Oceania Review

 First of all everyone knows there is no bad weather just inappropriate clothing choices.  Yes, we did fall into this category. A few too many light shirts. Some didn’t get worn because it didn’t warm up as much as we anticipated   The other thing I probably didn’t really need 7 pair of shoes. Of course I wore them all!!  We have to work more on the light packing. 

I will give you a little more information about the cruise. We probably won’t be using Oceania again as a cruise line.   The ship was okay   The Reception areas elegant, the shops elegant and even at 70% Off everything overpriced.   Entertainment was good but only one show each night that started at 9:15 and finished at 10pm. If we did late dinner 7:30 we would miss the show not to mention exhaustion.  

 Okay some surprises. There are areas on the ship where smoking was allowed. This surprised us. There was little to do on the ship unless you wanted to play games, i.e. trivia art hunt around the ship, bingo, casino games.  The reward for those in attendance was “points” that could be cashed in at the end of the cruise. Of course we would have needed another suitcase to get the stuff home so no worries about getting logo giveaways from our cruise. 

The food.   Seems all there was to do on the ship was go from meal to meal. The buffet dining room did have enough seating during peak times and the out side seats were often too cold to be useful.  You could always go to the dining room but for all meals the menu was exactly the same. Buffet or dining room.  There was no serve yourself items even a box of cereal was opened for you and poured into a bowl. Servers were okay but didn’t seem quite as friendly although often you would find one or two that were talkative and helpful.  At all meals you can get grilled lobster, steak, fish, fresh pasta with the sauce of the day always fresh cut fruit and salad. Lots of variety. Desserts were amazing and ice cream or sorbet available. They would do a couple of special nights India food Japanese or Thai.  There are 4 specialty restaurants. Each cabin is given 1 night but as several people did you could request additional nights if there was room.   They were very good although the steakhouse definitely had the best red meat. Menus were varied and each meal could have appetizers salad soup main side and dessert. Really too much food.   Tea is served every afternoon with scones and sandwiches. 

Major problems include lack of WiFi, some of the staff attempting to upscale wine choices. In the French restaurant we chose a $50 and the wine steward came back not once but twice suggesting a different bottle that might be a better choice.  The cost of excursions was high and I should have done due diligence and found some private guides. 

Overall we enjoyed the cruise but we enjoyed our Viking cruises more  for that reason we will probably not be back to Oceania. 

We are at the airport heading for the Falls so I will close