New luxury ship with the ‘finest cuisine at sea’ floats out

When Oceania Cruises was founded 21 years ago by two seasoned industry executives, it had excellence in cuisine as one of its pillars.

That raison d’etre has only strengthened. Today, Oceania’s mid-sized ships claim “the finest cuisine at sea” and while some other cruise lines might dispute that, there is no disputing the quality of Oceania’s food and drink offering – and there’s one chef for every 10 guests onboard.

One chef for every 10 passengers.

Oceania’s food-focused excursions are top-notch, too, some involving a trip to market with one of the chefs, followed by a return to the ship’s cooking school to whip up locally fuelled recipes.

Oceania’s new 1200-guest Allura Class vessels have 11 separate dining options, including five specialty restaurants.

The second of these has just hit the water. Allura has been floated from the Italian dry-dock where she was being constructed and moved to a fitting-out berth for the installation of her interiors.

Set to enter service in Trieste, Italy, on July 18, 2025, Allura is the eighth vessel for Oceania Cruises and follows her sister Allura-class ship, Vista, which launched in May 2023.

Allura – floating out for her fit-out.

Meanwhile, Oceania’s very first ship, the 1250-passenger Marina has just come back to service after an extensive refurbishment with all staterooms redone and the introduction of three new restaurants. “Marina is the first – the original – ship designed by foodies, built by foodies, for foodies,” says Oceania president, Frank A Del Rio.

With the extraordinary growth in culinary tourism that’s been projected by some pundits to only increase in the next decade, Oceania finds itself beautifully placed to sop up new foodie customers like a fluffy bread roll in a plate of jus.

Jason Worth, Oceania’s vice-president of international sales, says plenty of new-to-cruising food lovers are helping drive Oceania’s growth, and that includes Australians.

Sophisticated but casual.

“Not only do we have a nice returning guest demographic, we also have new people trying us out,” he says. “And the things that resonate in Australia are the relaxed atmosphere onboard and the food.”

He says Australians cruising with Oceania value not having to dress in tuxedos and ball gowns, or even ties, while enjoying the formal kind of dining experiences in Oceania’s Grand Dining Rooms and specialty dining restaurants, as well as having access to a range of more relaxed eating options.

Australians also value the fact that Oceania now includes beer and wine with lunch and dinner and offers a growing number of South Pacific itineraries.

“Because we have more ships now, we were able to reposition the ships so we actually have more South Pacific, more Tahiti itineraries next year,” Worth says.

“And Riviera, which is one of our O Class ships, the 1250-passenger ships, will be in Alaska in the northern summer. So that’s something new next year, in addition, of course, to Allura launching.”

See oceaniacruises.com