Nov. 15 Riviera Transatlantic Review

[jimjamxx]

Loving your review!!!!!!!!!!!

 

jimmyjames

 

PS> Thanks for the camera/lens info.

[Jacqueline]

I would love to know what time the classes were in the gym... On a TA afternoons would be bliss.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Loving your review!!!!!!!!!!!

 

jimmyjames

 

PS> Thanks for the camera/lens info.

 

JimmyJames - you're welcome. :)

 

I would love to know what time the classes were in the gym... On a TA afternoons would be bliss.

 

That I do not know. But I think they had different classes throughout the day on sea days.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 15, 2012 Continued

 

 

This is the part of the review I’ve been dreading to post because I know there are many Oceania lovers out there on Cruise Critic. I’ve also been going back and forth on how to post this, so I think I’ll just follow the daily process as best to my (our) recollection.

 

We met our butler, Mahesh, on the first day. We asked him about a couple things...

 

1. Could we arrange to occasionally eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner on our balcony (it is so huge... why not?). The answer was no and he tried to blame it on weather. That surprised us, because we should be able to decide when we order if we want to eat outside or not. One cannot possibly predict the weather for 14 days. I asked if we could do so when we got closer to Miami and he said “we’ll see.” He indicated the table in our room was for in room dining and there was no need to eat outside.

 

2. We asked about extra dining reservations in the other specialty restaurants. We had 4 booked that we did ourselves before our cruise (as allowed). He said we only get 4 reservations. We told him we had heard (through this forum, though we didn’t name this forum) we could possibly get more reservations and he said to wait to see what we thought of each restaurant and then he would look into it for us.

 

We were surprised by the “no’s” and we were very disappointed with our butler during this cruise. Various things happened later in the cruise that only enforced this... which I will get to.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 16, 2012, En Route to Cadiz, Spain

 

 

Today we were at sea. We especially love sea days because they give us great reading time while relaxing to the sound of the ocean on our balcony.

 

According to the Currents (daily printed activities and ship/crew info) sunrise was at 7:42am sunset was at 6:00pm. Different activities on this sea day were: Needlepoint, Croquet Tournament, Trivia, Table Tennis Tournament, Beginners’, Intermediate, and Advanced Bridge Instructions, Wine Tasting, CanyonRanch Spa Enrichment Seminars (the healing power of acupuncture and bad hair days), Duplicate & Social Bridge, Martini Tasting, Tea Time, and Bingo. There were 3 enrichment lectures as well, as well as cooking and art classes, too. Lots to do!

 

We decided to try our luck at Bingo and we’re glad we did because we met Natalie, the Social Hostess who is very entertaining, to say the least. (I’ll discuss more about her later.)

 

Tonight was the Captain’s Cocktail Celebration, during which complimentary cocktails were available from 5:45pm - 8:00pm in the Grand Bar, Martinis, and Horizons. The Captain and senior officers were introduced in Horizons, but by the time we got there, it was standing room only. I recommend getting there early. We decided to leave and go in search of some cocktails and soon made our way to the Grand Bar and an excellent bartender: Louis. He served my DH and me earlier that day and remembered our drink orders. It was standing room everywhere in the the Grand Bar, Martinis, and even the hallway area, so we just stood and talked until, eventually, as people slowly left to go to dinner, we were able to sit down and we drank until 8pm.

 

We went to the Grand Dining Room for dinner and were told it would be a few minutes. When they came to get us, we were asked if we would like to dine in Jacques that evening. Pleasantly surprised, we said yes and headed down to Jacques where, upon our arrival, we were immediately seated.

 

With the bread, we were served an Amuse-Bouche called Barbajuan. It was a crispy spinach-filled ravioli with tomato dip. For Hors d’Oeuvres Froids, my DH ordered the duck foie gras terrine with quince jelly and toasted brioche and I ordered the Maryland lump crab meat salad with horseradish and blood orange sauce. For the Hors d’Oeuvres Chauds I had the molten goat cheese souffle with heirloom tomato sauce and my DH ordered an additional Hors d’Oeuvres Froids: steamed maine lobster and caviar salad with daikon radish in an acacia honey and sherry glaze. For an entree my DH ordered the encrusted lamb loin with pistachio stuffing and cabernet sauvignon sauce while I ordered the dover sole sautéed with crispy bread croutons, lemon and caper butter.

