Riviera Trans-Atlantic April 2015

We are all packed and ready to leave for the airport for our flights to Miami. We sail 1st April on Riviera for Bermuda, Funchal, Gibraltar and Barcelona. I plan to be posting from the ship and I am sure many of my fellow CCers on board will be too - I would welcome them to join in this thread in fact. We have had a very active roll call and have several CC "events" planned for the voyage - thank you LuAnn and Paulchili ! :) Meet & Greet is next Thursday at 1030 in Horizons, we have a Sailway party planned and a lunch for everyone on 7th April in the GDR. It will be a busy cruise I am sure.

For my husband and I this is our second Oceania cruise and second time on Riviera. We loved the ship, the food, the staff and the service the first time and hope that nothing has changed!

So - more news later as they say...

I hope nothing has changed either because it is my favorite ship. I have 3 O trips planned for 2015 and 2016 with the Riviera being one of them. Looking forward to your review and wish I was onboard. :) Bon Voyage!

Have a safe crossing and we'll:) see you on board at the sail-away!

Must begin the packing process today.

Please say hello to Churchill for us, he was our butler last week. We will see him again in June.

Enjoy your time in South Florida and the crossing, looking forward to your daily news.

Please say hello to Churchill for us, he was our butler last week. We will see him again in June.

 

Enjoy your time in South Florida and the crossing, looking forward to your daily news.

Hope to have Churchill as our Butler as he too is our favorite. We usually meet up with him onboard if we find out he's working even if we don't have a PH.

is your name Louise?

Please say hello to Churchill for us, he was our butler last week. We will see him again in June.

 

Enjoy your time in South Florida and the crossing, looking forward to your daily news.

Churchill was our Butler last time we were on the Riviera and I do hope that either he or Pritham will be our Butler this time around. He (Churchill) is amazing... if he isn't ours I shall ask our "man" to give him a message from you Louise... We are in the Owners Suite on 8, so maybe, just maybe we have one of these two outstanding gentlemen to look after us!

Gerry

Churchill (and some others) seem to be the benchmark of butlers.

I hope they use them for training up-and-comers.

We will have our first butler in May on an Alaskan cruise and hope we are both not new to the experience.

Looking forward to this thread. We are on the same T/A in 2016. Weather info (rocking and rolling) would be much appreciated.

Have a great cruise.

Thanks for starting this thread! Since we all have "free internet" on this cruise it will be fun to keep everyone up to date on all our "shenanigans"!! :cool: LuAnn

Please say hello to Churchill for us, he was our butler last week. We will see him again in June.

 

Enjoy your time in South Florida and the crossing, looking forward to your daily news.

A butler named Churchill, what could be more perfect.

Gerry, not sure if Regent passengers will ever get over Oceania stealing Pritham and Captain McDreamy (aka Captain McNeil) from Regent;)

Gerry, not sure if Regent passengers will ever get over Oceania stealing Pritham and Captain McDreamy (aka Captain McNeil) from Regent;)

I suspect that it was their decision rather than Oceania's.

If so, I wonder why they chose O over Regent :D :D

I suspect that it was their decision rather than Oceania's.

If so, I wonder why they chose O over Regent :D :D

There are definitely reasons why some butlers prefer Oceania to Regent but I can't imagine why Capt. McNeil would change. IMO, had he stayed with Regent, he would have been the first Captain on the Explorer. I do know that some of the Oceania G.M.'s that end of on Regent don't necessarily ask to be there (at least one wasn't happy about it). Guess I should be happy that the senior G.M.'s on Regent don't end up on Oceania.

A butler named Churchill, what could be more perfect.

But the truth is, Mr Churchill is really very, very good. Makes you feel at home, and takes care of everything. Mr. Churchill is reason enough to cruise Oceania!

Rick

There are definitely reasons why some butlers prefer Oceania to Regent but I can't imagine why Capt. McNeil would change. IMO, had he stayed with Regent, he would have been the first Captain on the Explorer. I do know that some of the Oceania G.M.'s that end of on Regent don't necessarily ask to be there (at least one wasn't happy about it). Guess I should be happy that the senior G.M.'s on Regent don't end up on Oceania.

When we were on with Capt McNeil in December he told us he was retiring..

Jancruz1

You can't go wrong with Lector as a Butler either...Another of Prithams's protégés.

We were booked on this, but the dates weren't ideal work wise,and the uncertainty over the NCL deal at the time spurred us into switching to the Silver Spirit crossing on the 11th, which fitted perfectly with work commitments.

