Restaurants

[Jancruz]

On previous O cruises, because they were so port intensive, we were never really sure what we wanted each night weeks before we booked.

This time we are in the Baltic which again means going ashore nearly every day. After a day ashore we may just not want to get back,change for a speciality restaurant, and have silver service dining.

Then, I must ask myself, why on earth did I ask this question !!!

I have no life.

 

Brian

 

So you Brian...

LOL

Jancruz1

[Jancruz]

It is probably best to book as early as possible since you can always cancel and change your reservation if there are others open. I had a B4 which is allowed to book on line 45 prior to the embarkation date and we could only get one out of 4 reservations at 8 pm. The others were much later but if we showed up early and they had empty tables they accommodated us. Was everyone trying to eat together for your neighbor? This would be very difficult to book that close to sailing.

 

I think everyone forgets they leave a large amount of tables for when passengers board the ship..

Jancruz1

[orchestrapal]

My neighbor was just going on the Riviera and he had a Vista, One Penthouse and three balcony suites. He tried to book for 8 PM at the last two weeks before the cruise and couldn't get any reservations. I think it is better to book and change if you find you have other plans. My opinion only.

 

His problem may have been trying to book for 10 or more people. :eek:

[curtdesilets]

:confused:

Just wanted to let you all know if it hasn't been mentioned already, but now on the R ships in the GDR, they feature a dish every night from Jacques and Red Ginger. So luckily for me, I was able to enjoy the famous Miso Glazed Sea Bass twice on our recent Alaska cruise :D. And a lovely shrimp dish from Jacques.

 

The Sea Bass most certainly and without any doubt whatsoever lived up to its well deserved reputation. According to the F&B Director on board, this is a recent initiative so everyone who sails on O, on any ship can enjoy a taste of all their speciality restaurants - and as O newbies it was a lovely choice to have.

 

I actually don't think if people had not been on the bigger ships or read CC, that they actually realised what these menu additions were. But I did!! LOL!

 

We pre-booked our speciality restaurants and were also offered additional speciality bookings on board - I think it very much depends on where people choose to eat, if the GDR is packed when you turn up, sometimes they will offer you a table in the SR's - if you want to go there of course.

 

Do they also offer these signature dishes at the Terrace cafe? That Miso Glazed Sea Bass sounds divine!!

 

I may be wrong, but apparently the same menu that is offered in the GDR is also offered In the Terrace cafe? Is that right, or am I way off course?

 

(This will be our 1st time on Oceania)

[LHT28]

:confused:

 

Do they also offer these signature dishes at the Terrace cafe? That Miso Glazed Sea Bass sounds divine!!

 

I may be wrong, but apparently the same menu that is offered in the GDR is also offered In the Terrace cafe? Is that right, or am I way off course?

 

(This will be our 1st time on Oceania)

 

Not all dishes from the GDR are on offer in the Terrace

[fairbourne]

:confused:

 

Do they also offer these signature dishes at the Terrace cafe? That Miso Glazed Sea Bass sounds divine!!

 

I may be wrong, but apparently the same menu that is offered in the GDR is also offered In the Terrace cafe? Is that right, or am I way off course?

 

(This will be our 1st time on Oceania)

 

We did not eat dinner in Terraces, (way too much pushing and shoving at breakfast that we gave up on that after the first morning, and we just would not have contemplated that for a nice relaxing dinner). But in saying that, lots of people obviously do enjoy Terraces, but not for us. We did have lunch there on occasion, as it was nice to be able to sit outside on the aft deck, and it was quick but we went late, to avoid the pushers and shovers! We did eat at Waves but only when we were having a post 2pm lunch. But several days we were off the ship during the day and we sometimes ate ashore.

 

I have kept a few of the GDR menus and tomorrow I will dig these out and try and work a way, without having to retype them, to give you a pre-view. But as far as I remember, the menus offered were different - Terraces had themed menus I think for most of the evenings.

 

And yes, the sea bass was divine! The service and elegance of the MDR made it far and beyond my favourite dining venue.

 

I have to say here we sailed with over 800 guests on board :eek: - so the ship was very busy, and it showed at times. Where did everyone sleep? Lots of triples I guess. This information came from a well-informed on board source, before anyone doubts me! ;).

[LHT28]

 

 

I have to say here we sailed with over 800 guests on board :eek: - so the ship was very busy, and it showed at times. Where did everyone sleep? Lots of triples I guess.

 

WOW that is a lot of extra bodies onboard :eek:

 

I wonder what the maximum capacity is for the ship?

[fairbourne]

WOW that is a lot of extra bodies onboard :eek:

 

I wonder what the maximum capacity is for the ship?

 

 

Yes, it was - well we thought the marketed figure of around 670/680 +/- or thereabouts was the figure, so it makes me wonder if the bigger ships are booked by this percentage over the marketed figures, then would you notice it more? We had a few issues at the very start of our cruise and we dealt with them with the appropriate people and we really were treated very, very well and could not have received any better service thereafter at all. But when we found out about the extra guests, it did explain somewhat some of the pushing and shoving, but most of that was down to just plain rude people. I can quote some fellow cruisers we met - long time O people - who said to us quite independently, that they felt this was not a typical O crowd. We did feel relieved to hear that, with a future O cruise booked, as there were some very rude people on board, not just one or two by the way, but many of several nationalities. Rude to other cruisers, and rude to the hard working crew who really with a polite word and a smile would on the whole oblige any request. As someone recently said on here "manners maketh the man" .....

