EmsMom

We were self assist on this cruise. There were no color coded tags for self assist. We were to go to immigration at 7:15/7:45 for self assist passengers only. When we arrived at 7:05 there were already several hundred people in the line that was supposed to be for self assist. True to form there were obviously passengers that didn’t think the rules applied to them. At any rate we were able to get through immigration by 8:30 and had no trouble getting a taxi at the port. We were at the airport car rental by 9:15. So that was our experience.

What is SM? I looked under the excursions for our cruise and didn’t see where you could book them yet. I don’t see anything saying SM.

We are booking a cruise that includes $1400 in excursion credit. Although we have cruised with O previously, we have never had an excursion credit nor have we ever taken any O excursions. I've read where people have had trouble spending their cruise credits because of the lack of the excursions available. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this and what they do with the credit if you don't use it.

I was concerned more about the customer service issues than anything. We aren’t big foodies and we are happy with low key entertainment and on our last Africa cruise we missed Madagascar because of a typhoon and Kenya due to terrorism. A lot of the reviews were 3 stars and lower mainly because they felt that O customer service was lacking in resolving problems. We really like O but just had some reservations about the Riviera. I really appreciate everyone’s input and I’m pretty sure we will proceed with the booking. Thank you!!

We took a cruise from Cape Town to Singapore before covid on Oceania. It was amazing! Now we would like to do it again this year and the ship is the Riviera. The reviews of the Riviera are mixed by leaning toward the negatives be. I would love some feedback from those who have either done this cruise in 2023 or have recently cruised on the Riviera. It’s a long cruise so I’m a little worried about the negative reviews. Thank you!!

We always travel with carry on luggage and aren’t really into the formal nights so in room would possibly work those nights since formal clothes take up too much room. I really don’t like eating at the buffet. We too like meeting new people but not on formal nights. Lol. Sounds like in room will be a good option for us on those nights or nights we don’t feel like going anywhere to eat.

Thank you. I’ll give that a try. 😊

I have been reading on some reviews that dinner is often difficult on the Koningsdam for various reasons. Has anyone just opted to eat in his cabin instead and if so how did that work out for you? We can’t get a dining time which is annoying and we like to eat earlier rather than later so I thought maybe we could just order room service. It was my understanding that you can order from the main dining room menu. We couldn’t get club orange and really don’t like buffets.

Seabourn, as mentioned before, is a luxury line. I really like cruising on Seabourn but for us it comes down to price. We have been able to get a 25 night cruise from Sydney to Vancouver in a Signature Suite for less than a seven night cruise on Seabourn in an ocean view suite. We are happy enough with Holland and with the itinerary so we will go with HAL. For us, we do few add ons and we don’t drink so the extra Seabourn perks aren’t important to us. If you are buying the add ins in Hal then it might make the two lines more comparable.