Thoughts from our first Oceania cruise - Riviera, March 4-18

[orchestrapal]

this one limits to lines that are luxury(or premium)NOt mass market.

Have used them for yrs.and have had NO PROBLEM>others have also used and recommended them.

 

Please give more details about your comment.

 

I believe we use the same wonderful agency!

[Momnipotent]

Well, we're back, and since I'd rather think about our cruise than work - here I go! I always enjoyed reading these little reviews before our trip, so I'm going to post one. Will probably do a shorter version for a formal review.

 

Background: we are in our early 30s, and this was our honeymoon from getting married last October (we took a "familymoon" right after with my 5 year old, this was our "grown up" trip!). We love good food and are very active and adventurous. We are not the crazy party types, or really ones to stay up late. This was our first Oceania cruise. [/size]

[/font]

 

We enjoyed playing trivia with you and hope to meet you again on a future cruise. Best wishes,

Janine & Tim

[isabelle315]

We enjoyed playing trivia with you and hope to meet you again on a future cruise. Best wishes,

Janine & Tim

 

Hiya, Janine and Tim!!

 

We also really enjoyed meeting you - thanks for inviting us to join in on trivia that first time, we had so much fun! Our next cruise isn't scheduled til October 2015...we hope we won't have to push that back... there is lots of "life" going on between now and then!

 

If you're ever in the DC area (we're moving there in June), give us a shout, we'd love to meet for dinner.

 

Julie and Dave

[Lady golfer]

Isabelle 315,

 

Loved reading your cruise review. By the way, how were you able to get so many reservations in the specialties?

 

Do tell......

 

Suzanne

[Gigilamare]

Hi

 

Can you let me know if you can have beds in single configuration. Also, was riviera food as good as seabourn

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

Well, we're back, and since I'd rather think about our cruise than work - here I go! I always enjoyed reading these little reviews before our trip, so I'm going to post one. Will probably do a shorter version for a formal review.

 

Background: we are in our early 30s, and this was our honeymoon from getting married last October (we took a "familymoon" right after with my 5 year old, this was our "grown up" trip!). We love good food and are very active and adventurous. We are not the crazy party types, or really ones to stay up late. This was our first Oceania cruise. We have taken a Disney cruise (with daughter!), enjoyed it and would do it again, but it was obviously a very different kind of vacation. I've also done one Celebrity way back (was OK), and once on Carnival (in college - even then, I said never again!!)

 

First, I'll post some general comments, followed by more specific goods and bads, and then reviews of our port activities.

 

Our bottom line: we LOVED it, and will definitely do Oceania again in the future. We booked a cruise on Regatta for October 2015.

 

Cabin: we were in a standard Verandah on deck 7. It was just perfect for us. Plenty of storage, both in main room and bathroom, and our steward was wonderful – everything was kept clean and we had whatever we asked for (beach towels, water, etc.) without delay. The bed was super comfortable!

 

Ship in general: Décor was lovely, and we spent a lot of time looking at the artwork as we walked around. We loved how uncrowded the ship felt – especially in the evenings, strolling around, it almost felt as though we had the ship to ourselves. The only times we felt too crowded was in Terrace on embarkation day (which we understand, since no one can be in their cabins yet), and on the pool deck the very last sea day. The bars and public areas were beautiful.

 

Food and wine: overall, fantastic. We only went to the GDR twice for dinner (once by ourselves, the second time by invitation with 2 of the entertainment crew), once for breakfast. Nothing wrong with the food there, we just preferred the ambiance in the other venues. We really enjoyed the Terrace at dinner, especially sitting outside with a view of the port we’d been in receding in the distance. Food was always really wonderful. Waves was the surprise winner – that surf and turf with the truffle fries!! I also really enjoyed the salmon burger. We loved Barristas for a morning or mid-day macchiato or cappuccino break.

