We chose the Windstar Windsurf itinerary to celebrate my husband’s 55th Birthday and we are so glad we did!! It was a very nice change to sail on such a small ship as we enjoyed the beautiful views of the gorgeous islands and beautiful yachts surrounding us. The cruise staff were truly amazing people that went out of their way to make our cruise a memorable experience. From the food to the service and their constant attention to our safety makes me only hope that we can enjoy a future cruise with Windstar!! We started our cruise a week before the pandemic required strict travel bans and for good reason but we ended our journey with an overwhelming sense that this company truly cared for the safety of their passengers and crew far more than the loss of future fares. We are very lucky to have enjoyed this cruise experience and we will forever be grateful for our week of fun and sun on such a beautiful cruise. Read Less

During a recent cruise on the Silver explorer of the Chilean fjords, a fellow guest was transferred to the local medical centre in the beautiful village of Tortel. As the local authorities were concerned that the guest was possibly infected with COVID19, all guests who were ashore were directed to return to the ship immediately. The ship was shortly thereafter granted permission to continue the cruise, with a restriction of no landings until COVID19 test results were known. Two days later just prior to a scheduled shore excursion, the Captain advised that the result had come back positive for COVID19, and all guests were directed to return to their cabins. For the following 4 days information in respect to our situation was scant, but we were to realise later the need for discrete communications. Following the confinement to cabins, the chef together with his staff swung into action, and maintained the exceptional service for which Silversea is known. Prior to each meal we received a menu slipped under our door, which was astonishing. A full cooked breakfast was available with most of the accompaniments. Lunch was a three course meal with a two choices for each course. And dinner comprised four courses, with 3 choices for the main course. The quality and presentation of the meals which were delivered to our door was way beyond expectations. Furthermore, if you required any additional items for the complimentary mini bar, they were immediately attended to! On the morning of day four, the Captain advised that Silversea in conjunction with local authorities had developed a plan to repatriate all guests who were fit to travel. However due to sensitive local issues, we were requested not to communicate any information in respect to the operation. Later that evening guests were transferred by zodiacs to buses on a vehicular ferry that had rendezvoused at sea with the Silver Explorer. Once all passengers had been safely transferred to the ferry it set sail for Puerto Montt. On arriving at Puerto Montt the scale of operation became apparent. After the buses were placed in formation, the convey proceeded under very heavy police escort and back roads, to the local airport. Upon arriving at the airport the buses proceeded onto the airport tarmac, where one Boeing 787 Dreamliner was waiting to convey 45 American guests to Miami. Those guests immediately boarded their aircraft and were on their way home. The two aircraft for the remaining guests arrived two hours later. One Airbus A320 Neo to convey 40 English, and Europeans to London. And our dedicated aircraft, another B787 Dreamliner, exclusively for 16 Australians direct to Sydney. Like many Australians who have been overseas during the COVID19 crisis, we expected that we would be stranded and not be able to return home for a long time. The steps taken by Silversea to repatriate their guests were extraordinary, and I believe I can say on behalf of all the guests, we will be forever grateful for the repatriation operation undertaken by Silversea. The cost of the operation to Silversea would easily have exceeded $1,000,000. There was never any mention of guests contributing to the repatriation costs. Since returning home we have been contacted twice by Silversea following up on our welfare. In the first instance it was personally by the Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand. Silversea clearly demonstrated their priority for the welfare of their guests, ahead of commercial considerations. Read Less

Day 7 of our Ponant “Luxury” cruise. Today they told us that, because of maintenance, there will be no water on board from 2pm until 5pm. Typical of this remodel cruise. But first things first….DO NOT, EVER TAKE A PONANT RELOCATION (ie remodel) CRUISE. There are only 88 passengers on this cruise from Ushuaia Argentina to Easter Island instead of the 249 capacity so I guess they thought they could treat us as a cattle cruise, removing all lecturers, most entertainers and probably the first string cooks. The staff that’s left is very nice and doing the best that they can. The hallways are filled with furniture and carpets going in and being removed and stored in the hall way. The first 2 days the main lounge and dining room were closed which, I thought was bad. But little did I know. The 3rd day out they closed the Observatory lounge and the smaller buffet dining room, both on the 6th floor, with good view and an outdoor area with the, unheated, swimming pool (and no hot tub on this boat). They did open the main lounge, 3rd deck and main dining room, 2nd deck and closed everything else. Now the only area with a view or some sun or fresh air is your balcony. And did I mention that the only place to warm up was your stateroom. They seem to keep the boat at an extremely low temperature. Saving money I guess. After being awoken from an afternoon nap by constant pounding on the balcony next door to mine I finally complained to the hotel manager who say I was told there would be remodeling before we bought our tickets. We weren’t and I quizzed a bunch of the other passengers and nobody was warned. Consider this your warning, DO NOT TAKE A PONANT OCEAN CRUISE. Full disclosure: after my complaint to the Hotel Manager my wife and I each received 100 euros as compensation :=) Now for some general complaining, read if you want. A little more on the entertainment. Did I mention that there are 2 pianist on board and they play for about 1 hour each a day. One of the pianist is classically trained and he did one evening show even though the theater is unused most evenings. The Paris Dance Troop is nice enough (teaching Charleston and yoga classes) until they put on their show which was embarrassing enough that I could only sit through the first number, a characturture of ancient Egyptians, complete with side to side head movements. The show was so “good” they repeated it. About the TV. I guess you can watch movies all day, sitting on your bed. No room for a couch or even 2 chairs in the stateroom. There are 64 available movies, maybe 2 of which were made after the year 2000. And the pause and fast forward button doesn’t work with their system. Watching the Goldfinch last night, the movie froze about 45 minutes in and the only option was to start over. And no magazines available except Ponant magazines. And no books for sale or a lending library. And 1 last thing……We’re on a French boat and wine is included. I admit I did not take the premium drink package but it is a French boat so I expected good wines. Some of the wines were good but one night, it’s hard for me to believe but the actually tried to serve a bottle of Emilia Malbec from Argentina. It cost about $2.50US in the Buenos Aires supermarkets, a wine store wouldn’t carry it. And it’s bad. There are good, cheap wines in Argentina but Emilia is about the bottom of the barrel. Now I’ll stop whining. Thanks for listening. Addendum: Just when you think things can’t get any worse, we are in our room packing. It’s the last day and instead of arriving at Easter Island between 9:00AM and 10:00AM we are arriving between 5:00PM and 6:00PM. No problem with a late arrival after an 8 day cruise. Hard to be exact on a boat. So we are in our room packing and, now that the weather has changed to warm and sunny for the first time, looking forward to spending a little time in the sun on our balcony and a workman walk across our balcony from next door. Glad we weren’t undressed or doing things we would like to do in private. Turns out that all the connecting doors on the balcony are open and they are washing and, I suppose getting ready to paint, or something. So our decks are off limits as is our privacy. And the one sun deck off the Observatory Lounge is still closed as they refinished the deck yesterday. I almost forgot, last night when we received out bill we are told what the gratuity rate should be. When I made my reservation I saw and was told tips and drinks were included. I called the desk and they said they didn’t see that on my record but that if we made our reservation through New York they tell people tips are included. I should contact them. Except it’s Sat night and we are getting off on Sunday so, do I count on NY living up to what They told me or no tip the only bright spot of this cruise. Always something with this company. It almost seems that they are going out of their way to make life miserable for us on the remodel cruise. I only hope the landing goes well and I don’t have to report on a capsized Zodiac or similar occurrence. Read Less

