Hambagahle

And that is the way I feel! When I land on Torcello, walk along the little canal to the Locanda, I enter a different world. Not one I want to stay in for ever but one I am happy to be in!!

First time I went there I was in Venice working with a language school that was providing intensive instruction to our students (who would later go to study in Florence). Can't remember when I heard about the island but possibly from a Hemingway book? Anyway I went. Before lunch I walked over to the shore and sat there with my feet in the water, watching the birds bobbing around. And I was so peaceful. Then I went to the Locanda. I explained I was dining alone. I had a wonderful meal capped off with a crostata di lamponi - raspberry tart. Since then I have made a point of eating there every time I have been in Venice. Torcello is world apart. And those mosaics... not seen anything like those since I was at the Bardo in Tunis. It is so peaceful on that island.

Makes me smile! The whole (not even the main) reason we are going to spend two nights in Murano is to go to the Locanda Cipriani for lunch! I first ate there some 50 years ago and we eat there every time we go to Venice. I am actually considering staying there for the two nights as well...or maybe making it just one night and going home to Switzerland next day. We have no wish to go to Venice "proper" - been there many times and seen whatever we have wanted to see. (Last time it was the Regatta Storico. If you haven't heard of that - look it up! It was an amazing sight and we viewed it from a rooftop on the Grand Canal.)

Good to know mexicobob. Thank you.

Could you give the name of the restaurant on Murano please ? We are planning to spend a couple of nights on Murano next spring. Our hotel seems to have a decent restaurant but I don't want to eat there all the time!

I second the recommendation for the Palazzo Sant'Angelo. It is a very nice hotel in a wonderful location (right ON the Canale Grande and right next to the Sant'Angelo vaporetto stop). In Florence we have stayed at many different hotels but the one we liked the best was the Relais Sta. Croce. Lovely staff, really nice breakfasts and dinner, and if you ask for a room in the back it is quiet AND you get a good view of the Santa Croce church. There are some decent little restaurants on the same street too.

We have been to Venice many times. (Since 1970 I think). Have always taken a water taxi to the hotel so we don't have to deal with luggage on the vaporetti. Yes it is expensive. (Budget around 100€ or more.) But it makes things so much easier. Water taxis are easy to find at the station (Venezia S.L.) - right in front of the station and marked "Taxi". If arriving by road (could be on a ship's shuttle) they are close to the Piazzale Roma on the Fondamente Sta Chiara. There is a ramp down to the water... Once we are in Venice we either walk or take the vaporetti. We'll be there next May when we leave the Vista in Trieste and I plan to get a car transfer to the Piazzale Roma and taxi on from there.

That is reasonable. And I speak Italian (not Slovenian though!). However from their site it looks as though they are like Viator -- a broker. I would prefer to find a Trieste-based company if I can...

If you are paying $600 you are being vastly over charged. My TA quoted an Oceania private car transfer for $299 for the entire car.

Will check with Viatour. Normally I prefer not to use them. But perhaps they are OK.

Thanks Mauibabes - but I want a private transfer, just for my husband and me. Think I will look at local transfer companies as well as Oceania...

Thank you both. Normally I would take a train (As a Swiss I am "geared to" trains!). But we dock on 1st May. A MAJOR holiday in Italy and when many trains are not running. Train would have been wonderful. $319 is OK. But I am hoping that a private transfer to VCE (airport) would be a bit less...

I have searched high and low on the Oceania website but cannot find the cost of an Oceania private car transfer from the port in Trieste to either the Venice airport OR to the Piazzale Roma in Venice itself. Anyone have any ideas? I need to know what to budget!

We did a Riviera cruise in November one year - Venice to Rome. It was very very rainy in both Venice and Naples. Since we have been to Venice a lot we just treated the day as a sea day. But Naples was disappointing because we had booked a tour to Herculaneum. And had to cancel it. Otherwise the weather was lovely. Even able to sit out on the balcony when in Malta. My personal favourite time for the area is October or April. We can get to Italy in under an hour and to, say, Lucca, in 5 or 6. So we can pick and choose. I live in Switzerland and everywhere is jammed with tourists this year. There were 3 years when people really couldn't travel and now they have money and want to travel. Which is understandable but that means crowds everywhere aside from small towns that are not "names" in the tourist world.

