KathyL2537

Appreciate everyone’s input and suggestions. I really like the smaller ships, after a few expedition cruises even the Nautica seemed like too many people to me! so not all that interested in moving up to one of the larger Oceania ones. But again, depends on price and itinerary. Will also look at Windstar, as several of you have suggested; I hadn’t even thought about that so thank you!

Thanks Bradpole, you make a good point that I hadn’t thought of, sometimes you want something from the dining room menu but also want a quick and casual venue. Oceania’s approach allows this, I hadn’t looked at it that way.

This forum and the roll calls were really helpful, so in the spirit of giving back, thought I would post our impressions after our first Oceania cruise. We started cruising on Carnival and RC, have also been on Princess, Celebrity (last time was in the Retreat), Azamara, an expedition cruise on Stella Australis, a long ago cruise up the Nile, another around the Greek islands (not lines anyone would recognize) and most recently an expedition cruise to Antarctica on Seabourn. In total roughly 20 or so cruises. We have friends who loved Oceania and we liked the South Pacific itinerary so thought we’d give it a shot. Given the competition at this price point, we were underwhelmed by Oceania. The ship was the same as Azamara so we were expecting roughly a similar experience, There were definitely some things we liked but overall the food and service was very erratic, some nights we had to continually turn wine and water refills away, others we sat and waited. Even getting coffee and water in the cafe at breakfast was very slow, I often went up to the counter or the machine myself which they didn’t like but after waiting 10 minutes with no one acknowledging me I thought it was justified. Some of the menu items were excellent, but others were substandard. I’ve never had to argue with a waiter to order something (“I wouldn’t recommend that ma’am, it’s not good, try one of these instead”.) Neither appealed to me, but he kept saying no and I had to keep pushing to order what I wanted, which when I finally got it, was excellent. This was in the Polo Grill on the same night they brought me the wrong order. Toscana was much better, both food and service. We were also disappointed that the dinner menus between the cafe and the dining room were much the same. On other lines there’s been much more variety between these venues so you had more options. I know others have noted that you cannot serve yourself in the cafe, and I know there are pros and cons to that but it definitely slows down service and results in confusion (where’s the line?) . We definitely missed some of the specialty meals/experiences that we’ve had on Azamara: a fabulous breakfast buffet in the Main dining room on sea days, other occasional ethnic buffets plus of course their White Nights and Azamazing evenings, there was nothing even close to that on Oceania. Additionally the limited hours were disappointing, we often like to stop at whatever the coffee shop is on board to get an herbal tea in the evening but Baristas closed at 6. For this cruise we tendered into most ports. We had booked a mix of ship excursions-which we never do but this time wanted to use up the SM chore excursion credit- and independent excursions. Their process at least initially was awful. We went down one day before 8, which is when they opened, to get our independent tender tickets for our tour which was starting at 830. Once they opened, they announced that the Jeeps for the ships tours were not yet ready, however they then disembarked those passengers right away. Then they moved the tendering location due to wind and water conditions so the next tender didn’t go out til almost 9. Really? Luckily enough people complained that after that they started disembarking tenders of independent tour passengers first, so we did appreciate that they listened to feedback. internet speed, if the internet was even accessible, was slow. At one point I went up to the Oceania@sea for help and he kept telling me it was my device, until I went back and showed him more error messages, where he finally admitted there was a problem. We had great internet on Seabourn in Antarctica which I would consider even more remote. And as others have said, cabin and bathroom were tiny but workable. Late in the cruise I had started loading items in the suitcase (including the bottle of champagne) but they were loose when I pushed it back under the bed, opened, to finish up later. I was surprised when I came back to find it had been pulled out, zipped shut and was upright by the bed. I’ve never had that happen on another cruise line, luckily the champagne was not damaged. So that’s the negatives. There were a number of positive things as well. We really appreciated the advice from this forum to bring your own liquor, we brought several half sized bottles and just made our own happy hour cocktails after the long shore excursion days. Have not been able to do this on other lines but really enjoyed having our drink while we were cleaning up after the long hot sticky days. We had three free bags of laundry which we used and it came back on schedule and just fine. Excellent library and gym (I hear on Azamara they are turning the libraries into bars, which saddens me as I love that space). This is the only line I’ve been on where they’ve offered a meditation class, which was terrific. It’s also the only time I remember seeing the staff tactfully remind a guest to change out of shorts before he could go into the MDR for dinner. Loved Baristas for that all important morning latte. And above all, the staff was really all very nice and other than the some of the meal services, really efficient. We had room service breakfast several times before early excursions and they were prompt. The first day after they had opened our access to our rooms, none of the keys worked. I had to go down and get it reset twice, as did many others. The poor customer service person at the desk was clearly frazzled dealing with this, but was super helpful, polite and apologetic. Our cabin staff was superb. At the end of a cruise I like to make a donation to the crew welfare fund to benefit everyone that you don’t see, but sadly apparently Oceania doesn’t offer this. Bottom line, it was a good cruise and depending on price point and itinerary we might go on Oceania again but it wouldn’t be our first choice. They definitely need to up their game if they want to compete with Seabourn and Azamara (there is another thread in the forum comparing Oceania specifically to Seabourn and now having done both I would agree with just about everything that author said).