 

The verdict? The foie gras was amazing, as was as the Maryland meat crab meat salad. The lobster and caviar salad was good. The lamb seemed to have too much stuffing. The dover sole was served table-side and it was delicious, but there was a small part of the fish that was bad. This can happen, not a big deal. (It was slightly discolored in that bad part and I just didn’t eat that part.) Overall, we were impressed with this restaurant and we were looking forward to going back since this was just luck getting in to this restaurant tonight.

 

Since we had a scheduled tour with Top Day Tours the next day, we decided to fill out the In-Suite Breakfast Service Menu and placed it in the message holder prior to retiring for the evening.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 17, 2012, Cadiz, Spain

 

We had breakfast in our cabin this morning using the table at the foot of our bed. My DH ordered cereal and I ordered eggs and sausage. The hot items were cooked perfectly, but the coffee was undrinkable. We poured it and couldn’t tell if it was weak coffee or really strong tea. We each tasted it and it tasted like weak coffee. I’m the type that hates strong coffee, but this I’ve never seen. We had to wonder if there was water in the container when the coffee was poured in making the coffee weak. The rest of the cruise, we never ordered coffee or had breakfast in our room, instead we just went to the Terrance Cafe or Grand Dining Room

 

After breakfast, we got ready for our excursion. According to Top Day Tours (in color below) we would have the following Small group tour for only 79€ per person which included:

 

* Personal pick-up from the port

* Personal drop-off at the port at the end of the tour - 100% on-time for departure!

* Fantastic itinerary for the day - see the Giralda, Cathedral of Seville, the Alcazar Royal Palace, and visit the narrow cobblestone alleyways of the Barrio Santa Cruz (Seville’s old quarter)

* Certified English speaking expert guide for a 3-hour guided walking tour in Seville (lovely person)

* Guided walking tour in a group of 10-18 persons only!

* Air-conditioned and comfortable mini-bus or motor-coach bus with spacious seating

* Free time for lunch, shopping, and exploring the city center on your own

* Total duration of 7-9 hours - subject to actual arrival and departure times of the ship

 

Please note that we conduct the walking tour in Seville in a small group of 10-18 persons only. This is a fantastic way to explore Seville's old quarters in a more personal way than the ship’s excursions of 50+ persons in a group. However, please know that this tour is not suitable for people with mobility issues as there is some walking on uneven and cobblestone type surfaces.

 

Sounds like it should have been a great tour right? Well, Top Day Tours didn’t plan for the XXII Ibero-American Summit held Nov. 16-18 in the city of Cadiz. The heads of state from several countries and spanish royal family were attending this summit and security was very high, to say the least. The entire city was locked down with traffic into/out of Cadiz being prohibited between the morning hours of 8:00 am to 10:00 am and again in the evening from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

 

We got on our tour bus and rode around for an hour trying to leave the city of Cadiz. Our tour guide kept getting off the bus to talk with security at different check points to try to get out of the city. Nope, no way, it just wasn’t happening. We went from one check point to another. Eventually we went back to the ship to wait until security would allow us to leave the city. Back at the port, we noticed that all Oceania Tour busses were gone. It seemed they had made it out of the city.

 

At this point we would be starting this long tour very late and decided that we didn’t want to go. We, and about eight others, asked the tour guide, Debbie, if we could get out of the tour. Debbie said she would contact the company and ask, but we had to return to the bus in 30 minutes to find out (when security said they would let the bus through). When we returned, Debbie said there was no guarantee that our credit cards wouldn’t be charged and that we may have to talk to the tour company when we got home. We thanked her and went back on the ship. Our credit card was never charged for the tour.

 

We enjoyed a relaxing day on this beautiful ship. Seville will have to wait for another trip (sigh).

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 18, 2012, Cadiz, Spain

 

 

According to the Currents (daily printed activities and ship/crew info) sunrise was at 8:06am sunset was at 6:14pm. The Godmother of M/S Riviera, Cat Cora, was featured on the front page of the Currents today. For those unaware, she was the first female Iron Chef on Food Network’s Iron Chef America. They have a picture of her on the ship in a seating area of deck 5.

