A Regatta Thread of My Own.

[osandomir]

On 4/28/2024 at 5:53 PM, jondfk said:

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.

 

 

That’s interesting. Our fridge in the regular cabin on Sirena was stocked with two types of Club Soda cans from the day one with no need of asking for anything.

[DrHemlock]

8 hours ago, ORV said:

it might mean something else than what I meant. I was referring to a practice by a poster here named Mike. 

Apparently, in a world possibly younger than ours, "Mikeys" refers to Mike's Hard beverages which feature a variety of fruity flavors to please every discerning teenage palate.  Good to know you and I are a bit more serious than that (not that there was ever a doubt). 😎

[taiwan_girl]

On 4/27/2024 at 4:30 PM, jannray said:

I'm enjoying this thread.  My DH and I start our first ever O cruise on the Regatta to Alaska in a regular veranda cabin on level 6 right over Baristas!  Really interested in everything you have to share.  Any tips? We board on May 30. Starting the countdown!

We were on the same cruise a year ago.  First (and so far only 😞  ) Oceania cruise.  Really liked it.  We were before Simply More so did not do any Oceania excursions - any excursions we did on our own.  We had ocean view rooms.  Verandah would have been nice, but had 4 cabins among the family, so was a stretch for even those.  LOL  Weather was fantastic, which I am sure helped with the enjoyment of the cruise.

 

Bartistas was the morning meeting place for us and the kids.  All in all, I think you will really enjoy it!!

[jondfk]

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.

 

[ORV]

3 hours ago, jondfk said:

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.

 

Nice meeting you also as well as some other folks that were on our 9/22 sailing previously. I agree with everything you said. We had great room stewards and pretty much all the staff did a great job. We also really enjoyed the food. 

[durberville]

I believe the Regatta will be upgrading its internet to Starlink shortly. Hopefully this will help. 🤞🏻 I suspect our cruise up to Alaska and then across the Bering sea to Japan will have abysmal access. 😬🤷‍♀️

[Yesimapirate]

5 hours ago, jondfk said:

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.

 

We've always had 5G or 4G cellular access most of the time on the ship when we've been on the inside passage.   You also won't have to worry about finding wifi while on shore, assuming you're from the US.

[Cruisedreamer1]

Just off the Regatta and found plenty of wine to drink! Barista's has always closed for coffee drinks in the evening. We never had a problem asking for a cappuccino in the morning or lunch or dinner.

 

We were in an ocean view cabin so we felt service was the same for us. To our delight, some of the crew remembered us from the Insignia and previous Regatta cruises.

 

If Julia Diego and Abner Sanchez is still on board don't miss their performances. They are truly up and coming stars and hopefully Oceania will utilize them more on the stage.

 

Does anyone know how you can get the tote pictured in the photo above? It looks very practical.

 

I wonder if Oceania will ever schedule another west coast cruise to Mexico again? It was so nice to drive only 2 hours from home!

 

Disembarkation was a breeze. Once off the ship, go through the photo camera and collect your bags. Embarkation was easy but the gentleman calling out deck levels for check in was hard to hear. Perhaps because the ship was coming off a very long cruise prior, it seemed to take a long time to get into our cabins.

 

Try the cappuccino caramel ice cream . It's divine!

 

 

[ORV]

58 minutes ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

Just off the Regatta and found plenty of wine to drink! Barista's has always closed for coffee drinks in the evening. We never had a problem asking for a cappuccino in the morning or lunch or dinner.

 

We were in an ocean view cabin so we felt service was the same for us. To our delight, some of the crew remembered us from the Insignia and previous Regatta cruises.

 

If Julia Diego and Abner Sanchez is still on board don't miss their performances. They are truly up and coming stars and hopefully Oceania will utilize them more on the stage.

 

Does anyone know how you can get the tote pictured in the photo above? It looks very practical.

 

I wonder if Oceania will ever schedule another west coast cruise to Mexico again? It was so nice to drive only 2 hours from home!

 

Disembarkation was a breeze. Once off the ship, go through the photo camera and collect your bags. Embarkation was easy but the gentleman calling out deck levels for check in was hard to hear. Perhaps because the ship was coming off a very long cruise prior, it seemed to take a long time to get into our cabins.

 

Try the cappuccino caramel ice cream . It's divine!

 

 

If you’re referring to the blue and white bag in the photo with the man with the big head it is for those that booked Concierge level and up. One of the few Oceania bags I don’t have. I’ve heard reports that it’s not as practical as the old ones as it doesn’t zip up. 

