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Live from Oceania Sirena (December 16th to January 20th)


travelberlin
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Today we will board the Oceania Sirena for a 35 days cruise that will take us from San Diego to Rio de Janeiro.

Since I enjoy following live threads, I am starting this thread as a way of giving back to this wonderful community, which is Cruise Critic, and I would try to share our impressions with you.

We are not new to cruising and this will be our second cruise with Oceania. By a coincidence our first cruise with the company was exactly 10 years ago, also for Christmas and New Years. We are looking forward to our cruise and I will try to post regularly.

Ivi

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We live in San Diego and saw her sail in - she looked like she was going extra slow and was still off the coast at 10 am - well past the the time time I thought she should have arrived. Was she late arriving for some reason?

Hi, I do not know. We are not at the port yet. We have arrived to LA yesterday after a very long flight from South America. We are staying in the Orange County with a dear friend of us. We went to college together, so it is a long lasting friendship. In about 30 minutes we leave to San Diego.

Ivi

Edited by travelberlin
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Greetings from the Oceania Sirena! Wow!!! Our first impression is very good.

We like the ship a lot. It looks well maintained and it has been nicely decorated for the Holidays. I would have loved to add some pictures but I do not have a clue on how to do it.

 

Only our room has a noise, which is very annoying and I can hear it even though I am actually hard of hearing. This noise is the reason why I am awake at 4.00 am without being able to sleep again. We will see if the maintenance people can help us...

 

Embarkation yesterday was very fast. We were at the ship around 12.00 and went to have lunch at the buffet restaurant. Yesterday we have only eaten at that restaurant. Up to now we found the food very good. Good variety and well presented. We have booked this cruise under the OLife offer and the house select package for drinks is included for us. This allows us to drink wines, champagne and beers at dinner and lunch time without additional costs. Montaudon Brut from Reims, France is a nice champagne and part of this package and we have enjoyed it yesterday with our lunch. The package is for sure good value for money if we look at the prices for drinks.

 

One of the firsts places we usually visit after boarding is the library. The library on this ship has a good selection of books and I have chosen a biography from Aurore Dupin, better known as George Sand. I was always fascinated by this woman who was the companion from Chopin (one of my favourite composers).

 

Rooms were ready according to cabin categories. I think that until 14.30 all cabins were ready.

 

After a quiet afternoon we decided to retire early and not go to the evening show, which last night was at 9.30 pm. It was a production show.

 

By now you have probably noticed that English is not my mother tongue. Please forgive me for the mistakes I might be making. It is so difficult to be able to writte well in a foreign language...

 

I wish you a nice Sunday and if you have any questions about the ship I will be glad to help.

Ivi

Edited by travelberlin
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Thank you for posting. We are sailing on an around the horn cruise in 2019.... Oceania and Sirena would have been my first choice, but I couldn’t get the dates to work (although I must admit, I keep looking at Sirena’s February 2019 cruise and trying to make it work for us.)

 

I look forward to your next installment. Have a great cruise.

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Thank you for posting. We are sailing on an around the horn cruise in 2019.... Oceania and Sirena would have been my first choice, but I couldn’t get the dates to work (although I must admit, I keep looking at Sirena’s February 2019 cruise and trying to make it work for us.)

 

I look forward to your next installment. Have a great cruise.

We did around the horn a couple of years ago. We did it from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires with the Celebrity Infinity. It was a good cruise, but from our first impresions on the Oceania Sirena if I would imagine that the overall experience could be better with Oceania.

Ivi

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By now you have probably noticed that English is not my mother tongue. Please forgive me for the mistakes I might be making. It is so difficult to be able to writte well in a foreign language...

 

I did not notice at all. Your language skills a good. There are post on CC that sometimes take time to figure out what they mean but following along with you does not have the problem. You are doing great.

 

 

write on... (pun intended). Thanks for taking your vacation time updating this thread.

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Today is a day at sea. On this fantastic itinerary we are supposed to go to Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Puerto Quetzal, Corinto, Punta Arenas, the Panama Canal, Bridgetown, Scarborough, Curacao, Devil Island, the Amazon river up to Manaus, Recife, Fortaleza, Salvador Bahia and Rio.

 

We attended 2 lectures today which were both very interesting. One was an introduction to Mexico by a historian Dr. Don Klein. The other lecture was about improving your memory and was given by Mr. Scott Bornstein. Specially the second lecture is something which promises to be very useful for me since I have difficulties to remember names or phone numbers. Fortunately I seldom forget a face.

