DrKoob

5 minutes ago, SSFrance69 said:

I've enjoyed following along. Your photos are fantastic. I drooled on my keyboard looking at some of the food photos. I'll have to look out for that Mexican themed lunch when we sail on Vista in February. I agree that the pizza in the evening at Waves is really good. I wish it were available for lunch as well. You say you make better pizza though? I say, what time should we come over to try it?!? Just kidding. We are in the DC area, so that might not be logistically feasible. I went to your other website too and you are a couple in your 70s? You must be doing something right, because you both look like you're in your 50s. Thanks so much for taking the time to write the review and post photos. I'm also looking forward to reading your friend's review and seeing those photos. I've been to his site before and always enjoy all the detailed food pictures and menus. Is it done yet, Mike? 😆

Thanks SSFrance69! We are in Seattle so that would be a long way to go for a pizza. My Sicilian grandmother taught me everything I know. Her and Nick Stelino. Everything from scratch. You can get pizza at lunch at the buffet but it isn't as good. 

Thanks for saying we are doing something right...but those are old pictures 🤣.

I will let you know when Mike is done. His food pics will be even better. 

It's All About the Food

As is the case on so many cruises, it's all about the food. There is something about being able to eat out at a restaurant every single night during a vacation, and they never bring you the check (except for drinks). I wish I could have included all my food photos here but they are on my blog at https://www.jimbellomo.com.

Within the cruise industry, it is common knowledge that Oceania is known to have the "best cuisine at sea." Is this true? My judgment is that I expected too much and that 90% of their food is better than 90% of the food on other cruise lines. Other lines we have been on have had some dishes or meals that have stood out over the years. The original United States Dining Room on Celebrity's Infinity was amazing, as was Qsine before Celebrity ruined it with their stupid Petit Chef. Some meals in Club Orange on Nieuw Statendam were as good as anything we ate on Vista. The grille on Viking Sky is better than the Waves Grille on Vista. But all in all, Vista has better food overall.

The Steve Test

After our disastrous Celebrity Millenium cruise in May of 2022, my brother Steve came up with a way to rate food and restaurants on a cruise better than I have ever been able to do it myself. From then on, I have called this the Steve Test. Here it is: If you eat in a food venue on a ship, be it the main dining room, buffet, grille or a specialty restaurant, and that restaurant were near you once you got home, would you go there again?  

That's pretty simple, right? I think it is the best way I have ever heard of to rate food on cruise ships and I will rate each venue (and, in the case of some of them, by the dish or meal) using the Steve Test.

Please keep in mind that the Steve Test Ratings below are my ratings. Steve will (I hope) chime in with a comment about what he thinks passed his test.

Editor's Note: Since this is about the food, I struggled to figure out how to cover it. I didn't want just to list things we ate. So let's take it venue by venue. And sorry, but I don't have the menus for every restaurant, but my buddy Mike will when he does his review. I am more about taking "pretty pictures," and Mike is about remembering that you want to read the menus. I will post a link as soon as his review is up. Is it done yet, Mike?

The Grand Dining Room

This is the best place to start. We ate dinner here our first three nights and never went back. It wasn't that we didn't like the food. It was because they had just about the same food in the buffet, and when we went to the buffet, we didn't have to dress up and put on hard-sole shoes. We also found that dinner took so much longer there. If we went to dinner when the dining room opened at 6:30, we never got out of there before 8:30. Sometimes that is fine, but when you are going to bed at 9:00, it leaves you stuffed and feeling bloated when you are trying to sleep. We also found that we ate too much. We would be seated; they would bring out some bread to keep us going while we went over the menus. They would take our order and bring more bread. We would eat it. They would bring the appetizers...and more bread. Then the same thing through the salad course, the soup course and finally the entrées. The only course without bread of some kind was dessert. And yes, I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to bread of any kind. So we switched to the buffet for dinner.

I will say here that the dining room food and ambiance were far superior to Viking Ocean or pretty much any cruise ship dining room we have eaten in for quite a while. Here are some of the dishes we had in the Grand Dining Room. I tried to remember what they were, but it's been two weeks. I will mention if they were either exceptional, bewildering or just bad.

We also had breakfast in the Grand Dining Room once because they serve lamb chops for breakfast, and we all had to try that—because we all love lamb—at least Steve and I do. Here's the pics on that.

My Steve Test Rating: Nope, not special enough. Nothing really stood out. If this restaurant were next door to my house, I wouldn't go back.

The Terrace Cafe (the buffet)

In the buffet, we found pretty much the same food as the dining room but in a more relaxed setting, and we also found (much to our surprise) that we ate less. For one thing, a lot less bread. We would all go grab a salad or some sushi, have that, and then instead of eating bread and waiting for the next course, we would just walk back and get an entrée or two. When we were done with that, we went back and grabbed a dessert. And all of it was excellent food.

