Transatlantic on Sirena

[travellerin1984]

Hi!

We are considering booking a transatlantic cruise on Sirena for next spring. We are curious about the entertainment and activities during the crossing. We are in our early and late forties and active. We enjoy good food and I like to listen to lectures and we like to walk on deck. How do you think cruising on Sirena could suit us? 

[MEFIowa]

O's demographic skews older and I believe even more so on such TransAtlantics. We sailed 10 nights on Sirena 11/2022 in the Caribbean and have 22 more nights on Sirena booked starting Aug 28, 2024 in the Baltic.

 

Their video library should have some old, taped lectures, but not sure how many live lectures you'd get on a TA. We had 5 lectures each on our recent 20-night B2B on Riviera in the Med (Oct-Nov 2023).

 

There should be a nightly show (usually 9:30 pm), but we've only paid attention to the comics. Heard some mediocre reviews about many of the shows on the smaller R-class ships.

 

As for daily activities, they range from needlepoint & bridge playing to team trivia, bean bag toss, and such. You can walk around the ship in various places, including the deck overlooking the pool. Lap distances rather short.

 

The pool is small. More for walking around than swimming in.

[kibutzer]

5 hours ago, travellerin1984 said:

Hi!

We are considering booking a transatlantic cruise on Sirena for next spring. We are curious about the entertainment and activities during the crossing. We are in our early and late forties and active. We enjoy good food and I like to listen to lectures and we like to walk on deck. How do you think cruising on Sirena could suit us? 

Ship is very sedate. Lots of reading time, bingo, and some lectures. There is a gym and small track for walking.

[patty1955]

We're booked on this cruise. We've never sailed a transoceanic cruise on Oceania but we've sailed transpacifics on Windstar and Celebrity. Both had plenty to do during the sea days. Trivia, needlework, lectures, etc. We love sea days!

[travellerin1984]

Thank you! Sounds great! Do you think it is possible to get extra reservations on specialty dining?

[iowananny]

We've never had a problem with extra reservations but we're flexible.  You may need to eat later in the evening and share a table with other guests.  It's if that's okay with you then it's probably something you can do but don't expect to get the reservations until you're on the ship.  Serina only has two specialty restaurants so maybe it may be a little more difficult.  But the Grand Dining Room is always good and so is the Terrace.  Believe me you won't starve.

[JoePDX]

We did a 21 night transatlantic on Sirena in March 2023 from Aruba to Barcelona.   It was an incredible trip. At the time it was our fourth transatlantic.  Since then we have completed two more and have two more booked.   We love TAs and the sea days.   We also adore the R-Class ships.   

 

There were two lecturers on board.  One did a series of lectures on photography - mostly focused on how to take great photos with your cell phone.   I learned an incredible amount.  The other lecturer was geared toward talks on our destinations and history.   

 

In addition to the other activities mentioned, one day there was the Oceania Country Fair where all departments host a table with games related to the work they do.  Knot tying, pillow stuffing, spice identification, etc.  A lot of fun.  You get a raffle ticket for each win. The other activity usually only done on longer voyages was the boat building competition. Some pretty good creativity.

 

Trivia was well attended.  There were about 12 teams.  Our team won for most points for the whole voyage.   Tip - get an international team put together.  We just lucked into ours.   

 

With flexibility additional reservations were available in the specialty restaurants.   We really enjoyed our meals in the Grand Dining Room - we found a waiter we liked and requested his section every night.  He took incredible care of us.

 

Joe

 

 

 

     

[BZFamily]

So looking forward to our upcoming TA trip on Sirena. Loved hearing about the onboard activities…thanks. Wondering about the temps onboard while cruising the North Atlantic. Shirt sleeves? Sweater? Jacket? TIA 😊

[JoePDX]

20 minutes ago, BZFamily said:

So looking forward to our upcoming TA trip on Sirena. Loved hearing about the onboard activities…thanks. Wondering about the temps onboard while cruising the North Atlantic. Shirt sleeves? Sweater? Jacket? TIA 😊

 

We had beautiful weather.  Never needed a sweater.  At the most a light jacket and that was more from breezes than cold temps.   I was mostly in shorts and short sleeved shirts while on deck.   I think we had a couple of rain squalls while at sea, but didn't last long.

 

Joe

Edited Monday at 02:41 PM by JoePDX

[BZFamily]

Thanks so much!

[Harters]

2 hours ago, BZFamily said:

Wondering about the temps onboard while cruising the North Atlantic.

We did a transatlantic earlier this year. Weather in mid Atlantic was variable - chilly, windy and rainy on a few days. Definitely needed a light jacket, even in a sheltered spot on deck. Now, we are North Europeans so used to chilly, windy, rainy weather so we were OK finding that sheltered spot. But the vast majority of passengers were American and they were nowhere to be seen on deck on those days. They were, of course, the ones exercising commonsense  - I'd never sit outside, even under cover, in those temps at home. 

[BZFamily]

Thanks for the info. Hopefully in summer it’ll be a little warmer, but as warm weather Americans we’ll definitely have our jackets and sweaters handy 😊