It is now only five weeks away from our Christmas cruise on Oceana so I have now to do more than just think about my wardrobe - I have to take action!

I'm sure that, like most people I know who have cruised, you will be bitten by the cruise bug.  You will meet lots of nice people and see some wonderful places.

Have a fabulous time.

Cheers

Brenda

there's loads of info on this site. Some you can find by using search, some's kinda hidden...

Just fire the questions and we'll do our best.

Half the enjoment is in the anticipation

Meg

Cruised:    The Baltic, Norway, Canaries and 4 in the Med.

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Your 1st Cruise will be one of the BEST cruises you will ever go on. Believe you me: nothing beats the 1st of everything you do during your nights onboard. This is not to say with the 90%+ certainty that you will become addicted to cruising, that you will not have wonderful, future cruises too. But, there is something very magical about your 1st cruise:

I capture a bit of that magic when I see the cruise through a newcomers eyes.

Don't feel that you need to book a tour at every port of call. The ship is a destination in itself. There is a very special atmosphere on sea days which (in my view) is rivalled by a day on board when at port, or better still at anchor. The ship takes on a quieter ambiance with half or more of the passengers ashore. There are no queues and the service up on deck is snappier. With a very few glorious exceptions, you will find little better ashore. I tend to go only on tours where a "must-see" is a long distance from the ship and the public transport cannot be relied on. I also find an afternoon tour preferable to a morning one as breakfast on board in popular destinations can be somewhat "traumatic", especially in the self-service restaurants.

Advice? Suggest you arrive early’ish at the terminal say around midday. When you arrive at the terminal you say good bye to your cases as they are placed in a "hole-in-the-wall" by a porter. You will next see them outside your cabin when you board or say about 30 mins after. You proceed into check-in where tickets & passports are checked: you are given your cruise cards there and then: this is both your charge card (you can use it straight away without the need to register your credit card/bank charge card - unless you intend to charge casino chips/tokens to it) and ID to get back on the ship when at port. (I understand that the procedure to register your charge/credit card now takes place at check-in – others will no doubt confirm)

You then proceed into the embarkation lounge following a security check (x-ray machine for your hand luggage, etc - rather like an airport) then unlike an airport you then pose for your photograph.

Make sure you look your best and smile - tomorrow your photo along with all the other passengers will be on display in the Photo gallery for naughty chaps like me to have a laugh (when you look like I do, stones and glass houses spring to mind)

When you are called there is then a long walk while you carry your hand luggage along covered walkways that seem to go on for ever. Eventually you suddenly reach a large deck hatch opening and as you step on board it is if you have entered another world.

You will be greeted by an officer or one of the Entertainment team (ENTSs - not be confused with Treebeard from the Lord of the Rings) and, if you require, a white-gloved steward will relieve you of your hand luggage and take you to your cabin via lift or stairs.

WARNING: You will have studied the deck plans for months and you will think you know your way around.

WRONG: The deck plans are in 2 dimensions - the ship is in 3 dimensions.

HOWEVER: within about 24 hours you will know your way around! If you are lucky the steward will take you directly to the cabin. Sometimes the stewards do get lost!

At last your cabin, (with hopefully your luggage outside). Get to know your home for the next week. There will be continuous safety video playing on the TV and your cabin key-card will be in the door with a spare one on the writing desk with all the bumph and info folders. Have a look at today’s issue of the ships newspaper Horizon - it will have a nice picture of your well-fed Captain (they usually look as if they have had a few “Captain’s Dinners”) saying "welcome aboard". This will confirm what times all sorts of things are happening today and tonight. The only compulsory thing you must attend is the ships safety briefing held in your muster lounge at c.16:15 (it takes about 30 mins and you will find your muster station location on the back of your cabin door)

There will be a card in your cabin confirming your Dinner reservation which will show Restaurant name, sitting and table no. , if you are on Club Dining. (You might like to go down to the restaurant to see what table size and where it is. At about 15:00 the restaurant manager will be on duty and will try to accommodate any changes you might wish to make).

