WayneLaR

On 4/6/2024 at 10:39 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

We are going on our first Windstar cruise in January 2025, and are really looking forward to the food.  We recently completed our first Silversea cruise, and were very disappointed in the food – as @AmateurGO said about Seabourn, it wasn't really bad but it wasn't flavorful or memorable.  We have been very happy with the food on Oceania (latest 2022), Scenic river (latest 2023), and Azamara (latest 2024) – those are our standards for cruise ship food.  I hope and expect that Windstar will equal or exceed them [and of course I will report back]

Jan 2025 will be our first WS experience as well.  14 days on Wind Surf, St Martin to St Martin.  Our last three cruises have all been Oceania.  We have 34 days on board in the last 6 months so have a very good take on the culinary offerings which, with very few exceptions, are fantastic.  Looking forward to see how WS stacks up against the "Finest Cuisine at Sea" (minor correction Jazzbeau, it's finest, not best)

The O bread basket is too good to not indulge.  Resistance is futile. 

I'm looking forward to making new friends at the indoor/outdoor golf, shuffleboard, bean bag toss, etc., contests the entertainment team will be putting on during the Marina TA next month.  Great way to meet new friends and have a lot of fun doing it!  Met a wonderful couple from Germany on the Nov Marina TA and had a blast competing with them.

On 12/7/2023 at 8:32 AM, tobique33040 said:

My Aunt, up in New Brunswick, curled. 😊

 

I figured when I saw your screen name you had some connection to New Brunswick!  The Tobique is a lovely area of NB.  I'm down the river, in Fredericton.

Barristas ran out of the paper sleeves mid-cruise on the Marina Nov 2023 TA, and ran out of paper cups the last couple days. Bring your own if suitable take-away containers are important to you so you are covered no matter what.    

Same for 2025, but looking at transoceanic cruises to ease the long flights in one of the directions.

$30US per person per day assuming you are on SM or the old OLife bev package.

Adding that info to your luggage is a great idea, thanks!

17 hours ago, Jockocruiser said:

Or….Service, Price, Quality

You can only get two

Or construction; budget, schedule, workmanship.....

Absolutely.  No way i would risk cutting it that close.

O sure is getting a fair share of bad press these days.  They would be wise to take note of their customers' discontentment. 

If there is any bit of good news here is that the Marina will be the only ship in Cartagena and Malaga on Nov 15th and 16th, respectively.  (original schedule was the 14th and 15th)

Hopefully that is good news for private excursions.

Was kind of anticipating that, but still disappointing.  To add insult to injury, they also shuffled Cartagena and Malaga around as well, impacting private excursions a lot of us have booked. 

Hi Latitude, I'm on the same cruise and I will not be the least bit offended.  In fact, if I see white pants I'm going to come up and introduce myself and say how smashing you look this evening!

10 hours ago, jonthomas said:

Morocco stands out for me since we are due to be there, Casablanca, in three weeks.

Yes, I would be really disappointed if we miss this port.  Was one of the highlights of this itinerary for me anyway.

Interesting, unless I'm doing something wrong, which is entirely possible, Marina does not show up on Dec 3rd when it is due to dock after the TA from Lisbon. 

Not sure Casablanca is a whole lot different than Barcelona, or any other major European city for that matter.  You can throw in Toronto and Montreal too.  We are not exempt either.  Unrest everywhere.

3 hours ago, basor said:

I sailed with Lyn and will be handing the beautiful Vista off to you in a week...by the bed on each side, there is 1 USB outlet and 1 USB C outlet,  1 US 3 prong ( 2 vertical and 1 round - neutral) outlet.  By the desk, there are 2 USB  outlets, 2 USB C outlets, 2 US 3 prong outlets and 1 European (3 round prongs in a row).  Hope this answers the question.

The round prong is the ground.  The two flat blades are the hot and the neutral.  Sorry, the engineer in me coming out.

Thanks a lot, Pinot!  Appreciate that info.

On 9/7/2023 at 12:27 PM, NewSalty said:

Yeah, I kicked myself afterwards for not simply jumping on the HOHO bus...  We opted for a less than ideal ship tour, but didn't get to see Lisbon.

Hi NewSalty, I have a B2B changeover in Lisbon coming up.  Wondering if you can share your experience?  Did you have to vacate your stateroom (we have the same cabin for both segments).  Did you have to check-in again just like the new passenger will have to?

LHT28 advises the process varies by country and port so just curious what the process is in Lisbon.  Have a full-day private excursion planned for the changeover day so want to make sure I won't run into problems.  Thanks!

I'd like to thank DrKoob for doing this thread.  II thought he was very fair and balanced with his reports and commentary.  I learned a lot about what to expect for our first O cruise in a couple weeks. 

The time and effort DrKoob put into this is very much appreciated!  Thank you!

No swimwear at a pool grill seems a bit harsh assuming she had a coverup, or he had a t-shirt?

31 minutes ago, PinonNoir said:

We had lunch today at Terrace Cafe, and they were making burgers to order. The beef patty was larger and tasted MUCH better than I experienced at Waves on Riviera.  I'm wondering if sourcing beef (and other proteins) from Canada is just much better than it was in Europe?  That was a damn good burger!  Calamari was also good. 

Maybe you got lucky and you were served some of our famed Alberta beef!

2 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

So then we are still in limbo?

We should be OK, as of right now cruisemapper is showing 5 ships in on Nov 13th, including Marina. 

Hi Jon, good to hear you got your docs.  Still waiting on ours.