[slw207693]

Orv ~ those bags are much better than the old blue nylon ones.   While it doesn’t have zipper, it does have snap.   I use it for groceries, beach tote, laundry bag when traveling, bringing multiple bottles of wines to events, they are very tough and hold quite a bit.   If you would like one or two, email me at junkandspam.delete@Gmail.com   

 

We were on Regatta last July to Alaska with our family of 9 and had a fantastic time, so much so we are taking them all on Riviera this July from Athens to Barcelona.   We were again on Regatta in Jan/Feb 2024 from Bali to Sydney  and then Sydey to Sydney via New Zealand our 60th and 61st with O) and we rated our cruise poor.   We were stunned by the difference.   We loved the ports, the Captain was terrific but the senior staff and food were mediocre.   It was different staff from the July trip ~ felt like a completely different cruise line.   
 

I’ve enjoyed your musings.   

[ORV]

12 hours ago, slw207693 said:

Orv ~ those bags are much better than the old blue nylon ones.   While it doesn’t have zipper, it does have snap.   I use it for groceries, beach tote, laundry bag when traveling, bringing multiple bottles of wines to events, they are very tough and hold quite a bit.   If you would like one or two, email me at junkandspam.delete@Gmail.com   

 

We were on Regatta last July to Alaska with our family of 9 and had a fantastic time, so much so we are taking them all on Riviera this July from Athens to Barcelona.   We were again on Regatta in Jan/Feb 2024 from Bali to Sydney  and then Sydey to Sydney via New Zealand our 60th and 61st with O) and we rated our cruise poor.   We were stunned by the difference.   We loved the ports, the Captain was terrific but the senior staff and food were mediocre.   It was different staff from the July trip ~ felt like a completely different cruise line.   
 

I’ve enjoyed your musings.   

Thanks for the offer on the bag, but I have plenty of others. Good to hear first hand reports on them.  Obviously something has been wrong with Regatta as you as a very experienced Oceania cruiser rated it poor. I felt they were getting more on track as the cruise went along. All in all, we had a great time on the Mexican Riviera cruise and really saw nothing that would make us rethink booking future cruises with Oceania. Well, I might lean toward the bigger ships for future cruises, as that bathroom is sure small and I'm not getting any smaller. 

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for your post on Regatta..  We will be taking our first Oceania cruise on Regatta in September. 

 

Curious if they upgraded the internet to Starlink?  Also interested if you could identify what type of TV's they have and if the HDMI ports are available.   

 

Thanks in advance?

 

 

 

[ORV]

12 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Thanks for your post on Regatta..  We will be taking our first Oceania cruise on Regatta in September. 

 

Curious if they upgraded the internet to Starlink?  Also interested if you could identify what type of TV's they have and if the HDMI ports are available.   

 

Thanks in advance?

 

 

 

The internet is not Starlink, I’m not sure when it’s supposed to be updated. I did not look at the inputs on the TV, sorry. I think they were Insignia or maybe Hisense brand. 
 

Sorry I’m not more help on this. 

[Cruisedreamer1]

Slw207693- would you send one of those bags to me? I think they look very useful on and off the ship. Is that your real email address? Mine car bet at rocketmail dot com.

[jklc123]

We had to cancel our booking on this cruise due to serious illness. Would have been our first O cruise. Sounds like it was a pleasant, leisurely experience.

[osandomir]

16 minutes ago, jklc123 said:

We had to cancel our booking on this cruise due to serious illness. Would have been our first O cruise. Sounds like it was a pleasant, leisurely experience.

Hopefully, you will be able to rebook and enjoy your cruise.

[ORV]

I'm seeing a review on another popular site for the current Regatta cruise that was right after this one. It shows Carson being the CD. I guess Robin was only a part time CD until Carson came on the ship. He did a good job for being thrown in to it. 

 

Carson is another CD I've never run across. 

[AMHuntFerry]

13 minutes ago, ORV said:

I'm seeing a review on another popular site for the current Regatta cruise that was right after this one. It shows Carson being the CD. I guess Robin was only a part time CD until Carson came on the ship. He did a good job for being thrown in to it. 

 

Carson is another CD I've never run across. 

Yay!!! We missed his acclaimed solo show on both of our cruises last year. Third time's (soon!) a charm?

Edited May 8 by AMHuntFerry

[basor]

20 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Yay!!! We missed his acclaimed solo show on both of our cruises last year. Third time's (soon!) a charm?

You are in for a treat with Carson's solo shows....

[slw207693]

Cruisedreamer! - yes that is an email I use and since businesses think it’s fake, very little junk gets sent to it!     Please email me your details and I will follow up with your request.   

[Cruisedreamer1]

Will do and thanks!