Just back from Regatta - Venice to Barcelona

[onthemove617]

I wanted to post this review of the Regatta, Venice to Barcelona while everything is fresh in my mind. For those who may not read the entire review, please take away one piece of advice. If you are doing anything on your own, take with the phone number of the port authority that is listed on the port summary sheet delivered each night prior to docking.

 

Rather than go over each day in detail, I’m only going to hit highlights. Firstly, we were so pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. We had sailed on Crystal several years ago and on Celebrity/Constellation last year. The food is equal to Crystal and far surpasses Celebrity. In our opinion, only the specialty dining room in Celebrity comes close & at $30 per person, not worth it. We were, however, disappointed in the specialtyrestaurants on the Regatta. The meat served in the grand dining room was more tender & tastier than in Polo & the food I had in Toscana had to be sent back (they hadn’t fully reheated the veal shank; it was still ice cold). Our one real disappointment was the lack of reasonably priced wine. They were out of the better mid-ranged wine by the second day & though they received a delivery in Rome, the wines we were interested in didn’t come in.

 

Entertainment – not as bad as I thought it would be. We missed a number of evenings because we ate late & would finish dinner 20 minutes before the act ended. If Margaret is performing with the smaller jazz group (trio?), usually at 10:45, catch her 1/2 hour set. She’s a first-class jazz/blues singer. We enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Destination Services – Monique was knowledgeable and always ready to help us out. My complaint is with Oceania’s policy, not the staff. Charge more or offer shuttles for a fee, we found is getting into some towns very frustrating and even when city buses were available, the ship offered no guidance on where specifically to catch the bus, what number we should look for & where we needed to go to buy the tokens, e.g. in Sorrento you need to go to the Tabacco shop to buy the bus pass. The bus driver would not accept money.

 

Laundry

Buy the tokens right away. People were complaining that there were none to be had on our one day at sea.

 

Venice

There’s a shuttle by the dock to take you in to town. Be sure to note where they drop you off. There's no Oceania flag letting you know where the bus will pick you up. Sounds obvious but it's a very busy bus depot & can be confusing if you don't pay attention. From there take the vaporetto everywhere. Just walk, explore & enjoy.

 

Dubrovnik

Didn’t take any tour. Walked the outer wall & didn’t know what to photograph first. Don’t miss it, it’s really a beautiful city.

 

Corfu

Took a taxi into town & walked around. Ask destination services for the name of the restaurant just outside of town. I lost the receipt & forget the name. The family of a waiter on the Insignia owns it. Everything is very fresh. The fried fresh sardines are heavenly. The walk to the restaurant is lovely, along the water & dining is outside. When you get there you’ll see a number of crew members eating away.

 

Corsica

Waves too high & we couldn’t tender from Bonifacio. Found out later that it’s a common occurrence so I’m not sure why Oceania anchors there. The highlights tour was booked so we took the complete Corsica tour. Save your money. All day in a bus. Some of the views were lovely but a stop to take pictures of a manmade lake was a little much. At that point a good percentage of people didn’t even bother to get off the bus.

 

Rome –

We hired limonrome & both the driver, Vincent & the Vatican guide Claudia were wonderful. Claudia was particularly knowledgeable. I would highly recommend the service.

 

Livorno

We had spent a week in Florence on another trip so decided to do something else. We hired Papillon Service to drive us to Portovenere. Took the ferry to cinque terre. You can walk from the first town to the next town & than take the ferry to the other towns. Our driver, Sabrina, met us in the 5th town & drove us back to the ship. It was a wonderful day. The ferry is the perfect way to see the towns. However, we were just outside Pisa, about 45 minutes from Livorno when we reached a traffic jam. Turns out, 20 cars ahead there was a fatal accident involving 2 trucks & a car. It was 5:15 & the boat was sailing at 8. By 6:15 we hadn’t moved. We had no way of contacting the Regatta. Sabrina called her boss & her boss drove to the docks to speak with the port authority & notify the ship. The ship then called Sabrina on her cell phone. I won’t go into all the back and forth discussions and details but at the end, the ship waited for us. We sat for 3 hours before moving & finally reached the ship at 9:10. I can’t say enough about Sabrina, Papillon, and the crew and Captain who waited for us. After that, we always carried the port authority phone number. It appears to be the only way to reach the ship.

 

Nice

We rented a car & drove to Eze & then to the villa ephrussi de Rothschild which is gorgeous.

 

Provence

We had spent time in province before so we hired Catherine (province-travel) to meet us in Marseille. She is much more than a drive, she’s really a guide. We had a wonderful time visiting Carpentras & Gordes, 2 villages we had never seen before. Again, I would highly recommend her.

 

Port Vendres

If you can, visit Colliore. A beautiful town with a lovely church, fun shops, terrific food .

 

Barcelona

We stayed on for 2 extra days. What a great city, we plan on returning. If you want to visit Gaudi, visit the Park Guell, casa batllo and of course, la sagrada familia. Learn by our mistakes – there is little to see inside the church. You can only go into a small area & everything is under contruction. The park is fantastic (and free) and the Casa Batllo really gives an appreciation of Gaudi’s genius. We ate a very good restaurant – 7 Portes & a great restaurant Amaya, both near the Ramblas.

 

It was a truly memorable vacation. I hope some of this helps make your trip wonderful. Rochelle

[Liv4cruzin]

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Laundry

Buy the tokens right away. People were complaining that there were none to be had on our one day at sea.........

 

My recent experience on Regatta (4/23 IST-VCE) revealed a similar problem in getting laundry tokens. Only the problem was with passengers buying up the tokens early in the cruise & not using them until later in the cruise. Someone from the Purser's office goes in a few times a day & collects the used tokens from the machines. There is a finite number of tokens; & if they only retrieve 10 tokens; they can only "resell" 10 tokens. So, those who hoard them until they're ready to wash are robbing the rest of us from the opportunity of doing our own laundry. Sea days are nearly impossibly anyway. I finally got mine done on a port day & again one evening after dinner.

[davidmaveng]

We were on the same cruise and found out very late in the day about Colliore and the tram, which looks like a train, what a great little village, and we forgot our camera,we must go back again. The food at Toscana was excellent the 3 time we ate there, I guess you caught them on an off night. The laundery is a happening place, someone is always in there, but the funny thing is, I only saw men doing wash & Ironing! We purchased wine @ each port and used the corkage fee, it just made it more special. I agree skip Corsica and stay overnight in Barcelonia. Great cruise, had a wonderful time, thanks Oceana