 

Anyway I really ought to get to bed now, this living still on Pacific time is doing this wee lassie no good at all! LOL!

[curtdesilets]

We did not eat dinner in Terraces, (way too much pushing and shoving at breakfast that we gave up on that after the first morning, and we just would not have contemplated that for a nice relaxing dinner). But in saying that, lots of people obviously do enjoy Terraces, but not for us. We did have lunch there on occasion, as it was nice to be able to sit outside on the aft deck, and it was quick but we went late, to avoid the pushers and shovers! We did eat at Waves but only when we were having a post 2pm lunch. But several days we were off the ship during the day and we sometimes ate ashore.

 

I have kept a few of the GDR menus and tomorrow I will dig these out and try and work a way, without having to retype them, to give you a pre-view. But as far as I remember, the menus offered were different - Terraces had themed menus I think for most of the evenings.

 

And yes, the sea bass was divine! The service and elegance of the MDR made it far and beyond my favourite dining venue.

 

I have to say here we sailed with over 800 guests on board :eek: - so the ship was very busy, and it showed at times. Where did everyone sleep? Lots of triples I guess. This information came from a well-informed on board source, before anyone doubts me! ;).

 

I would prefer the MDR as well. We also booked one night each in the specialty restaurants. I think we will be quite spoiled, when all is said and done.

 

Responding to your other post: Amazing about the overcrowding and rudeness on your sailing. I think ours (July 5) was slow to sell out, so I'm hoping it will not be a similar experience. I swear, I will swat any pushers and shovers with a giant King Salmon, if need be. That reminds me of a Monty Python skit. :D

[hondorner]

The "overcrowding" may have been due to a larger number of families than seen on other voyages. The Alaska cruises are pretty much the only ones that are advertised with kid's programming, and I doubt very many of those kids have staterooms by themselves. Normal capacity on Regatta is 684 at double occupancy. 56 cabins have a single sofa bed that provides triple occupancy, and 34 have provisions for quad occupancy, so there is a total design occupany of 808 adults, not counting families with smaller children who may put two children and themselves in a triple room.

 

I remember foks on the Regent forum a couple of years ago who posted of over 600 guests in Alaska on Navigator which has a double occupancy of 490. Most of the extras were children.

 

While Oceania has a reputation of few children on board, they are not prohibited, and if I wanted to avoid children on the cruise, I would not book Alaska when school is not in session, or any of the year-end holiday cruises. Fortunately, I don't mind the children so I have no such restrictions.

 

I know there will be children on our July 5 Alaska cruise, because FDR's grandchildren will be certain to be aboard. :cool:

[fairbourne]

I would prefer the MDR as well. We also booked one night each in the specialty restaurants. I think we will be quite spoiled, when all is said and done.

 

Responding to your other post: Amazing about the overcrowding and rudeness on your sailing. I think ours (July 5) was slow to sell out, so I'm hoping it will not be a similar experience. I swear, I will swat any pushers and shovers with a giant King Salmon, if need be. That reminds me of a Monty Python skit. :D

 

LOL! We had a fabulous time and I am sure you will too - I do need to balance this with the fact that we met some truly good, decent and interesting people as well - I always find it quite amusing that you bump into the same people during the cruise and have a new circle of friends, some of whom you just pass a few minutes with, and with others, you enjoy their company for a lovely dinner or two!

 

Have a great time and enjoy the best of the Regatta!:D

[fairbourne]

The "overcrowding" may have been due to a larger number of families than seen on other voyages. The Alaska cruises are pretty much the only ones that are advertised with kid's programming, and I doubt very many of those kids have staterooms by themselves. Normal capacity on Regatta is 684 at double occupancy. 56 cabins have a single sofa bed that provides triple occupancy, and 34 have provisions for quad occupancy, so there is a total design occupany of 808 adults, not counting families with smaller children who may put two children and themselves in a triple room.

 

I remember foks on the Regent forum a couple of years ago who posted of over 600 guests in Alaska on Navigator which has a double occupancy of 490. Most of the extras were children.

 

While Oceania has a reputation of few children on board, they are not prohibited, and if I wanted to avoid children on the cruise, I would not book Alaska when school is not in session, or any of the year-end holiday cruises. Fortunately, I don't mind the children so I have no such restrictions.

 

I know there will be children on our July 5 Alaska cruise, because FDR's grandchildren will be certain to be aboard. :cool:

 

Horndorner, - I could count the number of children on the fingers of one hand and still have fingers to spare! We saw one 3 generation family with 2 children, aged maybe 3 and 8 - they appeared sometimes with two members of crew, so looks like they had almost personal individual attention for the "youth programme". They were very well behaved. There was also one young baby whom we saw many times, but heard only once crying in the GDR. If there were others, they were invisible! ;):)

 

There were a couple of family groups with grown-up "children" with the youngest being late teens, so I would class them as young adults, but again very, very small numbers.

 

We did spot a few sofa beds made up on Deck 8 amongst our large group of neighbours; if we happened to pass when a stateroom was being serviced - we are not nosy, but you can't help but notice!

 

We were not aware of the numbers until later in the cruise, and having only sailed on smaller ships before - the largest being 450 pax - we just put it down to a similar size ship with more staterooms therefore more pax, so of course it would seem busier, but it did seem very busy at times! So it was quite a shock when we found out that there were about 150 more pax than even we had thought, which explained the crowded feeling.

 

So we chose to avoid the crowds and busier times as I have said and it worked well for us.