Background: We were on Le Soleal for a 20 day cruise that turned out to be 24 days due to a precautionary 14 day CV19 quarantine. Originally scheduled to go from Argentina to Tahiti with stops throughout the South Pacific, we were able to make only one stop due to the CV issue. Fortunately no one on the ship had showed signs of the virus at the time we left on March 24. Many things can be said about the experience, all positive with respect to how Ponant handled the the situation. The standout was Captain David Marionneau-Chatel. Obviously, leadership is everything under these circumstances, and the Captain turned-in a 5 star performance. Regular meetings were held with both passengers and crew members. His tone was one of honesty and compassion; he never attempted to deflect responsibility for any passenger-perceived “errors” to anyone other than himself. He kept his crew motivated; their courtesy and efficiency remained excellent throughout rapidly changing circumstances. . Well done Ponant! We shall return. Read Less

We have just finished our "Capetown to Singapore" part of the Sojourn World Cruise. BACKGROUND My wife and I used to be died-in-the-wool Seabourn fans and have Diamond (250+ days) status. We loved the experience. That all fell apart on a cruise in 2016 when they were introducing Thomas Keller (but before they had the separate TK Grill). The quality and variety of food dropped so bad that we started doing a lot of Silversea and Regent. We did not regret changing cruise line. But rather than be dogmatic, we decided destinations were the most important criterion, and we booked the above cruise on Seabourn as the great majority of the destinations were new to us. And who knows - maybe the food quality was again as good as the brochure says. It is fair to say that we got onboard with an attitude "This is Seabourn's last chance". Well? They blew it, and our next cruises are now booked on Silversea and Regent (presumably delayed now). We are departing with a few $1,000 Future Cruise Credit (FCC) that we will not be using. My review and comments follow. The elephant in the room was the Corona virus effect with cancelled ports and final destination changes. It is important to note that we had formed the "They Blew It" opinion BEFORE the massive port disruptions, and our decision was based on food quality; MDR & TK. Seabourn's handling of the port disruptions only reinforced our "Never Again" decision. FOOD The MDR certainly serves great quality 3-star restaurant food and wine. But we booked and expected 6-star, as it used to be. The dishes were unimaginative. The prawns and scallops were tasteless (too watery). The beef was not as tender or tasty as it should been. The Thomas Keller Grill was disappointing. Service was average. Food was better than the MDR - but presentation was disappointing. Have a look at the (delicious) cakes in the photo: This presentation is worthy of a cafeteria; not a 6-star restaurant. Maybe that is how Thomas Keller was served cake in his childhood, but I don't care. WINE The wine was average at best, unless you sprang for 'Revenue' wines. Long gone are the days when they happily served Sancerre, Chateau Neuf du Pape, ... PORT DISRUPTIONS. Through no fault of Seabourn, what we got was a lot different from what we paid for. Cancelled Ports: Mombasa, Maldives, Colombo, Hambantota, Chennai, Sabang, Phuket, Langkawi, Penang, KL, Singapore Added Ports: Fremantle (Perth) The cruise was basically cancelled, and we were re-routed to Fremantle (Perth)/Australia and disembarked 4 days before the scheduled end of the original cruise. [Note: Glad they did get us off early as around this time, borders started to shut rapidly.] COMPENSATION OFFERED 1) USD500 pp (Refundable, onboard credit) for Mombasa which was cancelled for safety/security reasons. [I am OK with this as it is fair.] 2) If we stayed on until Perth: 25% of our 'fare paid' for the port disruptions. This as a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) that must be booked within 12 months. We chose this option. 3) If we disembarked in Seychelles: 100% FCC of the unsailed days, but must be sailed within 12 months. Later - when the cruise was cut short by 4 days, we were offered an extra 4 days compensation, on a pro-rata basis of the cruise fare paid, as > 100% as refund , or > 125% as FCC BOUQUETS There were many things we did like on this cruise. THE GUESTS: Many interesting, charming, interesting people with whom to have dinner. THE LECTURERS: Seabourn often gets great lecturers. [I have problem calling a 1-way interaction a 'Conversation']. This cruise was no exception. The stand out was Richard Stone ('Royal Portrait Painter') who had both fascinating content to pass on, but a wonderful method of delivery. THE COLONNADE FOOD: Excellent variety each day. All well done and tasty. Themed meals such as: French, American, Indonesian, Italian, ... WAIT-STAFF: Most were great. Some (including MDR) are clearly in the wrong job and way beyond their level of competence. This was a surprise as in the past Seabourn has stood out with its consistently good service. BRICKBATS THE PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES: Under the pretense of being environmentally responsible, SB has banished single-use water bottles. OK, I get it. But the replacements are an epic fail for a number of reasons. 