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This was our fifth cruise with Oceania, second on Insignia. We knew what to expect: good food and excellent service from friendly, enthusiastic and happy crew. We were again not impressed with the entertainment, Oceania's weakest point. The production cast, six young singers/dancers are high school level. There was only one guest entertainer who was really good, Jeri Sager, a broadway singer and actress. The comedian and female trumpettist were just OK. This cruise had a number of sea days and the lack of entertainment or activities onboard Insignia for younger people like us, is a problem. When the weather is too cold, there is absolutely nothing interesting to do for us. Yes, there is Bridge, Mahyong, trivia, Bingo, and other activities we associate in general with those in a home for retirement. So unless you are well over 70, the ship is very boring. Less than 2% of the passengers fell in our age-range (40's) and that is now the main reason why we will look for another cruiseline for our next vacation. Food Oceania is very good in gastronomy. Enough choice of restaurants, just enough variation in menu choices, good selection on the 24 hour room menu... Food is served hot and beautiful presented, especialy the desserts. If you like good food, Oceania will not dissapoint you. Staff Excellent! Happy staff, always friendly, even when not on duty. Read Less

Let me first begin by saying this was our 3 rd. Oceania cruise and the itinerary and staff was wonderful. We enjoyed all the ports we visited and the staff was warm, friendly and professional. The food on the ship was very good, but being a small Oceania ship...there were only 2 speciality restaurants. As we got into cooler temperatures, the outdoor area of the buffet was closed, so it was very difficult to find a seat for breakfast. People don't really share tables at breakfast for some reason and the staff doesn't encourage that. We had very interesting excursions and experienced many great sites. Although, we enjoyed the Insignia for the most part...I would not recommend concierge on this ship as the only upgrades we received was a bottle of generic champagne, an Oceania tote and some upgraded toiletries. Big deal for extra charge. Due to the smaller ship, there was no concierge lounge and we didn't need extra reservations because they were rarely busy. Just be careful what stateroom they give you...6001...it terrible! Don't do CONCIERGE LEVEL on Oceania's smaller ships. Read Less

I went on my cruise Oct 7th 2016 with my girlfriend. Our original cruise was suppose to go to Cozumel, Mexico and Key West, FL. Hurricane Matthew came through the Bahamas on Oct 5th and our cruise was set for Oct 6th but it was canceled and pushed back for Oct 7th. We were told that we could no longer go to Mexico and would be taken to the Bahamas. Since the Bahamas was damaged due to the Hurricane, carnival was only able to take us to Key West, FL, mind you we live in Tampa, FL and could have drove to Key West. We was only given $71 back for the trip. Mind you we did not board the ship until about 9pm on Oct 7th which means we missed a full day of the 6th and 7th. So we paid $770.00 for a trip that was not worth it in the end. The ship was empty due to all the last min changes. only about 600 guest showed up for the trip. we only went because it was my 30th birthday!! The food was good and the room was okay. There was no production shows on this trip. This is my 6th cruise and expected more but made the best of the trip overall. I will use Carnival again in April only because I have already paid for the trip. Read Less

Let me start by saying we (my wife and I) have been on 25 cruises over the past 15 years. We tried MSC because of the great deal offered. We weren't expecting much, but what a great surprise we got. After a few minor hick-ups, the week was great. The MSC Divina is beautiful. The rooms were nice. We stayed in a balcony cabin which was ok but the way this ship is designed the deck above our room extended above our balcony so no sunshine on the balcony. We ordered the all inclusive package, which included ALL alcohol, soda and all of the ice cream and cappuccino bars. It was a great bargain...... Shows were top notch. By far the best cruise ship entertainment we have experienced over our 15 years of cruising Staff was nice but there was a bit of a language barrier. Embarkation and dis-embarkation was one of the easiest we have ever had Already booked on the Divina for next year Read Less

