Insignia post dry dock - anybody back?

[LadyCruisers]

Anybody back from the post dry dock transatlantic and the Pillars of Distinction upgrades to the Insignia. Your thoughts and feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

[hawaiisloth]

Just back from the Insignia Transatlantic. We thought ship was great. We had a Penthouse--it was perfect. Food was great. Internet (in context) very fast (but, as all know, expensive). Big problem for many with getting their luggage, but not sure of all the reasons. It was our first O cruise--we loved it and would cruise again on O. Trip report later.Mark

[sitraveler]

Also just back.

 

Biggest change we noticed was the new headboards and bedlamps. There is no longer the secret lightswitch and the lamp with reading lamp attachment are on the wall giving more space on the nightstand. New carpeting, elimination of the old bedspread for a white duvet with blue piping.

 

Had a terrific voyage, planning more.

[LadyCruisers]

What were your thoughts on the food (both in the MDR and Terrace?) and experience with the specialty restaurants?

[hawaiisloth]

What were your thoughts on the food (both in the MDR and Terrace?) and experience with the specialty restaurants?

 

We were very, very pleased overall with the food.

 

We dined a number of times in both Toscana and Polo and thought the food was excellent.

 

(We also had, a few nights, room service dinners from both Toscana and Polo, and they were also excellent).

 

Some of the dishes were really good--like the lobster, veal chop, and the rib eye--and some were memorable, like the osso buco in Toscana. Nothing was bad or mediocre. [As an aside, and not a criticism, I actually thought the steaks in the specialty steakhouse on Royal Caribbean were better than the very good steaks in Polo (but perhaps that was because in comparison to the "regular" food on Royal Caribbean, the specialty restaurants stood out so much).

 

We only had dinner in the MDR twice, and we thought the food was good/decent, although the timing of the service was a bit uneven. We also had dinner a few nights in Tapas, and thought the food was similarly good/decent.

 

Never had a bad dish for dinner, soups (for both lunch and dinner) were uniformly excellent, and overall, the quality of the dinners met or exceeded our (high) expectations.

 

Lunch, we almost always ate in the Terrace. The food was uniformly good. Several days I had hamburgers from the pool grill which were good, but too big (and this distracted a bit, although, of course, no one is required to "clean his or her plate").

 

Breakfast, we had room service a few times, MDR a few times, but mostly in the Terrace. It was great to have fresh raspberries and blackberries every day, and the hot food was also very good, even from the buffet. I especially liked the corned beef hash, which was so good, I had it almost every day.

 

Tea (which I went to sparingly) was uniformly nice.

 

My only real complaint about anything (and it's not much of one) is that the coffee was truly awful, except from the self-service machine in the Terrace (since I have not cruised with O before, I do not know if the machine is new). The machine grinds freshly, and makes espresso, cappuccino, Americano, etc., which was good. And since I could get my own coffee from the machine, I was fine most of the time. But any coffee brought to a table or through room service was very, very poor (my subjective opinion, obviously), and so I gave up on it.

 

We took advice from another thread and in Barcelona bought wine at the supermarket (not gourmet center) housed in the large department store El Corte Ingles. It was very nicely priced (we bought champagne/cava), and had no trouble at all bringing four bottles on board. [We would get chilled champagne glasses from the bar every day, for our afternoon glass--very nice]. Occasionally, we would bring a glass with us to start dinner [i'm sure this was against the rules, but, c'est la vie], and no one said anything. We also bought a three-bottle wine package at the beginning, which was (in context) fairly priced. A minor complaint--we bought a Cotes du Rhone from the three-bottle package, which we assumed (no doubt our ignorance) would be red, but it was white, and there was nothing on the package list identifying it as a white (at least nothing that identified it to us as a white). But, it was fine (and again, perhaps if we were more knowledgeable about Cotes du Rhone, we would have asked). (Several of the wines on the package we really wanted were unavailable, even from the first day--disappointing, but we managed :)).

