Photo Credit: E. Pang
I thought my third and final blog post on my recent travels should summarize my experience with the cruise ship, Oceania Riviera, built in 2012 and renovated in July 2016. I’ve sailed with many luxury cruise lines before but Oceania’s Sanctuary Tours Voyage was my maiden sailing with this cruise company, billed as “the world’s largest luxury cruise line featuring the finest cuisine at sea”. Oceania, together with Regent Seven Seas Cruises, is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. I would recommend this cruise to my fellow boomers because The Riviera is beautiful and spacious; the itinerary was meticulously designed and well organized; and the overall 10-day cruise offered much value-for-money.
I was, first and foremost, impressed by the efficiency and personalized welcome upon check-in and embarkation at Port Piraeus in Athens, Greece. My travel companions and I were probably among the earliest passengers to embark – there was no line-up and two Oceania staff members took us through the check-in procedure and escorted us to the ship in no time.
The Riviera is quite stunning in many ways. Its interior design is a masterpiece created by the renowned ship designers, Yran and Storbraaten, the same Norwegian architects who designed the Disney ships, several Silverseas and Regent Seven Seas vessels. The grand lobby on Deck 5, where the main reception is located, features a magnificent Lalique Grand Staircase which is perfect for a showstopping entrance or photography. My 282-square-foot verandah stateroom is very spacious, particularly after paying a 100 percent single supplement to enjoy what is usually a double-occupancy room. Each suite includes a plush seating area with flat-screen television offering satellite news and programming; a refrigerated mini-bar with free and unlimited soft drinks and bottled water; a spacious closet and a marble and granite-clad bathroom with a full-size bath tub and a separate shower stall. Furnished in Ralph Lauren Home, the room features a King Prestige Tranquility Bed which is exclusive to the cruise line, with 1,000-thread-count linens. All bathroom amenities are Bulgari and thick cotton robes and slippers are, of course, provided to guests as well. There is also a complimentary 24-hour room service and Belgian chocolates are served with nightly turn-down service.
The rooms are sufficiently sound-proof and even for a light sleeper like me, I had to admit that I slept very well throughout the voyage. I was very happy with the duo-housekeeping team members assigned to my room. They were fast, efficient, very professional and clean. I was also impressed with the ship’s room service as I’ve relied on them for breakfast at the crack of dawn for at least half of my time on the voyage – particularly when I had to optimize every minute in the morning to get ready and catch the bus for the shore excursions departing from Haifa, Israel. Even though there was no hot food, the continental breakfast was sumptuous and delicious. A duty attendant from the kitchen would always call me 15 minutes prior to my scheduled delivery time to announce that somebody was on the way with my breakfast. I usually do not like any food odour in my room, but I made an exception on this cruise and was immensely satisfied with the efficiency and punctuality of their service.
With a total of 1,250 passengers on board based on double occupancy, The Riviera’s layout was very carefully designed and built as I’ve never felt claustrophobic nor crowded even during our two full days at sea. There are at least eight dining venues all of which were tastefully designed with an understated elegance. Two of them offer casual buffets and the rest of the six are gourmet restaurants with no surcharge.
As part of Oceania’s offering, we had had a choice of four free shore excursions, a ship board credit or a wine package. Since my group of five was quite adventurous, we all picked the first option and ended up participating in the shore excursions of Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee; a day in Jerusalem and Bethlehem; Jerusalem Old City; and Pafos and Kourion in Limassol, Cyprus. Billed as the “Sanctuary Tours” Voyage, the highlights were, of course, the three full days in Haifa/Jerusalem, Israel. All the shore excursions were extremely well organized and included buffet lunches in a hotel or local restaurant. Cruise expeditions usually present a wide range of tour guides in terms of quality, but we found all our guides to be extremely knowledgeable and professional. Unfortunately, stormy weather in Patmos, Greece – supposedly our first stop on our itinerary – led to a cancellation of our visit ashore and we ended up spending an extra day cruising the Mediterranean Sea instead. Even though we did not participate in any formal shore excursions after Israel and Cyprus, the other stops on our itinerary – the Greek islands of Rhodes, Santorini and Mykonos – all offered us breathtaking scenery for casual expeditions, local food samplings and artsy photography.
