pinotlover

We had them triple rafted. Ours, the ship going in the opposite direction with the same itinerary, and a third with a different itinerary. We didn’t do Tournon, had to miss it. A very low IQ lady on our ship decided she wanted to visit the identical Longship rafted next us us, then got into a long conversation with those passengers. She had come aboard previously but hadn’t checked out when hopping on the other ship. Captain sounds all aboard, and we depart shortly thereafter. Suddenly, at bit down stream, we’re turning around in the river and heading back to pick her up. This all eats up a bit of time which meant we missed our scheduled appointment at the next lock. There we had to sit for several hours before another slot was available. End result, no Tournon. That fellow passenger was not held in high esteem the remainder of the cruise. Perhaps by now Tain Hermitage is limiting the number of boats they allow to dock.

A new thread started today with a poster staying on the ship during Boardamania in Barcelona to eat lunch in the GDR! 🙄 After a long TA, with multiple sea days, they stay on the ship in Barcelona!!! For Boardamania!! So much spectacular food and things to do in Barcelona . He was exited to do lunch in the GDR. Stopped reading the thread at that point. He’s a true Cruiser or they were having hail, lightning, torrential downpours, and a bit of brimstone.

You should see some of the small cities in the Mosel or Rhone get slammed with 10-12 of those boats in a day,along with all the tour buses with them. Viking triple rafts, Uniworld double, then AMA, Avalon, CroisiEurpoe, Tauck, & Scenic all slamming Tain at the same time. Then the paying guests from the hotels! Even cities like Heidelberg needs to ban all tour buses from the castle to the river, and at least 1.5 km each way from the Rathaus and cathedral.

Your point is well taken for the Embarkment or disembarkment city of cruises, river or ocean . However, for those ports in the middle the story can be quite different. Cities such as Barcelona and Venice are now only allowing those cruises that start or depart from their cities to dock their. Other, just visiting cruises, dock a couple hours away.

As one frustrated Barcelona shop keeper said “ They don’t hesitate to bring their own food off the ship, why do they never bring their own toilet paper from the ship?” 🤬

If in a rush, I’d advise against either venue. Otherwise , order a drink, particularly coffee and/or juice, have them at the table. Place your napkin in your seat, then get your food. A commonly recognized etiquette is napkin etiquette, which many ignore. 1. Your napkin goes on your lap, just like waiters place it there. 2. If you depart your chair temporarily, the napkin goes on your seat. Never put a used napkin on your table. 3. If you have finished your meal, leaving your napkin on the table indicates to the staff, upon your departure, you have finished your meal. Long and short, if one haphazardly leaves their napkin on the table to go after more food, you should well expect a cleared table upon return. Leaving it on your chair means you’re coming back.

4000-6000 passengers cruise ships are insane. Having 3/4 in town at once is beyond that. I do believe that the massive ocean cruise ships will find fewer ports they are allowed to visit in the very near future. Isn’t a 6,000 passenger cruise ship a display of arrogance at some level?

For European cities, the best fix is for the individual cities to establish significant size “ No Tour Bus Zones” in the heart of the towns. Rothenburg adT can be over packed, but imagine if they allowed tour buses inside the walls! Do the same in the other major cities, keep the tour buses out of the inner zones, and make the people walk. We were ( regrettably) on a Viking cruise in Hermitage several years back. The city square is not very large( maybe 150x75 yards), but the Viking buses made three stops around that small square picking up and dropping off passengers, backing up all traffic as they did so. For the down town part of that visit there was no reason passengers couldn’t walk from where the boats were docked. Viking had three ships rafted in that small town and about 20 tour buses lined up all trying to depart about the same time. Absolutely that should be limited. Tain Hermitage should ban all buses in that downtown area.

Easy answer. They don’t always release the tours exactly 365 days in advance! That one year date is not written in stone. Have patience. Some new tours are released at 6-7 months pre cruise.

I believe that Oceania’s self vision of what their restaurants are, and what they want them to be, is evident in their enforcement of any published dress code. What Oceania wants it to be, is what they enforce. Our individual wishes and desires of what it should be have zero value. Their ship, their rules.

As I reported from my recent cruise, once aboard many found plenty of availability for ship tours that had been waitlisted and even closed to new bookings. Best to wait until aboard and talk to Destination Services. DS didn’t understand why a waitlist existed, but was glad to sign people up for the tours.

So accordingly if you ordered beef Wellington and they served you beef bologna , in an filo dough, and you like bologna then that’s OK??? I bet you’re a fan of the infamous piccata Marsala dish Oceania serves that is neither piccata nor Marsala. What’s in a name anyway? Why should anyone be disappointed if their hamburger is made from chopped liver, what’s in a name?

As a side note, I believe all but the senior staff are actually employed by Apollo. The employment contract is actually with Apollo, not Oceania, and that contract spells out compensation and benefits. As with any and every employment Agency, what the Agency is paid may not mirror what the worker is paid. The Apollo Group supplies personnel to multiple cruise lines. Fwiw, the company has a majority share holder by the initials of FDR, unless he has sold out in the very recent past.

Bland dishes and sauces. Made up Americanized recipes. NoNos don’t like garlic, so don’t expect garlic even in dishes that call for it. Nothing new here folks. Remember the NoNo call all these dishes excellent.

Yep, forget about Cleford that I haven’t met. I should have known since the Shoe only works Marina.