The tablets my Val takes (she is sensitive to motion) are Stugeron. Take 2 c.15:00 (2 hours before sailing) and then 1 every 8 hours until unconsciousness or sleep occurs! You will awake the next day but will probably have missed lunch by the time you wake up.

Now if you are sensible and have brought quite a few garments and suits it will speed unpacking if you packed them at home on hangers. But hey! ... hang the packing let's go and explore the ship.

As I said earlier, afternoon tea is served from c.15:00 in one of the restaurants or self service style in the deck restaurants.  If you got on early a buffet lunch is also available.

If it's a lovely day the prospect of sitting out at a deck bar afterwards sipping a cocktail of the day or a bottle of champagne is a tempting prospect.

In no time at all bells and announcements will go off requiring you to go to your muster station.

You will need to go back to your cabin and retrieve your life jacket and take it with you.

Once the VERY IMPORTANT safety drill is over (about 16:45) you can then go out on deck and start to enjoy the proceedings regarding departure out on the Promenade Deck. (Of course you might have a port-side balcony cabin in which case you can swank on your own private space).

There is champagne at £2.75 (I think) a glass - good value and a jolly band on the quayside playing Maritime & Military Greatest Hits.

In no time the last lines have been slipped, the last gangway removed and suddenly the bow & stern thruster push this Beautiful ship away to warmer climes. THE CRUISE HAS BEGUN.

The peregrination and twisting down the Southampton Water, Calshot Spit, the dog-turns to starboard then to port, traversing Cowes Roads and then on to the Pilot drop-off takes about over 90 mins.

It is lovely just to sit on the Promenade Deck and watch the last of England slip by. (or in the Ctow's Nest, if inclement).

And just think your cruise has only just begun.You will have a wonderful time.

You will want to book again as soon as that sad day back in Southampton arrives.

Some Suggestions:
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1. Unless you really have to, avoid the reception desk on embarkation day and disembarkation day.

2. Avoid queues to leave the ship by avoiding the gangway for the first couple of hours in port/at anchor (unless you're on a tour).

3. The Fish Main course as a starter if none of the "regular" starters tickles your taste buds. 

4. Order wine for dinner at one of the bars during the afternoon (or via the Wine Line). Your choice should then be ready and waiting at your table when you arrive. For wine/food matches, dinner menus are available to scrutinise at some bars.

5. Without going daft, maximise on the Cocktail of the Day ... good value.

6. Champagne at £2.75 (?) a glass at departure is good value.

7. Do not rely on the library to be able to supply your travel book needs for destinations on your cruise. They are for reference only and cannot be removed from the library. Bring your own Baedeker, Insight, Rough Guide, etc.

8. Do not rely on the library to supply the latest blockbuster from J.K.Rowling, John Grisham, Stephen King, etc. They will have a copy or two, but 500 other passengers are also relying on reading a copy during the cruise. Bring your own.

9. If you go to a film in the evening after dinner - beware - unlike a shoreside cinema, this auditorium gently sways - the combination of warm sun all day, a beer or two at lunch (wasn't that curry lovely?) two or three cocktails of the day, six course dinner, a bottle of Rioja, and an Irish Coffee, and the darkness of the cinema will induce narcosis. But don't be embarrassed - you are not alone. The cinema in the evening sometimes reminds me of Paul McCartney's "Frog Chorus" - the sound of syncopated sequence snoring!

10. (As per 9 above) try not to do this in the show lounge / theatre - especially if the cheeky comedian is performing. It must be either funny or disheartening to the hard-working, slick company singers and dancers when confronted with "An Ocean of Faces with Mouths Wide Open and Eyes Wide Shut"

Tom & Nicole in the cinema aren't really there!

11. If you are lunching up on deck, it is a good idea to secure your wine / beverages before you go to make your selections of food.