 

We are trying to find a solution to the noise in our room. I have to say that everyone we have talked to about the problem is very attentive and trying to help. They are identifying the cause of the noise.

 

Lunch was very good at the Jacques Bistro. We are learning about Oceania and apparently at lunch time the MDR becomes Jacques Bistro. I am not really sure yet who Jacques Pepin is. I guess a wellknown chef.

 

I made lovely pictures from the Christmas cakes and cookies which are being displayed in deck 5. It is a pitty, I cannot post the picture here. I have tried to investigate how to post pictures on CC but it is not working. I will try harder. Any help from you is welcome.

 

Ivi

Edited by travelberlin
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I did not notice at all. Your language skills a good. There are post on CC that sometimes take time to figure out what they mean but following along with you does not have the problem. You are doing great.

 

 

write on... (pun intended). Thanks for taking your vacation time updating this thread.

 

You are very kind YoHoHo. Thanks for those encouraging words.

Ivi

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You might find some programs on the TV with Jacques Pepin doing his cooking ...

there were several programs on our recent cruise

His daughter is the Godmother of Sirena so there should be a photo of her someplace on the ship ..maybe deck 4

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Ivi - thanks for posting from your cruise

I have found Tapatalk application the easiest to post pictures from if using an iPad or iPhone - are you using either? If you would like a lesson send me an email at the address below and I’ll send you some screen shots. You will need the Tapatalk application and to have created an account for it before we start

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I made lovely pictures from the Christmas cakes and cookies which are being displayed in deck 5. It is a pitty, I cannot post the picture here. I have tried to investigate how to post pictures on CC but it is not working. I will try harder. Any help from you is welcome.

Two ways to post pictures:

 

Use the Tapatalk app. Offer of how-to lesson from Bodogbodog

 

Or the pictures have to be stored on an internet accessible server (picture storage site, etc).

 

Find the photo in your browser, right click to copy the image location (or similar words). Then in your post you would click the "insert image" icon in the message toolbar (it is a square with a little mountain in it representing a landscape photo) and you would paste in the URL of the picture.

 

Perhaps one day CC will directly host all photos but maybe if we start paying for the storage space :(

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Today is a day at sea. On this fantastic itinerary we are supposed to go to Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Puerto Quetzal, Corinto, Punta Arenas, the Panama Canal, Bridgetown, Scarborough, Curacao, Devil Island, the Amazon river up to Manaus, Recife, Fortaleza, Salvador Bahia and Rio.

 

We attended 2 lectures today which were both very interesting. One was an introduction to Mexico by a historian Dr. Don Klein. The other lecture was about improving your memory and was given by Mr. Scott Bornstein. Specially the second lecture is something which promises to be very useful for me since I have difficulties to remember names or phone numbers. Fortunately I seldom forget a face.

 

We are trying to find a solution to the noise in our room. I have to say that everyone we have talked to about the problem is very attentive and trying to help. They are identifying the cause of the noise.

 

Lunch was very good at the Jacques Bistro. We are learning about Oceania and apparently at lunch time the MDR becomes Jacques Bistro. I am not really sure yet who Jacques Pepin is. I guess a wellknown chef.

 

I made lovely pictures from the Christmas cakes and cookies which are being displayed in deck 5. It is a pitty, I cannot post the picture here. I have tried to investigate how to post pictures on CC but it is not working. I will try harder. Any help from you is welcome.

 

Ivi

 

 

 

What kind of noise issues are you dealing with? If it’s specific to your cabin, I’m sure you’re not the first passenger to complain.

 

And thank you so far for your interesting posts!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Unless things have changed since we were on Sirena last year (and perhaps they have), the MDR does not become Jacque's Bistro at lunch. When we were on board (October 2016) there was a blackboard featuring selections from the Jacques menu but this was in addition to the regular MDR lunch menu for the day.

 

Mura

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Our recent cruise on Riviera we found the lunch menu very different from past cruises

one page with a section of Bistro dishes & a few of the regular dishes

we went one day & DH was going to order a burger but none on the new menu

Not sure if they are trying something new or we just hit a day when the menu was special ???

JME

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Unless things have changed since we were on Sirena last year (and perhaps they have), the MDR does not become Jacque's Bistro at lunch. When we were on board (October 2016) there was a blackboard featuring selections from the Jacques menu but this was in addition to the regular MDR lunch menu for the day.

