Oceania Cruises Reviews

Having done the same cruise as the Shines, we had a great time on our fourth cruise on Nautica in under 2 years (NB we found the salt to be fine). But note that that we take their cruises DESPITE, rather than because of a) the high excursion prices - which we organise independently as far as we can (for the excursion to Komodo that they mentioned this wasn't an option and basically everyone that took it was mugged by Oceania into a short and therefore appalling value-for-money few hours ashore); and b) the wine prices - considering you're offshore and therefore not subject to duty etc these are high to start with, to which Oceania adds a further 18% 'service charge' (to cover the cost of their mostly wine-illiterate 'sommeliers' pouring too much into your glass at a time and not decanting a wine that the back label clearly says needs this). But our biggest beef about the winelist (which we also complained about after our Jan 2009 cruise from Auckland-Sydney) is that when you're cruising in countries that produce excellent wine, it shows a total lack of imagination/innovation/administration or whatever not to feature these wines heavily as you cruise past where they're made. OK, so there was a tiny supplement to the winelist in the GDR of Australian and NZ wines (described as 'Wines of the South Pacific' - and still no Aussie dessert wines by the glass) but if that's the best you can do Oceania, I wouldn't try and claim any competence in this area. So I would expect a selection of Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon blancs as you slide past NZ, and some great Shiraz and Semillon as you approach Sydney. In fact don't stop there, how about some good Chiantis when you're moored off Tuscany, or some Malbecs, Merlots and great whites when you travel between Buenos Aires and Valparaiso? This is hardly rocket science, given that Oceania attracts a lot of high net worth individuals who would appreciate this attention-to-detail. If you wanted to be really radical you could give the entire winelist a makeover irrespective of the itinerary, and reduce the rather predicatable influence of a loaded of unimaginative European wines. By cruise #4. given that hadn't changed the menus in the speciality restaurants, it was difficult to avoid a sense of gastronomic deja-vu; these menus should be refreshed pronto if they want to see us back on board. Incidentally, re the Griffiths' review, we're not sure what any flight difficulties had to do with an Oceania cruise, since they're not responsible for this aspect of their holidays (at least if you're UK-based; it's different if you're in the US). But having just returned from the holiday above (plus a period in South Australia) I can tell you that a KLM flight from Singapore to Birmingham via Amsterdam taking 13 hours 2 hour layover 1 hour is probably way more stressful than UK-Munich-Venice.

Even though you did not do any of the ship excursions it would have been nice to know what the ports of call wher other than boarding at Singapore and stopping at Java.