Riviera first night questions

Hi all.

We will be on our first cruise in June, and I'm wondering if Oceania do anything special the first night, in the dining rooms or about the ship.

We're thinking of doing La Reserve the first night as there are only two options, but I don't want to miss anything important or fun.

Also, Is La Reserve very over the top, as far as amount of food and wine? I'm concerned about feeling unwell the next day if it is too much.

There is a muster drill that all must attend. Many of the cruisers are quite tired from their travel and just want to eat and get to bed the first night.

Hi all.

We will be on our first cruise in June, and I'm wondering if Oceania do anything special the first night, in the dining rooms or about the ship.

We're thinking of doing La Reserve the first night as there are only two options, but I don't want to miss anything important or fun.

Also, Is La Reserve very over the top, as far as amount of food and wine? I'm concerned about feeling unwell the next day if it is too much.

I am surprised they have La Reserve scheduled for the first night. As other poster said most folks are tired from travel, then there is muster, then you may not have your luggage unpacked to dress for this special dinner. I would not do LaReserve first night as I want to be awake enough to enjoy the wonderful food and wine. The venue is only open on certain nights not every night.

We ate at La Réserve for the first time last month. The food and wine were terrific. Basically I tend to stay away from "wine pairing" menus because I find that the wines are often not what I would order and one has no choice. In this instance though I was really delighted that we had gone there. Everything was perfect or close to.

You start off with a Kir Royale, sitting around a large round table outside the restaurant. You are seated for the apéritif with the people who will be your table-mates for dinner (very clever that as conversations get started and you get to know them before sitting down). We had the Odyssey Menu 7 courses plus "gourmandises" at the end. The presentation and taste were uniformly excellent. Servings are of course very small and I did not feel that I had eaten too much when the dinner was over.

We arrived there at 1930 and left somewhere around 2245. If you don't want to spend that much time at the table then better not do it! We loved it...

La Reserve is a wonderful and elegant experience. The food and wine are lovely and the service is knowledgeable and attentive. While there is plenty to eat and drink, it is more about the quality and pairing than about quantity. I don't think there would be any reason to overdo it.

One thing to keep in mind is that you may be able to procure an extra reservation for one of the specialty restaurants for the first night once you get on board. They often are not fully booked for that night. So, if there's another La Reserve night available to you, perhaps you'd want to book the experience later in your trip. Enjoy your first cruise!

Thank you for all your answers. It's weird that they have only put le Reserve the first two nights of our cruise. I would much prefer to do it mid-cruise.

We are staying in Barcelona for 4 nights pre-cruise, so we won't be tired, but I didn't want to miss the fun if there was something on in the main dining room, or a welcome show or anything.

If we do it the second night instead, we have an early tour the next morning, which is a long day tour with lots of walking. We do degustations a lot, and I know from experience that sometime the mix of wines can make me feel off the next day depending on how rich the foods are, so I was trying to avoid that.

It does look like neither night is the best option though.

If you are getting this information about the first two nights only from the website, you might want to call Customer Service at O. I did that when no evenings at La Reserve seemed to be offering the newer Odyssey menu - discovered that it was indeed scheduled for mid cruise and was able to make the reservation during that phone call. Just a thought...

When I booked La Reserve, certain menus were only available on certain nights. It was booked up very early in the reservation system. Sometimes when the venue books full mid cruise, they will add days early on. My advice is to,call and then book whatever is available!

We've called, got a message machine and awaiting a call back. The joys of being in Australia I guess. Will wait to see if we hear anything an if not will have to go through our tavel agent to get an answer

Hi all.

We will be on our first cruise in June, and I'm wondering if Oceania do anything special the first night, in the dining rooms or about the ship.

No. It's business as usual, and the final night as well...no flaming baked Alaska parade. So nothing to miss by dining in a specialty restaurant.

Have a fabulous cruse...I know you will.

Frankly, imo, the more often you can avoid the main dining room, the better.

Frankly, imo, the more often you can avoid the main dining room, the better.

It might be fairer if you bracketed that statement with the disclaimer that your personal dislike of large dining rooms in general makes your opinion somewhat impartial when it comes to any large venue.

As it stands, your remark is reminiscent of:

"I hate broccoli, and I'm glad that I do, because if I didn't hate it, I might eat it

- and I hate it".

Frankly, imo, the more often you can avoid the main dining room, the better.

We avoided the MDR on our Crossing last year - but with 28 days - mixed it in somewhat. We frequented The Terrace Cafe when we did not/could not do the specialties.

