sandbag7

We had inside cabins on our first several cruise with our children; they were never an issue, but my VDW has put her foot down on that - she doesn't like the total lack of view. That being said we have a limited view cabin booked on a Crystal ship next fall because our TA recommended it for dollar value. Our latest cabins have been balcony cabins on several lines in Europe and the Carribean, and coming up on a HAL cruise to Australia/New Zealand. But cabin size has never been an issue with us and the jump up to suite cabins always comes at considerable expense. As to perks: laundry expense for a few bags? Not so much. Dining at specialty restaurants? Not that expensive. But if you entertain or just like more cabin size for comfort, or care more about breakfast or on some lines want a butler or dine in your cabin, then a suite is for you - if you can work it into your budget.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=362&pgtype=dining

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Perfect; thanks.

LOL!

Three posts on CC and they are all in this thread.

Do you by any chance live in Canada?

Unless Maryland has succeeded the Big 50 and been accepted into Canada I don't think so. The only thing wrong with her posts is that they assume CCers equate with ordinary cruisers when the rest of us know that we are the raw end of a genteel bunch. Oceania cruisers are, IMOBOAK, at least as welcoming as those in other lines.

As to the original topic it is problematic for reasons others have stated - varying tastes - and as with food ratings sights like Yelp, unless you are familiar with a reviewers tastes in food and they match yours you should not give them much credence.

We will be on Noordam in February; does anyone know the current prices for each of its specialty restaurants?

If you own a restaurant you may be disappointed

 

We had a person who was a Chef on one of our cruises way back in the early years who found the food OK but not up to her standards

 

 

I found HAL food was mediocre ingredients & some tasted awful

 

Swiss Chalet chicken was 5 star compared to HAL chicken

YMMV

 

I prefer my steak plain maybe some pepper I would not waste giving a good Cab to the steak ;)

 

Much ado about nothing IMO

Now I'm really looking forward to my HAL cruise in February; never heard of Swiss Chalet but I suspect it's a frozen food brand featuring Chicken and not to be missed Salisbury Steak; must try some and compare. :o

St Paul Girl I've reading the same threads as you and am wondering also. However, i don't think salt is the primary issue (despite the comment above); you can't seriously dictate that all people eat food at the same salt levels - people with low blood sugar crave salt like a deer at a salt lick; people with salt restrictions become used to its absence.

Spice is another matter; it can mean "hot" like habanero , or taste based like cumin or cardamom; this is where Oceania has excelled; they used bold flavors where others feared to tread.

On my January cruise we enjoyed most of the dishes and when I was concerned (not specific to the ship) I requested and got more spice on my Lobster Fra Diavolo, and it was yummy (despite posts complaining about the Lobster).

We were told that this new menu cannot be booked before sailing. It must be booked onboard. The other 2 can be booked before sailing

On our upcoming 10 day cruise on Riviera there are 3 menus, not including this new one which, according to previous posters, can not be booked in advance on any cruise before the end of the year. You should check on the Oceania site as to which menus are available on your cruise. Additionally, on our cruise earlier this year one of the menus was repeated with no pre-cruise notice.

New menu starts August on Marina and September on Riviera. We board Riviera in November and our first stop will be the reservation desk. Fortunately we are in a PH and can board earlier. I too was quoted the $112. Price but I had assumed that did not include grants. Glad it is cheaper.

$95 plus tax was/is the going rate on 2 of the Reserve Dinners you can book before sailing, the other being $165 plus tax; I was incorrect in my earlier posting.

Over 30 years I've been on 20 plus cruises on 9 cruise lines. Our December cruise on Riviera will be our first repeat cruise on a ship. I have not done a PH cabin so I can't comment on any heightened need for familiarity.

On all our trips I've never sought or received extraordinary cabin service, my wife and I have never had a relationship with our cabin steward and we could care less if they mention or remember our names; we've never had cause for complaint and that's all we seek - are we unique in not seeking more personal service?

In the Terrace on Riviera this January most of the workers we encountered were Eastern European and a bit reserved but certainly not problematic. Service in the specialty restaurants was cordial and professional. I'm at a loss to understand the problems experienced by the OP, but for us the passenger mix and atmosphere on the ship are, next to the food, the most important factor to our cruise enjoyment, so my opinion may not carry weight with the majority.