Great point, we did get room service breakfast at 645 on our early days, my husband is quite happy to scarf at any hour! In looking at the menu though they will serve up to the 945-10 am slot, so I guess we could have had it delivered for 915 or so, assuming we’d be back by then. It’s a pretty full menu, I took a picture and attached it.

No, it never seemed as though there was a plan for a second landing. Early on in one of the presentations, they said that they had to put in for their landing spots last winter so my take from that is they can’t really be changed on the fly, altho that was not specifically stated and it’s a great question. Those of you with more experience in Antarctica can weigh in here but I suspect it’s limited by the number of cruise ships in the area at this time of year balanced against the possible landing spots. You’ve made me curious though, I should check out the itineraries of the more expedition like ships and see if they get two landings. Maybe that’s why the price is double?

It’s been a really interesting blend of expedition and luxury, so I am kind of struggling with which measure to judge on. We’ve been very lucky with weather, only one landing aborted so three of our five days we had both a landing and a zodiac ride, one day was just a landing and the other day was just a zodiac. And yes, as previous posters have referenced, each outing is 60-90 minutes maximum so it’s not a lot of time off the ship. I think that’s a function of the ship size and the strict Antarctica rules; for every outing there are six groups and your time is tightly controlled. But they have been very well organized and everyone I’ve talked to has loved all of the outings. There are just no words for how stunning the scenery is, or how much fun it is to watch penguins. Given that, there is a good deal of time on board. The first two days crossing the Drake we felt pretty busy with activities, presentations and so on. It’s been less so while we’ve been on the continent but there’s a lot to be said for just watching icebergs drift by your window or spending time on deck to try and spot penguins, birds and whales. There have definitely been some glitches. They are minor but not what I would have expected from a luxury line. The Colonnade is packed at lunch, it is definitely undersized for the size of the ship. We’ve also found the opening hours overall to be weird, if you are going out on a 745 expedition, and don’t get back til 9 it’d be nice to be able to go have breakfast but from 9-930 it’s basically cereal, muffins and fruit. They tell you to eat at 645 before your outing but not at all of us are ready to eat that early. We’ve struggled to find a place for our standard 5 pm happy hour; two of the three main bars don’t open til 6 or 630 pm, and with the next day’s activity briefing typically at 6, that’s not terribly convenient. The one bar that’s open most of the day seems to only have one bartender, so if you go down at 5 and he’s stepped out, oh well. But again, in the grand scheme of things, these are definitely first world problems. On the plus side, I think the food has been good, DH is thrilled with having caviar every night. My wine glass has rarely been empty. The expedition team presentations are very interesting. Our cabin is amazing, taking the upgrade offer to the Panoramic Veranda was well worth the cost. We’ve used the gym quite a bit and have only ever seen one other person there. The lounges are well located and comfortable. Have enjoyed the trivia and haven’t had any sales pitches for the shops, I guess they got that message! The WiFi has been terrific. Hope that helps! Today is our last day in Antarctica and the forecasts for the next few days are again showing the Drake as a Lake so fingers crossed!

For us last week the requirement was no more than two checked bags, totaling no more than 75 pounds, per person. We had packed a large duffel bag and pulled it out once we got to the Seabourne hotel in BA since we had spent a few days in Mendoza before arriving into BA and needed suitcase space for wine. So for two of us, we had three checked bags from BA to Ushuaia plus our two carry on backpacks. The duffel will be great for packing our parkas, beanies, dry bags and the other assorted Seabourn items that we’ve collected in the trip 🙂

Absolutely agree. Many people are in jeans, sweaters and hiking boots in the main dining room at dinner. No one seems to notice or care.

Video failed to upload, sorry. Will try again later.

We were very lucky and got the “Drake Lake” so while I had gotten the scopolamine patch I am not sure whether I needed it. Here’s a video I took from my sofa so you can see the relative calm. Had a great day yesterday, we saw Elephant Island and A23a as well as lots of whales, penguins and birds. Just arrived at our first anchorage so hoping conditions are good enough that we can do our first landing! It’s 30 degrees with a 5 knot wind.

