Oceania Insignia - The best food I've ever eaten, oh and some cabins and stuff

I spent most of the past weekend in the car. On Saturday I spent four hours driving to and from Legoland Windsor with the kids and then on Sunday spent another four hours driving down to Dover to see the Oceania Insignia with another four hours coming back the next day.
Now that may well sound like a lot of driving to you but I'm here to tell you I'd go twice as far again for another lunch onboard an Oceania cruise ship. Not only do they offer the best food I've ever eaten at sea, I'd go so far as to say it's some of the best food I've eaten ever!
I was onboard the Insignias sister ship the Regatta last year and you can see a full pictorial tour of her by clicking here, (they're both very similar). Today's post will just be a highlight tour of what I think makes Oceania special.

Oceania - The Regatta

It's official, I'm absolutley exhausted! I've just got back from a day trip to the Oceania ship Regatta, where I was treated to a tour of the ship and given a free lunch- It's a hard job but I supose someones got to do it.

I breifly discussed Oceania yesterday, they're an American brand that pitch themselves as five star plus, but actualy end up getting rated by passengers as six star. Check out some reviews, they have a repeat business number of 40%, and we all know cruisers vote with their feet.

They're all about attention to luxurious detail onboard, from the large cabins, to the 700 thread Egyptian cotton sheets, (soon to be replaced by 1000 thread cotton sheets - that doesn't mean much to me but I felt the bedding and man was it comfy!), to the 28 day dry aged beef served at dinner.

I expected to find the ship quite stuffy and formal, not from what I had heard from past passengers but just from my own preconceptions of six star cruise liners, but they were anything but.

The best way to describe it is country club casual, elegant but relaxed,informal but still luxurious.

But enough of me going on, we all know a picture tells a thousand words so let me know what you think..............
Again ignore the dates on the photos, I still haven't figured out how to change the date on my camera.

Top tip of the week

I was chatting to a really nice lady on the phone yesterday when we got to discussing the pros and cons of six star luxury liners.

Should you save up and book one six star cruise, or have two or three four/five star cruises a year?
It was whilst discussing different six star cruise lines that I happened to look at some of Oceania’s prices. Because they don’t have many ships to the fleet their last minute deals aren’t fantastic, but if your booking for 2011 you can get yourself a 10 night cruise from Miami to Miami, cruise only on an inside cabin for just £859 per person or only £975 for an outside cabin. Thats brochure fare, without any past passenger discounts or any of our discounts.
Oceania pitch themselves as a five star plus cruise line, but in reality they end up being six star quality, and at these prices you'd have to be mad not to investigate them a bit more.
I’m actually off down to Southampton tomorrow to visit their Regatta ship so you’ll have to watch this space to see what I thought of her, but in the meantime check out Oceania 2011, trust me!

Happy cruising