 

 

 

It was cold, windy and rainy today when we got up. We had planned to just walk around the city, but opted to read at the covered area by the pool instead. It did eventually clear up in the afternoon. All aboard was 7:30 pm and we set sail at 8pm.

 

I believe it was this evening where we tried out the spa at the Spa Terrace. It is a great spa with built-in loungers, making it really relaxing.

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 19, 2012, En Route to Arrecife, Spain

 

 

Last night we were told all clocks would be moved back an hour. When we returned to our room after the room was made up, neither the bedside clock nor the cordless phone had been changed back. We changed them ourselves and did so throughout the cruise. The time on the television channels automatically changed.

 

Speaking of the cordless phone, it was the only phone in our room. My parents room (7130) had a phone plugged directly into the wall and the cordless phone. It was at this point in the cruise I decided to try to call our voicemail to see if we had messages (the cordless phone doesn’t have any message indicator). Turns out we had 4 messages over the last couple of days, so from then on, we tried to remember to always call and check.

 

According to the Currents (daily printed activities and ship/crew info) sunrise was at 7:12am sunset was at 5:42pm. Different activities on this sea day were: Needlepoint, Shuffleboard Tournament, Trivia, Table Tennis Tournament, Beginners’ Bridge Lesson #2, Wine Tasting, Golf Putting Challenge, Team Scattergories, CanyonRanch Spa Enrichment Seminars (tired feet, massage therapy workshop and the healing power of acupuncture), Beer Tasting, Beginners’ Dance Class: Rumba, Tea Time, Single Malt Tasting, and Bingo. There were 2 enrichment lectures, a cooking demonstration, as well as cooking and art classes, too. Again, lots to do!

 

Tonight we had a reservation for Polo Grill at 6:30 when they open. We were seated, given menus, and quickly asked what we wanted for dinner. Somewhat taken aback, I asked if we could order drinks first. Once we received our drinks, we ordered. Or tried to order, I should say. Several of us ordered medium-rare prime rib, but the waiter promptly returned (with the Maitre’D), and we were asked if a well-done end cut would be satisfactory as that was all that was left. Huh? :confused: Gosh, now I was wondering if I shouldn’t have asked for a drink first.

 

We all politely declined on the well-done prime rib and the Maitre’D said he would arrange for us to return another evening. We asked that it be on a sea day and he followed through. We were now scheduled to come back on Nov. 26 at 6:30pm for prime rib. Throughout the cruise we would see the Maitre’D for Polo Grill and he would joke about having the prime rib under lock and key in his cabin for us. :)

 

My DH ordered the warm foie gras and mushrooms bundled in short crust dough, served with port wine reduction, the 12 oz. ribeye, and something else that we don’t remember. I ordered a small lobster bisque topped with morsels of sautéed lobster (asked for half the portion), the classic caesar salad prepared table side (I wouldn’t exactly call it table side, but you can see them off to the side of the room), and the 7 oz. filet mignon.

 

Everything was excellent, minus the foie gras dish. The steaks were perfectly prepared and the bernaise sauce was delicious. The foie gras dish wasn’t bad, it was just unbalanced having a lot of dough and not very much filling.

 

For dessert we tried the Polo Quintet. This is a plate consisting of mini portions of several desserts: granny smith apple crumb pie, caramelized New York cheesecake, creme brûlée, chocolate fudge brownie with raspberry Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream, and key lime pie with Florida orange butter sauce! WOW! It was beautifully presented and was nice to try these mini-desserts. A great way to end the meal! :D

 

I’ll leave this day with these pictures I took while relaxing on our balcony’s lounge chairs reading, talking, and enjoying the wake view.

 

 

[RuthC]

There were 2 enrichment lectures, ...

What were the topics of the lectures? Were either of these one lecture of a series by the same person, or single lectures?

Are these scheduled morning and afternoon? If you miss one, is it televised later on?

[Mura]

Maybe it's just us but we never thought that being informed of the time change meant that someone would change the clocks FOR us! Imagine the time it would take the cabin stewardi to change all the possible clocks ...

 

Glad to see your info about Arrecife since we will be there in the fall. OTOH, we've been to Cadiz and always did it on our own.

 

Very surprised about only an option for well done prime rib in Polo at an early hour ... I always ask for it very rare and we are usually there around 7:30-8pm.

