vlthom

There are wonderful shoestring fries served in Polo as an accompaniment to the sliders. They are the best fries found onboard. I wish that this type was served elsewhere around the ship.

We are in Oslo @ Cruise Terminal Filipstad Quay

The other thread that I started sort of evolved into other topics so I am starting anew. We’re in Oslo now, for the second segment of our trip: Oslo to London (Southampton). Our arrival into Oslo was on time; however, disembarkation was delayed to some degree. Since we’re continuing on, we’re only aware of the issue from the apologetic announcements that we are hearing, mainly talking about the “thoroughness” of the authorities and the need for patience. As for us, we moved to a different cabin this morning. Our cabin attendant was very helpful in moving the hanging items from our closet, and with assistance, our bags were moved over as well. That part was easy, aside from not knowing when it would happen beforehand. We are now in the new cabin; however, we have not been issued new keycards yet, so we are somewhat trapped. Guest services says that their system is having problems so they are not able to issue the new cards, nor reset our account. So, we are hanging out in our cabin unable to leave for now. This isn’t exactly how I envisioned our day in Oslo; however, there are street blockages and no shuttles or tours today because of the Pride parade in town. I am wondering how this will impact those trying to get to the port today.

We didn’t receive a bag either. It wasn’t something that we really cared about, though DH typically uses the bag to bring his gym clothes to the locker room. We are also on the next segment and are moving to a different cabin tomorrow. Oddly, there has been almost no information provided for how this process will go. We asked our cabin attendant about it and she said that we would keep our cabin until the new one was ready, but that’s all we’ve been told, oddly. I guess that at some point we’ll go to reception to see about getting a new key card.

We sat at the bar in Horizons during the party and spoke with someone who was seated next to us and on their first O cruise. Since this was the repeaters party, I assumed that they were not really invited to the party. I got the impression that they were there but not invited.

We attended the O club party last evening in Horizons. It was well attended but less of a crowd than on some prior cruises we’ve been on. We noted too, that there were a few party crashers who may have stumbled upon the free booze accidentally. We headed down to the GDR after about an hour at the party. As has been consistent with this cruise, there was a big line-up to get in. This group is comprised of early diners. Our dinner stretched longer than we would have liked. All went ok until we completed our entrees. Then the wait was nearly 30 minutes for the dessert menu to arrive. Our waiter never returned, but from that point onwards, we had a much more efficient, seemingly more experienced waiter. On the 2 prior evenings, DH’s decaf coffee was never served and we gave up on it. We were pleased to receive it promptly last night. So, it does seem that there are some service issues. We observed that the wait-staff seem to be serving a larger area than in the past. Even in the Terrace, it looks like there are fewer staff members behind the counters. When we are not in a hurry, it doesn’t matter that much and I am not sure that we’d notice the issue had we not cruised with O many times before with very experienced staff. But this should sort itself out over time as long as O isn’t trying to operate with fewer staff members. We are curious as to whether the ratio of passengers and staff has changed from pre-pandemicclevels.

We had dinner in Toscana last evening. Overall, it was good. Service was attentive. Food was good. They again have the olive oil service/selection via cart. On our last cruise on Regatta, this was missing so it was nice to see it restored. We wish they still had the chunks of parmesan. Our meal was very good. I was disappointed though that my favorite wine was out of stock. Also, coffee at the conclusion of the meal was poor. My cappuccino was lukewarm and DH ‘s decaf never arrived. We could have asked about it but he’d lost interest. So, we just left. We had an early reservation and from what we’ve seen, service is very good until they get busier, then things start to suffer. On another note, DH was in the Concierge lounge early this morning (before 6am). He said that a staff member was restocking and brought in a full platter of cookies - 4 different kinds and probably 2 dozen in all. DH left briefly in order to bring me a cup of coffee in our cabin. He then returned and found that during the interim, someone had cleared almost all of the cookies (in less than 5 minutes). No one was in sight. So, someone seems to appreciate the cookies or else they are in for a rude surprise!

We arrive in Kiel this morning. According to Currents, we’ll be docked at Ostseekai, Berth 28.

On the first night, happy hour was 6 to 7pm, as I stated. Second night was Captain’s party so no HH. Since then, it has indeed shifted to the normal. Time of 5 to 6pm. My apologies….I had troubled getting online last night to make the correction.

Happy hour is from 6pm to 7pm. There is also a late one from 10:30 to 11:30.

I believe that someone asked about the artist in residence. According to Currents, it is Frank Hyder. Sea day today. Wifi was not nearly as responsive today, but to be expected with everyone onboard. Satellite TV channels not working well for part of the day. Captain’s party this evening. Very long days this far north. Dinner tonight was in the Grand Dining room. We found the service to be fine and dinner took around 90 minutes which is fine with us.

We did not specify a need for scent free toiletries; however, I did request hypoallergenic bedding (no feathers) so perhaps our cabin attendant made the assumption about the toiletries. I did not have an opportunity to see her and talk to her about it. I was busy searching for my bag which was misplaced and delivered to the wrong stateroom. It was the first time that we did not receive luggage tags ahead of time. Tags were readily supplied when we arrived at the port, but it appeared that the cabin number was not written clearly enough by the person who placed the tag on my bag. Hence, someone else got my bag and had rewritten the cabin number more boldly.

We used one of our planned reservations for Red Ginger on embarkation night. In the past, we got an extra night in a specialty restaurant by purposely leaving the first night open. It’s a good strategy if one wants additional nights. We felt that we had enough and preferred to just go on a night when the timing was convenient.

