We got pretty lucky in getting this cruise as we had original booked a shorter Eastern Caribbean Cruise (10 days) and we were offered this cruise due to overbooking on the other. Not only did we get 4 extra days but the cruise occurred during the holiday season which made taking off work much less impactful. Of course, I still had lots of work to catch up to when I got back, but not as much as if I had taken a shorter cruise in January.

This is our third time on Oceania. The previous two cruises were on the Marina. On our second cruise we noted an improvement in the food over the first and in this third cruise we noticed additional improvements, most particularly a little more adventurousness in Oceania's approach to spicing and more consistency in having high quality food in all venues: specialty restaurants, main dining room and the Terrace (buffet.)

We loved the ports. The first port (Charlestown) was cancelled due to this ocean conditions for the tenders. The others eight ports were all great. For the first time we took advantage of Oceania's excursions, booking two prior to departure and one on the ship. We found these to be at a reasonable price and ranging from okay ("Best of Bridgetown, Barbados") to being lots of fun with appropriate guidance for getting the most of the recreational opportunity (glass bottom kayaking and snorkeling in BVI.) The BVI snorkeling really made the glass bottom kayaking somewhat irrelevant as so much to see in the BVI excursion under the water, but we enjoyed the exercise of the kayaking. Read more