 

Your butler said you could NOT eat on your veranda? That's a first! Weather COULD be a consideration depending on time of year, but we've never been denied that option. When we were in an OS on Regatta some time ago we had breakfast out there just about every day. Even in a PH on the "R" ships, we could eat out there if we wished.

 

Riviera's space is better, so I can't imagine why that would be a problem.

Unless you had a lazy butler ...

 

Mura

[wristband]

Out of fairness to Oceania, imposition of VAT in Spanish waters was carefully publicized in advance in the daily newspaper. Wine stewards also noted this when we placed our order for wine at dinner. I was on this cruise and can say there was a public announcement by the Cruise Director mid-day to this effect for those boarding in Barcelona.

 

In other words, no surprise when the 10% add on appeared on your bill. VAT was imposed not only in Barcelona but Cadiz and several other Spanish ports (such as Las Palmas)...until Riviera had ventured several miles from Spanish waters.

[Mura]

Given Spain's financial distress these days, I'm not surprised that they are trying to earn money wherever they can.

 

Mura

[spook1]

Given Spain's financial distress these days, I'm not surprised that they are trying to earn money wherever they can.

 

Mura

Like any government they spend two for every one received.:eek:

[Love.II.Cruise]

What were the topics of the lectures? Were either of these one lecture of a series by the same person, or single lectures?

Are these scheduled morning and afternoon? If you miss one, is it televised later on?

 

Below is a list of dates/times for the lectures during our cruise. They were also replayed on Channel 8.

 

Nov 16

 

9:30am, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "Cadiz, Spain: Little Havana"

11:00am, Mitchell Symons: "Trivial Pursuit, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire And Me"

3:00pm, Dr. Steward B. Nelson: "Jerez de la Frontera: Sherry, Horses and Flamenco & Seville: Traditional Heart of Spain"

 

Nov. 19

 

9:30am, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "Canary Islands: The Happy Islands"

2:30pm, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "Lanzarote: The Red Mountains"

 

Nov. 20

 

5:00pm, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "La Palma: The Beautiful Island"

 

Nov. 21

 

5:30pm, Mitchell Symons: "You should only know... how the wisdom behind Jewish jokes can change your life!"

 

Nov. 22

 

2:00pm, Dr. Roger Cartwright: "Cruising, A Celebration"

 

Nov. 23

 

11:15am, Mitchell Symons: "British Prime Ministers from Churchill to Cameron"

2:00pm, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "An Oceanographer's view of the 21st Century"

 

Nov. 24

 

9:30am, Mitchell Symons: "Why girls throw and other questions you've always wanted answered"

11:30am, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "Who really owns the oceans and the seas?"

2:30pm, Dr. Roger Cartwright: "Discovery of the New World"

 

Nov. 25

 

11:15am, Dr. Roger Cartwright: "Ships of State. The story of the Normandie, Rms Queen Mary, Rms Queen Elizabeth and the SS United States"

3:15pm, Mitchell Symons: "Celebrities and their right to privacy"

 

Nov. 26

 

9:30am, Dr. Roger Cartwright: "The cruel sea - the battle of the Atlantic"

2:30pm, Mitchell Symons: "As time goes by: The extraordinary story behind the film Casablanca"

 

Nov. 27

 

9:30am, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "Floating Airfields across the Atlantic"

11:00am, Dr. Roger Cartwright: "Royal Yachts - Crowns at Sea"

3:00pm, Mitchell Symons: "The sound of one hand clapping"

 

Nov. 28

 

9:30am, Dr. Stewart B. Nelson: "Love in the Sea"

2:30pm, Dr. Roger Cartwright: "A night to remember - the true story of Titanic"

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 20, 2012, Arrecife (Lanzarote), Spain

 

Today, armed with the research we’d done beforehand, we left the ship and found a taxi. There was a line of cabs just outside the gate of the port and we soon found a driver open to taking us to the places we wanted to see: Timanfaya National Park, Jameos de Agua, and Cuevos de los Verdes. On the top of the cab’s trunk, a translator busted out a large map of the island and started talking rapidly to the cab driver, telling him where to take us. We stood there a little uneasy about going with a driver that didn’t speak English, but crossed our fingers and hopped in once we settled on a price.

