Riviera Venice to Istanbul to Athens

[mariners]

baychilla, I am another fan of your review. The photographs make me long to visit or re-visit places on your itinerary. The photographs of food allow me to make my own impression of the food presentation and, in some cases, whether I would want to eat the food. I love reading the different reviews of people who sail on Oceania. I can take what I want from each review and, if I really don't like a review, I can stop reading the post. Your time, effort and opinions are appreciated. Congratulations on being a "mature adult". (I hope that is not offensive.:D)

 

For those who care, Oceania is still on our radar.

[JannoWilliamstown]

OK, I'll bite. Can you please tell us interested, but as yet rather unskilled (compared to you!) photographers, the details of your camera? I would also appreciate a quick (if possible) review of the main settings you're using. The colours as sensational and the clarity astonishing. If the executives of Oceania were to see these pictures, I'm sure they'd love to use them in their own advertising. Well done. Thank you, what a wonderful reading session I'm having!

[Caroldoll]

but it doesn't come out that way. Even though my cruise on the Pride was just a nightmare, there were very good parts and I was very happy the entire cruise because the ports were fabulous. The cavier in the ocean on the beach in Thailand was so much fun. We met the most interesting people on that cruise, all through Trivia. There were 18 or so countries represented on that cruise which is stunning for 200 passengers. My taste is more simple than yours and I think they have the best bread sticks and French fries on Earth! LOL. As far as finding a "home", I could literally live on Oceania Riviera. We take the Owners Suite which is a delight. I can go out and sun and there is always sun, no matter which direction the ship is tied up or traveling as the deck wraps around. I find the selection of restaurants to be fabulous and I have never set foot in the GDR. We have six segments booked starting in December of 2013. We have done all of our traveling, so just wish to make one ship home, and that one does it for us. We will simply...follow the ship.

 

I find you extremely interesting, and guessing from the months you travel..are you by chance a college professor or some type of teacher????

[Emperor Norton]

OK, I'll bite. Can you please tell us interested, but as yet rather unskilled (compared to you!) photographers, the details of your camera? I would also appreciate a quick (if possible) review of the main settings you're using. The colours as sensational and the clarity astonishing. If the executives of Oceania were to see these pictures, I'm sure they'd love to use them in their own advertising. Well done. Thank you, what a wonderful reading session I'm having!

 

 

Oooh, a fun post:D

 

I'm using a Nikon D800E. The outdoor shots were with a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8. Most of the food photos were with a Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 (macro) lens. The rest of the shots were my Samsung Galaxy S4 (I dont recommend this as a camera). For settings, I shot RAW. 99.6% of the time was in fully manual mode. When not in manual I used shutter priority (fountains) or Program for the "I dont care so long as I get the shot". White balance/color correction was via a Colorchecker Passport for a sunny 200 ISO. Photos were edited in Lightoom 5 (my sharpening skills need help ;))

[Emperor Norton]

but it doesn't come out that way. Even though my cruise on the Pride was just a nightmare, there were very good parts and I was very happy the entire cruise because the ports were fabulous. The cavier in the ocean on the beach in Thailand was so much fun. We met the most interesting people on that cruise, all through Trivia. There were 18 or so countries represented on that cruise which is stunning for 200 passengers. My taste is more simple than yours and I think they have the best bread sticks and French fries on Earth! LOL. As far as finding a "home", I could literally live on Oceania Riviera. We take the Owners Suite which is a delight. I can go out and sun and there is always sun, no matter which direction the ship is tied up or traveling as the deck wraps around. I find the selection of restaurants to be fabulous and I have never set foot in the GDR. We have six segments booked starting in December of 2013. We have done all of our traveling, so just wish to make one ship home, and that one does it for us. We will simply...follow the ship.

 

I find you extremely interesting, and guessing from the months you travel..are you by chance a college professor or some type of teacher????

 

Systems analyst that has most of the clients magically working out to school calendars :mad:

[Caroldoll]

Love all your pics and tongue in cheek reviews!

[lovetocruise16]

Baychilla, can you mention how many cruises you have done on all cruise lines?

