Thought I would let you know that Ken and I are going to spend 5 nights on the Regatta before heading to Reykjavik to board the Voyager. Ken had taken the time off work for the first segment on 5/8/09 and of course he cannot change those dates. So we thought this was a good use of our time. Since I have never been on Oceania this was the perfect opportunity to experience the ships.

How fun Ngaire! It's like going on a 2nd honeymoon for you guys!

Well we did this once before and to be honest we missed everyone. We used to prefer travelling alone but those days are over. Now we really enjoy the group, particularly LCT people.

Ngaire -

I am sure you will enjoy it. I hope you get into the specialty steakhouse for Lamb Chops/Rack of Lamb. Food there was excellent. You will find a familar face or two as well among the staff. Don't miss the musical trivia in Martini's....

Have a wonderful time Ngaire - after 6 yrs I would miss crusing with LCT buddies a whole bunch!!! And we LOVED our first Regent cruise and didn't know a soul BUT once you get the LCT fever you're hooked.

Can't wait to read a trip report!

Have a great time.

You'll both have a great time...just remember it is a smaller ship with smaller cabins....after saying this I have to admit it has some of the absolute BEST food at sea that I have had,...especially loved dinner under the stars ....could be verrrryyy romantic.

Ngaire, what a great idea! You can tell us all about Oceania when you get back!

Ngaire - will really be interested in what you think. Frank and I did Oceania a few years back, maybe 2006 and we really enjoyed it and had a great time. The restaurants were wonderful and we met two really fun couples that we ended up spending a lot of time with, even though they were somewhat younger than us. We also met several other couples and had fun dinner partners every night.
Have a great time.

Any ship is fun, I just love being on ships so I am sure we will have a wonderful time. Before we started in this business Ken and I had been on about 40 cruises and almost all of the main lines. I hit the PG about 1999 and fell in love with Regent (then Radisson) the rest is history.

Of course I will share my impressions when I return. It is a different product so I know I must go with different expectations. We are in a standard cabin so that will take a little adjustment. I just wont take my tiara with me nor will I take the tee shirt Jim and Pat gave me that says "It is not easy being a princess". Of course without the LCT Pooch Addicts we will not be hosting any POOCH games in our cabin so it will be just fine.

Since we have the official Pooch Master and Pooch Mistress on board the Voyager in Brad and Leslie we will be able to POOCH to our hearts content on Voyager.

You'll have to let us know exactly what days you'll be on and for which ports so we can "stalk" you, since this must be part of a longer cruise, according to the Regatta's calendar.

---------------

Eugene

Regatta
Boarding on May 14th in Rome.
Debarking May 19th in Oporto Portugal and flying to London - overnight
London to Reykjavik on May 20 - overnight
FINALLY - boarding Voyager 5/21/09

This will be an easy stalk!

Oh.....that is the cruise we were supposed to take this year Rome to Stockholm. and had to cancel. Darn, could have spent 5 days with Ken and Ngaire. :mecry: :mecry: That would have been fun.

Hi everyone.
No recent postings for Oceania and no trip report from Ngaire that I could find. We are thinking about a cruise next summer on Oceania and are wondering what you LCT folks have experienced. We value your opinions and would love to hear about your cruises with this line.

We did the Nautica two years ago Istanbul to Athens and last year the Regatta for a two week Baltic Cruise and had a great time. I am pretty sure I did a review here. The short version is that is's a wonderful value with good service (even some former Regent staff onboard). I would not book below Concierge because of the amenities like a refridgerator and luxury linens and beds. The bathrooms are small and simple but are acceptable. Food is very good expecially in the alternative steak house and the Italian. We think that Oceania - if you can put a number value on experience is about 90% of Regent and definitely more similar to the PG experience.

ChatKat,
Thanks for your reply. We are looking at Concierge Cats....thanks for your validation. We're concerned that signing for drinks and paying tips might lower our pleasure but sounds like you had a good experience on BOTH cruises.
Did you find the Oceania Concierge cabins much smaller than the PG's? They're about 30 sq ft less but wondering if you noticed much difference.....well, I guess I should have asked if you were in a F-C Cat on the PG otherwise you wouldn't have a comparison, would you? LOL....

We were in a standard PG cabin without a balcony and we had a PH3 on the Nautica and a Midship Concierge (just below PH3) cabin on Regatta. We aren't big drinkers, but we love wine with dinner and upon boarding we bought the luxury wine package - so they just brought us our wine with each dinner or even in the bar if we wanted it. We wouldn't hesitate to do an Oceania cruise anytime.

