Ok, Ok - I think that sufficient abuse has been heaped upon me for my admission that laundry chores is not in my portfolio of skills. Perhaps I can redeem myself with the proclamation that the dishwasher is my turf at home - not only loading and unloading, but maintaining inventories of soap, wetting agent etc. Have I redeemed myself?

Wes

Haven't focussed on excursions yet but have booked Iguacu Falls on second leg of B2B from BA to Rio. The Falls can be accessed from BA and might be a post cruise for you all. The "O" excursion is pretty pricey, but seemed like the simplest way to handle it.

Ted

OK OK dishwasher skills A plus - more skills needed, though - have a great trip!!!

Alan's great at working the washing machines. I ran into him on an early morning run. Gary & I split the laundry runs on FJORDS. Sadly, I missed Tony's ironing virtuoso performances. I simply don't have the proper wrist action for the Rowentas.

Cheers, Anne

Anne my friend, I think you MAY be properly versed in rehabilitation technique to master a Rowenta? Of course who would want to master the technique? I think you could be a full time PT with about 8 hours of training. :) :)

Cindy,
I wish Silversea had Rowenta irons. They just had a poor quality Sunbeam on our floor and my husband's shirts, suits and tux suffered for it.
Maybe I need rehab for even ironing his clothes while cruising. What was I thinking?

I read Cindy's post abd assumed that Rowenta was an exotic form of pasta.

Ted

I was so spoiled by Regent's Laundry Rooms I just had to have a Rowenta for my home.

Yikes!
Don't try to get that through airport security!

For home, I bought it for home....

Todd

Yes - it was clear that the Rowenta was not part of your cruise luggage. I was simply reacting to the high tech, ominous and potentially lethal appearance of that device! Others have noted that I am unfamiliar with related equipment!

Ted

Ted,
You are the lucky one. Some of us get caught with the ironing duties and truly appreciate the Rowentas that Regent and Oceania offer.

They are amazing machines the Rowentas. I believe they advetise it reduces your ironing time in half - I agree it really does!

Another way to reduce "your ironing time in half" is to send everything that needs ironing to the laundry. Lordie, life is too short to spend much of it slaving over a hot steam iron. I think we have one somewhere in the garage, covered in spider webs. As I recall, the last time I resurrected it was to iron my Cordon Bleu apron before Kathy & Frank and Ray & Penny visited... I wish they would make those Cordon Bleu aprons in a wrinkle-free fabric...

Freddie,
Thanks for the comic relief. I love it. Actually while ironing truly is not my favorite, I have met some incredible people in the laundry room of ships. Ironing is a great ice breaker.

Well said Fred - I don't get it... hate ironing, cooking and cleaning - "I" did NOT buy the Rowenta - ironing for some is theraputic so I hear - I use dry cleaners -

OH GOD I HATE IRONING - but I LOVE my Rowenta - I iron every two weeks.....necessary evil....in the past I actually had someone come in and iron every two weeks - waste of money!

Let's just hope someone isn't actually looking for Oceania info in this thread ;) Maybe we should start another ironing topic in OT.

NOOOOO let it wrinkle and die Karen - it is very ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Karen-

LOL!

We were on this same cruise. I think that ChatKat's review was right on target. We have cruised Regent 3 times - twice on the PG and once on the Diamond. We were in a Concierge level cabin on this cruise and thought that it was very comparable to the balcony cabins on both the PG and Diamond. As ChatKat mentioned the one thing that we did miss were the bathrooms. Not terrible, but boy are those showers small. We only did one tour through the ship - the tour to Olympia - but felt is was very well done. We did several ports on our own and hired private guides for a couple of others. Since there were 4 of us, we had our teenage daughters with us, it was actually less expensive to arrange a guide. We had very good experiences with the guides as well.

We felt that the food was very comparable to Regent. We liked the specialty resturants as well. The second or third day we received a form to pre-order some very nice wines at discounted prices if you ordered a minimum of 3. We ended up ordering 6 or 7 from the list and had some really great wine. We did order rooms service for breakfast some mornings but since we typcially only order fruit and cereal we did not feel limited by the breakfast menu. Our daughters ordered room service routinely (midnight hamburgers) and were more than happy! We did dine at Tappas and quite enjoyed it. I typically hate buffets but the atmosphere was so nice, it was typically quite as we usually dined on the back deck and since we all love sushi which was served nightly this turned out the be a great option for us on nights when we just couldn't stand the thought of sitting through a 2+ hour dinner.

For us the value was incredible compared to Regent. The cruise fare was 2 for 1 with free air fare. We took the air fare credit and used FF miles for buisness class air for the 4 of us. Regent wasn't even an option since they only offered this type of itinerary in the spring and fall. Since we wanted it to be a family trip we needed a June/July departure. We were not sure how we would like the longer cruise since all our our past expereinces including Princess, Royal Caribbean and Cunard have been 7 days or less. We really enjoyed the 12 day cruise - usually after the 4th day we are already thinking about it ending but with this cruise we really felt that we had time to relax. We will definately cruise Oceania again and I would not hesitate to recommend it. The last Princess cruise we took we spent alot of time feeling very deprived after having cruised Regent - we did not feel that way at all on the cruise and felt that Oceania compares very favorably.

Steph, great review, your thoughts on Oceania
on spot on. We decided to take Oceania to South America vs. Regent and save over $300/day for
the both of us--no way could we drink this much...can't wait for next December. r/wes

Wes - we would love to do a South American cruise - unfortunately we still have one daughter at home (the other one leaves for college this weekend). In a few years (3-we are counting)we will be looking at this itinerary. I would love to hear your thoughts when you return. Have a great cruise - I do not think that you will be disappointed with Oceania. The other item that I did not mention is tipping - as it is automatically added on your account and to bar bills we didn't see any difference from Regent other than the charges on our bill at the end of the cruise. As you mentioned the fare difference more than makes up for a bottle of wine at dinner and tips.

We have looked at Oceania for the past couple of years. Your great review has sent me to their mailings with a view of planning a Jan. or Feb. cruise.
Photos are excellent.
Thank you. Best wishes. Pleasure to have met you.

Thank you Neville. If you have any questions, happy to answer them. We liked it enough to book their Baltics itinerary next year - it's two weeks vs. Regent's one week.

I am looking at Feb.5th. B.Aries to Rio, 12 days.
Am I correct in stating that only the PH suites have a bathtub ?

Yes. The bathrooms for concierge or lower have only a stall shower. The Penthouse is closest to a suite on Regent, but, the Concierge cabin is quite acceptable for a port intensive cruise for us. It's like the Jr. Suite we had on Millennium or close to the Paul Gauguin standard cabin or more typical hotel room - bed, small seating area, desk/dresser.

Kicking this up a notch.. Ron and I just got back from 7 nights on the Azamara Journey from Bermuda..Celebrity just bought 2 of the R ships..
so this was the "R6"..
and have to say.. Celebrity surprised the heck out of us.. this was a class act all the way.., of course they have the same ship..and but the staff was FAr beyond compare.. amazing.. the food unreal ..
of all the ships I have been on..including my favorite "O"..this took the prize.
we had the greatest time..the best service ..

wow was I surprised..

Glad to hear that Claudia. The Azamara ships are of interest to us given the right price and itinerary for sure. Our one experience on Celebrity was quite positive, so I wouldn't hesitate to book Azamara.

Maybe you could do a full review? If not here over on CC?

Yes Claudia, we'd love to hear the details, since some of the cruise reviews over on the Azmara CC board are quite mixed.

Were you in an Owner's Suite?