[rloke]

Oooh, a fun post:D

 

I'm using a Nikon D800E. The outdoor shots were with a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8. Most of the food photos were with a Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 (macro) lens. The rest of the shots were my Samsung Galaxy S4 (I dont recommend this as a camera). For settings, I shot RAW. 99.6% of the time was in fully manual mode. When not in manual I used shutter priority (fountains) or Program for the "I dont care so long as I get the shot". White balance/color correction was via a Colorchecker Passport for a sunny 200 ISO. Photos were edited in Lightoom 5 (my sharpening skills need help ;))

 

 

Ah...that explains the super close-up, super shallow DOF of some of the food photos...perhaps too shallow... :p

 

Also looked like you played with the shadow slider quite a bit in LR5 that makes some outdoor photos looked a bit "artificial"...or maybe my monitor is not properly calibrated...:confused:...but as expected D800E + LR5 did a stunning job and so did you...:D

 

Sorry for being off-topic...

[Emperor Norton]

Ah...that explains the super close-up, super shallow DOF of some of the food photos...perhaps too shallow... :p

 

Also looked like you played with the shadow slider quite a bit in LR5 that makes some outdoor photos looked a bit "artificial"...or maybe my monitor is not properly calibrated...:confused:...but as expected D800E + LR5 did a stunning job and so did you...:D

 

Sorry for being off-topic...

 

It's hard to resist that shadows slider:D

[rloke]

It's hard to resist that shadows slider:D

 

Sorry...off-topic still...

 

If you can't resist the shadow slider...invite the black slider to the party as well then...:p

[CintiPam]

Worse than what you had on the Gem & Epic?

 

Oh, Paul, I just finished thinking the same as I caught up on this thread and read your post!:)

 

Baychilla, thanks for the excellent photos, particularly of the Black Sea ports, an itinerary which we have not done yet. But I truly do not understand why you opted to take so many ship's tours there rather than private ones.

[Decebal]

A thousand years from now on an archeological dig, remains of the 21st century, fossilized Ipads.

Thanks for the photos, they are amazing.

 

[Decebal]

Tourist trap is an establishment, or group of establishments, that has been created or re-purposed with the aim of attracting tourists[1] and their money. Tourist traps will typically provide services, entertainment, souvenirs and other products for tourists to purchase.

 

Wow, I've had my share of them, but this is priceless.

 

[Emperor Norton]

So to wrap this up:

 

Final-ish thoughts about the cruises

 

First Segment -

Embarkation:

The initial process (checking in) was smooth as we got there ahead of the Oceania groups. The segregation of passengers via room type started here (different check in areas for each type). The welcome aboard was the least welcoming of any I've experienced. No welcome champagne, no welcome announcement, the crew that weren't chatting each other up were just pointing and saying “go that way”. Your ultimate destination is deck 12 for Waves Grill and/or the Terrace. I think they could tell people to get off on 11 and walk aft if they don’t want to have to cross deck 12 in unfriendly weather.

 

Safety drill: The least safe safety drill I’ve ever seen. I understand the need (and requirement) for these. My issue is that Oceania requires passengers to bring their life vests with them. I lost track of all the dangling straps and number of near trips and actual trips they caused. Were there a SOLAS requirement to bring the vests I could understand Oceanias requirement. However as there is no SOLAS requirement to bring your vest to the muster drill I can’t fathom why Oceania is exposing is passengers to an increased risk of bodily harm when there is no requirement and a potentially very harmful downside.

 

Butler: Our butler seemed over eager to do things (I’m not saying this is a bad thing) but there really wasn’t anything to have him do.

 

Stewardess: The assistant we had for this section was great (fast and paid close attention to when people left their rooms). The stewardess was pleasant enough but didn’t seem to be as on the ball as the assistant (sadly this assistant left at the end of this segment).

 

Welcome aboard canapés/afternoon canapés: The welcome aboard canapés were scary bad looking. The few we tasted were worse than they looked. The afternoon canapés always arrived cold (if supposed to be warm) or stale (if bread was involved). We ended up trying everything on the menu once then not ordering them again.

 

Condition of the ship: The ship was well maintained (aside from the childrens graffiti on the walls). Public restrooms were for the most part (a single exception where Ill spare you the details) spotless (and cool). The only issue there was they never had seat protectors. Carpets looked clean, paint wasn’t chipped, wood was well maintained and not splintering.

 

Passengers: Some repeat passengers, most have a good amount of previous travel experience. They were mostly polite and knew how to use elevators. Comments from repeat passengers were that this passenger load was a-typical due to the number of children. For the most part the only time you’d see or hear children was on the pool deck (that is these children seemed to be mostly well behaved). Passengers on this segment could also wait in line in the Terrace in an orderly fashion.

