This ship does not exist yet, and it is the Oceania Nautica
Two things belong before everything else, because this page said neither.
The first: the Oceania Aurelia enters service in late 2027. She has not
sailed under that name.
The second: it is the same hull as the
Oceania Nautica, rebuilt and renamed, not
an additional ship. When we measured, both pages carried the same fifty-four
departure dates, on the same days, including a departure on 30 August 2026
attributed to a ship that will not exist until late 2027. That departure is the
Nautica's.
What the refit announces
Capacity drops from six hundred and eighty-four to five hundred guests,
served by four hundred crew. Two hundred and thirty-eight suites, of which one
hundred and seventy-nine are large: most exceed twenty-eight square metres and
the largest reach ninety-three. A butler is announced for every guest. To the
line's usual categories are added Oceania and Horizon suites, along with
oceanview and inside suites.
The Grand Dining Room, Polo Grill and Toscana are kept. Barista moves up to
Horizons and a bakery is added.
One caveat: the line announces five hundred guests, while an industry source
puts the figure below four hundred. We take the line's number and flag the
discrepancy rather than bury it.
What this ship is for
One hundred and eighty day world voyages and the long crossings of the 2028
and 2029 seasons. This is not a seven-night Caribbean ship. If that is what you
want, look instead at the Oceania Allura.
The number of wheelchair-accessible staterooms is published for
no ship in this fleet. We check it at booking rather than quote a figure.
What is included, and what changed in 2024
Start with what many people still think they know. The simply MORE
package, which added a shore excursion credit and an alcoholic beverage package
to the fare, ended on 30 September 2024. Its replacement,
Your World Included, applies to bookings created from 1 October 2024
for sailings in 2025 and later. It gives more in some respects and less in
others.
What it adds: shipboard gratuities are now included for every guest
everywhere, where before they came only with certain regions or loyalty
programmes. What it removes: the excursion credit and the alcoholic beverage
package are no longer granted automatically. A guest who booked with this line
before autumn 2024 therefore arrives with an idea that is no longer accurate.
The rest of the fare is stable and it is substantial. Speciality restaurants
are included, with no cover charge, and this line makes that its central
argument. In-suite dining is included. Starlink Wi-Fi is included and
unlimited. Soft drinks, speciality coffees, teas, still and sparkling water,
juices, smoothies and ice cream are included. So are group fitness classes and
laundry service.
Shore excursions and alcoholic drinks are paid separately, or bought as a
package before departure. Ask your advisor exactly what your booking carries,
because two files on the same ship may not include the same things depending on
their date.
Meanwhile, in the fleet
The fleet holds two recent and markedly larger hulls, and two
other survivors of the 1998 series, among them the
Oceania Sirena, leaving on 24 March 2028.
Booking from Quebec
The contract is with Oceania Cruises S. de R.L., headquartered in Miami, and
the ships fly the flag of the Marshall Islands. A claim for personal injury,
illness or death goes to the United States District Court for the Southern
District of Florida in Miami, or to a Miami-Dade County court. Every
other claim goes to binding arbitration before National Arbitration
and Mediation in Miami, and the contract imposes a class-action waiver. Only
small claims filed in Miami-Dade County escape that clause.
The deadlines differ by claim type, and the second one surprises people. Six
months' written notice and one year to sue, for personal injury. But
thirty days' notice after the cruise ends for any other claim,
and six months to act. Damaged luggage, a service not delivered, a cancelled
call: thirty days from disembarkation. Baggage liability is capped, and the cap
rises only on a declaration of value with a fee attached. The Athens Convention
applies to international cruises calling at neither a US nor a European port,
with its own limits.
The carrier reserves the right to change the date or time of sailing, the
port of embarkation or the destination, to shorten the cruise or substitute the
ship, without notice and without compensation, except as the law requires.
Nothing establishes a Quebec licence for it. Your protection comes from here:
Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from the Office de la protection du
consommateur, your payments pass through a trust account, and your departure is
covered by the compensation fund for travel agency customers.