We have traveled many time with Norwegian, but due to our most recent experience will think twice about cruising with them again due to what we feel are deceptive billing practices. We rented a car from the west coast of Florida and took the free shuttle to the port in Miami. Embarkation was fast and our cabin was ready when we boarded at 1:00. Of course, the buffet was already serving. Our inside cabin was spacious, with a full size couch in addition to the bed. Storage was plentiful. The bathroom, while small, was adequate, and the shower had good pressure. The small flat screen TV was a constant problem as the control had a very small range of operation and channels were quite limited. Our room steward, Michael, was outstanding and made wonderful towel animals every night. The ship is not new but is well maintained. Cleaning is constant. The Sun was refurbished in 2011. Having sailed on her prior to that, I find the biggest difference to be new carpets, not layout. Dazzles, the night club which is used as a second theater venue, is really inadequate. It has heavy tub chair seats that do not lend themselves to large group seating. This proves problematic when it is used for the "game show" type of events in the evening. The Garden Cafe (buffet) is crowded, but extra seating is gained by using the Sports Bar, and Moderno reataurnt, which are across the corridor. Moderno also has its own small buffet line and offers freshly made waffles and eggs for breakfast, and pizza at lunch. The main food line in the Garden Buffet offers a good variety at all meals. The sticky buns at breakfast are a real treat! The Great Outdoors, which is located nest to the Garden Cafe on the aft end of the ship, also has a buffet line and outdoor seating. We ate all of our dinner meals in the main dining rooms, either The Four Seasons, or the Seven Seas. We preferred the service in the smaller, Seven Seas, although the menu with a few exceptions, is the same in both restaurants. The dress code is a little more relaxed in the Seven Seas, but we found that most passengers dressed nicely for dinner. We considered the food to be quite good in the main dining rooms and felt no need to dine at the extra price restaurants. The breads were exceptional throughout the ship! Steaks, although thin, were flavorful. Fish tended to be overcooked unless a special request was made. Desserts were generally better in the buffet, although all come from the same kitchen. Ice cream, both hard and soft serve, was available in the buffet. Soft serve in The Great Outdoors. We found the nighttime shows, while not really headliners, to be quite entertaining. There was a good variety, with acts ranging from a banjo player to aerialists. We especially enjoyed the magician. The theater itself, is small, with many blocked views due to support columns, however, everyone always seemed to find a seat. We did not use the Spa, but found the spa waiting room, just off the pool area on deck 11, a wonderfully quiet and relaxing place to read. The library has very limited hours. Get your books early! I particularly enjoyed the Cruise Director's staff, with the exception of the only girl in the crew who tended to be rather rude to the guests. There was the usual array of activities such as origami, napkin folding, flower making, trivia, etc. Since this was a longer than usual cruise, we got some repeats at the end. This was a little disappointing. We especially enjoyed the Team Progressive Trivia. Signatures are awarded instead of prizes at the completion of most contests. Signature cards are redeemed at the end of the cruise for somewhat less than "fabulous" prizes. As we had cruised the Panama Canal cruise twice before, we opted not to go on any excursions this time. Most we spoke with enjoyed the ones they went on, with the exception of those at Puerta Chiapas. This is a new cruise port and I don't think they have their "act" totally together, yet. In their defense, we were told that they had not been informed that there would be two ships in port that day and were under-prepared in staffing both the tours and the "for pay" buses to take patrons into the town. This seems unlikely to be the case, however, since many of the tours are booked far in advance of embarkation. The welcome center is quite nice here, located in a well landscaped park, but nothing else is within walking distance other than one restaurant. It needs to be mentioned that we sailed, virtually in tandem, with the NCL Pearl, the whole trip. She beat us to the ports every time and perhaps skimmed off the better tour directors. I did find that the information on the ports was lacking other than the maps provided the night before in the daily paper. On-board presentations which were billed as giving information about the ports, only gave the locations and shopping maps of various "guaranteed" stores, mostly jewelry.It would have been helpful to have some information on such things as the safety of the area, how to walk downtown from the ship, etc. A pleasant surprise on this ship is that the bar staff was not constantly barraging you with offers of bar service. They are present if needed, but not aggressive. This is especially appreciated on the pool deck. The one thing that stood out on this ship for me was the friendliness of the crew. They may not have the largest or newest ship in the fleet, but they have the biggest smiles! Our only real problem on this cruise came the morning of disembarkation, when the final bill arrived. We had accrued several hundred dollars in cruise credits that we had assumed would be counted against our final bill. We had, in fact, checked twice with the front desk about