 

Trivia: When Leslie or Natalie ran it things went as smoothly as possible given the room issues. It was great they had it twice a day. It’s a pity they couldn’t use Horizons as on a previous cruise. The theater isn’t such a hot place for trivia and imo Martinis is even worse.

Food/beverage –

GDR: Erratic service. Food that didn’t match the menu ingredient-wise. Food that never arrived as ordered. Food where you never knew what portion size you’d get (some items you’d expect small and get large, other items vice versa). It was mentioned by another poster that food for the GDR isn’t done a la minute and instead is all pre made (I mean pre-made not par cooked). This would help explain some of the issues in this venue.

 

Martinis: They had some interesting glasses. Service at the bar was great. Table service could be erratic.

 

Casino bar: Odd lighting and seat choices aside – the service at the bar itself was great. I never sat at any of the tables so can’t comment on service there.

 

Terrace café: It was OK. It’s a buffet. Quickest service of any of the dining venues. Sometimes the hot food sat for far too long a time before service (eg: fat on the suckling pig re-congealing before it’s served). Beverage service in general was spotty. Food service you only have yourself to blame.

 

Waves Grill: Besides never being able to reach the requested temperature of hamburgers, the fries could wander between correctly done and been sitting for half an hour. They wouldn’t make items as described on the menu and then they’d argue with you about it. The sandwiches here were poor, poor imitations of their namesakes.

 

Waves Ice Cream/Smoothies: Unlike the grill the employees here had no problem giving you what you asked for. I never had a smoothie but their shakes were good. You could boost the shake by taking it to Waves bar and having them add a shot of Chambord.

 

Waves bar: Aside from some wonky management rules and requirements (no glass to drink alcohol from but beer bottles all over the place are OK – Bloody Mary mix sans fresh horseradish and that tastes near tomato juice) this was probably the most efficient and friendly service you could get on the ship. I wonder if you could have room service delivered here…

 

Red Ginger: The food was OK or on par with your local Asian place. The sea bass was cooked perfectly, but the glaze killed any flavor the bass may have had. The towel trick is interesting. To me the amuse bouche was ne pas amusant de ma bouche. The tea list was interesting and food service was good. Alcohol service was the worst here. This is where it took forty minutes to find the right person, have the card run and then returned.

 

Jacques: We were a party of six. Nothing came out at the correct temperature and a number of dishes had off seasoning. The onion soup was pathetic. The Iberico pork chop was excellent save for the aforementioned temperature and seasoning issue (it came room temp and there were a few bits that tasted of pure salt). Service was good for both food and drink. The others at this table were returning Oceania passengers and while they all mentioned the issues with their food to the rest of us none wanted to send it back.

 

Polo: Food and beverage service was good. The onion rings had too much batter and were undercooked as well as under seasoned. The porterhouse was cooked to perfection, the béarnaise was well done but the onions were a tad on the greasy side. The odd thing about the porterhouse was the amount of sinew in it. I’m not used to that much sinew in prime beef. The potatoes au gratin were fine. The cheesecake was I felt too small a serving and not up to the level of any local restaurant.

 

Toscana: I liked the options for olive oil. Ask them to show all the balsamic options as those also run a gamut. The bread basket was my favorite though the roasted garlic could have been a little warmer. The pastas were good. The Osso Bucco as we had been warned was over salted. I sent it back for a veal dish. The veal was fine but perhaps had been beaten a little too much. The Tiramisu was what you’d expect from any Italian restaurant. Food and beverage service here was good.

 

Tours: The one tour I went on was excellent. It was Discover Ephesus with an expert. It was a small group and people paid attention to the guide rather than their smart phone.

 

La Reserve Connoisseurs menu: We got lucky and there were only six of us. It was the best food and service that we’d receive on the ship. This is also where I was introduced to Francks mashed potatoes. You can order these in the GDR and they are VERY rich (50% butter/potato mixture).

 

Deck party: It was nice they had it and surprised they don’t do it every segment.

 

Sea Days: This is an issue with a number of cruise lines now – iteneraries that are super port intensive and lack sea days. There were no sea days on this segment. As before this is not unique to Oceania.