1) For reasons I don't understand, 90% of them have had the 'O-ring' seal in the cap removed. No problem if you keep them vertical. But no fun when you return from an excursion to find the bottom of your bag wet. [After a few days we worked out the problem and commandeered some with O-rings.] 2) They are stored in the cabinet above the room fridge. So water always 'warm'. [Yes - I know you can store them elsewhere. We did.] 3) The water used to fill them is generated onboard. Not necessarily a problem ... but for a few days the taste was terrible! It later improved, Wonder what we were drinking? BTW - same water served at dining venues. We started asking for Evian for a few days, simply as the onboard water tasted bad. THE MDR: Both food and service notably below par. See comments above. This straw broke the camel's back for me. SB needs to wake up and realize their competition beats them on food and wine. COFFEE IN THE SQUARE: Why is the line so long at times? Why don't they add a self-serve, automatic machine as an OPTION for those not wanting to wait? THOMAS KELLER GRILL: Hits and Misses. They should all be hits. Glad this is free, as some plates I would not pay for. Presentation also poor overall. The decor is more laminex train carriage than high end restaurant. PORT DISRUPTION HANDLING: I have no complaint at all with the fact that Seabourn had to re-route us as we were sailing during the great cruise industry shutdown of 2020. The 2nd leg of the cruise transformed to one with 16 days at sea with zero ports of call (except the embarkation and disembarkation ports). Again - no complaint there. We booked a 2-leg part of the World Cruise: Capetown-Seychelles, and Seychelles-Singapore. I have no complaints about the 1st leg ports/routing. But - and this is a big but - during the 2nd leg we were not given full information and if we had received that information, we would have flown home from the Seychelles, avoiding 16 days at sea. Let me explain: > 22-Feb: We are advised of some itinerary changes with final destination changed from Singapore to Fremantle. Male/Maldives not cancelled on this new itinerary. If we disembarked in Seychelles, offered 100% Future Cruise Credit (FCC) of the un-sailed days on any sailing before 22-Feb-2021. As we wanted to see The Maldives and Sri Lanka, we made the decision to stay onboard. > 26-Feb: Male/Maldives announced publicly that they had closed the port to cruise ships. > 27-Feb: Male/Maldives closure known to Seabourn/Seattle. Seabourn started negotiations with The Maldives to get exemption to dock in the port. This was ultimately unsuccessful. Passengers not told of this (yet). > 1-March: While in the Seychelles, we went on a full day tour. Came back to the ship about 2 hrs before departure, and found a letter in the room announcing the Maldives port cancellation. At this point, simply impossible to pack, disembark, book hotel & air, etc. If Seabourn had told us on, or about, 27-Feb that "the current situation is that we can not dock in The Maldves, but we are trying to change that", then we would have absolutely disembarked and taken the 100% FCC. In a crisis, communication is critical. We were kept in the dark way too much. When the (overworked) Seabourn Square staff fielded the many questions from the guests, they did an outstanding job, but their hands were tied and all they could say is we will pass your concerns onto Seattle. They also said that you will not get a reply until AFTER YOU DISEMBARK. Excuse me!? As I write this (1 week after disembarking) have yet to receive even an acknowledgement that they have received the complaint email we send while onboard, let alone an answer. CREDIT CALCULATIONS We booked Capetown->Singapore (2 segments, back-to-back) and here is the exact text we were given in a letter on 22-February giving us the option of getting off in The Seychelles and claiming a credit: "In recognition of these significant changes to your voyage, you will receive a Future Cruise Credit of 25% of the cruise fare paid for the 12-day portion of your cruise that has been revised". Importantly, Seabourn did not do the 25% calculation for us and different guests had different understandings of what this meant. Different interpretations included: > A 3-day credit (25% of 12-days)? > 25% of the full Capetown-Singapore fare paid? > 25% of the Seychelles-Singapore fare? When I forced them to give me a dollar figure, it turns out the correct interpretation was (2) above, even though 12 days represents 31% of the 39 cruise-nights. Why is this important? Because guests were making Get-Off/Stay-On decisions based on this letter. Again - poor (and confusing) communication. BTW - as I write this, if my wife or I login to our seabourn.com acct, there is no FCC shown at all. Again, poor communication. SUMMARY Sorry Seabourn. You blew it. We will wave at you from our future suites on Silversea/Regent as you go past. Read Less