No - we have never been on Splendor. Since 2020 we haven't been out of Switzerland aside from popping into France to buy butter (and eat) and one short trip I made a month ago to meet friends for lunch in Domodossola. I suppose we were in shock. But we also found a part of paradise on the lake of Thun in the Berner Oberland and have been going to that hotel 4-5 times a year since. We call it our "land cruise". BUT we are now booked on Vista for next April and are really looking forward to it. I just hope nothing stops us doing that cruise. But again - Regent was amazingly good to us (and to others of course too) when Covid hit.

Actually it was not Regent that cancelled the cruise it was Covid. All cruises were stopped (many of course already at sea) on 1600 PST 13 March 2020. (Friday 13th). We would have boarded Splendor at noon next day. She was docked in front of our hotel. We were then stuck in the US. And had to get home. Thanks to Trump all Europeans (me included) were banned from the US. And Swiss had dropped most of its US flights too. We "escaped" via Toronto and flew AC at our expense to Zürich on the Sunday. Monday Trudeau closed the borders (we were told this in mid air!) so again we had a narrow escape. I cried when I saw the Lake of Zürich from the plane... Regent was superb. there is no other word for it. They refunded everything we had paid for the cruise (around $30k in a Grand Suite) PLUS they refunded all our out of pocket expenses to get home. The only thing they didn't refund was our bar bill at the Toronto airport hotel !!! (I don't blame them. We were in a state of shock and consumed too much Johnny Walker Black label!). I shall forever be grateful to Regent and their Customer Service department AND to my outstanding TA who held my hand throughout all this.

Yes it does. But at least things here are fair. And workers have proper vacation time, health insurance etc. (And actually things here are not nearly as expensive as they seem IF you know what is included or not! Sales tax for starters...)

Absolutely they do. However I would not want to join a ship for a segment of a RTW cruise unless it were the first one. From what I read the RTW passengers get very "tight knit" and it can be awkward for "short timers" on board. But then maybe this is a smaller ship thing ?

Thank goodness we live in Switzerland. All service charges on all services including restaurant and bar bills are automatically included in the menu price. So are taxes. And this since 1971. We do add something - in a restaurant we go to often and know the staff we add 5% but that's that. A restaurant we haven's been to - more like 3% outside of the main cities. There it is 5%. I have a hard time imagining a 20% tip OR taxes not being included in the published prices... And BTW all waiters, bar staff etc etc here are paid a proper salary with 4 weeks paid vacation a year and have health insurance (very good coverage actually).

If you opt to stick with the OLife plan then you have that plan as it was when you booked it. There is no charge on Oceania (never has been as far as I know) to eat in a speciality restaurant. You just make the number of reservations permitted for your cabin or suite and then on board can ask at the restaurant if you can get another one - or in a suite, ask your butler.

If we travel to France, Germany or Italy (which are all neighbouring countries for us) we mostly take trains. it has become very complicated to drive into German and French cities in the last several years because of the requirement for the Environmental sticker on the car. Parking everywhere is a nightmare. We do drive though in the countryside. Tuscany for example. When our ship docks in Trieste we are going to an island in the Venice Lagoon for a couple of nights. And then will take the train home to Switzerland - Venice to Milan is about 2 1/2 hours. Milan to us here is the same... But back to the original question - we are marginally better off with the Simply More package and will stick to our cruise plans with that package... We really like Oceania and also have cruised and liked Regent. We think the food is better on Oceania though and food is important to us!

