Harters

Flights were arranged by our UK travel agency. It included Manchester-Heathrow, Heathrow-Miami, Rome-Manchester. I don't know the individual pricing as it was all rolled up with the cruise price and other ancilliaries. I tried to work it out, knowing how much the headline price of the cruise was, and could only conclude the TA had access to British Airways prices that I couldnt match on BA's website. FWIW, the best transatlantic price I could find was with Aer Lingus via Dublin. It would have worked out slightly cheaper than the TAs offer but it was more convenient to keep everything in one place.

This was our third Oceania cruise and the first on Vista (previous ones on Marina and Nautica). It was also our first transatlantic and we were really looking forward to all those sea days – we knew it would be a much more relaxing holiday than O’s usual port intensive cruises. We’d flown from our local airport to London, on the Sunday, staying overnight at Heathrow, then on to Miami the next day. We spent a couple of nights at Miami Beach. Flights and Miami hotel had been arranged by our cruise travel agency, meaning the whole deal gave us protection under consumer law as a “package holiday”, protecting us should the agency, Oceania or British Airways go bust. Unlikely in the latter two cases but good to know that we were covered. Oceania had given us a check-in time of 13.30 at the cruise port. So, what to do between our hotel check-out of 11.00 and then? Well, we wondered about just turning up early and see what happened. The worst might be that we were denied entry to the terminal and had to hang about there. My partner asked for advice on an Oceania Facebook group and received the consistent reply that they would be no problem going early. So we did. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. We joined a long and slow moving queue but, in due course, we were on board and heading for the Terrace Café for lunch. It wasn’t that long till it was announced we could go to our cabin. We were in 9063 – a A2 Concierge cabin. It’s a good size, well designed with a comfy, firm bed, enough storage space for the fortnight’s trip, decent shower cubicle, etc. We experienced none of the issues of noise from adjacent cabins that have been extensively mentioned on Cruise Critic (although we did hear of others who did have problems – so this is a real issue). In the latter part of the cruise, I developed a bad cough as, seemingly, did quite a number of other passengers. I can only hope the noise from that didn’t annoy the neighbours. I’m sorry if it did but there was nothing I could do about it. The cabin attendant kept the place spotless and was really helpful. In fact, “spotless” is a word you could generally use about the whole ship. As you walked about, there were always folk cleaning. Thought and money has gone into the design of the public areas. There’s a considerable amount of artworks – wall hangings, sculpture, ceramics, etc. The mosaic “floral pictures” on the Terrace Café wall must have cost a small fortune in themselves. As for the food, I suppose the first question must be is this “the finest cuisine at sea”. Well, with only Oceania experience to call on in recent decades, I’ve nothing to compare that marketing slogan against. But, I do know the food was pretty good and when you think that this is mass catering, probably better than “pretty good”. With North Americans representing about 1000 of the 1200 on board, it’s no surprise that the food is rightly geared to their tastes. A particular disappointment was that almost every dish where you expect the vibrancy from spices seemed dumbed down and generally quite bland. There was one negative of note and it applied in the Grand Dining Room and the specialities. And that was the amount of time we regularly sat there with menus in our hands, waiting for someone to take our order. It wouldn’t be acceptable in a land based restaurant and it really isn’t acceptable here. But, once your order is in the system, everyone is generally fine. The sommeliers (they are not really sommeliers in the usual sense of the word) are generally on the ball, regularly offering second and third pours. . Our booking was under the Simply More arrangements which got us included booze at lunch and dinner. This was nice, although I don’t drink alcohol and my partner only sparingly. I do enjoy the occasional alcohol free beer or wine, so was able to take advantage of this (although the alcohol free Merlot is very thin on flavour and I couldn’t really recommend it – better than nowt, I suppose. Some brief comments on the various restaurant venues:- Grand Dining Room – we ate here most nights. Always found something we wanted to eat and the food was good quality. We also had a few breakfasts and lunches. It was nice to be served a “proper” breakfast and the lunchtime French bistro classics were also good. Terrace Café - good for breakfast and lunch. Lots of choice. Nice to sit on the open terrace on good weather days. We had dinner once when the buffet was given over to a “Spanish Market”menu. , which was excellent, both in the variety of choice and the use of