PinonNoir

We are in stateroom 8055, which is on the starboard side. This places us under Terrace Cafe. We have heard occasional noise in the evening while the crew is cleaning. It sounds like they are moving tables to vacuum and then moving them back. It's only been a few times and it never lasts very long. Otherwise it's been pretty quiet. No noise from the adjoining staterooms, except for one guy sneezing one time. I think the carpeting in Terrace Cafe is helpful in keeping the noise down. You might want to avoid the staterooms below the pool deck or Waves Grill, as chairs moving on those decks might be an issue. However, outside of Waves, this cruise has been cold enough that the pool deck has been pretty empty most of the time.

I tip all the time, but I think it's a personal choice based on your experience. I judge the amount based on where we are. We are currently in Canada, and I've been tipping $20 USD after each tour, particularly private excursions. While in Europe we tend to tip 10 Euros at the end of a tour. It's not expected, but definitely appreciated. We saw plenty of people on the ships excursion not tipping, so it's really personal preference. You are already paying a lot for that excursion, so I understand those who choose not to tip. I absolutely HATE the new trend on the credit card machines of suggested tip amounts. I find it interesting that the "no tip" button seems smaller than the rest of the buttons.

Dinner in Polo Grill tonight. I had the "Pancetta Wrapped Filet of Veal with Bay Lobster Tail Oscar Style". This is the FIRST time I've had lobster on Oceania where it was cooked appropriately, and it was excellent. The filet was covered in a sauce that looked like hollandaise....not necessary....I would ask them to hold the sauce. Otherwise it was good! My wife had the "Grilled Colorado Rack of Lamb" and she was raving about it! Ok, if we get into Polo again I have to get that. All in all a great meal, followed up by, you guessed it, KEY LIME PIE!!! We even got the adjacent table to order it, and they thanked us on the way out. It was interesting that the ship is continuing the trend of arriving in Port early...we were supposed to arrive at 1100, but we were all tied up by 1030. Also, if you want to get off ASAP, don't wait for the Cruise Director to say the ship is cleared. We had to get off quickly for an excursion this morning, and there were people disembarking 10 minutes before he announced we were clear to go ashore.

I'm speculating based on how many seats were filled in Corner Brook. Nobody was being denied, but then nobody was told they could join the excursion tenders, so nobody was lined up. I think if the tenders have space, they should let people know a limited number should go ashore. Just my take.

When we tendered in from Corner Brook the tenders were pretty much full, a lot more full than 60%. My point is they are restricting people from using the tenders until the ships excursions get off, when they could be taking on another dozen or so.

Forgot to mention that during our happy hour with friends we were flipping through the music stations on the TV. I out on "Oldies" to see what Era they might be playing...40's?, 50's? Imagine our surprise when the first song was Led Zeppelin, followed up by Tom Petty. Holy crap! I've officially jumped the shark!

It was interesting that the tender we took in with the ships shore excursion attendees was maybe 60% full.

While that is interesting, the claim of high winds was immediately verifiable to the naked eye. If it was indeed a current issue, why throw in the lie?

We had dinner tonight in the GDR. The Crispy Scallop starter was weird....a tasteless scallop wrapped in fried philo....I don't get it. Do not order this! The Harira Duck soup was good. Not great, but good. The Seared Ahi Tuna with Porcini Mushroom Ravioli was excellent! Yummy! The dessert was...you guessed it...Key Lime Pie! OMG this is the best Key Lime Pie! Ultra Yummy! We sat down in the GDR at 7:30, at their peak, and they were slightly slower than our previous encounter. Not overly slow though. The wine stewards seemed to be taking good care of everybody. They seem to be fairly consistent here, which is better than expected, based on our Riviera experience, which is thankfully becoming a distant memory. We are just 4 days out from the end of the cruise now, so I feel quite confident in saying if you are coming on Insignia, you are going to be happy. Let's see how the next 4 days play out.

I respectfully disagree. This definitely had some financial implications. The fact they mentioned wind, which was non-existent, gives their explanation zero credence. Trust me, this is a wide open harbor area at least a mile across, that could not have zero current on the surface and "unsafe" currents 30 feet below the surface. I graduated from Cal Maritime with a degree in Navigation, I know a little bit about currents and docking conditions. This guy was angling towards a savings. Dockage is a very expensive charge, and the tender operations likely run out of a different budget line item that doesn't impact the Captains bonus at the end of the voyage. Anchoring out is a minimal charge, and perhaps even a freebie. You can anchor out in most ports on the west coast of the US with no charges whatsoever.

