The Foodie’s Cruise Line Delivers
I have been wanting to sail with Oceania ever since I learned they are known as the foodie’s cruise line. I was finally able to make that happen when Janet and I sailed aboard Oceania Sirena to Cuba. First, though, a pronunciation note, because Oceania will apparently not let you board until you get it right: it’s “o-she-AH-nah.” There is apparently a silent “i” in there. Why they don’t spell it like it sounds is beyond me. And the ship, Sirena, is “see-REH-na” with a single roll on the r. All of this seems rather pretentious. Whatever. Pronunciation aside, the cruise was a remarkable experience — partly because of the ship, and partly because of the itinerary.
For what it’s worth, Sirena and I have history. Oceania purchased her from Princess Cruise Lines, who had previously purchased her from the now-defunct Renaissance Cruise Line. Janet and I both sailed aboard Sirena’s sister ship back in 2004 when she was the Tahitian Princess. Janet has also sailed another of the Renaissance ships, Fathom Cruise Line’s Adonia, on her first Cuba trip. Sirena is every bit as elegant as I remember from the Tahitian Princess — dark wood tones, unhurried atmosphere, the kind of ship that rewards those who slow down to notice things.
By the Numbers
The 1.7:1 passenger-to-crew ratio deserves a moment’s attention. Mass-market cruise ships run upwards of 3:1 — sometimes worse. Our recent Crystal cruise ran 1.5:1. Oceania sits comfortably between the two, and the difference in service quality is perceptible within the first few hours aboard. Our cruise was nearly full at 670 passengers. The only time I was aware of being on a full ship was at the breakfast buffet, and that story has its own paragraph.
The Ship
Layout and Navigation
Sirena has nine public decks and is not difficult to navigate — a welcome contrast to ships that require a map and a guide. Public areas start on Deck 3 with the tender boarding area, move up to Deck 4 for the Destination Services and Reception desks, and the real activity begins on Deck 5. Decks 6 through 8 are all staterooms. Decks 9 through 11 handle the upper public areas: spa and fitness forward, pool and casual dining amidships and aft, and the Horizons lounge at the top.
The shallow draft of just under 20 feet allows Sirena to call at ports that larger ships can’t reach, and Oceania builds itineraries specifically around that capability. For Cuba, it was a meaningful advantage — the ability to berth in Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba rather than tendering from offshore.
Public Areas
Sirena lacks the variety of public venues you’d find on a megaship, but that’s not a design flaw — it’s a feature for the kind of traveler Oceania attracts. They aren’t looking for big. They love the intimate feel of small-ship cruising and are willing to trade the bells and whistles of a mass-market ship for a quieter, more refined experience.
Deck 5 is the social spine of the ship. The theater at the bow is a single-deck affair but perfectly proportioned for the ship. Martini’s bar starts in the casino and flows outward into a proper lounge. The casino itself is modest and non-smoking — a detail worth noting since the adjacent Martini’s is open-plan. Amidships you’ll find the ship’s shops and a sundries store. Moving aft, the Upper Hall at the top of the Grand Staircase offers a pair of comfortable lounges. Baristas, the bar and lounge adjacent to the main dining room, operates as a coffee bar by day and a piano bar before and after dinner in the evenings. It’s a genuinely pleasant place to settle in before dinner with a cocktail.
One honest observation: finding an open bar sometimes required consulting the daily program, which listed operating hours for all bars and restaurants. I found this mildly disorienting, being accustomed to ships where bars are open essentially around the clock. To be fair, this is more a reflection of the different rhythms of small-ship cruising than a genuine inconvenience. I was, I will admit, too lazy to read the daily program until it mattered.
On the upper decks, the Waves Bar sits amidships on Deck 9 between the spa and the main pool area. The pool itself is modest — entirely appropriate for a 684-passenger ship — with two adjacent hot tubs. The lounge chair situation around the pool was insufficient, full stop. This is one of our few legitimate complaints about the ship’s design. There simply wasn’t enough space to meet demand, and Janet, for whom poolside sunbathing is an important part of any cruise vacation, noticed. The unstacked lounge chairs on the upper Sun Deck would have helped, but they were tied down and stacked for the entire voyage without apparent reason. It wasn’t stormy. It wasn’t particularly windy. I have no explanation.