 

A second minor complaint (I'm sure described in a thread somewhere else), the PHs were supposed to have a waiting bottle of champagne but instead had French sparkling wine. We're not snobs, and enjoy Prosecco, California sparkling wine, good Cava, etc., but French "sparkling wine" is not champagne.

 

We thought the service everywhere was uniformly pleasant and excellent (and fun).

 

Although there were people who said the food was not as good as in the past (and since this was our first O cruise we had no basis to judge), there were many more who praised the food. Our only real basis for comparison is two previous cruises on Regent (before the addition of "Prime"). Although it is very subjective, I would rate the food on O as somewhat better overall.

 

Mark

[lmarmors]

Also just back.

 

Biggest change we noticed was the new headboards and bedlamps. There is no longer the secret lightswitch and the lamp with reading lamp attachment are on the wall giving more space on the nightstand. New carpeting, elimination of the old bedspread for a white duvet with blue piping.

 

Had a terrific voyage, planning more.

 

We're taking our first O cruise next July...Since you just got back from the "remodeled" Insignia, could you tell us if there were enough electrical outlets in the cabin... on some posts it is mentioned that you should bring an extension cord and electric strip...is that necessary?

[pantman]

hi ... also just back from the crossing to rio...we have done this crossing 3yrs. in a row.. oceania out did themselves with the worst entertainment ever...give me a break..for a first class ship they should be ashamed of themselves.. cruise director willie is to blame..he is to busy taking about his past tv life than to worry about guests..he is the only cruise director who was not there to wish the clients a safe voyage home when we left the ship and where was he during the day....he is no lesley jon or david petersen..food as always is good the grand dinning room at nite has a changing menue and we like it the best...did not notice anything very different on the ship after dry dock except the new reading lights in the bedroom ..this is a cruise to relax and read..

[Joy R]

We too were on this cruise - our first on Oceania, so we couldn't compare it to before the dry dock.

 

Our impressions were of a friendly ship with marvellous service, all the crew seemed to be smiling. The food was wonderful, especially in Toscana and Polo, but also in the Grand Dining Room, where on one or two occasions the service was a little slow. I did feel that the stateroom was a little cramped, and the storage space wasn't marvellous - for example there are four drawers in the desk/dressing table, plus a very shallow one across, which is just a bit too shallow for convenience, and I had to squash my make-up bag down in order to get the drawer shut. The other four drawers are a bit narrow, not wide enough for t-shirts etc., and with the other drawers, by the wardrobe (closet, to you Americans!) we found it not enough for two people on a 15-day cruise.

 

On the other hand, the beds are really comfortable, the bedding luxurious - except that the duvet made it very hot at night, in spite of the air-conditioning. The reading lights are very good indeed, and they also put in a small, plug-in nightlight at the desk so that if you need to get up in the night you can see your way around, which I thought was a very good touch.

 

With regard to electrical outlets, there are two European and two American sockets, so with an appropriate adaptor you shouldn't have to take an extension strip. We did, and never used it.

 

Sure, the entertainment wasn't Broadway or London West End. To us, the entertainment isn't the main focus of a cruise. It was an hour after dinner in the Insignia Lounge, just to relax and laugh (some wasn't so funny!) or listen to a singer. . We liked the Trivia, we thought that Willie was a very good cruise director, who was often to be found wandering around the ship and talking to people. He works very hard, and yes, we did see him when disembarking and he did say goodbye to us. So you report as you find!

 

We, and some others whom we talked to, had some problems when we first got on the ship. For example, there were no hangers in our closet, no remote control for the TV, no slippers, and the lock on the partition between our balcony and the next was broken so that it was swinging and making a noise. We reported all this to the concierge, (not the hangers, we just asked our steward for those) and we got the missing items, and were sent a bottle of wine and a plate of fruit. When the partition still wasn't repaired after a couple of days (they had wedged it with a piece of wood and tied it with string) we complained again, and this time got a basket of flowers. This we sent back. For one thing, there was nowhere to put them! The partition lock was repaired that day.

