We went on a seven night cruise aboard the Riviera stopping in Key West, Trujillo (Honduras), Belize City (Belize), and Cozumel (Mexico). This was our first cruise ever (as a child I had once done an Atlantic crossing, but this was back in the 1970s), and we kind of splurged, celebrating my wife's speedy recovery from intensive surgery. We had an Oceania Suite, with over 1,000 square feet.

The Riviera, simply put, is of pure elegance. She is not gaudy or over the top, but a thoughtfully put together example of fine design. The dining venues are wonderful, the staff and service highly trained and very international. The food choices were, to the most part, far better than very good. It was kind of funny - some people preferred, for example, the Red Ginger restaurant (Asian) over Polo's (steak house), so we did not go to Polo's with high expectations, only to be pleasantly surprised by the high quality.

The Riviera is a more expensive ship, and therefore the audience that can afford to travel on her generally tends to consist on older retirees, so expect to see very few younger people. This has an adverse effect on the entertainment choices - musical selections in the Riviera Lounge, the only stage on the ship, were of a bygone era. Though the performers were very good, the actual productions simply failed to move us. Read more