The Waves Grill on the starboard side aft deserves specific recognition. The burgers are made from fresh ground beef — not the thin frozen patties that pass for burgers on mass-market ships — cooked to order, genuinely excellent. A different specialty sandwich appeared daily alongside the standard grill menu. The Waves Grill is one of those small things that signals the overall quality level of a ship’s kitchen operation, and Oceania’s kitchen passes that test.
The Patio on the port side aft and one enclosed room on Deck 11 are the ship’s two designated smoking areas. Given our Cuba itinerary, cigars were prevalent throughout. The ventilation was adequate.
The library on Deck 10 — dark wood shelves, overstuffed chairs, good light — reminded me immediately of the Tahitian Princess. On a port-intensive itinerary like Cuba we didn’t spend time there, but on a longer sea-day-heavy crossing it would be the best room on the ship. The Horizons Lounge forward on Deck 10 is a generous space served by its own bar, good for sea day gatherings and evening events. Deck 10 is also home to Tuscan Steak and Red Ginger, Sirena’s two specialty restaurants, each with its own small bar.
The Buffet Situation
The Terrace Café on Deck 9 is the ship’s buffet, and it needs to be addressed separately because the layout is genuinely problematic. Three serving lines converge in the center of the space: two parallel lines running port and starboard, each ending in a carvery station — and here is the problem — serving different meats. The convergence point where all three lines meet is barely wide enough for one person with a full plate. Add people trying to preview the selections before committing to a line, the occasional cutter, and the general inattentiveness that characterizes any buffet crowd, and what you get is a traffic situation that would challenge a FEMA logistics coordinator.
After two days I gave up on the buffet entirely and stuck to the main dining room and the Waves Grill, which is unfortunate because the food at the Terrace Café was excellent. One genuinely positive note: the buffet is not self-serve. Staff serves everything. This slows the line and contributes to the congestion, but I would rather deal with congestion than watch a fellow passenger handle a bread roll with their hands, reconsider it, and return it to the serving dish. I have seen this. It does not improve with time in the memory.
The Staterooms
Sirena’s staterooms are smaller than you might expect from an upscale cruise line. The standard inside cabin runs 160 square feet; the entry-level deluxe oceanview is 165 square feet — with a small number of obstructed-view oceanview cabins on Deck 6 at 143 square feet looking directly at the lifeboats. Verandah cabins are 216 square feet. Suites range from 322-square-foot Penthouses up to the three Owner’s Suites at 1,000 square feet each. The bathrooms are small by any measure — “water closet” is not an unfair description of the standard categories. Bulgari amenities, which is a nice touch, but there isn’t much room to put them.
The beds are marketed as “ultra-tranquility beds” featuring, according to Oceania’s marketing team, 3,000 encapsulated micro-springs ensuring a peaceful night’s sleep with zero noise upon movement. I don’t know about the 3,000 springs. The bed was comfortable. That’s the relevant information.
Sirena is not particularly family-friendly by design, which is consistent with the brand’s demographic positioning. There is no dedicated children’s space, no youth programming, and only 20 of the 342 staterooms are designated quads. The number of connecting staterooms is also limited — 18 total, distributed between Verandah cabins and suites. There are only three handicap-accessible staterooms on the ship, all on Deck 4, and at the standard cabin size rather than the expanded footprint you’d find on ships designed with accessibility as a priority.
Dining
Oceania’s reputation rests on the food, and Sirena earns it. The main dining room operates on open seating with no reservations required, which is as refreshing as it sounds. The only evening we waited for a table was the first night of the cruise, when everyone boards simultaneously and descends on the dining room at opening. We corrected that by lingering over a Baristas cocktail until the rush cleared, and never waited again.
