Regatta Review
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Please don't waste your money on this cruise line!! My husband and I have always had a wonderful time on every one of our many luxury cruises with other cruise lines. We have never had a single complaint. But this was our first--and last--cruise with Oceania.
Oceania billed us, in error, an EXTRA $460.00 for gratuities, in addition to the usual and customary gratuity. We had to make frequent written and phone requests for more than a month before the funds were finally reimbursed, meanwhile we paid interest on their error. Although they apologized for their error, I don't think we would have received our refund for this fraudulent charge if we had not directly contacted their Director of Customer Loyalty, who "walked down the hall to Guest Relations" and looked into it personally.
We also requested, while still on board, a refund for our excursion on Great Stirrup Cay--an unguided snorkel excursion of the Underwater Sculpture Garden. My husband and I are experienced swimmers and snorkelers, yet we never found the underwater sculpture garden after swimming for over an hour and asking multiple cruise line staff, as well as strangers, where we might locate it. There was no printed map, sign, or way to locate it other than by chance. We still have not been refunded, although their Director of Customer Loyalty told us t they were working on an amicable solution if we would give them a few more days--that was 2 weeks ago and still no word rom them.
Cabin Review
Concierge Level Veranda Stateroom
Port Reviews
St. Kitts (Port Zante)
We chose this particular cruise because of our desire to see St. Kitts and Nevis. We have been to most of the other islands in the area on other cruises and loved it! We were looking forward to our Catamaran cruise, but Oceania cancelled going to St. Kitts and Nevis. Although there was a medical emergency requiring a stop in the Turks & Caicos, the passengers all felt that it should have been handled differently---(e.g. give us an alternate destination, rather than a 5th day at sea, or have an on-board party, performance, or event to make up for it. Ora partial refund or free drink which, although not legally required, seems like the right thing to do.
Samana and Cayo Levantado
We went ashore on the transport boat to find only a few tents with very aggressive vendors selling cheap trinkets. There was a beach bar and you could pay for a lounge chair. Most passengers mistakenly thought we would be on the main island of the Domincan Republic and that we could explore an actual town. The only nice, clean area on the little island of Samana was off-limits to us--for guests only.
Nassau
We were supposed to have arrived in Nassau early in the morning and had booked a snorkel excursion for the morning. We had entire afternoon planned with friends on Nassau later. The ship did not reach Nassau until afternoon--one of several disappointing itinerary changes on this cruise---so we cancelled the excursion, rather than miss our afternoon plans. The excursion would have been cut short anyway, in order to make our 4:00 p.m. departure from Nassau.