jondfk

Okay, I’ll comment here too. The portion of our sailing in FP was really quite calm including the day long run north to Nuku Hiva. Thereafter however the 5 day run to Honolulu was quite rocky with seas of 20 ft plus for several days which caused the captain to slow the ship which in turn caused us to arrive about 7 hours late into Honolulu. DW suffers in rough seas and this leg was challenging for her (though she has agreed to do it again next year so….). Again I wouldn’t expect any of that on your FP sailing, but just so you know.

Sounds great, just doesn’t match my experience, simple as that.

Well, let me restate then to make it clear that in OUR experience a full cruise booking did NOT assure a particular cabana. We never had the same one two days in a row, though we were ask each day which of the available cabanas we preferred. We did develop a favorite two or three over the course of the 14 days. Given that there were never more than six used on any particular day the choices were fine. We were one of only two full cruise bookings and the only one purchased pre boarding, or so our host told me.

I’ll offer my opinions on #4, #6 and #7. #4. The Retreat. I have no Celebrity or NCL reference but on Ovation the Retreat is a semi private area of about a dozen cabanas surrounding a large hot tub. We booked this for our Norway sailing last June and throughly enjoyed (although it was too chilly to fully enjoy about 3 days). We enjoyed knowing we had a place to go without any question as to whether we’d find a space to settle. We also enjoyed having lunch delivered to our cabana allowing us to avoid the Colonnade on busy days. Is it worth the considerable price? We thought so, many others do not. Be aware that you are not booking a particular cabana rather a space somewhere in the Retreat, on a given day cabana selection is first come first serve, this was no issue on our cold weather sailing, on busier sailings I can imagine keen competition for preferred cabanas (they are all quite similar though some have sea views and others do not). #6. Boarding. The ships are small so all of the land side procedures tend to run fast and smooth. Still, once onboard you will be funneled towards the Colonnade for your first and least pleasant lunch. I highly recommend either a) boarding a bit later, after 1:00 and avoiding the madness or b) turning around at the entrance to Colonnade and walking forward on the pool deck to the Patio where you’ll find many less people and a far more pleasant experience. #7. Men’s dress. On the non formal nights my attire is slacks and an open long sleeve shirt. Offends no one and accepted anywhere onboard. On formal nights I add a sport coat, again accepted without question. hope this helps a bit.

A few comments here. We previously sailed on Regatta from Papeete to Los Angeles in April ‘22 shortly after the restart. Unfortunately, I had a frozen shoulder at the time which limited my abilities somewhat. Nonetheless I very much enjoyed the swim with stingrays and sharks on Bora Bora even if I couldn’t venture far from the excursion boat. As it happens we will sail on Regatta two sailings before you in July of ‘25 and will be sure to post our experiences for your benefit. If you have any specific questions, please ask.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I was tremendously disappointed with the release. We had been waiting and waiting for O to release their winter tropics. We wanted a westbound PC ideally in January or February ‘26. There is not a single one, aside from one single sailing just before Christmas. We did entertain doing the LAX - Colon back to back in November on Regatta but my god the prices are just sky high PH fares are $35k RT something like $1500 per day. Soooo O has in this instance lost us to Seabourn who have a westbound sailing at an all in price more than 1/3 less. We do love O and have 4 others booked with them in the next 15 months, but you can’t force it.

Aloha to those onboard Regatta, very much enjoying the live from reports. With 5 sea days ahead I hope you might share any particularly noteworthy crew members be they wait staff, bar staff or others. We board in Los Angeles on Saturday and always like to look towards staff who have demonstrated great service. Aloha and mahalo, Jon

At least when last we sailed with a drink package (Sept ‘22) my Belvedere and soda was included.

The taste the world menu is on the lower right of the lunch menu in the MDR. It’s a collection of regional bites (6 or so). My favorite is Lebanon which has hummus, lamb, some pita, etc. Many of the items also appear at Terrace cafe but the presentation in the GDR is just lovely. A great starter for two too.

