3/11/2007 Oceania Regatta

By KennethEden

• November 15, 2007

We flew to Ft. Lauderdale and drove to Miami. We stayed at another boutique hotel, the Habana Libra, on Collins Avenue, South Beach. This hotel excuded a real charm as one might expect to find in Old Havana..

We dined at Don Shulas Steak House, a bad copy of Mortons, in fact, not as good as Outback, and way - way over priced. The second night we hit upon Yucca, pronouced Juke-ah, a charming Cuban, haute cuisine place on Lincoln Rd. Dine al fresco, or in, and enjoy the fine food. Both mornings we ate breakfast at Jerrys Deli, formerly Pimpernicks and part of the Wolfie Cohen deli family, and very good. The art deco inside of Jerrys is beautiful.

I belong to a maritime historical society and as it turned out I was invited to a private luncheon on the Regatta the day of our cruise. All was wonderful and the ship was as stunning as last cruise.

We were led to our stateroom, by French dressed stewardessess, who knew us by name, there is a trick to that, they did not remember us personallay, but it made us feel good. We booked Concierge Level, and will never sail Oceania and not be Concierge Level again.

A bottle of Perrier Jouet from Oceania, and a bottle of Mumms Cordon Rouge from Mark, our trusted travel agent, were waiting. Our fridge was stocked with assorted spirits, beer, wines and sodas, a basket held snacks and pasckaged nuts, Evian water was on ice, a floral arrangement, and fruit were placed along the ice buckets. Upgraded toiletries were in the bath. Other concierge amenities were: use of a cashmere lap throws, for use on the large balcony, two costly tote bags, to keep as gifts,, free shoe shines, free DVD library use, and prefered reservations at Toscana and Polo, two visits, in place of the standard one per cabin. We KNEW this would be a wonderful 12 days.

The first night we dined at Toscana, on real Maine lobster, cooked in a manner that suited the passenger, or fra diablo, the restaurants trademark, of which I had two lobsters that night. We wenr back for more, and visited with new friends that we made on board. Polo was equally as grand, and the Main Dining Room was wonderful. All told, dining on Regatta is truly what you sail on the ship, and Oceania Cruises, for.

Our ports were wonderful, typical Caribbean ports, good shopping here, or a good beach there. We sail for the ship, and suince we have been to the Caribbean a million times, I kid you on thatt, we are rather blasse abouth the islands.

We learned and had this confirmed by e-mail when we got home, Oceania is building to btrand new sahips, due our in 2020 and 2011. Now, that is good news, indeed.