Laylam, I can only speak to our experience in Ushuaia but we’ve been here twice in the last year, once on Stella Australis and now on Seabourn and both times we accessed by driving up the pier and then just walking on. It’s a great question because I thought the same, given the info provided by Seabourn it looked like it might be a tender to the ship but for us it was not. That said, I think that most people on our bus from the airport appreciated having a rain/wind jacket in Ushuaia. Didn’t bother me as 1. I am always warm and 2. I didn’t get off the bus for the Ushuaia picture. I brought a rain jacket but have not used it.

Not sure, we were confused as it took us a few mins to realize that the seabourn rep wasn’t the one we had booked and the other driver was a few minutes late. It was only when she said she was going to take us to the Alvear Palace that we realized the error and found the other driver. We all chatted for a moment and decided to go with the driver we had booked, but she might have taken us to the hotel we booked if we had asked her. I was concerned that seabourn had booked us for another night in the Palace, at our expense, but she called her company and said they were fully booked that night. So in the end it was all ok ( and by the way I highly recommend the Ker San Telmo if you have extra nights and want to stay in the Puerto Madero area but don’t want to pay the Alvear prices). It just annoyed me that Seabourn had set this up without letting us know, and after explicitly telling us that they would not. Would have saved us some time and money and not wasted the time of the other driver and guide. oh and I almost forgot. We had to check out of the San Telmo at 10 so Uber’d over to the Alvear Palace to stash luggage there. But our room was ready, which we were not expecting and really appreciated. Very nice hotel.

Hi all. Appreciated all the info that I got from this thread so thought I’d weigh in with our first day experience. There were a few instances where info I had received from Seabourn back office was different than what happened on the ground so, while your mileage may vary, let me know if this is helpful. We were scheduled on Bus #1 and flight #1. Luggage out before 1130 pm Saturday night, and up at 3:30 am Sunday to get to breakfast by 4 (really wasn’t ready til 4:10 or so but the staff was working hard to have everything ready. Not sure if delays were from the wedding reception they had Saturday night that closed down around 4am, just as we were getting up!) On the bus by 4:50am with a quick ride to AEP. Luggage drop off and security were fast, we didn’t have to stop at checkin counter since Seabourn gave us boarding passes and bag tags on Saturday. The plane was a 3/3 configuration, and while most rows seemed to only have 4 people, ours was not one of them, we had three so it was the middle seat for me 😞 A quick note for anyone who hasn’t flown in South American recently, there is not an issue with liquids in carry on. I grabbed a bottle of water from the Seabourn hospitality suite Sat and took it unopened in my carry on. No problem at all, and that wasn’t a one off, we also flew Santiago to Mendoza and then Mendoza to BA and it was the same thing. We had been here in March so knew this and was glad to see it was still ok. That said, then there was a secondary screening at the gate just before boarding flights back to US and we had to dump our water there so will plan on that again. Flight #1 arrived in Ushuaia just before 11, then we got our bags and went to the buses. The bus did a quick stop for photos at the Ushuaia sign then to the pier. We got to the ship around 12:20, cabins were ready before 1. I believe some people left to walk into town; we did not since we had been there earlier this year and had had plenty of time then to explore the city. Before the trip Seabourn had notified us that our boarding time was 2:20, so we were prepared to have lunch in town with our carryons but there was no need, we just got on board and stayed there. Everyone had to be back for mandatory briefing at 4:45. The second flight was an hour behind ours I think, so that would be less time available for touring. I am not sure whether you can request the earlier flight, if it’s important to you it might be worth a try. One other Seabourn communication issue was airport pick up. Our cruise consultant had told us that we would not get an included transfer since we flew in from Mendoza Friday night and the transfer was for people who arrived Saturday. So we booked our own transfer and a night at a different hotel. There was a bit of confusion when we found two different people waiting for us at the airport…. Also still waiting for on board credit that was promised to show up in my account. otherwise it’s been great! So far conditions are looking good for the Drake “Lake” not the “Shake” tomorrow so fingers crossed. Parkas were in our cabin, with size exchange option scheduled tomorrow morning, along with boot fitting. let me know if this is helpful and if you have other questions.

Love this, thank you for reporting on the trip and please keep those updates coming! We are on the Dec 10 sailing and as an Antarctica and Seabourn newbie really appreciate the info. Have been on expedition cruises before and think I overdressed in the evenings so especially interested in any packing tips.