Interesting Nautica Tidbit

[ORV]

I’m currently on Nautica and the CD mentioned something I did not know on his morning TV talk. We’ve had US Coast Guard inspections and this was the reason we couldn’t embark a couple of days ago until 3pm. Being in Scotland this seems out of the ordinary and he said it was because Nautica has not  been to the US in 20 years or more. I don’t know if he is right or not but thought that was interesting.
 

So far have enjoyed the food and service. The previous cruise missed quite a few ports due to weather. We’ll see how this one shakes out. 
 

While I don’t really plan on doing a day to day live from report I’ll probably post a few observations here. We are in Kirkwall Orkney Islands today and it is rainy and windy. I was just here about a year ago so I’ll probably make it a ship day. 

[ORV]

Third ship this year and third champagne. This one’s a winner

[1985rz1]

11 minutes ago, ORV said:

Third ship this year and third champagne. This one’s a winner

That's the one currently being served on the Sirena. 🍾🥂🍾

Edited August 26 by 1985rz1

[jackdeb]

Judging by the picture it looks like bubbles for breakfast in the Terrace Cafe.

Well done!

[pinotlover]

I had earlier ( during the Pandemic) heard a report that the Nautica hadn’t been in U.S. waters for years. Interesting that the US Coast Guard would have jurisdiction as it isn’t a U.S. flagged vessel. Perhaps since it’s a U.S. flagged territory??

[golfguyhhi]

Orv,

 

Trying to figure out which CDs are still with O.  Who is the CD on Nautica?

[ORV]

1 hour ago, jackdeb said:

Judging by the picture it looks like bubbles for breakfast in the Terrace Cafe.

Well done!

Actually that was yesterday afternoon. I’m 6 hours ahead of CST

22 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I had earlier ( during the Pandemic) heard a report that the Nautica hadn’t been in U.S. waters for years. Interesting that the US Coast Guard would have jurisdiction as it isn’t a U.S. flagged vessel. Perhaps since it’s a U.S. flagged territory??

It’s because its coming to the US. 

19 minutes ago, golfguyhhi said:

Orv,

 

Trying to figure out which CDs are still with O.  Who is the CD on Nautica?

Steve Campbell, from UK, Leeds. I think I’ve seen him before but can’t remember when

[Twiga]

23 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I had earlier ( during the Pandemic) heard a report that the Nautica hadn’t been in U.S. waters for years. Interesting that the US Coast Guard would have jurisdiction as it isn’t a U.S. flagged vessel. Perhaps since it’s a U.S. flagged territory??

Could it be because the Nautica will soon be in the U.S.?  I will be embarking the Nautica in Miami in December. 

[EJL2023]

19 minutes ago, Twiga said:

Could it be because the Nautica will soon be in the U.S.?  I will be embarking the Nautica in Miami in December. 

Looks like it will actually be in Boston as of September 11th.

[Twiga]

It seems that a U.S. Coast Guard inspection needs to be done before the Nautica arrives in the U.S.  Hence the inspection in Scotland. 

[JCMass.]

We are embarking on September 18 from Boston.  We have been on other ships that hadn't been to the US in many years, the crew is usually excited because they have never been to the US.  Often the staff want to have conversations to see what the American cruisers like.  We have been told it is quite different than Europeans, especially with dining times, they like to dine later. We were also told we like to eat at more casual venue's during the day, Europeans like to sit down to enjoy all their meals.  Looking forward to our first time on Oceania. 

[Vallesan]

44 minutes ago, JCMass. said:

We are embarking on September 18 from Boston.  We have been on other ships that hadn't been to the US in many years, the crew is usually excited because they have never been to the US.  Often the staff want to have conversations to see what the American cruisers like.  We have been told it is quite different than Europeans, especially with dining times, they like to dine later. We were also told we like to eat at more casual venue's during the day, Europeans like to sit down to enjoy all their meals.  Looking forward to our first time on Oceania. 

Can’t understand why the crew will be ‘excited’. They should  already ‘know’ what ‘American’ cruisers are like because they are nearly always the majority on ‘European’ cruises!
 

Enjoy your first time on Oceania!

[JCMass.]

3 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Can’t understand why the crew will be ‘excited’. They should  already ‘know’ what ‘American’ cruisers are like because they are nearly always the majority on ‘European’ cruises!
 

Enjoy your first time on Oceania!

Often they have time to be off the ship in a new country.  

[Vallesan]

2 minutes ago, JCMass. said:

Often they have time to be off the ship in a new country.  

Yes and that will be exciting for them I agree but  …. ‘American’ cruisers…. they will definitely already be familiar with them!

[JCMass.]

Last cruise on NCL, Oceania is part of that family of cruise lines, the General Manager came to the Meet and Greet and told us it was his first cruise from an American port.  He sat down and talked with a group of us about our likes and dislikes about cruising.  He was very experienced working on ships in Europe, he told us we were quite different.  I bumped into him again in the buffet dining area a few more times, he was talking to people about their experience.  He told us our dining habits were more casual, more of us in the buffet, and at the casual eating venue's.  He said we were very enthusiastic about cruising and enjoyed ourselves.  He was happy to be cruising out of the US. 

