Live from Oceana

[rmjb]

Live from the Oceana

 

Hello all thought I’d do a few posts during our trip rather than wait until the end.

Bit of background it’s our 6th P&O cruise first time on a fly cruise and our 5 year olds 4th cruise. 

 

Day 1- flight from Gatwick to Valletta (Malta)

Bit of a rubbish day but nothing that could be avoided. Our flight was delayed by 3 hours due to our plane being struck by lightning on its previous journey from Malaga. The engineering team needed to do some technical work because of the strike and couldn’t be done before our departure. TUI had to have standby pilot and plane flown down from Manchester to take us. On summary we would rather be safe and have a delay than get on a not 100% plane. The staff were great and a chap who appeared to be from P &O arrived and was very apologetic. Flight when we got going was very smooth and the plane that brought us in the end was a bigger Dreamliner and we got given extra leg room which made it extra comfy. Our son did amazing on his first flight and loved every minute.

Arrival at the ship was a bit stressful as obviously everyone was tired and a bit fed up. When we were on the coach we were informed by a member of staff that there would be a 9.30pm muster for all of us (189 passengers) but didn’t get off the ship until 9.20pm and it was just before 10pm when we boarded quick muster drill in le club and whistle stop trip to our muster station in yacht and compass then up to buffet for first meal since mid morning. Pretty average buffet but didn’t expect anything much as nearly 200 of us arriving so late.

 

Cabin

D220 inside, wouldn’t choose this again due to noise below from a late night venue and I was a bit grumpy about it when we went to bed first night but as my husband pointed out the next morning the noises I was making about 10 seconds after I laid down meant I was quickly asleep and it hadn’t bothered us that much. Room is very tired however as we are only in it for sleeping it does us well and is spotless and well managed by our steward Johnson.

 

Restaurants

So far we have had breakfast and 1 evening meal in Le Jardin and have been very impressed.

Tend to avoid buffets just because our son is easily distracted by everyone moving about.

MDR so far so good

 

Sea day

In summary Ate too much,visited gym, relaxed and spent some lovely time just enjoying family time.

 

Kids club can not recommend enough. Professional staff with lots of varried activities to keep little ones busy. Our  little one was asking to go about every 30 seconds when we insisted he spent the day with us.

 

Port 1 Naples

Not quite what we expected. Some very pretty buildings/ things to look at but a lot of very built up areas seemed a bit dingy In places. We don’t do P&O excursions due to costs for 3 of us but would recommend doing something if you’re here. We did however have a lovely gelato unfortunately can’t remember were to recommend people here in the future.

 

Ship

 

I know I’m in a bit of a minority but I like the modern look of Britannia so was a bit unsure what I’d think of Oceana but if I’m being honest there’s something about this ship that has made her one of my favourites so far. We like little quiet areas to have a coffee in and have found a few good places. Staff are excellent and all seem friendly.

Have seen captain Camby around quite a lot and his is more visible/ audible than any of our previous captains we can remember. 

 

Tomorrow is port day of Cittevechia for Rome. We decided not to go into Rome on Easter Sunday due to crowds but will let you know what we get up to.

 

Sorry for such a long ramble but in summary loving our time away so far and as I overheard a lady say earlier even a average day on a cruise beats a good day back home. Mx

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, rmjb said:

Live from the Oceana

 

Hello all thought I’d do a few posts during our trip rather than wait until the end.

Bit of background it’s our 6th P&O cruise first time on a fly cruise and our 5 year olds 4th cruise. 

 

Day 1- flight from Gatwick to Valletta (Malta)

Bit of a rubbish day but nothing that could be avoided. Our flight was delayed by 3 hours due to our plane being struck by lightning on its previous journey from Malaga. The engineering team needed to do some technical work because of the strike and couldn’t be done before our departure. TUI had to have standby pilot and plane flown down from Manchester to take us. On summary we would rather be safe and have a delay than get on a not 100% plane. The staff were great and a chap who appeared to be from P &O arrived and was very apologetic. Flight when we got going was very smooth and the plane that brought us in the end was a bigger Dreamliner and we got given extra leg room which made it extra comfy. Our son did amazing on his first flight and loved every minute.

Arrival at the ship was a bit stressful as obviously everyone was tired and a bit fed up. When we were on the coach we were informed by a member of staff that there would be a 9.30pm muster for all of us (189 passengers) but didn’t get off the ship until 9.20pm and it was just before 10pm when we boarded quick muster drill in le club and whistle stop trip to our muster station in yacht and compass then up to buffet for first meal since mid morning. Pretty average buffet but didn’t expect anything much as nearly 200 of us arriving so late.

 

Cabin

D220 inside, wouldn’t choose this again due to noise below from a late night venue and I was a bit grumpy about it when we went to bed first night but as my husband pointed out the next morning the noises I was making about 10 seconds after I laid down meant I was quickly asleep and it hadn’t bothered us that much. Room is very tired however as we are only in it for sleeping it does us well and is spotless and well managed by our steward Johnson.

 

Restaurants

So far we have had breakfast and 1 evening meal in Le Jardin and have been very impressed.

Tend to avoid buffets just because our son is easily distracted by everyone moving about.

MDR so far so good

 

Sea day

In summary Ate too much,visited gym, relaxed and spent some lovely time just enjoying family time.

 

Kids club can not recommend enough. Professional staff with lots of varried activities to keep little ones busy. Our  little one was asking to go about every 30 seconds when we insisted he spent the day with us.

