The Time's They are a Changing

[Hlitner]

1 minute ago, Vallesan said:

Thank you Hank!

 

Just bought some Pinotage by chance  a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. We aren’t wine ‘buffs’ just enjoy a decent red (to our palette). Our go to’s are Rioja, especially a Crianza,  Ribera del Duero, Malbec and a good Shiraz. So as you can see no French on our list although we have enjoyed Chateauneuf du Pape on occasion. I think I may be one of those people who faced with an array of ‘exceptional’ wines would probably not be able to taste the difference between the good, the bad and the ugly!

Like you, my ability to tell the good from the bad is simply based on personal taste.  Over the years I have had some very high rated wines, and my reaction was, really?  Am with you on Shiraz, Malbec and Rioja (we enjoy them all).  DW and I, with our untrained palettes, have often talked about "French style" vs what we think of as California style (to include both Washington and Oregon).  Put simply, many (not all) US wines are designed to be "fruit forward" which appeals to many folks.  DW and I drink our share of US wines, but our preference is towards the less fruity French (and other European) wines.  That being said, we have met frequent California wine drinkers who, when tasting a very dry French wine, will roll their eyes and say, "yuck."  That is all part of the fun of being an amateur oenophile :).

 

Hank

[MrEu6117]

14 hours ago, iowananny said:

Pinot, this has nothing to do with the topic but have you ever tried Carlise Pinot Noir.  The best I've ever had.  When I see your name I just wonder.  It comes from Sonoma Co.

I have enjoyed countless wines with iowananny over the years.  I'm pretty sure the pinot noir she is referring to is from Auteur, a small Sonoma-based winery headed by Kenneth Juhasz specializing in pinot noir and unoaked chardonnay.

 

Carlisle, also based in Sonoma, produces some excellent zinfandel and southern Rhone varietals IMHO.

[iowananny]

This is one of the few times during our marriage where he is probably right.  It just makes me mad.  After all I am the wife.

[Vallesan]

37 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Like you, my ability to tell the good from the bad is simply based on personal taste.  Over the years I have had some very high rated wines, and my reaction was, really?  Am with you on Shiraz, Malbec and Rioja (we enjoy them all).  DW and I, with our untrained palettes, have often talked about "French style" vs what we think of as California style (to include both Washington and Oregon).  Put simply, many (not all) US wines are designed to be "fruit forward" which appeals to many folks.  DW and I drink our share of US wines, but our preference is towards the less fruity French (and other European) wines.  That being said, we have met frequent California wine drinkers who, when tasting a very dry French wine, will roll their eyes and say, "yuck."  That is all part of the fun of being an amateur oenophile :).

 

Hank

We are the same as you when it comes to ‘highly rated’, especially French wines. Don’t really have a discerning enough palette!

 

Many years ago we got chatting to some people at the next table to us in a hotel restaurant in Spain. We had just had an average bottle of Rioja and the guy insisted on buying a bottle of something ‘extra special’ to share with us. So out came the special glasses, the wine was decanted, left to breathe, poured, swirled, sniffed and then finally sipped. Sorry but it tasted just like the one we’d just had! Completely wasted on me!

 

Living in Europe we enjoy Spanish and Portuguese wines and the odd French wine but are yet to find an Italian we enjoy. Having said that I do find, sorry to California and all their wine lovers, Californian wine is a little like lemonade, no ‘body’. Maybe we just haven’t tried the right one yet.

 

As you say all part of the fun of being an ‘amateur oenophile’!

Edited May 20 by Vallesan

[MEFIowa]

Whether for lunch or dinner, we thoroughly enjoy the TC! So much that in 40 nights on Riviera and Sirena since 12/2021, we have never eaten at the GDR. TC is the perfect combination of ease of access and speed as well as food choice and quality. And we're about 60. I'm one of the last Baby Boomers, born '63.

[Vallesan]

3 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Whether for lunch or dinner, we thoroughly enjoy the TC! So much that in 40 nights on Riviera and Sirena since 12/2021, we have never eaten at the GDR. TC is the perfect combination of ease of access and speed as well as food choice and quality. And we're about 60. I'm one of the last Baby Boomers, born '63.

Then maybe you should try the GDR just once. You can’t really say that the TC is the best if you have ttied everything on offer!

[bbqoug]

2 hours ago, Vallesan said:

I can’t see any of the food I’ve reported here that is cooked for ‘no-no’s’. In fact I think that’s a rather derogatory term. 

 

This I definitely agree with!

[MEFIowa]

20 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Then maybe you should try the GDR just once. You can’t really say that the TC is the best if you have tried everything on offer!

