Oceana Grand Event (July 2012)

[Romig1]

Just found this on the pooter...thought I could add it on this site too.

Cruise review.

Check-in and Embarkation - went like a breeze, despite the number of people sailing from Soton that day, and the fact that we sailed from a new-to-us terminal.

GE Sailaway – a fantastic experience we will remember for many years. Just a shame that the weather did it’s best to spoil the party, and that the Red Arrows couldn’t display. Many thanks to all those people who watched the event from land who braved the elements and made the day even more special. The ents officers should also be recognised for their sterling efforts. The fact that we were last to sail and therefore had each of the other 6 ships pass us in turn was brilliant, but I can’t understand how I managed to not take a photo of Aurora as she sailed past!

Cabin – we had an inside (one of the longer but narrower ones) on the corridors which connect the two sides of the ship. These cannot be configured as queen beds, but that wasn’t a problem. Pros included a good dark environment for sleeping and few (if any) people passing the cabin at night talking loudly which we have found a problem on past cruises. Cons included the fact that you need to turn on the tv to the webcam to get a feel for the weather outside each day, and the lack of natural light or air. I think we spent less time in the cabin than we would have done in a balcony cabin.

Meals – no complaints at all. We opted to have a fish course instead of soup a couple of times and the waiters were happy to oblige. I may be wrong, but I thought that there were maybe less choices of starter than in the past, but we always found something we fancied. Quality was perfectly acceptable and we had some lovely meals.

Entertainment – we don’t usually go to the Headliners shows despite the regular good reports. We were however hoping for some bigger names signed up for this cruise as both performers and guest speakers and were quite underwhelmed with the reality. Despite that, we made our own entertainment and enjoyed our evenings onboard.

Service – again, we can have no complaints. Both in the MDR and the cabin we found that the levels of service were very good and in our experience auto-tipping hasn’t made a jot of difference. As such, it was nice to not give tipping another thought.

Itinerary – the ports are all interesting in their own way, and the scenery is truly spectacular in places. The good weather we mostly enjoyed added to the experience.

Oceana – we still consider her to be a very friendly ship – in terms of crew and officers and passengers. Amazingly enough we only encountered our first moaner on the last evening in the queue to collect our dvds! I didn’t notice any ‘tired’ areas and would recommend this ship to anyone.

All-in-all a fantastic cruise, shared with some very nice people – both from this forum and not. Thanks to all who helped make it so good…..just got to count down the days to October for our next on Arcadia.

[Jaczs+]

Or you could look in the recent Our World for a more in depth version mwahahahaha