My wife and I just returned from a very relaxing 10-day Caribbean cruise on the Oceania Riviera. While most of our reactions were thoroughly positive, there were a few negatives too. I'll start with the positives.

The ship: Just a year old, the small-to-moderate size ship is beautiful throughout, with generally excellent facilities, including great staterooms with verandas, plenty of dining options (more below), lounges, bars, and public restrooms. Important to us, the ship has a state-of-the-art fitness center. We also loved the golf hitting cage and quite remarkable 18-hole putting course. The surface on the latter was the closest to a real golf green I've encountered, with the ball rolling fast and true. The pool is small (not suitable for swimming, as with most cruise ships). There is a well-staffed casino. We delighted in the fabulous art throughout the ship. Neither of us is an art connoisseur but we stopped often to marvel at the creativity and color in so many of the works. This was a major unexpected treat.

Staterooms: We can only comment knowledgeably about the penthouse suites since we decided to splurge on one. The PH suites are essentially what would be called a junior suite in a hotel. Ours was a very attractive spacious 420 square feet, with a very comfortable bed (with elegant sheets), a nice sitting area, an incredibly large walk-in closet (an amazing asset, one not found in all of the PH suites), and a good-sized and well-designed bathroom with attractive vanity with plenty of storage space for toiletries and separate tub and shower (and stocked with Bulgari shampoo, etc.). The design of the shower was especially impressive. Although it was somewhat small, I never felt cramped when I showered. The rainforest showerhead was great, although I should note that if you are over 6'2", you will have to duck a bit. I'm 6'1" and I had no more than 1" clearance between my head and the showerhead. We particularly enjoyed our huge veranda, about 12' x 12' (I'm guessing), with 2 comfortable chairs, 2 chaise lounge chairs, and a small table...and plenty of space to roam. Our travel agent singled it out when we were booking, and it proved to be a blessing given the unavailability of lounge chairs throughout the open deck areas (more below). Our stateroom (7133) was one of only 4 PH suites on deck 7, the lowest of the passenger decks. 7135 was somewhat smaller than our room (with a smaller but still decent closet), but it had a veranda that wrapped around the ship, affording great access to sun and views. Note that all of the verandas on deck 7 are considerably larger than average. The verandas for other staterooms on higher decks are pretty typical of modern cruise ships -- large enough to accommodate a couple of chairs and a small cocktail table and no more. Read more