I thought it was going to be a luxury cruise, but it was the worst cruise experience I've had in about 30 cruises. We got off the ship before the schedule disembarkation date because it was so bad.The ship was feces, urine and mold infested. Gastrointestinal infections were widespread. The ship was classified code red, meaning it was so unclean and unhealthy the government had to step in and instruct the crew on cleanliness protocols. My traveling companion got food poisoning. There were no table cloths, salt, pepper, or other civilized dining standards for the first two weeks of the cruise. They literally spilled a large amount of urine and feces sewage on the carpet in the hallway outside my cabin, so I had to hold my breath going to and from my cabin, the smell was so intolerable. It was not a 5 star ship. It was an old ship. There was nothing special about it. The cabins were a hazard with many sharp surfaces to bump into and not enough space to get around them. There was very little to do onboard. Most importantly, the sewage systems failed, leaked, and contaminated the ship. The staff was rude, obnoxious, and offensive. The Executive Concierge, an objectional small man who should not be in customer service, set the tone of offensiveness in the cruise terminal. Because my travelling companion is disabled, we arrived early for embarkation and requested wheelchair assistance. The ship was so filthy it was causing illness, and had to comply with government mandated cleaning standards higher than their usual standards. Extra time was needed for cleaning before anybody could board the ship. Oceana neglected to notify the passengers, so we were delayed for hours. When the process of boarding the cruise ship started, the cruise terminal employees wheeled my companion to begin boarding because we were waiting the longest and were disabled. The Executive Concierge stood in our path, without inquiring about the health or welfare of my disabled companion, and in an unbelievably nasty tone of voice, and with a sneer on his face, ordered us to the back of the line. We had to wait until everybody else got on board the ship first, because boarding was in order of who paid the most for their cabins! Many staff members were offensive on the ship. We were refused ice cream from the ice cream station, because it was about to close, even though it had not yet closed and it was scheduled to be open. I was ordered to hand over a Danish to a crew member, and given no choice to take it outside to eat on the deck. I was ordered not to take my room service tray out of my room. Our time was disrespected as we waited for tenders. In general, I felt like I was treated more like cattle than a passenger on a so called luxury cruise. The entertainment was bad. On a 32 day cruise, with two legs to the cruise, there were only three shows by the cruise singers and dancers. Rather than having new show content, the shows from the first leg of the cruise were repeated on the second leg. The cruise management lied to us, misled us, and mistreated us. It started with sending us our itinerary too late. Moreover, they never notified us of the illness and health hazard in advance, or of the delays in boarding the ship. They withheld information from us in daily briefings, stating it was their intention to surprise us. We had nothing but negative surprises. Further, when ports of call were cancelled they took us into rough waters unnecessarily without warning us. They cancelled ports of call and kept us in the dark about whether upcoming ports of call would be cancelled, so we could not make decisions about whether to stay with the cruise or disembark early. They gave us an unnecessarily hard time disembarking early. On balance, it was a horrible cruise experience such that my travelling companion would never consider cruising again. I would certainly never cruise with Oceana. Read Less

We choose this itinerary because it sailed to Asia where we've never been. The timing (end of January, 2020 to February 2020) was perfect. We'd never been on Cunard even though we've cruised many times. We chose this line as we'd heard wonderful things about it. We were pleased with the ship, her amenities, the service and entertainment. We had an auspicious start in Dubai with easy embarkation. Our room was clean and well appointed. We loved Dubai and our next port Oman on our second day. The excursion was well planned, informative and interesting. It was shortly after this that my husband started to have a cough and chest congestion. He saw the ship's doctor and received Amoxycillin, even though he explained that this wasn't going to do him any good. As he knew, the chest infection deepened, and he returned to the doctor's several days later. This time he was given Prednisone. Despite the antibiotics, he became quite ill, but since there was no Coronavirus testing onboard, we will never know whether he had it. When he went to the doctor's office, there were a lot of passengers coughing and sick, waiting for their appointment. There was a lady at the indoor pool who was obviously sick. No one stopped her or said anything even though she was in a public space and close to other people. We found out from a British couple that they had read on the Cruise Critic website, while waiting for their flight to Dubai at Heathrow to embark on the QM2, that Cunard had cancelled Hong Kong. No one had infomed any of the passengers of this turn of events until after we'd all boarded and the ship was well under way on this eighteen-day itinerary. As the days passed, the cancellation of Hong Kong was announced. Singapore was the new end destination. That port too was cancelled, along with all other Asian destinations. Needless to say, this was probably our only time in our lives that we would be able to visit Asia, therefore, a huge disappointment. After sailing twelve straight days without porting, we ended up in Freemantle/Perth, Australia. Since we had booked our own flights, we were able to use the ship's satellite phone without cost to change our flights each time. In hindsight, I wonder how many people actually were sick with the Coronavirus but there cannot be any statistics on that topic because there was no testing. My suspicion is that many were ill. The world cruise, we later found out, abruptly eneded in Freemantl/Perth after the ship had circumvented Australia. We loved the ship, the ballroom dancing, the lounges, the onboard planetarium and the evening shows. The Zumba classes were outstanding-the instructor, Debora, excellent. Yes, I would take another Cunard cruise. We had booked the Norwegian Fjords for July 3, 2020 but have since cancelled due to the uncertainty of the world pandemic this year. Read Less

I love the QM2 - it really is unique amongst all the ships I've sailed on. What I particularly like is the fact that it never feels crowded, and the passengers tend to be a mix of nationalities. After my experiences with 4009 (see below) I was moved to 6026 This cabin has a porthole and is towards the very front of the ship. I thought it was perfect. There can be some noise issues with the port exterior door on deck 7 slamming as it is directly above the cabin but it just needs them to fix the mechanism so it gently closes. Food was excellent, staff were brilliant throughout (shoutout to the waiters in the Commodore lounge who were all consistently excellent), entertainment variable, the choirmaster (Andrew Cavendish-Grey) hysterical and even the tours were reasonably priced. This cruise was affected by the very beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, so that our itinerary kept changing - first Hong Kong was cancelled, then all Asian ports but we were kept up to date and even though we ended up with a block of 12 sea days I never felt bored or that the high standards of the ship were slipping. Chris Foy one of the onboard Future Voyage Sales staff was outstanding and I'm booked on the QM2 Cape Town to Sydney cruise next year! Read Less

We have been on many Windstar Cruises and I have written many reviews. This trip we were on the refitted Wind Surf. The Surf is an old lady and she has aged well. We always admire her being maintained so well. The new lounge beautiful, new furniture in the Yacht Club lovely, new hall rugs in keeping with sailing and pretty, lovely waiting area for the Amphora, new comfortable furniture at Compass Rose. We did not see the new rooms but I assume they were great. What we love about Windstar Cruises: easy embarkation, spacious rooms with plenty of storage space, great hot water pressure, plenty of shaded seating outside, great selection of healthy, varied food choices prepared well, no waiting ever, generous drinks, exemplary cleanliness, a fabulous, friendly, efficient crew, attention to safety. We also love small ports: Bequia, a favorite, Mayreau, fabulous beach, the Soufrière was a new port for us loved it being so close to the Pitons, Bonaire and Curaçao two of our favorite ports. Mix that in with a beautiful day at sea. It was a great cruise, since life is not perfect were there some glitches yes, but who cares and who wants to blame, not us because being on the Caribbean Sea on a beautiful small ship is what sailing with WS is all about for us. Read Less

