pinotlover

Daughters always costs their Daddy money!! 🥰 🥂

We are 6-7 years older than Gary, and just don’t see life as either or. We have taken island and land hopping cruises in the Med and enjoyed them immensely. We did a 12 day Vista cruise last summer hitting multiple ports that a day visit was fine for. That cruise had a 3 day stop in Israel, so we got off the ship and spent the nights in Jerusalem which made the logistics for our tours far simpler. Leading a Group to Tuscany in September for 15 days. Spending nights in Florence, Greve in Chianti, and Montalcino. Could we just stay at one location and make longer commutes every day? Yes, but those easy pack/unpacks makes the rest of our adventures so much easier. Additionally, like a cruise, every day is not doing wine tastings. I have down days planned for the hot springs, shopping, or just doing nothing. We’ve done combo trips of doing Lake Como and the Piedmont/Barolo wine area staying in Monteforte. Etc, etc. There are times for cruise ships and times for land trips. We are still physically able to enjoy both. A land trip doesn’t have to be “ pack and unpack every day or every other day “! Fwiw, We took the granddaughters on vacation last summer. Age 10 &12. They wore grandpa out!! 😂 Much like the 30 year old daughter, they would have worn us out whether on a cruise or land trip. Comparing trips with them vs Elderly friends is like comparing apples to elephants. 🙄 We’ll be eating Italian food while there. Some prefer Americanized Italian while some of us prefer real Italian when we can get it. Our chosen restaurants for lunch and dinner don’t appear to primarily cater to the NoNos. All that is personal preference.

I was in a resort once that collected everything left on unattended loungers before 9:00. Probably helped as much as anything.

Not really one of the Lounger people, not for the past 30 years anyway. However, from observation, the issue aboard ship seems to be with those wanting a lounger in the shade. I often see full Sun loungers available, but not those hidden under the overhang. In the 5* resorts we have visited, for those that want them, umbrellas are always available to hide from the sun. Because of space limitations, not so on Oceania ships. Regarding specialty restaurants: One of the resorts in the Baja had two wonderful Specialties to go with their regular buffet and sit down service restaurants. Several years ago they were forced to go to an allocated reservation system. It had always been first come first with the reservation desk opening at 7:00 am. Lines started forming around 5:30-6:00 in the morning!! That 5:30 was 8:30 ET and those people had no problem getting up that early. For those of us that were on MT or PT, it was an issue. Resort finally changed over to a system much like O. Do it online, in advance, with an allocated number of reservations. Much better system. Allowed us to plan and go into town at least a couple nights for the local flair.

Buy the snacks off ship and remedy the situation. There is a thread, on a different Forum here, on the ports that are closing and/or restricting cruise passengers. One of the main reasons is they create traffic and congestion and many don’t spend a dime or whatever the currency. Light snacks are easily procured in Japan.

Seems to me, we had a gentleman come on the ship, during docking, and sit up a table to sell local currency. The exchange rate wasn’t exceptional but adequate, and getting $20 worth of Kroner proved handy. Our lunches were paid by cc.

1. The dish was obviously prepared for the NoNos. 2. The onboard chefs have zero control over the quality of meat and other products they serve. Miami alone makes those purchases either by current availability and/or budgetary considerations. The chefs cook what Miami sends them. The next resupply is almost certainly already sitting on the dock awaiting the ship; and the resupply after that is already purchased and enroute. All that sinewy meat isn’t going to be ground up for hamburger. It will be cooked the best they can. 3. The NoNos have won the day. Adding samba, tobasco, and other additions to a meal results in entirely different flavors and tastes than having a dish prepared with the proper herbs and spices the dish calls for. If a dish needs a bit of herbs de Provence, thyme, curry, oregano to enhance the flavors, or add more authenticity , it should be done during cooking. Having the NoNos continue to say “ Just add tobasco, I want mine bland”, doesn’t solve the issue.