Prior to my commitment to this voyage, I’ve heard many friends raving about this cruise line’s food. As a “five-and-a-half-star” cruise line, Oceania’s epicurean offerings in all its specialty dining rooms have met our expectations. Even the casual Terrace Cafe and Waves Restaurant, which prepared buffet-style breakfasts, lunches and dinners, offered diversity and creativity in addition to the quality and flavours of the cooking and the freshness of the ingredients. With our proximity to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, seafood, naturally, became the main attraction. From the lobster dishes at the Polo Grill; to the jumbo shrimp and lightly-breaded calamari at Toscana; to the French signature dishes at Jacques, designed by the renowned master chef Jacques Pepin at his first namesake restaurant on a cruise line; to the daily different European-inspired menus offered at my personal favourite, the splendid and handsomely decorated Grand Dining Room, there was always a choice of at least 10 appetizers, soups and salads and 12 entrees at dinner. The quantity and quality of the food were probably the reason why I’ve gained four pounds immediately after the cruise.
The weakest link among all the specialty restaurants was, in my opinion, The Red Ginger, which offered an Asian-fusion cuisine. The ambiance looked great with plenty of Asian touches, but the food was, at best, mediocre. The disproportionate heights of the chairs and tables made it extremely uncomfortable to maintain a proper posture while dining; and one of the servers almost burned my friend’s hands while pouring hot tea.
According to vacationstogo.com and galaxsea.com, Oceania belongs to the Deluxe Class, often ranked as a five-and-a-half-star cruise line – one class below the top-of-the-line Luxury Class or six-star cruise lines including Regent Seven Seas, Silversea and Seabourn. Then comes the Premium Class or five-star cruise lines including Celebrity, Holland America, Royal Caribbean, Cunard and Norwegian. What differentiates a six-star from a five-and-a-half-star cruise line often lies in the attention to detail. Having sailed with both Seabourn and Silversea, I rate Oceania’s food as better than Silversea but inferior to Seabourn’s. Here, the challenging ‘C’ word comes to play in the hospitality industry – to really excel as the finest cuisine of any cruise ship, hotel or restaurant, consistency becomes the key yardstick. The food and service have to be consistently top-quality in all restaurants, for all courses and at all times on the cruise ship! And consistency, particularly in service, was what The Riviera lacked.
I was initially very impressed with the Polo Grill when dark napkins were offered to match our black pants or dresses. You could, of course, imagine my disappointment when we dined at the other specialty restaurants and this great attention to detail was entirely overlooked. Such examples were ample throughout our sailing: the high tea served at Horizons every afternoon at 4 p.m. featured instant tea bags instead of loose leaves; The Canyon Ranch, supposedly one of the best spas in North America, often mixed up pre-booked appointments and made no attempts at offering beverages on each of my three hair appointments; staff at the Deck 5 reception desk lacked a smile on their faces almost at all times; and wait staff in a few restaurants often looked stressed and unhappy. When the laundry/ironing service damaged a small part of my friend’s dress, the staff blamed it on the garment’s “defect” instead of apologizing and owning up to their mistake.
Having said that, I would still recommend Oceania’s “Sanctuary Tours” voyage to my fellow boomers. Oceania does include more “Port Time” than most of its rivals and the itinerary to Israel on The Riviera is a ‘must’ for all boomers’ bucket lists. The cruise line offers unlimited internet access for passengers who want to be connected with the rest of the world while sailing – but be forewarned that depending on your itinerary, the internet can be very slow at times, particularly when everybody is at sea. The respected and ad-free U.S. website cruisetruth.com, devoted exclusively to the world’s top 10 cruise lines, ranked Oceania as number nine on its most recent list updated on November 24, 2016. Should you want upper-end premium quality, good food, country-club casual attire, classy and subdued entertainment, and enough time in port to explore and experience, without paying at the price point of the six-star lines, this is the right cruise for you.
Cruise vacations used to be popular primarily among senior citizens and boomers, but according to a recent report by the largest industry trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the number of global cruise passengers is set to rise again in 2017 after several years of consecutive growth. One of the reasons for this anticipated increase in the cruise business is because of a rising interest from millennials and generation X travelers. The Association’s survey found that these younger cohorts rate cruise travel as better than land-based vacations, all-inclusive resorts, tours, vacation house rentals or camping.
Even though younger people seem to start sharing our interest in cruise travel, our “Sanctuary Tours” Cruise still attracted more smartly-dressed boomers than millennials. And because the shore excursions to The Holy Land required some strenuous walking, there were also fewer elderly passengers than I expected. No matter what age demographic, cruise travel is now more popular than ever. Perhaps, young and old alike, people are starting to appreciate French explorer Jacques Cousteau’s famous words: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” Happy sailing this summer!