Ping Pong (table tennis): Serious business this segment. People brought their own paddles and balls. The location of the table is adjacent to waves bar. Wind would frequently alter the course of the games. Further it wasn’t uncommon to have people crawling around under you trying to retrieve balls if you were seated at Waves bar.

 

Between segments - I understand that pumping sewage off the ship can have some rather unpleasant aromas but is 23-0300 really the best time to do this? The sound the pumping generated kept me up all night. Thankfully I wasn’t one of the people that needed to muster ~0230 to disembark. When I did see people disembarking the line seemed to wrap around the room.

 

Second segment –

Embarkation: N/A though we did not receive another round of canapés. Our butler eventually noticed we hadn’t been given a new bottle of champagne and provided us with one.

 

Safety drill: The least safe safety drill I’ve ever seen. I understand the need (and requirement) for these. My issue is that Oceania requires passengers to bring their life vests with them. I lost track of all the dangling straps and number of near trips and actual trips they caused. Were there a SOLAS requirement to bring the vests I could understand Oceanias requirement. However as there is no SOLAS requirement to bring your vest to the muster drill I can’t fathom why Oceania is exposing is passengers to an increased risk of bodily harm when there is no requirement and a potentially very harmful downside.

 

Butler: Our butler seemed over eager to do things (I’m not saying this is a bad thing) but there really wasn’t anything to have him do.

 

Stewardess: The new assistant was nice but it seemed unless you vacated the room fairly early (~0800) you could have quite a wait until your room was done.

 

Welcome aboard canapés/afternoon canapés: Skipped due to negative experiences the previous segment.

 

Condition of the ship: The ship was well maintained. Public restrooms were for the most part spotless (and cool). The only issue there was they never had seat protectors. Carpets looked clean, paint wasn’t chipped, wood was well maintained and not splintering.

 

Passengers: Drastic shift. More return customers. More children. While I met some nice people on this segment – there were also some very rude people that boarded. Elevators – how hard is it to use them? If you pushed the button to summon a car you could have people run (at a sprint) on a head of you. People that boarded first tended to stay at the front rather than move bock. They’d block people and if you asked them politely to please move more often than not they wouldn’t. It was like herding cats to get people to actually use the available space in the elevators. I wonder if I could bring a cattle prod on board. People cutting in front of others in the terrace (and these line cutters then getting cut themselves). They turned the terrace into a zoo and at times it seemed like it was under attack (now I know what Seabourntraveler was taking about in reference to actions in the Colonade). A lot of selfish, me-first types. Not pleasant. Further there was one person on board with a brood of children that weren’t always on their best behavior. While I saw other children on this segment, this group stood out and not in a good way.

 

Trivia: When Leslie or Natalie ran it things went as smoothly as possible given the room issues. It was great they had it twice a day. It’s a pity they couldn’t use Horizons as on a previous cruise. The theater isn’t such a hot place for trivia and imo Martinis is even worse.

 

Food/beverage –

GDR: Erratic service – but improved from the last segment . The foie gras ravioli on the foam sounded kind of wonky but was one of the best dishes I had over both segments. Food that didn’t match the menu ingredient-wise. Food that never arrived as ordered. Food where you never knew what portion size you’d get (some items you’d expect small and get large, other items vice versa). It was mentioned by another poster that food for the GDR isn’t done a la minute and instead is all pre made (I mean pre-made not par cooked). This would help explain some of the issues in this venue.

 

Martinis: They had some interesting glasses. Service at the bar was great. Table service could be erratic.

 

Casino bar: Odd lighting and seat choices aside – the service at the bar itself was great. I never sat at any of the tables so can’t comment on service there.

 

Terrace café: It was a zoo this segment. Sometimes the hot food sat for far too long a time before service (eg: fat on the suckling pig re-congealing before it’s served). Selfish, rude passengers made this dining venue untenable.

 

Waves Grill: Due to the poor food and worse attitude of the employees here, I skipped it this segment. The person I was traveling with went once and found that as on the previous segment they wouldn’t make food as described on the menu.

 

Waves Ice Cream/Smoothies: Nothing different than the previous segment.

 

Waves bar: Mostly the same as the last segment. The only problems were the people that would come by and whinge that happy hour didn’t usually include this venue. When happy hour included waves – watch out. People that seemed to routinely take advantage of happy hour wanted to cram a full day and nights worth of drinking into a single hour.

 

Red Ginger: Essentially the same as last segment. However the food and especially beverage service had improved.