this, and were assured that this was the case. They even mentioned the figure that our card would be billed. When our final bill arrived, the last morning, however, we saw that this was not the case, and our credits had not been deducted and were, at this stage, since nothing can be charged the last day, wasted. Of course we marched down to the front desk to complain and were told that cruise credits could not be used against the ship's bill, despite what we had been informed earlier. We felt totally cheated and mislead! Even though NCL had been one of our favorite lines, we will think long and hard before sailing with them again because of what we feel are deceptive billing practices. Since we had an early flight (the ship did not provide a shuttle for those with flights before 1:30), we walked off with our luggage. The walk-off line formed an hour before we were allowed to get off the ship. Fortunately, we were in line early so did not have to wait once the line was opened. After clearing Customs, we went outside and found the shuttle kiosk. Even though we had not pre-booked, a shuttle van was easily procured for the 45 minute ride to LAX. I am sad that our wonderful cruise ended on such a sour note with NCL. Beware! Read Less

DW (Dear wife, for the uninitiated( and I are retired Seniors living in S.Fl. This was our 43rd voyage; we had been wanting to try the Regent line but it had not been convenient before, so when we found they were to move its home port to Miami, we decided to "sign on". We booked through our local agent, and were glad we did. (I have never remarked to any degree on an agent before as felt it might be considered a personal plug, but have to remove that precedent here) There were several problems with this booking, not the fault of the line but a very complicated situation emerged. Our agent and her parent company alike (surfturftravel@aol.com) performed heroically to solve the several problems, spending a great amount of time and energy and kept in touch admirably, keeping us apprised of progress, as, frankly, the entire issue was more than a little "iffy" at certain points. We arrived at the port by private transportation and found check-in uncrowded and well handled. The area used by Regent (it was their first sailing from Miami) is or was (?) the facility used by Oceania and could not be more convenient, being the first terminal as you enter the port, so traffic and congestion were relatively non-existent. Here came the first surprise: We were told that rooms would be ready at a specific time and, in a pleasant manner, not to attempt to enter your cabin until so announced. We soon found out why. When the announcement was made that "all cabins" were ready, we found, on our floor, and we assume all others, all cabin doors open into the hallway and...are you ready...stewards standing in near military style at the individual cabin doors...eerily reminiscent of the latrine scene in Andy Griffith's "No Time For Sergeants) in which Griffith, the new recruit, has rigged the bathroom facilities to snap to attention for the inspecting Officer. To add to that, in our bathroom, when you open the lower cabinet underneath the sink, the clever drawstring apparatus gradually opens the wastebasket, saving you that "effort". Our cabin (all facilities are termed "suites") was indeed that. Without a doubt, the nicest and most well laid out we have ever experienced in our prior 42 voyages. To be fair, we usually book Ocean View or Veranda, so the 301 total sq.ft. was a welcome surprise. A tub and separate shower, four, yes, 4 mirrors NOT counting the bathroom, & 3 telephones.+ We were both impressed no end by the amount of usable and well thought out storage. In fact, I was still finding more up to the third day. Adjacent to the nice sized walk in closet (our first ever) there was a cleverly spaced seven drawer cabinet. It would not be a problem in this regard to do a very long voyage, which we have not found to be so on two prior world cruises on two other more mainstream lines. Our steward, Jay, took good care of us and our suite at every turn. On our table was a spray of fresh orchids, a basket of fruit and a chilled bottle of champagne to welcome us and set the tone. Impressive indeed. We dined time wise almost equally between the cafeteria and main dining room. Several times we ordered room service breakfast when there were early tours. Worthy of note indeed, said room service breakfast. A smiling waiter enters the room, sets the tray on the sofa, and, voila, magically causes a perfectly sized table top to appear from its hiding place behind the sofa. Settling it expertly in place, he then sets the table with a white cloth and full silver service. The cafeteria is set up in a different manner than most. You may take as you desire from the line, of course, but there are no trays; if possible a staff member will take your plate and lead to your table. A free standing one person station, immediately between the two opposite service lines, handles eggs/omelets to order at breakfast, and pasta and stir fry at lunch. A very helpful and