mancunian

I don’t have any idea of speed to fuel efficiency but surely speed will be dictated by how big the tanks are and having enough fuel to get there. They may have to travel at 15 to do this. I am sure the bean counters will have worked out the difference in cost of fuel to the expense of going to Colombo for the start of the cruise and the airfares.

I agree with you. There are some on here who seem to be really enjoying the whole thing.

My guess is that SS has discovered far too late in the day that their insurance will not cover them for passengers. Do you think they will fly the crew from Aquaba to Dubai and just do the trip with a skeleton crew I bet the captain who went off on 8 December as we embarked is relieved.

We returned from Moon on the 22. December. One morning my husband had gone to a lecture and I had gone to Dolce Vita where it invited guests to have coffee with the officers i have not come across this before and presumably guests and officers had not either as very few of them there. The hotel manager was and came to join me. We chatted generally and she asked which lines we had travelled on when I said we had done around 70 cruises. I told her some of them and said we had decided earlier this year there were now only two cruiselines which interested us - Silversea and Oceania which both had strengths and weaknesses though actually not many in either case. They were both excellent lines - SS strongest strength was definitely service and crew, Oceania’s was food which now seemed a weakness on SS since our cruises (3) last year on Spirit. We talked a little about this and she said did I mind if she phoned to ask the food and beverage manager to come up to talk to me. She asked him to talk to me, write down what I said and have a meeting with her later. He was a little defensive and I must say I felt a bit sorry for him and I was trying to put things as tactfully as possible, but I said we found the quality of the meat was not always as we had found it previously and that at some meals it was tough and/or tasteless. He said he had been with SS for many years and that the suppliers had not changed and that he ordered the food.I could not bring myself to ask if the budget had been cut, or indeed not raised with the cost of food increases, and the much dearer fares. He would not have told me anyway, but they know the answers to that. I said instead that it must be the preparation.at fault. I gave him some examples, and also said I felt Atlantide service had deteriorated, and our displeasure at the small menus at La Terraza. I praised highly the salt kitchen, its food preparation, staff and excellent maitre’d. The Maitre’d told me the next day that the hotel director and food and beverage manager told had visited for dinner the previous evening. (he did not know I had been talking to them, or if he did they told him I agree with the above comments that if we want the old standards back talking to those in charge is the way to go.

Agree as they would not be directly involved but would have thought they would have seen some start in preparations. As I said possibly very low key celebrations!

We received a glossy brochure on all the luxury lines from a UK travel agent which said 4 Jan in Fort Lauderdale. Must be going to be a very low key event.

That made me laugh too. Like you I wear trousers and possibly a long skirt on formal evenings though often trousers then too. However I have just had my comeuppance. My leg is much worse and cannot bear the pull of trousers on the side of my leg when sitting and my daughter went out yesterday and bought me three skirts. I feel somewhat underdressed now. The really bad news however, is that we have had to cancel our spring cruise on Spirit.

not sure if it is mentioned but the strength of Oceania buffet is anything that can be cooked individually iwhich can be lobster fish, steak and other meats and stir fry’s. You can go back to your table and a waiter can bring it to you or you can stay and watch. I personally love their buffet because I never like eating too much in an evening and. i can get better control on quantity on the one hand and on the other a you can see what is being offered. The buffet tables are set like a restaurant and they are attractive decor does not feel like a buffet

We have been on the Oceania Vista this year and it certainly in our view was excellent and can give SS a tun for the money having also done Moon and Dawn this year. These are the only two cruiselines that interest us these days. We have done just under 70 cruises altogether. I am afraid the difference is about food and price which swings in Oceania’s favour

I agree fully. We were on the Dawn three months ago and the crew were fine. We are currently on the Moon and we have commented on the friendliness of the crew and how many know our names. Of course on our cruise it may be that as we are only half full they have more time, but I guess if dronn thinks so on a full ship there is something in it

I agree with you

We too had torrential rain in the morning few people got off the coach at the first stop coming very wet indeed. Our excursion had. lindos around lunchtime so we were lucky.

