Oceania Cruises Newest Floating Beauty: The Allura

Last week Oceania Cruises added an eighth ship to its fleet, the beautiful, shiny new Allura. On her maiden voyage departing from Trieste and ending in Athens, this 804-foot, all-veranda stateroom ship has a 1,200-guest capacity in double occupancy, and spans 16 decks.

This seven-day voyage the ship was at capacity, however, due to Allura’s generous and expansive layout, plentiful public spaces, lounges, restaurants, and bars, she barely seemed half full. That delightful sensation was buttressed by uniformly excellent service delivered by 800-crew members hailing from 47 nations, reflecting a stellar guest-to-crew ratio of 3:2 with international flair.

Designed by Studio DADO

The Allura has a contemporary feel designed by Miami-based Studio DADO that is modern – never stark – and invitingly warm and comfortable. The Atrium’s curved stairs wrap around an enormous crystal chandelier resembling a two-story flowing and breathtaking sculpture. Public areas are all spacious and chic with comfortable textured seating at every turn. Clean lines, light marble, and a sense of panache prevail.  

Hallways have gray, blue, and white patterned carpets that mimic the high seas. Throughout the ship’s public areas is a museum-worthy art collection. There are several large and dramatic canvases by Daniel Brice, Margaret Ross Tolbert, and Tara Fernandez adding a sense of vogue. Several landings also have interesting swirling white marble sculptures that make any kind of haste ascending or descending the stairs literally impossible. In fact, you may wish to allocate time for art perusal lest you be hopelessly late wherever you’re headed.  

Stately and Serene Suites

Allura’s all-balcony staterooms are very generously sized across the board in all categories. The Concierge Solo Veranda stateroom measures 270-square feet. The Veranda and Concierge Veranda staterooms all measure 291-square feet. Larger Penthouse Suites range from 440-square feet up to Owners’ Suites that have a whopping 2,200 to 2,400-square feet.

I stayed in a Concierge Veranda stateroom decorated in a cream, taupe, and white color scheme with a 60-inch flatscreen television, double seating area and marble coffee table. The stateroom also had a small desk, plenty of strategically placed USB ports and outlets, and daily replenished minibar. Stateroom carpets are composed of natural, hypoallergenic, un-dyed wool and thus happily fragrant free. The seventh generation Tranquility mattresses are divine, and linens are woven with intoxicating 1000-count sheets making getting out of bed nearly impossible. The large balcony was furnished with enveloping chairs, a marble table perfect for holding champagne glasses and canapés, and a lounger that required afternoon naps.

The enormous gray and white Carrera-style marble bathroom had more than double the cabinet and storage space than those of similar suite categories on this size of ship. The double-sized walk-in shower possessed easy-to-operate, intuitively controlled rain and standard shower heads, Aquamar amenities, and incredibly soft, single-twist, cotton-ribbed towels. Staterooms also have the most user-friendly climate control mechanism I’ve encountered at sea.

Foodies Rejoice

Oceania Cruises always features some of the finest cuisine at sea and the Allura continues with that tradition. The Allura has a mind-boggling one chef for every eight passengers, thus food boredom simply isn’t on the menu. This high ratio explains in part while the food onboard is so consistently delicious. As Executive Culinary Director Chef Alexis Quaretti explained to me, “The biggest challenge on a ship this size is to always provide our passengers with consistency. We accomplish this by continually perfecting our recipes and having an extremely well-trained staff.” Without a doubt that lofty challenge has been successful met. And then some.

Oceania’s signature restaurants are the Italian Toscana, the pan-Asian Red Ginger with new Japanese-Peruvian dishes known as Nikkei, and the Polo Grill classic steakhouse. There are also the staple favorites: the Grand Dining Room which now boasts 270 new recipes, the Terrace Café, Waves Grill, and the innovative Aquamar Kitchen healthy concept eatery. These are are now joined by additional and stellar dining options.      

Allura’s new reimagined signature French restaurant Jacques, is named for fabled, storied chef Jacques Pépin, Oceania’s first culinary director. Jacques not only has classically prepared escargot, Dover sole, and lobster Thermidor, among other marvelous dishes, but also has contemporary takes on classics such as hand-cut beef tartar deftly prepared them table side making them also experiential. The cheese selections in unique, dome-shaped trolly may swear you off of sweets for dessert. At least for one night.

