BBQ Lover

Per Frank Del Rio, you will not find a tie rack in the staterooms onboard Oceania. He wants to encourage you to leave your tie at home.

If somebody wants to play dress up, then that's alright, too; however, Dockers and polo are all that is really required.

2 hours ago, bob brown said:

Wish Oceania would take NCL's recipe for one of my favorite snacks...chocolate chip cookies....

Oceania can't bake a decent cookie to save their lives

We stayed at this condo in Paynes Bay. It was a great deal, and it was awesome.

https://www.vrbo.com/435012ha

9 hours ago, yogagal47 said:

The Navica app stores your results and you also get an email-I'll be overnighting at Hotel Alex at Piraeus so perhaps they can print it  for me

I will also be embarking in Athens and using the Binax tests. Will you let us know how it goes?

Thanks Kevin

8 hours ago, AJCM said:

Received the following response (provided very quickly by Azamara) :

 

"Regarding your ... query, we are working on an option to book the transfers from our cruises to your hotel in Venice. We will let you know once the option gets available."

 

No indication whether transfers will be complimentary or not but all will be revealed sometime. "option to book" doesn't sound promising.

 

If a fee's involved, wouldn't it be nice if they let us defray the new FCC to cover the cost.

 

Azamara told my TA that they are planning to release another email today. The email is supposed to contain information about a complimentary transfer to the Venice city center

15 hours ago, oddjob16 said:

The cancellation of Venice as port is expected, but it was, until now, a guessing game as to what port would replace it. Best option would be Marghera, but who knows, they might get there for the later cruises this year.

We are on Journey in October, and we have also been switched to Ravenna

I agree with Jazzbeaux. We did have a good time on our Viking cruise; however, we are driven by itinerary, and Viking just regurgitates the same uninspired itineraries, over and over. I think that Azamara does a lot of things right, which includes constantly having the some of the best itineraries that I can find. I love the R-ships, the crew, Destination Immersion, etc., and they deliver all of this at a somewhat decent price point.

We were able to find a decent price on a Silversea cruise last November, and we were highly impressed with the product. While we did not like playing dress-up for dinner, we much prefer a country club casual dress code, we still had an excellent cruise. Silversea also has some impressive itineraries, but I would have to find another great deal before we could afford to sail with them again. Considering that they are now including a door-to-door service that tries to rival Regent, they are making it harder for me to find a price point that I am happy with.

18 minutes ago, QueenP said:

Well that's a no from me. I love the Drawing Room, it's a beautiful, quiet space where I can find books for the trip, play the piano and follow our trip on the big atlas. Looks like Onward won't be among my options.

I am going to have to eventually sail on Onward. I have never been on R-3, so, if I don't go on Onward, then I won't be able to collect all eight of the R-ships.

Darn you, Orlando Ashcroft. I have no evidence of his involvement, but I'm going to blame him anyways. Everybody on the Holland America forums have been blaming him for years. 😄😄

1 minute ago, KirkNC said:

Who would go there and why?

Exactly. If I wanted a cruise line with a specialty bar, then Carnival has the Alchemy Bar. Do you know what Carnival doesn't have? A Drawing Room.

I am also still digesting the information, but I definitely do not like that Atlas Bar. I don't like it at all.

Regatta at the port of San Pedro for provisioning.

Marina was renovated before she started sailing again

I notice that you are a Four Star Mariner. We also love HAL, but we far prefer Oceania. The Oceania ships provide more of a premium feel than a Dam Ship. Other notable differences or similarities between Hal and Oceania:

1. Oceania is changing the decor of their R-ships to brighten things up. However, there are still a lot of dark woods that might remind you of HAL, and the traditional cruise experience.
2. There are no formal nights. The dress code is country club casual every day. It is much more relaxed than HAL.
3. There is no traditional dining option. Everything is open seating, and you just roll up whenever you like. However, you do need to make reservations in the specialty dining rooms to assure a spot.
4. There is no extra charge for specialty dining rooms. On Sirena, and the other R-Ships, all food is included in the price of your cruise. On Riviera and Marina, there is a charge for Privee and La Reserve. Privee is a private dining room for 8 people. La Reserve is a wine tasting that is paired with a chef's table experience. At La Reserve, you are really paying for the wine instead of the food.
5. There is no charge for coffee, tea, and other soft drinks. Afternoon tea is also complimentary, as well as other things that are extra on HAL. You will find that you rarely need to show your room card while on board.
6. Your fellow travelers on Oceania will be about the same age as on HAL.
7. The Oceania ships are smaller and provide a much more intimate atmosphere.

I'm sure there are other things I could mention, but that is about all I can currently think of. I would much rather sail on Oceania than HAL. It is much more of a premium experience.

We were on Riviera's last Christmas cruise. There was some decorations scattered around the ship, a Christmas Eve show in the theater, Santa in the atrium on Christmas morning, and special dinners in The MDR. As someone else has already said, The MDR was overwhelmed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which made the special meals kind of underwhelming. Our room steward also left us a Christmas gift on our bed for Christmas Eve turn down service. It was a nice little clock.

We did not stay up late enough for New Year's Eve festivities. There was a sea day brunch on Jan 2.

