The ship that came under pirate fire
In November 2008, in the Gulf of Aden, the Oceania Nautica met two Somali
pirate skiffs. The master manoeuvred at full speed. The ship took gunfire. None
of the six hundred and eighty-four guests or four hundred and one crew was
hurt, and the ship carried on to her next port. That episode appeared nowhere
on this page.
The hull
Keel laid 22 March 1999, launched 31 July, delivered 7 January 2000 by
Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire. Thirty thousand two hundred and
seventy-seven gross tons, one hundred and eighty-one metres, six hundred and
eighty-four guests at double occupancy and up to eight hundred and twenty-four
at maximum, three hundred and eighty-six crew, nine accessible decks.
She was first named R Five, then sailed under the trade name Blue Dream from
2002 to 2004, before becoming the Oceania Nautica in 2005.
Her final sailing has a date
15 October 2027. After that the hull goes into refit and returns in late
2027 as the Oceania Aurelia. It is the
same hull, not an additional ship. The point is worth making, because
our own site carried two pages selling the same fifty-four departure dates, on
the same days, under two different names.
The refit cuts capacity from six hundred and eighty-four to five hundred
guests, served by four hundred crew, and recuts the interior into two hundred
and thirty-eight suites. What survives of the Nautica after that is mostly the
hull, the machinery and the Grand Dining Room.
Le nombre de cabines amenagees pour le fauteuil roulant n est
publie pour aucun navire de cette flotte. Nous le verifions a la reservation
plutot que d avancer un chiffre.
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
Her sisters in the series are the
Oceania Insignia and the
Oceania Sirena. The fleet is otherwise
rebuilding around hulls twice the size.
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.