We aren't big drinkers either but do love wine with dinner and Gran Mariner digestives....plus the odd Mimosa and G&T. Could you direct me to where information can be obtained regarding the Luxury Wine package?
Did you find a difference in the rooms on the Oceania? I have no idea what the lack of 30 sq ft might mean...probably nothing by your comments about finding Oceania comfortable for you.

The cabin is laid out differently but it was workable.

There is nothing about the wine package. The first day you can go up to the bar on the top deck by the buffet restaurant and ask one of the sommlier's for the premium wine list. You only have to buy three bottles (we bought more than that assuming we'd drink a bottle a day at dinner and we did not - and actually had left over bottles which they refunded to us.

oh...thanks. Thought the wine package was something different....sort of like a price reduction if you pre-purchase X # of bottles when boarding. Thanks for the info...much appreciated.

Yes, there is a discount off the wine menu if you buy ahead but they are wines that are premium labels and end up about the same price as the non premiums. I think that for example Far Niente Chardonnay was about $50 - 60 onboard and it's $45 at my local Costco.

Not too bad of a mark-up....but $60 per night is a bit dear LOL! Are you familiar with London or Dover? Wondering about easily accessed wine/bottle shops for purchasing some wines to bring on board.

Lol - that was on the high end....They have bottles on board for $30-40 on the regular menu - for a 14 day cruise that was extraordinarly port and excursion heavy, we would opne a bottle one night, have a glass with dinner and save the rest for the next night.

Gotja! Don't think Norway is known for it's wines and when in France, we've seen lots of Brits over for the weekends via ferry stocking up so wonder if there are any chances to collect some bottles for consumption in the cabin........

Vaitape, what cruise are you considering? We've looked a little at The UK/Norway trip (Vikings Castles and Kings) on June 30th. David is partial to getting back to the British Isles somehow or other. The segue up to Geiranger, and the Shetlands sounds pretty cool.

Nothing settled at all, just musing, may do no cruise at all.

Wendy: Hi there!
We're looking at the 23 July cruise. It's going pretty remote with 6 days at sea and in the beginning, that didn't appeal to us (sunbaker that I am, as you know!). However, we started doing some research on the ports and our interest is piqued now. Disappointed with the brief stop in Oslo though.

We've a better understanding on the differences between Oceania and Regent now too. We've only experienced the PG so unlike most of you here, we haven't been spoiled by the larger suites and bathrooms you've enjoyed on the other Regent ships. You know how we love the PG and how comfortable it is for our needs so I think Oceania will be ok re: accoms. Wish the adult beverages were included on Oceania...at least complimentary wines with lunch and dinner.

That itinerary is very appealing to me too, since I've been to Norway and loved it, and would love to drag David there. So we'll see--I have always thought that if I did the Norwegian coast, I would do the Hurtigren. My mum did it years ago and raved about it--not luxury, more like a frigid version of the Aranui, with lots of short stops.

Well, keep us informed with your decision Wendy! David would like the NO JACKETs aspect of Oceania.....my Best Friend sure does, LOL! Steve wants to know who the Enrichment Lecturers will be but of course it's way too early for any news on that.

Tell me about it. One of the big bummers of our upcoming Rio trip is the 3 formal nights. We will cope, but wish we didn't have to. I'm not spending 3 nights having room service!

Hope you don't mind me chimning in here,I've also sailed on Oceania....16 days Miami to LA. I lenjoyed it and at the time rated the food as the best I had eaten at sea(over Crystal and RSSC).I sailed with a friend and the beds were in "twin mode"...made for tight quarters....but doable.

At that time I said to Norma that I didn't think Ray could sail on this ship(meaning Renaissance stle), due to the rolling motion. We had NO problems with it.

I personally loved it,very friendly passangers,best Trivia at sea(ahem,we won!)
They did tend to nickle and dime you re water,etc.

Then in March this year Ray and I sailed on a 12 day Carribean trip on the Azamara Journey...another Renaissance ship...twin of Oceania.....and yup, two days out of Miami we started to roll, and Ray ,for the first time in almost 20 years of cruising was violently ill for over 12 hours.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...if you tend toward any motion sickness you may prefer a larger ship. The Oceania and Azamara were 30,000 tonnage.

One other thing, Azamara was also C.C.C. also the food was superb,wines were reasonably priced and they made a mean Manhatten.

For a shocker check out the price difference for the two cruise lines....BIG difference.

