jondfk

We booked a full cruise while in Norway last year. One or two days were impossible due to weather most days we bundled up (blankets provided). All in all we throughly enjoyed the environment and service. That big spa credit came in handy on the days we couldn’t actually use the Retreat much. We thought it was a decent value and would book again should we sail Encore or Ovation.

Hi Susan, you know I'm in raging agreement with you on this point. We sailed in Alaska last year and were unlucky with the weather (hey it's Alaska) but to just ignore that fact and limit the options to Colonnade with a completely full passenger load was well, stupid. Cramming the entire ship into the buffett when the weather turns lousy is no sort of luxury experience. Fortunately, our next sailing has a dozen sea days out and back from Hawaii, should enjoy lots of nice Restaurant lunches on that one!

Recently on Regatta Heineken 0.0 was available.

Thanks Susan, I’m envious. So, it’s clear restaurant is operating on a limited schedule (as compared to when we sailed Ovation together last year), correct? How disappointing. Following closely for all of your tips. Enjoy every moment!

Hi SLSD if you happen across Lee from Scotland you’re in for a treat. Look forward to your reports, especially around dining room operations. We sail Sojourn for Christmas in 2025 and would welcome any comments you or tips based on your experience. Meanwhile we board Oceania Regatta in a few days in Alaska. jon

I watched the video and have watched several of their prior videos before sailing on Viking, SB and others. They do spend a lot of focus on food. Typically I would describe them as overly positive regarding cruise food though I do recall a recent review of the new Solis restaurant on SB being less that totally positive, likewise, older reviews of the Keller restaurant focused significantly on the unused veranda space attached to that venue on larger SB ships. I hate to say it but I found myself nodding along as they described very prescriptive staff assignment that make little sense. On our recent Regatta sailing we were occasionally frustrated by service in Barista's and Grand Bar (the same venue) which left the barista or bartender alone without a server and seemingly forbidden from doing more than placing drinks on the bar. As for the quality of food in the different venues I can only say we've been satisfied. Some hits / some misses. Overall though met our expectations.

Umm, mostly. ALL and NEVER are dangerous words because there are ALWAYS exceptions. On O most mixed drinks are included, but there are some especially fine scotches for example that are excluded. Likewise, the specialty restaurants may have wines by the glass that are not included. Exceptions however are few and the included spirits include for the most part things I’d drink at home. included wines fall in the realm of the ‘okay’. It’s best to take an open mind and work your way down the list, soon enough a favorite, probably nothing you’ve ever heard of will present itself.

Yes, I'll put my hand up in favor of the even numbered 804X cabins too. No noise from the elevators per se though some do converse while waiting for them to arrive - a very occasional issue. Most of these are under the washrooms outside TC, no associated noise. The odd numbered 804x cabins on the other hand should be avoided due to chair dragging in Waves. At times it sounds as if they are relocating the entire setup.

We were also on the April 20 sailing, which was in fact a Los Angeles / Los Angeles Mexico voyage, also sold as Los Angeles to Vancouver. We’ve sailed thrice previously on Regatta, all in 2022. Our comments regarding Polo Grill. We found it very much the same as our first few sailings, service seemed a bit better, more fully staffed, less crew in quarantine we thought. As for the food, we ate there twice, the first time I had the prime rib which in my experience is highly variable on land or sea. Previously I thought the PR on Regatta was the best of my life, this time, just okay. DW had the filet medium and found it as good as ever. Second visit I also had the filet, medium rare and found it just about perfect and absolutely cooked as ordered. So, in our overall view, Polo Grill has not slipped. As for Toscana, we’ve eaten here on six occasions finding it inferior to the GDR every time. Therefore, we did t go during the April 20 sailing. We do intend to give it a go when we sail Vista in January, but likely will not when we return to Regatta in August. BTW the April 20 sailing was absolutely jammed full, I never got a nose count but Regatta was straining under the very full load. Hope this helps a bit.

Hmmm. Wonder where this comes from as, for example, I see no gaps in Regatta’ schedule in August ‘25. We arrive with her in Honolulu on August 1, she turns around back to Papeete arriving on the 16th and does a series of 10 sailings in succession into September. Perhaps some of that has changed or is about to be?

