Newbie meeting with TA. Hoping for any advice.

[Paulchili]

6 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Oceania food is  a lot better IMO

😉

 

Plus 100 😀

[tgg]

Woofa, I've thought about your medication question a little more.  Although sick bay services on ships are expensive, we have never been charged for having meds held by them that were self-administered.  This has been our experience on 25+ cruises on Oceania and other lines. 

[Laszlo]

On 5/12/2021 at 10:01 AM, Woofa said:

Sorry, still here but TA pushed back meeting until early June as she is traveling.  No rush for us.  We have been thinking about all of the great advice so far and may expand our options.

1. Might be best not to push Europe on our first cruise so staying more open.  As an example there is a 10 day Miami to Miami in January 23.  Lived in Miami many years and have lots of local free places to stay and easy flights.  Plus gives  us 10 days and a Veranda for about the same money.  (Never been to that area of the Caribbean.)

2.  Understand that Vista will be sailing by 2023 and would be amazing to go on a new ship.  We might choose to wait at least until we see what the itineraries and prices are.

But still lurking and taking in all of the advice.

Thank you all.

So your TA pushed you back a month? Wow, I would be looking for a new TA if they don't have another person who can help you

[Woofa]

2 hours ago, Laszlo said:

So your TA pushed you back a month? Wow, I would be looking for a new TA if they don't have another person who can help you

It was OK, sounded worse than it was.  We were not in a rush and she was traveling for 2 weeks.

Now met with her and reserved for a 10 day in January 2023.  She was very helpful and no negative experience.  

[Woofa]

So how long is the ship usually within viewing distance of a port when it is leaving (like St. Kitts for example.)  The Oceania website would indicate that the ship leaves most ports by six or the latest seven.

The reason I ask is I am trying to figure out if you can enjoy dinner (let's say at 7:00pm) with a great view of the port we just visited from the Terrace Cafe.

 

On a ten night cruise, we plan for seven dinners, one each in the GDR, Terrace Cafe, and the four specialties.  (Leaving us three open nights to allow for a possible additional specialty, reservations permitting, or multiple nights in the GDR/Terrace depending which we like the most )  Of those we have four nights at sea including our first night and I thought these might be perfect nights for the specialties assuming we can get reservations.  

Assuming for the moment that we have great weather in January we love the idea of eating outside, perhaps dessert being served as the stars come out.  In my mind Terrace could be the most fun place to eat under the right circumstances...and I love the idea of grilled shellfish and meats with simple grilled veggies as a kind of balance for the nights of richer fare in the specialties.

Your experiences?

Thank you.

 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Woofa said:

So how long is the ship usually within viewing distance of a port when it is leaving (like St. Kitts for example.)  The Oceania website would indicate that the ship leaves most ports by six or the latest seven.

The reason I ask is I am trying to figure out if you can enjoy dinner (let's say at 7:00pm) with a great view of the port we just visited from the Terrace Cafe.

 

On a ten night cruise, we plan for seven dinners, one each in the GDR, Terrace Cafe, and the four specialties.  (Leaving us three open nights to allow for a possible additional specialty, reservations permitting, or multiple nights in the GDR/Terrace depending which we like the most )  Of those we have four nights at sea including our first night and I thought these might be perfect nights for the specialties assuming we can get reservations.  

Assuming for the moment that we have great weather in January we love the idea of eating outside, perhaps dessert being served as the stars come out.  In my mind Terrace could be the most fun place to eat under the right circumstances...and I love the idea of grilled shellfish and meats with simple grilled veggies as a kind of balance for the nights of richer fare in the specialties.

Your experiences?

Thank you.

 

Depending on the port time of year etc... it could be dark  early in the evening

Getting that special table with a view can be  hit or miss

 If you want to watch the sailaway under the stars I would just eat later

 

[mauibabes]

All the restaurants open at 6:30 so you can try your luck with an outside table in the Terrace Cafe or a window seat in one of them. Polo and Toscana have windows out the back as well as on the side and see the ports as you have departed.  
When your specialty dining window opens, jump on line ASAP because it will be a scramble for those Sea day bookings. If any of your traveling companions are in PH’s their Butler can be very helpful getting reservations once you are on board. Enjoy all your dining experiences as well as Room Service for breakfast on those sea days. 
 

[LGW59]

Just now, mauibabes said:

All the restaurants open at 6:30 so you can try your luck with an outside table in the Terrace Cafe or a window seat in one of them. Polo and Toscana have windows out the back as well as on the side and see the ports as you have departed.  
When your specialty dining window opens, jump on line ASAP because it will be a scramble for those Sea day bookings. If any of your traveling companions are in PH’s their Butler can be very helpful getting reservations once you are on board. Enjoy all your dining experiences as well as Room Service for breakfast on those sea days. 
 

