Oceania Insignia 6th Aug 07 Barcelona-Istanbul

[Kiwifruit]

My partner and I have just booked on this cruise and we were wondering if there any other family booked on this cruise.

 

We are in our late 30's and travelling from Australia. We have been on many cruises and this will be our second on Oceania and we would be happy to hear from anybody travelling with us on the Insignia.

 

Cheers,

 

D&D

[1964nick]

Hi Guys

Sorry your not with us on the previous cruise but we will look after the ship for you.

 

C and A

[yara]

There are at least two more to come! We are spending one week in Sitges prior to the cruise. It is our first time on Oceania. We have done everything from SeaDream with 100 passengers to Millenium with its 2500(?) passengers. We have not heard too much about Oceania, but it seems like nice ships. As you did the same ship last year, it is hopefully a good choice. We love the good food and wines.... We are adding another 10years on you, and I think that is about the average on this ship?

 

Hope to have some nice days together on the way to Istanbul.

 

T&A

[Kiwifruit]

Hi T&A,

 

Great to hear from you. We are spending a few days in Madrid prior to the cruise and taking the train to Barcelona. We have in the past toyed with the idea of staying in Stiges but don't really know much about it. Have you been there before and if so what is it like?

 

Like yourselves we have been on a number of cruises from the likes of Seabourn and Windstar through to Celebrity and Holland America and we really have enjoyed them all. As you would expect Oceania fits somewhere in the middle of the spectrum and whilst it doesn't have the intimacy of Seabourn or the lavish entertainment of the large cruise lines, we think it is a good balance between the two. The average on the last Insignia cruise would have been 50s upwards with a mix of nationalities (although about 2/3 from North America).

 

We found the food on Insignia to be pretty good last year, and as this particular cruise is being promoted as a "culinary odyssey" with Jacques Pepin we have high expectations this time around. One good point about Oceania is that there is no extra charge for the speciality restaurants and although you are limited in the number of reservations that you can make, we found it easy to get additional reservations just by enquiring on the day.

 

Look forward to seeing you onboard.

 

Cheers,

 

D&D

 

PS: Wherebouts are you from?

[yara]

Hope you are not effected by the bad weather in Australia. (I suppose it is further north).

 

We did spend some days in Sitges last year as well. I must admit I was very sceptic to going there as I do not like the "Ghettos". (That is also my reason for not wanting to go on a Gay cruise). Of course it was very Gay, but it was not totally overtaken. It is a very charming small village with a nice beach and some really good restaurants. (The nightlife is also supposed to be good....).

 

I suppose you have -with 3 Med cruises- been to most of the ports before. The only ones we have never been to is Taormina and Santorini. That is not quite true because we have never been to Delos, even with a few visits to it's neighbour Mykonos. We have been "planning" on going several times, but this time we are not given any excuse I think, so we are going there.

 

We have not planned much regarding tours as we are leaving most of it to the weather. It can be terribly hot at that time, and Rome in 40C is no fun. But on the other hand Rome in 30C is great fun!

 

Regarding the dress code: Are there any need for a jacket? On our cruises on SeaDream the dress code is "yacht-casual". That is perfect for us. It is very relaxing, and laidback. Of course no shorts or things like that for dinner. Seabourn is of course fun with the formal stuff, but I think even they are now moving towards a bit more relaxed style.

 

Take care!

[Kiwifruit]

We are far enough south that we have not been affected by the heavy rain up North.

 

Stiges sounds interesting and we may check it out next time we visit Barcelona. Like you, we have never really been interested in taking an exclusively gay cruise, I guess it's horses for courses but it doesn't really appeal to us. We have been fortunate that we have never encountered any discrimination nor have we been made to feel uncomfortable on any of the mainstream cruises that we have taken.

 

With regard to Oceania, the dress code is pretty relaxed and probably best described as "smart casual", some people do take jackets to wear to dinner but many do not and I suspect that the hot weather in August may mean the dress code is even more relaxed than usual.

[stebul]

Jackets and ties are definitely NOT required on Oceania (even in the specialty restaurants). You will see very few men wearing them.

 

Some examples of what we wore: dress shirts with slacks (no tie); lightweight sweater/turtleneck with slacks or dressy khakis; resort casual ("Tommy Bahama" shirts) with dressy khakis; polo shirt with dressy khakis. This is what we would wear going out to a nice restaurant here in San Diego. We brought some casual shoes and some boat shoes which were both also fine. We were usually among the best dressed when you take style, fit, and color coordination into account.

 

What not to wear: jeans, t-shirts, tennis shoes.

[Kiwifruit]

Well said Stebul ;-). We found the crowd on Oceania to have quite an ecclectic dress sense and the fashion police would certainly have had their work cut out if they were to be judging style, fit AND colour.

[Kiwifruit]

Anybody else on this cruise?

[wripro]

Not on this one but we are booked for the March 08 Rio to Barcelona crossing on the Insignia. It will be our first time on this line. What's the atmosphere like for gays? I am used to Seabourn and Silversea where there is almost never a problem.

[Kiwifruit]

Hi Wripro,

 

Given the demographic Oceania attracts I would be most surprised if you encountered any problems as we found everybody to be quite "gay friendly". The staff in particular were always very warm and we were never made to feel awkward as a gay couple. I'm sure as with any group of this size there must be passengers who are conservative and less tolerant but I would expect they just keep their views to themselves.

 

Oceania and Seabourn (haven't experienced Silverseas so can't comment there) are quite different experiences and cater for slightly different clientele. One of the most noticeable differences is the open dining policy on Oceania where you do not have a preassigned table. We really enjoyed being part of an assigned table on our Seabourn cruise and while we probably could have opted to be seated with others on Oceania, it is not the same as having the same tablemates each night.

 

We didn't notice any FOD meetings on any of the daily programmes but imagine you could request one if you liked. On our particular cruise we identified about six other gay couples whom we spoke to and all seemed to be happy with Oceania.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Cheers,

 

Kiwifruit

[wripro]

Kiwifruit,

 

Thanks for your reply. I am sure there will be no problem on Oceania.

 

Did you say you were part of an assigned table on Seabourn? they have open seating as well. Unless, you mean being invited to hosted tables. Just curious.

[Kiwifruit]

Hi Wripro,

 

Sorry thats what I meant, we were part of a hosted table. We really enjoyed the hosted table as you got to know your fellow passengers and many of the ship's officers. It seemed to me that most people dined this way on Seabourn although I know you retain the flexibility to dine on your own. On Oceania you are not really given this option or the option to dine with other people and we were always seated on a table for two. I imagine that you could ask to join another table if you wanted, I don't think its that common to do so.

 

Cheers,

 

Kiwifruit

[wripro]

Hi Kiwifruit,

 

I agree, the hosted tables on Seabourn are a nice option. I have had some great evenings, but also a couple of stinkers depending on who the other guests are and how well the host runs the table. I hope that on Oceania we will meet other passengers and invite those we like to dine with us. At least that's how we've always done it on SB and SS.

[yara]

On most cruises over one week my feeling is that even with open seating one is ending up at the same table -with the same people- because you do find someone you like to have dinner with. Preassigned tables have never been any problem to us up to now, and will probably not be in the future. Having an open seating gives you the option of even have an evening at a table for two sometimes when you don't feel for having others too close. (That is also part of a vacation).