 

We enjoyed the specialty restaurants, and found it relatively easy to get reservations at the times we wanted. Red Ginger (ate there twice) was one of our favorites – everything was delicious, from the appetizers to the sake to the dessert (chocolate-lemongrass crème brulee was a memorable favorite). The only miss here was a fried fish special, which was kind of dry and flavorless. Jacques (also twice) – everything was really lovely here, but I was disappointed to miss the mussels. The cheese plate was divine. Toscana (twice again!) – the appetizers and pastas were very good; the entrees were more up and down. My husband had a pounded veal filet which was tasteless, and the Osso Bucco was very good but not so out-of-this-world as advertised. Lamb here was better than in Polo, and filet just as good with a delicious topping. We really enjoyed the desserts in Toscana. Polo (just once!) – overall really good, but my rack of lamb was tough. Dessert quintet was a disappointment, and the reason we picked one more dinner in Toscana for our last evening over Polo.

 

Overall, the wine was good – not amazing, but good – and see my note below about the sommeliers. Bar drinks were well-prepared.

 

Entertainment: as noted below, we enjoyed the music, particularly the string quartet. We only made it to two of the late shows (Rock On and the 60s show) – both were better than we expected, given the tepid reviews I’d read here. Very much enjoyed them. We actually spent some time with two of the main singers/entertainers, and had dinner with them in the GDR one night – it was fun to learn a little about their experience on the ship. We did trivia quite a few times, and really enjoyed it – trivia was led by the cruise director most times and we thought he did a fine job. Bingo was also fun – we played on three days (and came out $6 ahead, not bad!)

 

Embarkation/Debarkation: Smooth and easy on both ends. No complaints; compared to previous experiences with larger cruise lines, the whole process felt pretty luxurious even without any sort of preferred cabin level!

 

Tendering: easy, no issues; we showed up on the earlier side, though. We only tendered in one port (St. Bart’s) and were not with a ship tour.

 

Fellow Passengers: yes, we were a little concerned about our ages coming onto the ship, but it was a non-issue. (Though we were asked if we were crew members more than once!!) Virtually everyone was friendly and we really enjoyed getting to know some of the other people on board. There was just one child on the ship - she was very well-behaved, and we loved chatting with her, as she was the same age as our little girl back home.

 

Gym and Spa: we used the fitness facilities a few times, and they were very adequate, although my husband complained that the free weights didn't go high enough (I told him he'd survive ;)). Gym felt clean and spacious. Spa service prices were exorbitant, so we avoided it, but I did get one manicure - service itself was fine, but, for the price, not really worth it - and my nails chipped in less than 24 hours. The woman who did my service had warned me that they use organic product and it wouldn't last very long. No kidding!

 

Things I’d like to see improved:

 

- Recycling!! I meant to put this in my comments form, but forgot. It was really disconcerting to see all those bottles and cans going into the trash, as well as all the Currents newsletters and other paperwork that inevitably got discarded on a daily basis. If they have to store the trash somewhere while at sea, I have to imagine it wouldn’t be much harder to have separate storage for recycling (and bottles/cans can be compressed). Plus - for me, anyway - it would be a positive selling point.

- For goodness sake, just get On Demand for the movies (this could also allow for access of billing statements, etc. on the in-room television). There was one movie in particular that we wanted to see, but, every single time it came around, it was played at 7pm – basically impossible to schedule dinner around (we ended up ordering room service pizza!) The lack of being able to pause the movies was irritating, too, now that we can all “pause” TV shows at home.

- Sommeliers. They just didn’t seem as knowledgeable or as helpful as we expected. On a cruise line like this, most people are already going to have a basic understanding of types of wine and what goes with the food. What we would have liked, upon asking for a wine suggestion to go with our chosen entrees, is a decisive suggestion with perhaps a reason why… I mean, the menus in the specialities don’t change, so they ought to be able to say “ah, yes, the 2009 (whatever wine) will pair well with the dover sole, it is light and fruity” or whatever. Instead, when we asked for a suggestion, we invariably heard “well, you could maybe do a zinfandel or a pinot noir – what do you prefer?” It sort of left us wondering why they bothered with the sommeliers at all!

- Future Cruise Booking: we did book a future cruise while on board (Regatta in October 2015). It was not really a pleasant process, however. While we ended up with a good deal, when we first stopped by, the woman we worked with quoted us a much higher price, and specifically said that no prepaid gratuities or other benefits were available. After checking online and taking screen shots of the lower price advertised after partially booking the same cruise and category, she then lowered the price to what it should be and added in the advertised prepaid gratuities. It really left a bad taste in our mouths that she was misleading at first – certainly didn’t encourage us to trust what she said, and we didn’t. Too bad.

