halfapair

We are booked on the Vista for June 2024 on a 19 day cruise. I looked at out cruise fare (no air included), 10 included shore excursions (already reserved), and our OBC. If we were to book that cruise now it would be $1600 more, not including the increased gratuities. My husband doesn’t drink, and only have the occasional cocktail or glass of wine. We like to book our own air so we can add days before and after our cruise. So there’s no upside for us with SimplyMore, except that our cruises will simply cost more.

Agree that Baristas is a great place to hang out with the crew. We were in Martinis one evening and the only available seats were with the Captain and his beautiful wife. He was having a Coke, she was have a glass of champagne. Lovely people😊

You can enter your cruise information at this site, and they have an array of SE for each stop on your cruise. Some tours are private. https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/

We were on the Insignia for NYE, and the Insignia is similar to the Nautica. They had a special menu in the Main Dining Room - I remember a really good lobster dish in particular. The Lounge was decorated with balloons, andthere were silly hats & horns available for the passengers. On our particular cruise the seas were pretty rough that day, so it put a damper on the festivities since about 50% of the passengers were not feeling well. But there was music & dancing for those who felt like partying the night away.

- crispy, but I love bar cookies, too. - chips - milk, dark, or white: it depends on the cookie and flavor combos - I love nuts, especially walnuts in cookies and brownies - brown sugar or white sugar: both for flavor and texture - cookies or bars: All! - I don’t prefer iced sugar cookies, and certainly no raisins!

@shepherd reallyI make a to-die-for Salted White Chocolate Oatmeal cookie! Raisins are trash and should be outlawed.

Dear Oceania, As a Certified Grandmother and baker of delicious cookies (a prerequisite of being a CG, of course!), I am happy to help you up your cookie game. My terms are negotiable (OBC, upgrades, spa treatments, etc) ☎️ me

My husband and I will be stopping in Volos on a cruise. We are there from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. We have already been to Meteora, so we don't need to go back, and I would like to do a beach day in Volos. The cruise company (Oceania) has a S/E for Alykes Beach, for 3 hours. Would it be possible to do this on our own? Or is there another nice beach close to the port where we could spend time relaxing? Thank you in advance for your recommendations.

Overall, I found the quality of the HS ice cream to be superior to the "regular" Oceania offerings. But not all the flavors of the HS brand appealed to me. I would only have it if I truly thought I would enjoy the flavor, otherwise, I didn't eat ice cream. I went into the Terrace and had some desserts there.

Hopefully dinner at Jacques blotted out the memory of the boarding nightmare. Some wine and a couple of chocolate mousses would have done it for me. Feeling jelly in WA.

We will be on an Oceania cruise in 2024 that stops twice in Ephesus. One of the stops is from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I would like to visit Pamukkale that day. Is this reasonable? If so, can you recommend a tour operator that is experienced in taking cruise passengers to Pamukkale? I want to be certain we get back to our ship in time.

Same for us in Washington State - love me some halibut fn'c!

I hope that non-adventurous people will like it so that there will be openings in Red Ginger😉 I am on team #Jacques, and am sorry that venue is not on Vista (or Allura?). Too bad. I go on vacation to see/do/eat things I can't get at home, and French food is one of those things. I can get a pork chop down the street.

My husband will be delighted with the shower.

It might depend on the availability : ”In October 2022, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game canceled all snow crab, red king crab, and blue king crab seasons for 2022-2023, after trawl surveys showed a continuing crash in abundance. The winter red king crab season in Alaska's Bering Sea was also canceled in 2021-2022.”

We do a combination of shore excursions. For instance, we will be on the Vista in 2024, Haifa, Israel to Istanbul. It's an 18 day cruise, with a port every day. Some ports are more important to us than others. We got an OLife package that includes 10 shore excursions (5 for each of us). We plan to use the included shore excursions at the ports that are "less important" to us. We'll stop twice in Kusadasi/Ephesus which is very important to me, so we'll do private excursions there both times. But a stop like Marmaris is less important, so we'll use our OLife excursions there. We did a Baltic cruise back in 2018 which stopped for two nights (3 days of sightseeing) in St. Petersburg, Russia. I hired a private guide & driver there, and we saw every top sight in SP. In a few ports we did our own thing - no guide (Estonia, Helsinki, Gdansk, Copenhagen), then in some ports we did Oceania excursions.

Hi @WAshgirl - I am also in WA...we might be neighbors🙂 I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise. We've cruised with O twice, and booked our next cruise with them while onboard the Insignia. Some of our best experiences have been through private operators for shore excursions. Just as long as they get you back to the ship on time!

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency which is in a great location if you plan on spending a few days in Miami prior to your cruise. The hotel is a bit tired, but ok for a few nights. https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/florida/hyatt-regency-miami/miarm

The nightly soufflé in the MDR was my favorite thing on our cruise.

Guess I need to cruise more. Will inform husband forthwith.

How do you get a spa voucher? Inquiring minds want to know.

Last cruise: 12/29/2022 - 01/16/2023, Insignia Panama Canal Next cruise: June 1-19, 2024, Vista Jerusalem to Istanbul

Someone in another thread said to not book specialty restaurants for the first couple of nights, because everyone wants to go to the Main Dining Room at first. This way you can stop at the reservations desk and ask if there are any open tables, and maybe you can score an extra dinner or two in the specialty restaurants. I have not tried this, but might try it on an upcoming cruise. We loved Jacques, and were able to get extra seatings on our Baltic cruise a few years ago. in Toscana you can request the pastas as side dishes. Yum! That way you can try more of them. If they have the zabaglione with peaches it is sooooo, soooo good! OMG. SO GOOD!

We were on the Panama Canal portion of the ATW cruise earlier this year (12/28/22 - 1/16/23). We had lobster in the following places: Grand Dining Room, Toscana, and Polo. It was offered in Waves and the Terrace Cafe, but we didn’t have it there. One night in Polo Grill I had lobster bisque, gratinated lobster, and lobster mac’n cheese. Overall, we loved the food on board. We prefer to eat in the dining room for breakfast and lunch whenever possible. The daily soufflé in the dining room for dinner was one of my favorite things. Also, in Toscana they had a zabaglione with peaches that was to die for. And the lobster in Toscana was excellent, too.

@lindaglenn - make sure you get a veranda stateroom. The PC transit takes 10 hours. We had a Concierge level stateroom, which allowed access to the spa. The Spa Deck had some of the best views. People up in Horizons had to view through the tinted glass, while those of us on the Spa deck took turns standing on a platform that gave us a clear view of the locks. You will be able to hear the commentary on the Spa deck, too. Then we went to our cabin for part of the transit (10 hours is a long time to keep watching, etc). We ate lunch the Grand Dining room that day, but you could order room service and dine while watching the action from your veranda. Just a thought since this is a special cruise for you.