This last Marina Cruise we went on the Captain's Cocktail night when the menu was a special one and blew our socks off. So we went back a few more times. Each time we had a great service team and the food was just as good as everywhere else.

Interesting about the main dining room. We almost always avoid it on any cruise line and have never dined in it on O and much prefer the Terrace Cafe for al fresco dining after a long tour day, usually in the Med. However, this time we were on Regatta in Alaska and the Terrace is a bit chilly. On sea days, Terrace seemed a bit crowded due to the chilly weather and a smaller ship than Riviera.

Well, I must say that we decided to try lunch in the main dining room and it was delightful, not crowded, very elegant and so nice that we actually tried breakfast and another lunch. Needless to say, I would do it again and again!! It was very nice and the service was exceptional.

My disclaimer is that I dislike buffets, crowds mingling for foods, some folks cutting in line, waiting in line for a grilled item, hunting for tables, occasionally losing a table, and the hustle and bustle in general.

That said, I have a really hard time understanding why anyone (except wripro ;)) would avoid the main dining room on any cruise line, especially on a foodie line like Oceania. Beautiful surroundings (again, except in wripro's opinion, who thinks the MDR is a giant warehouse), elegant service, brilliant conversation with almost every fellow guest we've met, food cooked a la minute, and as others have said, just as good as anywhere on the ship -- especially the Terrace, which generally serves the same menu as the GDR, unless you want to wait in line for the grill.

Granted, the GDR is slower than the Terrace, but no slower than the specialties, and what else do you have to do, anyway? We look on dinner in the GDR as one of the highlights of our day. Of course, we just don't get the opportunity to dine this way at home, one of the reasons we cruise.

As I've said before, by the time you have dined in the various specialties 30 or 40 times with menus that don't change, the novelty is worn off.

So, there you have it -- essentially, I'm just as biased as opinionated as my friend wripro...:D

I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that as usual I agree with Don!

We go back to Renaissance days when we absolutely preferred the GDR to the specialty restaurants (only Polo and Toscana on those days). On Ren, there were times when we were called, begging us to book one of the other. Because we had not!

But we liked the menu choices in the GDR and weren't always happy with Polo or Toscana.

That has really continued for us, although on Marina (haven't been on Riviera yet but I don't consider it to be a different ship) we will book Jacques (our favorite) as well as Polo and Toscana, generally once, and probably NOT Red Ginger because we are more into Szechuan food which is different from "Asian fusian". Not that we dislike RG, we just tend not to be that interested.

We've always enjoyed dining in the MDR. We like sharing a table with strangers -- we've met some great people that way. We like the changing menu with many choices. We really do NOT understand people who are determined to have every dinner in a specialty restaurant (if they can) where menus do NOT change.

Some have complained about slow service in the GDR, cold meals, etc. We haven't experienced that in nearly 20 years between Ren and Oceania. (I'm not comparing Ren with O, but many things are similar.)

And we do love breakfast in the GDR. If we have an early departure for a tour, we eat in our room. But on other days we go to the GDR for a leisurely breakfast, looking forward to the Eggs Benedict and the lamb chops!

For lunch, we check the menus ...sometimes we go up to Terrace, sometimes we stay in the GDR. And if we are on a tour that gets back late we head for Waves and the first thing I order is a Smoothie!

Plenty of choices ...

Mura

Mura, We try to have breakfast every morning in the GDR, even when there's a tour. A couple of years ago we sailed with Cenia and Glen (CAG) and Stand and Jim, and the 6 of us met nearly every morning in the GDR. On early tour days, we just informed the waiters that we had to meet a tour, and they made certain everything came smoothly and quickly.

Jim & Stan like sushi, so some evenings we would start in the Terrace for appetizers, then run downstairs to the GDR to get our real meal.

Betsy & Jim & Stan also like the GDR for lunch, so I let them talk me into it sometimes, but it's too much food at lunch for me. They usually have a burger or hotdog on the lunch menu, but I much prefer lunch at Waves, and would eat there every day if I could. Betsy likes to get some food in the Terrace, often pizza, then join me on the pool deck at Waves, with both of us finishing lunch with ice cream. I need the simple food at Waves; sometimes the gourmet food at dinner is a little too wacky for me. That's also why Polo is my favorite specialty; I can pronounce the names of all the food there :D:rolleyes:

I've been hooked on pasta with red sauce ever since I read an article years ago that 10 servings of red sauce every week will extend your life (it's the lycopene), so I order a pasta appetizer in the GDR almost every night.