 

Mura

 

I think what you're describing is the "Jacque's Bistro", at least in one of its early incarnations. Oceania announced months before Sirena came into service that they were introducing the Jacques Bistro at lunch in the dining room on Sirena.

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Our recent cruise on Riviera we found the lunch menu very different from past cruises

one page with a section of Bistro dishes & a few of the regular dishes

we went one day & DH was going to order a burger but none on the new menu

Not sure if they are trying something new or we just hit a day when the menu was special ???

JME

 

Some time ago Oceania announced they were introducing the "Jacques Bistro" at lunch on all ships, not just on Sirena where it was originally introduced. I suspect that's what you saw on your recent cruise.

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We are on our way to our first port of call: Puerto Vallarta.

Last evening was the Captain’s reception, which took place in several venues. We attended the presentation at the Sirena Lounge. The Captain Giulio Ressa from Italy presented his officers. All made a very friendly and professional impression. At the invitation we have received nice canapés and different types of cocktails. My husband said that his apple martini was excellent. The band played some well known pieces, which invited us to dance. For example La Mer, from Charles Trenet, which I really like, and New York (was this from Frank Sinatra?), which my husband an me like to dance, specially on New Years Eve. Anyhow we could not resist and we danced a little bit… not very elegant, as other dancers next to us, but enjoying the moment. Overall a nice invitation.

Dinner at the MDR was very good (sturgeon caviar as appetizer…), although it took quite long. I guess because many people came more or less at the same time. We shared a table with two interesting gentlemen (father and son) from Virginia. It is a privilege to get to know people from different places. This morning we met some Germans, who told us that, at this particular cruise, about 30 Germans are on board. Interesting for us and completely unexpected, was to hear the string quartet playing last evening the German national anthem. Many people in Germany have mixed feelings when hearing the national anthem, because of fears from nationalism. We consider ourselves free of prejudices and citizens of the world and this help us to just enjoy such an unexpected experience. My husband and me are German citizens but I was born and raised in Bolivia.

The noise at our cabin turned out to be related to the location. We have changed cabins to a new location and our problem was solved. Oceania did a good job in listening to us, identifying the problem and finding a cabin on another location, not as midship as our original cabin, but without any permanent noise. Specially the concierge from Australia was extremely helpful.

This morning we went again to the lecture on improving our memory skills. It is very interesting and Mr. Bornstein is a lecturer, who knows how to capture the attention of the people coming to his lectures. We are a learning a lot. Apparently the attitude is very important, so we kind repeat with the rest of the class: “it is easy, I like it”. I realize once more how important it is to train the mind. The times in which we went to college and were brilliant on whatever we were learning are gone. I feel, when attending the lectures from Mr. Bornstein, as if I were a child learning to walk. I do not understand everything because I am hard of hearing, he talks very fast and, remember that English is not my mother tongue. But I will not let myself be demotivated because of that. Let's hope I will learn enough to help me to train and use the power of my mind in order not to loose my abilities in the process of becoming older.

Afterwards I went to an invitation, which was supposed to be a seminar on the “Art of the Cut” of Bellarri Jewelry. At this “seminar” there was going to be raffle with the possibility of winning nice “prizes up to US 1000”. They were going to serve a “Bellarri styled beverage”, which turned out to be either a mimosa or a sparkling wine. The whole event took almost one and half hour and was absolutely a waste of time. It was a marketing presentation as so many other called “seminars” on board cruise ships. Actually after so many cruises I should know better…why did I go? I guess because the raffle was a motivating factor even though I never win anything when there is a raffle involved. Does it happen to you too? I seem to be an optimistic person at heart, hoping for the best, which in this case was to win a nice prize and to learn something interesting.

Thanks for following my posts and this is all for me now. Bye, bye.

 

Ivi

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Jacque Pepin is indeed a well known French chef:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Pépin

He was the personal chef to Charles de Gaulle (among other heads of State) - quite an honor in France.

Thank you for your live report - pease continue with your interesting posting.

Thanks for the information and the link Paulchili. I now better now...

Ivi

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You might find some programs on the TV with Jacques Pepin doing his cooking ...

there were several programs on our recent cruise

His daughter is the Godmother of Sirena so there should be a photo of her someplace on the ship ..maybe deck 4

Good to know. I will look around.

Ivi

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