We did have a couple of quibbles. First, the desserts were always cold. Even cobblers and bread puddings that should have been served warm were kept cold on purpose. It ruined a bunch of very good desserts. Second, sometimes, they would repeat menus/theme evenings. The last two nights had the exact same menu, and we actually think that some parts of what was available that evening were just leftovers from the night before. Sadly, this is what their parent company, Norwegian Cruise Line, is doing with their top-tier Haven product. They have the same menu every night in their Haven dining room, so why not migrate that idea to Oceania? It would also be nice if they had a couple of other large tables. With seven of us, we had only two tables in the buffet where we could all fit. Steve and Jamie would often go up and save one of those two big tables so we could all eat together. Other than those three rather minor things, we loved the Terrace Cafe.

The thing I really loved the most, Terrace, was the service they gave our buddy Jocelyn, who was walking with a cane. Almost every time she would go to get some food, she would come back to the table with no plate in her hand...but she would be followed by a server or maitre'd with her plate in their hand. I loved how they took such great care of her—heck, of all of us.

My Steve Test Rating: I would go back...for certain items and for the amazing selection of things. There was never a night (not even when we had the same menu two nights in a row) that I couldn't find something I really wanted to try.

I also need to mention one amazing meal that we ate in the Terrace Cafe. Other than our night at Toscana, this was the most memorable food I had on board. I wish they had done this menu again and again. I would have eaten there every day. It was a Mexican-themed lunch. And the Chocolate Mole' Braised Short Ribs were the second best dish I had on the entire cruise...from any Vista restaurant. It is really hard to get a chocolate mole' sauce to work. So many chefs try it but Vista's chef hit the ball out of the park. That plus there were a lot of other great Latin-American dishes as well.

My Steve Test Rating: If I could get this dish at home, that would be the only restaurant I would ever eat in again. Well, maybe not the only one, but I would get really fat if I could drive to this within an hour.

The Aquamar Cafe

 My incredible Poke Bowl

This is a new eating venue for Oceania (or so I think–please correct me if I am wrong) and other than the design (open-air to the outdoors) it is one of my favorites. The idea is healthy alternatives for breakfast and lunch. We never ate breakfast here but I can tell you, when these guys do healthy lunch, the knock it out of the park. We ended up eating lunch here at least eight days out of 15. Maybe more. They had a poke bowl that knocked my socks off. Easily in the top three things I ate onboard. They also had some of the best sweet potato fries with chipolte mayo. Only problem was, you had to order them again and again because they never brought enough 🤪. The crispy chicken burger was Kathleen's favorite. I had it once and really liked it but it was really hard for me to eat there without having that Poke Bowl. 

My Steve Test Rating: I could eat lunch at the Aquamar Cafe every day for the rest of my life. If it were next door to my house, I might never go anyplace else. Oceania hit it out of the park with this restaurant for lunch.

Waves Grille

On the opposite side of the ship from the Aquamar Cafe was the Waves Grille. They were really two restaurants in one. At lunch, they served burgers, paninis, one specialty dish (paella, chili, BBQ chicken, etc.) and had an ice cream counter. In the evenings, they turned into a great little pizza place with some pretty great pizza.

As a grille at lunch, I wasn't impressed. Nice place (very crowded), burgers were OK. Paninis were "fine." Fries (thick steak fries) couldn't hold a candle to the sweet potato fries in the Aquamar Cafe. You could get the ice cream at the buffet, and the two times I had the specialty dish, I was unimpressed.

But at dinner, their pizzas were excellent. They do New York style, but the crust was a little too thin for me. But the choices were excellent, and one of our favorite parts was that you could order a pizza and have it delivered to the buffet next door. One night, we decided to do a pizza night, but there is not a single table that would hold seven of us in the Grille. So we took up our regular table in the buffet (just inside the door to the grille) and ordered one of every kind of pizza they made. They gave us a number, asked where we were sitting and brought us every pizza...and a BBQ beef flatbread that was WONDERFUL!

My Steve Test Rating: For lunch—FAIL! I would not go there for burgers. The grille on Viking Sky was far superior. But for dinner, their pizza was really good and that night was one of the most fun meals we had. That said, I probably wouldn't go back there either—I make better pizza 😁.

That's going to be it for today. What's left here are the four specialty restaurants on Vista. I have some work to do today, and I want to get this post online. So tomorrow morning, I will hit those and then the final review and comparison. Again, you can see many more photos of the food on my blog that you can reach by clicking here.