Dinner was in Red Ginger tonight just following happy hour in Martinis. Happy Hour was not as well attended as I would expect, but perhaps it was because it was embarkation night. Dinner was as fabulous. Duck and watermelon salad was divine. Same for the sea bass. Disappointed to find a note from Destination Services about the cancellation of our booked excursion in a couple of days. We’re hoping to get a substitution but must wait until tomorrow to know for sure. Wifi seems about the same as always….slow but working. DH received a call just as we were leaving port. It was an internet call and he claimed that it was quite good with no drop offs. We are at sea tomorrow with the Captain’s party in the evening. I still have not tried the cookies, nor seen them. There definitely are children on board.

We haven’t left the port yet so it’s hard to say about the wifi. We noticed that our cabin has a wifi extender on the ceiling which is something we haven’t had previously, so perhaps our connectivity will be better than usual. I can’t yet comment on the cookies…..trying to keep my distance as I know that I will be tempted to try them but will be disappointed. I’m sure that I will eventually give in.

Boarded in Southampton at around noon today. Very smooth embarkation process. We breezed through and were aboard the ship within minutes. Our first observation was that we have a somewhat younger crowd onboard, including at least a handful of children. School is out, so it isn’t surprising. Our concierge stateroom was available precisely at 1:30pm. Everything appears to be in fine condition. Of the public spaces that we’ve visited so far, everything looks fine, too. In our stateroom, I did notice that we do not have the usual high-end toiletries. Instead, we have what’s shown in the photo. No conditioner, nor bath gel included. We haven’t yet met our stateroom attendant to inquire about these, but wonder if this is a sign of cost-cutting.

1200 passengers coming ashore in some of the FP ports can be overwhelming. We've sailed in FP several times: on Regatta in 2013, on Marina in 2014, and again on Regatta in 2022. We enjoyed that part of the world on Regatta more than Marina simply because of the passenger count. Pulling into Huahine or Nuku Hiva with 1200 passengers was ridiculous. They simply cannot handle that many people coming ashore for the day.

Viking is probably the closest to O. They do provide a decent product but in my opinion, O is superior. Sure, Viking includes some wine and beer at meal times, but to me, it's barely drinkable aside from their own brand of sparkling wine. And yes, they include some shore excursions -- but those are limited to panoramic types of tours and everything else has an additional fee. You will also be charged gratuities and there is essentially no loyalty program aside from a minor $100-200 off future cruises. Food on O is far superior in my opinion, not to say that there are not some good meals to be had on Viking. My husband enjoyed the sushi in the buffet; however, the offerings were not as extensive as what one finds on O. The pool area on Viking is nice and novel with a retracting glass roof. During inclement weather, one can still sit out on the pool deck and watch the world go by (when sailing) with the roof closed. On the downside, they sometimes forget to open the retractable roof when in warm weather and it turns the entire area into an oven. Viking treats their passengers like adults, there are not constant reminders to do things (like pick up your passport from them). The do not provide a visa service per se. We've enjoyed having a Nespresso machine in our cabin when we sailed with them. There's no happy hour with reduced pricing for drinks; however their cocktails tend to be less expensive than O's. Pricing of the drinks is done differently though. For instance, for a soda or soft drink on O, there's no charge. On Viking, complimentary sodas are available in one's cabin but if you order one in the bar, you pay for it. When they make a mixed drink that varies from what's listed in their menu, you pay for the components of the drink (e.g. Gin, $X plus Tonic, $X). There's no showing of key cards at the bar. They just ask for one's cabin number. And there's nothing to sign; however, this gets them into trouble now and again because in our experience, after they told us that they remember customer's cabin numbers, we've discovered other passengers' drink tabs on our account. It was quickly remedied with a trip to Guest Services but still.....

Yep. I've purchased floral arrangements in Tahiti which I've brought onboard without issue.

This was my understanding as well, but perhaps that's what they generally do but maybe not for every single thing. Just saying that there must be reason why the cookies are unappealing. I've definitely tried both of the types of cookies (with and without sugar) and am unimpressed with both. We've tried them in Baristas and in the Terrace and were equally unimpressed.

It doesn't seem to matter if the stock is jointly owned or not. In my case, I am the owner of the stock; however, they split the benefit equally between me and my husband.....not that it matters much since all room charges will go onto one card. But it seemed odd to me that they didn't just apply it to my account as the sole owner of the stock. If I were traveling with a friend rather than with my husband, would they have given half of my shareholder benefit to my friend?

We sailed for the first time on Regent earlier this year and during that cruise, I can say that Regent's cookies were almost identical to those on O. Definitely not a high point on either line.

Read the terms and conditions stated on the Shareholder benefit page in the NCLH website. It's not entirely clear and they leave room to do as they please by stating "other terms, restrictions and conditions may apply." So, the best thing to do would be to simply fill out the form and submit it along with a statement from your broker's account showing proof of ownership. We recently purchased 2 cruises that were part of the "extraordinary savings" event. I thought for certain that having purchased our cruises during this sale meant that we would not be able to get the shareholder benefit. But throwing caution to the wind, I decided to submit the requests and to do so on the last day that we were eligible (15 days prior to sailing). I was pleasantly surprised the next morning to see that the credit had been applied to my account for both of our back-to-back sailings. No one sent anything notifying us about it but it's definitely on the account now. And we received final paperwork today confirming that it's been applied.

Is it possible that due to the strike on the previous day, there were too many ships already in those ports and thus getting in/out might be problematic? I just don't see why O would purposely skip those ports without good reason, even if the captain may have been able to articulate their reasoning in a manner that was satisfying.

Same problem here. And I've been experiencing it for weeks. I've had to resort to calling to book excursions. We're doing a long voyage this Fall so there are many excursions to arrange and I cannot do them all at once since it's a 77-day voyage. Thus, it has required several calls to O just to book these. It would be nice if they managed to fix this issue as it is taking up time for both their reps and the passengers.