 

We did not let this start affect our enjoyment of the cruise. Insignia is a beautiful ship, with good amenities (except for the wi-fi!), very good service and a luxurious feel. We really had a good time, and felt we would like to sail with Oceania again.

[lmarmors]

Thank you for your response on electrical outlets...

[LHT28]

Just wondering where they put the fridges in the B or C cat cabins?

[Mura]

I've never had a problem with not enough outlets on the "R" ships, and I travel with my laptop.

 

And I recall how when we had to replace our planned Renaissance January '01 cruise with one on NCL to South America I complained bitterly at having to unplug the TV in order to use my laptop!

 

There have been times when I felt the need for a power strip in a hotel room, but never on the "R" ships.

[hondorner]

Just to go from one extreme to the other, I never travel without a power strip and have always found a use for it. However, we generally travel with at least 5 chargers -- two phones, two cameras with extra batteries and a laptop or netbook. If we get a Kindle or two, I'll have to get an extra power strip!

[nvgal]

We too were on this cruise - our first on Oceania, so we couldn't compare it to before the dry dock.

 

Our impressions were of a friendly ship with marvellous service, all the crew seemed to be smiling. The food was wonderful, especially in Toscana and Polo, but also in the Grand Dining Room, where on one or two occasions the service was a little slow. I did feel that the stateroom was a little cramped, and the storage space wasn't marvellous - for example there are four drawers in the desk/dressing table, plus a very shallow one across, which is just a bit too shallow for convenience, and I had to squash my make-up bag down in order to get the drawer shut. The other four drawers are a bit narrow, not wide enough for t-shirts etc., and with the other drawers, by the wardrobe (closet, to you Americans!) we found it not enough for two people on a 15-day cruise.

 

On the other hand, the beds are really comfortable, the bedding luxurious - except that the duvet made it very hot at night, in spite of the air-conditioning. The reading lights are very good indeed, and they also put in a small, plug-in nightlight at the desk so that if you need to get up in the night you can see your way around, which I thought was a very good touch.

 

With regard to electrical outlets, there are two European and two American sockets, so with an appropriate adaptor you shouldn't have to take an extension strip. We did, and never used it.

 

Sure, the entertainment wasn't Broadway or London West End. To us, the entertainment isn't the main focus of a cruise. It was an hour after dinner in the Insignia Lounge, just to relax and laugh (some wasn't so funny!) or listen to a singer. . We liked the Trivia, we thought that Willie was a very good cruise director, who was often to be found wandering around the ship and talking to people. He works very hard, and yes, we did see him when disembarking and he did say goodbye to us. So you report as you find!

 

We, and some others whom we talked to, had some problems when we first got on the ship. For example, there were no hangers in our closet, no remote control for the TV, no slippers, and the lock on the partition between our balcony and the next was broken so that it was swinging and making a noise. We reported all this to the concierge, (not the hangers, we just asked our steward for those) and we got the missing items, and were sent a bottle of wine and a plate of fruit. When the partition still wasn't repaired after a couple of days (they had wedged it with a piece of wood and tied it with string) we complained again, and this time got a basket of flowers. This we sent back. For one thing, there was nowhere to put them! The partition lock was repaired that day.

 

We did not let this start affect our enjoyment of the cruise. Insignia is a beautiful ship, with good amenities (except for the wi-fi!), very good service and a luxurious feel. We really had a good time, and felt we would like to sail with Oceania again.

Joy - tell Ashley the "eyebrow ladies" say hello

[nvgal]

No one has mentioned the new beds on Insignia. I slept great and liked the new bedside lights. I just wish they had a better hair conditioner in the shower, Not a problem, as I bring my own; but if they are going to provide at least it should allow the comb to go through your hair afterward.

[sitraveler]

There is a power strip hidden behind the TV, it contains the TV & DVD player.

 

You could relocate it in the TV area to get access to the plugs