Live: CintiPam, Riviera, Southern Caribbean, 14 days

[CintiPam]

With thanks to my neighbor just to the north, Terry from Columbus, OH, who has not yet had the opportunity to object to the name of this thread, I thought that I would post my impressions of my cruise, which embarked Miami on Wednesday, February 26, arriving in Aruba tomorrow morning after two days at sea.

 

This is our 12th Oceania cruise; we have cruised three times on Azamara, so O and A are the only two lines of which I even am minimally qualified to opine!  We average a cruise once a year; we last sailed on Marina in the Western Mediterranean in May, Barcelona to Rome and had a fantastic time although I suffered a detached retina two days before disembarkation, which required emergency surgery the day after we returned home.  

Edited February 28, 2020 by CintiPam

[LHT28]

16 minutes ago, CintiPam said:

With thanks to my neighbor just to the north, Terry from Columbus, OH, who has not yet had the opportunity to object to the name of this thread,

 

Why on earth would he object ?

Who cares if he does 🙄

Enjoy the cruise

 

[CintiPam]

Initial impressions:  

 

1.  The only physical changes I have observed since our last time on Riviera two years ago are (a) new carpet in our B1 veranda cabin, (b) new striped and less cumbersome space-taking chairs In the Terrace Cafe, and (c) truly lovely new cafe space by Baristas where the computer center formerly was located, with the computer center much smaller between Baristas and the library.  Who needs desktops when so many now carry iPads and iPhones?

 

2.  Aquamar rather than Canyon Ranch:  I do not “spa” so I have not yet visited there.  However, the diabetic 86-year-old with whom we had dinner at Red Ginger reports that the this change has resulted in less sugar-free dessert options offered since he sailed on Riviera just last November.  He was very irate considering the demographic onboard.

Edited February 28, 2020 by CintiPam

[CintiPam]

1 minute ago, LHT28 said:

Why on earth would he object ?

Who cares if he does 🙄

Enjoy the cruise

 

Thanks, Lyn: that was my (apparently failed) attempt ar humor!  

[LHT28]

1 minute ago, CintiPam said:

Thanks, Lyn: that was my (apparently failed) attempt ar humor!  

try this 😁😉😃

[TLCOhio]

Just now, CintiPam said:

With thanks to my neighbor just to the north, Terry from Columbus, OH, who has not yet had the opportunity to object to the name of this thread, I thought that I would post my impressions of my cruise, which embarked Miami on Wednesday, February 26, arriving in Aruba tomorrow morning after two days at sea.  This is our 12th Oceania cruise; we have cruised three times on Azamara, so O and A are the only two lines of which I even am minimally qualified to opine!  

 

Great that our "neighbor" from Cincinnati is posting.  Good sailing in the Caribbean to escape the Midwest winters.  As you know we are on the Oceania Regatta now in the middle of four sea-days between Fiji and French Polynesia.  Be interested to hear how all of the world-wide virus concerns might affect your schedule and port processes, etc.

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

From late 2018, see “Holy Lands, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Dubai, Greece, etc.”, with many visuals, details and ideas for the historic and scenic Middle East on the Oceania Nautica. Now at 18,015 views.  Connect at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2607054-livenautica-greece-holy-lands-egypt-dubai-terrypix’s/

[CintiPam]

12 minutes ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Great that our "neighbor" from Cincinnati is posting.  Good sailing in the Caribbean to escape the Midwest winters.  As you know we are on the Oceania Regatta now in the middle of four sea-days between Fiji and French Polynesia.  Be interested to hear how all of the world-wide virus concerns might affect your schedule and port processes, etc.

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

From late 2018, see “Holy Lands, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Dubai, Greece, etc.”, with many visuals, details and ideas for the historic and scenic Middle East on the Oceania Nautica. Now at 18,015 views.  Connect at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2607054-livenautica-greece-holy-lands-egypt-dubai-terrypix’s/

Hi, Terry, very good idea: I will report any changes in procedures due to virus concerns I observe.  When we embarked in Miami, our passports were checked very thoroughly to see if we had recently visited the Asian countries currently on Oceania’s ”no-recent- visit” list and an extra page had been added to the usual health form for self-reporting certain symptoms.  However, there was no temperature taking of passengers.  

