Snaefell3

It is usually an easier day to snag a 2nd(!) visit to your favorite restaurant. Easiest on Day #1, second easiest on last night. See the Dining Reservations Desk that day. And, remember, even extra visits are freebies.

Polo and Toscana are identically sized. They wrap port/starboard around their common kitchen. When my window opens, I go to reservations for my favorite restaurant first and grab from what's still available, then reservations for my second favorite restaurant. Lather, rinse, repeat. YMMV 😉 4-tops are easier to come by than 2-top windows, but remember, you *are* guaranteed a visit to each restaurant (2 on 'R'-class, otherwise 4) even if they have to shoehorn you in at 8:30 on an 8-top

• O's IT systems are a ...weakness. Yeah and verily. • But you want them to build an app you have to rely on?!? 🤦‍♂️

"But... But... But Jacques is HAUTE FRENCH FOOD and Ember is not!!!!!" Call me gauche. ::tiptoes to Ember by preference::

That will be the case only when they (1) stop hiring humans, and (2) stop using computers. 😉

What a sheltered life! 😉 (20+ years here figuring out just why computer systems did much stranger things)

So.. "They" were Reception on the first day? Unless I don't have a bed to sleep on, that's not a place I'll go near that day. I can understand (but not excuse) Reception staff feeling the same way. Sounds like you did the right thing: not take Reception's "no" as a final answer but took your documentation to someone with the time and authority to fix the problem. Once upon a time, on Regatta, we had something similar. Dining Reservations couldn't/wouldn't solve it, so we went to the restaurant's maître d', who did. The morning after the meal, a stranger stopped us in a hallway and asked how our meal went. It was the GM. @Sthrngary is right. "Stuff happens, let's fix it" works a lot better than "I DEMAND!" 😉

Who is "they"? If it isn't the General Mgr, you haven't finished seeking resolution aboard.

Keep an eye on Norway's politicians. There is talk about banning cruise ships from Norway's fjords unless they are zero-emission fueled.

Most computers have "dynamic" IP addresses with "leases" that can last as little as an hour or so. Stupid-smart webserver software will try to do you a favour by guessing your language based upon where it thinks the IP address you have was assigned from. (People even pay VPN vendors to provide them "foreign" IP addresses). So... Your reservations showed Portuguese --most likely-- simply because your IP address at that moment looked like one from Portugal. A "few days ago", your IP looked like from elsewhere.

Off topic, but --to me, anyway-- humorous: "In Europe, 100 miles is 'a long distance'. In America 100 years is 'a long time'."

> How on earth could I have a Portuguese IP address?? > I live in Switzerland...which is a long way from Portugal. I assume you mean you were in Switzerland at that moment? Strange. Let me rephrase: Your IP at that moment was from a range of IP addresses commonly thought to be temporarily assigned by DHCP servers based in Portugal. > All European countries use the same date format: DD:MM:YYYY But not when being posh and using month names (well, abbreviations) instead of numbers. 😉

I chalk it up to O's webserver reacting to seeing you using a "Portuguese" IP address. (and O's lack of interest in giving us a way to override that language assumption 😉 )

• Ships no longer have promenades big enough to assemble all pax. • Too often it was distractingly too cold/windy/rainy/snowing. • Standing around waiting for the crew to chase down the "I don't need to"s. • Too many heads in the way to really see the don-the-lifejacket demo. • Tripping on dangling straps from other folks' lifejackets on way back to cabin. Oh! And they had 24 hours after sailing to hold the drill. Costa Concordia sank sooner.

Uhhh... Make that *probably* no consequences Titanic, Empress of Ireland, Andrea Doria, Oceanos, Herald of Free Enterprise, Costa Concordia, ... Even if it isn't lifeboat time, you can still hear the 7 short and 1 long for real: Star Princess burned 297 cabins in a fire at sea in 2006 and Viking Sky went DIW on a lee shore in 2019.

"#5" here. I believe you're right. However, the original question was about lunch, and last I looked, *that* info is still current (and I'm too lazy to have masked off the breakfast half of the first page 😉 ).

That's not just O. 😞 In the middle of an ocean, it's their care or no care. BTW, "original" (Part 'B') Medicare coverage stops at the US border, so without travel insurance coverage, you are uninsured. Some Medicare Advantage (Part 'C') plans do cover worldwide.

To answer what I think is your question is... O runs a 14(?)-night rotation of menus in the GDR (aka MDR) irrespective of when cruises start or stop. Your first night be "menu #3" on one cruise and "menu #11" on another. That's the bad news. The good news is that you are guaranteed a visit to each specialty restaurant (2 on the 'R'-class ships, and 4 on the others), but are not limited to one visit. It's space-available but still freebie for any additional. Theoretically, you could specialty-restaurant every night of the cruise (well, "fat chance" does comes to mind 😉 ). Conventional wisdom is to take your guarantees on sea days and expect to have an easy time for an extra on the first night and a good chance on the last. Extras are harder to come by on shorter cruises (less nights = less slots to go around). If you are in a Penthouse Suite or better, your butler can serve you specialty meals in your cabin any night(s), course-by-course. The only restriction there is all the meals that night have to come from the same specialty kitchen (some restaurants share a kitchen). Tip him well, though, and give him plenty of notice.

A geometrical truth... Unless your ship is using a polar-orbit satellite relay (right now that means StarLink and only StarLink), the biggest factor in at-sea internet connectivity is ship's latitude. Anyone know which ships O has deployed StarLink on so far?

It wasn't on O, but I suspect that doesn't matter. Once upon a time, my DW tore a knee meniscus curbside just before boarding a cruise. The porters quickly produced a wheelchair and it was much like @MSEm described only on gangways. Point is, the porters took their wheelchair back and we rented a ship's medical center one. "Beat like a rented mule" didn't even begin to describe its condition.

BTW "Medical devices", which I suspect would include your boot, travel aboard US domestic flights as cabin baggage over and above normal carry-on. (CPAPs, too)

AFAIK, no pre-paid gratuities option on O's website. FWIW, I've never seen what benefit pre-paid gratuities (except by a third party 😉 ) was to a cruiser. It only lets you board with a "fresh wallet", encouraging you to more impulse spends aboard.

Don't forget the room service option. I don't know many lines that offer Shrimp Cocktail, French Onion Soup, Fillet and Baked Potato, and Crème Brûlée as a room service meal.

AFAIK, Le Reserve isn't bookable on the website, but for beverage packages: (login) → Manage This Booking → Other Options → Beverage Packages

Embarkation days are crew-limited. Lines preferentially allocate crew to having cabins ready earlier, or cabins prepared better, or opening main dining for lunch, or having debarking luggage available earlier, or baggage check for embarking luggage until cabins open, ... the list goes on, but the point is no line can do all the possible nice things except at a price point well above O's. I'd really like GDR open for embarkation day "Taste of the World" lunch with my carry-on in my cabin, but I'll settle for a leisurely Waves "surf and turf" lunch with minimal carry-on (the rest gets handed to the porters dockside). "Travel" is a short way of saying "opportunities to solve problems".