efficient lady Maitre'd stands by to help with order taking and service. A noteworthy hallmark is: if an item from the main dining room is not available, it can be sent up and brought to your table. In the evening, as with other lines, this area is converted to a sit-down Italian restaurant. There is no self-service beverage service; a waiter will take your drink order. Service in all categories is truly above and beyond most others,of course of the ones we have sailed. The charming and helpful lady concierge, whose desk abuts the customer service and shore excursion desks, was so helpful and pleasant that I discreetly informed her that my wife and I would like to take her home with us. She politely declined, but did thank us! Anything desired, within reason, I believe could and would be taken care of. Example of the unexpected: As is becoming a habit on most lines, midway through a comment card asking; "How are we doing?" is distributed. Wife noted what to her was a shortage of the chocolate in certain items (Trust me here, she is an expert of all things chocolate.) and received a phone call from the chef. She subsequently, some hours later, received a followup call that a delivery from the bakery was on the way. Soon, the doorbell (yes, no knock on the door, an actual doorbell) rang and a smiling staff member presented her with an impressive plate of very very chocolaty cookies. (Think impressive chunks) This was later followed up by the chef to check on his performance, ha, wife informed him that they were the best chocolate chunk cookies she had ever had. I even had a bite myself, no comment as to whether her back was turned at the time... Main dining room is run efficiently and well. We never had a wait for a table and always found ourselves with convivial and friendly people. Food was excellent, and complimentary wine or beer, and some mixed drinks are complimentary all throughout the ship, including the full content of your cabin minibar. Tables also have a spray of fresh orchids. Entertainment was excellent and unexpectedly so for a smaller ship, the Navigator being the smallest of Regent's three ships. The Jean Ann Ryan troupe performed several fully staged shows and were enthusiastically received. Their performances feature a highly talented acrobatic duo who were audience favorites. An excellent female singer did multiple shows, being also well received. An excellent cruise staff show rounded out the overall more than good entertainment. We found disappointment (admittedly hard to do) in only one area, the gym/fitness center. Small even for a small ship...only four machines (excluding the usual treadmill pieces) and even though they could be set for multiple configurations, we were not as impressed as with other aspects of the ship. Good use was made of the space provided, but why not more space to start with? With beverages being complimentary, perhaps one bar might have been made smaller or even eliminated? To some this may not be of importance, to us, it is. Ports: Costa Maya, Mexico: We repeated (most shore excursions are [also] complimentary) a trip to an ancient Pyramid site we had done once before. Santo Tomas de Castilla,Guatemala: we enjoyed the tour (Via local tender) of a highly rated resort, with a complimentary BBQ lunch. It is well done with what we were told by staff is recreations of fortifications of earlier times. Belize City: I truly wish I could tell you, but there was a mixup on our part of the time and place to begin, and we missed our connection. We were supposed to enjoy the airboat tour which we were told was more than worthwhile. Cozumel: Can you spell; "The good and the Very annoying"? Good: We docked at the downtown area, instead of being fed into an offshore shopping center, as has happened in the past. The "Annoying"? The most, well, the only word is indeed, annoying, storefront touts in your face with every step you take. I finally solved this by walking off the sidewalk behind the pedestrian stream, and when this became impractical, we simply gave up and returned to the ship. Note to Tourism Department; The only purchase we made was from a shopkeeper who did not hassle us and informed us that he had no intention of doing so. This does NOT create good will and in my opinion can simply drive people away. Key West: No strangers to this locale, we took the glass bottom boat tour to what was described as one of the world's largest offshore reefs. A long boat ride to get there and back, and from what we saw, to us not a standout. Others may disagree. Would we do the Navigator again? Probably not. Would we do the line again? Absolutely. Mainly to have access to a larger fitness center, which is more important to us than it may be to you. Outstanding service and the nicest cabin we have ever had in our experience, of the usual class we book (Ocean View or Veranda) turn the tide for us. And without our truly amazing travel agent, we might have missed this one, in fact! Did I say that as is the trend to "all inclusive", gratuities are also included. No? I didn't? Well, they are. Bye! 30 Read Less