Since 2020, and Covid, the best price guarantee has been until final payment. Very distinctly in the T&Cs. Before FP was sometimes not until 90 days pre cruise, depending upon length of cruise. I believe most have now moved to 150 days or more, thus shortening the span. The other confusing point , for some, was that the guarantee was only for Oceania published sales, not sales ran by On Line Agencies or “ silent “ sales.

Buying any alcoholic beverages in the Nordic countries , including Denmark, is outrageously expensive due to taxes. You bring what you may want or buy from the ship.

For those future Japan cruisers, I thought I’d bring up one last thought not yet mentioned. Similar to New Zealand, and some other countries, it is prohibited to take fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, etc off the ship in Japan. We daily got the briefing from the CD before leaving for tours. At some ports, our belongings were searched, at a couple of the ports we were met by the friendly sniffing dogs. Japan has fabulous food and a delight to try all the different regional specialties. Just don’t plan a picnic with food from the ship.

I have been on two different F&WT winery sponsored cruises. We had several exclusive wine tastings and a reception away from the regular passengers, along with a few exclusive winery tours. None of those impacted any other Oceania cruiser. We did have one Group wine dinner, in the PG, that was paired with wine from the host winery. It did count as our guaranteed meal there. In that the wine flowed very generously, we may have become a little noisy! 🥸😇! I will add that , much like the GoNext cruises, our groups of 50-75 trended perhaps 25 years younger on average that the normal Oceania crowd. We were the oldsters in both Groups. So neither cruise may have been as sedate as some prefer, but by no means rowdy.

Perhaps they no longer do. In 2015 they certainly did. Made visits to downtown, the Valrhona chocolate factory/shop and out to a Croze-Hermitage winery. It was an all day visit.

To start: Absolutely. Even finding garlic in a dish demanding garlic is a rarity. The odds of getting good lobster is about 3 in 10.Mushy or overcooked. The last couple times I had the lobster risotto in Toscana, the lobster could have been rubber bands. Just as tough, chewy, and tasteless. On the Vista we had trouble in the TC cutting our lobster tails with a steak knife. Long and short - enough other good food to take a 3/10 risk with lobster. I’ve had wonderful Lobster Thermidor and been served it uneatable .Bring out the chainsaw to cut it. 3/10 just not worth it. One of the problems that the ship cooks have is a strict Oceania policy. This policy helps lead to inconsistent meals. As explained to us by the head restaurant chef on Sirena, Oceania has a policy that says if the ship is sailing 7/365, then the items on Specialty menus will be served 7/365. Well, outside of the main ingredient, that may not be practical. Example our recent cruise. We typically love the spicy duck watermelon salad. First, all the spice is gone. The NoNos have gotten tamarind eliminated from most items. That however was not the main problem. The only watermelon on the ship was grossly unripe. We’re talking most all of the melon was white with almost no red. It wasn’t served at breakfast in the TC for several days for obvious reasons. Most of us can easily understand that ripe watermelon may not be available everywhere in the world every day. I don’t believe that even a U.S. Dennys restaurant would have served the dish. They would have just told patrons it’s currently not available. That however is against Oceania policy. It gets served 7/365. The waiter told me I’d get the same thing if reordered. He’d had lots of complaints.The chef knows what’s being served, he knows it shouldn’t be served. Miami says it gets served regardless. Complaining to ship staff is about your gratification, won’t affect Miami . The queen cut prime rib is typically good, in PG,, as well as lamb, when they have good quality meat.. The Dover sole in Jacques is great, along with the escargot, however Jacques is only on two ships. The quality of veal, on the ship, varies a lot. This has more to do with the quality of the meat itself than preparation which is likewise inconsistent. The lobster bisque in PG has extra lobster chunks and you get that nice splash of cognac. Only lobster bisque I think worth eating on the ship. They have a tempura dish in RG which is an insult to tempura. The fish is unseasoned, thickly coated with some breaded batter, and plain bad. It would be like calling unseasoned KFC tempura chicken .

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.