverage package online without success.  Mr advisor took care of it within seconds.  A revised invoice confirming my choice arrived before we hung up.  He took the opportunity to carefully walk me through the pre boarding testing requirements, he explored me to make sure we pre tested noting that if we didn’t O would test at the pier, at our expense, and would wash their hands should we come up positive, this sounds quite negative but honestly was presented in a very positive fashion.

 

Overall, there’s nothing whatsoever I might have expected and didn’t receive, very impressed so far.

[jondfk]

Pre cruise stay on Tahiti.  We didn’t book pre cruise hotel with O though we did elect to use “their” hotel, Intercontinental Tahiti.  The O nightly rate was, let’s say, no better than I could get on my own, in fact I could get a superior view for their ROH rate, another no brainer, better to take care of this myself.

 

About the IC Tahiti.  The hotel is about a 5 minute drive from the airport, I’ve stayed in “airport” hotels twice as far away.  We arranged for a private transfer which seemed a bit extravagant in advance but was very welcome upon arrival in Tahiti.  A roug travel day that started with a fight over Covid tests at SFO, a chaotic boarding, a delayed flight and slow immigration in Tahiti got immediately better when we stepped into the van.

 

Checkin was efficient, we were offered a ride to our distant room, very nice.

 

The hotel itself is sprawling, it takes 7 minutes to walk end to end.  The entire property fronts the ocean with Moorea on the horizon.  Service has been uniformly excellent.  Our room was obviously recently renovated and quite spacious.  We still live in a world without room service menus or service directories, sigh.  Housekeeping was in demand, we fell into a pattern of calling for service after breakfast, service arrived within 30 minutes while we sat outside soaking in the scenery.

 

The hotel has two dining places, only one of which was open the nights we stayed.  Menu options were somewhat limited but food quality and surprisingly quantity was impressive.  We took the prepaid breakfast option which saved us about 50% off of the walk up rate.  Prices are French Polynesian high but strangely didn’t seem to have yet been hit by recent inflation, so some items actually felt like a modest premium over what we think of as normal at home these days, weird.

 

Beds are firmer than we would prefer though I know this is a matter of opinion, we are looking forward to more forgiving bedding after boarding.

 

A final point, international flights arrive and depart from Tahiti late night and early morning, the hotel is well staffed for this and services that might have to wait for tomorrow elsewhere are readily available here, an example, “morning” coffee is available (for a fee) all night, a godsend to early birds like me.

 

We’ve been impressed, but are eager to leave and board tomorrow!

 

Next report, the boarding process and first impressions.  We’ve been warned by sailers currently onboard that Regatta followed none of their boarding process procedures on earlier sailing.  No boarding by times, no priority boarding by suites or status.  Still what can you do, our boarding time is 11:30 and we have to expect O to follow their own procedures and organize the pier side process accordingly

[Hunding]

jondfk

Bon Voyage!  I hope your cruise is spectacular.

[sunlover12]

Thank you for your comments. I was on the March 7-17 Papeete-Papeete cruise.  

 

We were also grateful for the United nonstop from SFO.  It took us many years to earn enough FF miles to book Polaris business class.  Well worth it.  It saved us $10,000+.

 

We also stayed at the Intercontinental. We were impressed how prepared they are for whenever an international flight arrives. Plenty of staff available.  

 

You mentioned avoiding the PH because of possible noise. We were in a PH, not directly below the pool deck but below the covered sitting area adjacent to the pool.  It was quiet. I wouldn't hesitate to book any PH on an R ship.  I spent a lot of time on the pool deck and never saw anyone moving chairs. 

 

Enjoy your cruise. Please keep posting when you have the time.

 

 

[jondfk]

16 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

Thank you for your comments. I was on the March 7-17 Papeete-Papeete cruise.  

 

We were also grateful for the United nonstop from SFO.  It took us many years to earn enough FF miles to book Polaris business class.  Well worth it.  It saved us $10,000+.

 

We also stayed at the Intercontinental. We were impressed how prepared they are for whenever an international flight arrives. Plenty of staff available.  