Excellent service and food, and world class shows. Entertained by Pam Ayres and educated by Lord Dannatt, or should that be the other way round? Special thanks to crew and staff, Roger, Chandra, Jane, Alex, Sid and many others. A great ocean liner - one of us gets sea sick on smaller ships but no problems on QM2. Enjoyed different venues each morning for coffee. Never actually went to the famous afternoon tea! Great laundry service which was included with our fare as we booked on the first day the cruise became available. Highlights; Suez Canal, Jordan, Naval display by HMS Montrose and helicopter, Oman, Children's charity art event, Captain Hashmi's Q&A - priceless, Koalas at Lone Pine, World Voyage Dinner at Melbourne. Had to miss a few ports because of the pandemic. Not all passengers were happy but that's life! Amazing organisation by Cunard when it came to the repatriation. Irritations; Pseudo faded carpet design in some corridors, regular cruisers. Read Less

What a disappointment. Destinations were changed at least three times and itineraries cancelled at the last minute due to the coronavirus. Independent travelers were treated like second class citizens and given NO ASSISTANCE whatsoever from the QM2's staff. Passengers were forced to pay thousands of dollars to change flights countless times. The ship offered NO help to those passengers who did not book flights with Cunard. What a rip off and what a scam Cunard runs. The ship is showing signs of wear and tear and the staterooms reflect this. The inside cabins had worn carpeting and the floor of the shower stall was filthy. The housecleaning staff were rude and disrespectful and did not maintain the rooms well. The King's Court buffet was mediocre at best. The selections did not vary often and vegetarian options were limited. In light of the worldwide spread of the coronavirus, good hygiene by staff and passengers was limited. Many people did not sanitize their hands and staff members did not change their gloves often enough. The on board entertainment was OK at best. A medley of performances were offered on a daily basis, but showtimes were quite late. A typical first show was after 8:45 PM and the second show was at 10:30. This made it impossible for those passengers who retired earlier. No consideration for guests with a different schedule. As stated earlier, service was horrendous. The staff that manned the customer service desk on Deck 2 were extremely arrogant. They offered virtually NO assistance to independent guests. Only those guests who booked their cruise and flight with Cunard were given assistance in a timely fashion. Other guest were left to remedy problems that arose on their own. Ports were eliminated from the itinerary due to the coronavirus outbreak. The ship only called on ports in Europe and the Middle East. Lisbon, Messina, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Dubai and Sri Lanka remained on the list. All others were cancelled and passengers were left on their own to shuffle and rearrange their travel plans three times!! Total disaster without any compensation provided by Cunard. Overall, a total disappointment. Paid a lot of money for such a short trip that was changed and altered. No compensation, no assistance and a total lack of respect for independent passengers. Avoid the QM2 at all costs! Read Less

We chose Victoria again as it was going to Rio de Janeiro including a long trip along the Amazon. We started from Southampton and flew back from Rio. The ship carried on finally returning to Southampton. On board all food in the Britannia, Lido and Verandah restaurants was excellent. Staff service in all areas was also excellent. The ship's condition was very good overall and for those yet to travel on Victoria, the theatre is very good, the Commodore lounge is very comfortable, the Queens room is adequate for dancing and serves traditional tea in the afternoon. We've also cruised on Elizabeth which is virtually identical. Our criticisms are few and technical. Air-con around the ship needs some maintenance and better management. It varies as you move around the ship with some areas always being too cold (wasting energy?). The air-con in our cabin was not set correctly centrally and couldn't be adjusted enough with the cabin Stat. When we complained it was fixed within 2 hours with much higher air-flow and the centre zone setting was set correctly. Why was it set incorrectly when we started the journey? Someone is not doing their job? The theatre now has additional expensive show light fittings to the point of absurdity. This was over-used during most shows together with too much 'theatrical haze' to make the light beams 'show'. This excess detracted from some of the shows themselves. A higher level of lamp replacement is needed in areas with low lighting such as the Commodore lounge. Trying to read the drinks menu when several of the lamps overhead have failed is not easy! Despite these small issues the ship is superb and I don't agree with the last review about the Atlantic crossing. In Jan it was a bit rough but not as bad as in Elizabeth 2 years ago. Also the engine problem near Bermuda was short-lived. We will happily travel on Victoria or Elizabeth again and in the same middle area cabin. Read Less

The service in the Britannia restaurant was as great as always. But the weather across the Atlantic was dreadful. We were late into Bermuda and Port Canaveral. The Churchill cigar lounge was full of cigarette smokers and resembled the Dog and Duck pub rather than an intimate cigar lounge as it is advertised. Day activities were poor and because of the weather the decks were often closed. Entertainment was average in the evening but the ballroom dancing was good as the music has reverted to music you can dance to. Weather forecasts by the Captain every day were very inaccurate. We stayed on in Fort Lauderdale at the Marriott Pompano. We wished we hadn’t bothered as this is a transient hotel that caters for business functions, air crew and people boarding a cruise ie one nighters. Poor choice Cunard. We will never sail the Atlantic again in January with Force 9-10 winds. It was my wife’s 60th birthday and Cunard not organise the correct day for the gifts in the room that I had arranged. The ship also experienced engine trouble, listed at one point and in summary this was our worst Cunard cruise. Read Less