 

Once we were going, the cab driver popped in a CD and we were pleasantly surprised when he selected a chapter to play and the narration was in English. He did this throughout the tour for each specific area that we travelled through, which was nice.

 

First stop was a winery, a little unexpected, but on the way to Timanfaya National Park. This was the weirdest winery we’ve seen. Each plant is protected by being planted in a pit of volcanic ash and then surrounded by a semi-circle of stones to protect the plant from the predominant trade winds this island experiences. (Actually, the majority the island’s vegetation is grown in this manner.) In the winery was a picture of how the grapes were harvested: two people at a plant, picking the grapes and placing them in large containers on each side of a camel. We had a small sample of wine that tasted like water and we were on our way again.

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was seeing the tourists riding camels up to and down from one of the higher mountains. We did not ride them, but there is a chair on each side of the camel so the camel can carry two people at once and folks seemed like they were enjoying the ride.

 

 

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 20, 2012 Continued

 

Our next stop was Timanfaya National Park. The tour guide told us in Spanish that we would need 8 Euros/person. We didn’t know what we were paying for but went along with it. He talked with someone at a gate and gave them our money. When we got to the park we walked up a very steep hill (see picture below). At the top of this hill the tour guide told us to get on a bus.

 

 

At this point we didn’t know what to think. We weren’t expecting to leave our tour guide to board a bus for a tour and didn’t even know how long this would take. The front seats were open behind the driver, so we took them. BIG mistake! I was concerned about that steep hill we would have to go down in a bus... gosh “how often do they check the brakes?” was going through my mind.

 

We started the tour with the steep decent into a land that resembles another planet or something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie. This bus tour I’m describing is the tour at the park itself; however, we saw and passed different tour busses as we traveled on this very narrow, one way road (except where there is room to pass another bus). The tour was narrated in a couple languages, with orchestra music to enhance the experience. The driver timed the tour so that the narration coincided with what we were seeing out of the window.

 

The tour was like a roller coaster, but in a bus. My father taught me how to drive a motorhome and I learned to respect what they could and should not do. This probably increased my fear. I was sitting at the window directly behind the bus driver, and I can tell you that my father would NEVER have done the driving this driver did. I know the wheel axel is quite a bit further back from the driver, but when the corner of the bus travels over the edge of a cliff, at a high speed, and the bus gives that tilting feeling (you know, the feeling that the bus is about to roll down the cliff) it is absolutely frightening!

 

I kept looking at how narrow the road was and seeing where there were small tire tracks where the tires of other busses went slightly off this narrow road along the cliffs in sharp turns and cringed! There are no guard rails, but I doubt it would help with the speeds we were going anyway. It got to the point that I started whimpering and grabbing my DH while leaning severely into him as we made turns. Then the whimpers turned into a river of tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. I had a long sleeve cotton shirt and was using the sleeves to wipe the tears. When the bus slowed down to a crawl for a bit of narration, I tried to take pictures. My DH said I was shaking (I hadn’t noticed it until he told me) and told me to stop trying to take pictures (good thing the camera image stabilizer was on!).

 

At this point, the fear I was experiencing was so severe (I had a death grip on my DH) that my DH told me to close my eyes and put my head down. Guess what happens when you do that on a roller coaster bus ride? You start to feel extremely nauseous. Despite having my head down and my DH telling me to keep my eyes closed, I could not stop the flow of tears. I had sunglasses on with a rim on them around the glass. I didn’t think anything of it, until I had to look up because I thought I was going to throw up and needed to see some sort of horizon. My glasses had filled up with tears and they dumped down onto my shirt. Could this get any worse?

 

So now the front of my shirt and sleeves were soaked in tears and the ride isn’t over! I’m nauseous and I spot the barf bags on the bus. Wait, barf bags on the bus!?! Why didn’t I notice that when we got on??? We were nearing the end of the ride with the orchestra music getting to a loud crescendo. I was watching the road and clutching my DH’s arm for dear live while we raced around the last couple bends and went back up to where we started. Unfortunately, this caused a huge charlie horse in the entire right hand side of my torso along with difficultly breathing, and I feared I would be unable to get off the bus. But I forced myself up, despite the extreme pain of the charlie horse and leaned against a rock wall when I got off.

