pinotlover

4 minutes ago, Tr1v1alCru1ser said:

Maybe the lone voice of dissent here, but we didn’t like Ray Carr at all.  Didn’t find it funny when on more than one occasion, he condescendingly responded to someone who asked a question whilst at trivia by saying “If this is too complicated for you dear, maybe try bingo”.  

Is Trivia complicated? Here’s the question- either you know the answer or not. 🙄 Was the person seeking a Bill Clinton definition of “is?

I loved it when he banned one group from all Trivia for the duration of the cruise for blatantly cheating. Kicked the entire group out mid session. Some of my favorite sayings from him: “ It’s only a hat folks!”;  “ It’s not Team Google, it’s Trivia!”  Much like him, I never understood the purpose of cheating ( or attempting to) to win trivia on a cruise ship. 
 

I rarely play any more on cruises. When the CD allows cell phones to light up after every question, I lose interest in the supposed competition. Carr was the Best!

We’ll, we’ll never have to worry about Peter the Shoe being named into that lofty Club! 😂

Hopefully, whoever comes next into the family of CDs isn’t dragging a spouse. The more senior members of the Entertainment Team bring a lot more energy into the Ass’t CD job, plus they aren’t telling the same jokes, doing the same routine, from 5-7 years ago over and over, as one currently does.

15 minutes ago, LuAnn said:

Oh no!! He was just the best CD!!! 

Absolutely the best Oceania CD by far! 🥲

It’s just time to get past the “ old gray mare ain’t what she used to be” posts. Today, she is what she is now. None of us are going to be what we were.

Keep it current and keep it reasonable.

It’ll take awhile for us to get past the “ I walked three miles to school in 3 feet of snow, uphill both ways “ crowd. We’re just barely past all those Renaissance lovers who really care which current ship was R1or R2! 🙄 That line has been defunct for 23 years! 😂. 
 

Really time to concentrate on the current product. Doesn’t matter how much you loved that 1958 Mercury, they don’t make it anymore. Things change.

Here’s the truth of the matter. If your neighbors talks LOUDLY, plays the television on a HIGH volume, slams and bangs doors and drawers, etc., it doesn’t matter what cabin your in. If your neighbor is quiet and makes little disturbance, it matters not which cabin you’re in.

Look at the multitude of posts on the Vista regarding noise issues. It’s 98% dependent upon one’s neighbors.

Personally, I’d take the cabin and hope for the best. Just like in life, you rarely get to choose your neighbors.

Vacationing now with a German family visiting over here. He says their community on the Danube is going to reduce the number of cruise ships allowed to dock and ban tour buses in the Stadtmitte ( City Center). Bus Drop off/pick up points will be 3/4-1 kilometer from the Alt Stadt. He’s expecting this to spread to even more tourist concentrations.

I’ve never really understood the reason one would want a table for ten on Oceania. Unless you plan on SHOUTING across the large tables, one cannot really hear those across from them. Is shouting the plan? Diners around you may not appreciate your shouting!

Additionally coordinating and serving the various individual orders is difficult for the wait staff. Much better to break the group up into two groups and route individuals in each group. 

I’ve always had a locker as have most members. After golf , we shower. We keep a pair of appropriate pants and a nice shirt in our locker so we can dress accordingly for which club venue we’re dining in. No one comes in hot, sweaty, and smelly from playing 18 and expecting to dine in the main dining room. No one should reasonably expect to come back from casual tours and be able to dine in the Specialties or GDR.

None of this is difficult to understand, it’s mostly a case of a few wanting to drive everything to the LCD. Wear your shorts and flip flops to the TG or Waves pizza, and put on long pants, collar shirts for the other venues. If that’s to complicated, you’re on the wrong cruise line.

Having had belonged to several country clubs across the U.S., one will find they’re much like Oceania. They have the 19th Hole, casual bar, or other casual dining facilities, then they have their main dining room. Dress codes for the main dining room are typically different than that in other venues. What you see them wearing in the front door is no indication of the various dress codes inside. Oceania likewise has casual and more upscale dining venues. This isn’t difficult. I’ve been in very major upscale resorts that have different dress codes for different venues. 

On 5/11/2024 at 2:23 PM, mbiggers said:

Hello, We are booked on a Viking Ocean cruise to view the Eclipse and would like to book something on Oceania afterwards, but they haven’t released anything after June, 2026. Does anyone know when Oceania might start booking August? 
Thanks,

Michele

Just for @mexicobob, here is the most recent thread on the subject.

57 minutes ago, dock said:

If one chooses sharing, do you have to wait until all parties arrive before service begins? 

Also if someone orders 4 courses and I only want 3, would I have to wait for them to get through their eg Soup and Salad before I get my Main? 
I’m just trying to determine if worth doing sharing for an extra specialty reservation. 

 2 weeks  to go for our first O cruise and we’re quite excited to try something different. Thank you. 

They rarely make sharing tables wait more than 10 minutes for all parties to arrive.

They do typically serve the various courses at the same time. So unless one specifically requests having their main delivered with someone’s salad, all mains will be delivered together.

11 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

I assume same for Oceania, as Azamara.  Our recent Azamara transfer left at 9 and arrived at 11.   We actually arrived at Heathrow at 10:30, but had to stop at other terminals before going to our terminal.

A rather coy posting. Perhaps some facts surrounding your trip could add meaning. Things such as 1. What day of the week did you arrive? 2. Were you coming from a British port having already cleared immigration, or did you have to do a face to face with British Immigration before disembarking? Do you believe either of those details matter?

