Random reports from Vista

[babysteps]

This morning's 'cleared to go ashore' announcement reminded me - on Vista in 7024 we can hear the general announcements in the room if the tv isn't on (or is muted). Other ships I have to open the hallway door a crack to hear the announcements clearly. In my opinion we hear hallway activity more on Vista, but it's not like we hear every footfall going past. So 'a little' more

 

Haven't yet heard our neighbors except for muted toilet flushes and one sneeze. 

Edited Tuesday at 07:20 AM by babysteps

[Techno123]

@babysteps - the last time I was in Greece the A/C was classed as sitting outside in the shade 😁 very few had A/C as you would recognise it.

[clo]

14 hours ago, babysteps said:

There is not a "reading" light - so if you read paper after your mate goes to sleep, plan accordingly. 

I like to say - humorously - "that's why jesus gave us eyelids."

[daydreamer62]

On 6/22/2024 at 5:44 PM, MEFIowa said:

Guess that depends on where you live and the kind of pizza places near you. Having eaten it on Riviera 11/2023, there was NOTHING extra-ordinary about it. Decent. Nothing to write home about. Better than they're thoroughly mediocre lunch pizza, but that isn't saying all that much. When a couple is paying $350-500 per day for their cabin (G-B), I'm not immediately getting how adding mere pizza, something so many eat so often, is being viewed so favorably.

Because some people like choice. I actually ate at waves Pizzeria twice during our recent cruise . We just chose to eat light after days of multi course meals. Also the appetisers were excellent. Simple food when great ingredients done well. No complaints here. It you want lighter meals they can still be great food with good ingredients. What I like clearly isn't what you like but that makes neither of us wrong. Personally and unlike many here I didn't so much care for the Terrace cafe for dinner . Doesn't make the TC lovers wrong or me wrong.. It's great we have choice. 

[clo]

11 minutes ago, daydreamer62 said:

Good burrata and prosciutto are not budget items

And perhaps not seen in non-food-focused parts of the country. I'm making one tonight with housemade ground Italian flavored pork, local asparagus and morel mushrooms, various other vegetables, pancetta, a brush of home made tomato sauce and olive oil and cheese. Looking forward to chatting with the pizza chefs when we get back.

 

[GrammieK]

Looks yummy clo!

[clo]

1 minute ago, GrammieK said:

Looks yummy clo!

Thanks. These aren't huge - 8oz. dough and we still have the second half for a breakfast 🙂 Maybe the pizza chef will give me the key tothe oven 🙂

[daydreamer62]

1 hour ago, clo said:

Thanks. These aren't huge - 8oz. dough and we still have the second half for a breakfast 🙂 Maybe the pizza chef will give me the key tothe oven 🙂

The pizza oven was much smaller than I thought it would be . It certainly wouldn't cook more than 1 or 2 at once but it clearly gets up to a very decent temperature and cooks them very fast. 

[clo]

4 minutes ago, daydreamer62 said:

The pizza oven was much smaller than I thought it would be . It certainly wouldn't cook more than 1 or 2 at once but it clearly gets up to a very decent temperature and cooks them very fast. 

I wonder if they use steels. We have one and can do a pizza in  eight minutes.

[daydreamer62]

1 hour ago, clo said:

I wonder if they use steels. We have one and can do a pizza in  eight minutes.

As a trainer for Smeg (Italian kitchen products)the most common demonstration I do is pizza . We do our pizzas on a stone in 4 minutes @280 celcius  but these days there are even domestic pizza ovens that get so hot they can cook a pizza in less than 2 . These ovens on Vista more resembled one of those bit slightly larger . I wish I'd taken a photo.

[clo]

19 minutes ago, daydreamer62 said:

As a trainer for Smeg (Italian kitchen products)the most common demonstration I do is pizza . We do our pizzas on a stone in 4 minutes @280 celcius  but these days there are even domestic pizza ovens that get so hot they can cook a pizza in less than 2 . These ovens on Vista more resembled one of those bit slightly larger . I wish I'd taken a photo.

LOVE expert input.

