dlouise Posted July 18, 2013 #1 Share Posted July 18, 2013 We had a wonderful cruise on the Riviera, Rome to Venice 7/3 to 7/13. This was our second time aboard the Riviera and we enjoyed it even more this summer. The crew was wonderful, the food great, ports were interesting and the seas calm. The only two disturbing items were men in the specialty restaurants in sneakers and jeans. How hard is it to put on a pair of pants and a pair of loafers or shoes? They were not asked to change their attire so this trend continued the entire trip. There were men in the casino in shorts at 10 at night...... The other small inconvenience was the lack of fat free yogurt. Last year it was always available at breakfast in the Grill. Not this year. After a few days I contacted the head of F&B and I was told that O no longer stocks fat free yogurt and its available only by special request before sailing. They were very nice, and at the next port, they went out and purchased enough for me for the rest of the cruise, and delivered it to our suite. You could not ask for more or better service. When we left the ship in Venice there were so many crew members helping departing passengers with their luggage and finding their transportation to the airport it was a breeze. We were Regent cruisers for years, and O has outdone Regent in this and many other areas. We have never seen anything like the help extended to all with smiles and thank yous'. We have booked another cruise on the Riviera for next summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted July 18, 2013 #2 Share Posted July 18, 2013 Glad you had a great cruise - we'll be on the Riviera for the first time in Nov. Who was your CD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy The Wanderer Posted July 18, 2013 #3 Share Posted July 18, 2013 I wonder why they don't stock fat-free yogurt? Seems like it would be a very popular item with folks "of a certain age". As for sneakers, are they on the official banned list after 6 p.m.? I know jeans are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddmel Posted July 18, 2013 #4 Share Posted July 18, 2013 When we were on the Riviera last month I looked for fat free plain Greek yogurt or at least low fat and found none. I was disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted July 18, 2013 #5 Share Posted July 18, 2013 I wonder why they don't stock fat-free yogurt? Seems like it would be a very popular item with folks "of a certain age". As for sneakers, are they on the official banned list after 6 p.m.? I know jeans are. Yes they are, here is the dress code; "Recommended onboard clothing is resort or country club casual. For evening dining, elegant casual resort wear is suggested. We request that jeans, shorts, t-shirts or tennis shoes not be worn at dinner." The part I'm not sure about is shorts in the casino in the evening. I don't know the suggestion for dress code around the rest of the ship in the evening. Some cruise lines try to keep it uniform, others only request it in the dining rooms. Not sure about O. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare vlthom Posted July 18, 2013 #6 Share Posted July 18, 2013 My impression was that the Terrace Cafe is casual in the evening and that shorts were permitted. Therefore, I would think it acceptable that the same dress code be allowed in the public areas at that time. Perhaps I'm wrong though. We tend to dress nicely at dinner regardless of which venue we're in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacheco18 Posted July 18, 2013 #7 Share Posted July 18, 2013 My impression was that the Terrace Cafe is casual in the evening and that shorts were permitted. Therefore, I would think it acceptable that the same dress code be allowed in the public areas at that time. . That has been my experience as well. Whatever you can wear to the Terrace you can wear in the public areas (other than the dining rooms) Note that the dress code says "request" as opposed to "not permitted." Doesn't seem to be a ban on jeans and sneakers in any dining venue. I have never seen jeans or sneakers in the Specialties -- folks tend to dress up a bit in fact. If O does not want jeans and sneakers in the restaurants, it cannot rely on a "request" -- it needs to make a firm rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypercafe Posted July 18, 2013 #8 Share Posted July 18, 2013 As I have pointed out before, the dress code is like the liquor policy, just there just in case. As many here have said Oceania treats us as adults, do not get too drunk or too casual at dinner!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digtexas Posted July 18, 2013 #9 Share Posted July 18, 2013 That dress code only applies to the restaurants, and not to the Terrace Cafe. We saw people in the Terrace Cafe every evening that we dined there, in shorts and we saw people on the ship at night, in the casino, shows, and Horizons, and at afternoon tea, who only wore tee shirts and shorts...what I call beach wear. I believe that it only violates the dress code if they come into the GDR or the specialty restaurants. Obviously the Oceania leaders and staff don't want to take on the role of fashion police. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlouise Posted July 18, 2013 Author #10 Share Posted July 18, 2013 There were lots of people in the Grill at night in shorts and flip flops. It's expected there, but not in the dining room or the restaurants. There were lots of kids of all ages on board and for the most part they were very well dressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPR Posted July 18, 2013 #11 Share Posted July 18, 2013 Overall, we thought it was a truly great cruise on a wonderful ship. We even found low-fat and non-fat Yoplait in the Terrace at breakfast, but nothing but full-fat Greek yogurt. Biggest disappointment for us was the lack of a complimentary shuttle from the port to San Marco (or anywhere in Venice) and the lack of any printed instructions regarding the direct 8-Euro vaparetto from San Marco to the ship. We ended up taking the slow "local" vaparetto to Piazzele Roma and then walking to the people mover. Others just walked the 5 miles back to the port, and were roundly ticked off to find out about the 8-Euro direct vaparetto when they returned. Our experience was that the Oceania personnel were not all that helpful at disembarkation. No one warned us that 1 Euro coins were required to get luggage carts, and not one had change for a 5-Euro bill...or at least was willing to part with it. I ended up giving the bill to another passenger in return for their leftover 4 Euros in coins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlouise Posted July 19, 2013 Author #12 Share Posted July 19, 2013 Your experience was so different than ours. When we entered the luggage area on the dock at about 7:30 there were crew members with large luggage carts helping passengers to find their luggage and then they took our bags to our waiting transportation. What time did you leave the ship? There was low fat and no fat yogurt at breakfast at the Grill after I spoke to F&B. They were very nice and delivered ours to our suite and placed it all in our ice box. We were told that it is no long on their list of provisions and a call to the head office before sailing would be necessary from now on if we desired it on future cruises. We did not expect a free shuttle to San Marco so we were prepared to take a water bus back and fourth. Venice was so crowded we were happy to get back on the water to return to the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPR Posted July 19, 2013 #13 Share Posted July 19, 2013 1. We left the ship at 9:15, since we were staying 3 more nights in Venice. There were lots of crew members. Probably exhausted their Euro coins by then. Ship should have warned us to have coins for the luggage carts, which were complimentary at the airport. 2. Thanks for the yogurt! 3. The major issue we had was that there was no formal communication regarding the 8-euro direct shuttle boat from San Marco. Food was the best ever, surpassing Regent by far. All of the restaurants have upped their game. By the way, our new best friends were two couples we met on Cruise Critic and with whom we shared a taxi van to Lucca, one from New Hampshire and one from Florida via NYC. we had a blast with them. thank you Cruise Critic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlouise Posted July 19, 2013 Author #14 Share Posted July 19, 2013 Your right about no communication about the transportation to San Marco. We were lucky and got on the right water bus. We happened to meet a couple on board the second day that live 10 minutes from us and we know lots of the same people. We are having dinner with them next week.......small world. We left the ship early in order to make our flight back to Rome where we spent an additional 3 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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