MVPinBoynton

Thank you. I will give you some thoughts about my preferences for the three lines. Food - This is a very important item for me when choosing a cruise, since it can make or break one. Since the chef and staffs can change every cruise, my experience could be different than what others experience. My tastes will definitely be different than others, as would be expected, but below are my thoughts. Oceania has the best food in the MDR/buffet, as well as the specialty restaurants. Azamara has the next best food in the MDR/buffet, but the specialties weren't special. It seemed like the same food as the other restaurants. Viking Ocean was very disappointing for us. I had great expectations based on others reviews, but we weren't pleased with it. We do like the food on their river cruises though. Service on all three is very good, so I have no favorites. Itineraries on all three are enjoyable because they can include some ports the larger ships can't and/or don't go to. Itineraries are my driving force for booking a cruise. As far as excursions go, we normally try to book private tours when possible. Ship tours are normally on a big bus, so they are just not as enjoyable to us. Since they contract out all their tours, they all probably use the same companies in particular ports. Oceania's and Vikings are much more expensive than Azamara's. I will also say that we loved the Viking ship layout and cabins better than Oceania. V has many more windows and is open to the outside than the O ships, With Azamara only having the old R class ships, they aren't in the same league as V or the O class ships. They are still nice ships, but my least favorite. My favorite line is Oceania. I have following cruises booked: Oceania - 2; Azamara - 1; Viking River - 3. So, you can see I do like Oceania and Azamara but no Viking Ocean for me at this point. I will say that if they have an itinerary I can't live without, I will try them again. Having been on 61 cruises, it is harder to find an ocean cruise that I desire. The river cruises and land tours are much more appealing these days and I am sticking with the lines I have been happy with.

Thanks for that info. I knew there was a sign up, but didn't know about the open house. By any chance, do you know the cost of the classes? If you do, I will add it the review.

Thank you so much for your lovely comments. They are appreciated.

It is a cruise to look forward to. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

My buddy Jim couldn’t wait to post the link. Glad you enjoyed it.

I have just posted a review to my website with lots of photos of a recently completed Colonial America cruise on the brand-new Oceania Vista that went from Montreal to Miami. I also have the menus from the restaurants, spa and lounges. We had a great time on an awesome ship. Below is a photo from before the Aura show at Montreal’s Notre Dam Cathedral. Just a gorgeous experience The review is located on my website, which is linked to in my signature. You can also just Google “Mike and Carol’s/Cathy’s Cruise Reviews” to find a link to it. I hope it is helpful for those of you that are planning to cruise on the Vista; or that it brings back some fond memories to those of you who have already cruised on her or the ports.

Just saw that the Merlion statue is being renovated. With us being in Singapore in January, I’m sure glad it will be completed in December. I love that statue.

Caleb, That’s the same weather we have in South Florida. 😁 We are ready for it.

Great article! Thanks for sharing. We will be there in 100 days. I marked down some of the food recommendations.

It overnights on the 28th and disembarks on the 29th.

We were at 11:30, now 2:00+. It’s going to be a mess at the terminal.

If I can use the $500 PP FCC for a future booking, I will be quite pleased. I always want another O cruise. 😁

Thanks for starting this thread Terry and for Agape’s recommendations. We will be in Singapore for a few days before our Oceania cruise and want to see much more of it than I saw in 2010. It is a wonderful city with so much to enjoy. I will say we were disappointed with the night Safari. It was very crowded with lighting that prevented decent photos of the animals. It was also frustrating that even though we were repeatedly told not to use flash, people kept doing it. This not only affected the animals, but it messed up our night vision.

We got the last two spots when we booked them both. They are awesome places I have been to, but Cathy hasn’t.

We are doing a Viking Egypt in Jan 2025 on the Osiris. It should be amazing.

Best of luck on your cruise with the lights. Viking does a great job on their ocean ships. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for your lovely comments. I also appreciate knowing where I need to make a correction. I’m currently in Switzerland and won’t be able to fix it until after I get home in 3 weeks. My camera equipment is listed at the bottom of every age of the review.

I’m glad you enjoyed the review. Get ready for an amazing adventure. For my Canon R7, I only brought 18-150 lens, which is a 240 mm equivalent. I normally just use P mode and didn’t need to adjust the ISO or expose comp. I don’t use a tripod when traveling and it wasn’t necessary. Over half of my photos were taken with my iPhone. It’s HDR I makes a huge difference in many situations, as well as it’s low light performance. It even worked much better for aurora photos. I didn’t have much of an issue with fogging. I was kind of surprised it didn’t affect the iPhone at all. I kept my R7 in a shoulder bag when I wasn’t using it outside. The batteries held up great. Enjoy your cruise.

I’m sorry, I never checked out the water. I did see some people swimming. With the pool totally enclosed, the temp was fine to swim.

They didn’t, but the lights kept people from tripping ver things and didn’t seem to affect the viewing.

The experience you are having is totally unacceptable! I feel particularly bad for those who are taking their first cruise. After this one, they will never want to go on another cruise. I can’t believe that ship management hasn’t sent out letters of apology for the terrible restaurant situation. There should never be a lack of food on a cruise.

Thanks Lynn.

I thought that the select was $39.95 and Prestige $59.95 per day. Just looked at something else that showed $69.95. In Gus’s you are saying that it is now $79.95.

Can we pay the extra $20 per day to upgrade to the Prestige package once onboard?

We went to the show in the planetarium in Tromso. That is all we did there. I was only able to put a photo of the room.