Oceana E602 - A cruise diary

[Gill W]

Day 14 - 21st February - At Sea.

We have a captain - our new captain, Andrew Willard, made the sailaway announcement yesterday. On the subject of captains, our dining room waiter told us that Captain Angelo Vago retired yesterday, in Sydney, on Aurora.

Last night in the Footlights Theatre our entertainer was Mike Doyle. This was the first time the theatre had been packed, and people were struggling to find a seat from just after 8pm. (Compared to Brittannia, when you ALWAYS struggle to get a seat at the 8.30 show unless you turn up 45 minutes before hand). It's been a few years since we've seen Mike Doyle. He's as good as I remembered, and engaged with the audience, but not in a way to humiliate people (like some comedians do)

Today, there was a little cloud first thing, but it quickly disappeared, and it has been gloriously sunny. We sat out on deck this morning, and after lunch went to see the afternoon film, The Transporter: Refueled. I'm catching up with loads of films on this cruise.

There was the second deck BBQ at lunch time, but we opted out, as we are eating at the Beach House this evening. The Beach House menu is not compatible with a low salt diet, but I want to eat under the stars just the once. I've preselected my choices as best I can, and have been very careful about what I've eaten all day, so I'm looking forward to some treats this evening.

[Gill W]

Day 15 - 22nd February - Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Our meal last night at the Beach House was lovely. The Beach House is situated at the Horizon Grill, so weather permitting, you eat outside. We picked a good night for it, as it was a full moon, and we had a table overlooking the pool, so it was pretty much perfect. I had cheese potato skins (without the bacon), a burger, and the key lime cheesecake sundae. My husband had the same starter and dessert, but had cod fillet with a Jack Daniels glaze with chorizo jambalaya rice, for his main. It was a great evening.

Today finds us in Montego Bay. We've been to Ocho Rios before, when we did Dunns River Falls. This time we had planned to just have a general wander round. We watched the port lecture on the in cabin TV, and noted the the main tourist area was a couple of miles around the bay. However, there's no shuttle buses, only taxis. To be honest, we weren't that bothered about this port, so didn't really want to mess around haggling a taxi fare for somewhere we didn't have a real desire to visit. So we stayed on board again, and enjoyed the quiet time.

We also had a letter to warn us to be vigilant about a 'possible crime threat ashore', and political unrest due to upcoming elections. It also advised us not to openly carry anything that might identify us as a tourist. I'm not sure how that works - just one look at virtually any passenger on this ship would identify us as tourists in Jamaica! I heard somebody say that some passengers tried to walk to the town, but were turned back by police as it was too dangerous.

Talking of passengers, as might be expected on this longer cruise, the vast majority of the passengers are in their 60's and 70's. There's a few like me in their 50's, and a smattering of younger people, but not that many. We have two children with us - a year old baby and a ten year old boy. The boy appears to attend the children's club - he has the exclusive attention of four Reef Rangers!

This evening we'll be back in the MDR, and will attend the second Mike Doyle show.

If this was a normal 14 night cruise, we'd be back home today. I have to say, I'm nowhere near read to go home yet.

[Dennis The Menace]

Sounds great Gill, and glad you're getting some success with the special diet meals

[Jan Rosser]

Enjoying your reports Gill - I am reliving my 35 days on Oceana four years ago

[Gill W]

Day 16 - 23rd February - Grand Cayman

Our first ever visit to Grand Cayman. This is a tender port. We were originally advised that there were going to be SEVEN ships in port. But in the event, there were only four ships here - us, an NCL, a MSC and a Disney ship.

We arrived at our anchor point at around 8am. We allowed the early tours to go, then made our way to the Adriatic restaurant to collect our tender tickets. We only had a short wait before our number was called. It was only a ten minute ride over to the dock.

Georgetown is very Americanised and is mostly full of duty free shops and t-shirt stands. There's a Hard Rock Cafe and a Margaritaville. We had a walk round and a look in the shops - I purchased a new beach cover-up.

We caught a tender back to the ship just before lunch. A local open sided boat was being used as a tender, so I got some great photos of Oceana and the other cruise ships that were anchored. We had a burger and chips at the poolside grill and sat in the sun for the rest of afternoon. I've just called into our cabin to jot down these notes, then we'll pop up to see the sailaway.

