Oceana E718 review 22/07-29/07

[trfccruiser]

Oceana Review 22/7/07-29/7/07 Summer Splendours

First of all some background. We were cruising as a family myself and my wife 3 children 17,15 and 5 and my mother in her late 70’s.We have cruised many times over the years with lots of different lines.I’ve cruised 27 times but not since the mid 1980’s on P&O(Canberra and old Oriana) but my Mum cruised a lot on the new Oriana in particular with my late father so it was largely to please her and for a change.

We enjoyed the experience overall very much but no holiday is without hiccups and this was no different. Probably like a lot of cruisers, I would ideally like to pick some aspects from 1 line and mix it with another to get as near to perfection as possible.

Overall impressions were that the Oceana is a nice clean ship but is looking tired in places and I understand is due a refit. It’s also noticeable that despite only being 7 years old designs have moved on to make it seem a bit behind. For example, the showers are pretty pathetic compared to most newer ships. Most now have a door not the dreaded curtain which seeks to flood your cabin and I lost count of the number of times the water almost completely lost pressure and changed temperature from hot to cold without me touching anything! I cruised on the sister ship Sea Princess 2 years ago and whilst the shower wasn’t powerful it didn’t go on or off and change temperature so I suspect it was addressed at her refit.

First impressions do count for a lot and when we got on board we had a nice meal in the Plaza as our cabin wasn’t ready.

However, when we made our way to the cabin our second impression was negative. The cabin absolutely reeked of smoke and I don’t just mean a vague stale smell it reeked it was almost impossible to stay in there and upset my daughter.I contacted the cabin steward who confirmed it had been used by “very heavy” smokers the previous cruise(her words not mine).She said she would come along and use a spray later on. This she did but it just masked the smell for a while it didn’t neutralise it. She also arranged to have the carpet shampooed 2 days later but the smell lingered all cruise it faded but was still notieceable. Why can’t P&O have designated smoking and non-smoking cabins? Easy enough to do.

Overall I found the food at formal dining to be superior to our most recent cruises on NCL, Princess and Fred Olsen but not as good as Cunard. However, I was less impressed with the buffet food quality and the “flow” of passengers and seating,it was like a pitched battle most times. My son was also unimpressed (as was I) that the buffet finished at 9.30 pm.That meant the only late night dining option was Café Jardin which had very limited choice .To my mind, this was simply to accommodate the pay restaurant. However, Sea Princess is exactly the same ship and manages to open a pay restaurant and keep the buffet open. Cost cutting, methinks.

I found the entertainment though inferior to other lines the singers and dancers(Stadium theatre company) were not a patch on the Jean Ann Ryan Company on NCL or the Princess offerings .I thought unlike some of the other reviewers that Mike Doyle the comedian was just ok nothing special, I was expecting a “name” in peak season. Doubling up one of the theatres as a cinema was good though perhaps more could have been made of that.

One of the biggest issues perhaps is the overall design of the ship. It was designed for the Caribbean market with lots of open deck space but internally many of the bars are small. When we spent a whole day in a force 7 through the Bay of Biscay the ship appeared very overcrowded almost impossible to get a seat in any of the main public areas. The ship also rolled a good deal. This will seem like heresy to many P&O regulars but whilst the Oriana and Aurora seem suited to sail out- sail back I think the Oceana would be better suited to fly cruising all year round and might actually give customers wanting to cruise with P& O more choice.

As far as the staff go there were also positive and negatives.The kids club staff were excellent and my youngest was actually asking could she go whereas last year she didn’t want to go as they were a bit too much “in your face” so we didn’t make her go. However, whilst a lot of cruise lines have the syrupy have a nice day type of attitude we found some of the staff quite surly and unlike a lot of cruise lines didn’t make a fuss of the children they largely ignored them.

One waiter actually pointed to my 5 year old daughter one night at the meal and said “What does she want?” in a way that indicated he didn’t think she should be there at all! In fact she was very well behaved.

Overall it sounds like more negatives than positives but we did enjoy the cruise but perhaps not quite as much as we expected to. Highs-food in the main restaurant.

Lows-some of the staff attitude and mediocre entertainment.