I think I can count the times we've ordered breakfast in our cabin on my fingers, and I don't recall ever ordering from the room service menu at other times. We've had dinner in our suite a couple of times when we've had a penthouse, but most of the time we're not in a penthouse can don't have that privilege. Even the penthouse is really too small to enjoy dinner, in my opinion.

We avoided the MDR on our Crossing last year - but with 28 days - mixed it in somewhat. We frequented The Terrace Cafe when we did not/could not do the specialties.

 

This last Marina Cruise we went on the Captain's Cocktail night when the menu was a special one and blew our socks off. So we went back a few more times. Each time we had a great service team and the food was just as good as everywhere else.

Is the menu usually a special one on the night of the Captain's cocktail party? If so, is that always on a particular night of the cruise; just wondering, as am about to book speciality restaurants and would be sad to miss an amazing dinner in the MDR.

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Frankly, imo, the more often you can avoid the main dining room, the better.

...and on this side, the passenger who will go to any length to avoid the Terrace!

To each his/her own.

We are huge fans of the MDR and never have regretted eating there, any meal of the day. It is our preferred venue for breakfast and dinner. We also eat lunch there, but were finally persuaded to Waves for lunch and got to liking it, ate there about 50% of the days on our last cruise.

Deleted many, many snide remarks that I wanted to make here. LOL

Donna

Don't forget that there are always "sample" dishes from two of the specialities each night on the GDR menu - so if you see the Miso Glazed Sea Bass on there, go for it. I must say that the Miso Glazed Sea bass we had on the Regatta in the GDR was the absolute best we've had and they don't have Red Ginger!

Our first Oceania cruise was on the Regatta and we loved the GDR - it is a lovely room and the chairs and space around the tables is so comfortable.

The first time on the Riviera, I did not like the GDR one little bit! I am talking about the decor which I find very bland and not much of an atmosphere, I don't know what it is about that room but I wouldn't describe it as a giant warehouse! The food, however is very good, occasional service hiccups but nothing major.

No haggis though! Probably just as well as we don't want anyone from Hawaii to have a hissy fit! ;):p. Oh I must tell her I saw a sign today outside a butcher's shop selling Sweet Chilli and Irn Bru sausages - now that would be yuck or at the best very, very sweet!

We were seated once, just on the left of the starboard entrance and we felt we were watched and hovered over the whole time as the wait staff seem to congregate there so we asked to be moved and after that politely refused that section.

As for the Terrace, great for lunches, sometimes a bit of a bun fight - do these folk seriously think food is going to run out and my goodness some of them have sharp elbows and boy, can they move! We tend to eat later for all meals, so usually miss most of the rush everywhere. This last time we did go for casual dinners there when we couldn't be bothered with a longer dinner and went "as we were". But I usually do what Betsy does for lunch, get what I want from Terrace - especially the pizza which is very good and varied - and join the DH who will have already ordered his surf and turf at Waves. But look out when the late lunch tours come back - hold on to your hat cos they would eat that too!!

I like idea of restaurant hopping Don - must do that next time! :D

It's all good fun and thank goodness we don't all like the same thing!

Is the menu usually a special one on the night of the Captain's cocktail party? If so, is that always on a particular night of the cruise; just wondering, as am about to book speciality restaurants and would be sad to miss an amazing dinner in the MDR.

 

 

No special menu

just go ahead & book the specialties

Don,

I noticed that you recently mentioned even breakfasting in the GDR on tour days which obviously has a possibility we haven't considered heretofore, but in the future we'll do as you suggest!

And I agree that the PH category is really too small for comfortable dining. At least it is for me! We've never tried dining in a PH on one of the "R" ships but we were in a PH on our recent cruise on Marina and did have dinner there a couple of times. It was okay but I agree, not spacious enough for true comfort.

Mura

Is the menu usually a special one on the night of the Captain's cocktail party? If so, is that always on a particular night of the cruise; just wondering, as am about to book speciality restaurants and would be sad to miss an amazing dinner in the MDR.

 

 

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That's a tough question for me, because there is usually at least one "special" dish in the Grand Dining Room every night. The sample menu shown on the Oceania web site is actually typical; it shows red snapper, Maine Lobster, cuck and angus prime rib plus vegetarian choices and the Canyon Ranch Spa lower calorie offerings. Other nights it might be Beef Wellington, ribeye steak, swordfish, mussels or other items rarely found on mainstream cruise line menus. The best answer I can give is there are no lesser nights to avoid by dining in a specialty. You take a chance on missing an amazing dinner any time you miss the GDR.