Review of the Vista

[oskidunker]

My second oceania cruise. First on the Sierena  two years ago  .

 

Food in Grand dining room is excellent. Better than my first cruise. Rack of Lamb, Tournedos and fish all very good and a good sized portion. . Included wine is good and I am a wine collector. Champagne is Mountedon , which I really like. Nz sauv  blanc , Wente Cab and Back house p noir good .Deserts improved. Bread excellent. They made me fettuccini Alfredo one night .One caveat, lobster has not been good so far.service slow

 

Tours have been good. Especially liked 7 hour catamaran in first port.
 

ship never feels crowded unless you are at the pool which I am not.  
 

Tender service was one boat at a time in St Barts snd very slow . They told me they could not launch two boats. Very bad.

 

entertainment weak. Same comedian twice. Only two production shows. Theater very bad design.  Sit in the side balconies or  you cant see. I heard they may redo it. Risers too low. Heads block your views. 
 

I do not like the phones in the rooms. They don't ring but make a stupid chime sound confusing as you also gave a door bell. Phone stands up snd hard to use. Buttons wont work unless you use speaker phone  .

 

light in the closet goes off after 10 seconds. It can be adjusted. Call them. 
 

There needs to be more music after dinner and before the show

 

ser

Edited March 7 by oskidunker

[oskidunker]

Room service breakfast

 

the good.  They bring you anything you write in. Bowls of raspberries, strawberries, papaya.  
 

the bad.they constantly forget silverware, pot of hot water for tea and other things. Check your tray before the leave. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Thank you for taking the time to give your impressions of the ship and your experiences.  We sail her in October and will love to follow along. 

[MEFIowa]

Though what about your cabin? What type? Deck? Any issues? What do you love about it?

[Hlitner]

What is the story with the tenders?  One tender is just ridiculous and terribly inefficient.  Why can they not launch more tenders.  When we cruise the small Seabourn ships (450 passengers) they will often have at least 3 tenders in the water.

 

Hank

[Cruisedreamer1]

The tender situation may have to due with St Barts and their rules. She was lucky to get to St Barts. The last 2 times the ship was unable to tender and to weather conditions.

[Snaefell3]

10 minutes ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

The tender situation may have to due with St Barts and their rules.

Yep.  Gustavia harbor is *tiny*.

[pinotlover]

We have learned to avoid lobster on any Oceania ship. Plenty of good food otherwise and the chances of getting an overcooked rubbery lobster is to great to mess with them. 

[makai 7]

We decided to be open minded about Ember, but it was as described, a loud TGiFridays atmosphere with mediocre food.  The “grilled asparagus “ was a mushy disaster, and was inedible.  The waiter apologized and said it was because it was frozen…. But the asparagus in Red ginger was excellent, so this makes no sense.  I think they simply boiled all their asparagus and broccoli and leave it in steam tables until they fill an order.   No table cloth or place mats on the metal tables felt like another cost saving measure, and we felt uncomfortable putting our silverware on a not necessarily clean table top.

[basor]

9 minutes ago, makai 7 said:

We decided to be open minded about Ember, but it was as described, a loud TGiFridays atmosphere with mediocre food.  The “grilled asparagus “ was a mushy disaster, and was inedible.  The waiter apologized and said it was because it was frozen…. But the asparagus in Red ginger was excellent, so this makes no sense.  I think they simply boiled all their asparagus and broccoli and leave it in steam tables until they fill an order.   No table cloth or place mats on the metal tables felt like another cost saving measure, and we felt uncomfortable putting our silverware on a not necessarily clean table top.

That is interesting as when we ate at Embers, several times, there were tablecloths on the tables.  I have never seen a table in any dining facility on Oceania ships that did not have placemats or tablecloths.  As to the food, your experience was also different from ours but we did not order the asparagus.

[makai 7]

3 minutes ago, basor said:

That is interesting as when we ate at Embers, several times, there were tablecloths on the tables.  I have never seen a table in any dining facility on Oceania ships that did not have placemats or tablecloths.  As to the food, your experience was also different from ours but we did not order the asparagus.

We were somewhat shocked at no table cloths.  I’m not a snob, but I expect something better than a bare metal table.  Every other restaurant on the ship at least has a placemat.  If they were going for America bbq ambiance they could have used the Kraft paper like that used at Ted’s Montana grill.  That would have been fine.