[Harters]

3 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

they will definitely already be familiar with them!

Without question. I've done three cruises with O. One a transatlantic. Another a Barcelona round trip. And the third a UK round trip. Now it is certainly my impression that there was a higher proportion of Europeans on the UK one, but even so, we were still very much a small minority. 

[Vallesan]

2 hours ago, JCMass. said:

Last cruise on NCL, Oceania is part of that family of cruise lines, the General Manager came to the Meet and Greet and told us it was his first cruise from an American port.  He sat down and talked with a group of us about our likes and dislikes about cruising.  He was very experienced working on ships in Europe, he told us we were quite different.  I bumped into him again in the buffet dining area a few more times, he was talking to people about their experience.  He told us our dining habits were more casual, more of us in the buffet, and at the casual eating venue's.  He said we were very enthusiastic about cruising and enjoyed ourselves.  He was happy to be cruising out of the US. 

NCL and Oceania may be under the same ‘umbrella’ but they are very different ‘creatures’. The fact that Oceania ships are  very much smaller  means the passengers are different, often more well travelled, who enjoy the smaller ships because they can dock in ports  that the huge ships can’t. When you have travelled on your first Oceania cruise you will have a better idea of how different Oceania is to NCL or other large lines with huge ships. 
The fact of the matter is that on Oceania, in general, the majority of passengers are from the US so the staff know what American’s expect!

[Vallesan]

2 hours ago, Harters said:

Without question. I've done three cruises with O. One a transatlantic. Another a Barcelona round trip. And the third a UK round trip. Now it is certainly my impression that there was a higher proportion of Europeans on the UK one, but even so, we were still very much a small minority. 

Yes on our 10 Oceania cruises the Americans have always been the majority. In saying that it was the same on our Seabourn cruises and on RSS and Silversea. I think it has to do with the size of the ships amongst other things

[willidc]

13 hours ago, ORV said:

I’m currently on Nautica and the CD mentioned something I did not know on his morning TV talk. We’ve had US Coast Guard inspections and this was the reason we couldn’t embark a couple of days ago until 3pm. Being in Scotland this seems out of the ordinary and he said it was because Nautica has not  been to the US in 20 years or more. I don’t know if he is right or not but thought that was interesting.

 

We cannot say if he IS right or not either.  But when we began sailing with O in 2012, people who were more seasoned O travellers gave us some great information over dinner one night.  I remember they said that Nautica was the "exotic itinerary" R ship.

 

I just checked our six sailings on Nautica and see Hong Kong to Beijing (2014), Bangkok to Mumbai (2018), and Abu Dabi to Dubai in late 2022 being the last Nautica sailing for us.  All pretty exotic.  The least exotic was 2019 Canary Islands/Africa. 

 

Nautica has been our favorite R ship but not sure if it was our ports visited with her or something else.  As Billy Joel would say "She's got a way about her".

 

Thanks for the tidbit. It brought back some nice memories on a Monday afternoon.

 

[Jim_Iain]

7 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Can’t understand why the crew will be ‘excited’. They should  already ‘know’ what ‘American’ cruisers are like because they are nearly always the majority on ‘European’ cruises!
 

Enjoy your first time on Oceania!

 

Possibly they know that American's are more prone to tip better than many Europeans.

[osandomir]

28 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Possibly they know that American's are more prone to tip better than many Europeans.

I agree. And now days the cruises that start in US attracted proportionally more Americans than that just sailing in Europe. Also the crew can be exited to visit new land.

[ORV]

16 hours ago, JCMass. said:

We are embarking on September 18 from Boston.  We have been on other ships that hadn't been to the US in many years, the crew is usually excited because they have never been to the US.  Often the staff want to have conversations to see what the American cruisers like.  We have been told it is quite different than Europeans, especially with dining times, they like to dine later. We were also told we like to eat at more casual venue's during the day, Europeans like to sit down to enjoy all their meals.  Looking forward to our first time on Oceania. 

The crew moves from ship to ship, they are not always on the same one.   On this cruise there are at least a half dozen or more that were on our Regatta cruise out of San Pedro(LA) in April. Oceania has many long time experienced staff that have been all over the world. So in essence being in the USA is not new to many of them. 

[Harters]

8 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

American's are more prone to tip better than many Europeans.

Absolutely. Having read many tip threads on food/restaurant forums, I am convinced that we Europeans have a very different cultural attitude towards tipping than do Americans. 

Edited August 27 by Harters

[ORV]

We made the port of Torshavn in the Faroe Islands, so I think we’re fortunate in that, as I hear that it’s frequently missed. It is rainy and chilly, but we’re here. 
 

We have a tour this afternoon. Glad I brought a rain jacket. 
 

Excellent dinner last night in Polo. Ordered a filet medium rare as I like it medium and I always hear that they over cook them. It came medium rare. 😊it was very good. 

[SophieM]

I’m taking Nautica notes, Orv. We’ll be on Oct. 6.