Live-ish report.Vista, Trieste to Athens June 1-12 2024

[daydreamer62]

For those interested we appear to be docked in an industrial area of Zadar not on the old town. There is a shuttle running all day. We are doing the excursion to Split so I will review that later today

[MEFIowa]

Get used to "industrial port area docks". O seems to want them. Likely less expensive.

[Vallesan]

8 hours ago, daydreamer62 said:

For those interested we appear to be docked in an industrial area of Zadar not on the old town. There is a shuttle running all day. We are doing the excursion to Split so I will review that later today

Unfortunately there is not always a choice of cruise terminal and not all cruise terminals are in ‘picturesque’ surroundings! Greek islands usually have some lovely ports but then we were just in Corfu, three ships in and aircraft whizzing overhead all day. Not the most peaceful of places!

Thank you for your posts it’s interesting to hear how you are getting on on the Vista especially as we left the Marina yesterday. About to board our flight back from Rome in a few hours.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[daydreamer62]

We did the excursion called Charming Split and Diocletian's palace today. It was a long one with 2+ hours driving each way. There were 25 in the bus. I thought it was a good number and we had an excellent guide who gave us a lot of background not just on Diocletian but on more recent history of the area. There were, people who found the excursion difficult and to be honest it wasn't that bad. There had been multiple warnings of uneven surfaces and stairs in all the descriptions but I guess some just don't read. 

Split (for those who haven't been) is very crowded. It seems popular with the Instagram set !! 

As I have a love of history both ancient and modern I was pleased I went but I don't need to return! 

Because it was such a long day, lunch was provided. It was pretty much what I expected.. Not 5* cuisine but tasty and well cooked . 

If I were coming back to Zadar I would choose something closer but as I said it suited my interests well and was made so much better than it could be because of the great guide.

[daydreamer62]

Oh one more thing about the internet. While it's fast for browsing, it won't upload photos to the cloud which is not annoying as I like to edit on the go with a tablet but use a phone and a DSLR. I guess it's understandable as they are decent sized files but I thought they would eventually upload slowly but it seems like they just don't go at all

[ORV]

33 minutes ago, daydreamer62 said:

Oh one more thing about the internet. While it's fast for browsing, it won't upload photos to the cloud which is not annoying as I like to edit on the go with a tablet but use a phone and a DSLR. I guess it's understandable as they are decent sized files but I thought they would eventually upload slowly but it seems like they just don't go at all

That's probably because the systems see it as streaming, and that's blocked unless you pay the extra fee. 

 

Enjoying your thread, thanks for the report. 

[daydreamer62]

Highly recommend Founders bar . 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Wonder if you could run a speed test https://www.speedtest.net/  and report the speeds you are seeing. 

[daydreamer62]

7 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Wonder if you could run a speed test https://www.speedtest.net/  and report the speeds you are seeing. 

Pretty fast 107.39

So it must be viewing the uploading of images as some kind of streaming 

 

[FetaCheese]

@daydreamer62

Thanks for spending your valuable vacation time to post on your live from.  Enjoying your objective comments, as well as tour descriptions and photos.

[daydreamer62]

Last night we ate at Ember . After really comments here I didn't have high hopes but we were very happy with our meals. I like the open kitchen layout. I was watching the chefs cook and they looked a happy bunch and certainly produced good food. I had the burrata with lemon confit and carrots and it was delicious and not a combination I had had before.

Others in our party had the breaded jumbo shrimp and were also very happy. For a main I had scallops with a corn mousse. Perfectly cooked. My husband had the tenderloin which came exactly to his preference. We also shared the lobster Mac and cheese which was interesting but not my favourite. I had the key lime cheesecake which was light and nice but not very limey . Everything was plated beautifully and the meal took just under 2 hours for 6 of us .(Some had 4 courses) 

It wasn't as noisy in Ember as it was in the grand dining room the night before so I couldn't say that was a problem either.

