In the middle of winter we found ourselves a well-priced Alaska cruise available out of Seattle in August on our favorite line, Oceania.
Even before we sailed past the Space Needle, we knew we were in for a good time.
Even better, our oldest child and her husband are now empty-nesters and available to join us.
Karen and Kathy
We’d been reading quite a few comments in Cruise Critic and Facebook groups about whether Oceania is letting its standards slips. Of course, we've been reading similar comments about a variety of cruise lines since the early 2000s, and we looked forward to checking it out with our own eyes as objectively as we could.
To cut to the chase, our early-August cruise confirmed to us that sailing on Oceania is overall as enjoyable an experience as it ever was. That's based on our cruising experience over the past 18 years once or twice a year on Oceania ships, enough cruising to earn us Platinum status (above Bronze, Silver, and Gold, but below Diamond and President's Circle) and some pleasing fringe benefits.
Cruising continues to be popular. For example, the day our 1200-passenger Riviera stopped in Juneau, we could spot the Regent Seven Seas Explorer, with about 750 passengers, the Coral Princess, with 1970 passengers, The Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas, with 3602 passengers, and the Celebrity Summit with 2200 passengers. The combined passenger capacity of those five ships is just under 10,000, equivalent to a third of Juneau's population. Big business!
Once aboard Riviera, we did spot a few cutbacks, but none were deal breakers for us. As some of our travel friends say, YMMV. Your mileage may vary! We noticed the following changes.
Oceania seems to have a new policy that prevents customers from signing up for "extra" dinners over and above the four guaranteed during a cruise of this length.
Those include Toscana, the Italian restaurant, Jacques, the French restaurant, Red Ginger, the Asian restaurant, and the Polo Grill, the American steak and seafood restaurant.
Chuck eyes the Maine Lobster in Polo.
We did enjoy our dinners in the Grand Dining Room, and more than once stopped at the Terrace Cafe for sushi and sashimi appetizers before proceeding to the GDR. As Hemingway described Paris, Oceania is truly a moveable feast.
The 5 to 6 pm daily Happy Hour in the bars is no more. There's still a late evening happy hour, but past our bedtime.
On the other hand, if you have the beverage package that includes beer and wine with lunch and dinner, you may now order one in any bar during lunch and dinner hours. You don't need to order a meal in a restaurant.
How about that? Every once in a great while the travel industry provides a true enhancement (that word we love to laugh at whenever it's utilized by the travel publicists) and it never ceases to amaze us when we spot an actual improvement.
Finally, we noticed the transition to self-service in the Terrace Cafe restaurant. Gone are the days when employees wielding tongs are dishing up all of the food. A good portion of it is definitely self-serve, which didn't particularly bother us.
All four of us thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. We two spent most of our time relaxing and enjoying the exceptionally smooth ride and glorious views, while Karen and Chuck took full advantage of the late-night activities with live music. We admired their stamina! We still love the overall Oceania experience.
This is generally how we do it... We monitor travel websites regularly and make sure we're aware of current pricing. We want to make sure we can recognize a bargain when we see it.
A useful site that we consult regularly is vacationstogo(dot)com. Offering up your email address to them gives you access to a page with a whole lot of cruise bargains. You can customize it by cruise line, cruise ship, time of year, or destination. It's an excellent resource and we've used the information to snag bargains more than once.
Incidentally, booking a cruise is the only travel experience for which we always utilize a travel agent. We've used the same agent for years, and she has been very helpful.
Another useful source of information is Cruise Critic. You have to join to gain access to the discussion forums, The forums are organized by cruise line and by ship. There is plenty of information, although sadly it is repetitive. For example, you have to wade through seven different posts about what's on the wine-by-the-glass list before finding what you're looking for. It's a big Flyertalk-size website and you might want to budget some time to look it over and decide what could be useful to you.
Cruise lines are building new ships and adding destinations and there are bargains to be had, particularly in the transatlantic cruises that we favor.
Bon Voyage!