It's a lovely ship and service, cleanliness and food are just alright. You shouldn't complain. You may not like the food, but it is well cooked and in copious quantities. Unfortunately, we were hit several times by toxic paint fumes in our cabin, which were so powerful that we couldn't be there. Our steward Adi was just quite real and service minded. Our butler could learn a lot from him. Unfortunately, we didn't see much of the butler and the appointments we made with him. Ok he was there or not didn't matter. The level of information was initially high, but when it became necessary to change the route due to the corona virus, it decreased considerably. Especially since most of the new route also had to be cancelled. We went ashore in Perth to return home to Denmark before all borders closed and at that time the captain indicated that he did not know where to go. Read Less

Two years ago Windstar announced the plan to stretch the Star ships increasing the guest capacity from 210 guests to 310 guests. We love the small size and hope that the increase in size doesn’t change the friendly atmosphere on the ship. We looked forward to another small ship experience before the scheduled stretch. Ship is still beautiful. The gorgeous woodwork, marble bathrooms, and spacious suites are exquisite. There are some signs of wear. Most annoying was the missing sun umbrellas on decks 7 and 8. On previous cruises, there were lots of umbrellas to provide shade. This cruise had only one. We were told that the umbrellas blew away or broke. They are to be replaced. Certainly hope that there will be more shade areas on the stretched ship. Service was superb. Food was delicious. We chose to sit at same table each night for dinner. Our waiter, Melkih, remembered us from previous cruises on the Breeze. He was excellent. We enjoyed the BBQs, beach parties, music by the duos, excursions, etc. we enjoyed the yacht club. Still wish that the yacht club would serve coffee/tea after dinner. The ports were mostly small islands where the big ships don’t go. There wasn’t any big shows. The crew show was fun. Cruise was relaxing. We had a great time. Read Less

COVID-19 has disrupted all cruises and cruise lines, even those that are COVID-19 free. Cunard’s QM2 is no exception. We missed ports. The voyage was cancelled very early in Fremantle, Australia. We remained COVID-19 free. However, in spite of the (early on) wishes of us passengers, Cunard always put the health of the passengers and the crew first. We all know that cruise liners are not all the same. But know that one can count on, and thus thank, is Cunard. Cunard by forethought, planning, sacrifices, top notch leadership at all levels, and a bit of luck has kept the three Queens COVID-19 free, and most passengers now back to their homes safely. What did they do? They acted early and did not hesitate or mumble. Cunard's Queen Mary 2, my ship, bypassed all ports in Asia in February before the world spread of COVID-19 (and the world pandec). After 18 days at sea, she circumnavigated Australia a country which when we started had zero infections, (when we left Australia had 15 reported cases). Cunard cancelled QM2's World Voyage in Fremantle March 15 and sent us all home by 16th. My ship, the QM2 is now steaming away to Southampton, her home port, and yes, having issues when refueling as some ports now have closed because these ports have many COVID-19 infections. The QM2 had zero infections, and she still has zero infections. Cunard's crew worked tirelessly to disinfect all surfaces, more than once a day. We received letters from the Captain, from the Physicians on board, from the President of Cunard at our door - outlining Cunard's plans for keeping all guests and crew healthy and reminding/requiring from us, healthy procedures. Trough-like sinks beside the buffet areas, extra hand sanitizers everywhere, crew squirting hand sanitizers whenever guests entered eating areas. In all of March there was not a sniffle to heard on the whole ship, no colds on the whole ship!! No passing of any cold "germs"!!. The disinfecting, all our healthy habits and the non-changing set of guests and crew were effective. And no guests booked, nor crew whose home country had infections where allowed to board the ship. The guests who had booked but were not allowed to embark had paid for their cruise, had flown to their embarkation port, had stayed in hotels - and no, they were not permitted to board and were turned back. Cunard must have (and still must be) losing a HUGE amount of money, HUGE. And of course there were disgruntled guests, blaming others for the missed ports, the extra health requirements, and then, the canceled voyage (“We have to sue them” was one such cry from a (very) small group). Yet, through all, Cunard’s bottom line was "the health, safety and wellbeing of guests and the crew are our priority". Cunard took not a step wrong. As we all hear our leaders put their spin on the pandemic, we can only hope that their priorities are similar. Three cheers for Cunard!!! (I am 76 years old, a Canadian, sailed with Cunard about six times (and two with Oceania), and am Diamond level but have no other association with Cunard).mi Read Less

Let me begin by stating that this was our 10th cruise with Oceania. My comments are our opinion and based on personal experience on the December 21, 2019 Sunny Holidays Cruise on Oceania Sirena. Oceania is not what it used to be. We observed and experienced a large discrepancy in the food from previous sailings. Chilean Sea Bass, Caviar, Almond Croissants and high levels of meat were a given previously. They were lacking on this cruise. In fact, several people complained vigorously regarding the steak. Oceania has been highly rated for its food. That did not appear to be the case on this cruise. New year's Celebration were around the pool. Now divided in different areas. The descriptions of the shore excursions did not match the material given to the guides. We had a excellent guide and yet his description as written of the day did not match what we paid for. Yet, when we complained to the destinations desk, we were told that everyone loved the guide. We did too. However, we did not get what we paid for. The main dining room and the Terrace grill appeared to be short of waiters. It wold take two or more hours to dine in the dining room. The Canyon Ranch Spa was previously always a wonderful experience. That is no longer there, being replaced by a spa where, there are basically all recent graduates of schooling (as stated by a technician) . We were not notified in advance of this change. Regarding the decoration of the ship. The redecoration of the ship is beautiful, and our cabin stewards were excellent. The showers are very small, yet the sofa was comfortable. Regarding the entertainment, we understand that it can not be compared to the larger ships, however, three nights of movies for entertainment is not acceptable. The stand up comics and Stuart were excellent, however enrichment activities were minimal. Tender workers were excellent. Cruisers who experienced this for the first time would not have noticed the difference. Lastly, research the ports. When it says Belize, it does not mean that you will actually be in Belize where you can readily tour, instead we were taken to a water park, away from everything in Belize. With that said, there were constant concerns on the cruise from past cruisers, even those who had 17 sailings regarding the downgrade from previous cruises. We were very disappointed with this cruise. The previous comments reflect our opinion. Read Less

