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| Member Cruise Review |
P&O Cruises Oceana January 2005 by Derek Kane Caribbean |
An excellent cruise experience all round. We flew from Bournemouth on the 7/1 on time with a Britannia charter. This was a new experience for us as we have never flown charter further than the Canaries before. How anyone of more than ample proportions copes, given the seat pitch & width, is beyond me. Eight plus hours later, transfer from the plane to the transport to the ship takes place on the tarmac a few yards from the aircraft, thus we were on board Oceana within about an hour of touchdown in Barbados. We were informed of our cabin number during the flight by our Bath Travel rep and were pleasantly surprised to find we had been upgraded from an OH inside to an LF outside. Cabin was a little more spacious than I recalled from our last cruise on Oceana with a more wardrobe/drawer space. A doubling hanging with shelf over, a single hanging, a “tower” of shelves (with 2 taken up by the life jackets and safe, 2x3 narrow sets of drawers and 1x3 wider set of drawers. We had brought less with our need to comply with the 25kg pp luggage allowance which was quite a struggle for us. On our last (& first) fly cruise with Holland America last February, the allowance with American Airlines was 2 pieces of hold luggage each, each piece not weighing more than 25kg: an allowance thus of about 50kg pp. As our hold luggage was not labelled with a cabin number, I was required to retrieve them from a central collection point near the reception (deck 5), where they were to be found shortly after 6pm. Weather for arrival day, as well as for the next 2 days was cloudy with rain, so we were not able to get into our stride, deck & sun wise until we reached St.Maarten on the Monday. It was not possible to move from 1st to 2nd sitting, with a notice posted 1st night outside the restaurants informing everyone that 2nd sitting was completely full. Dinner on the first night was open seating (with the option of a buffet up in the Plaza) We took dinner early, then unpacked, had a “night-cap” in one of the bars and then went to bed with tiredness and fatigue kicking-in. The Ports-of-Call ============= Saturday and Sunday was respectively spent at Dominica and St.Kitts/Nevis with rain being a feature. We spent the morning walking around Roseau in Dominica and took an independent taxi tour for the morning around the island of St.Kitts. The two islands are a delight and are more “simpler” than some of the other destinations on this cruise. Our call at St.Kitts was special, with it being so quiet, as it was a Sunday. Passing through the small towns and villages the doors and windows of the many churches and chapels were thrown open and you could hear and see the islanders attending to their devotions. In the wet afternoons we went to see the “pictures” onboard in Footlights and saw Thunderbirds and Around the World in 80 Days and both deserve a Golden Turkey Award. As I have pointed out before, the entertainment option of a film in the evening from a dedicated cinema (as per Oriana / Aurora) is not available on the Oceana, bar a couple of nights during the whole cruise. Thankfully, the weather turned much for the better by the Monday for our call in St.Maartan. We went on a ship’s “tour” where we took a “Rhino Rider” which is a small 2-seater “speed-boat” and “cruised” up some of the West coast of the island in a small flotilla. We then returned to the ship for an afternoon of sunbathing and relaxing which we repeated the whole of the next day in Tortola (we did not get off there) as well as for the next 2 days at sea – bliss). We had the bonus of 2 days at sea due to a rescheduling of out next call at Catalina Island due to operational reasons. The ship averaged about 11 knots over those 2 days. Catalina Island, off the Southern coast of the Dominican Republic, is a small and more or less uninhabited island geared to visiting cruise ships disgorging their passengers for a day of fun on the beach and sea with a bar-b-q thrown in. I hired a kayak for the morning and after lunch we both returned to the ship where we anticipated a quiet afternoon out on deck, and we were not disappointed. Due to the aforementioned re-scheduling we had the bonus of a morning at sea at full steam to Aruba (in the Lesser Dutch Antilles, near the Venezuelan coast). Aruba and our next call Curacao, are far more developed islands than our earlier Windward calls and very much geared to the tourist and cruise caller. We did a spot of shopping here and once again returned to the ship for a quiet afternoon up on deck. Due to the re-scheduling the call at Aruba was extended to 23:00. On Curacao the next day we took an independent “tour” by way of a taxi to the “Curacao Aquarium” which, aside from the usual things you expect to see in an aquarium, had large sea water pools fed by and next to the ocean, where we saw dolphins performing tricks with their trainers, together with the feeding of sea turtles and a performing sea-lion. Indoors we also saw the feeding of a bevy of Nurse Sharks. After a spot more shopping in Williamstaat we returned to the ship and the upper decks for the afternoon. Another blissful day at sea followed until our call at Grenada. Although the islanders appear cheerful and our “dusting themselves down”, I felt deep down that their was an air of melancholia about the island through what had been lost and destroyed. It is going to take years to get back to “normal”. We took an independent tour of the