My wife and I booked this cruise in February 2022 after receiving a brochure from my university's alumni association. This was our first cruise with Oceania. It definitely won't be our last, but we will likely wait a few years. The Nautica is a beautiful ship, absolutely gleaming with high-end fixtures and appointments like rolled towels and marble in the bathrooms and immaculate hallways. The bed was heavenly, hands down the most comfortable I've ever slept in. The itinerary was a 10-day cruise to ports in Japan, with one stop in Busan, South Korea. We loved the ports and the Japanese people were incredibly kind and welcoming.

Onboard the ship, we enjoyed breakfast in the Grand Dining room a few times, otherwise we ate in the Terrace Cafe. Afternoon tea in the Horizons Lounge was a wonderful treat, complete with string quartet music in the background. They seemed a bit stingy on the clotted cream so we had to ask for more, but the tea, sandwiches and desserts were scrumptious. I had my requisite 2 cappuccinos every morning at Baristas, which was almost always very busy. Lunch was normally taken on land, but we ate dinner every night but one on the ship. Toscana was quite delicious, but the presentation of various olive oils and balsamic vinegars was unnecessary. The Polo Grill was disappointing. My filet mignon was served very overcooked: I'd requested rare and it arrived medium. I sent it back and the second time was much better, but in the meantime I sat and ate my lobster mac and cheese. The steak was decent, but not as tender as I expected. The dinners in the GDR were sometimes excellent (beef carpaccio and lobster bisque were wonderful), but some items like shrimp cocktail were boring. I'm not a seafood eater for the most part, and clearly Oceania boasts lots of fancy seafood dishes which neither I nor my wife eat. We also don't like truffles or mushrooms and those are also featured prominently. My favorite entree was the sirloin steak I had on the last night.

Staff was mostly very friendly and knew our names right away. The Romanian maitre d' got us into Toscana a 2nd time even though they'd been full earlier in the day. A lovely Filipina woman named Aye was in a bubbly mood all of the time. We enjoyed speaking Spanish with Elder, a Honduran waiter, and I became fast friends with Mustafa and Blessing at Baristas. Some other staff seemed a bit down and quiet. I didn't like having to wait for silverware or condiments at the Terrace Cafe. I also didn't like the fact that cocktails were not included and the buy one, get one has to be for the same drink and only for 2 hours a day. There was no spa onboard (in terms of a large pool and hot tub such as on other lines). The gym was nice but rather small. We didnt get any spa treatments due to the very high cost. Instead we went to a Japanese onsen and had massages in Nagasaki for $80 for two. We usually went to bed early since we spent all day in port so we didn't avail ourselves of any shows. We did catch the Abba tribute on the last night, which was great. The band that played during happy hour was outstanding. We loved the launderette and used it several times, that was an excellent part of our trip. Less excellent was that our room service order form wasn't replaced after we used it, the breakfast we ordered one morning was delivered by a rather sullen-looking gentleman and there was no cream for my coffee. Another room service meal was missing some items. Our inside cabin was located across the hall from a crew pantry and we heard banging and bumping at inopportune times. A dirty martini I ordered came back warm and utterly lacking any olive juice flavor. I brought up these concerns on a postcard survey mid-voyage and received a phone call, then met with, the bar manager. They'd also slightly overcharged me at the bar. I was impressed that the manager took time to meet with me. Another time, the sommelier at our table informed by 5 non-drinking friends that he only took alcohol orders, so they had to flag down someone else for their iced tea. That really shouldn't have happened. Read more