We have cruised on this ship several times pre the NCL takeover and without doubt NCL have damaged Riviera's reputation perhaps forever. Staff numbers have been cut and service levels can be poor as staff struggle to cope. Reductions of recipe ingredient costs and along with it quality has had a damming effect on food standards...meat even the bread is simply on occasion not what you would expect for a ship that purports to have the"finest cuisine at sea". That strap line is misleading, we travelled on both Silverseas and Seabourn earlier this year and Seabourn in particular is way ahead on both service and cooking. The terrace cafe was excellent. Entertainment has always been a weak point with Oceania, and on Riviera it was dire, with the exception of Pilates teacher Penelope it was at a standard of a small village Christmas show. The Cruise Director sought to keep clear of guests by being invisible front of house. Our favourite announcement by said Cruise Director "we have had to miss out on our visit to St Barths due to bad weather, you will now spend 3 days at sea while we sail straight back to Miami, however we have arranged extra sessions of bean bag throwing, table tennis and Bingo"..... such joy from all the guests!. Ships Officers ...we have never sailed on any ship where we were never once spoken to by any of the officers....maybe they are instructed by NCL not to talk to guests. They certainly don't... ever. Read Less

This ship is falling apart at the seams and the owners don’t care about what passengers have to endure on board. Departure was delayed by 5 hours waiting for staff. My room had not been cleaned or set up. The deck was unfinished and unpainted. The front desk staff was ill equipped to handle all the passengers issues as they embarked. As a solo traveler my problems were not directly addressed. I had to smell paint for a week. The toilet didn’t work properly. Neither the pool nor the hot tub were ready for use. There was mold in the bathroom, ceiling tiles were falling off. The motor broke down early into the transatlantic passage. The tenders were not safe and also broke down in the Caribbean. There was a foul fish smell around the helm. The gym equipment were broken and unavailable. The “new spa” has no bathroom, poor drainage and poor temperature control. Finally everyone coughs without covering their mouths as they have regard for others. There is no information provided for safeguarding health. Don’t bother with this ship until it is refurbished. Read Less

We chose this cruise because my parents wanted to see Greece and this cruise went there. They also dreamed of going on an Oceania cruise because the food is supposed to be great as well as service and staterooms. The cruise began on a sour note as the cruise could not leave from Monte Carlo as it was slated. The reason was given as weather, however, we spent 3 days in Nice before departure and did not have bad weather. There was some rain beginning the night before departure and day of, but nothing difficult. We were emailed this change update on 11/8, 3 days before departure. We were told that we had to go to Monte Carlo to get a bus to Marseille where the ship would be waiting. Anyone flying in on departure day could go from the Nice airport, but we had to go to Monte Carlo, The complete opposite direction to turn around and go past Nice to get to Marseilles. So after several emails back-and-forth to my travel agent we were able to get the transfer from the Nice Airport. We should not have had to spend our time doing this. It was very disorganized. And to make matters worse we had to go back to Monte Carlo from Marseille the next day which changed our itinerary for the next several days. It was amazing to me that we could get into Monte Carlo just the next day that we couldn’t get in. It seems odd. We also missed a stop in Crete because of this. It made no sense and the issue was never addressed by Oceania. All of us with tours outside of the cruise had to scramble to get our tours changed There was some loss of tickets purchased in advance. Now it gets better. On the 4th day of the cruise, there was a breakout of nora virus. The ship had to go on the CDC protocol of cleaning. Dining rooms were emptied of all glasses, Plates, silverware, salt and pepper shakers, etc. This took its toll on service as every single thing had to be brought to the table one by one. You could not sit at a table in the buffet until it was sterilized. This made for a lot of waiting during busy times, especially when arriving in port to disembark for the day. Many people who Became ill were quarantined for 48 hours. Therefore they had to eat all of their meals in their room and were not offered anything from the main dining rooms. You could only order off of the room service menu. You had to give your room key up and were told if you left your room you would be put off the ship in the next port. It was very serious. Now two weeks later we have heard nothing from the cruise line in regards to loss time as well as lost ports. I find that odd. Otherwise the food was good, but I would not say great. The service was lacking as the staff seemed stretched thin. The only restaurant that was really great for us was The Red Ginger. The service was amazing, as well as the food. We would have eaten there every night, but it stayed booked, as did most specialty restaurants. The entertainment was definitely for an older crowd. No comedians. Just small productions with a nice band, but nothing extraordinary. For the money, I do not recommend this cruise Unless you are 70 plus and don't really want to be entertained. Excursions are outrageously priced as well as wine and cocktails. Our room steward was the highlight. He was amazing and always kept Us laughing. Read Less

We chose the cruise for the itinerary .....and also for St. Petersburg. This is our first cruise with Oceania and we have already booked another cruise for next year! So with that being said we can only say good things about Oceania Nautica. There is nothing negative to say....albeit the ship is being refurbished in a few months but the ship was still beautiful. Our stateroom was roomy, the bed very comfortable, the concierge level is fabulous. The crew is amazing and goes beyond to be of service to you. The food in the Grand Dining Room as well as Polo and Toscana was incredible. We did not really partake in Entertainment, Enrichment Activities or Fitness as we were busy doing other things. We did have some rough weather on this trip and were not able to dock in Riga or Visby but our Shore Excursions in Copenhagen and Bruges were great. We chose a personal tour in St. Petersburg for the two days we were there and it was beyond our expectations! We are looking forward to our cruise next year in Greece on a newly refurbished Nautica! Read Less