 

Our highlights: we really loved the whole cruise, but these were the things that stood out to us:

 

- Service in general. With rare exceptions, everyone was exceedingly friendly, and very timely with refills and other service. It seemed like every time I started thinking I’d like more water or coffee, a refill appeared. The few exceptions were mainly sommeliers taking a little too long to come by or in refilling a glass (when having wine by the glass or when they stored the wine bottle away from the table).

- La Reserve. Was fantastic – the food was wonderful and the wine was really even better. We will definitely be doing it again if we have the chance.

- The culinary classes. The instructor (Annie) was really phenomenal, and the classes so much fun. We have some experience cooking, but still got plenty out of both classes we took. Yes, you have to pay for them, but you get so much out of it – your own cooking station for two (not the usual case in other cooking classes I’ve taken), wonderful ingredients prepared for you, and delicious products to eat.

- The string quartet. The music around the ship was really nice in general, but the string quartet was really phenomenal. We made a point to stop and listen when they played in the Grand Bar in the evenings, and they even did a 45 minute matinee concert toward the end of the cruise.

- The concierge (Javier). He helpfully answered questions for us several times, but, in Curacao, our prescheduled mountain biking tour had cancelled on us at the last minute. We went to him that morning to see about horse back riding or something else to see the countryside – when we came back after breakfast, he had it all set up for us, and our day turned out to be lovely. We really felt that he went above and beyond, with little time to do it in.

Notes/reviews on ports and activities:

 

- Aruba: we took a stand up paddleboard lesson with Aruba Surf and Paddle School – fun and highly recommended, then relaxed on Palm Beach. Very nice.

- Curacao: we’d booked a mountain bike tour with WannaBike, but they cancelled at the last moment. We enjoyed horseback riding in the countryside (it was beautiful), but can’t remember the name of the ranch – the taxi just dropped us off there and then picked us up a couple of hours later! That evening, we had a wonderful dinner at Baoase, with our table right on the sand – definitely recommend if you’re in port late here.

- Bonaire: sail and snorkeled with Woodwind – highly recommend, we had a great time.

- Grenada: booked a private tour to the Seven Sisters Falls with Chris’s Tours and Taxi, and we loved it. The hike down to the falls and back up was a bit difficult but very doable with good shoes on. The water was cold, but we couldn’t pass up swimming by the falls! Would highly recommend this activity.

- Barbados: we rented a car here and had a LOT of trouble with navigating the highways! Be sure to ask the best way to go – the most “direct” way on the map may not be the easiest way to get there. We visited St. Nicholas Abbey way up north (highly recommended!!!) and then we took a surfing lesson with Boosey’s Surf School. It was my first time surfing, but he made it easy and we had a blast.

- St. Vincent: this is the only port we could have skipped. I hate to badmouth any city or country, but the city here just wasn’t enjoyable to walk in. The two older cathedrals were nice, but there is really no nice or central street to stroll along. We visited the Botanical Gardens, which, if you stop here, is definitely worth doing.

- St. Lucia: we hiked Gros Piton with Spencer Ambrose tours. As for Gros Piton itself – it is an amazing hike, but extremely challenging. We are both military people, very fit, and it was hard. Took about 1.5 hours up, a little less on the way down but no less difficult! Our legs were sore for days. The view, though, made it all worth it.

o As for Spencer Ambrose – for this tour, it was fine – they dropped us off right at the beach, and then came and picked us up with lunch after (delicious), and dropped us off at the beach where everyone else was, now called Sugar beach but (I think) previously Jalousie beach. There is no way we’d have wanted to spend a whole day on that beach – one hour was plenty!! It just wasn’t the nicest atmosphere – a little junky, lots of boats coming and going. Spencer himself was rude (demanded a tip from us when we paid, even though that was the first time we’d interacted with him!), but the staff and boat drivers were very nice (they got the tips).