We have a choice of nostalgia for our entertainment this evening. In Footlights we have The Spinettes singing songs from the 40's, and in Starlights we have a group called The Revolvers, doing 60's songs. I think we'll be going back to the 60's - at least we remember that decade.

[Gill W]

Day 17 - 24th February - Cozumel

The Revolvers show last night was a good one. They were a young band doing 60's songs, great to see some new acts on the ships.

In the early hours of this morning, there was a bing bong outside our cabin, calling for a level one assessment team. Always a bit difficult to get to sleep again when you hear that, but 10 minutes later there was another bing bong, this time inside the cabin, to tell the assessment team to stand down as there wasn't a fire after all!

We arrived in Cozumel at 9am this morning, one of 4 ships in port. When we booked this cruise, we thought we'd do an excursion to Chichen Itza. But it's a 45 minute ferry journey and a further 2 hour coach journey, with only 90 minutes at the site. So we decided against it, and did a Best of Cozumel tour instead. We visited a small Mayan site, had a short stop at a scenic beach, had a tequila tasting and visited a chocolate factory. It was a nice little tour, and not too demanding.

As in many ports round here, there was an extensive duty free mall, and a large selection of souvenir shops. The shops were in a Mayan style, and it is a pleasant place to look round.

Our entertainment this evening will be Marc Paul, a 'mind reader'. I saw him a few years ago, and he was very good. The last time we saw him, one of the volunteers was a woman from our dinner table, he asked her to think of a name of someone she knew. she thought of her grand-daughter , Sky, and he guessed that name. She had no idea how he did it. So, hopefully it'll be s good show this evening.

[Gill W]

Day 18 - 25th February - at Sea

It was an unexpectedly rough night. The ship was moving around all night, we could hear the waves against the side of the ship, and the booms as the ship rose up and fell back into the water. The captain said this morning that the weather was worse than had been forecast, and apologised for not warning us.

The movement has abated throughout the day. It has been sunny all day, but the wind has been from the north, so it's been quite chilly. I've been out for a walk, but unfortunately it's been too cold to sit out. As a result it's been one of those inside days, where the atrium area is full of people, and seating is at premium. I've passed the time by going to two port talks, had lunch in the Cafe Jardin, read my book and did some puzzles.

But it's been one of those low key days.

[Gill W]

Day 19 and 20 - 26th - 27th February - New Orleans

Two fantastic days in New Orleans.

We docked under the bridge on time at 7.30am. Everyone was breakfasting early and keen to get going. But, we had US immigration to do first.

Our time was 9.30am, as we were on tour. At 9.05 there was a call for all 9.30 people to present themselves at the Footlights Theatre, so off we trotted. We picked up our passports on the way in, and waited in the Theatre for a while. We were reminded that we couldn't take food into the USA, so all sorts of foodstuffs were being collected and placed in a bin.

After a while, our section was taken down to immigration, in the terminal. There were several officers on duty and a short queue at each podium. After a further short wait, we were called forward. Our officer was very pleasant - after a few questions, like had we been to the states before, and what did we do before we were retired, we were fingerprinted and stamped, and we were in! We were done by 10am, which meant we had a 45 minute wait for our tour.

The process slowed up later. A two hour wait from the time of entering Footlights to seeing an immigration officer was typical - but there was some sort of medical emergency that caused delay.

Our tour was A Walk in the French Quarter. I knew that the French Quarter wasn't that far from the ship, but I hadn't appreciated just how easily it is accessible from the ship. So, in retrospect, I probably wouldn't have booked the tour. But it was a good orientation, and we went in a house in the French Quarter, which was quite interesting.

After we got back to the ship, we had a quick bite to eat in the Plaza, then went out again. We walked through the new Riverwalk shopping mall, then along the river, to Jackson Square.

We then returned to the ship again, to get ready for our next outing - a jazz evening at the The Palm Court Jazz Cafe. This really was a good evening out. I'm not even a fan of jazz, but there was a terrific band, and it was quite exciting to be listening to the music in the heart of New Orleans. We got back to the ship at 11pm, and noticed quite a few crew members just leaving for their night out.

The next morning, we were out on another tour, to Oak Alley Plantation House. I'm really pleased I did this tour. It was an opportunity to see more of the surrounding area, such as the Superdome and the swamps outside New Orleans.

I mentioned that, a couple of nights ago we had a rough night. It was the tail end of a large storm. As a result of the storm, Louisiana had some tornadoes. We saw where a tornado had touched down. Trees snapped like twigs and houses wrecked in just 6 seconds.

