Why Oceania Remains Our Cruise Line of Choice

 As the centerpiece of our recent trip to Europe with Kathy's brother and sister-in-law, we all boarded the Oceania Cruises 1250-passenger Marina for our 29th Oceania cruise, sailing from Athens to Barcelona on an 11-day voyage. It's oddly comforting to arrive in our stateroom and feel like we're back home.

Why Oceania (pronounced in four syllables without the "i")? That's a somewhat long story, going all the way back to 2007 for us.

We two had cruised on a variety of lines, starting with a Holland American Mediterranean cruise in October 2001, a strange and occasionally eerie experience just after our retirement and of course September 11. 

There were bargains to be had. Along with the aforementioned HAL, we sailed  one or more cruises on Princess, Celebrity, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and even on Cunard's magnificent ocean liner, the Queen Mary II. Earlier this year we sailed on Seabourne, another premium line.

What caused us to become "cruised out," as Brian put it? There were many reasons. First, we couldn't help but notice that cruise ships seem designed as money-making machines with the objective of extracting the maximum amount of money possible from each passenger, with the lure of luxurious lodging and all-inclusive food. 

There were ship's photographers taking photos every time you board or disembark. There were art auctions. There were casinos with regular slot and blackjack tournaments. There was Bingo twice daily, announced loudly throughout the ship.There were the shops, looking like strip malls on the largest ships.

There were climbing walls and water slides and bumper cars on some vessels.

There were expensive excursions ashore and spas offering a variety of "treatments" aboard. Most ships offer a "Drink of the Day" and various kinds of expensive "prestige" and "elite" wine and liquor packages. What have we left out? 

Oh, and the ports of call. Many if not most of them are likewise designed to separate cruisers from their money and offer little or no authentic flavor of their region or country. The Caribbean and Latin American ports are among the least attractive destinations, in our blunt opinion. If you want to explore a place, come back when the cruise ships aren’t docked there.

Most if not all cruise ships feature specialty restaurants, where you can partake of presumably superior cuisine in extra-upscale surroundings for an additional fee. Over the next few years, we noticed a general decline in the quality of the cuisine. We were booking specialty restaurants as a defensive strategy in the hopes of getting a decent meal! 

We once spotted a seafood soup on a Holland America ship made with "sea legs," or artificial crab. We encountered packets of margarine on a Celebrity cruise. Don’t get us started on artificial whipped cream. The horror! If our raised eyebrows at such minor travesties exposes us as food snobs, we'll cheerfully plead guilty. 

The thrill of dressing up for dinner (Brian even packed his old tuxedo on a few early cruises) and making charming conversation with the same dinner companions every night at set times eventually paled. Some were great and others were characters. No doubt some felt the same about us! Then we discovered Oceania.

Two cruise industry veterans acquired a couple of 684-passenger ships from the defunct Renaissance Cruises, a well-reputed line that did not survive September 11. What a gutsy time to start up a new cruise line! They developed a distinctive brand with free-style dining, and their trademarked claim of "The Finest Cuisine at Sea." With rare exception, they consistently deliver on that. 

The small ships offer two specialty restaurants, one Italian and the other a steakhouse, and the larger ships offer four. Passengers are entitled to dine once at each specialty restaurant, and "extra" reservations are often available, although not guaranteed. All steaks on Oceania are USDA Prime Grade and the food in general is up to the same high standard.

Here’s one of our visits to Red Ginger, the pan-Asian restaurant on Marina. The Versace charger plates lend an elegant touch.

We even left room for dessert.

We embarked on our first Oceania cruise in November 2007, a 12-day transatlantic cruise on the 684-passenger Regatta from Barcelona to Miami. Despite (or maybe because of) the adventure of sailing through a North Atlantic hurricane for 30 hours, we were hooked. 

There’s no question that meals like this one in Toscana, the Italian specialty restaurant, are a major attraction.

How about some thinly sliced Beef Carpaccio as a starter? Calamari?

The Trio Toscana is a particular favorite when you’re hard-pressed to choose just one pasta or risotto.

Our first few cruises were bargains, and as they added additional ships to their modest fleet, we sailed on most of them. Oceania enjoys an almost cult following. 

The current status levels of the Oceania Club loyalty program including Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and President's Circle, based on the length and number of cruises taken. 

We're sitting in the middle of the Platinum tier, which gives us shipboard credit, currently $750 per cruise, dinner with one of the ship's officers (we really enjoyed our dinner with the Food and Beverage Manager and the HR Manager) and a few other perks. 

It's been intriguing to watch the company having to add new tiers to recognize people buying up to one hundred cruises. It's also been more and more challenging to find cruises we consider affordable.

Here are some scenes from a dinner in Polo, the steakhouse.

Have we mentioned the various breadbaskets are truly outstanding? The Baguettes and Grissini are especially amazing.

This presentation of Pork Belly is impressive and very tasty.

Oddly enough, even though we've spent the equivalent of one year at sea since our 2001 retirement, we don't consider ourselves to be serious cruisers. That's because we've met some truly serious cruisers. As we more and more enjoy the comforts of home, there may well be more cruising in our future. The photos below offer some more reasons why.

We enjoy dining in Jacques, the French specialty restaurant named in honor of Jacques Pépin, the venerable celebrity chef and Oceania’s executive culinary director.

A Vichyssoise based on peas is one of Brian’s favorites, not to mention Scallops.

Escargot and one variation of Foie Gras, complemented by pineapple.

Medium rare Prime Rib and Dover Sole deboned and served tableside.

A little Crêpes Suzette for dessert.

And an old fashioned Apple tart.

As to the non-food aspects, the weather was generally excellent, the seas were calm, and we encountered some spectacular scenery along the way.

Despite all of us battling colds and coughs for upwards of half the cruise, we greatly enjoyed ourselves.

What’s not to like?