Based on all the hype I was expecting a great experience while on the EPIC. This is what I received: The housekeeping staff did not honor the "Do not Disturb" sign on more than one occasion, even after I explicitly asking them to honor it. The answer was always "OK" but because they had so little understanding of the English language, as soon as anyone uses a word they are unfamiliar with, they just nod in agreement and smile although they have no idea what anyone is saying. When an attempt was made to escalate the complaint to the housekeeping supervisor for the floor, I was told he "isn't there". When I persisted to speak to someone at a supervisory level all I got was run in a circle for 20 minutes. When I saw all that was being done was an exercise designed to simply wear me out, I then said I was undeterred and still wanted to speak to someone in authority. They found me a supervisor, but not the one that was appropriate under the circumstances. The ship's Security Officer came and advised me that if I didn't stop complaining I would be "turned over to the Coast Guard at the next port and fined". They took a customer service problem and failed to address it. Then when I wouldn't accept that as the outcome, they then turned it into a "security" issue. They never did address my problem but they did manage to get me to stop complaining. Moral of the story, if you are having a service related problem on this ship, bring someone with you when you go to complain so you have a witness or simply wait until you are off the ship and write a review warning other passengers as I am doing here. As noted in several other reviews things you normally take for granted as being free on a cruise ship, based on the currently existing industry standard, are not free on this ship or when they are free they build in so much inconvenience that you are discouraged from using them (eg having to "pre-register" to attend a "free" show-see below) or they limit access to it so you are more likely to use an alternative that is not free (eg non-self service dining with extremely limited menu options-see below). All the ships that I have been on have entertainment which consists primarily of some headliner shows where you show up shortly before show time, select a seat and enjoy the show. On this ship, its not that simple because you have to pre-register. The worst part is no one tells you that pre-registration is required until you get to the show and by then it is too late to pre-register. You then have to wait until the next day (because the desk where you pre-register is closed by the time the evening shows start) and then the next day you must go stand in line during the designated times (a two hour period in the morning and another two or three hour period in the afternoon) in order to pre-register. Nowhere is it explained why someone can not "pre-register" for the shows at the customer service desk (which is open 24 hours) or at the "shore excursion" desk (which is open all day long during the day). The "pre-registration" desk is the size of a mall kiosk (sp?) and normally has between two and four workers when it is open (there are over 4000 passengers on the ship so do the math when figuring out how long you will be waiting). The customer service and shore excursion desks are similar to what you see in an airport, where there are many people behind a long counter about twenty feet long, always with at least five workers at each one. After you stand in line to register for the shows at the "pre-registration" desk, you will stand in line again when it is time to see the show since there is no assigned seating (nowhere it is explained why pre-registration is required since it is all based on general admission anyhow). This "pre-registration" process, in my opinion, is designed to cause so much confusion and inconvenience for people that they are less likely to go see the shows. The cruise line should be required to advise people UPFRONT of this "pre-registration" requirement in their advertising of this ship since this practice of requiring "pre-registration" is outside the current industry standard. If it is a day the ship is in port, someone may not want to cut into the middle of their day to go back on the ship to stand in line to "pre-register" for show attendance and if not, they have a right to know that they will have to make a choice, spend the full day off the ship at whatever port the ship are at, or, spend part of that time on the ship in order to complete the "pre-registration" process. The other area briefly mentioned above deals with places to eat on the ship. Most ships have some main dining rooms, at least one main buffet and a few specialty restaurants which cost extra. The idea is that the specialty restaurants are not designed to be where you go to eat most nights but are instead to be used occasionally depending on the circumstances. On this ship, only one free restaurant offers waiter/waitress service for breakfast and it is normally only open for a few hours in the morning and some days not at all for breakfast (Taste). Accordingly, passengers are left with the