 

Jacques: Sadly, like last segment they couldn’t get warm food out of the kitchen. Everything arrived cold.

 

Polo: Food and beverage service was good. The onion rings were better cooked and seasoned this time. The prime rib, while cooked perfectly tasted of freezer burn. The horseradish they provide is the prepared flavorless glop. Pity the ship as a whole seems deathly afraid of the freshly grated stuff. The shrimp cocktail was good, but were I to do it again Id ask for a double. The key lime pie wasn’t tart at all and had a cloying sweet taste like you might get from condensed milk.

 

Toscana: Mostly the same as last time (forgot to mention the parmesan chunks are good). However their veal marsala through me for a loop. Usually in this dish you taste the marsala. In their version all you taste is demi (don’t get me wrong it was an excellent demi glace – but imo part of the reason of ordering veal marsala is to be able to taste the marsala in the sauce).

 

Tours: People that were physically unfit for tours would sign up for them then try to get the rest of the group to wait for them. People would spend more time on their electronic devices than listening to guides. I’ve never see more disinterested groups of people on tours. By the end of the cruise everyone I talked to had come to two conclusions 1. The tours even for a cruise tour are vastly overpriced and 2. In the future they’d book their own private tours (this excludes those who were already in the habit of booking their own private tours). Tendering was a horrific process that was further slowed by the first few people on the tender always taking aisle seats. Other passengers would then have to walk (or on occasion trip) over them to get to the remaining seats. Staff should have given these people the option to move or get off the tender. Tenders seemed to be loaded to lifeboat capacity rather than tender capacity. Worse than Disney when it came to the whole tender process. And Disney had over twice as many passengers to move.

 

La Reserve Discovery menu: Full tables this time. It was a long dinner. One wine and its food pairing were disappointing. Something mustve gone sideways for other guests as we had staff hounding us to find out what had gone on with the dinner. They even sent the butler to ask at 2130 at night. Never did find out what that fuss was really about.

 

Deck party: Pity but it didn’t happen.

 

Sea Days: Finally. Though some were unexpected (eg: when we were supposed to be in Mykonos instead of at sea).

 

Ping Pong (table tennis): As before, but less serious and more screaming brood.

 

Captains party for returning guests: This was mostly nice. The passed canapés were hot and flavorful and fresh (oddly what we should’ve had delivered to our penthouse). Sad. The texas wings actually had heat and spice. More sad. Here again the happy hour crowd reared its ugly head. Yelling at bartenders that their drinks weren’t right (uh sir a traditional martini isn’t a triple, it doesn’t have raft of olives and a raft of onions nor does it come with a citrus wedge nor is it made with grey goose vodka…). In the end the party was nice, the staff was great, but the happy hour crowd should’ve been keel hauled.

 

This reminds me: As Oceania is not an all inclusive line the bars are actual functioning revenue generating spaces. I don’t think it’s fair to the bar staff to have to deal with children sitting at the bar. The children’s drinks are all free and that generates zero revenue for the bar staff. Further most bars aren’t stocked with every variety of juice known to man. To have to run off to a different bar to get whatever the desired juice of the day is take them away from their revenue stream.

Overall the food was a disappointment and service had some issues. The tendering process should have been carried out by people who know how to create and manage the flow of people (and can say “exit only means exit only” or “move to the end of the row” with authority). The ship was in excellent condition and the majority of the staff were friendly and competent at their jobs. The itineraries were nice, but as is the industry norm very port intensive. It was sad to see the differences in passengers. I wonder whether the first or second segment better represented the average Oceania passenger.

Would I go again? Assuming it was an itinerary I really wanted that no other line offered – maybe and with a case of antacids – All the issues aside from the passengers are things that could be fixed and indeed the food prep quality seemed to be on the rise for the second segment.

On a (hopefully) final note I’d like to thank the following crew for making the cruise enjoyable (apologies for the spelling and not including the back of house/behind the scenes staff):

Chadwell, Carlito, Oscar, Gregory, Zarvan, Komar, Veronica, Riplon, Falroy, I Made, I Wayan, Htun and Vita.

[cruzmaven]

Thank you for your extensive review. While it doesn't reflect my experiences on Oceania, I wasn't on your sailings and the things that are subjective you acknowledged as being subjective.

 

By far the most entertaining review on the Oceania board for a long time.

 

Nicely done.