 

You mentioned avoiding the PH because of possible noise. We were in a PH, not directly below the pool deck but below the covered sitting area adjacent to the pool.  It was quiet. I wouldn't hesitate to book any PH on an R ship.  I spent a lot of time on the pool deck and never saw anyone moving chairs. 

 

Enjoy your cruise. Please keep posting when you have the time.

 

 

Thanks for the comments.  Just to clarify we did book a PH2 slightly away from the pool area, which saved us about enough to pay our 4 day food bill at the IC 😂 

 

 

[mauibabes]

jondfk

We have experienced 5 embarkations since October and it is our understanding the process is managed by the port contractor and NOT Oceania.  While O was good about providing appointments for everyone so the volume of people could be more effectively managed, it was the guests that made a mess out of the process. People did not show up on time, just everyone trying to beat the system. 
Make  sure you have the proper documentation ready and bring your patience. You are fortunate to be boarding with a reduced capacity so it will all work out. We saw that the early birds did not get the worm and those who arrived later processed more quickly overall. While there were separate lines for Suites and above versus the remainder of the guests,  at some point it is a funnel system and everyone must pass through a limited service point. 

Some guests specifically arrived after 1:00 and processed quickly. If the Intercontinental conveniently allows for a late check out, and you can be patient, consider letting the masses enjoy the embarkation chaos and you stroll in later. 
Bottom line, just have a fantastic cruise and enjoy the Oceania experience. 
Ciao,

Mauibabes

[USNA 72]

16 hours ago, mauibabes said:

the process is managed by the port contractor and NOT Oceania.

This statement is absolutely true

 

That said:  Failure to enforce pre arranged boarding times (however they are determined) seems to be causing congestion as part of boarding process on all Cruise Lines.

[jondfk]

I accept that the port plays a role.  Still there is a moment when the cruise line invites guests aboard, using whatever priority they choose to enforce.  My guess is folks will learn quick enough if they arrive hours ahead of their selected or assigned time and are asked to return or wait.  Princess did enforce their boarding ORDER when we sailed in February, I stress the word order meaning they boarded everyone in group A. Then group B (well ahead of group B time) and so on, no lines anywhere from luggage drop to the gangway.  

 

We attempted to arrange late checkout or a day room at the Intercontinental but they are firm on their 11:00 checkout so, we will proceed towards the pier at our scheduled boarding time. 

[ronrick1943]

Sounds like you’ll have a great time and I’m looking forward to reading your post.  Have a safe and fun trip.

[jondfk]

Well that was easy.  As with our arrival in PPT we elected a private transfer from the IC to the pier, having an 11:30 boarding time we ask for a driver at 11:00 he was precisely on time.  On surprise, he ask us whether we would be willing to share with another couple, we elected graciousness and agreed.

 

We were hussled (well, flow of traffic) to the pier and met by a gaggle of porters.  There was a short line to get through the first checkin station, this was outside in the intense sun.  From then on it was shady, we arrived at the gangway at the back of a line of 10, 4 at a time were allowed up and onward through security and to the lounge for checkin.

 

we were seated at Terrace Cafe by noon.  Great.

 

Now, when those 4 busses that were loading up at the IC I’m guessing progress will slow markedly.  The usual rules apply when the herd goes right, turn left.

Edited April 6, 2022 by jondfk

[ronrick1943]

25 minutes ago, jondfk said:

Well that was easy.  As with our arrival in PPT we elected a private transfer from the IC to the pier, having an 11:30 boarding time we ask for a driver at 11:00 he was precisely on time.  On surprise, he ask us whether we would be willing to share with another couple, we elected graciousness and agreed.

 

We were hussled (well, flow of traffic) to the pier and met by a gaggle of porters.  There was a short line to get through the first checkin station, this was outside in the intense sun.  From then on it was shady, we arrived at the gangway at the back of a line of 10, 4 at a time were allowed up and onward through security and to the lounge for checkin.

 

we were seated at Terrace Cafe by noon.  Great.

 

Now, when those 4 busses that were loading up at the IC I’m guessing progress will slow markedly.  The usual rules apply when the herd goes right, turn left.

Agree, always get to the ship on your own and try to arrive before the buses.