Everything was pretty low key and we had fun. Our flights to Miami were double what they would normally cost.

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Understand that four categories does not mean four cabin levels (e.g., inside to penthouse). It’s just categories. Thus, B4 on on O ship gets you A3. Also, if you’re rebooking for the deal, you end up with whatever are the current O perks (possibly not as good as what you got with the original booking). And, of course the fare may be higher than it was the day before the sale.

Will an A3 get you to a PH2, or are you limited to staying in the meta-category?

Will the Azamara butlers unpack for you at the beginning of the cruise, and pack everything back up at the end of the cruise?

23 hours ago, Observer said:

 

There are various restaurants, but Atlantide is the most like a main dining room.  La Terrazza is also large with a varied menu.

 

Dinner generally begins at 7 pm throughout the ship, except for the al fresco pizza restaurant that is open all day and through the evening and Silver Note (the supper club) that begins at 8.

 

There are occasional pre-dinner shows. But shows are generally 9:30-10 pm.

 

There is really no need to pack a suit.  On formal nights one can dine al fresco and casual at the Grill or the pizza restaurant.  Or one can wear jacket and slacks at La Terrazza  on formal nights.  On informal nights a jacket and slacks (no necktie) are sufficient throughout the ship.  La Terrazza is always one step below the rest of the ship in dress code.  So one can dress casual on informal nights in La Terrazza. 

23 hours ago, Observer said:

 

There are various restaurants, but Atlantide is the most like a main dining room.  La Terrazza is also large with a varied menu.

 

Dinner generally begins at 7 pm throughout the ship, except for the al fresco pizza restaurant that is open all day and through the evening and Silver Note (the supper club) that begins at 8.

 

There are occasional pre-dinner shows. But shows are generally 9:30-10 pm.

 

There is really no need to pack a suit.  On formal nights one can dine al fresco and casual at the Grill or the pizza restaurant.  Or one can wear jacket and slacks at La Terrazza  on formal nights.  On informal nights a jacket and slacks (no necktie) are sufficient throughout the ship.  La Terrazza is always one step below the rest of the ship in dress code.  So one can dress casual on informal nights in  La Terrazza. 

We are also first time cruisers on SS. We will be on Silver Whisper, and I also have not packed a suit in over ten years. On formal nights, or any other night for that matter, would we be able to order in suite dining from The Restaurant? Or is in suite dining limited to the room service menu

27 minutes ago, Observer said:

You pay onboard at the end of the cruise.  Apart from some special (usually very expensive) excursions, payment is not required in advance.  However, each booking has an announced cancellation deadline (generally two or three days before the excursion), and if you do not cancel in time you will still be billed and the charge will appear on your bill/folio at the end of the cruise.

 

Enjoy!  SS is wonderful, as you will soon discover.

Thank you, Observer. We have been wanting to try Silversea, and it just worked out. Oceania cancelled or Thanksgiving cruise on Wednesday. I did some quick searching and discovered that Silver Whisper was doing a similar, but better, itinerary at the same time.

Scored

We just booked our first Silversea cruise, and are trying pre-book excursions. When we click on the reserve button, it shows a pop-up that says "confirmed." It also adds the excursion to our time line; however, there is no apparent way to pay for the excursions. Do we pay online with a credit card, or does it work differently?

Thanks

Kevin

On 5/26/2021 at 2:41 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

A few minutes ago, I viewed a 17+ minute video of the restaurant options on this Forum for Silver Spirit.  Try to find it.  As one who is seriously considering a Silverseas cruise, it was most informative!

Do you mean this video

We are booked on the Regatta repositioning sailing at the end of May, from San Francisco to Vancouver, with stops in Alaska. Right now, we are thinking that our cruise will either be the last cruise cancelled, or the first one to sail: assuming that the regular Alaska season is a go.

On 9/23/2019 at 11:47 AM, Jimmyke said:

Hi,

 

Have a look to our St. lucia day trip on the oceania Riviera.

On our channel more Oceania Videos.

https://youtu.be/qx1bHaoAW9w

 

best regards, Jimmy

Jimmy, we have been watching your videos for awhile now, and we really enjoy them. 

It's been over two years since I have cruised with Azamara and visited these boards.
I'm not surprised to see that Bonnie is still here telling people how it's totally normal and okay for Azamara to cancel and/or change your vacation whenever they feel it to be more profitable for them. What I am surprised to see is that a lot of the same people are still here and lodging the same complaints about the cancellations. We said no to Azamara's self centered policies and moved on to other cruise lines.

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Can you get coffee drinks like Cafe Mochas with the Classic Package? Also, is there a difference in the types of coffee drinks available between the Classic Package and Premium Package?

Thanks everybody for all of the information. We ended up booking with the Connoisseur Club TA in Canada and we are going on Riviera for Christmas 2019 and New Year's. We got the free gratuities and other good stuff that comes from dealing with a Connoisseur Club TA. We took the O Life On Board Credit. We found a more expensive excursion that we would like to do and the cooking classes look like fun, so we went with the OBC. Plus I always need to buy a cruise line baseball cap and maybe a couple of other souvenirs.

Thanks again

Kevin