We are currently on the moon and service everywhere has been excellent though cannot say the same for the food with the exception of SALT. We were on Oceania earlier this year and the food and Preparation were excellent. Having said that the shore excursions team on O was the worst we have experienced

Not sure. We are on deck 8, suite 823. It had a small left, right, left motion which I thought was the stabilisers being near the front because whilst not very rough there was some movement

Hi nav 1027. Glad you are enjoying it. So are we. We too went to SALT last night. Fortunately our dinner was excellent. I had the Briam a vegetarian Turkish dish which I liked very much and Peter had sea bream with the Turkish equivalent of ratatouille which he too thought was good. We think that on this cruise SALT is very good but we like Greek and Turkish dishes. We were much less keen on Dawn but that was more about the menu than the place. It is very relaxed and we like the decor much better than Atlantide though we are meeting up there tonight. Say hi and have a chat if you see us about. I am easily spotted as I push a bright red rollator (push along)

Yes this is him. I have only met him in the queue for formal evening and I was somewhat upset that he addressed me like a child. I am disabled and walk with a rollator but I am very with it! This was why I had decided not to ask him would he be onboard for your cruise. As far as I can tell he seems to run his side of things OK and I guess that is all that matters.

Here we are in Istanbul which is to me one of the best ports in Europe. Sadly unable to go ashore today as my leg is playing up and it is a l o n g way to and through the terminal which in fact is four layers all underneath gtround level. Above this is a pubic area with walks along the water topped with mainly public buildings, entertainment and museums and eating places. Particularly fine at weekends when Turkish families come for entertainment. They even have put trees and bushes on the flat roofs. So I am waiting for the return of my husband and have spent my day resting, mainly sitting outside Arts Cafe watching the shipping activities i on-the-go Bosphorous. I am totally mystified how the powers that be can have built the new ship with such a poor equivalent. For sure we will never go on them for overall the arts cafe and its position are our top favourites and judging by its number of visitors this applies to many, many people TLC Ohio. Adam from Birmingham is cruise director and I guess he will be around when you come from a comment made by the captain at formal night. We get a new captain either tonight or tomorrow with a difficult name so I will put it in when I see it in writing. The dressing up aspect of formal night seemed high possibly because a lot of Brits on the ship as was the case on Dawn in August which was predominantly British. Some may have a background of Cunard and P and O England which have a great formal background. Many took both black and white dinner jackets and the wives very often in long dresses. There were always queues for the photographers. Apparently according to one of the cd team I was talking to the number on board is 296

We boarded at Athens yesterday very quickly. The ship is decorated for Christmas which is lovely but definitely not overdone. The two crew members who pushed my wheelchair down to Dolce Vita for boat drill told me there was just over 300 passengers. I will check that fact with someone higher in authority but ship definitely seems quiet. I guess with the cancellation of Israel and Egypt many people have cancelled or rebooked. Of course those two countries were likely to have been the reason people booked in the first place. Indeed we booked because we wanted a return trip to Israel though not necessarily Egypt as we have done them before. We are happy with Greece and Turkey and very relieved we were not in Israel when the war broke out. All seems good onboard though Atlantide at breakfast with 5 waiters to 5 tables was still very slow. Think we will skip formal tonight and go elsewhere (not because of the dress code!). This is our sixth cruise with SS - Shadow, 3 times on Spirit, Dawn and now Moon. We are at sea today and I have never found before such an active sea day morning. Lecture on Istanbul, handicrafts following, then a Salt cookery demo before lunch. Have not yet studied after lunch - I take half a day at a time. We went to Salt kitchen for dinner last night and I was impressed with the Greece/Turkey menu which seemed authentic - in fact more impressed than with the UK menu on Dawn in August. We seem to have a great butler/room steward team who sized me up quickly, the steward rushing to get me a stool for the shower and the butler offering to get me two bags of ice in sealed bags morning and evening for my leg. Can see we are going to be very well cared for.

No she phoned us.

We were on Dawn late August/early september and thought the ship and service were both excellent. We are not foodies but to us with one or two exceptions we thought the food good. We do prefer Oceania in that we. like the evening buffet. After a long day ashore we do miss the informal approach there. Although good in a limited way Scapanapelli and the Grill nowhere near as good as the buffet. Enjoy your cruise. We go on Moon on Sunday. Apart from the above buffet question although we like Oceania very much we do prefer Silversea

My TA has had a letter (email?) from Oceania saying it is and our deposit will be refunded in two to three weeks. I do not understand any of this.

I too am puzzled. The cruise you are talking about as it has been mentioned here now goes from Barcelona round Africa to Singapore. What is strange is that our cruise was the one prior to this starting in Rome and finishing in Barcelona on the 14th. Yesterday we had a call from TA yesterday cancelling our cruise also for safety reasons.

The ship out in the bay is a Saga ship, either the Spirit of Discovery or the Spirit of Adventure which are identical

In the photo of the veranda cabin I was disappointed to see they have done away with the side tables by the sofa with the the lamps which was so cosy in the evening and also makes the suite smaller. they also seem to have lost the plant on the table. I find the decor somewhat austere for my taste.