The plantation house was very interesting, and in a lovely setting. The house has a resident guide, and he was informative and amusing. The highlight was when he theatrically opened a shutter and we saw the full glory of the oak alley of trees leading down to the Mississippi.

It should not be forgotten that the house was built by slaves, and there were recreations of slave quarters, and lists of all the names of slaves that worked on the plantations.

Our sailaway was due at 4.30, with a jazz music provided by SafoJazz, a band that are on board for the cruise. It was a good atmosphere on deck with sunshine, and watching the river traffic on the busy Mississippi.

However, we were delayed in sailing, as a crew member failed to return to the ship. The captain had to wait for the US authorities to come on board so this could be reported, and all the paperwork done. I think we sailed about 6.30pm, in the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed our time in this vibrant city. I hope to return. Another time I'd like to do the swamp tour, but apart from that I'd spend the rest of the time just walking around, enjoying the atmosphere.

[Gill W]

Day 21 - 28th February - At Sea and Day 22 - 29th February - Key West

I'm combining these two days as nothing significant happened on the sea day, except that it was the first formal night for ages - quite a shock to the system. One thing I've realised, formal nights are not the reason why I cruise - they are a low priority in what I look for from my cruise.

However, a fairly eventful night. There was another bing bong in the night for the assessment team. It was for our deck, on starboard side, for a possible electrical problem. As we are on port side, it was too far away to worry about, so I just turned over and went back to sleep, only to be awakened again with the message that the assessment team could stand down.

There has also been a flood in some cabins - I'm not 100% sure what cabins are affected, but it is near our cabins. There's a bucket in the passageway near our cabin, and there was a bed frame on the landing this morning!

We were berthed in the Naval Dock at Key West. (Carnival and HAL had the best town berths where their passengers could walk off the ship into the heart of the action). Although the town was in walking distance for us, we had to take a shuttle to town, as we were not permitted to walk in the Naval area.

Key West was not quite as I imagined it. I thought it was going to be quieter and more laid back. But with three ships in and other holiday makers it is a party town, with famous bars like Sloppy Joes and many other drinking joints. In fact, one of the P&O outings was a pub crawl.

We had a walk along Duval Street and the adjoining streets, and went into Hemingway's house. I liked seeing the six toed cats that live there, which are supposed to be descendants of Hemingway's own cats.

We had a Slice of Key Lime Pie in a cafe - it was yummy.

We got back to the ship mid afternoon and sat around the pool area for a while, then it was time for Great British Sailaway. I was really surprised that it was being held today, as it's normally the last port, and we still have plenty of cruise left. It wasn't a huge turnout, but it's a bit of light entertainment.

[Happydays]

Enjoying your diary.

[Meg 50]

what happened about the non returning crew member?

[GillD46]

We went to New Orleans on our first cruise 19 years ago, so it's lovely to read this. We also had a crew member (a Butler) not return to the ship, but in Mumbai. I wonder what happened to yours?

[Gill W]

what happened about the non returning crew member?

Later on in the cruise, the captain updated us - they''d been able to contact the crew member and he was well, but, as the captain said, this crew member was 1000's of miles from his family, without the correct documents to be in the US - reading between the lines it sounded like the crew member jumped ship in an attempt to stay in America

[Jan Rosser]

Ooh Gill I was with you every step of the way around New Orleans - so glad you enjoyed it - one of my favourite stops - did you try the beignets?

[Gill W]

Ooh Gill I was with you every step of the way around New Orleans - so glad you enjoyed it - one of my favourite stops - did you try the beignets?

There was a smal Cafe du Monde in the Riverwalk complex, but it was packed when we went past. I think the beignets will be something for 'next time'

[Manoverboard]

All good stuff, thank you

Out of interest the river based swamp tour out of New Orleans is(was), we thought, a bit tame and quite bland. The Swamp Tour out of Charleston however is lake based and stunningly beautiful.

[GillD46]

My husband was keen to try a Po'boy - being vegetarian, I was not!

[Gill W]

All good stuff, thank you

Out of interest the river based swamp tour out of New Orleans is(was), we thought, a bit tame and quite bland. The Swamp Tour out of Charleston however is lake based and stunningly beautiful.

We'd like to go to Charleston again, so maybe that's something we could consider there

My husband was keen to try a Po'boy - being vegetarian, I was not!