[babysteps]

Dubrovnik yesterday was busy but not slammed. And the stone paving not nearly as slippery as Ephesus! We took it easy, strolling around and stopping at D'Vino for some wine tastings and snacks. Really grateful for a cloudy day in the 80s. Still quite warm and humid, but much less intense than the last 4 days

 

Terrace for dinner last night (still at dock - departed just before 9pm) and some of the noise comes up the emergency/crew only staircase going down to deck 11. Some kind of machinery humming away. We were at a 2-top on the starboard edge, was lovely. 

 

We did have a Sunday Brunch in the GDR this cruise. That day was Argostoli and we didn't moor until 11am. This cruise is the designated annual O Club reunion cruise, so the brunch is apparently part of the program. Otherwise usually seen on TAs or TPacs or perhaps some longer sea-day-intensive itineraries. Hadn't been to a brunch onboard in a while, it really was quite a spread. 

 

Also because of the reunion cruise designation, we have a lecturer doing presentations on the history and culture of some of our ports. Cruise director has noted a few times that port - intensive itineraries usually do not have lecturers on O any longer. 

 

Some other reunion activities are invite-only but on our roll call no one said they didn't get invited. Of course it was a pretty quiet roll call lol. We are on cruise #13 on O and got invited to one extra cocktail party and a group dinner. Someone else on our roll call had similar activities but different dates. Watch your email a few weeks before the cruise, you needed to rsvp. 

 

We are not full - around 1050 if I did cocktail party math right. Something like 460? 4xx returning guests and 580ish first timers. Just over half from the US, followed by UK, Canada, Australia and Japan. 

Edited Wednesday at 06:31 AM by babysteps

[MEFIowa]

5 hours ago, babysteps said:

... Cruise director has noted a few times that port - intensive itineraries usually do not have lecturers on O any longer....

We had an archeologist give 5 presentations on each leg of our 20-night B2B on Riviera 10-11/2023 (Trieste to Athens and Athens to Barcelona). We had only 2 sea days.

 

Will be interesting to see what happens for our upcoming 22-night B2B on Sirena. Just 2 sea days, too. Hope we have a guest lecturer!

[babysteps]

2 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

We had an archeologist give 5 presentations on each leg of our 20-night B2B on Riviera 10-11/2023 (Trieste to Athens and Athens to Barcelona). We had only 2 sea days.

 

Will be interesting to see what happens for our upcoming 22-night B2B on Sirena. Just 2 sea days, too. Hope we have a guest lecturer!

We had a lecturer in December 2023 on Insignia in the Eastern Caribbean with iirc one scheduled sea day of 10 day cruise. Current Vista is 10 day cruise and zero sea days... 

[ORV]

12 hours ago, babysteps said:

This cruise is the designated annual O Club reunion cruise, so the brunch is apparently part of the program.

They do a great job of promoting them. First I've heard of it, and I haven't heard anything about future ones. Huh. 

[babysteps]

20 hours ago, ORV said:

They do a great job of promoting them. First I've heard of it, and I haven't heard anything about future ones. Huh. 

Shows up as a badge type thing in the mailings. Except for the one email there's not really any description of what may (or may not) make it special. 

 

Dinner last night was about 25 guests plus Nelli Arias (head of loyalty program) and FDR Jr in GDR at 3 tables (the one really big table plus two 8-tops). Regular menu but bottled wine provided. 

 

Tendering has gone better for us than the Riviera report. Sounds like the destination team makes a big difference, so ymmv! Our cruise had 4 tender ports and we had no problems. We were on an O tour at one and independent at the other 3. Two of the ports the tenders started before tour meeting times began so if you wished to go ashore first thing as an independent it was likely easy.

 

We tended to wait until the tail end of tour dispatch and our longest wait to be called to board was about 10 minutes. If you showed up as an independent in the middle of tour dispatch you could well be waiting much longer. Of course the actual process is another 10-15 minutes or so once you make your way down to the tender level, get on board and wait for others to board.

 

Until open tendering, the procedure was to go to the Lounge and either exchange your tour ticket for numbered tags or, if independent, ask for colored tags (1 per person in your group). For a given tender they seemed to call a couple tours at a time and then 1-3 colors. Much communication back and forth as to any missing tour participants and actual loading of tender, often followed by 1 additional color or tour called. 

 

Once open tendering is called you can simply go to the designated tendering deck. On Vista it has been deck 4 forward, then walk down to deck 3. There is an elevator option to deck 3 if the stairs don't work for you. 

