Riviera Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This is a cruise for more discerning foodies who want quality, service and luxury and don’t want to be herded along with thousands of other passengers on a monster ship.
After reading other reviews below, two alarm bells rang in our minds. Firstly, that the ship had serious Norovirus problems during its recent Caribbean stint and secondly, that Oceania has recently been taken over by Norwegian and that standards and quality may have dropped. Fortunately, both concerns proved to be entirely unfounded. There has been no signs of norovirus aboard the ship since it crossed the atlantic to Europe.
As to the second concern, the onboard service, portions and quality of the food and the overall attention to detail was also top notch. Not having sailed with Oceania before, if it has indeed deteriorated since Norwegian’s takeover, then I can only assume it was previously of Michelin three star quality!
Cabin Review
Concierge Level
We stayed in Concierge Level Balcony Stateroom 9006 (deck 9, left/portside, about 4 cabins from the front of the ship)). I actually picked this room because I found a review online referring to this exact cabin (search Riviera 9006 and you will probably find it). From experience, I also worked out that portside staterooms on average seem to get better views whilst in the various ports (not the case on many larger ships that typically berth the other way around).
The Balcony Staterooms are not huge but are big enough for a week’s cruise in comfort. Seeing inside some penthouse cabin doors, we really didn’t think they looked worth the extra cost. Our stateroom had a nice size balcony with 2 chairs and a table. The marble bathroom features a softlit mirror, Bulgari miniature toiletries, fluffy white robes, a full bathtub/shower plus a separate shower cubicle (which was a little on the small side).
Storage throughout the cabin is great with some intelligent design for storage in nooks and crannies. The wardrobe/closet is of reasonable size and has about 15 wooden hangers. Two suitcases will fit under the large bed with ease. The bed was very comfortable and the bedding is top notch cotton. Fluffy white gowns and slippers are also provided as are cashmere blankets to use on the balcony on cooler nights. There is also a fairly large flatscreen TV on the wall with ship and excursion information, CNN, Sky News, Sky Sports News etc plus 3 or 4 ship channels with recent Hollywood blockbuster movies on rotation. The TVs have HDMI ports but NO USEABLE USB PORTS, should anyone wish to plug in their own players/devices.
N.B. Whilst there are several plugs around the cabin, there is ONLY ONE European (two round pin) socket located above the dresser. All other cabin plugs are USA 2 flat pin types. We were constantly fighting over the one European socket, so I strongly recommend bringing one or two USA adapters for additional devices.
Our cabin steward (DUJON from Jamaica) was helpful and efficient. We didn’t get any towel art sculptures like on other ships, but he kept the cabin immaculate and provided all our requests without delay.