From the look of them, it'd feed me for a week!

[Gill W]

Day 23 - 1st March - Port Everglades.

We arrived here at 9am - we were on tour today, and our meeting time was 9.10am ashore. But disembarkation was delayed slightly, as two crew members had to present themselves to the authorities regarding immigration. Until this was sorted, no one could get off the ship.

There was a PA announcement, asking for people not on tour to wait until the excursions had departed.

But, as is usual, people completely ignored this request, and several,people wanting the shuttle were mixed up in our excursion queue. The lines were all round the atrium, and up the stairs.

Of course, if people have to wait longer than a couple of minutes for anything they start whinging and moaning and blaming P&O. None of them seemed to take account of the US immigration authorities involvement in the delay, or the actions of their fellow passengers.

There were a lot of people on tour this morning and it was a bit chaotic in the coach area - cue more moaning.

Part of the tour was a boat ride - there was a delay for this as well, as one of the coaches was late, so more moaning ensued.


(EDIT - when we got our account later in the cruise, we had been refunded with 10% of the cost of the excursion, in recognition of the 'difficulties')

I said earlier that people on this cruise seemed quite happy - well, I was mistaken - people seem to be intending to email a whole raft of complaints to P&O when they return!

Anyway, putting all this aside - it was a very enjoyable day.

The first part of the tour was a boat ride around the downtown Miami area, the port, and the millionaires houses.

This particular excursion could be booked with lunch, or without lunch. We went on the without lunch version, so we were given time at the Bayside Complex, which is a shopping and eating area. I preferred this, as lunches on tours tend to take up vital time, we just had a snack, and spent a little time wandering around.

Then back to the coach, for a drive round the South Beach area and saw all the Art Deco buildings.

Then on to the Everglades, where we had an air boat ride. I got some good photos of alligators, turtles and birds.

Then back to the ship - we were due back at 5.30pm, but got back at 6pm. So, a really full day, but we saw a lot and I think this was a worthwhile tour.

We had already told our waiters and dining companions that we wouldn't be in for dinner, so we ate in the Plaza buffet, for the first time in the evening on this cruise.

I like the buffet in the evening - the lights are turned down, there's quiet music in the background, and not too many people. It was a nice way to finish off the day.

We haven't bothered with any of the entertainment this evening. We're relaxing in our cabin, as we have another long day tomorrow.

[Gill W]

Day 24 - 2nd March - Port Canaveral

We had two holidays in Orlando in the 90's, and we had to decide what attraction we'd like to see again. We opted for the Kennedy Space Centre.

There were two versions of this tour available. The one we did had an additional feature - an 'Up Close' bus tour. We had booked this some months ago, and were pleased that we did, as the tour was completely sold out.

The 'Up Close' bus tour took us to the launch pads, the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, and the NASA Causeway for a panoramic view of NASA and Cape Canaveral. We also saw three raccoons crossing the road, which caused a lot of excitement on the bus.

After the bus tour was done we visited other attractions - the Apollo/Saturn V Centre (which I remember very well from our previous visits), Space Shuttle Atlantis ( where you view an actual space shuttle) and the IMAX Theatre. There was a short lunch stop where we ate a turkey wrap almost underneath and Apollo rocket.

There are many other attractions that we didn't see, but there simply wasn't time. Twenty years ago, we'd arrive at these Florida attractions at 9am and stay until closing time. But, I feel we saw the most important things, and it was a good tour.

We got back to the ship at 6pm, so it was another dinner in the buffet. Again, we're not bothering with any of the entertainment this evening, and will just relax in our cabin.

[AileenB]

Thanks for your great report so far. Going to many of these places on Oriana very soon, and good to see that some of our excursion choices were enjoyed by you!

[Gill W]

Have a great time, Aileen. The excursions we did were amongst the highlights of this cruise.

[Gill W]

Day 25 - 3rd March - Charleston

When we booked this cruise, the itinerary was for an overnight stop in Charleston. We were due to arrive at lunch time today, and to leave lunch time tomorrow.

But due to a mistake by a 'third party' (well, that's what P&O say!), the call was restricted to one day.

We arrived at 10.45am and left at 11.30pm. Our plan had been to do a tour on the first afternoon and to look around the city on the second morning. Therefore we had booked our tour to Patriots Point well in advance.

The historic city of Charleston is easily accessible on foot from the ship, so we set off for a short walk round, returning to the ship for lunch, and then to get our excursion coach.