Edited June 3 by daydreamer62

[daydreamer62]

I thought I'd update on Google photos backing up to the cloud via the ships wifi. It appears there must be a block on this as even individual photos won't back up . Not a huge deal in the scheme of things but annoying if you are editing photos on a second device.. It's no problem to swap from one device to the other on the portal but no good when you can't access the photos on both devices. I shall just have to do my editing on the phone and not the more screen spacious tablet

[osandomir]

3 hours ago, daydreamer62 said:

Last night we ate at Ember . After really comments here I didn't have high hopes but we were very happy with our meals. I like the open kitchen layout. I was watching the chefs cook and they looked a happy bunch and certainly produced good food. I had the burrata with lemon confit and carrots and it was delicious and not a combination I had had before.

Others in our party had the breaded jumbo shrimp and were also very happy. For a main I had scallops with a corn mousse. Perfectly cooked. My husband had the tenderloin which came exactly to his preference. We also shared the lobster Mac and cheese which was interesting but not my favourite. I had the key lime cheesecake which was light and nice but not very limey . Everything was plated beautifully and the meal took just under 2 hours for 6 of us .(Some had 4 courses) 

It wasn't as noisy in Ember as it was in the grand dining room the night before so I couldn't say that was a problem either.

Your menu choices look wonderful. Our next Oceania cruise will be our first on the Vista. We’re looking forward to trying new dining venues.

Edited June 3 by osandomir

[Muckyduckway]

Will definitely try those scallops next time. I had a similar opinion on the Lobster Mac & Cheese. 

I feel that most of the negative reviews come from having unfulfilled expectations rather than sub-standard food.

 

Enjoying your updates very much and it's good to get a perspective from a New Zealander (loved the food in New Zealand).

[FeliciaLee]

2 hours ago, Muckyduckway said:

Will definitely try those scallops next time. I had a similar opinion on the Lobster Mac & Cheese. 

I feel that most of the negative reviews come from having unfulfilled expectations rather than sub-standard food.

 

Enjoying your updates very much and it's good to get a perspective from a New Zealander (loved the food in New Zealand).

I absolutely loved the scallops. One of my favorite meals on Oceania, ever. Usually I will share bites with my husband and even tablemates if they wish, but my husband said I scarfed down those scallops in record time without even offering any of them to anyone at all!

 

Glad to hear you liked Ember, daydreamer.

[daydreamer62]

We had breakfast at the terrace cafe again. It was a lot busier than yesterday when we ate so early due to our tour leaving so early. But the food was great. Loving the variety of fresh fruit.. doesn't appear to be budget cuts in this area .. every type of fruit you can imagine . I also had some French toast which was delicious.. Very light very thick cut brioche .

 

Dubrovnik: we chose not to do an excursion here. We caught the shuttle bus to Pile gate and bought the Dubrovnik pass which gives entry to walk the walls and most of the churches and museums+ the public buses if you are inclined to go further than the old town. €35 which is the same price just to walk the walls. The day started grey miserable and raining when we left the ship but stopped raining about the time we arrived at the old town. It was marvellous but very crowded as you have expect. We made good use of the pass and visited many places and walked 3/4 of the way around the walls . 

[Jim_Iain]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:03 AM, daydreamer62 said:

Pretty fast 107.39

So it must be viewing the uploading of images as some kind of streaming 

 

That is very good.  Is that regular or streaming. 

[1985rz1]

46 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

That is very good.  Is that regular or streaming. 

Unless the WiFi game has changed recently on Oceania with it's adoption of Starlink, it shouldn't matter. The streaming package has had the same bandwidth as the regular package.  The only difference is that streaming is unblocked with the upgrade.  

[Jim_Iain]

3 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

Unless the WiFi game has changed recently on Oceania with it's adoption of Starlink, it shouldn't matter. The streaming package has had the same bandwidth as the regular package.  The only difference is that streaming is unblocked with the upgrade.  

 

OK...I'm just curious.    As a grey headed ex- hacker and computer nerd from Silicon Valley I'm trying to understand how they wold implement that.   The methodology that has often been floated here isn't sound and would not stop me from streaming with a tweak here and there.  

I guess I'll just have to do some sniffing around once on the ship.  

 

My first cruise with Oceania is on Regatta  so will still have the "OLD" system. 