We have NO desire to do a slow sit-down in the GDR. We do do the specialty restaurants. I do periodically try Waves in the afternoon. And always for breakfast. Did Riviera's pizza station by Waves once, too. We cruise for excursions and are off the boat first thing daily. Our upcoming 22 nights on Sirena as a B2B has 2 sea days. We'll do specialty restaurants on those. But we much prefer eating under the stars in the TC when we can. Great food we can eat in under and hour. Then some of our own alcohol in our cabin as a nightcap before retiring around 10 pm. Then up to be off as early as we can be. At every port.

[Vallesan]

6 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

We have NO desire to do a slow sit-down in the GDR. We do do the specialty restaurants. I do periodically try Waves in the afternoon. And always for breakfast. Did Riviera's pizza station by Waves once, too. We cruise for excursions and are off the boat first thing daily. Our upcoming 22 nights on Sirena as a B2B has 2 sea days. We'll do specialty restaurants on those. But we much prefer eating under the stars in the TC when we can. Great food we can eat in under and hour. Then some of our own alcohol in our cabin as a nightcap before retiring around 10 pm. Then up to be off as early as we can be. At every port.

Horses for courses!

[MEFIowa]

6 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Horses for courses!

Though that has me thinking of...

 

- Kotor & the St. John's Fortress. Trust me, climbing those 10,000 steps up is a lot easier going up at 0900 in the shade and then coming down at 1100 in the sun. Watching all those poor people climb up in the heat. They didn't even realize how far they still had to go.

 

- Athens and the Acropolis. Hardly a line at 0900. But when we came back down & out at 1100... OMG. I swear it was 30 people wide and 3/8s a mile long!

 

Early birds get no lines and race horses get their first.

[ronrick1943]

9 hours ago, Redtravel said:

O has excellent food options.  Grand dining room is excellent. The menus are good, but old.  We have seen the same menus many times. To make it interesting, I often select an item that I haven’t had on previous cruises. We like to eat dinners in a variety of venues. First night I tried zucchini cakes.  Excellent.  My spouse loves the Jacques beef.  Last night we at the buffet.  Menu was Spain market. The offerings were very interesting.  It was very good.  Tonight we will eat at Toscana.  On our previous cruise on Vista, we liked the Waves pizza and Italian food at night.  Dining on Oceania provides an array of good choices.  It works for me.

Actually I really love the chicken at Jacques and enjoy the night buffet with grill choices.

[pinotlover]

Well actually the topic of change got a bit of conversation over dinner one night on my Riveria cruise. Oceania is in the process of making two very intertwined changes that may affect us all a lot.

 

First, the end of the R ship era. The major significance here: although there are occasional exceptions ( the ATW) the cheerleaders will quickly bring up, the demographics of the R ship passengers are typically much older than on the other ships. So much so that some refuse to cruise R ships on that account. A friend we’ve sailed with in the past was talking about his extended holiday cruise. He said “I’ve never seen so many wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers on one ship in my life. 7 days of sedate and quiet can be relaxing. 14 days of sedation can be tedious. 21 days of sedate and quiet and I’m screaming at the walls. 30 something and I need a straight jacket and a padded room. There’s more human energy in a morgue than on our cruise!”

 

What happens when a large percentage of those R ship passengers transition to an A or O ship, joining similar passengers? Perhaps 1000-1500 more integrated in. Add in the transition to SM when all those passengers feel obligated to sign up for ship tours whether they’re able to do them or not!

 

The OP is correct, times are changing. I believe the change may become quite noticeable.

[LadyCruisers]

We love eating dinner in TC or specialities. Rarely eat in main dining room. We don’t care for longer dinners and don’t drink at all so love the casual atmosphere and possibility of dining under the stars.  We will be boarding the Marina on June 24 and this will be our 15th. We enjoy O  This way of doing things just really fits the way we love to travel. Everybody has a way that works for them. So fortunate to have so many choices and everybody has a good time. 

[clo]

3 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Then maybe you should try the GDR just once. You can’t really say that the TC is the best if you have ttied everything on offer!

We will be back on O in July and will try GDR again. The only other time we ate there the service was so slow/bad I can't even remember the food. Also, to tell you the truth, the 'ambiance' of the GDR is just too-too. Ah well. I'll avert my eyes.

[JDincalif]

19 hours ago, iowananny said:

So many want the old school specialty dinners with a huge steak or several orders of escarole.  If that's what makes you happy then I think O should still make it available to you. 

Escarole🥬or escargot🐌? 😉

Regardless, O usually accommodates most reasonable cravings and dietary requirements.

[iowananny]

 You've managed to make me feel real stupid.  If the spell check said it was spelled right I just went with it.  Yes, I meant escargot.  But don't worry, I've felt stupid many times in my life and always get over it pretty quickly.  The weird thing is my husband who usually sees all the little things didn't notice it either.

