Nautica Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Love the Oceania ships, and the itinerary was very good. One thing I was disappointed with were the tours, way too crowded and not very well planned. There were places we would have like to spend more time and some of the places we were at too long.  I would have liked more of the smaller group tours, there were not enough of them available. 

Ship is beautifully understated and very  comfortable!  Staff extremely friendly and always available.  Getting additional reservations before 8 in the specialty restaurants was difficult and the menu in the dining room on several evenings was not very appealing.

Everything about our Splendid Scandinavian cruise on Oceania's Nautica cruise was excellent! The tours were very informative, the lectures & lecturers were very interesting, the room & bedding were very comfortable, the food great, staff super especially in the restaurants, decor nice, although I wasn't particularly crazy about the red carpeting in the main areas, it grew on me.

Intinerery,was very good.the best bakery-bred and all cakes was butiful and testy !Very nice staf !captin Melnikov and crew make comfort enjoyment of all guests. Very clean.Shops does not have designers things,and very small.In my choice it is not enoth music and Cruise director did not organized nice evenings time!!

This cruise, our 4th with Oceania, had many high points but more low points than any previous cruise. The staff was exceptional, as always. The excursions were very good, except in Russia, more later. The food was very good, not always exceptional but very good. The ship was in top shape, amazing as it is coming up on a refitting. I went on this cruise in part to see more of Russia, and in my opinion in the end not worth the bother. I am not sure the activities were worthless because Oceania did not try, more likely there is just nothing worth seeing in this part of Russia. I also have a bone to pick with Oceania, their wine selection below $100 per bottle (including mandatory tip) is poor, not worth the cost. They keep lowering the quality and maintaining the price. Just an opinion from one that is not an expert but enjoys wine with dinner.

Five years ago cruised Nautica Barcelona to Athens.  Without getting into details we were not pleased.  However, we were attracted by this Itinerary five years later and I have to say "What A Difference."  

After cruising on Oceania Riviera in 2015, we booked Oceania again for the Iberian. The Nautica ship is much smaller (about 700 guests & 1/1.7 staff/guest ratio)- but I found the service not as good on the smaller ship in spite of the better ratio. The smaller ship does allow better access to places like Bordeaux, where we went up river and docked overnight AT the city center (awesome!) & similar in Lisbon. 

The food was good, but the quality is going down. There are only two speciality restaurants (Polo & Toscana), the Grand Dining room was very good, and the buffet (where we ate most nights) was good but got boring after a week.

The 2017 itinerary for this route is better than our 2016; One extra stop at Cartagena. Our cruise had a sea day at the beginning and one at the end which was nice. All of these ports were docked, so no worries about if the seas are too rough for tender service. I always say we are going to go back to the mid-range cruise lines but Oceania itineraries are so good, I'm sure we'll cruise them again.

The food on this ship was the best we've had on a cruise.  Make sure if you are given free on shore excursions for your cruise that you book them BEFORE you board. We found out from people on board, that if you didn't book the free tours before, you lost out. When we asked the destinations desk, we were told that it's a different company that books those and they can't do it on board. Also make sure you book your specialty restaurants before you board. We were told you could only book one night at each restaurant before but could make as many extra reservations as soon as you boarded. We sat the first day for lunch with a couple who were given a hard time with the man who booked the reservations. We had trouble ourselves but we told him we were advised on the phone prior to boarding that we could make additional reservations as soon as we boarded. He then gave in and gave us 2 more reservations. For a high end cruise we expected a well appointed room. The bathroom was a disappointment with a shower curtain instead of a glass door. We had an ocean view room with no balcony. The entertainment was also a disappointment. On Costa cruise line Mediterranean  cruises, they bring entertainment on board from each port: an opera singer from Italy; a flamenco dancer from Spain etc. On Nautica most  of the shows were 2 guys and 2 girls singing and dancing. I'm glad I tried Oceania once. However, I could have gone on several cruises for the money I paid for this one. I didn't feel met my expectations for what I paid. 

The service and food were incredible.  The entertainment was mediocre.  Very few activities and shows were poor. The itinerary could have been tweaked to spend more time in more interesting ports, and minimize the ports where docking was impossible.

Everything about our trip was wonderful.  It was like being at a private resort that was just civilized in every respect.  The beds were very comfortable and the food was great.  The land packages we took to Bagan and the promo to the Taj Mahal were excellent.  They were very organized and we stayed at the best resorts in both places and then in Delhi.  I look forward to other Oceania Cruises.

This was our second Oceania Cruise. The first one was in the Marina. We upgraded to concierge level so we were disappointed with the size of our cabin and some of the bathroom features and the small closet when we arrived in the Nautica. Also, we had a little problem with some of the excursions, for example, there was no time to visit the Reunification Palace in Saigon during our Good Morning Vietnam tour, and we could not do the Taste of Xiamen tour because " they did not have enough bikes", and when we disembarked in Xiamen on our own, we discovered that there were bikes parked all over the city, waiting for tourist. There was a land tour in Angkor Wat that Oceania did not tell us about prior to departure. Big mistake not to offer a tour to China Beach in Danang.

