My wife and I recently (from Dec 10 until Jan 16) sailed on our longest cruise ever with Oceania (or anyone for that matter) with our teenage children. The cruise was a 37 day back to back cruise on Marina sailing from Rio de Janeiro to Valparaiso and on to Papeete via Easter Island. The short story is that it was a wonderful cruise on a gorgeous ship with a spectacular itinerary, and we met many wonderful people.

Embarkation:

You will have seen those period movies in which people embark on steamers in crowded chaotic docks, where on arrival you are confronted with a seething chaos from which no order seems likely to emerge. Well that's what happened. There was little that Oceania could do about it but four cruise ships were embarking in Rio and the port facility is barely up to one. In fact all the passenger port facilities we visited in South America are in need of serious review. Miraculously we made it into the calm cool sophisticated Marina in reasonable time and our luggage even appeared. Read more