pinotlover

Not sure for a PH if the butler will do a balcony setup. He set ours up on the indoor table and we carried outside as we desired. Talk to your butler.

You underestimate the number of NoNos aboard that demand bland. No salt, no pepper, no garlic, no onions, no peppers , no oregano, no basil, no herbs or green things at all, no spices, NoNo! Just go ashore any where in Japan and have the miso soup. Then have it aboard ship. Miso has flavor, why not on the ship? NoNos demand bland. What great steak house have you been to that prepares your main course with zero seasoning, just a cooked piece of meat?

We did a private tour. Our guide knew exactly where we’d be. No issues, wonderful day, great tour, great lunch of fresh oysters 5 ways which is a local specialty.

On the Riviera, in Waves, they offer pizza from the oven by the slice at lunch. These are made with a couple of selections. At dinner, one can order whole pizza from a different menu or place a specialty order. All of this different from the horrid things served in the Terrace.

A great pizza is built by : 1. The crust; 2. Quality of the sauce; 3. Quality of the ingredients. While O does fine with the crust normally, they fall miserably with the sauce. Made to satisfy the NoNos , it’s bland and uninspiring. Totally omitting many of the herbs and spices normally found with quality pizzas leaves that grocery store effect mentioned above. Clo, as the name of a tv series implies “ Curb your enthusiasm “. The pizzas are OK, but nothing to get excited about.

Our Tea infused sea bass in Red Ginger was likewise great. I also ordered the other sea bass dish as it claimed to be tempura. What an insult to the term ‘tempura “. It was thick greasy dough , much like American Captain D’s or Long John Silvers, and had zero seasoning with a very bland dipping sauce. A bland fish and chips masquerading as tempura. Making it equally insulting was we were in Japan where tempura is done so wonderfully. So for us the Red Ginger was 50/50. Great meal and a very poor one.

Hank; Food being Bland and boring was an issue on our cruise also. Expect for the cheerleaders to assault you claiming every meal is excellent and every bite succulent, because as you know tastes are subjective! 🙄

Marketing by someone wanting to sell blue jeans! Reminds me of the recent marketing gimmick of trying to sell dress joga pants, or if the dress sweat suits of old! Marketing by someone with something to sell.

Consider looking at the very first thread on this Forum entitled “ Oceania Free Shuttles”.

Did it ever, during the duration of the entire cruise, come to the OP’s mind to query their room attendant? 🙄

We booked Singapore-Sidney, then Sidney-Papette on Riviera. Mostly new ports for us with just a few repeats, but hey, I can always revisit Bora Bora with out being bored! Been to Singapore once and needed much more time than a day tour allowed. We’ll fly into Singapore several days early pre cruise and finally do Singapore right!

Public transport, such as subways and buses, are readily available, inexpensive, and easy to use. Some of our private tours were a combo of those methods along with cabs. Most do NOT take credit cards, including some of the cabs. Money conversions are mandatory. No the ticket machines won’t take US dollars.

Guess this horse has been beaten to near death. As a former Army officer, “being at the appointed place of duty at the appointed time “ is firmly ingrained so we show up on time. However, it all suffers from “ Hurry Up and Wait”. People getting there at 6:40 to have a very short line versus those at 6:30 standing in a longer line aren’t really late. If everyone shows up at 6:30 or before, seating will not happen any quicker. It would just create a larger mob at 6:30. However, just like Boardamania, some enjoy lines as social time.

One will often find a goodly portion of those reading in the library with their eyes closed and mouth open. 😇

I can understand your position fully. Do likewise find the people with 1:00 and later boarding times that show up at 11:00 , or before, as being equally rude?