Correcting the attempt to pass off elitism as egalitarianism is not picking a nit. It's keeping things honest and keeping the discussion even-keeled.

 

This message may have been entered via voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

Agreed; one post extolling the virtues of tuxes admitted that they are uniforms; that's an army I have no intention of enlisting in.

As Graham Chapman once said on Monty Python, " There's nae wrong with a gala lunch"; that being said dressing up for a cruise meal is a remnant of the early twentieth century when cruising was class based and first class dressed as if they were at a society ball; according to Smithsonian some people were wearing white gloves while dining on cruise ships until the sixties! I presume there are some who would like to return to that custom as well.

Society may be trending again to a class based system if all the fascination with Brit Royals in the US is any indication , and cruise ships also with their "Havens" and other limited access staterooms and restaurants; however the days of society balls, the 400 and other class, race and religion limited dining and living are pretty much over, and the need to wear a tux on land is extremely limited.

There is no real reason to pretend that there is a basis for formal dress on a cruise; I personally don't take much notice of what people where to dinner unless it's outlandish, but I've never had to wear a tux to any dinner on land and to do it at sea just seems silly.

Yep; hope this won't affect my Mayan Mystique cruise in December.

Some people treat these warnings as law; I've travelled widely in several countries when they were on the travel list, including Morocco and Jordan and Istanbul of course without a hint of danger, got lost in Istanbul last September and ended up in front of a mosque in a non-tourist area during a religious event and demonstration of some kind - no stress. Oaxaca was on the list due to a teacher strike met with great violence: we had a great time.

We live in Chicago suburbs and some will not go into the City or take public transportation out of fear; I suspect they'd be happier in a fully gated community.

Maybe we've been lucky but the number of tourists killed or injured in random or organized acts of violence just don't rise to the level where I intend to be governed by them.

The French have some interesting travel warnings for US cities ( including Chicago of course) : don't travel by foot in Richmond, Virginia (!).

Check where yours are coming from; we get O brochures from our TA with sone regularity; get direct O and Regent brochures less frequently.

In the news posted the price is $112.10 PP

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8013

If correct that would be $95 plus 18% gratuity which would be less than any of the offerings from earlier this year.

So, did you send it back? Commenting to us really does not help. The "chef" must be informed and it should be done again! If no one sends the inferior product back, the inferior product continues. Send it back until it RIGHT!

Remember, you are at a restaurant.

Take a chill pill St Paul girl; sometimes you send an entree back but sometimes when the experience is so poor you do not want a repeat. And sometimes you just lose your appetite. In my case I notified the waiter, head waiter and talked to the head chef the next day- he acknowledged there had been other complaints about the prime rib, ribeye and the amazingly small potato. People who share their opinions on CC should be appreciated not badgered.

We just finished a cruise on the Riviera. On the whole the cruise was a very good one. There were issues (as there always are), but we enjoyed ourselves and are happy to have taken the experience.

 

But one observation that I'm curious if others have noticed a little bit of a staff disappointment when you order wine by the glass on a package. We had the standard drink perk and then upgrade. On Day 1, just getting our bearings, we ate at the grand dining room which was nearly empty. The sommelier came over and immediately tried to sell us a bottle of wine. For the record, we would later purchase 2 at specialty restaurants. But on this occasion, we just wanted wine by the glass. I've used this terminology in my onboard and now my CC review, but basically it looked like we had just shot his dog. He was professional with service after that, but the disappointment was dripping.

 

I'm sure this likely has something to do with compensation. I know on a bottle of wine he'd get most of (all?) the 18% and I'm sure on the wine glasses (especially on package) there's probably a pool of some sort. On the whole sommeliers and others we interacted with later in the cruise were better about it. Some didn't even bother to swipe our cards (I assume because of lack of financial incentive).

 

It wasn't a huge thing, but it seems like this is something Oceania needs to solve somehow. We've had drink packages on other ships before and had great interactions with sommeliers and bartenders to the point where we tipped them on the side directly. There was really no way that was going to happen on this cruise with the way we were served. So Oceania, figure out how to compensate your staff better here so that they don't pass on resentment to the passengers.