 

It took me a couple minutes to get the charlie horse to go away and to stop the tears from flowing, but I still wasn’t okay. We went into the gift shop and I couldn’t focus on anything, I couldn’t even read anything. I recall seeing some bath salts I wanted to get my mom, but couldn’t focus on reading what type they were. We finally left. I don’t recall one English word on the narration of the bus ride. Nor do I recall the other languages that were narrated. I’ve sky dived three times in my life tandem style, and if you asked me today if I would go on this bus again or go sky diving - I would choose sky diving. I will always remember Nov. 20 as the day I survived the roller coaster bus ride at Timanfaya National Park!

 

Below are a few pictures my DH and I tried to take during this tour.

 

 

 

 

 

We are going to research on movies that were filmed at this park and make a point to watch them in the future. If anyone knows where we could buy a video of this tour at the park from the drivers perspective, we’d appreciate it.

[Mura]

Below is a list of dates/times for the lectures during our cruise. They were also replayed on Channel 8.

 

 

I have to say that because these were the lectures on THIS cruise, doesn't mean they will apply to any other cruise. Some cruises have various lectures, some have none. (Yes, a TA tends to have more.)

 

But it is really irrelevant to any other cruise to see what was offered here if you are trying to relate it to a future cruise.

 

On our October 2011 cruise on Marina I was acquainted with the lecturer before we left port -- he wasn't the only one on board and he gave several lectures. This was pretty much a port intensive cruise so there weren't that many opportunities.

 

On a TA there are many more opportunities but my experiences have been varied. Sometimes lots of excellent lectures, other times not. You can't really predict in advance. At least *I* cannot!

 

When we did a Panama Canal cruise in early 2004 there were several excellent lecturers who talked about our destinations. On other cruises, zip.

 

As to the various lectures being available on the in-cabin videos, our experience is that they are.

 

On a recent cruise we had a "volunteer" lecturer who gave several very interesting talks about Hollywood movies, with examples of scenes from the movies. This was great, but as I said he was a volunteer, and we haven't often experienced such lectures ...

 

And if you are on board when the Super Bowl takes place, the odds are that you will see the game on board ....

 

Mura

[Love.II.Cruise]

Nov. 20, 2012 Continued

 

There were other things to see outside the gift shop at Timanfaya National Park. Our cab driver was waiting for us and led us around. There was a hole in the ground, into which someone carefully put some dry shrubbery. It started to smoke and then caught fire due to the heat from the volcano almost immediately. At some nearby ventilation pipes, someone poured a small pitcher of water and it started steaming. I had my camera ready when they poured in more water and it shot off like a geyser! I guess I was still a little jumpy because I yelled “Sh*t!” and jumped back at the same time. Our cab driver was behind us laughing and we understood that he didn’t think we got a picture... but I did and showed it to him. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Our cab driver picked up small stones we were standing on and placed them in our hand. They were burning hot and suddenly I was worried the bottom of our sneakers could start melting if we stood in one place to long. We then went towards the restaurant and saw where they prepare the food. They use the heat from the volcano to prepare the food (makes you wonder what else is coming up from the earth?).

 

[Love.II.Cruise]

Below is a list of dates/times for the lectures during our cruise. They were also replayed on Channel 8.

 

 

I have to say that because these were the lectures on THIS cruise, doesn't mean they will apply to any other cruise. Some cruises have various lectures, some have none. (Yes, a TA tends to have more.)

 

But it is really irrelevant to any other cruise to see what was offered here if you are trying to relate it to a future cruise.

 

On our October 2011 cruise on Marina I was acquainted with the lecturer before we left port -- he wasn't the only one on board and he gave several lectures. This was pretty much a port intensive cruise so there weren't that many opportunities.

 

On a TA there are many more opportunities but my experiences have been varied. Sometimes lots of excellent lectures, other times not. You can't really predict in advance. At least *I* cannot!

 

When we did a Panama Canal cruise in early 2004 there were several excellent lecturers who talked about our destinations. On other cruises, zip.

 

As to the various lectures being available on the in-cabin videos, our experience is that they are.

 

On a recent cruise we had a "volunteer" lecturer who gave several very interesting talks about Hollywood movies, with examples of scenes from the movies. This was great, but as I said he was a volunteer, and we haven't often experienced such lectures ...

