Our 9th Oceania Cruise (five on REGATTA, one on MARINA and three on RIVIERA) did nothing to dispel our opinion this is the best cruise product out there. Indeed, I rate it as perhaps our best in terms of the overall cuisine and service. I appreciate there is a lot of worry about standards slipping with Oceania now owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines (the antithesis of everything we like in cruising) but it sure hasn't happened yet. You'd have to be pretty picky, miserable or both to find serious fault with this ship or her crew.

RIVIERA remains the most immaculate, perfectly maintained ship on the planet. It is impossible for one to be any cleaner and given the decor seems designed for difficult maintenance, it's even more impressive. This doesn't happen by accident so my top rating for the crew goes to the humble but ever so hardworking cleaners.

Overall, the service remains astonishing yet reassuringly superb. We noticed fewer familiar faces this cruise than in the past but made new friends and found new favourites among the new ones or at least new to us. Everyone seems genuinely friendly, courteous and helpful, challenging the unfortunate preference among some for faceless service. These wonderful people, from all over the world, just seem to enjoy excelling at their jobs and exceeding our expectations in all they do. Read more