Oceana - E425 19th Sept

[Whynd1]

Well been back 3 weeks now and am having the cruise blues. I did wonder if anyone else would do a report on this cruise as there were quite a few of us at a meeting that was arranged for forum users. It was nice to meet up and put names to faces thanks to Dai for organising it.

The weather was brilliant sunshine nearly all the way just a little rain in the afternoon whilst we were in Barcelona. We called at Cartegena, Barcelona, Ajaccio, Livorno, M Carlo and La Corunna.

Overall I really enjoyed this cruise which was made by the good weather, I choose not to go to the shows but friends who went to several said the headlinbers were very good. There were too many tribute acts on board for a 2 week cruise. There was a classical pianist who I am told was very good.

For me the real downside was the food. I have done 4 cruises on Oceana in the last 2 years and have had no reason to complain about the food but and sadly I thought the food this time especially in the second week was very poor. Always the same veg, and some weird combinations. One night the waiters apologised for the wait and said that the kitchen was under pressure due to number of steaks being cooked - this we assumed was because nobody was very keen on the mains choices.

We ate in Cafe Jardin 2 nights one in each week and in the first week aPierre White was on board and came round and chatted to everyone - he was very poilte and charming. He had his photo taken countless times including one with our group. The food was supberb our only complaint was that the portion sizes were very large, maybe because you are paying the small surcharge they feel you need to have large portions. I can recommend the hailbut.

Took 2 shore excursions with P and O and organised one independantly with Hurcules tours and they were excellent in Corunna and would throughly recommend them. The 2 with P And O were the 6 hour tour to Florence which was very well organised - the only downside is the 20 min walk to and from the coach - it always seems longer on the way back and it was a very warm day, but did enjoy out time in Florence . The other was in Monte Carlo and due to Nice playing MC at football and the yacht show there was a long delay in our coach arriving back from the morning tour to Nice to enable us to go on our tour to Menton And Eze. We had to stand in the midday heat to wait for the coach not good for some of the older passengers.

Once we were on our way I really enjoyed the tour and Menton was a nice surprise.

We had 2 code alphas and one lady collapsed right in front of us in the dining room and was eventually helicoptered off back to the uk (this was on the first evening) later we found out that she was okay.

Overall a good cruise and my next booked one is on Oriana next November.

Lindsey

[barney]

This food issue seems to be a running theme in many cruise reviews at the moment Lindsey

Might be something for the company to keep and eye on as dining is a big part of a cruise holiday.

Glad you had a good time and cheers for the review.