Breakfast on my balcony EVERY sea day, weather permitting of course, otherwise I just suffer sitting inside watching the world float by!

[mauibabes]

It is a tough life but someone’s got to do it. 😁🚢🥂👍

Also as an FYI for posters, Room service stewards are not included in your normal gratuity payments so a few bucks each time is appreciated.  

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, mauibabes said:

It is a tough life but someone’s got to do it. 😁🚢🥂👍

Also as an FYI for posters, Room service stewards are not included in your normal gratuity payments so a few bucks each time is appreciated.  

Room service  staff work in other areas of the ship  eg: GDR 

but they do appreciate the extra  tips

Just saying

[Roccaforte]

Thanks for that info.  I’ll be sure to take care  of the room service stewards from now on.

Sounds like Woofa is doing great research.  Our favorite time of day is leaving ports while dining and sipping our adult beverage.  I’ll take a closer look at our upcoming voyage to do the same.  We’ve relied on the Terrace and grilled lobster tail when we couldn’t get a specialty reservation.  We had an excellent sail away while dining in Polo so I’ll try to do that again.  I hope Woofa keeps up the good work.

 

[ORV]

1 hour ago, mauibabes said:

It is a tough life but someone’s got to do it. 😁🚢🥂👍

Also as an FYI for posters, Room service stewards are not included in your normal gratuity payments so a few bucks each time is appreciated.  

If you have a butler I believe they bring them, and you pay extra already for their tips, although it is normal to tip them additional, depending on how much you use their services. 

[Woofa]

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for your help this far.  This question is slightly more complicated as it involves the multiple ports we are stopping in.  Fyi, those are:  St. Kitts, st. Vincent, Dominica, St. Barts, San Juan, And Puerto Plata.

At this time we have chosen not to do olife which would include up to six (3 each) excursions but we are open to add this in later if we find three we think are worth it.

Some background, we plan to use this vacation to relax and we feel the ship is a large part of the destination.  In addition, we believe the food on board will be worth eating most meals on the ship, and my wife is going to want to have tea, more than a few Timex.  Having said that, we would like to explore at least a little and are not opposed to a meal on shore if it is something special (we can get burgers and shrimp onboard for free and are not big drinkers. I don't think a tour of the Bacardi factory is for us.). While we would enjoy spending some time at a beautiful beach I am generally not tan enough to spend all day, everyday sitting in intense sun.  Access to a resort with beach, pool, bar and air conditioned bathrooms and lobby sounds nice, especially with a scenic beach where we could snorkel on our own from shore (we think to buy and bring our own snorkeling stuff.)    We do like to explore and love to shop but we are generally not looking for cruise ship souvenirs or questionable jewelry.  We love to find local, affordable (read hundreds, not thousands of dollars) art and usually try to find at least one piece for our home everywhere we go.

As an example we went to Santa Fe last month for a long weekend and  while we enjoyed Canyon Road for a few hours, most of it was out of our price range.  As a result we shopped some at consignment stores and a local shopping gathering in the train depot and found some stuff we liked.  Fyi, if you go, Geronimo's was wonderful for dinner And the Compound equally so for lunch.

My wife does like history and architecture as well so we often enjoy a local museum or similar but I usually get bored after an hour or two.

We are not really zip line kind of people and walking around a rainforest doesn't really excite me.

I have never seen a black sand beach however.

Not overly interested in three hours on a bus with a guide or three hours on a smaller boat just to do a loop of the island.

Finally, we would be interested in snorkeling (or possibly diving as I used to be certified and we have plenty of time to do so again with 18 months to go) but we are not really interested in a strip of sand with some colorful fish only.  If these ports don't really offer something more spectacular then we can hold off.  

So, for those who have been to these ports, what have you done?  Loved?  Think we may love from my description above? I have already created the role call for our cruise but no one has responded yet but we might be open to share private excursions.  I very much appreciate everyone's help in this regard.

[LHT28]

10 minutes ago, Woofa said:

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for your help this far.  This question is slightly more complicated as it involves the multiple ports we are stopping in.  Fyi, those are:  St. Kitts, st. Vincent, Dominica, St. Barts, San Juan, And Puerto Plata.

 

You might have a look at the ports of call forum for each island

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/456-caribbean/

 

In Dominica  we found a driver at the dock & did the tour to the water fall  very nice

St Kitts  maybe the Fort would be of interest

St Barts   we walked along the harbour  & looked  at the yachts ..very expensive shopping  but we did pick up a few supplies at the pharmacy there

 

Hopefully you will able to DIY  tours

Enjoy