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Would we do it again? We already have. |
| Reviewed By: Harvey, Henley-in-Arden on 1st Dec 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Oceania Cruises |
Times cruised before: 3-5 |
| Cruise Ship: Nautica |
Sailed:
March,
2008 |
| Destination: Far East |
Age: 56-65 |
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We cruised with Oceania Cruises (OC) for the first time in March/April 2008 to the Far East - somewhere we had never visited, let alone cruised, before. As far as excursions, pre- and post-cruise arrangements etc, around Europe and the Caribbean you can mostly live on your wits, but not here, unless you can read/speak the language. So we felt we had little option but to take the pre-cruise option and the full excursion package - at eye-watering expense. There was no point taking the post-cruise option, since the ship docked a 5-minute taxi ride from the same hotel in Kowloon as Oceania was using; everyone in HK speaks English so paying a hefty premium to Oceania seemed unnecessary.
The pre-cruise hotel was a characterless dump and thus very poor value-for-money. OK, so you can't really call any Shangri-La hotel a dump, but the location of this hotel was WAY out of town, in close proximity to absolutely nothing, more or less forcing you to eat in the hotel or take long taxi rides. We hired a car+driver ourselves through reception and had a fabulous day at the Wall at Mutianyu (better than Badaling) and the Summer Palace. The OC coach transfer to Tianjin was long and tedious and it took a long time to process us on board [although this experience was NOT repeated on our second OC cruise. Review later...].
We had chosen a restricted view E grade cabin on the Nautica (all 3 OC ships are identical), which put us on Deck 6, surrounded by B graders, probably paying half as much again as we were. Nice cabin, bit small, no settee, but fine for people like us who don't spend any time in their cabin. NB people bang on about the small bathrooms; what do they expect? A wet room with walk-in shower?? [our second OC cruise was on the same ship, but in a C1 cabin on Deck 4. Definitely roomier (this time with a settee) but it's nice being on a higher deck.]
Many people choose OC because of its reputation for good food, and nicer restaurants and food/beverage service than average. This appears well-deserved, although the price of wine is above average, or well above average when the near-obligatory 18% uplift has been applied. The big plus for us (having cruised Fred Olsen previously) was the open seating (both where you sit and when); once you've experienced this I suggest you won't want to go back. In choosing whether to travel OC therefore you have to weigh up fine food/excellent restaurant ambience/good but expensive wine/totally open seating versus OK food/a less polished dining experience/OK but cheaper wine/a fixed sitting and a fixed table for the duration of the cruise. No contest.
In terms of dining, there are several restaurants: the Grand Dining Room (a far better experience than most ships' main restaurants), Toscana (speciality/excellent Italian), Polo Grill (speciality/surf'n'turf; made for Americans!), plus other eateries dotted around which are mostly for lunch or casual dining. The good news is that none of them attract a supplement, the bad news is that you are theoretically restricted to only one night in each of the two speciality restaurants. No harm in asking if they've got availability, so long as you can handle rejection!
Another big plus is space - that's in general around the ship, rather than your cabin (where you pays your money and you takes your choice). The Berlitz Guide has a measure for this, it's gross tonnage divided by no. of passengers, and OC's numbers are some of the industry's best. If you don't want to feel hemmed in then you need to compare cruises on this basis. Another OC plus is that smokers are easier to avoid (but not altogether) than in our earlier experience. [Soapbox point: Why some of the industry's leading quality players don't just say NO SMOKING is beyond us; they'd get more bookings than they'd lose.]
Excursions: mixed, but overall poor value-for-money. The best were excellent, the worst more irritating for their lost opportunities than anything else. One bugbear is that OC seems to squeeze in laughably obvious shopping interludes several times a day. Based on our limited experience however, expensive suboptimal excursions are not unique to OC. Many cruise lines regard you as a resource to be tapped at every opportunity; and it has to be said that OC is rather more subtle than some of the others, who operate a blatant, not to say brutal hit-and-run strategy. One noticeable lack of subtlety however is being asked to pay for the mineral water placed in your cabin, which is mean-spirited and makes OC look 'cheap', on a par with some of the more iniquitous practices employed by crummy global hotel chains with their mini-bars.
To summarise, Yes there are lots of things we don't like - such as the fact that there isn't a promenade deck you can stroll round, there's just a high level fitness track; or the fact that you can't stand on the front of the top deck (eg. as you leave port) since that space is given over their ludicrous cabanas, which only people with more money than sense are going to buy into. But the bottom line is that the negatives are significantly outweighed by the positives; this is reflected in the fact that OC has a very high level of repeat business, which now includes us.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| Very wide choice of fine food, mostly gave the burgers/fast food a miss. | | Entertainment | n/a |
| Not our scene, mostly avoided. | | Shore Excursions |  |
| Mostly characterised by poor value and lost opportunity (eg. visiting Taipei but not having the option to go up Taipei 101, the world's tallest building; or the same in Shanghai, forcing us to do this on our own). In Seoul the guide had poor English, thus we didn't see Korea at its best. In Okinawa the food was 'internationalised' when elsewhere it had been local (and mostly good). | | Staff | |
| Maitre d' of the Toscana (that would be telling). | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| Not a cruise for children. | | Onboard Activities | |
| Excellent library, but our idea of onboard activities (apart from eating/drinking/socialising) consists mostly of sunbathing on top deck. | | Cabins |  |
| E cabins are good value and acceptable size. | | Overall Rating | |
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Happy HOLIDAY's
Qeen Mary 2 cruise dec 2008
Queen Victoria - Caribbean 2008
MSC Fantasis Christmas Cruise