The food quality across the main dining room and the Waves Grill exceeded what I’ve experienced on any mass-market ship and held up well against premium lines. Oceania builds their culinary identity around the Canyon Ranch spa menus and The Grand Dining Room concept — fresh ingredients, classical technique, dishes that demonstrate genuine kitchen investment rather than production-scale shortcuts. The specialty restaurants, Tuscan Steak and Red Ginger, represent additional levels above that baseline.
Tuscan Steak is the Italian steakhouse, familiar in concept to anyone who’s dined at a serious steak restaurant in Italy — antipasti, pasta course, prime cuts, the works. Red Ginger is the Asian specialty restaurant, and the menu reflects a genuine pan-Asian sensibility rather than the lowest-common-denominator “Asian fusion” that serves as a category placeholder on most cruise ships. Both are included in the cruise fare at no additional charge — Oceania’s model is all-inclusive for specialty dining — with reservations available for each restaurant twice per sailing.
Entertainment
Entertainment on Sirena was not the point of this sailing, and I say that without apology. A string quartet and a piano player performed throughout the day and in several venues in the evenings. There were a few feature production shows in the main theater. The Cruise Director arranged films on several evenings with bags of freshly popped popcorn at the ready. Janet and I came close to catching a film one night but found the theater empty, so we took the popcorn back to the cabin instead and watched a movie there. Each cabin has a DVD player and the reception desk maintains a lending library. The entertainment infrastructure is genuinely modest by mass-market standards and I’m at peace with that. The megaships have spoiled us with full Broadway productions and I recognize the comparison is unfair to a ship carrying 684 passengers. Sirena doesn’t try to compete on that axis, which is probably the correct strategic decision.
Janet and I thoroughly enjoyed the Sirena experience. The minor irritations — the buffet layout, the lounge chair situation, the occasionally-closed bar — were fewer and smaller than what we typically encounter on mainstream lines. The food was exceptional, the staff was attentive, and the intimate scale of the ship produced a genuinely different kind of cruise. We already put a deposit down on a future Oceania sailing. The only unresolved question is which itinerary. We are working on it.
The Foodie’s Cruise Line Delivers
I have been wanting to sail with Oceania ever since I learned they are known as the foodie’s cruise line. I was finally able to make that happen when Janet and I sailed aboard Oceania Sirena to Cuba. First, though, a pronunciation note, because Oceania will apparently not let you board until you get it right: it’s “o-she-AH-nah.” There is apparently a silent “i” in there. Why they don’t spell it like it sounds is beyond me. And the ship, Sirena, is “see-REH-na” with a single roll on the r. All of this seems rather pretentious. Whatever. Pronunciation aside, the cruise was a remarkable experience — partly because of the ship, and partly because of the itinerary.
For what it’s worth, Sirena and I have history. Oceania purchased her from Princess Cruise Lines, who had previously purchased her from the now-defunct Renaissance Cruise Line. Janet and I both sailed aboard Sirena’s sister ship back in 2004 when she was the Tahitian Princess. Janet has also sailed another of the Renaissance ships, Fathom Cruise Line’s Adonia, on her first Cuba trip. Sirena is every bit as elegant as I remember from the Tahitian Princess — dark wood tones, unhurried atmosphere, the kind of ship that rewards those who slow down to notice things.
By the Numbers
The 1.7:1 passenger-to-crew ratio deserves a moment’s attention. Mass-market cruise ships run upwards of 3:1 — sometimes worse. Our recent Crystal cruise ran 1.5:1. Oceania sits comfortably between the two, and the difference in service quality is perceptible within the first few hours aboard. Our cruise was nearly full at 670 passengers. The only time I was aware of being on a full ship was at the breakfast buffet, and that story has its own paragraph.
The Ship
Layout and Navigation
Sirena has nine public decks and is not difficult to navigate — a welcome contrast to ships that require a map and a guide. Public areas start on Deck 3 with the tender boarding area, move up to Deck 4 for the Destination Services and Reception desks, and the real activity begins on Deck 5. Decks 6 through 8 are all staterooms. Decks 9 through 11 handle the upper public areas: spa and fitness forward, pool and casual dining amidships and aft, and the Horizons lounge at the top.