Leave us some Dark and Stormys in Bermuda!

Bonne traversée! :)

You can't go wrong with Lector as a Butler either...Another of Prithams's protégés.

 

We were booked on this' date=' but the dates weren't ideal work wise,and the uncertainty over the NCL deal at the time spurred us into switching to the Silver Spirit crossing on the 11th, which fitted perfectly with work commitments.

 

Leave us some Dark and Stormys in Bermuda!

 

Bonne traversée! :)[/quote']

 

No way! I plan to drink ALL the Dark and Stormeys I can lay my hands on!! Maybe even on the golf course!

 

Jackie - I had no idea that John McNeil is now on Oceania! That IS a surprise. Regrettably he is not our captain for the TA. But Damien LaCroix is GM and he was also with Regent and he is really good. Was GM on our TA last time or the time before - forget which.

 

We are now in the lounge at Madrid airport waiting for our flight to MIA. So far Iberia has been a real eye-opener - on time, good food, attentive service etc and that was only the flight GVA/MAD.

Gerry

No way! I plan to drink ALL the Dark and Stormeys I can lay my hands on!! Maybe even on the golf course!

 

Jackie - I had no idea that John McNeil is now on Oceania! That IS a surprise. Regrettably he is not our captain for the TA. But Damien LaCroix is GM and he was also with Regent and he is really good. Was GM on our TA last time or the time before - forget which.

 

We are now in the lounge at Madrid airport waiting for our flight to MIA. So far Iberia has been a real eye-opener - on time, good food, attentive service etc and that was only the flight GVA/MAD.

Gerry

Ma'am:

I'd like to hear your comments on Iberia's TA service enroute to MIA. We recently had an opportunity to fly with them, but switched to BA. Thanks in advance.

Z and TB

You're starting your journey early so you'll no doubt have a relaxing few days in Miami. We fly out from LHR on Tuesday, overnight at the Marriott Biscayne Bay before joining the cruise.

We had two Vistas on 8 last week and both suites had Churchill so you just might get lucky. He was the very best butler we have ever had in the 12 years we have been cruising Raddison, Regent and Oceania. I wonder if he was trained by Sugi, the head butler at Regent a while ago.

Hope this is appropriate for this thread...

Just found with 4 days to go that our Guaranty Oceanview is now a B1 Veranda.

We are psyched !

Tom

We are all packed and ready to leave for the airport for our flights to Miami. We sail 1st April on Riviera for Bermuda, Funchal, Gibraltar and Barcelona. I plan to be posting from the ship and I am sure many of my fellow CCers on board will be too - I would welcome them to join in this thread in fact. We have had a very active roll call and have several CC "events" planned for the voyage - thank you LuAnn and Paulchili ! :) Meet & Greet is next Thursday at 1030 in Horizons, we have a Sailway party planned and a lunch for everyone on 7th April in the GDR. It will be a busy cruise I am sure.

 

For my husband and I this is our second Oceania cruise and second time on Riviera. We loved the ship, the food, the staff and the service the first time and hope that nothing has changed!

 

So - more news later as they say...

I am very much looking forward to following this thread. We are only a few years away from retirement and the ability to book a TA. Your knowledge of Europe and "street creds" as a Tripadvisor area specialist have made you one of my favorite O posters.

Hope this is appropriate for this thread...

Just found with 4 days to go that our Guaranty Oceanview is now a B1 Veranda.

We are psyched !

Tom

great news, you will love the veranda

Hey Gerry, I know you're going to have a fabulous time and I look forward to reading your reports. Still can't believe we're having to miss this cruise, but shall enjoy it vicariously. Will email you next week ref Rod's surgery...

Ma'am:

 

I'd like to hear your comments on Iberia's TA service enroute to MIA. We recently had an opportunity to fly with them, but switched to BA. Thanks in advance.

 

Z and TB

We were very very pleased with Iberia all round. Our flight GVA/MAD left on time and arrived early. We had a nice hot breakfast served (we were in Business) Very friendly crew. Lounge at the MAD airport was huge and comfortable and the airport itself is a dream to transfer in - very very clear signs (unlike Frankfurt) and an easy transfer from Schengen to extra-Shengen. Our trans-Atlantic flight to MIA left on time and arrived 20 mins early. Excellent cabin service - lovely crew and delicious food. Seats roomy and totally flat. Superb IFE with good quality screen. All in all we found it to be far superior to BA's business class - and were very surprised! We would fly them again with no hesitation!

Gerry