Patriots Point is a Naval Museum, and home to the massive USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier. Other exhibits include the destroyer USS Laffey, the submarine Clamagore, plus The Vietnam Experience - a recreation of a US base in 1968.

This was another excellent outing with lots of things to look at - as ever, not enough time to see it all. You need to be fully mobile for this tour, as the vessels have steep stairways, more like ladders really.

This was another 6pm return to the ship, so we again had our evening meal in the Plaza. But from tomorrow we are back in the main dining room.

Unfortunately, my husband has caught a cold, with a nasty cough. It's not surprising really, as the ship has been full of people with a hacking cough. He reckons he caught the cold when somebody coughed directly on him during the Miami trip.

This evening we had local entertainment on the ship, called the Sounds of Charleston. They are a group of people who perform music from Charleston's past, or with a connection to Charleston.

I went along to the 8.30 show by myself, as my husband wasn't feeling too bright with his cold.

It was a nice little show, including Civil War songs, spirituals, Gershwin and Amazing Grace.

It's been a fantastic week in America. I've had so many experiences and seen so many new things - I'm sure this will live long in my memory.

As we leave Charleston earlier than expected, we now have 6 sea days to the Azores.

[Gill W]

Day 26 to 31 - 4th March to 9th March - at sea

I'm not going to do a detailed report of each day, but just make some comments and observations.

On the second sea day we had our Caribbean lunch. I think there's 3 Caribbean lunches, and there were about 200 hundred people at our lunch. So 600 Caribbeans, and at least the same amount of Baltics, if not more - everyone here seems to favour long cruises.

There was no little 'thank you for your loyalty speech before we started our meal, which was unusual. But the lunch itself was pleasant. The crew member on our table was the retail manager. One of the people on our table commented that a lot of the clothes in the shops are things that are a bit outdated and have been there a long time. The good news is, that decent stuff like Joules and Crew should be coming to all ships soon - hoorah!

On this cruise I've heard variously that Cafe Jardin is to become a Sindhu, or Winners is to become a Sindu and the Cafe Jardin will be a Glasshouse. I asked the retail manager if she knew anything, and all she knows is that Oceana will have a refit in late 2017. So I think we can expect changes then. I'm sure Cafe Jardin will be no more after the refit, which is a shame, as it is very popular in it's current format.

On the subject of food, I'm not a fan of the new menus in the main dining room.

By the time I've excluded things that aren't suitable for my diet, and things I'm not terribly keen on, it generally leaves me with one or two starters and one or two mains. On this longer cruise, the menus are now repeating themselves, so the choices seem even more limited.

The loss of the larger range 'always available' items is keenly felt - I would really appreciate a greater range of simple fare, to increase my choices.

I asked my husband, as a 'normal eater', what he thinks about the menus - he thinks they are not very varied - mostly fish and not much else. On the subject of fish, there are some unusual ones. Instead of beer battered cod, we now have beer battered huss. No, I'd ever heard of huss before this cruise.

We've had a number of assessment team calls and medical emergencies on this cruise, normally in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, on the 1st sea day, a passenger died.

There's still a lot of maintenance ongoing. They seem to be replacing the wooden balcony rails on our deck, and on the prom deck. This means there's always banging going on, and it's rare when you can walk all round the prom deck.

I've been pleased with the evening entertainment on this cruise. Due to the length of the cruise, there's been lots of cabaret acts, and many of them are new to me. The ones we've seen before are amongst my favourites. We currently have Manuel Martinez with us. He was as funny as ever in his first show.

My husband is not a great people watcher ( not like me), but even he's noticed some unpleasant habits of some cruisers. On two occasions he's noticed old blokes emerge from toilet cubicles, and haven't bothered to wash their hands. Yuck! Then to add insult to injury, one of them went straight to the gel dispenser outside the dining room, and used it to prop himself up. He had his hands all over it - but he didn't use it for it's required purpose. Double yuck!

[Quizzical Bob]

I'm loving your reports Gill. The change at Charleston doesn't surprise me but at least you did get to call in there, on Adonia last year they changed it for something completely different.

Huss is actually dogfish, sometime known as Rock Salmon but properly called Rock Eel. It's a mini shark. When I was a little boy living in Harwich we called it Nuss and it was quite popular. I remember it as coarse and strong flavoured. Not to be sniffed at.