I have an update on this. We had to tender out today for BS reasons, which I won't go into on this thread, but we had a private excursion I needed to tender in for while they were still issuing tickets. All I had to do was tell the staff in the lounge that we had a private excursion and they gave us some tickets to get off ASAP.

So this morning in Sydney, Nova Scotia, we were advised the weather was too windy and the currents were too strong to dock, so we had to anchor out and tender in. At least they didn't skip the port entirely! However, there was absolutely NO WIND, and I saw an object in the water that wasn't moving in the least, both alongside the ship at anchor, and when they dropped us off near where the ship was supposed to dock. I call bull s h i t on the entire thing. What is going on with these Captains? The person taking us on our shore excursion couldn't believe it either. There must be a financial incentive involved, as it certainly didn't involve wind or currents.

Our service on our current cruise on Oceania Insignia has been phenomenal, so it's hard to imagine a noticeable step up, but I'm glad to see your vote of confidence!

Any thoughts on food quality on SB versus O? We are looking to branch out to some other cruise lines in the future. Thanks!

Yep, our Butler got us to the head of the line in Edinburgh while we were on Riviera. I think you can also get some preferential treatment if you have a private excursion, but you need to work that out in advance with the Shore Excursions crew.

Of course! But now that I think of it, what was I thinking??

Greg, they call every wine person a Somm. I used the term Wine Steward as that is a more appropriate designation. The masks are supposed to come off after our cruise is over. I've seen several crew members not wearing them in the last two days....I think they are growing weary of the bull crap. Dinner in Terrace Cafe tonight. As usual, the Sushi and Sashimi are quite good! The soup tonight with Andouille Sausage was also pretty good. The wok fried Szechuan Beef was excellent!! I went up to Polo Grill and asked the Maitre D' for two orders of Key Lime Pie to go. He was happy to take care of it for me! The Key Lime Pie was awesome as usual!

One of the waiters last night told us they've been forced to wear masks on this trip (and the last one) because the crew is transitioning from a warm weather environment to a cold weather one. Yeah, I rolled my eyes as well. Idiots.

Well that doesn't bode well for streaming. I was able to open streaming on Youtube by using my VPN, but it was unwatchable. Without the VPN it showed Youtube as inaccessible. I'll try to test it again with the VPN activated. In the meantime, here are the results of the speed test. I find it interesting that it picked up a server in Kansas as the most optimal server for the test. I tried a server in Charlottetown where we currently are, and it was slower.

They definitely throttle streaming, as they offer a "streaming package for $9.99/day, per device. If you have to work, that's a small price to pay. I'm about to head out on an excursion, but I'm happy to run a speed test later this afternoon!

Breakfast today in Terrace Cafe. Kinda blah. The Eggs Benedict was pretty bad. Eggs were cooked to order and done correctly, but the Hollandaise sauce was thin and tasteless. I may try it once more to see if it improves. I love Eggs Benedict when done correctly. My wife got a boiled egg and it was WAY overcooked. She also got some raspberries and found one with mold on it. The coffee machine is making crappy Cappuccino...not enough milk and the coffee beans seem sub-standard. I ended up going down to Barristas to get my second cup of coffee. I've gotta say the coffee from Baristas, while better than the machines in Terrace Cafe, is nowhere near as good as it was from Baristas on Riviera. The ship was supposed to dock in Charlottetown at 1100 this morning, and I had made my own excursion plans based on this. The ship ended up docking at 0900. I'm glad we have more time in Port, but why couldn't this be advised in advance? I know they knew about it in advance, as they have to arrange for the Pilot, the Tugs and the Linesman in advance. I used to be a Ship's Agent way back when, so I know how this stuff works. I could have moved my excursion up instead of having to wait on the ship until 1130!

We ate at Toscana tonight. The Calamari was excellent! The white bean soup was very good. I had the Tortelloni Alla Genevese again, and asked for 6 Tortelloni versus the standard 4. No issues! It was awesome! My wife was very happy as well. Our only complaint was the dessert....we got the sampler and it was blah. Now if they had brought me the Key Lime Pie! Wifi continues to be excellent! I keep waiting for the ***** to hit the fan....knock on wood!

Gotcha, thanks for the explanation.

Basor, the Beverage Packages in Currents lists a House Select and a Prestige Select package. Wouldn't House Select be "house" wines? Are you saying that Simply More jumps straight to Prestige Select?

This is stupid. Fix the areas that don't have good speaker coverage, don't punish the rest of us. There is this thing called an "in-line volume control" that can be installed in every public space, and they can have individual volume control. It would cost them less than $10k for the entire ship. They'll make that on drinks and wine tonight alone!