Vallesan

Absolutely! In the veranda cabins there is a small drinks table on the veranda and a coffee table in the cabin but far too small and low for two people to enjoy a meal on and I would have thought impossible on the smaller ships.

@WESTEAST interesting article! I really can’t see much difference in the new pricing structure. I’ve booked without air in the past and the only difference I can see in the ‘Ultimate’ package, is the addition of a $500 for Blacklane if you want to upgrade to private transfers. A ‘rose’ by any other name?

I think I have to agree with @pinotlover on this occasion…. it’s merely a ‘price increase’. If I looked at it any other way it would probably cause me aggravation, which isn’t what holidays are about. We never eat five courses at a meal maybe two or occasionally three. We have never had the afternoon tea, we don’t eat ice cream, which is available all day and nor do we have the shakes on offer. No, it’s never occurred to me that we have to ‘have’ everything just because it’s ‘included’. As I’ve said before we look at the itinerary and the price as it is and if it ‘fits’ us we go for it!

I agree with pinotlover but go to the restaurant reservations desk when you board. Jaques is the busiest of all the restaurants and its very difficult to get a second reservation there. You will get one though as they always keep some tables free

Sorry I wasn’t clear… the menu comes on a separate card at night to fill in and leave on the door for ‘in-suite’ service. The breakfast menu is on tv in each individual restaurant.

You will find that during the school ‘holidays’ there are quite a number of children on the Alaska cruise although they are still few and far between on the other itineraries!

The breakfast menu isn’t on the tv it comes in ‘paper’ version each night with ‘currents’ etc.

Just one amendment: the card is needed for wine, beer etc. ordered at lunch and dinner irrespective of which package you have, if any. Obviously you aren’t ’charged’ if you have a package. At the moment there are several drinks options in place, so if you order alcohol, ‘cruise only’ no drinks included at any time (unless a perk given by TA), ‘OLife’ with or without ‘basic drinks’ package, ‘SimpleMore’ with basic drinks package and ‘prestige drinks package’. To distinguish which ‘package’ you have, if any, then the staff need your card. My guess is that even when OLif’e’ cruises run through the system, which could take a couple of years, they will still need to distinguish between those who have the ‘basic’ package and those with the ‘premium’ package. @englishteacher702 It really is no issue to show your card at a meal or in the bar. Of purse you also need your card to enter cabin and when you get on/off the ship so if a lanyard works best for you why not? The only reason I mentioned ‘lanyards’ was because there seem to be lots of them!

I think maybe we were just a bit lucky. It is probably a little unusual to get so many extra nights? (BTW it was a 14 night cruise) We were invited to dinner one night with the Purser and Oceania Club Ambassador, I’ve no idea why, but anyway, it was interesting to learn that a lot of the new to Oceania cruisers thought that they could reserve one evening in each speciality restaurant, but that there would be a charge for any further reservations! Certainly worked in our favour!

Unfortunately there is not always a choice of cruise terminal and not all cruise terminals are in ‘picturesque’ surroundings! Greek islands usually have some lovely ports but then we were just in Corfu, three ships in and aircraft whizzing overhead all day. Not the most peaceful of places! Thank you for your posts it’s interesting to hear how you are getting on on the Vista especially as we left the Marina yesterday. About to board our flight back from Rome in a few hours. Enjoy your cruise!

Sorry didn’t eat in Aquamar. I found the menu a little restricted. I tend to eat low carb so by the time I dismiss the tacos, sandwiches poke bowls with rice etc it really didn’t leave much choice. I found the variety at lunch time I the Terrace Cafe suited my needs better. I don’t know about Aquamar but you can certainly order from Waves and get it delivered to the Terrace Cafe. Enjoy your cruise when it happens.