Sorry,didn't mean to hi-jack your thread but Use either line and you will have a great cruise.

Pat and Ray, thanks for sharing your experiences. We prefer smaller ships with the resulting smaller pax load so are willing to take the risk of more motion. We've been in 15-20 foot seas on the PG in a very forward cabin during cruises to the Marquesas and Australs and the half of us that's prone to seasickness did just fine with sea bands and prophylactic Bonine.....thank heavens! The itinerary we're looking at includes cruising the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea and the Arctic Ocean so fingers crossed that our good luck continues.

Primarily our questions are based on comparisons between Oceania's and RSSC's cabin size and amenities and food and service but now that you've mentioned motion, could anyone who's cruised the Arctic, Norwegian and North Seas in July/August comment on their experiences with motion/storms?

Just as a point of comparison, I compared Nautica and Voyager.

Voyager is 46K tons, 700 pax, 447 crew (ratio guest to staff: 1.56)

Nautica is 30K, 684 pax, 400 crew (ratio guest to staff: 1.71)

People have reported that the Oceania ships feel a bit more crowded than similar Regent ships, and you can see why--that extra tonnage translates into more public space and bigger cabins.

Good point Wendy.

Well, we have a booking for the 23 July 2010 sailing on Oceania's Insignia! We received wonderful customer service and savings from Susan (also known as Susan the Patient One....she has to be, putting up with all my questions).
I'm so pleased and more than a little excited....Geesh, only 13 months to go!!! Gives me plenty of time to research locations of bottle/wine shops in Dover LOL!
Any chance that Oceania will add complimentary wines with dinner in 2010?

Also, thanks to ChatKat for her input....helped us in making the decision.

One measure of "spaciousness" (if that's a word :rolleyes: ) for cruise ships I've seen is to divide the tonnage by the pax. Forget what this term is called but it does give you an indication (remember "gross tonnage" for a vessel is essentially a measure of cubic feet) of how spacious the ship might "feel." Of course doesn't account for the actual size of suites or particular common areas that you and your party might frequent; it also makes some rather simplistic assumptions about Engineering plant spaces and such. But, over the years, I've found it works pretty well. Larger (essentially, more cubic feet per pax) is better.

So, Voyager is 65.7 and Nautica is 43.9.

Try it with other ships you've been on and see how it compares to the impression you remember from your trip.


Greg

Viatape - hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy every second of it. We have sailed once on Regatta and found it to be just fine, and were scheduled for an 18 day in May this year, until the economy hit us very hard last year, so we had to cancel and settle instead for a 7 night Mexican Riviera on Princess, which we are looking forward to - we have yet to meet a cruise we didn't like, just some more than others, and some we don't do anymore, and yes RSSC is our very favorite no question, but give me the right itinerary, right price and overall right situation and we will do it.

So as I said, go and have a wonderful time and love it.

Thanks JoAnn...appreciate your comments.

We know what you mean about the economy and travel plans. We had to cancel a RSSC cruise with a similar itinerary for this month due to vaporized interest income.

Hopefully things will start changing for the better over the next year. The wait til 2010 gives us more time to save and though not as luxurious as Regent, I think we will enjoy Oceania. I can deal with smaller public spaces, a smaller room and a small bathroom with shower only as long as service and food are good. Sure like that the ship has less than 700 passengers.
My best friend is soooo happy that he doesn't have to wear a jacket for dinner.

Enjoy your cruise this year!!

We are just back from a cruise on the Sapphire Princess and I went preparing to have to tolerate it. Food wasn't Regent, our cabin was lovely but the itinerary was really good for us, we went with really good friends we enjoy, the post cruise we spent a week exploring and visiting good friends...and we had so much fun, we booked the same cruise next year. We hope the economy recovers and business picks up so we can resume our over the top travel too.

John and I booked for 10/01/10 on the Insignia. The itinerary is fantastic and the pricing is good. I went on roll call on cruise critic and found quite a few people already booked this one. I think this will be a sell out because of the great itinerary. We are adding Cappadosa on the end of the cruise. Checking other tour cocmpanies for the add-on to compare to Oceania. The Insignia is a beautiful ship with the most beautiful library. It is big but cozy with a fireplace. Looks like someone's family room. The food is excellent. They are also offering free tipping which is very nice. This ship has the best beds we have ever had on any cruiseline including Regent. Don't be afraid to try this line. The Insignia is not a huge ship. I think they have about 700 passengers. ;)