traditional flavours. I felt myself whisked back to Mallorca with the sobrasada on toast and suckling pig. Waves – went for lunch a few times. Good sandwiches. In the evening, it becomes a pizzeria. We went once – pizza was fine. Think good quality supermarket pizza, rather than it being as good as your favourite place at home. Aquamar Kitchen – we went for lunch a couple of times. This is the ship’s “healthy option”, which is probably why we weren’t keen. Nice enough salads, poke bowls and the like. Small portions – we went to Baristas afterwards for coffee and got pastries from the Bakery, as still hungry.. As for the four specialities, we enjoyed the variety. It’s a plus point for O’s larger ships, over the two on the smaller ships. We liked Ember. The food was excellent but it was the space that really made it. It’s a very modern design and the open kitchen is always going to add excitement to a restaurant. Polo Grill and Toscana both did their jobs well – plenty of choice on the menus and cooking is to a high standard. Red Ginger, however, was a disappointment, as it had been on our Marina cruise. For “Asian Fusion”, read dumbed down food. We complained about one dish (the only complaint about anything on board). That was the beef rendang and were told it was prepared and flavoured as it should be. Happens to be a dish we know well and this was just wrong on several levels. But, that aside, the specialities were fine and made for a good balance with the other options. None would meet our “Holiday Restaurant” test – if it was a restaurant at home, would we become regulars. Polo and Toscana are the best two but neither are as good as the steakhouse and Italian that we go to regularly. Baristas is good for daytime coffee. My partner, who is a tea drinker, says it’s the only place on board where the water is hot enough to make a proper cup of tea (I’m sure she could do a full ten minute rant about the tea in Horizons at afternoon tea time). . The Bakery attached to the space is excellent for the likes of quiche, beignets and other sweet treats. In the evening, it becomes Baristas Aperitivo – a lovely bright cocktail venue that seems to be ignored by the vast majority of passengers. Nope, I don’t understand why. Not least as Martinis is so cold that we found it actively unpleasant to sit there. No-one’s going on an Oceania cruise for the entertainment. I mean, it’s OK but not really better than OK. It’s a larger performance company than on Nautica but, truth be told, we found the quality of performance to be not as good. On other nights, there were “guest performers”. Danny Buckler did a good comedy magic routine. Vocalist Nik Page was OK, if a bit shouty. We’d seen Duo Esencias on Nautica last year. Seeing them once was enough. We didn’t go to the shows after Day 9. And, yes, comments by others about the design of the Vista Lounge are all true. It’s easy to find your view of the stage blocked by someone in the row in front. So you do regularly see folk shuffling around to new seats. With regard to excursions, on our previous cruises we’ve always taken the “free” excursion perk, as consistently recommended on the Cruise Critic forum. We find that the Simply More excursion credit suits us better in that we can spend it on any available trip, rather than being tied to the very basic ones. For example, we booked a more costly gastronomic excursion in Malaga as that part of Andalucia is very well known to us from previous land based holidays. So, with a mix of ports where we planned to do our own thing and three where we’d booked ships excursions, we were looking forward to them. Unfortunately, the three ship’s excursions were all at the end of the cruise. By that time, I’d picked up the bug I mentioned earlier and my COPD had flared up, so we cancelled two of them. And, I’d have to say, the one we did, in Monaco, wasn’t that great. You did learn a bit about the history but you only get to see three major sites – the Cathedral, Prince’s Palace and the Casino. There’s no feeling of even scratching the surface of Monaco. I think we’d have done better buying a ticket for the hop on, hop off bus and doing our own thing. But we did spot someone famous (or, more accurately, infamous). As we were waiting for the bus back to the ship, Sir Philip Green walked past. So, that’s about it.. We had a really nice time. So nice, that we’ve booked a cruise for next year (same cabin – so fingers crossed the lack of noise issues wasn’t just down to very quiet neighbours). I think Oceania has probably made a good decision in making the pricing more inclusive – the change in excursions and drinks with meals. And, for the next cruise, gratuities will be included in the headline cruise price for British (and other European?) customers, as it has been for the Australia and New Zealand market for some time. It’s in response to O’s discussions with the UK cruise travel agent industry which, I understand, has called for it. Oh, yes – we’ll manage our port days better, treating some as sea days, so we finish our cruise properly rested, rather than having rushed around and feeling the need for another holiday to recuperate.