So the cases are out. Time to pack up. Weather here in Sorrento is dull and overcast so good weather for packing! So before I forget, my overall thoughts about this cruise: Has the food been perfect? No. Has the food been mainly good? Yes. A few meals I wouldn’t order again. Did I go hungry? NO! Speciality restaurants. We have had 5 additional evenings in the speciality restaurants. A few tips: ask early in the morning of the day you want a booking. Be flexible with restaurant, time and sharing. One evening we had a shared 8pm table but arrived at 7.40 only to find we could eat there and then on our own. Never give up, there are always possibilities! Staff universally have smiled, been helpful and generally did as much as possible to make our trip enjoyable. Tours … not our thing. Other passengers. Have spent several evenings eating at shared tables and they have all been interesting and have added to our enjoyment. In general our fellow passengers are the ‘usual’ mix so all has been fine. Survey: the new survey is accessed via a scan. Very easy to fill in and quite comprehensive with spaces to add comments at the end of each section. SimplyMore: doesn’t seem any different to the OLife program to me. It certainly doesn’t put me off cruising with Oceania again. As I’ve said several times we don’t take the tours but we do drink wine, which by the way has never been an issue with glasses in all venues filled promptly. So for us, we look at the bottom line, not what was in the past compared to what is now or in the future. If we consider the ‘bottom line’ fits our budget and the itinerary suits then we go for it! Overall we’ve had a really good 14 days aboard the Marina and we would sail on her again for the itinerary but prefer the fully upgraded Riviera ( just my opinion).

At the moment Liviu Moldovan and Cecilia Grimaldi but of course that could alter!

I loved your ‘Avatar’ definitely not mean or angry. For me Thoughtful and Wise! Horses for courses!

Sorry you missed this trip. We missed out in January and April so it’s third time lucky and I’m just glad to be sailing. I try to be balanced but to be honest I’m probably glossing over the ‘minutiae’ life’s too short to worry about a steak that’s maybe only 90% to your liking or the number of ‘less able bodied’ on board! Sorry can’t help with trips, apart from heresay. As per usual some great and some not so great. Complaints about a trip in Athens mainly due to spending hours on a bus due to traffic…. welcome to any large city in Europe. ‘Historical sights’ = crowds of sightseers and traffic! Haven’t heard anything about SM specifically. Chair hogs … two chairs by the pool were left ‘occupied’ but empty for all of yesterday morning, sea day, but there were plenty of others in the sun if that’s what you wanted but just no others by the pool. So really no problem Missed ports …. none so far with just one more to go! Annoyances … man playing radio station on his phone for all to hear. I told him, politely, that his radio was annoying and asked if he could he use earphones. He was slightly aggressive, said he had no earphones but did turn it down and put it close to his ear. Never bothered us again so all well. As you can see I’m really ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’ to find ‘issues’. All in all it’s been a lovely trip for us. Other ‘experiences’ may vary!

Sorry I wasn’t clear ….. I meant the original ‘upgrade’ to the Marina which only materialised in part!

Coming towards the end of this cruise now. Overall it has been really enjoyable. The food, in all the restaurants we have tried has been 96% ok. Picked one or two items that were not to my taste but that doesn’t make them ‘bad’. For instance last night I thought I would try the miso glazed seabass in Red Ginger, only because the waitress poo pooed the red snapper. Anyway, the fish came. It was perfectly cooked but just a little too sweet for me, which I knew from my last encounter with ‘miso glazed seabass’! I think on our next cruise I will ask for an unglazed piece of fish the day before we eat in Red Ginger! We have a sea day today and whilst it’s ‘busy’ it’s not really ‘overcrowded’ anywhere. There seem to be a lot of ‘lanyards’ around peoples necks and I’m guessing, maybe wrongly, that they might be some of the ‘new to Oceania’ cruisers as cards aren’t used on Oceania in the same way as they are on ‘mainstream’ lines. Really wanted to book a cruise for autumn but everything seems to be ‘waitlisted’ so that has to be a good sign, even though it’s not for us! We’ve enjoyed our trip despite the promised upgrade not happening. Definitely won’t stop us sailing on the Marina again but given the choice we would take the Riviera first then maybe the Vista, with the Marina being our third choice. The one really strong constant are the staff. In every venue the staff have been marvellous. Really couldn’t ask for anymore. They deserve high praise in every department.

Yes

Maybe not for you but as I have said experiences differ and more so when you don’t have a ‘huge’ group onboard.

No just some umbrellas for cover.

Further update!! Now looks like a few short if 600! Think I’ll take that as the final figure!

Looks like they did. Lots of square topped ‘poles’ above Horizons which I just noticed today!

Further update there are 700 new to Oceania cruisers!

May not be unusual on the cruises you have taken but certainly on the ones I’ve taken. In excess of 40% new to Oceania cruisers is new to me. Your experiences may differ.

Not sure what the ‘wine thing’ is but even the upgraded package had the same wine by the glass. If you want ‘upgraded’ wine you will need to buy that buy the bottle or bring your own on board and pay a $25 corkage fee in the restaurants. Just as a matter of interest we have had no issue getting wine in the TC or any of the speciality restaurants even when we change wine to have with a cheese course.