September 2015 Aegean Cruise

Riviera Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 199

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Riviera

10 Night Jewels Of The Aegean (Athens Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 17, 2015

Ship: Riviera

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 7012

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 9 years ago

Review summary

The Rivera cruise ship is very nice and the overall cruise experience was very good. The cuisine in the specialty restaurants was also very good. The dining in the general dining areas was OK but not quite as good as we had on the Regent line for other cruises. The shore excursions were pretty good except for the Oceania Exclusive (OE) tour that we paid a premium for (A Day in Jerusalem) that was disappointing and not worth the extra money. Although the tour group was smaller in size, it didn't provide any advantage over the standard tour in access to sites, provided the same lunch in the same venue with the other standard tours and most of all had the lowest quality guide we encountered in all our tours. We were not satisfied with the poor value of the OE tour and informed the cruise line of our opinion (to no effect).

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
General dining was OK but not quite as good as on the Regent line.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Most of the evening shows started too late (9:45 PM) which was too late when participating in shore excursions which often started around 8 AM.

Children's Programs

3 out of 5
NA

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
Generally good service but servicing of our room always seemed a bit slow. We often came back from events without our room being finished yet.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Patmos, Greece

5 out of 5

Haifa, Israel

5 out of 5

Limassol, Cyprus

5 out of 5

Rhodes, Greece

5 out of 5

Iraklion (Heraklion), Crete

5 out of 5

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

5 out of 5

Istanbul, Turkey

5 out of 5
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1 Comment

WeCruiseToo    9 years ago

Thanks for the nice, honest review.  We’re looking forward to sailing with Oceania Cruises one day soon and will pay close attention to any Exclusive tours being offered.