New Found Love - Oceania

[Joe and Ivan]

We're in the process of finishing up our transatlantic cruise with Oceania on the Regatta, and we'll be unable to post here again for several more days since I'm using up my remaining minutes of a package I bought.

 

But to provide a short summary, we are in love with a cruise line. That's amazing.

 

It's not that everything always goes perfectly on the Regatta. It doesn't. The reason we love them is because the crew are really wonderful people, and they're really working hard to make the cruise experience as great as possible.

 

The only problems we have observed with Regatta have to do with the physical plant of the ship. Doing a transatlantic, some of the cabins became flooded due to high winds and rough seas. We were able to relocate from the starboard side to the port side immediately afterwards so that we would have dry carpets. Also, the smaller ship is not as stable as a large ship would be for the transatlantic.

 

That said, the cuisine on this cruise has been the best we've ever experienced on a cruise ship. Everything is made from scratch. The homemade ice creams and sorbets are particularly memorable.

 

So to save my remaining minutes, I will stop here. We'll be back home before December 1.

 

Thanks,

 

Ivan

[Druke I]

Joe&Ivan

 

Given the right (wrong) circumstances, even large ships have problems with trans-Atlantics.

 

On Maasdam, 11-95, our cabin on Main Deck, along with some other dozen or so cabins, flooded out, West of the Azores. Seems water entered the hull via the hawsepipe (anchor chainway), in a heavy Atlantic storm.

 

On Golden Princess, a huge ship compared to Regatta, 8-02, also West of the Azores, hit two large Atlantic storms in a row. Bow slap spray raining down on our balcony on Caribe Deck (deck 10), and several windows along Prom Deck shattered due to the ship's flexing and fighting for headway/seaway. Bumpy ride, that crossing.

 

Like you, we also really like Oceania. We did the Baltic this past August on Regatta, and had a great time. We are now booked for Oceania's Nautica, Istanbul to Singapore via the Suez, 11-06. Lots of sea days on that one - we'll see how she rides.

 

Little Pacific Princess (new), a sister to Regatta, rode fine in the Tasman Sea on a trip from Tahiti to Sydney, 11-03. The Tasman has a reputation for being rough at times - although it has been fairly smooth the three times we have been on it.

[Ed and Jim]

We're glad to hear that you managed to stay dry, even while bouncing around! Be sure to tell us more about the two cruises in the days to come. We're looking forward to our first Oceania cruise next March!

 

Ed and Jim

[drwong]

Even in the Med things can get really rough aboard the former R ships. We discussed the rolling problem with the Captain during dinner -- on our last two cruises on the Insignia, she rolled pretty heavily in the relatively calm waters of the Mediterranean. He explained that the ships ride relatively high in the water - they only draw 20 feet (i.e., only 20 feet of the ship is below water). While this is great for accessing ports that larger cruise ships can't handle, the effect of any wind is accentuated, with the entire upper portion of the ship acting like a giant sail - if you've seen sailboats heeling over in a slight breeze, you'll get the picture. Also, the stabilizers only work in preventing the ship's roll from side-to-side -- they don't have much effect when the ship is pitching up and down.

 

I did notice, however, that the ship's dispensary and guest services desk was passing out seasick pills (the ship's doctor was issuing shots), and now the Grand Dining Room is placing out a plate of candied ginger to settle those queasy stomachs!

[drwong]

The staff also knows when it's going to be a "rough night" -- they'll cross the stems of the glassware on the tables and the silverware cabinets will be taped up to prevent loss and/or breakage. So if you don't receive any warning from the captain or cruise director, look for those signs. :D

 

Also, the anti-seasickness shots in the infirmary can be pretty expensive - around $200, according to one customer, and the ship's medical center has very limited opening hours -- 7:30-9:30 am in the morning, and from 4:30-6:30 pm in the afternoon.

[garykool81]

I can't agree more with Joe and Ivan. We had a wonderful first experience with Oceania on Regatta. Service was absolutely flawless, the ship was beautiful, food was excellent, etc.

 

We'll definitely be back in the future. We already have a long cruise planned for May 2006 and a trip to Vegas for a few days in February 2006, so we can't book any more long vacations between now and then....however, we are eyeing a very nice 10-night cruise aboard Regatta in January 2007 out of Miami.