- Antigua: we took it easy this day – spent most of the day hanging out on Dickenson Beach on the recommendation of the concierge; enjoyed it very much.

- St. Barts: rented a car from Turbe rental – pickup at the pier was quick and easy, and we dropped off at the airport (they gave us a ride back to pier). We drove around the entire island, enjoying the views and checking out all the various beaches. It was a perfect way to spend the day – the island is really breathtaking.

 

That is quite a lot, but - I hope it's helpful to someone planning their own trip! If I think of anything else, I will add it later :)

 

A big thanks to Cruise Critic in general for helping us be so well prepared and planned for this trip. It was one for the books, and we look forward to our next cruise!

[isabelle315]

Suzanne,

 

I made our 4 online reservations as soon as our window opened - we didn't have preferred status or anything, just verandah level. We didn't always have the best times (we prefer to eat before 8pm) - but, if memory serves, we were able to switch to an earlier time at least once by stopping by the reservation desk the morning of.

 

As for the "extras" - we went by the designated reservation spot upon embarkation and were able to get a reservation for that night in Red Ginger. For the others, we just made a habit of stopping by the reservation desk in the lobby in the mornings, shortly after it opened, before we got off the ship. It worked great for us. We only shared on one evening in Jacques.

 

Since this was our first cruise on O, I can't say whether that would work for us again... as is often said here, it probably depends on the other passengers and how eager they all are to dine in the specialty restaurants on any given cruise.

 

But - even when we couldn't get a reservation - we really, really enjoyed eating out on the deck in Terrace - so it was no loss!

 

Isabelle 315,

 

Loved reading your cruise review. By the way, how were you able to get so many reservations in the specialties?

 

Do tell......

 

Suzanne

[LHT28]

Hi

 

Can you let me know if you can have beds in single configuration.

Thanks

 

Yes the bed can be set up as singles just ask your TA when book the cruise

[isabelle315]

Hi

 

Can you let me know if you can have beds in single configuration. Also, was riviera food as good as seabourn

 

Thanks

 

Gigilamare,

 

Can't really say from personal experience - we kept the configuration as-is. But - from what I have read - I am pretty sure most (if not all?) beds can be converted to two singles, and I know for sure that at least some can be. Others on this board would know better than I. If you are making a reservation, I would just call and confirm that the cabin you want can be configured as two singles.

[Paulchili]

Hi

 

Can you let me know if you can have beds in single configuration. Also, was riviera food as good as seabourn

 

Thanks

 

Welcome to CC.

The short answers to your questions are - yes & yes. :)

If you separate the beds on Riviera (in most cabins), the nightlight will be less conveniently placed than before separation. Also, you must move the bed that is away from the closet(in veranda/oceanview cabins). The bed separation works better on the R ships (Nautica, Regatta & Insignia), IMO.

Not only is the food as good as on Seabourn, in fact it is much better (IMO).

Enjoy!

Edited April 28, 2014 by Paulchili

[kibutzer]

we get the best price we can find.Then book with TA(based in Dallas,but a brick and mortar agency I found googling and checking out).Then get check for 5% cash back before cruise.

Sorry,we can t give out names.But they DO EXIST and worth some digging.Many will also give OBC and free gratuities,etc.Do ask for any SPECIALS like that.:)

 

Love the agency in Dallas. We use them too. I think we may have met the same Cruise consultant onboard when we notified her we were interested in a TA she seemed to lose all interest. Also every time she called our room to provide answers to our questions she had our name wrong. Really bad experience with their new onboard sales team.

[Floridiana]

I am sorry you did not like St. Vincent. It is a wonderful island. Take a tour up to Montreal Gardens or hike in the mountains. We had the best Caribbean tour guides on St. Vincent... both times, all three of them.

[waterbug123]

 

- Sommeliers. They just didn’t seem as knowledgeable or as helpful as we expected....Instead, when we asked for a suggestion, we invariably heard “well, you could maybe do a zinfandel or a pinot noir – what do you prefer?” It sort of left us wondering why they bothered with the sommeliers at all!