We are actually quite happy with this "Simply More" - and since we are already booked for an April 2024 cruise on Vista had the option to stay as we were OR switch to the new programme. We switched. We do drink (probably more than we ought but we happen to like an apéro before dinner and wine with dinner.). Our suite includes 6 bottles of "booze" which we can choose. And we can have our apéro in the suite before going to a restaurant - which we usually do anyway. We had planned to pay for the upgraded "beverage package" before SimplyMORE came about. We also took 3 free excursions and added one that we paid for... So the 4 suit us fine. We can't use Oceania's airfare - because we live in Europe. So that isn't part of the equation for us. Net/net we found we would save a little money...so we chose to take the new programme. What we will do in the future (if at our age there is another cruise in the future!) will certainly involve either Oceania or Regent. We don't cruise on any other lines. So we are "happy campers" - I think that is the US expression!!

Thank you for this correction. Being Swiss I am not used to high service charges!! (Here the service is included in the menu price). (I would have preferred 18%!!!)

My TA in the USA told me yesterday that the upgrade from the now included wine and beer at meals to the full beverage package would cost me $ 39.95 per person per day. Since "average" cocktails cost $15 + 18% service charge that means we would have to drink 2 cocktails per day per person to offset the cost. Maybe a bloody Mary before lunch and a Margarita in the bar in the evening ?? Seems OK to me. I hate to have to think whether something is covered or not when on holiday. if she is wrong and the upgrade is less I win anyway.

Sthrngary - I will try to answer your questions point by point but I hope others will too. 1. I think you are correct - two internet accounts. That was the way it was on our last O. cruise in the Vista suite and from what my TA has told me it is that now. 2. We were in the Vista Suite on Riviera in November. Winter brings rain in the mediterranean and we certainly experienced that. You cannot be outside if it is raining unless you don't mind getting wet! No use in my saying "in Venice it poured and in Naples too but for the rest it was fine" because this November is bound to be different. We did have one gloriously sunny and warm day in Malta and spent a lot of time on the balcony. But the weather is what it is. Wind is another issue. Sometimes it is very windy when the ship is underway. Other times less so. I suppose the direction of travel has a lot to do with that. AND the direction of the wind. 3. In the Vista suite it is TWO reservations per speciality restaurant per cruise. On our 10 day cruise we had 8 possible reservations. (Polo, Jacques (now Ember), Toscana, Red Ginger). You can reserve earlier than a PH suite too. Which means you get a better choice of meal times. Whether you can reserve for your friends as well who do not have this benefit I do not know. Hopefully someone else will. Remember you can also dine in the suite and that you have a generous supply of alcohol (6 litre bottles) with a good bar menu to choose from. If you like you can have wine instead of alcohol... Butler will take care of it all. 4. As I said I can't answer about booking for others. BUT we happen to hate Toscana (live too close to northern Italy to like American-Italian food) and we love Red Ginger. I simply made the allowed reservations and then told my butler we wouldn't be using the Toscana ones so he was able to pass them on to people in PH etc. I also asked him to get us an additional (3rd) table in Red Ginger which he did. Just tell the butler what you want... You can invite your friends to dinner in your suite if you like and order from any of the restaurants. Butler brings the daily menu from the main Dining Room every morning. And the other menus are in the suite all the time. The butlers don't like to have people order a starter from one restaurant and a main from another - simply because the scheduling is a nightmare for them. But no problem ordering from any one of them any evening. 5. Early boarding - They may well not be able to access their PH before 1200 or whenever their boarding time is. Vista suite will be available for occupancy at 1100. if there is not a huge crowd at the checkin you might ask if they could board with you and drop their carry ons etc in your suite. But I can't predict what the answer might be. I have not been in a PH. the lowest category of suite I have had is an Oceania Suite. So I really can't say except that we found the Vista very comfortable, had more space than the O. Suite and we actually. liked it better than the Owners Suite. My impression from the Deck plans and room descriptions is that I would find the PH very congested. I hope this answers the questions. We are more and more pleased we have chosen to cruise again! (after having a Splendour (regent) cruise cancelled at 10 hours notice with the ship in front of our hotel room we said never again...)