 

Returning to ship we didn't -at least on this cruise - hit any bottlenecks. They were running enough tenders that we didn't have a long wait ever. Of course we weren't coming back at the last minute either so can't promise it's always this smooth! 

 

Random item, the ping pong table on Vista is deck 15 starboard. 

 

I did get a look from the water yesterday at the big white thing by our balcony (in 7024). Nothing that told me anything lol, it's a big white box with a door/panel that could open on the sea side. 

[ronrick1943]

6 minutes ago, babysteps said:

Shows up as a badge type thing in the mailings. Except for the one email there's not really any description of what may (or may not) make it special. 

 

Dinner last night was about 25 guests plus Nelli Arias (head of loyalty program) and FDR Jr in GDR at 3 tables (the one really big table plus two 8-tops). Regular menu but bottled wine provided. 

 

Tendering has gone better for us than the Riviera report. Sounds like the destination team makes a big difference, so ymmv! Our cruise had 4 tender ports and we had no problems. We were on an O tour at one and independent at the other 3. Two of the ports the tenders started before tour meeting times began so if you wished to go ashore first thing as an independent it was likely easy.

 

We tended to wait until the tail end of tour dispatch and our longest wait to be called to board was about 10 minutes. If you showed up as an independent in the middle of tour dispatch you could well be waiting much longer. Of course the actual process is another 10-15 minutes or so once you make your way down to the tender level, get on board and wait for others to board.

 

Until open tendering, the procedure was to go to the Lounge and either exchange your tour ticket for numbered tags or, if independent, ask for colored tags (1 per person in your group). For a given tender they seemed to call a couple tours at a time and then 1-3 colors. Much communication back and forth as to any missing tour participants and actual loading of tender, often followed by 1 additional color or tour called. 

 

Once open tendering is called you can simply go to the designated tendering deck. On Vista it has been deck 4 forward, then walk down to deck 3. There is an elevator option to deck 3 if the stairs don't work for you. 

 

Returning to ship we didn't -at least on this cruise - hit any bottlenecks. They were running enough tenders that we didn't have a long wait ever. Of course we weren't coming back at the last minute either so can't promise it's always this smooth! 

 

Random item, the ping pong table on Vista is deck 15 starboard. 

 

I did get a look from the water yesterday at the big white thing by our balcony (in 7024). Nothing that told me anything lol, it's a big white box with a door/panel that could open on the sea side. 

Great follow up, enjoying your post.  The one thing about tendering I never understand.  Giving "O" tours a priority is wrong--if someone has a private tour why should they have to wait--they paid the same price for the cruise.  "O" should better manage their tours.

[Lastdance]

On 6/23/2024 at 10:21 PM, babysteps said:

There is at least one company at the 'old port' selling a speed boat ride to Oia with bus return to Fira - not sure if this is available as a walk-up or needs prior reservations, but it may be an alternative to the cable car on arrival. 

 

Was joking with some of the entertainment staff that there should be a vendor with a parasail excursion that ends at the old pier - likely impossible, but a fun idea! As far as I could tell, other than a few water-born excursions all the tours end at Fira and you get to use the cable car to arrive at the tender pier (or walk down the donkey path which is not recommended). 

FWIW...We have taken the speedboat to Fira.  Since our tender dropped us off at Fira, opting for this worked out great for the four of us, due to the fact that we had all been to Santorini twice, in the past on private tours of the island.  We just paid and got on the boat; it was a great ride there and still early in the morning, so Oia was not crowded at all.  There were several choices of times to return, so relaxing, to say the least.

Edited Thursday at 05:37 PM by Lastdance
Photo

[bradpole]

2 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Great follow up, enjoying your post.  The one thing about tendering I never understand.  Giving "O" tours a priority is wrong--if someone has a private tour why should they have to wait--they paid the same price for the cruise.  "O" should better manage their tours.

In our experience O does pretty well with tender operations, balancing independents in with their tours.  Our experience has been they normally call a tour or two, then fill in the rest of the tender with those independents in the lounge ready to go ashore. Yes, we did all pay the same price for the cruise, but independents didn’t pay the premium to O for a tour. Another benefit of usually paying a surcharge to O for a tour is you don’t have to wait for a tender.  FYI, never book ship tours, and have no issue with ship tours getting priority.  

