This was only our second cruise, our first being years ago on another small ship with Renaissance. We had a port-side balcony cabin that time and that was our main criteria when searching for a cruise this time. We had always wanted to visit Australia and New Zealand and had originally booked on Oceania, when we found a similar cruise with Regent for virtually the same price, only with everything included in the cost. In pricing out the tours we wanted on Oceania (some as much as $300 per person), the potential cost of our alcoholic drinks, internet and gratuities, it was a no-brainer to switch to Regent and we are so glad we did.

We felt spoiled from the moment we walked onboard, greeted at embarkation with a glass of champagne, our luggage waiting in our cabin, as well as a welcome tray with a bottle of Champagne, flowers and fruit. We could order two bottles of liquor for our cabin (I ordered more Champagne and Absolute vodka, which were delivered immediately.) On subsequent days, we could order wine by the glass from room service, at which point they asked "Do you want a bottle?" and from that day on a fresh bottle of wine appeared in our room. That, plus the fact we could order everything from aperitifs to wine to cocktails to after dinner drinks and suffice to say we were well taken care of.

One of the main reasons we chose Oceania initially was its reputation for fine food. I certainly don't have any complaints about the Voyager on that score. Every lunch and dinner was like dining in the finest restaurant back home. You could order anything you wanted, as much as you wanted. One dinner, for example, I had fois gras sliders and tuna tartare as appetisers, beef wellington and butter poached lobster an an entree and grand marnier souffle with vanilla sauce for dessert. Each day there was a themed lunch on the pool deck: once it was an Australian buffet, including kangaroo and crocodile, and every type of barbeque. The next day was a seafood buffet, with local New Zealand green lip mussels, king crab legs, made-to-order Pad Thai, sushi, fish curry and paella. (OK, the paella wasn't very good - the seafood and sausage were way overdone.) We could order from the room service menu and did that for breakfast every day but one. I don't think the breakfasts were very good, probably because they were overwhelmed with having to prepare that many in a short amount of time. Everything was overdone - bagels were almost burnt, the french toast was so hard it bounced off the plate when we tried to cut it. Once we ate breakfast at La Veranda and the made to order cheese omelet was incorrectly prepared. He added the cheese to the eggs and stirred them, instead of melting the cheese inside the omelet. But those are quibbling complaints. In general, the food was so amazing, the first thing I wanted when we returned home was a plain burger! Read more