Edited February 28, 2020 by CintiPam

[CintiPam]

More impressions:

 

1.  Our first sea day was cloudy with one short shower and the pool deck was more than half empty!  Today, our second sea day, the pool deck was full, particularly when the sun completely emerged in the afternoon, but we have not observed even a single chair hog.  I arrived on the deck after trivia (so just after 11) and have spent the entire day in awe of my fellow passengers.  I only observed one loud conversation of two women in the first row talking about ten yards (three lounge chairs) apart for an hour!

 

2.  There is a noticeable reduction (one server, at least on the port side where I sit far away from any cigar smokers, who did not start until after 1 pm) in the number of drink servers on the pool deck.  You go up to the bar yourself if you want service
 

2.  We have TWO guest lecturers onboard:  one, a retired professor from York College, has lectured at 10 am on both sea days, with the normally 4:30 pm trivia with the Cruise Director held at 10:30 am, IMO a brilliant solution to spread out the masses and clear out the Terrace Cage lingerers!  The other lecturer is an oceanographic expert who lectured at 1:30 pm.

 

3.  In addition to two daily lectures these two sea days, there also had been many more sea day offerings, including in the casino as well as the spa. Also an afternoon movie both days.

 

Time to dress for dinner, so farewell for now,.

Edited February 28, 2020 by CintiPam

[TLCOhio]

Just now, CintiPam said:

Hi, Terry, very good idea: I will report any changes in procedures due to virus concerns I observe.  When we embarked in Miami, our passports were checked very thoroughly to see if we had recently visited the Asian countries currently on Oceania’s ”no-recent- visit” list and an extra page had been added to the usual health form for self-reporting certain symptoms.  However, there was no temperature taking of passengers.  

 

During all of our South Pacific stops, there has been a no-touch temperature checking of all passengers as they are preparing to re-board the Oceania ship.  French Polynesia officials are having an in-person, face-to-face check done BEFORE allowing us to get off the ship in Papeete.  Also saw that Oceania has toughened their overall policy to say if you have been in China, Hong Kong airport, etc., during the past 30 days, then you will not be allowed to board and start a sailing.  Lots happening!!  Good and bad!!  Be interested to see how impacts your sailing in the Caribbean.  Keep us posted as you sail.  Good luck!! 

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Sydney to NZ/Auckland Adventure, live/blog 2014 sampling/details with many exciting visuals and key highlights.  On page 23, post #571, see a complete index for all of the pictures, postings.  Now at 229,281 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

 

 

 

[Paulchili]

Looking forward to your reports Pam - especially re: significant changes from the past in food - both quality and selections, service, demographics, etc.

Enjoy the cruise!

Edited February 28, 2020 by Paulchili

[CintiPam]

In response to questions on the other  thread regarding the top 3 officers on Riviera now:

 

The Captain (Master) is Maksym Melnikov from Rostov-on-Dan, Russia.  He is very charming and outgoing, not at all like any previous Oceania Captain we have met!

 

The General Manager is August Keuler from Cape Town, South Africa.  
 

The Cruise Director is John Clelford from Birmingham, UK, now living in “the north of England in a small village close to the Yorkshire Dales.”  He is excellent: efficient, not too wordy and very engaging with difficult 4:30 pm trivia questions.  The winning score on the first day was 9 out of 15!

Sorry I was unable to get online last night to provide any report at all.  (Hopefully I can write more tonight after dinner.)

Edited March 1, 2020 by CintiPam

[CintiPam]

Terry, no change at all in port procedures AS YET due to coronavirus after two ports: Oranjestad, Aruba yesterday and Williamstad, Curaçao today.  (Tomorrow we will be in Bonaire where I will go snorkeling.)

[Jancruz]

If you see August the GM will you send him regards from Jan and Stu Fishbein..he is a friend..Thanks

Jancruz1

[CintiPam]

1 hour ago, Jancruz said:

If you see August the GM will you send him regards from Jan and Stu Fishbein..he is a friend..Thanks

Jancruz1

Will do, Jan!  We saw him our first night onboard dining with three other officers at Red Ginger, my favorite specialty restaurant.

[CintiPam]

On 2/28/2020 at 7:36 PM, Paulchili said:

Looking forward to your reports Pam - especially re: significant changes from the past in food - both quality and selections, service, demographics, etc.

Enjoy the cruise!