 

We canceled our second reservation there, we had no interest in returning.

I hope someone benefited from our cancellation.

[basor]

4 minutes ago, makai 7 said:

We were somewhat shocked at no table cloths.  I’m not a snob, but I expect something better than a bare metal table.  Every other restaurant on the ship at least has a placemat.  If they were going for America bbq ambiance they could have used the Kraft paper like that used at Ted’s Montana grill.  That would have been fine.

 

We canceled our second reservation there, we had no interest in returning.

I hope someone benefited from our cancellation.

Certainly understand....we ate there 4 times during our 32 day Vista cruise last November and had tablecloths every time.  Perhaps they have changed.....I will check with some friends that recently sailed on Vista to see if they found the same.  Food is subjective but mushy asparagus is not subjective.

[EJL2023]

Personally I don’t recall tablecloths or not. However, I guess I should not have expected them as the photos of Ember on their website clearly show tables set with no tablecloths or placemats. And its description is ‘laid back’ which would indicate not a place with white linen table cloths, etc. 

Edited March 8 by EJL2023

[basenji56]

When I ate at Ember in January, it was the loudest restaurant I can ever recall. I thought the food was ok but I couldn't talk to the person seated next to me.

[pinotlover]

I don’t have another A ship booked until our 25 day Alura cruise. Not sure we’ll book Ember again. Ho-hum food and loud.

[Queen of DaNile]

1 hour ago, basor said:

Certainly understand....we ate there 4 times during our 32 day Vista cruise last November and had tablecloths every time.  Perhaps they have changed.....I will check with some friends that recently sailed on Vista to see if they found the same.  Food is subjective but mushy asparagus is not subjective.

No table cloths on two nights on our TA in September 

Edited March 8 by Queen of DaNile
added photo

[basor]

2 minutes ago, Queen of DaNile said:

No table cloths on our TA in September

Guess they just put them on for our 3 cruises but no matter, it wouldn't affect our enjoyment of our meals there.  Glad others are not going due too negative remarks so we can go more often!

[Queen of DaNile]

3 minutes ago, basor said:

Guess they just put them on for our 3 cruises but no matter, it wouldn't affect our enjoyment of our meals there.  Glad others are not going due too negative remarks so we can go more often!

Didn't matter to us. We enjoyed the food.

[EJL2023]

27 minutes ago, basor said:

Guess they just put them on for our 3 cruises but no matter, it wouldn't affect our enjoyment of our meals there.  Glad others are not going due too negative remarks so we can go more often!

Agree!

[Harters]

Where I am in the world, tablecloths (or lack of) don't indicate the quality of a restaurant. Neither of the two top end places in our nearby city have tablecloths - one place is Michelin starred and the other is Michelin listed. My sense is that our local restaurants have tablecloths if they want to convey a traditional image, and no cloths if they want a modern image. 

 

I'm definitely looking forward to eating in Ember. In fact, it was the first speciality we booked. And we booked it for early in the cruise so we could go again if we really liked it. For a foreigner, an "American" restaurant should be much more interesting an experience than, say, a revisit to Toscana. 

[oskidunker]

5 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

Though what about your cabin? What type? Deck? Any issues? What do you love about it?

7025.Good. No noise. No issues  they cleaned the glass often. Bathroom great. Had the water pressure increased though. Closet ok. We did not find it too small

[Vineyard View]

Would you Sail Vista again, or would you steer towards other O ships?  Or would that be itinerary driven for the most part?

[basor]

51 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

Agree!

Unfortunately, the word got out and we were unable to make additional reservations as we would have gone more....we checked almost everyday at reservation desk and with Maitre D when Ember opened and nothing...

[Tranquility Base]

4 hours ago, makai 7 said:

We were somewhat shocked at no table cloths.

Perhaps, as well as saving the planet by reducing port times hour at a time, they are now also saving the environment one tablecloth at a time.

😇

Edited March 8 by Tranquility Base

[Acrusa]

We first walked into Ember we where escorted to a 2 table in the middle but noticed 2 table along the window on the left side as you walk in . So we sat there and had a Great steak the best I've had  on O

Second time we went waited about 15 minutes for one of those tables and had the Fish and chips made from Chilean Sea bass.Thats like taking a Rolls Royce and making it a Amazon delivery van.