Oceania Cruises’ new ship serves up culinary prowess on a more refined plate
Oceania Cruises is spreading out its largest tablecloth ever with the arrival of Oceania Vista, its first new ship in more than a decade set to spend the winter sailing season brining its culinary offerings on cruises out of Miami.
The 67,700-gross-ton, 1,200-guest ship that features 11 dining venues is the largest in the now seven-ship Oceania Cruises fleet, but only slightly over the line’s last two ships Marina and Riviera. A sister ship to Vista named Allura is due in 2025.
Oceania is the upper premium sister line to Norwegian Cruise Line and has looked to carve out a unique space focusing on both on-board offerings and destination excursions that cater to the gourmand while not growing too large for its target demographic.
“We really felt there was a huge space in between the premium brands who are actually moving more mass market because they were building bigger ships — Celebrity, Holland America, Princess,” said cruise line President Frank A. Del Rio. “They left their old premium formats and started going more contemporary so we kind of snuck in between.”
Vista builds on the line’s prowess, once again relying on menus from famed French chef Jacques Pépin, who has been the line’s executive culinary director for two decades, but guests might be surprised to not find his signature restaurant Jacques on board in favor of a new concept called Ember.
“Jacques is not really out in a way because we are cautious of what we have done by introducing Ember,” said Oceania Cruises’ Senior Culinary Director Alexis Quaretti.
Instead, his French dishes can be found in the main dining room with a different appetizer, entrée and dessert every day, enough for a 14-day sailing.
That opened up the space to create Ember, which is built to resemble the tasting room of a Napa Valley vineyard serving American farm-to-table fare including dishes conceived by Pépin. Ember’s menu includes things like blackened crab cakes with corn salsa and tomato sauce; roasted beetroot salad with goat cheese, shallots, green beans and hazelnuts; porcini-dusted bone-in ribeye with foie gras-truffle demi-glace and breadcrumb-crusted tomato Provençale; and roasted apple tart with served with San Francisco favorite Humphry Slocombebrand sweet summer corn ice cream.
Also lending her celebrity name to the ship is godmother Giada De Laurentiis, who has for now two signature dishes in the ship’s Italian offering Toscana as well as in the Grand Dining Room including her specialty of lemon spaghetti with jumbo shrimp.
Another new venue to Vista is the Aquamar Kitchen, a healthy concept that combines a family-style table setting that spills over into al fresco outdoor seating.
While it has make-your-own poke bowls and four kinds of avocado toast, there is plenty of indulgence to found within the menu as well such as the butternut squash soup, yellowfin tuna tacos with guacamole, crunchy chicken sandwich with chipotle mayo and the buffalo mozzarella tomato basil panini.
For those who enjoy learning the art of cooking, the ship offers the largest-ever version of The Culinary Center, now with 24 individual cooking stations. For an extra cost, those on board can partake from dozens of new options pulling from a fleetwide library of more than 100 classes designed by the line’s culinary enrichment director and executive chef Kathryn Kelly.
Also key to Oceania’s footprint in the market are the unique culinary excursions offered at each of its ports of call, something Kelly and her team spend curating throughout the year.
Kelly said it’s designed to satisfy guests who think, “‘I’ve been to Florence and I’ve checked all the boxes. Now what I want to do is something a little different.”’
The line often sails to a variety of destinations skipped over by major cruise lines, often built around culinary adventures.
The Miami-based will visit ports including San Juan, Puerto Rico; Gustavia, St. Barts; Roseau, Dominica; Bridgetown, Barbados; St. George’s, Grenada; Castries, St. Lucia; St. John’s, Antigua; Fort-de-France, Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean and Costa Maya, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; Colon,
Ember is a new restaurant on board.
Panama; Santo Tomas, Guatemala; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica and Belize City, Belize in the Western Caribbean.
The ship begins its winter run Nov. 19 and runs through the end of March.