[islabahia]

4 hours ago, bbqoug said:

 

This I definitely agree with!

What the heck is a No No?

[Vallesan]

3 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

Though that has me thinking of...

 

- Kotor & the St. John's Fortress. Trust me, climbing those 10,000 steps up is a lot easier going up at 0900 in the shade and then coming down at 1100 in the sun. Watching all those poor people climb up in the heat. They didn't even realize how far they still had to go.

 

- Athens and the Acropolis. Hardly a line at 0900. But when we came back down & out at 1100... OMG. I swear it was 30 people wide and 3/8s a mile long!

 

Early birds get no lines and race horses get their first.

Not sure what your response means but ….
‘Horses for courses’ a British saying  … what suits one suit doesn’t another! 

Edited May 20 by Vallesan

[clo]

36 minutes ago, JDincalif said:

Regardless, O usually accommodates most reasonable cravings and dietary requirements.

One night - ? Jacques - there was a foie gras dish that was wrapped in pastry and seasoned with something. I very, very sweetly asked if they could just sear my foie with nothing on it. Wow, was it good. With a little 'smear' of jus. Very very sweetly.

[clo]

10 minutes ago, islabahia said:

What the heck is a No No?

"NO" this seasoning, NO that seasoning, etc 🙂

 

[ORV]

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

the cheerleaders will quickly bring up, the demographics of the R ship passengers are typically much older than on the other ships. So much so that some refuse to cruise R ships on that account. A friend we’ve sailed with in the past was talking about his extended holiday cruise. He said “I’ve never seen so many wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers on one ship in my life.

Sounds like Passage on The Lady Anne. I watched this last night, two great lines "We are the only people here younger than 75" and "It's like a floating nursing home." This was from 1963. 

[clo]

9 minutes ago, ORV said:

Sounds like Passage on The Lady Anne. I watched this last night, two great lines "We are the only people here younger than 75" and "It's like a floating nursing home." This was from 1963. 

I'm 76 🙂

[ronrick1943]

6 hours ago, MarkWiltonM said:

We were initially drawn to Oceania because they self-proclaimed that they had the finest cuisine at sea. We did find it better than the mainstream/premium lines but only marginally. For us at least, the food is "good enough." There's almost always something decent on the menu in the GDR or the buffet to satisfy us. And we like the large range of choices available; if we don't like something we can try something else. The specialties have been a disappointment for us and we no longer make reservations at any of the specialty restaurants. Perhaps you can blame some of this on our higher expectations for the food there, which, of course, is natural: The food should be better there, right? At any rate, we welcomed the addition of Aquamar Kitchen and Ember on Vista. Aquamar was very helpful in satisfying the needs of my vegetarian spouse, and they even created a custom smoothie for him and attached the "recipe" to our room number so he could ask for it every day. Ember was a breath of fresh air after the disappointments and pretensions of the more formal specialties. (The rolls in Ember are delicious and a great alternative to the bread baskets in the other restaurants, which are unvarying and lose their appeal due to boredom.) 

 

The main reason we cruise now on Oceania, almost exclusively, is the size of the ships. We just can't get comfortable any longer on ships carrying thousands of passengers. 

Really the food should be consistent though out the ship, since you don'y pay extra which is a plus for "O".  But quality shouldn't be better than one restaurant over another, just the style of food served.  We also like the size of the ships and the suites seen to be nicer too us on "O" for the price you pay.

[Vineyard View]

8 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Thoughts about South African Pinotage which we have only recently discovered?

We enjoyed South African wines very much when we stayed in their wine region for several days. Some of the pinotage was fairly good, however we really did prefer other wines that we had while there. There are some lovely wines coming from outside of Cape Town. The area is beautiful to stay. 
 

Edited May 20 by Vineyard View

[Vineyard View]

7 hours ago, Vallesan said:

We are the same as you when it comes to ‘highly rated’, especially French wines. Don’t really have a discerning enough palette!

 

 

Living in Europe we enjoy Spanish and Portuguese wines and the odd French wine but are yet to find an Italian we enjoy. Having said that I do find, sorry to California and all their wine lovers, Californian wine is a little like lemonade, no ‘body’. Maybe we just haven’t tried the right one yet.

 

As you say all part of the fun of being an ‘amateur oenophile’!

We love wine tasting when we travel. It’s part of the joy for us in visiting a lot of the places that produce. If you ever find your way to Northern CA, I am quite sure that there are a few of us on this board who would be happy to take you to some of our favorites. I am not an expert, but I do love a good wine, knowing that what I might feel is excellent may not be that to another palette.