 

Port 1 Naples

Not quite what we expected. Some very pretty buildings/ things to look at but a lot of very built up areas seemed a bit dingy In places. We don’t do P&O excursions due to costs for 3 of us but would recommend doing something if you’re here. We did however have a lovely gelato unfortunately can’t remember were to recommend people here in the future.

 

Ship

 

I know I’m in a bit of a minority but I like the modern look of Britannia so was a bit unsure what I’d think of Oceana but if I’m being honest there’s something about this ship that has made her one of my favourites so far. We like little quiet areas to have a coffee in and have found a few good places. Staff are excellent and all seem friendly.

Have seen captain Camby around quite a lot and his is more visible/ audible than any of our previous captains we can remember. 

 

Tomorrow is port day of Cittevechia for Rome. We decided not to go into Rome on Easter Sunday due to crowds but will let you know what we get up to.

 

Sorry for such a long ramble but in summary loving our time away so far and as I overheard a lady say earlier even a average day on a cruise beats a good day back home. Mx

Thank you for taking the time to post, I for one enjoy hearing other people's experiences.

Continue to have a fantastic time.

Andy

[Barnum42]

We were on Oceana last year during Easter - it was a re-positioning cruise from Southampton to Valletta.

 

We did not go to Rome (which it turned out was packed due to being Easter). However, we took the trip to Ostia Antica https://www.ostia-antica.org/. It was amazing. Just wish we could have spent more time there. 

[JB9302]

Left the Oceana on Thursday at Malta , good food all week , only disappointment was the wait every night for Freedom dining , up to 50mins ( waiting for a shared table ).

We were allocated a wheelchair access cabin which was huge compared to a std ocean view one ,  had an enjoyable cruise and met lots of friendly people .

[Jules.]

I’m following along with interest as I should have been on this cruise but had to cancel. Glad that things are going well now that you have settled in on the ship after your journey there. 

Hubby and I would have been in an inside cabin too and we’d only use it for sleeping too. 

Please keep on writing if you can :) 

 

Wishing you smooth seas. 

[Tarquin]

Please keep posting your experiences. We are on Oceana later this year, a first 7 dayer with P&O having been with Tui (Marella) previously...

 

Good to hear the modern look works, it was one of the things we weren't sure about, what with having a preference for leather Chesterfields!!

Edited April 21, 2019 by Tarquin

[rmjb]

Hello 

 

Today’s Port is Civitsvecchia and I know this is a port where the majority of people head into Rome, but we decided that we didn’t want to take a 5 year old into a very busy city at the best of times never mind an Easter Sunday he wouldn’t enjoy it and therefore neither would we.

 

We were in the hot tubs just after 8am and then a leisurely breakfast before we got off for a wander.

 

It feels a bit mean giving a bad review of a place based on the fact it was Easter Sunday so pretty much everything was closed and it’s not billed as a place to visit. Only a way of getting you to Rome, but I really did not enjoy it. I felt it was not really worth getting off for. The sea front was covered in rubbish there was broken glass and graffiti everywhere and lots of street sellers. To be fair I’m sure I would do the same if I was in there shoes but it did ruin our walk. We felt again very run down and a bit disappointing.

We stopped for the customerey gelato.

 

Last nights MDR was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed the steaks we had. We did a quiz in the yacht and compass and had a few post dinner drinks.

 

The officers and senior crew are a lot more visible than on our previous cruises. The sailing from Naples overnight was like sailing on glass we never felt any rolling. We sail over night again to Ajaccio for tomorrow. We are so far having a great time and are very happy x

[AndyMichelle]

4 minutes ago, rmjb said:

Hello 

 

Today’s Port is Civitsvecchia and I know this is a port where the majority of people head into Rome, but we decided that we didn’t want to take a 5 year old into a very busy city at the best of times never mind an Easter Sunday he wouldn’t enjoy it and therefore neither would we.

 

We were in the hot tubs just after 8am and then a leisurely breakfast before we got off for a wander.

 

It feels a bit mean giving a bad review of a place based on the fact it was Easter Sunday so pretty much everything was closed and it’s not billed as a place to visit. Only a way of getting you to Rome, but I really did not enjoy it. I felt it was not really worth getting off for. The sea front was covered in rubbish there was broken glass and graffiti everywhere and lots of street sellers. To be fair I’m sure I would do the same if I was in there shoes but it did ruin our walk. We felt again very run down and a bit disappointing.

We stopped for the customerey gelato.

 

Last nights MDR was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed the steaks we had. We did a quiz in the yacht and compass and had a few post dinner drinks.

 

The officers and senior crew are a lot more visible than on our previous cruises. The sailing from Naples overnight was like sailing on glass we never felt any rolling. We sail over night again to Ajaccio for tomorrow. We are so far having a great time and are very happy x

Glad you are having a great time.

Obviously, some ports only serve a purpose to visit somewhere else, imagine getting off at Tilbury which caters for London with some cruise lines....

Thank you for the updates.

Andy

[P&O SUE]

Thanks for the updates, we've only had a 4 night cruise on Oceana and we loved her and Cafe Jardin!

Look forward to future updates 🙂

[newtocruise_rj]

Thank you for the updates, can't wait for our two weeks on Oceana (for the first time on her) this July! Glad you are having a great cruise!

[Jules.]

Wishing you a safe journey home today with no delays 

[chigley]

Brilliant balanced review, thoroughly enjoying it.