Jim_Iain

Vanessa - The comparison will be on the Celebrity Board (link in my signature) and I will try to keep this one focused on Oceania. I'm sure I will be dropping tidbits here and there. I am so excited to be sailing Oceania for our first time. It feels like going out on ones first date after breaking up from a long term relationship.

We are doing the 12 day cruise. The 19 day cruise includes a 7 day LA Mexican Rivera cruise returning to LA. That one can also be purchased separately.

BTW - Feel free to join in on the conversation and post pictures. I know some have previously said they would love to hear and see different accommodations and food choices.

How exciting. I finally got around to do my packing today. It was a pretty easy job as we rarely go away for less than a month. Suitcase is only about 50% filled.... I"m thinking I should have purchased a smaller suitcase... oh well... We fly out at 9:00 AM on Saturday and will not arrive YVR until 11:00 AM. We are planning on grabbing SkyTrain from the airport. We have done it a couple times and find it really convenient and quick. The trip takes 26 minutes and runs every 15-20 minutes. We will take it to Waterfront Station which is a 500 meter walk (about 5 minute) to Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal.

Just posted the itinerary -- it is a pretty interesting one. Never been to a number of the ports - Klawock, Holkham Bay Glacier Fjord and Astoria. One thing amazing about Oceania is they can get into some ports that larger ships just couldn't even consider. I started walking right after I retired. Partially to fill my day but mostly that I started packing on some pounds just sitting around watching Judge Judy.

Hope you are feeling better. I was off line for a day to visit my daughter and came back to a bunch of messages.

Hope you are feeling better. I was off line for a day to visit my daughter and came back to a bunch of messages.

They do the same here in Silicon Valley. The goats are really helpful in our area to keep fire danger down as they are so effective in eating the dry vegetation in areas that would be difficult to mow.

Fantastic. When I think back I use to be able to post albeit a bit slow on Celebrity prior to Starlink.

Good hearing... I'm in the middle of switching over to my Live Post - I will be doing a comparison on the Celebrity board. Both threads are linked in my signature. I want to keep the Oceania Live post totally devoted to Oceania.

Thanks Randi and Julie I recall reading you Vlog and was one of the reasons we decided to try Oceania. One good thing about being a virgin Oceania cruiser is we have nothing to compare. Across the board I've notice a common theme that food quality and selection has declined, prices have increased and perks have been cut. I understand that and have to believe that Covid had a major impact on all cruise lines and all are trying hard to rebuild. I would have to say that many of these changes are very apparent on Celebrity and is partially the reason for us jumping ship.

I wanted to respect Oceania board members and have this thread exclusively devoted to a Live Report of Oceania Regatta and will try to stay on topic. I have learned so much here and thank everyone for being so helpful and welcoming. I will also be post a Live Comparison of Celebrity Millennium on the Celebrity Thread. I have both listed in my signature.

I'm Jim of Jim and Iain (the Scottish version of Ian). This will be our first cruise on Oceania so will have a lot to learn as we go. I have been posting a comparison between Celebrity Millennium and Oceania Regatta but wanted this thread to be 100% about Oceania. We have sailed almost exclusively on Celebrity since 2000 almost exclusively in upper suites. Obviously things have changed which pushed us to looking at different options. Our first non-Celebrity cruise was last year on Ponant. Ponant is a French line and mostly sail small ships that are much smaller than R Class ships. We have also been a member of CC for about 20 years and I love the family of friends we have met on these boards. My live posts have a tendency to be photo intensive and many of our followers love to see the daily menus and food porn. Iain and I have been together for 36 years and were among the first Legal Gay Marriages in June of 2008. We also have 3 kids and 5 Grandchildren. We live in the middle of Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale, CA) and share our neighborhood with Apple, Google, LinkedIn as well as 1,000's of other high tech companies. Obviously we have a passion for cruising but are also avid walkers. I usually walk 20,000 steps a day (about 10 miles) and Iain does about 1/2 that. While on my walks, I am addicted to listening to Detective, Forensic and Mystery novels. Iain on the other hand has a music background and use to play with the BBC in London. He enjoys listening to all genre but I believe Classics are his passion. I really have no problem going off topic on my threads and love to hear from others with suggestions, insight and even references to great books that they would recommend. It can also be fun if others on the same cruise jump in and contribute to the thread. We all enjoy cruising differently. Also---- Sine I'm a Virgin Oceania --- If I post anything incorrect please feel free to correcting me.