Wow, with the northern lights reaching all the way to Florida, Regatta must be getting quite a show?

I wonder if a change is coming for Regatta too. As ORV stated, when we were on Regatta two weeks back Germain was the norm, HOWEVER, on two occasions I asked about champagne and was offered Monopole. One hopes the stock of Germain runs down before we rejoin in August as it was not the worst I’ve ever had it was in no way special.

So, a few cleanup thoughts as we approach San Pedro and a return to normal. First, thanks ORV for starting this thread, it was a pleasure to meet you again at Terrace Cafe the other day. Second, staff has been pretty close to excellent start to finish, I’ve never had to ask twice for anything. Most requests are met within seconds. When I think “who was the worst crew member” no image comes to mind. When I think “who was the best” six or seven faces immediately appear. Wow. Third, let’s talk internet. Stupendously unreliable. The server seems to be rebooting many times each day. When access is available it’s slooooow. More infuriating though were the many hours each day when it simply wasn’t available at all. All of this with us relatively near the equator, one wonders how much worse it will be when we sail next in Alaska. One hopes the obvious rebooting problems might be solved by then. We have a longish, 7 hour drive home after debarking and hope for a quick and easy process. We have throughly enjoyed this mid length voyage and look forward to our next.

Hi it’s me again with a few random thoughts as our voyage nears its end. Alcohol stock. As I mentioned prior we first sailed O on Regatta, from FP shortly after she restarted in April ‘22. On that long trans pacific voyage alcohol selection was quite meager and thinned out considerably as we approached Los Angeles, no such tendency noticed this voyage. The counter in Horizons remains chock full of bottles, nothing is obviously missing, though I have no doubt that someone’s favorite isn’t available but everything I’ve asked for except tawny port has appeared on request. if you happened to read my live from for our first sailing you may remember the challenges I had getting club soda for the room. The butler was quite insistent that this was impossible and provided sparkling Varo as an alternative which would be fine except that the bottles don’t seal and the bubble last minutes. Club soda was available at every bar and I took to grabbing a couple very time we passed a tray full, eventually our butler started to place these in the fridge but he never provided any as part of his daily routine, fast forward, in our letter I informed our butler on this sailing that I would drink 2 or 3 daily, but no Coke etc. He reordered the fridge accordingly and has kept a backup stock of 2 or 3 near the ice buckets. 1000% improvement. Speaking of ice we also requested restock of ice in the early afternoon, this has been a bit hit or miss, but requests for ice on demand are met within about 15 minutes. Yea.

Hi ORV We are aboard with you, and, never reluctant to share an opinion, I’ll add a few thoughts. I know we’ve sailed together before on other LA sailings. Overall impression, little changed from prior O experiences, all of which have been on Regatta. For the most part this is a very good thing. We have an excellent steward and butler, more attentive steward than last sailing. Our butler though very good falls just short of the excellence demonstrated last sailing. We did a butler letter, our first, and this made a positive difference, though our requests are quite modest. Elsewhere service has been mostly good though it’s a people based product and performance does vary individual to individual. We have felt the ship is more crowded than our prior sailings some of which were post Covid capacity limited. Those fretting that I service has slipped would leave us struggling to say where. One change for the worst imho is the closure of Baristas after dinner. The venue is now strictly a bar, espesso drinks are absolutely refused. We have been redirected to the Terrace which would be fine except requests there are fulfilled, reluctantly. Okay I found a gripe, but I think we can agree it’s a minor one. If other noteworthy highs or lows present themselves, I’ll post further.

We too have booked another sailing, on Sojourn over Christmas 2025. It’s 20 days RT Los Angeles, no chance it can be sold in segments due to the PVSA, so hoping for the same, every day, every meal operation we experienced with you on Ovation. Hope you have similar luck.