Food:  The food has been excellent in all venues.  My husband reports that the beef in the evenings in both the Terrace Cafe and Grand Dining Room has been excellent and cooked perfectly to order.  He particularly enjoyed his ribeye steak tonight at the Cafe, where we dined all fresco with many others enjoy a lovely evening as we left Curaçao.  The GDR selections include more ethnic varieties than last May on Marina, which we appreciate very much.  About five years ago, it seemed that all the dinner choices in the GDR were “Americanized”, much blander and less varied.  For example, last night we had a very nicely spiced chicken tikka salad with cucumbers and tomatoes and then lamb curry for our entrees.  Dessert was a chocolate soufflé: yum!   Service also has been very good with the dining crew operating together like a well-oiled machine.  Only noticeable lack is in the number serving drinks on the pool deck.  
 

I cannot leave food behind without mentioning this fancy new ice cream brand, whose name slips my mind at almost 11 pm; it is fabulous!  Today it was Regatta Royale: dark chocolate with sea salt and orange zest.  Yesterday was lemon with small pieces of pound cake.  

[CintiPam]

Demographics:  very old, by far the oldest of any cruise we have taken, although this is our fourth Oceania Caribbean cruise.  Lots of people with significant mobility issues who never leave the ship.  Lots of younger second (third? 😁) wives.   
 

The full spectrum of fitness: lots of extremely obese men and women (much more than we ever have seen) and also many incredibly fit.

 

Two children, perhaps five and three years old.  
 

Mostly North Americans; mostly a Caucasian  with a sprinkling of people of Asian descent..

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

22 minutes ago, CintiPam said:

Food:  The food has been excellent in all venues.  My husband reports that the beef in the evenings in both the Terrace Cafe and Grand Dining Room has been excellent and cooked perfectly to order.  He particularly enjoyed his ribeye steak tonight at the Cafe, where we dined all fresco with many others enjoy a lovely evening as we left Curaçao.  The GDR selections include more ethnic varieties than last May on Marina, which we appreciate very much.  About five years ago, it seemed that all the dinner choices in the GDR were “Americanized”, much blander and less varied.  For example, last night we had a very nicely spiced chicken tikka salad with cucumbers and tomatoes and then lamb curry for our entrees.  Dessert was a chocolate soufflé: yum!   Service also has been very good with the dining crew operating together like a well-oiled machine.  Only noticeable lack is in the number serving drinks on the pool deck.  
 

I cannot leave food behind without mentioning this fancy new ice cream brand, whose name slips my mind at almost 11 pm; it is fabulous!  Today it was Regatta Royale: dark chocolate with sea salt and orange zest.  Yesterday was lemon with small pieces of pound cake.  

Quick question. When you're typing your longer posts on this thread, how is your internet connectivity? Are you able to stay connected during the entire process, or do you periodically get knocked offline, especially if you're posting to CC in your cabin? 

 

The reason I ask is when we were on the Riviera back in Nov 2018 for 45 days, we would get knocked offline every 2-3 minutes when we were accessing the internet from our balcony cabin on deck 7. Hopefully, they have resolved their connectivity issues since then, but thought I'd ask as access back home via the internet is very important to us.

[ORV]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Quick question. When you're typing your longer posts on this thread, how is your internet connectivity? Are you able to stay connected during the entire process, or do you periodically get knocked offline, especially if you're posting to CC in your cabin? 

 

The reason I ask is when we were on the Riviera back in Nov 2018 for 45 days, we would get knocked offline every 2-3 minutes when we were accessing the internet from our balcony cabin on deck 7. Hopefully, they have resolved their connectivity issues since then, but thought I'd ask as access back home via the internet is very important to us.

Repeaters are in the hallways, you've got two walls(metal) between you and the routers. If this is the place you usually try to access the internet on Oceania then perhaps this is one of the reasons you have a lot of connectivity issue. 

[Ken the cruiser]

10 minutes ago, ORV said:

Repeaters are in the hallways, you've got two walls(metal) between you and the routers. If this is the place you usually try to access the internet on Oceania then perhaps this is one of the reasons you have a lot of connectivity issue. 