The shallow draft of just under 20 feet allows Sirena to call at ports that larger ships can’t reach, and Oceania builds itineraries specifically around that capability. For Cuba, it was a meaningful advantage — the ability to berth in Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba rather than tendering from offshore.
Public Areas
Sirena lacks the variety of public venues you’d find on a megaship, but that’s not a design flaw — it’s a feature for the kind of traveler Oceania attracts. They aren’t looking for big. They love the intimate feel of small-ship cruising and are willing to trade the bells and whistles of a mass-market ship for a quieter, more refined experience.
Deck 5 is the social spine of the ship. The theater at the bow is a single-deck affair but perfectly proportioned for the ship. Martini’s bar starts in the casino and flows outward into a proper lounge. The casino itself is modest and non-smoking — a detail worth noting since the adjacent Martini’s is open-plan. Amidships you’ll find the ship’s shops and a sundries store. Moving aft, the Upper Hall at the top of the Grand Staircase offers a pair of comfortable lounges. Baristas, the bar and lounge adjacent to the main dining room, operates as a coffee bar by day and a piano bar before and after dinner in the evenings. It’s a genuinely pleasant place to settle in before dinner with a cocktail.
One honest observation: finding an open bar sometimes required consulting the daily program, which listed operating hours for all bars and restaurants. I found this mildly disorienting, being accustomed to ships where bars are open essentially around the clock. To be fair, this is more a reflection of the different rhythms of small-ship cruising than a genuine inconvenience. I was, I will admit, too lazy to read the daily program until it mattered.
On the upper decks, the Waves Bar sits amidships on Deck 9 between the spa and the main pool area. The pool itself is modest — entirely appropriate for a 684-passenger ship — with two adjacent hot tubs. The lounge chair situation around the pool was insufficient, full stop. This is one of our few legitimate complaints about the ship’s design. There simply wasn’t enough space to meet demand, and Janet, for whom poolside sunbathing is an important part of any cruise vacation, noticed. The unstacked lounge chairs on the upper Sun Deck would have helped, but they were tied down and stacked for the entire voyage without apparent reason. It wasn’t stormy. It wasn’t particularly windy. I have no explanation.
The Waves Grill on the starboard side aft deserves specific recognition. The burgers are made from fresh ground beef — not the thin frozen patties that pass for burgers on mass-market ships — cooked to order, genuinely excellent. A different specialty sandwich appeared daily alongside the standard grill menu. The Waves Grill is one of those small things that signals the overall quality level of a ship’s kitchen operation, and Oceania’s kitchen passes that test.
The Patio on the port side aft and one enclosed room on Deck 11 are the ship’s two designated smoking areas. Given our Cuba itinerary, cigars were prevalent throughout. The ventilation was adequate.
The library on Deck 10 — dark wood shelves, overstuffed chairs, good light — reminded me immediately of the Tahitian Princess. On a port-intensive itinerary like Cuba we didn’t spend time there, but on a longer sea-day-heavy crossing it would be the best room on the ship. The Horizons Lounge forward on Deck 10 is a generous space served by its own bar, good for sea day gatherings and evening events. Deck 10 is also home to Tuscan Steak and Red Ginger, Sirena’s two specialty restaurants, each with its own small bar.
The Buffet Situation
The Terrace Café on Deck 9 is the ship’s buffet, and it needs to be addressed separately because the layout is genuinely problematic. Three serving lines converge in the center of the space: two parallel lines running port and starboard, each ending in a carvery station — and here is the problem — serving different meats. The convergence point where all three lines meet is barely wide enough for one person with a full plate. Add people trying to preview the selections before committing to a line, the occasional cutter, and the general inattentiveness that characterizes any buffet crowd, and what you get is a traffic situation that would challenge a FEMA logistics coordinator.