[ronrick1943]

25 minutes ago, bradpole said:

In our experience O does pretty well with tender operations, balancing independents in with their tours.  Our experience has been they normally call a tour or two, then fill in the rest of the tender with those independents in the lounge ready to go ashore. Yes, we did all pay the same price for the cruise, but independents didn’t pay the premium to O for a tour. Another benefit of usually paying a surcharge to O for a tour is you don’t have to wait for a tender.  FYI, never book ship tours, and have no issue with ship tours getting priority.  

I don't believe a person paying for a "O" tour has paid a premium for getting off the ship before someone that has other plans.  They may have paid a premium for a tour-but that shouldn't have any to do with the price you paid for your cruise.

[ORV]

41 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

I don't believe a person paying for a "O" tour has paid a premium for getting off the ship before someone that has other plans.  They may have paid a premium for a tour-but that shouldn't have any to do with the price you paid for your cruise.

And the price you paid for your cruise should have nothing to do with them changing their procedures to suit each of our opinions or perceptions of the way tendering should operate. 

 

Personally I see it exactly opposite as you, there are myriad reasons for management allowing those that book tours to have first tenders. 

[MEFIowa]

An obvious financial reason being O makes money off of its excursions and people know they're likely paying a higher price, since O is acting as a middleman. So a small consolation, you get tendered first. Them's the cards you're dealt.

[Tranquility Base]

4 hours ago, babysteps said:

We were on an O tour at one and independent at the other 3. Two of the ports the tenders started before tour meeting times began so if you wished to go ashore first thing as an independent it was likely easy.

For the benefit of those reading who are new to the tender process, this portion of the OP's post is worthwhile mentioning.

 

Those with tours booked through the ship are not necessarily  the first to be tendered from the ship.

Priority ....yes, but not necessarily first.

It often depends of various timings and the willingness of yourselves to be fully ready at the start of the process.

 

 

[ronrick1943]

4 hours ago, ORV said:

And the price you paid for your cruise should have nothing to do with them changing their procedures to suit each of our opinions or perceptions of the way tendering should operate. 

 

Personally I see it exactly opposite as you, there are myriad reasons for management allowing those that book tours to have first tenders. 

No problem, everyone is entitled to their opinion.  So if that is true, then why not those that pay extra for wine and drinks packages get seated first in the dining room (just playing 🤑) and so on.

[babysteps]

Koper Slovenia today - at a dock hooray☺ 

 

Online suggested this was a small and not so interesting town. Small yes, uninteresting I would disagree but I am easily amused! 

 

We took the elevator up from the port level to town - it is right across the street from the terminal exit, and the gang way ended about 15 steps from the terminal. Very convenient! If you are looking to explore independently, there are tours and taxis available right at the port. Also scooters (may require an app?) and bikes to rent. I didn't see an obvious walk-up car rental though - doesn't mean there isn't one! 

 

In town we walked a block to the Loggia café. According to the historic info plaque (on many buildings around town, in Slovenian, Italian, English, and German) this is the oldest coffee house in Slovenia. 2 glasses of local wine (including ice waters and a small complementary snack) were a total bill of under 10 euros! 

 

Then we explored the main church, where we realized that all the "1500" banners around town were celebrating not an event from 524 years ago, but one from 1500 years ago in 524ad when Koper was founded. There's some staying power, eh? 

 

We wandered around town, enjoyed a family distillery's shop with plenty of tastes of this and that (including many local products without alcohol like jams etc). Then we circled back to dock level but wandered over to the town beach (just a couple blocks) and the restaurant there. They let us taste a few wines before selecting 2 to have one glass of. Beachside shady table, a bottle of chilled mineral water and the glasses of wine - no included snack this time but total still under 10euros. Fun to try the wines and no complaints about price and value! 

 

Last night we ate at Waves. Turns out they can do gluten free pizza on demand (takes longer because they don't use the pizza oven). Also you can get half one pizza topping (say Margherita) and half another one on a single pie. You can even do a custom blend - so if you want do do your own remix, just ask. I can report that the standard Margherita is tomato, basil, and what we at our house call pizza mozzarella (shredded, not fresh). 

 

You may not hear from me until we get home. Tomorrow we disembark and if all goes well take the express bus from Trieste to VCE airport then explore Venice for a few days. 

Edited Friday at 01:33 PM by babysteps