Funny, we haven't run into the issue of getting bumped off the "hallway" router every 2-3 minutes on ANY other cruise line we've sailed on since our Nov 2018 cruise on the Riviera. That includes 21 days on the Celebrity Reflection in the Caribbean, 30 days on the Crystal Symphony in SE Asia, 12 days on the Crown Princess around the UK, 40 days on the HAL Maasdam around Australia and 25 days on the Island Princess to Easter Island.

 

And as you know from the various Internet-related posts on this forum, the Riviera has had it's issues with internet connectivity in the cabin areas. I'm just curious if @CintiPam has avoided similar issues in hopes O has upgraded their "hallway" router connection capacity since we last sailed on her.

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, CintiPam said:

I cannot leave food behind without mentioning this fancy new ice cream brand, whose name slips my mind at almost 11 pm; it is fabulous!  Today it was Regatta Royale: dark chocolate with sea salt and orange zest.  Yesterday was lemon with small pieces of pound cake.  

Pam - thank you for the updates - it all sounds good. Looking forward to trying the new ice creams

 

52 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Are you able to stay connected during the entire process, or do you periodically get knocked offline, especially if you're posting to CC in your cabin? 

I compose my posts off line in word and then just copy and paste instead of composing the whole thing online and losing it.

[bigmjh]

2 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I compose my posts off line in word and then just copy and paste instead of composing the whole thing online and losing it.

+1 👍 The BEST way to do it!

[StanandJim]

7 hours ago, bigmjh said:

+1 👍 The BEST way to do it!

That may be true for those of you using the mobile App.  

 

As someone who follows Cruise Critic on a Desktop, however, I can assure you all that have  never lost any content during the posting process.  On the ship, naturally, is a different kettle of fish and there I do compose off line in Word.

 

When I do need to cut and paste large Posts onto (into?) Cruise Critic, the Specialty Restaurant Rules & Regs come to mind,  I generally need to finesse the formatting and content quite a bit before hitting "Submit Reply".

 

I also miss the old method, the one just before this last big change, where we could view our Posts exactly as they would appear on the Site,  before authorizing that final Submission.

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by StanandJim

[cruisingxpert]

10 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

 

The reason I ask is when we were on the Riviera back in Nov 2018 for 45 days, we would get knocked offline every 2-3 minutes when we were accessing the internet from our balcony cabin on deck 7. Hopefully, they have resolved their connectivity issues since then, but thought I'd ask as access back home via the internet is very important to us.

Not Cintipam but in Nov 2019, I don't recall ever losing the connection when I was using the Internet in my cabin.  I do think their Internet has improved because I used to have the problem of losing the connection before.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, cruisingxpert said:

Not Cintipam but in Nov 2019, I don't recall ever losing the connection when I was using the Internet in my cabin.  I do think their Internet has improved because I used to have the problem of losing the connection before.

Thanks! That's good to hear. After O back in May 2018 started giving every stateroom one free unlimited internet account with their Wavenet promotion, connection stability issues on the larger O class ships seemed to really escalate. Glad to hear they have addressed the issue in the cabin areas.

[ricka47]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:49 PM, CintiPam said:

More impressions:

 

1.  Our first sea day was cloudy with one short shower and the pool deck was more than half empty!  Today, our second sea day, the pool deck was full, particularly when the sun completely emerged in the afternoon, but we have not observed even a single chair hog.  I arrived on the deck after trivia (so just after 11) and have spent the entire day in awe of my fellow passengers.  I only observed one loud conversation of two women in the first row talking about ten yards (three lounge chairs) apart for an hour!

 

2.  There is a noticeable reduction (one server, at least on the port side where I sit far away from any cigar smokers, who did not start until after 1 pm) in the number of drink servers on the pool deck.  You go up to the bar yourself if you want service
 

2.  We have TWO guest lecturers onboard:  one, a retired professor from York College, has lectured at 10 am on both sea days, with the normally 4:30 pm trivia with the Cruise Director held at 10:30 am, IMO a brilliant solution to spread out the masses and clear out the Terrace Cage lingerers!  The other lecturer is an oceanographic expert who lectured at 1:30 pm.

 

3.  In addition to two daily lectures these two sea days, there also had been many more sea day offerings, including in the casino as well as the spa. Also an afternoon movie both days.

 

Time to dress for dinner, so farewell for now,.

 

Thanks for your impressions.  We'll be boarding Riviera next Wednesday.  I'm glad to hear that the "chogs" are under control!