Oceania Cruises
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Regatta Cruise - Underwhelmed
We were on the Regatta from Australia to New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa x 2 and French Polynesia. My feedback is as follows: 1. Staff - very friendly and generally eager to please. However, tend to be a number who lack training, so service is variable. 2. Cabins - please don't pretend they are state rooms, it insults the passengers! Generally basic, but good enough, but shower area is tiny. Bigger suitcases would not fit under the bed (ours, which are medium, did). Housekeeping were excellent. For the price I really expected more. 3. Restaurants - The Terrace/Waves is basically buffet/canteen style with servers; food was reasonable, but often over salty and can run out quickly. The two specialty restaurants had good food and service, but no menu changes/specials, so if you are on the cruise a long time it gets a bit boring. The main dining room again has limited options, so after a while it can get boring. Service tends to be slow because they have no sittings and seems that the kitchen cannot cope if a lot of guests decide to eat at the same time. This is particularly annoying if you want to see a 21.30 show. Again, staff are keen, but some lack training, and inadequate staff at peak times. 4. Gym - reasonable facilities, but no air con, so it can get uncomfortably hot. 5. Shops - only 2, can be a bit pricey, but I guess you expect that on a cruise. 6. Excursions - extremely overpriced and the hype in the description rarely reflected the reality, so generally left disappointed. American Samoa was particularly disappointing. A cultural show where the locals spoke for 20-30 minutes in their own language, with no translation! The catamaran in Tahiti was supposed to be the fastest in its class, but didn't even have it's sails up, just puttered around, ending up for an hour on a reef for snorkelling,where there was only sand and a relatively strong current. Two passengers slipped and fell in the boat, so needs to be fitted with more grips before there is a serious accident. Zip line and long boat/waterfall tours also have potential for a serious accident, or even death. 7. Entertainment and activities - generally underwhelming. There was a bit of a lack of variety and some of the singers were not all that good. No comedian on our leg of the cruise. Magician did a good first show, poor second show. Soul singer was the highlight-two excellent shows and a great voice. Summary - not great for the price. In my opinion Cunard is better and cheaper (based on my pre-COVID experiences). The ship is really too small to keep more active passengers entertained for a long cruise. The excursions are very overpriced and poor quality. The food is average for what is supposed to be a gourmet style experience.