12. Save most of the unpacking (unless you choose to travel very lightly) till when you retire tonight. Excepting 2n-4n party cruises, the 1st night after dinner is usually a fairly quiet affair with many people retiring early as "it's been a long day". If the weather is glorious in Southampton, get yourself into some deck wear and relax in a lounger up on top with a Pimms, a G&T, a cocktail, a glass champagne or whatever tickles your taste buds (for example get a tray of afternoon tea comestibles from the deck restaurant) for a couple of hours before attending the compulsory SAFETY DRILL c.16:15(?).

13. (Club Dining only) When you leave the cabin to explore the ship take your Dining room table card (which is in your cabin on arrival) and visit the restaurant at c.15:00 (a manager/maitre d will be in attendance). If you are not happy about the location of your table, its size or/and the sitting, there maybe the opportunity to change it. Likewise in the hopefully unlikely event of having the "table companions from hell" (most folks who cruise however are a nice bunch) get this sorted after your 1st dinner. (Only twice out of c.25 cruises have we done this: the 1st for environmental reasons - we were right by the waiters fast lane and revolving doors to the galley; the 2nd time after the main course and before dessert - yes they (the “companions”) were very bad!!!).

14. Forget about snappy cabin-service (room-service) on embarkation day. If you desire a bottle of champagne or/and nibbles for the departure up on your balcony order them as soon as you board and say you want them in your cabin ready for after the safety drill.

15. As I am a very early bird and my wife enjoys the luxury for her of a lie-in, I keep in contact with her during the morning a couple of times by using one of the bar or corridor telephones. This saves a lot of traipsing down the length of the ship and we don't have to waste time looking for each other and arranging where to meet for late breakfast or early lunch.

16. Do not feel that you need to book an excursion for every port or for all the day that you are in port. I personally feel that excursions are not the best value for money. The exception would be where there is a "must-see" that is a long way from the port or/and where public transport cannot be relied upon. If you are late getting back to the berth or tender point the ship will NOT wait for you unless you are on an official tour that has been delayed.

17. Do feel encouraged to linger on board when in port or at anchor. The ship takes on a different and not unwelcome ambiance with half or more of the passengers ashore. Remember all the facilities that you have already paid for are at hand, the service will be snappier and, other than in the most exceptional of destinations or establishments you will find little better ashore. To my mind spending a day onboard in a unremarkable port is the equal of a warm, languid sea-day. RELAX and forget about traffic, pollution, pick-pockets, paying out for this, that and the other, etc, etc.

18. Other than when the ship is very quiet it is nearly always quicker to use the stairways. That way you keep yourself trim (remember there's a lot of food morning, noon and night that's just there for the taking) and it helps free the lifts up for those less ambulant of folks.

19. On the last day (usually at sea) pack all but one of your cases as early as possible. That way you are free for most of the rest of the day – a day to savour the last of what will be one of the most memorable holidays you will ever take … and believe me … you WILL go on more P&O cruises but the 1st will ALWAYS be special!

20. You will standout as a Newcomer if:

a). You call the ship a boat.

b). You ask what "floor" is the cinema on.

c). You refer to your cabin as your room.

d). You call the bow the pointy end and the stern the blunt end.

e). You refer to the right hand or left hand side of the ship. Depending on whether you are facing the pointy or blunt end, both sides of the ship can be left and right. That is why there are the terms Starboard & Port.

f). At the safety drill on embarkation day you come in to the muster station wearing your life jacket.

g). When you see the Captain doing a tour of the ship and glad-handing passengers you call out "'Ere! Who's driving the Boat, Cap'n?"

h). Laugh out very loud at your own wit when you say to the Head Waiter after he has told you you are dining on the Captain’s Table “that you haven’t paid all this money just to end up eating with the crew.”

~~~

HAVE A WONDERFUL CRUISE!

|>o<|

Last cruise: Aurora R906 06/2009

Next cruise:

Oriana X003 03/2010

For cruise history view "Member's interests"

"The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there."

- LP Hartley - The Go-Between.

We have booked on Oceana the same itinerary but the cruise before you E012. This will be the second time on Oceana for us as we did the Panama Canal in 2008. I am in no doubt you will love this ship, Between now and when you go you will read negative comments my advise is ignore them. You made a good choice and believe me there is nothing not to like.

Brian