[Graypanther]

Thanks for the excellent review Baychilla (BC). Very entertaining. I did not interpret BC's review as some have. I took many positive points from it. My own prior experience with La Reserve was not good. The wine didn't enhance the food and vice versa. Based on BC's review I will try LR again. We usually try each of the specialty restaurants once each cruise to see if they live up to the hype or have changed. Generally we end up happy to eat in the GDR and enjoy it in spite of the same issues BC pointed out. I'll give the specialty restaurants a little better look on the next cruise. I've never considered the Waves Bar and will check it out. Typically we will eat at the Waves Grill a few times. BC is spot on about getting the food cooked the way you want it especially if it is busy, like when the tour buses return at 3pm. Usually it's underdone for what I like and I just ask them to cook it again as I order it naked.

As for those of you unhappy with BC's review, I ask you to post your own detailed dining experiences in the different restaurants. This is, after all, cruise critic, not cruise worship.

[pully8]

enjoyed both the pictures and words. with travel there will always be a gap between the fantasy and reality. sometimes the gap is vast. would like to try oceania for the relaxed style and the food is reported to be good.

love these forums for info and tales from other travellers. so valuable.

thanks again.

[digtexas]

Excellent, very detailed review Baychilla. But you failed to describe the wonderful art pieces that you no doubt purchased at the art auctions.;)

[Emperor Norton]

Excellent, very detailed review Baychilla. But you failed to describe the wonderful art pieces that you no doubt purchased at the art auctions.;)

 

I was especially enamored by what appeared to be a terrible rendition of the "Afghan Girl" from National Geographic.:rolleyes:

[HeatherInFlorida]

I always appreciate when people take the time to review their cruises because I know it takes an effort. I love reading varying opinions and I like to read the good and the bad because we all know nothing is perfect.

 

And as I've said a few times, I really enjoyed your photographs, your sarcastic humor and the way you describe your experiences.

 

I know every cruise is different, even every itinerary. And I've only been on Oceania once. But while you say at one point it wasn't all bad, I'm just not getting that feeling reading your summation. I saw very little you liked about your experiences onboard. It's so hard for me to believe we were on the same ship (at different times, of course). We've cruised for 30 years, pretty extensively, and Oceania is right up there in the top 3 (speaking only about the cruise itself, not the itinerary).

 

So maybe my needs are few, maybe my expectations low, but I don't think so. Oceania isn't a budget cruise line and it's awful to spend that much money and be so disappointed. I'm anxious to see how we'll feel when we get back onboard the Riviera in December; I'll definitely post another review.

 

Still, I really appreciate this photographic review. I enjoyed reading it.

[JannoWilliamstown]

Thanks for this camera info, Baychilla. Now I'll have to get out my Sony DSLR and see if I can do the same. THe shadow slider sounds interesting but I don't know if I have that on my camera. This will be our second Oceania cruise. Having been quite underwhelmed with the quality of the food on the first Regatta cruise to Alaska, my expectations are not so high anymore. Because of that, I'll probably enjoy the food just fine! A great review!

Oooh, a fun post:D

 

I'm using a Nikon D800E. The outdoor shots were with a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8. Most of the food photos were with a Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 (macro) lens. The rest of the shots were my Samsung Galaxy S4 (I dont recommend this as a camera). For settings, I shot RAW. 99.6% of the time was in fully manual mode. When not in manual I used shutter priority (fountains) or Program for the "I dont care so long as I get the shot". White balance/color correction was via a Colorchecker Passport for a sunny 200 ISO. Photos were edited in Lightoom 5 (my sharpening skills need help ;))

[Emperor Norton]

Thanks for this camera info, Baychilla. Now I'll have to get out my Sony DSLR and see if I can do the same. THe shadow slider sounds interesting but I don't know if I have that on my camera. This will be our second Oceania cruise. Having been quite underwhelmed with the quality of the food on the first Regatta cruise to Alaska, my expectations are not so high anymore. Because of that, I'll probably enjoy the food just fine! A great review!

 

The Shadow slider is in Adobe Lightroom not a camera setting.

 

Sent via squirrels and a rotary phone

[Emperor Norton]

For my first segment of this trip another CC member was doing some (realistically a lot of pro-grade) videography. If you search YouTube for RodManb294 you can see his work.

[lovetocruise16]

Baychilla, can you mention how many cruises you have done on different cruise lines?