 

And if you are on board when the Super Bowl takes place, the odds are that you will see the game on board ....

 

Mura

 

I was merely answering the questions from RuthC. I chose not to question why they wanted the info, but I had the info and was willing to provide it.

 

What were the topics of the lectures? Were either of these one lecture of a series by the same person, or single lectures?

Are these scheduled morning and afternoon? If you miss one, is it televised later on?

[fairbourne]

Love.II.cruise

 

Oh my, oh my, oh my or words to that effect :eek: On That bus ride, I wouldn't have only had a wet shirt!!! LOL!

 

Your report is great and truly refreshing ;):)

 

Thank you for taking the time to post and the photos are great. The pictures of the mountain reminded me of the red dust and sand of the Australian outback.

[surfcitygirl]

Love II Cruise, really enjoying your review. We were on the Riviera for Accent on Italy In Oct/Nov and it was fantastic. Have noticed you will be on the Wind Surf back to back starting 1/19. We will be on the cruise on Jan 26th. Hope to see you there! It sounds great, our first Windstar.

[RuthC]

I was merely answering the questions from RuthC. I chose not to question why they wanted the info, but I had the info and was willing to provide it.

I'm a "she", not a "they".

I appreciate the info; it was very helpful. Thank you.

[Mura]

I was merely answering the questions from RuthC. I chose not to question why they wanted the info, but I had the info and was willing to provide it.

 

 

I am slowly gathering that you thought I was criticizing you for answering a question, and that certainly was not my intent. If you took it that way, please accept my apology. We are here to answer questions when we can.

 

I only wanted to point out that in OUR experience it has not mattered what lecturers (or topics covered) were consistent on similar itineraries. It HAS seemed to us that there are more such opportunities on a TA.

 

When we did our Panama Canal cruise in January 2004 we happened to have dinner in Toscana one night (a shared table) with one of the lecturers and a woman who was traveling on her own. He said (to the best of my recollection) that this was going to be his last cruise as a lecturer with O because O was cutting back on these offerings. (Do bear in mind that my memory may be flawed here.) And certainly in subsequent cruises (especially port intensive ones) we encountered fewer enrichment opportunities.

 

But we had a number of lecture opportunities in October 2011 on a port intensive cruise (where we had met one of the lecturers just prior to the cruise) and so perhaps O has changed direction here.

 

I for one enjoy these lectures, especially when they are talking about the areas we will be visiting.

 

Still, it has not seemed to me that the lecturers are booked for a series of cruises (and it's not like the ships travel the same route all the time, as Renaissance did when we first sailed with them). Our friends on the October 2011 cruise were only doing that one sailing.

 

I'm delighted that RuthC was happy with your answer. Even if a future cruise won't have the same set of lectures (or so I assume), she still has more information than she had before.

 

Mura

[Love.II.Cruise]

Love.II.cruise

 

Oh my, oh my, oh my or words to that effect :eek: On That bus ride, I wouldn't have only had a wet shirt!!! LOL!

 

Your report is great and truly refreshing ;):)

 

Thank you for taking the time to post and the photos are great. The pictures of the mountain reminded me of the red dust and sand of the Australian outback.

 

Glad you are enjoying the review!

 

Love II Cruise, really enjoying your review. We were on the Riviera for Accent on Italy In Oct/Nov and it was fantastic. Have noticed you will be on the Wind Surf back to back starting 1/19. We will be on the cruise on Jan 26th. Hope to see you there! It sounds great, our first Windstar.

 

I can't believe we leave for St. Maarten in a week!!! :eek: I need to finish this review. We are very much looking forward to going on Wind Surf. It is also our first time trying Windstar. Hope to see you as well! I should see if there is any activity on the roll call.

[Love.II.Cruise]

I'm a "she", not a "they".

I appreciate the info; it was very helpful. Thank you.

 

Whoops! "She" not "they." Glad you found the info helpful.

 

 

I am slowly gathering that you thought I was criticizing you for answering a question, and that certainly was not my intent. If you took it that way, please accept my apology. We are here to answer questions when we can.

 

...

 

I'm delighted that RuthC was happy with your answer. Even if a future cruise won't have the same set of lectures (or so I assume), she still has more information than she had before.

 

Mura

 

No worries Mura.