We’re headed out of Denver Int’l tomorrow (Friday ) afternoon going up into the mountains on I-70. Do you believe the traffic to be the same on Friday afternoon as say a Tuesday afternoon? If one was arriving at the same time from an international flight, would that affect how long it took from arrival? Why would one post any results without those accompanying facts? 
 

I’m not picking on you directly, so please don’t take offense. So many posts are done here with absolutely ZERO background facts that may be extremely relevant to the situation.

They had one such luncheon on our Vista cruise. It was not on a sea day, but a port day. Recollection is that it was only advertised a couple days prior to the event. We already had private tour plans and weren’t cancelling them. In all it seemed more like an affair for those cruising for the ship, not the ports, thus adding more activities for that select group.

Seems to me some here confuse open dining to set dining. Oceania employs open dining and seats people, in the Specialties, according to an assume number the wait staff and kitchen staff can professionally handle. Unlike in a set dining environment, Oceania’s kitchens are not set up to do 100 appetizers at one time, then 100 salads, etc. They purposely leave tables open so to serve 40 app, then 20 apps & 40 salads; then 20 apps, 20 salads & 40 main courses. Etc. Different chefs taking care of different responsibilities. 
 

Adding to this is Oceania doesn’t employ the proverbial “ flip that table “ scheme so often witnessed in the States. That routine is employed to get make numbers through the restaurant in typically less than one hour max. While realizing the “ flip that table” method is indeed popular with many Americans, it’s not how Oceania does it.

Bottom line, on Oceania like many established fine dining restaurants, one will regularly see empty tables by design.

Simply put: I would never recommend a 49 year old single female cruise Oceania. Wrong venue, imho. 

8 hours ago, ORV said:

I just booked my dining reservations for our Aug/September cruise and the system works a little differently than it has in the past, the past being as recent as our cruise this last April. 

 

This is an 18 day cruise, which was never marketed as less, although it was as a segment of a longer cruise. But when trying to book the reservations it's broke down into two segments, but doesn't allow for the last 3 days of the cruise. Not user friendly at all. I can imagine someone coming from another cruise line would this is a very poor website. 

 

Also came up against a message along the lines of "You've used up your allotted amount in this time slot. Never saw that before. 

 

Bottom line I did get 3 at 6:30 and one at 7:30, by sharing. It wasn't perfect times, but it works. We'll see if we can't get it adjusted a little better later. 

 

FYI, I'm in an Oceanview, so this is the bottom of the barrel choices, but it is midnight on the first day. 

The time slot issue hit me when trying to book our reservations for our past April cruise. I reported it then and people thought I was somehow mistaken.

4 hours ago, Harters said:

It may be that the demographics on our Vista cruise were skewed because it was a longer, transatlantic cruise. The vast majority of us were much older than the OP's daughter. We are in our early 70s and I'd guess most passengers were of similar age - say, 65 - 75. I'd reckon  the next largest group were 75+

Your experience is typical on most Oceania cruises. Besides perhaps a summer Alaskan cruise, the only thing that affects the demographics is whether a large Alumni or Wine Group are on board. However, those groups may mostly stay to themselves. Who’d want to hang out with a bunch of Texas Aggies anyway??😇😂

Another consideration is the port(s) prior to SH. Last time in, we came from the continent and had to clear British immigration before exiting the ship. Immigration showed up late and we didn’t get off the ship until after 10:00. Then the security lines at Heathrow were over an hour.

When people talk about “walking off the ship”, that may or may not be possible.

19 minutes ago, Dwtlion said:

There is a valid reason for the low/short chairs in many of O’s public spaces. The shorter the chair, the lower the center of gravity; hence the less chance of the chair/occupant falling over in rough weather. I personally hate the low chairs in Horizon, but it’s a fact of life for O.

I could accept this if the regular O passengers were out and about in those spaces during rough weather. Never seen that to be the case. The Halfling ( Hobbit) furniture is a pain for most of we median size and above passengers.

Probably just for its five year inspection. I don’t believe they’re doing any updates.

For 8045, the elevator is not the source of the noice, it’s the TC overhead. 
 

Do not confuse noise levels of the port side of the ship and starboard. 8044 and 8045 are night and day different.

8055 I believe you are under Waves and I would likewise avoid.

20 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Most of Vikings included excursions tend to be more shuttle bus drive by or walking city tours type excursions, which we did not want. We were one and done with Viking Ocean in 2019. I much prefer the SM excursion credit as we can then chose and book excursions we are interested in.

We booked private shore tours on Viking similar as we do on Oceania. In both cases, it’s pick and choose what you want to do.

We have done at least three pre/post land tours with Oceania involving air. The three were Iguazu Falls, Kapadoccia (sp?); and Angor Watt . All three had significant luggage restrictions for the flight portion. Basically, a carry on for the 2-3 days. All of the above had major hotels that accommodated the arrival evening in the major cities and which stored the extra (excess) luggage until return back to the hotel. Always professionally handled and convenient. There is no need, nor are people allowed to drag along massive suitcases, packed for extended cruises, on small regional airlines for a 2-3 day excursion. Oceania has it set up with the hotel Concierges.

15 hours ago, Bangels said:

I haven’t seen anything offered that included Antarctica itself.  This appears to a a drive by only.  We would also be interested in doing a pre-cruise trip to Iguazu Falls, but haven’t seen an offer for that either.  We will be talking to our travel agent this week.  I really appreciate everyone’s thoughtful responses.

Check out “Land packages” or pre cruise stays for your cruise. The Iguazu Falls pre cruise trip was the best offering we’ve ever had with Oceania. Not to be missed.