I've done three cruises with Oceania before this one and had pretty good times - in those instances there seemed to be some fun folks interested in mingling with the solo travelers and the smaller ships were more cozy and open to mixing people - there were always plenty of shared tables and lots of inclusion. For some reason, this cruise had a different vibe - perhaps because it was the time and place if nothing else. Most of the people were elderly and coupled. You had to be careful of your remarks so as not to start a row over the situation in England or the US or elsewhere. The ship's crew was OK but not as friendly as on the past few trips where I'd been - they seemed to get friendly with a few folks from previous segments and ignored the newer passengers other than to say hello. I felt that they could have done more to facilitate mixing at night by having a standing shared table with a couple of crew members or entertainers on hand to encourage participation. Instead, you had to be in with the crew to get an invite to a fun table other than two scheduled events that were pretty dull. Other cruise lines are doing a more sophisticated job of courting the next generation of traveler - but I didn't see that here. We were an afterthought. On Silversea, they have cocktails scheduled nightly for solo travelers with a couple of crew members who then offer to take them to dinner; on Seabourn they put an invitation in your door ever single night if you ask for that service and you are always at an interesting and eclectic table. The layout of my room was wasted space. The huge tub was ridiculous and while I was fine as a solo, I kept thinking this would be way better if the space was used for a walk in closet. I found the concierge staff to be well below par of the staff I'd dealt with previously - normally when they know you are solo, they work to get you in at night at a shared table - that only happened after I raised a complaint - which I hate to do. I paid twice what other folks paid and got about half the service. I've always tipped on top of the scheduled gratuities but not this time - I never had any sort of personal interaction with the crew to make it worthwhile. The atmosphere was more sterile - the upstairs coffee area is almost too big and impersonal. Also, the timing for the Internet cafe is off - if I grabbed a coffee and sat at a screen, inevitably an elderly person would approach me for help because the guy staffing it had bass akwards hours to assist people. There were a few of us who spent plenty of time assisting other passengers. I will say this - the entertainers with the ship's crew were very outstanding. Much better than any other ship and that young woman from the Netherlands was astoundingly good - but then they were focused just on entertaining at the shows - where on the smaller ships the entertainers did a lot more to intermingle with the passengers - maybe they didn't sing as well but they were more fun to be around.. So here, better entertainers but not as much fun. Here's a hint - don't just dance on the dance floor at night - look for people who need a dance partner and ask them to dance with you. Every single night. Also, I had a bizarre and nasty fitness room experience - mostly because for some reason this ship has but two regular eliptical trainers and pretty much every single person wants to use them. I had started an hour long workout in the middle of the afternoon when most people were off the ship and another gentleman was next to me doing the same thing. We were two of five people in the whole place. A woman walked up and demanded that we get off and give her our machines. She relentlessly harassed us for the next 40 minutes and then returned with a rough looking attendant who had taken her at her word that we were the wrong-doers. When I let the attendant know that I wasn't happy with the situation, she accused me of being unpleasant. The man got off his machine and the lady insisted that it was too dirty for her to use. Did the attendant step in and get someone to clean the machine? Nope - stood by hands on hips whilst the mathematics professor cleaned up the machine top to bottom. Hey - he was on vacation and paying. Finally here's a hint with outside entertainers - please ask them not to use the solo women travelers as the butt of their comedy routines - just saying. It was a bit unnerving having to sink down in my chair for fear that I would be called out. Don't get me wrong - I managed to have a good time, met some folks I'm still in touch with, and there were some good people and plenty of fun - but when I'm on vacation, I don't want to have to work for my fun. Read Less

Just returned from our second cruise this year and once again we had a fantastic trip. The ship is beautiful , the crew and serving staff are all positive and helpful and eager to make your cruise special. Any issue is quickly resolved as was the case in Bordeaux when we were unable to get to the city centre due to protesters on a bridge. Dining is always a highlight and again all the venues hit the mark, our only poor experience being in the Polo Grill where our fillet steaks were really poorly cooked. One of the best things about Riviera in my opinion are the fellow guests who always make a big difference in the cruising experience, the American and Australian guests were a delight to engage with. The "Grey Matter" quiz team were fantastic, thanks for your company and for providing great banter every afternoon. Two weeks of great ports, great new friends and of course great food are now a memory but we will make next years booking a priority. Read Less

We selected this vessel due to cross over Russian Arctic on 25 day Voyage. The Expedition program ( under contract ) was good with most Arctic Ocean stops accomplished. However the vessel is an old ( 30+ years in service ) with poor public spaces and mediocre staff service. For two pax price ( $100,000) no real value here. SILVERSEA has taken older vessel and placed in “ expedition service” without any discernible improvement in boat safety facilities. Older gangway and Zodiac loading stations are hazardous - should have been replaced before vessel was placed in ocean service. The food was poor - kitchen ran out of basic ( fruits, vegetables ) half way into voyage. Officers are foreign nationals - Russians - with little interaction with passengers. In summary, poor quality for the price. We have been on better trips for a quarter of the price of this voyage. SILVERSEA appears to be solely interested in sales, marketing and promotion at the expense of passenger experience ! Member, Circumnavigators Club Read Less

The Star Legend will be in dry dock soon to completely refurbish it and add 100 staterooms. And it need it. Everything was from gently to quite worn. Seals were broken on three large windows in the Yacht Club lounge, obscuring the view. That said, the staterooms were quite comfortable and the house staff attentive. Excursions are extremely expensive. Choose wisely. It’s much more fun to explore charming towns like Wrangell and Sitka on The zodiac tour of Tracey’s Arm glacier was worth it in every way. Food was hit and miss. The hits were lunch and breakfast, and dinner had some poor choices, like a seafood bisque with uncooked seafood in it. The Indian dishes, including a curry bar, were beautifully seasoned. Candles featured fresh salads and fish and meats grilled to order. Overall, for a luxury cruise, we thought Windstar could have done better with the condition of the ship furnishings, and attention to detail at Amphora Restaurant. The staff was gracious and the naturalists knowledgeable. Read Less