Yes and no. Most services will be reliable. They'd go out of business if not. The only times we use a taxi is if we are going to the airport or nearby mainline train station. There used to be a very reliable company in town (in fact, my brother in law used to drive for them). But it became less reliable - not failing to turn up but cutting the time to the train/plane worryingly close. So we stopped using them. For the train, I now drive to the station and pay an exorbitant fee to park for couple of days. And we now use the airport's own "preferred partner" taxi service. Dearer than most but hasnt let us down.

Also just been on Vista, where we got a 4 page summary of UK news (mainly sport and business news). The Concierge Lounge has printouts of a few newspapers. The only British one was the Daily Mail - a right wing xenophobic rag that I wouldnt even use for wiping my backside, let alone wanting to read. There are a handful of news channels (only American and British, IIRC) on the stateroom TV system.

We were on Nautica last summer and have, literally, just finished a cruise on Vista. The official dress code is "country club casual" - a phrase which may, or may not, be helpful to Americans but is meaningless to those of us from countries which do not have country clubs. I did some research before our 2018 cruise on Marina and came to the conclusion that I'd be fine in a polo shirt and chinos (which is what I'd generally wear to a "nice" land based restaurant. So that's what I wore then and have worn on the two subsequent cruises. It's bang on the money. Probably the most common set of clothes for men in the restaurants, although you do seem some wearing a more formal shirt and, occasionally, a jacket. The code bans casual jeans but I cannot recall any further definition as to what "casual" might mean. I would therefore steer clear of jeans (and shorts) in the evening everywhere except the Terrace Cafe. FWIW, I haven't needed to wear a jacket anywhere since I retired over 20 years ago. I would have said that I don't even own a jacket - but came across one in the wardrobe while I was sorting out clothes for the last cruise. It no longer comes close to fitting.

Completely agree, Techno. You'll be pleased to know that O has recently changed its Simply More arrangements to include gratuities in the cruise price for the UK (and wider European?) market as has been the case for the Australia and New Zealand market for some while. This change comes as a result of discussions with the UK cruise travel agent industry which had been calling for it. It's good to know that O is responding to the different culture in the hospitality industry outside North America.

Not in my experience.

Agreed. We had a couple of nights before our just finished cruise staying at the Plymouth on 21st Street. Booked for us by our TA. Nice, laid back sort of place and a five minute stroll to the beach.

No mention of the strike by taxi drivers trying to drum up business outside the port terminal. We were there for about 30 minutes waiting for our transfer to Rome airport (arranged by our TA). In the event it didnt turn up. We'd rung the company and spoken to the driver, three times. First time he said the was there. Second, that he'd be there in 5 minutes. Lying *****. Third told us to get a taxi. So we had to get the cab - cost around €200 on the meter. My partner is currently drafting the email to the TA demanding a refund. By the by, just back from the supermarket, where we were able to change our leftover dollars for sterling. No need to change the euros, they'll keep for the next two holidays (Cyprus in October and Spain in January).