[1985rz1]

47 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

OK...I'm just curious.    As a grey headed ex- hacker and computer nerd from Silicon Valley I'm trying to understand how they wold implement that.   The methodology that has often been floated here isn't sound and would not stop me from streaming with a tweak here and there.  

I guess I'll just have to do some sniffing around once on the ship.  

 

My first cruise with Oceania is on Regatta  so will still have the "OLD" system. 

Good question, and as a mildly savy computer user, but not an IT pro, I would like answered, too.  The old wives' tale is that O blocks certain ports, but some folks don't buy that.  As for me I don't know, but many posters say the speed is not improved with the upgrade.  We haven't tried it, because we don't need it.  And we are sensitive to the limited band width available on ships and the negative impact that streaming has on others on the ship.  Hopefully, Starlink will solve that problem. Will be very interested in the results of your sniffing.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, 1985rz1 said:

Good question, and as a mildly savy computer user, but not an IT pro, I would like answered, too.  The old wives' tale is that O blocks certain ports, but some folks don't buy that.  As for me I don't know, but many posters say the speed is not improved with the upgrade.  We haven't tried it, because we don't need it.  And we are sensitive to the limited band width available on ships and the negative impact that streaming has on others on the ship.  Hopefully, Starlink will solve that problem. Will be very interested in the results of your sniffing.

 

Technically streaming usually  uses port 80 which is the port used to surf the web.   Secure surfing (https) uses port 443.  Most lines with Starlink throttle the connection to each user -  On celebrity Download on Premium is about 5.5 Mps and upload to 3 MPS.   Regular is more like 3/1.5  which won't even allow loading of Cruise Critics

 

Bandwidth can definitely be an issue but they usually limit any one user from eating it all up by a metering system that rotate (for use of a better word) packets from each user.    When many users are simultaneously using it causes latency and missed packets.  

 

I guess the initial thing I will do is run a network tool and see which ports are open and which are closed or restricted.   I would then follow up using a dos command - Traceroute

 

Defination of traceroute -  ok.. .I'm a nerd....basically a road map with length of time between each hop

 

traceroute provides a map of how data on the internet travels from its source to its destination. When you connect with a website, the data you get must travel across multiple devices and networks along the way, particularly routers.

[daydreamer62]

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

That is very good.  Is that regular or streaming. 

Just regular 

[daydreamer62]

Last night's dinner was at Polo grill and again due to what I'd read here I didn't have high expectations. The food was excellent. Everyone loved their meal. 

I chose the collosal shrimp, surf and turf (fillet mignon and lobster) and  baked Alaska). They were all perfectly cooked to my requested preference.

Last night was also the captain's cocktail party and I can  attest that the drinks were certainly not watered down varieties!!

 

[rim2rimhiker]

On 5/23/2024 at 3:10 AM, daydreamer62 said:

As I'm a first time Oceania cruiser I thought I'd try my best to post a semi live report on our cruise on Vista which begins in Trieste next week

Really enjoying your posts on this cruise.  We are sailing on Vista from Trieste at the end of this month.  

[daydreamer62]

Today's excursion was Budva and historic Kotor. It was a relatively inexpensive one today I added on order to meet the minimum excursions required for this discount which saved us several hundred dollars. 

It was slightly modified from the original description and we were informed of this several times- on embarkation and by letter yesterday. The  alteration was the removal of the rug making stop which for us was a good thing!! We had a very informative guide for our group of 33 . There was a short bus ride to Budva which is a tiny historic walled village sorrounded by what is clearly a beach resort town. We were there fairly early so it wasn't as busy as it was likely to be later. We then returned to Kotor by bus and had a 30 minute walking tour of the town and then we were free to do what we wanted. We are docked right beside the city walls. There is one other ship in port that is tendering passengers in. Coming in to Kotor is beautiful. It looks a like a fiord but it's not actually created by glaciers, but by erosion and earthquakes. It's worth getting up early for the sail in. 

Both Kotor and Budva are very touristic but quaint. Kotor, is very busy with people , like the 2 previous ports we have visited. The downside of cruising of course is you are visiting at the busiest time of the day. 

 

We began the day with breakfast outside at the terrace cafe again. 

I'll try somewhere else tomorrow!