I'm pretty sure you hit the nail on the head; it is no secret that most employees on all cruise ships are underpaid and rely heavily on tips; the many sommeliers are probably no different. Reminds me of the time I bought a La-Z-Boy couch and refused the extra charge for special fabric treatment; the sales person was crushed.

I thankfully did not have the same experience on Riviera.

On my cruise in January there were two different prices depending on the menu; two were $139 and the third was more expensive; this new menu does not have foie gras but the wines appear more expensive so I would not be surprised if the cost was North of $165.

You can always switch your specialty reservations to snatch La Reserve spots; this new menu is appealing except (to us) the Baked Alaska but I suspect I'm in the minority on that.

I once made the mistake of ordering cockles and mussels at a Pub in England ; the waiter was pretty impassive but I suspect he was laughing inside. They must have gone out and run a sieve through the sandy waters because they were the grittiest seafood I've ever eaten.

The Dover Sole on the menu of one of our local restaurants last week was purportedly from Denmark.

In the UK, John Dory is a sea, not lake, fish and is generally regarded as a highish end product. Not as good as, say, turbot, but on the way there. My experience on Marina suggested the flavour was as I've eaten the fish in the UK, not an inferior product.

John Dory was an item on many high end restaurants in Chicago back in the day; it was flown in daily; we also had a restaurant Nick's Fishmarket that had a Hawaii branch and flew in Hawaiian fish (Onaga for example) daily. But our experience with John Dory was like that with whitefish and for that matter Turbot: banal. Turbot was a very economical fish then which fit our budget; unfortunately the simple cooking method we used was part of the reason for our disappointment. Don't look for it these days.

St. Peter's fish we had recommended to us in Europe and Israel; I was suspicious of the basic taste and questioned the staff and informed each time it was John Dory.

The fish I craved was Dover Sole which I had in various ways including with Strawberries at Ambria (fabulous). Given economics we did not order that often. True Sea Bass was also good and Red Snapper especially Greek, Mexican and Oriental preps; later Arctic Char. We get pretty good wild salmon too.

In places like Sicily you almost cannot get a bad fish; Chicago may be fishy but has never been known for its fish.

Harters I suspect you have had a much happier history in eating fish than I have. Hoping for the best on Riviera.

Thanks for the information.

Hey S,

 

>What the heck is with all of the half day excursions?

 

Have you considered booking excursions on your own?

 

30 - 40 somethings are at the low end of the Oceania demographic.

 

Ira

Right; we are 66 and we book our own excursions everywhere; much more enjoyable, directed and with much better value for money. We've tried joining groups through roll call but lately that hasn't worked for us. Being on a tour with two dozen people leaves you with no discretion and at the mercy of the slowest passengers.

Maybe you could provide relevant details like the cruise ports and how much time the ship is in each port? I suspect some of the mavens can answer without this information but it would be helpful.

Apart from the fact that this is not HAL's doing, I am surprised that someone should think that the price for four people would be the same as for ten. That is 2-1/2 times the usual family number, and presumably requires more positioning and possibly more takes. IMHO, OP's indignation is misplaced.

I like your reference "the usual family number"; anyway I think the time spent to pose 10 vs. 4 is relatively insignificant and the photo company could make up any time usage based on the likelihood of selling more prints; the add on cost is largely unjustified but if they can get away with it they will.

With the substantial number of beds (on several decks) it would be a full time job for a large number of staff to time every single unoccupied lounger (in addition to their other duties). Perhaps a little pro-active help might be a better approach - if you see an unoccupied lounger for over 30 minutes, point it out to an attendant.

Don't want to get off point on this but I disagree that passengers need to be observing and reporting; it is primarily the crews job to enforce ship regulations. As you know there is a main pool deck, lounges around and then 3 rows deep on the sides; that's where the main area of dispute is though it could be more spread out on a sunny sea day; one of the crew spending 10-15 minutes per hour or less could handle, but all the cruise lines walk a tightrope on this issue. They are afraid to disturb the people who believe the rules don't apply to them.