We left the ship yesterday morning and were back home in time for a late lunch. The last fortnight has been a really pleasant experience. It's been an interesting read catching up with Hank's "live comments" this morning. I will write a review for CC and will also post that to a forum thread. Obviously, won't be as detailed as Hank's daily commentary but, hopefully, of some use. Real life, as opposed to holiday life, is once again in play so it'll take a couple of days or so to find time to get round to that.

I'll let folk know how we got on in around 3 weeks time. I plan to do a CC review and will post it to the forum.

That makes for a depressing read for someone about to board in the next few days. What with that and the reported soundproofing issues...........

It's possible that US trademark law is different to UK trademark law. But, if not, then I think it might be difficult to trademark a very common first name. It'd be different from trademarking, say "Jacques Pepin", which would clearly be much more specific.

Thanks W.

But, if so, presumably only to the extent that his contract with Oceania applies. Clearly, whatever the nature of his original contract, it is adapting or being replaced as he retires from the role. Pepin obviously has no contractual claim to have a restaurant onboard using his first name, otherwise Vista would have a Jacques. Which doesnt take us any further about whether Marina will continue to have a Jacques. If I was "the person in charge", it wouldnt have one and it would look to the future, rather than the past.

Kay - for photos, check out the link I gave at post #3

We mainly booked 7.30 bearing that in mind. But, in any event, dinner at a speciality will be our main entertainment for those evenings

We are in a concierge veranda and booked our specialities on the day reservations opened up for our class of cabin. We prefer 2-tops and had no problem getting one, for all four specialities, at our preferred time of 7.30 or 8.00.

We've renewed with All Clear and there's been a big reduction so it's now down to £1000. We've taken off cruising (won't need it for the next 12 months) and taken off cover for the States, so much more reasonable. I suspect long haul holidays are now over for us. A shame - but we can't complain as we've been fortunate to have many of them over the decades.

My partner has a friend who cruises with Regent and has been urging us to take a look. We have in mind an O cruise for next year (Southampton to Southampton) - but dependent on (a) no soundproofing issues on Vista and (b) still thinking O is value for money.

I'd not previously come across this guy (but, then, I hadnt really been looking). Interesting stuff - particularly the move on the part of the industry to try and attract "new to cruising" customers and, in particular, a younger demographic. I wonder how much that industry push influenced O to introduce Simply More and, also in the UK, rolling gratuities into the SM price (apparently driven by a push from UK cruise specialist travel agencies).

I'll certainly be trying the lunch bowls in the Aquamar on Vista. Less keen on the breakfast offerings

Alicante is quite walkable if you stick to the main city centre area near the port. We were there last year and worked out our own walking tour using gpsmycity.com. You pick the sites you want to see and the system puts them into a route for you. Good resource, IMO. We doing the same for Cadiz for an upcoming Oceania cruise. For Barcelona, I'd suggest the Hop On Hop Off bus (there are 2 companies both driving the same basic route and at the same price). Excellent way to see the sites, hopping off to take a closer look at places of particular interest. Or staying on the bus and just treating it as a sight-seeing tour.

You cannot assume that what is the custom in one country is the same as the next country. We all have our own cultures and that includes different relationships with tipping. Check out specific websites advising about tipping - and try to find one that isnt American led - they always over estimate the need to tip. You've posted to a Spain related thread, so I'll offer an opinion about that country (which I visit every year for several weeks). Spain is a low/no tip country. Employees are paid proper wages so there is no need to tip. And, indeed, it would never occur to me to tip and guide or driver in Spain.

Agreed that's the case for most countries. Spain is certainly a low/no tip country and, when we were at Barcelona last year, I'm sure we didnt tip the porter. Not least as the taxi rank was only about 30 metres away, almost immediately outside - had I realised that was the case I wouldnt have needed a porter. Very different from a story on a cruise Facebook page in the last day or so of a traveller being told by a porter at Miami port, when they were checking in, that they'd need to tip him to, ahem, ensure their bags got on board safely and didnt get "lost".