allyurwishes

We've done a dozen Azamara cruises since liquor was included and have never seen an issue with the "atmosphere." It's been a very positive change as far as we're concerned, not having to pull out a room card in order to get a drink.

 

And, speaking as a native and long-time resident of New England, lobster isn't lobster unless it's Homarus Americanus and it has to be steamed, not grilled. This is almost impossible to find on any cruise ship. Remember: just my opinion.

Happy New Year to you marinaro44. Speaking as a former Nova Scotian, I could not agree with you more regarding the lobster!

My adventurous spouse and I did this cruise in 2014 and had a great time. We enjoyed a variety of private tours arranged through the CC Roll Call, and even a few O tours. Lots of wonderful fellow cruisers, especially from Australia and the UK, who we still remain in contact with. I have not personally read any negative reviews, but I'm sure there are some - it is not easy to satisfy everyone all the time. There are quite a few sea days, but we enjoyed these as well. I'd actually like to do the west coast of Africa cruise (CPT - MIA or LIS - CPT), but spouse says no dice!

While I enjoy lobster, the best lobster are live, then freshly cooked with just some melted butter. You have to "work" for the meat. The lobster on virtually every cruise line is processed, cooked and frozen in Maine or the East coast of Canada. As a kid growing up in Nova Scotia if you took a lobster sandwich for school lunch you were considered poor - the rich kids had peanut butter and jam sandwiches! How times change.

Almost all salmon we consume on land or sea is farmed, especially so-called "Atlantic salmon" which may be farmed in the US, Canada, Norway, Scotland or Chile and other countries. Sustainability is the issue. There are no commercial Atlantic salmon fisheries. Commercial fishing for wild salmon(e.g. sockeye, chum, pink or coho) is a seasonal venture on the west coast of the northern US and Canada. The catch, if any, depends primarily on the quota system, which is based on estimates of the size of the run from sea to river.

On some cruises we have had fresh fish which had been purchased at various ports of call. While I am not a foodie, I do love a good feed of fresh fish or lobster, but I do not generally expect to have fresh fish on a cruise.

On our recent Nautica cruise we needed US$ cash to pay for a number of private tours that could NOT be PREPAID. We used good old fashioned TCs! Oceania will cash several hundred US $ per day worth of TCs to US$ cash at no cost. TCs can usually be purchased at your bank with no cost to you. We would then go to the purser's office daily to cash the TCs until we had enough US$ to pay for the cruise. The US cash went into the safety deposit box in the cabin and was taken out as needed. VERY convenient and as noted Oceania does not charge for cashing US$ TCs into US$ cash. So call Oceania and see what the maximum per day amount is...this is far more convenient than carrying a large amount of cash on you or looking for ATMs which will take your plastic. This info is also on the cruise line web site in Q and As.

We paid no service fees, admin. charges ever this way: 1US$ in and 1 US$ out!