After two days I gave up on the buffet entirely and stuck to the main dining room and the Waves Grill, which is unfortunate because the food at the Terrace Café was excellent. One genuinely positive note: the buffet is not self-serve. Staff serves everything. This slows the line and contributes to the congestion, but I would rather deal with congestion than watch a fellow passenger handle a bread roll with their hands, reconsider it, and return it to the serving dish. I have seen this. It does not improve with time in the memory.
The Staterooms
Sirena’s staterooms are smaller than you might expect from an upscale cruise line. The standard inside cabin runs 160 square feet; the entry-level deluxe oceanview is 165 square feet — with a small number of obstructed-view oceanview cabins on Deck 6 at 143 square feet looking directly at the lifeboats. Verandah cabins are 216 square feet. Suites range from 322-square-foot Penthouses up to the three Owner’s Suites at 1,000 square feet each. The bathrooms are small by any measure — “water closet” is not an unfair description of the standard categories. Bulgari amenities, which is a nice touch, but there isn’t much room to put them.
The beds are marketed as “ultra-tranquility beds” featuring, according to Oceania’s marketing team, 3,000 encapsulated micro-springs ensuring a peaceful night’s sleep with zero noise upon movement. I don’t know about the 3,000 springs. The bed was comfortable. That’s the relevant information.
Sirena is not particularly family-friendly by design, which is consistent with the brand’s demographic positioning. There is no dedicated children’s space, no youth programming, and only 20 of the 342 staterooms are designated quads. The number of connecting staterooms is also limited — 18 total, distributed between Verandah cabins and suites. There are only three handicap-accessible staterooms on the ship, all on Deck 4, and at the standard cabin size rather than the expanded footprint you’d find on ships designed with accessibility as a priority.
Dining
Oceania’s reputation rests on the food, and Sirena earns it. The main dining room operates on open seating with no reservations required, which is as refreshing as it sounds. The only evening we waited for a table was the first night of the cruise, when everyone boards simultaneously and descends on the dining room at opening. We corrected that by lingering over a Baristas cocktail until the rush cleared, and never waited again.
The food quality across the main dining room and the Waves Grill exceeded what I’ve experienced on any mass-market ship and held up well against premium lines. Oceania builds their culinary identity around the Canyon Ranch spa menus and The Grand Dining Room concept — fresh ingredients, classical technique, dishes that demonstrate genuine kitchen investment rather than production-scale shortcuts. The specialty restaurants, Tuscan Steak and Red Ginger, represent additional levels above that baseline.
Tuscan Steak is the Italian steakhouse, familiar in concept to anyone who’s dined at a serious steak restaurant in Italy — antipasti, pasta course, prime cuts, the works. Red Ginger is the Asian specialty restaurant, and the menu reflects a genuine pan-Asian sensibility rather than the lowest-common-denominator “Asian fusion” that serves as a category placeholder on most cruise ships. Both are included in the cruise fare at no additional charge — Oceania’s model is all-inclusive for specialty dining — with reservations available for each restaurant twice per sailing.
Entertainment
Entertainment on Sirena was not the point of this sailing, and I say that without apology. A string quartet and a piano player performed throughout the day and in several venues in the evenings. There were a few feature production shows in the main theater. The Cruise Director arranged films on several evenings with bags of freshly popped popcorn at the ready. Janet and I came close to catching a film one night but found the theater empty, so we took the popcorn back to the cabin instead and watched a movie there. Each cabin has a DVD player and the reception desk maintains a lending library. The entertainment infrastructure is genuinely modest by mass-market standards and I’m at peace with that. The megaships have spoiled us with full Broadway productions and I recognize the comparison is unfair to a ship carrying 684 passengers. Sirena doesn’t try to compete on that axis, which is probably the correct strategic decision.
Janet and I thoroughly enjoyed the Sirena experience. The minor irritations — the buffet layout, the lounge chair situation, the occasionally-closed bar — were fewer and smaller than what we typically encounter on mainstream lines. The food was exceptional, the staff was attentive, and the intimate scale of the ship produced a genuinely different kind of cruise. We already put a deposit down on a future Oceania sailing. The only unresolved question is which itinerary. We are working on it.