We shall try the request for same server when we sail in three week. Previously such request was shrugged off. As for crowding all of our experiences have been on full 90%+ sailings on both O and SB. We felt crowded around the pool on both Regatta and SB Odyssey, rarely crowded elsewhere. On SB Ovation we booked “the Retreat” which is an extra cost cabana venue which is very provocative on the SB board we enjoyed knowing we could come and go never wondering whether we’d find a seat, was it worth $100/day, perhaps not. As for crowing in the restaurant SB smaller ships all can seat the entire ship concurrently meaning waits for a table basically never happen, on their larger ships they actively recruit guests to “officers” (mostly junior) tables to help manage table demands this is usually effective, but not always. We’ve only sailed Regatta on O and rarely waited for a table though we’ve seen waits at turnover time around 7:00. As to other venues we found Martinis difficult to access on our trans pacific voyage, 9 sea days had folks turning up well before 5:00 to stake out space, we gave up and focused towards Horizons for pre dinner drinks, this was less a factor on our other more port intensive sailings O sailings.

I’ll weigh in on question two comparing food to SB. We sailed thrice on O in 2022 and twice with SB in 2023. We strongly prefer being served so most of my food comments will apply to the MDR. Our thoughts: O is the clear winner at breakfast. The vastness of their menu (compared to SB) is apparent at first glance. All hot food was clearly prepared to order whereas on SB it was quite obvious that things like pancakes and French toast had been prepared hours in advance and kept warmish. The only sure way to get freshly prepared hot food was to order a custom omelette or deviation such as eggs Benedict with American bacon. Clear winner O. Lunch is a tougher call. I truly love the Taste the World offerings on O, basically a tapas menu which is reliably spectacular. Elsewhere we found the O lunch menu a bit lacking. SB lunch offerings seemed a bit more varied and generally more satisfying. It’s a toss up, a good TTW menu gives O the win, if ordering al a carte we probably favor SB. Dinner. Here the vast O menu outs them in the lead for most nights. One exception, the steak on the SB everyday menu was spectacular, exceeded Polo Grill standards, starved on a blazing hot plate with excellent bearnaise I’ve rarely had a better steak, but one can’t live on steak alone so we give the nod to O overall. Service was essentially equal across the two. We had an easy time getting a regular service team on SB (meaning the same server night after night) something we’ve never managed on O. We will be tryin again for this when we sail on the 20th. Should any of our impressions change after our upcoming sailing I’ll post an update.

Let me answer this way. We’ve sailed Regatta thrice. Once in 8042 (18 days), twice in 8046 (18 days). We join regatta in April in 8046 and again in August back in 8042. See the pattern? We love the quick access to the pool and Terrace and have never had a noise issue related to the elevators. I’d worry more about chair dragging noises on the odd side cabins from Waves Grill above.

Sure, I’ll weigh in. I worked for a British company prior to retirement, something like 100 UK entry stamps in my passport. Have also done 3 circumnavigation cruises so considerable experience both land and sea. To be completely honest the cruises scratch only the very surface, many of the most interesting cities are some distance from the port (exceptions for Liverpool and Dublin which are well served by cruise stops). One could easily spend many days or a week in Edinburgh, London and many others and still have highlights unseen. if I were making only a single trip, I’d probably make it a land tour. Just one man’s opinion.

You don't say how long your cruise is, but "Australia / New Zealand" suggests to me two weeks or more. That's good news because, in our experience, reservations onboard become much easier to get on longer voyages. Everyone wants their allotted days, but not everyone wants to go a third of forth time (in general). Book as early as your allowed, join the queue once onboard to get additional nights / "better" times. We love Polo Grill and are quite lukewarm to Toscana, others feel just the opposite, my advice try both and decide for yourselves. Also, once onboard it's well worth stopping by the check in desk at either near the opening time to check for cancellations. Quite a lot of folks make reservations, but then find themselves less interested on the day and either don't show up or go to the GDR instead, in the latter case, the GDR will cancel the reservation once they are seated freeing up space in the specialty. Happy sailing.

Just off Viking, no need to remove the TV, their TVs feature a forward facing sound bar which, if this is the issue, addresses the problem. New marketing campaign could perhaps be, “we considered your privacy, so your neighbors TV is oriented towards them rather than you” a bit wordy perhaps… We sail Vista in January and will report our experiences.