This was a bucket list trip and our first cruise on Oceania. It exceeded our expectations in almost every way. Beautiful and comfortable ship with excellent service and facilities, and an interesting itinerary with a wide variety of shore excursions. In most places, I would not recommend independent travel even if you are fluent in Spanish. The shore excursions are generally well run, although there are not a lot of choices for those with limited mobility and wheelchair/scooter users.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
While ours was fairly good as my husband was quickly loaded into a wheelchair and zipped to a priority desk, our travel companions were stuck waiting for over two hours despite also having priority boarding status. Understaffed checkin desk plus officious woman directing general boarding in each group to go before priority boarding!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Great variety, well prepared, excellent service - best of all the cruise lines we have been on!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Especially enjoyed the afternoon tea in Horizons. Wonderful view from the front of the ship and delicious little tea snacks with music from a string quartet!
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The Pampas Devils tango and gaucho shows were outstanding! We could have watched them every night!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Overall staff were smiling, courteous, and extremely helpful. Our cabin attendants, Glazia and
,Kormang, were amazing (I wanted to take them home with me!). Roberson in the Martini bar was also exceptional, remembering our preferences after only one encounter!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The smaller ships of Oceania are easy to navigate, and the areas were always spotless.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Plenty of storage and the bed is very comfortable. It was nice having the bathtub as the shower stall was a bit cramped for my husband (a common issue on cruise ships). The sink was also larger than in many other cabins we have occupied.
Ship tip
When you get off the elevators, the wall phone is on the port side. Helps get oriented!
We did what was to be a boat tour on the river to a restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately, the boat sped up the river so we were unable to enjoy the scenery much.
This was the highlight - watching how the locks work (what amazing engineering!) and then cruising along the lake enjoying the scenery on the way to the second set of locks.
There is so much to see and do in Lima - plus we had no idea that coastal Peru is actually a desert! No wonder the archeological sites are fairly well preserved!
While actually exiting the ship was fine, the luggage retrieval was chaos. The different color coded areas were very poorly marked (only on the pavement, no waist high or overhead signage), and the luggage porters did not seem to have been trained in the location of each set. The busses were also not clearly marked for each group.
Thanks for your honest review. I sometimes read others that claim horrible food, but find that impossible to believe for anyone cruising on ANY cruise line to make that claim.
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