buffet. For lunch, same thing, the only free restaurant offering waiter/waitress service (Taste) is open for a few hours and on some days this restaurant is not open at all for lunch with the alternative being buffet service*. Please note that the breakfast and lunch menus in Taste normally have about six main dishes to pick from. For dinner, two free restaurants offer waitress/waiter service (Taste and Manhattan), once again, based on a menu containing about six main selections to pick from. There are also about a half a dozen pay restaurants open for dinner (*There is also a Pub with three booths and about six tables that is open 24 hours which has about six bar food type selections(eg burger, buffalo wings, etc.) to pick from, however with a ship containing over 4000 passengers these three booths and six tables do not put much of a dent in the demand for alternative dining selections). In my opinion, anyone who wants any type of varied selection is going to wind up eating most of their dinners in one of the specialty restaurants and the limited "free" alternatives to the Specialty restaurants for anyone seeking variety should be disclosed in the ship's advertising but it is not. The room was very nice but there were a few concerns. Having my personal effects rearranged by the housekeeping staff just so it would appear they did something, rather than leaving my personal effects where I left them (and consistent with both the "do not disturb" sign and my explicit instructions), and can find them, would have been much preferred. I found the shower stall to be very small. The folding "iced" shower stall door contains a vertical gap in the middle (by design) of about 1/4 of an inch when it is fully closed, which guarantees that water will go outside the shower stall and onto the floor. For the life of me, I can't imagine how no one noticed this as it appears to be an obvious design flaw, sort of like designing a cup with a built in hole in the bottom of it. The TV was nice but, as mentioned in other reviews, it had nothing watchable on it due to the extremely limited channel selection (this is a good example of how the cruise line spent a lot of money on a nice TV, but is then unwilling to spend a few extra dollars to buy the rights to anything worth watching). Although the advertisements state there is a "window" facing the hallway, this is very misleading since someone can not see in or out of this "window". This window is covered by two panels that are not designed to open, sort of like two closed shutters. Functionally, it is the same as if someone simply drew a picture of a window on the wall and then advertised that there is a window in the room. Because space is so limited, the only place to put a suitcase is under the bed, which means you will need to lug that suitcase out from under the bed every time you need something from it, which will be quite often since there really is very little space to unpack most things. A few more things worthy of mention: if you are any taller than 5 feet 7 inches tall, you should expect to be sleeping with your feet hanging over the edge of the bed and, as noted in other reviews, if you want to watch a movie on the TV in your room, expect to pay about $10.00 per movie. I found the bed to be very uncomfortable based on the quality of the mattress. As time goes by, and that bed is used by more passengers, I would bet that the quality of that mattress will deteriorate considerable further very quickly. There is a large screen in the Atrium that is almost the size of a drive in movie screen (if not larger). As mentioned in other reviews they can put this screen to good use by showing many movies. However, instead most of the movies shown are animated kids movies and they only show, on average, one a day. The cruise line's limited use of this large screen for movie viewing purposes reminds me of a person who goes out and buys a $10,000 plasma TV, then when he wants to watch a movie, he will only select from the $1.00 bargain box rental counter. Overall this is a very impressive looking ship. The quality of the food is not as good as Royal Caribbean but better than Carnival (then again dog food might also be better than Carnival food). The folks who run this ship spent a lot of money on it. However, the way they handle customer complaints, the severely limited menu selections at the full service restaurants, the limited availability of free full service restaurants, the severely limited entertainment selections on both the Atrium's big screen and the in room televisions and the way the cruise line intentionally inconveniences passengers for no good reason when it comes to gaining access to the shows collectively prohibit me from giving this ship anything but a poor rating. This ship (and the way it is managed) remind me of a kid who gets all dressed up in a nice suit, then as soon he opens his mouth, and curse words and slang come out, your impression of him immediately changes. This is what happened with me on this ship. My first impression, and the one I now after, bear no resemblance to one another. Read Less