I’m not sure they will actually reject you at the entrance to the dining room, but you will be in the small minority. Earth and Ocean and Colonnade are other options, the thing is, particularly E&O, will be swamped with similar minded passengers. In the same circumstance with SB in Alaska last year we ended up with room service one night and E&O the other. You didn’t ask but I’ll add another comment, we were totally shocked by the limited availability of the Restaurant for breakfast and lunch. It operated only 4 of 14 days for lunch and only 6 of 14 days for breakfast. We generally do not like buffets and were stunned to be forced there so often. By way of explanation we were told the SB don’t operate the restaurant on short (7 day) sailings with many ports. This left a very negative impression with us and we will never again book an itinerary that is also sold in shorter segments.

And I’ll find out tomorrow, lol. We board Regatta in about 24 hours…

Okay, I’ll comment here too. The portion of our sailing in FP was really quite calm including the day long run north to Nuku Hiva. Thereafter however the 5 day run to Honolulu was quite rocky with seas of 20 ft plus for several days which caused the captain to slow the ship which in turn caused us to arrive about 7 hours late into Honolulu. DW suffers in rough seas and this leg was challenging for her (though she has agreed to do it again next year so….). Again I wouldn’t expect any of that on your FP sailing, but just so you know.

Sounds great, just doesn’t match my experience, simple as that.

Well, let me restate then to make it clear that in OUR experience a full cruise booking did NOT assure a particular cabana. We never had the same one two days in a row, though we were ask each day which of the available cabanas we preferred. We did develop a favorite two or three over the course of the 14 days. Given that there were never more than six used on any particular day the choices were fine. We were one of only two full cruise bookings and the only one purchased pre boarding, or so our host told me.

I’ll offer my opinions on #4, #6 and #7. #4. The Retreat. I have no Celebrity or NCL reference but on Ovation the Retreat is a semi private area of about a dozen cabanas surrounding a large hot tub. We booked this for our Norway sailing last June and throughly enjoyed (although it was too chilly to fully enjoy about 3 days). We enjoyed knowing we had a place to go without any question as to whether we’d find a space to settle. We also enjoyed having lunch delivered to our cabana allowing us to avoid the Colonnade on busy days. Is it worth the considerable price? We thought so, many others do not. Be aware that you are not booking a particular cabana rather a space somewhere in the Retreat, on a given day cabana selection is first come first serve, this was no issue on our cold weather sailing, on busier sailings I can imagine keen competition for preferred cabanas (they are all quite similar though some have sea views and others do not). #6. Boarding. The ships are small so all of the land side procedures tend to run fast and smooth. Still, once onboard you will be funneled towards the Colonnade for your first and least pleasant lunch. I highly recommend either a) boarding a bit later, after 1:00 and avoiding the madness or b) turning around at the entrance to Colonnade and walking forward on the pool deck to the Patio where you’ll find many less people and a far more pleasant experience. #7. Men’s dress. On the non formal nights my attire is slacks and an open long sleeve shirt. Offends no one and accepted anywhere onboard. On formal nights I add a sport coat, again accepted without question. hope this helps a bit.

A few comments here. We previously sailed on Regatta from Papeete to Los Angeles in April ‘22 shortly after the restart. Unfortunately, I had a frozen shoulder at the time which limited my abilities somewhat. Nonetheless I very much enjoyed the swim with stingrays and sharks on Bora Bora even if I couldn’t venture far from the excursion boat. As it happens we will sail on Regatta two sailings before you in July of ‘25 and will be sure to post our experiences for your benefit. If you have any specific questions, please ask.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I was tremendously disappointed with the release. We had been waiting and waiting for O to release their winter tropics. We wanted a westbound PC ideally in January or February ‘26. There is not a single one, aside from one single sailing just before Christmas. We did entertain doing the LAX - Colon back to back in November on Regatta but my god the prices are just sky high PH fares are $35k RT something like $1500 per day. Soooo O has in this instance lost us to Seabourn who have a westbound sailing at an all in price more than 1/3 less. We do love O and have 4 others booked with them in the next 15 months, but you can’t force it.

Aloha to those onboard Regatta, very much enjoying the live from reports. With 5 sea days ahead I hope you might share any particularly noteworthy crew members be they wait staff, bar staff or others. We board in Los Angeles on Saturday and always like to look towards staff who have demonstrated great service. Aloha and mahalo, Jon