 

I haven't been on Oceania (yet, going in June) but we've found the same on other lines. The waiter will send the sommelier over and often they do little more in the way or recommendations that just show us "these are the reds that we have" while pointing to that page of the wine list. Obviously not all of them are that uninformed or indifferent, but many seem to be.

As for why they bother when that's all they do, I think the answer is that for people who aren't big wine drinkers, it lends an air of sophistication to say "let me get the sommelier to assist you" and people are perhaps impressed by that?;)

[Hambagahle]

and so do I!! And they are superb. AND the cruise lines know full well how they operate and I assume think it is just fine since the owner of the agency is on their board of "advisors".

[digtexas]

Love the agency in Dallas. We use them too. I think we may have met the same Cruise consultant onboard when we notified her we were interested in a TA she seemed to lose all interest. Also every time she called our room to provide answers to our questions she had our name wrong. Really bad experience with their new onboard sales team.

 

We also found the lady who booked future cruises on Riviera to be particularly unpleasant and unhelpful.

[corpkid]

I am also in my mid 30's (my partner is a tad older) and I could go down your review line by line and agree with everything. EXACTLY how we felt on this cruise. We love food culture and cooking and those culinary classes (ALSO with chef Annie) really were a highlight of our trip. She's just fantastic and reminds me so much of an instructor I had in my culinary class at college. So glad you enjoyed it. We fell in love and booked two more cruises (we were and are on the sister ship - Marina). It's a wonderful operation, though not inexpensive. However, I really believe with O you get what you pay for. We made so many friends on that cruise... Fellow cruisers AND staff! It's just a great operation.

[corpkid]

We also thought the food was amazing on O which is why we keep coming back! Best at sea is what I'd say!

Edited May 5, 2014 by corpkid

[JimandStan]

We also thought the food was amazing on O which is why we keep coming back! Best at sea is what I'd say!

 

Here, Here Sir!

Every bite a Symphony~

[corpkid]

Flashbacks of Red Ginger (also my nickname!) LOL The really do it up right on those ships! I'd LOVE to take a galley tour some time. Do they ever offer those?

[isabelle315]

We also thought the food was amazing on O which is why we keep coming back! Best at sea is what I'd say!

 

Yes, the food. The food!!! JimandStan - must you really post those photos on here? Now I'm absolutely dying for that duck and watermelon salad. *SIGH*

[GeorgesGal]

Dom and Don, good to see you on the boards! Had a great dinner with both of you in Red Ginger on the Marina last year. Where are you sailing next?

 

JimandStan, there you go again with those wonderful photos of great dinners enjoyed on-board. Thankfully my sister and I will be sailing on the Insignia this Sept. :D:D:D

[babysteps]

Flashbacks of Red Ginger (also my nickname!) LOL The really do it up right on those ships! I'd LOVE to take a galley tour some time. Do they ever offer those?

 

I haven't seen galley tours offered. Exec. chef told us Oct 2013 that he doesn't do tours/would not like to see tours.

 

BUT if you have food industry connections you *might* be able to get a peek - couldn't hurt to ask. Would likely take some onboard networking ;) Or a very well-connected TA? Could depend on who the exec. chef is on your cruise.

[sitraveler]

We've had a galley tour on Marina. While interesting, not much to see. The butlers and room service use the 5th deck galleys. We did see a post it note which identified cabins with dietary cautions. The tour was timed to avoid any real cooking going on.

Edited May 6, 2014 by sitraveler
clarify wording

[corpkid]

Dom and Don' date=' good to see you on the boards! Had a great dinner with both of you in Red Ginger on the Marina last year. Where are you sailing next?

[/quote']

 

OMGosh! Hey Girls! :) We had Dinner in Red Ginger on night two of our Baltics cruise last year - What a blast that was and we were wondering about you and if we'd see you again on a cruise...?! We are off to the British Isles in July and then Australia and NZ in February. ALL on the Marina (we loved that ship so much). For now besides some land trips (and we have a few) that's our cruise schedule. How have you been, girls??? Thanks again for such a great dinner!

Edited May 7, 2014 by corpkid

[JPR]

I strongly recommend attending one of the cooking classes on Marina (or Riviera). A real blast and "your" food is delicious. But try to get one at lunch time; afternoon spoils dinner!