The new Crêperie – located near the beloved Baristas serving fine gourmet coffees and their signature and addictive “crema,” a marvelous frozen, creamy mocha bit of heaven and Bakery – is enticing in the extreme with its sweet aroma. Serving authentic French crepes, its masterpieces are the Belgian Waffles and the irresistible Bubble Waffles enveloping delectable soft-serve ice cream sundaes. Did I mention the soft-serve frozen yogurt in crunchy waffle cones?

Also launched with Allura is the new Gérard Bertrand Cellar Masters wine-paired luncheons with sommelier-curated, multi-course, mouth-watering menus. Experiencing this was akin to a pilgrimage into the very heart of the perfect marriage of food to wine, all explained by passionate sommeliers and the talented chefs who grace the kitchen. Despite all these new options, Horizon’s classic afternoon tea in Horizon’s Lounge is not to be missed.

Keeping in Shape & Wellness

Allura’s Senior Executive Chef Sebyton Fernandes and his team are skilled beyond measure. So I made good use of Allura’s excellent fitness center. Fortunately, the Fitness Center is so appealing a few passengers even joined me. It’s open 24-hours, has floor-to-ceiling windows, state-of-the-art TechnoGym equipment, weight machines, free weights, and a separate indoor cycling room with TechnoGym bikes. There are several fitness classes daily including spinning, stretching, yoga and Pilates. For those needing an extra push, a personal trainer can be reserved.

Allura’s Aquamar Spa & Vitality Center is an oasis of calm with 11 treatment rooms including an unusual quartz bed and a full menu of spa treatments. There’s also a medical spa offering physician-administered Thermage skin tightening treatments, Micro-needling, Restylane and Dysport fillers, as well as traditional Chinese acupuncture by a doctor of Oriental Medicine. A light-filled beauty and nail salon and barber station with a complete service roster is another haven of relaxation. The adjacent Spa Terrace has two outdoor Jacuzzis and a Thalassotherapy, jetted mineral water pool and is a wonderful place to relax. The large main pool area has comfortable loungers, plenty of shade, and two more jacuzzis.

Enlightening Excursions

Oceania is destination-focused and at each port-of-call choices abound to meet guests’ gamut of interests, including food, wines, culture, art, and history. All are led by local expert guides. 

While I generally prefer to go off wandering and exploring on my own, I opted to join an Oceania Exclusive offering – limited to 16 passengers – walking tour of Croatia’ historic Rijeka. I was impressed by the depth and breadth of our local guide. She was not only passionate about her city – so much so she could have served as the city’s diplomate – but she also displayed intricate knowledge of local architecture, history, and a host of fun facts keeping guests engaged and interested throughout the tour’s duration.  

As Oceania is food-focused, it also hosts immersive, food forward, chef-led excursions with trips to local markets, restaurants, and destination-focused food, wine, and spirits tastings.

Onboard Learning Experiences

Allura’s expanded onboard Culinary Enrichment Program is housed in an airy, light filled cooking studio with 24 stations where cultural connoisseur and Executive Chef Kathryn Kelly and her delightful team teach informative, easy-to-learn courses. During an enjoyable, easy-to-learn class en route to Athens, several regional Greek specialities were made, happily along with a ginger spritz cocktail.

At the Artists Loft, in another inspiring, bright space with floor-to-ceiling windows, talented artists-in-residence can help channel one’s inner Chagall. The current artist-in-residence is the kindly Frank Hyder, who hosted daily classes, including watercolor painting, drawing, and mixed media. Several of his pieces are onboard gracing Martini’s Bar and the Terrace Café.

The LYNC Digital Center offers daily complimentary digital learning lasses ranging from smart phone technology to social media essentials, very helpful for the cyber-challenged among us.

For the pleasure of reading, Allura’s large library is an inviting and comfortable spot to to dive into gathering information about your next port of call, or to simply curl up with a good book. Floor-to-ceiling windows deliver stunning vistas to go with its well curated selection of books, guides, and other reading materials.

Whatever floats your boat, whether inspired food or excellent wine-paired meals prepared by some of the industry’s finest chefs, or intellectual curiosity to be satisfied by some of the world’s most desirable destinations and excursions, not to mention great onboard entertainment and top-notch service, cruising on Oceania’s new Allura will be a delight.

Julie L. Kessler is a journalist, attorney, and the author of the award-winning memoir: “Fifty-Fifty, The Clarity of Hindsight.” Her work has appeared in major publications around the world, including The L.A. Times, The S.F. Examiner, The Asia Times, The Jerusalem Post, The Vancouver Courier, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The Daily Journal, among many others. She can be reached at Julie@VagabondLawyer.com