Wow.... I'm getting caught up and finally got through page 2.

You are correct. I was surprised how many familiar people we have joined the Oceania Forum. They have definitely made us fill at home and really helpful in answering our stupid questions.

Hope you post about your experience on Seabourn. Seabourn is on our short list. Currently we are booked out through 2025 Oceania 2x, Cunard 2x, Celebrity 2x, Silver Sea 1x and Regent 1x.

Heather - Oh boy... Hope you find Regatta as exciting as we do. I think your experience on E-Class is similar to our. It is really hard to find a quiet intimate place especially on a cold weather cruise. Last cruise it took us a long time to find a quiet place where we could have a drink with some friends that have a hearing problem. We finally found that Cellar Masters was empty and very insulated from blaring music.

I just hope I can get enough bandwidth without Starlink. I'm looking forward to the cozy feeling. We have pretty much already decided after 2 1/2 months on E-Class this year that we will never sail another E-Class. I know many enjoy it but to us probably our sweet spot is the S-Class. That is incredible. CC members are so good at helping us know about special deals and discounts. Thanks Mike and Mary - Some of the ports really excite us. It will be different for sure. Some will be interesting like Ketchikan. Oceania doesn't dock in town and will be docking in Ward's Cove which is about 12 miles north of town and will require a fee shuttle. I think we would be traveling with Azamara if we had sailed with them before the spin off from Celebrity. Since we never sailed with them they dropped our status. Thanks much Always good see you join in George. This trip we will not be on Celebrity. We will be on Oceania so unless Umesa defects will have to miss his fantastic service. Size is definitely a consideration. After sailing on Ponant (even small yacht size ships) we found that we enjoy a bit more intimate experience. Thanks Bernadette - Maybe will have to find an igloo with an Ice Door.... that would be new

Thanks for the encouragement. I can't imagine we won't have a fantastic time. I'm excited for the change as for us Celebrity has become almost boring. I'm sure it has to do with all of our cruising, but sometimes we have even resorted to the Kids menu with grilled cheese sandwiches as Luminae menus are so old and boring. As a result of many complaints about the menu they recently updated their menus. Unfortunately most of our favorites were removed and replaced some disappointing substitutions. Also their desert menus are now so overly loaded with chocolate items. The best desert they had -- Chef B's Raspberry Vacherin (my personal favorite) with what many call the Chocolate Dog Poop.

Thanks Thanks. I've been to Alaska a number of times and have to say I've not seen any Fjords that can compare to Norwegian, Greenland and Icelandic Fjords. I think possible if you went really far north they may be as spectacular. Thanks for joining the fun Thanks for inspiring me.

I am really looking forward to the R-Class ships. One warning for those that plan on booking something with Oceania. They just changed their Perk System effective with booking after October 1 with Sailings after January 1, 2025. The have eliminated Simply More - This is being replaced with Free Gratuities. Many are very upset in having Free Wine and Beer included with meals, $600 Shore Excursion Credit, Free WiFi (basic). So if you want to get these benefits you should book before the end of the month.

I use Travel Animation Pro. It's a pay sight buy you can subscribe to create 5 Maps for $7.49. It has a lot of features I don't use, but is fun to animate our trips.

Alexandra - I'm sure the flight would be long but Alaska is amazing if you have never been. What is incredible is when you visit the area of Alaska that cruise ships go to you realize it is only the very small tip of Alaska. It is such an amazing state.

Thanks for joining in. Thanks