island. The hotels (and thus their tourism income stream) were wrecked and obviously no guests present, many homes were still seriously damaged and many others still had tarpaulin roofs and their churches and chapels had also suffered similarly. A source of National pride, their “double sports” stadiums (at a cost of $40,000,000) was completely wrecked and I understand that many of the Nutmeg trees have come down and that it takes up to 15 years for such a tree to mature. A sad and sobering day. Our next call, St Lucia, was a complete contrast and, along with the French Islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, must be the most developed of the Windward Islands and clearly geared to the tourism industry. Again we went on an independent taxi tour of some of the island before returning to the ship for the afternoon. For our home port, Barbados, where we overnighted before flying home the next day, we took a ships tour in the afternoon having first packed 3 of our 4 suitcases in the morning. We went on a 4x4 “Safari” to a “Wildlife” reserve where we saw small monkeys, tortoises, small deer, parrots and snakes (behind glass). Our journey was through sugar cane fields in full growth, and now I know what it is like to be the height of a Hobbit! Hold cases had to be outside your cabin by the time you went to dinner with the option of retaining one case until midnight. We had the “bonus” of the next morning up on deck and the choice of lunch in The Plaza or Main Restaurants (which is more than you would get at a return to Southampton – all-in-all, less rushed). We left the ship at about 13:30 with only a delay of c.2 hours before we took off home touching down before 07:00 the next morning. The shortish delay was just as well as Barbados Airport is pretty dreadful and contrasted with our near “VIP” style arrival 2 weeks earlier! Cuisine ===== Few changes from 06/2003 to report. Good to excellent standard of fare offered. I noticed that no Roast was offered on any day from the carvery in The Plaza. My recollection was that this was offered a few times during the last cruise. Although a beach bar-b-q was available on Catalina Island there was no deck one for one of the sea days. The speciality buffets like Neptune’s and Mexican were not offered up on deck either (as on previous cruises) but were offered down below in the main restaurants. The supplements for the Horizon Grill and Bistro at dinner have increased to £6.50 pp although the quality has been cranked up a bit since 06/2003. There is also a supplement of £11.50 for a cold or hot Seafood platter in the Grill which (in somewhat ambiguous terms) included the £6.50 supplement – it would be clearer if they showed these items as carrying a £5.00 supplement instead. We ate alternatively 3 times in all which made a welcome change from having to dine so early at 18:30 in the main restaurants. I found 1st sitting a real bind as I enjoy, for instance, taking part in the Individual Quiz at 17:30. I would slip back to the cabin c.16:30 to shower and change which always meant I was one of the first on board to be “all-dressed-up”. I really did miss those late afternoon/ early evening hours on previous cruises with the decks growing quieter enjoying a couple of sun-downers up on the Pennant Bar. We were also slow on the uptake for the Indian Buffet Dinner which had “sold-out” by the 2nd night! Entertainment ========== Stadium Company were very good. We saw Musicalities, Harlequinade, Electric, Downtown Diner and Razzle Dazzle. We attended more shows than we normally do due to being on 1st sitting. We also went to P&Os version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and I was a contestant in “Break the Chain” (The Weakest Link) and got voted off first!!! We did not go to any of the Cabarets, which I see included Bucks Fizz early on in the cruise. I did about 6 turns on the Karaoke in Le Club over 2 evenings and I must say that the standard from some of my fellow passengers was very high indeed. The balance of our evenings was spent doing the Syndicate Quiz for which we won twice. I also won the Individual Quiz 3 times plus the Shuffleboard once! Sadly the Tropical Deck party was held in the pouring rain during our Aruba call. With the re-scheduling of our port-of-calls it was shame that this was not held on another evening as we had the option of a night ashore in one of the bars/restaurants in Aruba. Although I can understand the 4 Formal / 12 Smart Casual dress code, (especially in view of the ungenerous luggage allowance), I did feel that on most nights the ambiance was rather un-smart. Even the addition of a tie on the gentleman would have improved the evening ambiance on the Casual evenings. Too many gentleman also were taking off their bow-ties and jackets quiet early in the evenings on the Formal nights too. All in all a lovely holiday, though. All things considered I would probably only repeat a Fly-cruise to the Caribbean if we could have a higher luggage allowance and go scheduled and be guaranteed 2nd Sitting, although obviously the weather in January is a BIG draw. Whenever our next cruise will be, it will probably be from Southampton. I felt very tired through the 1st week of this cruise and absolutely shattered for some days after we got home. Cruising ex.Southampton is our preference given that we only live 45 minutes from the terminal. From experience I would avoid early and late in the ex.UK season as it can be a bit hairy on the first and last few days and nights! Derek “The Monocled Mutineer” Kane ||||| o Q < \__/ |>o<| |