Not beeing able to dock in Saigon was very inconvenient.

Otherwise, GREAT CRUISE.

The Nautica Orchestra was the BEST EVER in a cruise, ( number 22 for us ). The String Quartet, WONDERFUL!!!! The fastest and best violinist, great comedians, and the lectures by the speakers about China, Vietnam, and the South China Sea, OUTSTANDING!!! ALL the waiters and waitresses were beyond their duty in kindness and efficiency.

Great food EVERYWHERE, but the highlight with Oceania is DAILY GRILLED LOBSTER. Great to have prepaid gratuities and free WiFi/Internet.

Cruising with Oceania was FABULOUS....The Staff COULD NOT HAVE BEEN NICER....Entertainment was good, especially the Nautica Singers.  The food was good, but not excellent.  Our stateroom was very clean.  It was an Amazing experience to travel to parts of South Africa.  We especially loved Cape Town.

Luxury Only did our booking and did a great job, Oceania as always never failed to impress us, we had a wonderful trip and experience and would highly recommend both Luxury Only and Oceania

Truly memorable experience. Food was excellent, entertainment was excellent, ship is an ideal size-big enough but also small enough to allow guests to meet each other and make friends. Crew recognized us from prior trips. This is a trip for people who want to learn and see, not to sit and relax. It is definitely an older group of people, with a tiny smattering of younger people.It is an English speaking cruise, but many of the passengers are not native English speakers, which is a great chance to meet new people and learn from them.

The side trips were a bit rigidly scheduled, i.e. it's 11:00 o'clock so we need to be in the cathedral, etc. Two to three hours of walking across undulating cobblestones can be a bit tiring even for people in good shape. One of the problems was when handicapped people are included on these walking tours they become very slow and difficult. If that is to be the case we suggest adding a motorized scooter or equivalent to aid these folks.

The crew on the Nautica are extremely friendly and accommodating. We got the feeling that this attitude is sincere and not just motivated by tip expectations.

We had a great time on the Nautica.  Everything was wonderful.  The crew, the food , the excursions, the entertainment were all top notch.  Even the weather was cooperative!  Not a single drop of rain fell while we were in port.

We chose this cruise because of its unique itinerary, & while somewhat disappointed that the Tunisia stop was cancelled, it was nevertheless an outstanding cruise.  The ship was in excellent shape, the food was fabulous (with the exception of the first night), and the service was great.

The one area I would rate less the excellent was the destination services/tours sector.  Just as in an earlier (Oct'15) cruise on Marina, the information on the ship TV was totally out of synch -- presentations on locales that were not on the itinerary, repetitive info on places that we had long passed, and nothing on some of the upcoming ports.  This ship had one visit in Greece (Santorini), yet it was like the Greek tourism department was dictating what was shown.  Most of the tours we took were satisfactory, with the one to Akrotiri being excellent.  The best tour we had was one we booked individually through "Tours by Locals" (visit to the Alhambra in Granada) -- however, we did use the ship's transfer from Malaga to Grenada (would have been nice to have had a "pit stop" on the 2 hrs bus rides each way).

ONCE AGAIN OCEANIA HAS EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS! WE TOOK OUR 8 AND 9 YEAR OLD KIDS WITH US ON THIS TRIP AND HAD A GREAT TIME. OCEANIA STAFF WENT ABOVE AND BEYOND TO INSURE THEY HAD A GREAT TIME. IT WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT TO EVER TRAVEL ON ANOTHER LINE.

The Nautica is a beautiful ship. The smaller size made it easy to get around and to disembark for shore excursions each morning. Our Penthouse Suite was spacious and very comfortable for two people. It had the feel of staying at a luxury hotel. The bed and linens were luxurious and very comfortable. We enjoyed the welcome canapes and champagne waiting for us upon arrival. We had breakfast delivered on-time to our room each morning by our butler Andy and enjoyed the variety of in-suite afternoon canapes. We dined at all of the ship's restaurants and found the food to be very good, except for the pizza on the buffet. The Waves Grill on the pool deck was great, especially the Surf and Turf Burger which was filet mignon topped with lobster on a bun. The food and service at the Polo Grill Steakhouse was excellent. All of the cruise staff were friendly and welcoming. The cruise staff worked very hard to keep guests happy even through the bad weather day. Overall, we had a wonderful first-time experience cruising with Oceania Cruises.

This was my first cruise and it exceeded my expectations. I really did not want to go and was looking for excuses to use to bow out. I'm glad I didn't find one.

Oceania is our first choice in cruise compnaies.