bbqoug

We had an excellent dinner at Toscana last night. I had the Ministrone soup, small portion of lasagne, and the Dover Sole - all delicious. I especially liked the lasagne.

Regatta arriving in the distance.

Koningsdam arriving

Test of posting a screenshot.

We are also on this cruise. We fly out at 11:00 AM Mountain Time tomorrow for a short 2-1/2 hour flight to Vancouver. We look forward to meeting people on the cruise & will contribute to this thread from time to time.

We are boarding at Canada Place this Saturday. We will eat lunch nearby & will arrive at about 1:30 PM to hopefully avoid the big lines. There are 2 other ships embarking that day, but since they are sailing at 4 PM I think most of their passengers will have already made it through the lines by then.

A significant portion of Oceania's customers? I very much doubt it unless your definition of significant is 5% or less. I personally don't know a single person that avoids all of the herbs, spices, and rubs you mentioned above. Everyone I know enjoys seasoned, spiced, flavorful food.

My wife & I have reservations for dinner at Salmon n' Bannock next month before our cruise. We are very much looking forward to it & will go into it knowing that cultural differences may make it different than our normal restaurant experience.

Just make sure they take the shoes off first.

I agree. One of the last things I want on a tour is high pressure sales tactics. It would likely affect the tip I gave to the tour guide at the end.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. I am especially enjoying the food pictures. They have given me a lot of daydreaming material for our upcoming O cruise.

Are we not supposed to believe the people who have recently been saying the food on their Oceania cruise was delicious & flavorful? Are they not qualified to know what good food tastes like? Were the meals they were served under-seasoned & bland, but they just aren't refined enough to know the difference? That seems to be the message that the people on this forum that throw out the term NoNo want us to believe.

I'm intrigued. I don't remember a chef's market at TC on our previous O cruise, but we may have just not known it was happening. What sets the Chef's Market apart from a regular night at the buffet? What kind of special foods did they have there for your Alaskan cruise?

Yes. It looks like about a 40 minute ride from the port. I was thinking of taking a taxi, but after paying the fare to Butchart + entrance fees + return fare, the marginal cost savings doesn't seem to be worth the extra effort. Thanks for your help. I have decided to book the ship's tour & not stress about it.

We are looking forward to visiting Butchart Gardens on this trip since we have never been before. I need to decide if the convenience of being picked up at & returned to the port is worth the extra cost vs. doing it on our own. Jannray stating that they didn't feel rushed on the O excursion is good to hear in helping me decide.

Thank you for your thoughts on your cruise. We are on a Regatta cruise in September, and I'm trying to decide whether we should take the ship's tour to Butchart Gardens or grab a taxi or ride share. Did you notice if taxis were prevalent at the port in Victoria?

@AMHuntFerry I'm glad you enjoyed your whale watching tour in Klawock. We are taking this tour in September on our Regatta cruise & hope to have the same luck.

Of course.

We booked an A1 cabin for our upcoming Alaskan cruise on Regatta for the aft view that we enjoy. Getting to book the specialty restaurants earlier is an added bonus. For us it's worth the added cost.

I had to file a claim with Travel Insured 5 years ago when we had to return home early from a cruise because of a death in the family. They were very helpful and promptly paid my claim for the portion of our trip that we didn't finish.

I agree. I would be using a different TA for my future bookings. I can't help but question whether the current TA made a good faith effort to get the discount for their client, especially since others had no problem getting the discount once a supervisor at O became involved.

@jonthomas It may help if you tell your TA that someone else on your cruise was able to get the difference in OBC and that you should be able to as well. Our TA said the Oceania Rep got approval from a supervisor to apply the OBC. Monday is the Memorial Day holiday, so you might not get through until Tuesday.

Our Regatta cruise in September is part of the Flash Sale. Our cabin category (A1) is still available and $908 cheaper than what we had paid. Our TA contacted Oceania today and they have applied $908 OBC to our account since we were past final payment. I am very pleased with the outcome.

This I definitely agree with!