2 minutes ago, Pandazoo said:

@DrKoob  What did you make and what were the pairings?  

Wander over to my blog at jimbellomo.com and you can pics of everything we made and the wines are right behind them. 

1 hour ago, cdn.cruiser said:

Dr. Koob, 

Are you still doing a summary of the food on board in varying venues?

when do you think that will be?

thank you.

 

I am working on it tonight and hope to get it online tomorrow or at the latest on Wednesday.  

We are Elite Plus X cruisers who have never been on an E-class ship but we have one booked at Christmas. Would love to know if there are any specialty restaurants you feel are worth the money. 

We have heard good things about Eden, Prime Cut and Le Grand Bistro. 

On S, M and even back on C class ships, we could always get a reservation once on board but what is your experience with doing that? Are there some that we HAVE TO GET advance reservations for.

Thanks in advance for your help.  

A Culinary Experience

This is a short bonus post for anyone who, like me, likes to cook. Vista has a culinary center on deck 14 forward that ranks with any facility that I have ever taken a cooking class in.

Prior to the cruise, I signed up for the only cooking class available in the online reservation section for our cruise. I had hoped to do a few classes, but the one I ended up taking was all that was available for pre-cruise booking. We later found out from the instructor that there are usually spaces left for some to book on board and that there are cancellations as well. So, if you aren't able to reserve the class you want or as many classes as you want, check with the reservations desk on Deck 5 when you are on board. Happily, the one class I signed up for, Cathy, signed up for as well—so I had a cooking buddy.

The cost for the class was $79, and that included two hours of instruction by our amazing teacher, Noelle, cooking and having fun, as well as eating what we made. To say that this class was well organized, that the facility was impressive and that the instructor was excellent would all be a gross understatement. All those things were true.

Our class was called "Lovers Together" or something like that. Cathy and I kept teasing Mike and Kathleen that they better come up and keep an eye on us. But the "Lovers" the class description referenced were the wine pairings—when wine and food are "Lovers." I know—stupid marketing speak. Just say Wine and Food pairings.

I would guess by now you get the fact that this class and facility were top-notch. Forget the fact that we are on a ship; I would take classes here (at a great price) at sea or on land—just an amazing experience. If you like to cook, take a class on an Oceania cruise. You won't be disappointed. Another great thing about these classes is that Noelle had three assistants who would set us up with everything we needed for the next course and clear out our refuse from the previous course while Noelle would have us come forward for instruction.

I put some photos on my blog at jimbellomo.com if you want to see them. 

After photography, cooking is my second favorite hobby, and I love experimenting and taking cooking classes. These were great. The instructor was super helpful and answered all our questions, including helping us with possible substitutions. That's a great teacher—willing to adapt.

Good morning, all of you who have stuck with this until this point. Today, I finished the two posts that give you an entire tour of the ship from top to bottom and bow to stern. There were so many photos that it was next to impossible to figure out how to get them all into one post so I had to break them into two. 

Also it was totally impossible to add that many photos to Cruise Critic. So if you want the tour, you will have to browse to one of the two posts I added on my blog. Click here for decks five and six and Click here for decks 12 through 16. 

If the links don't work just type in www.jimbellomo.com and you will get the last two pages.

I would be happy to answer any and all questions about the ship. We loved 90% of Vista and I will detail the parts we didn't in my final review. 

43 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

Please tell Mike that I am so thrilled to hear that he is happy and enjoying travel.  Often, I wondered what happened to him, as I had read all his reviews.  Sometimes people have followers much like teachers have students, but never know what exactly happened after not hearing from them for quite a few years.  He always seemed to be excited about traveling and sharing his adventures on CC.

 

DrKoob, my DH and I have an TA booked on Vista in 2025, so that will be our first.  We are also elite+ on Celebrity with a few more cruises on the books, but no new ones on the horizon.  The prices have gone up and the quality down; however, we do enjoy The Retreat life, just not at those prices.  We are looking forward to our cruise from Miami to Portugal, along with remaining in the country for a week or two.  Oceania was our new choice based on so many things, but now because of the new Program simplyMore, we are looking at several different lines due to excursions being included; we always like to do our own excursions in port.

 

Thanks for your detailed review and safe travels!

Mike never stopped after Carol passed. We went on the last cruise together before COVID hit (got off Celebrity Reflection on March 2). You can find all his past reviews by clicking here. 

Disembarkation...Warnings, Thunder, Lightning & More

I am waiting at the airport and thought I would do two things. I want to drop you a photo of one of the most magnificent sunsets I have ever seen (taken last night at sea off Florida from the 14th deck).

Disembarkation

We did all the usual stuff: Put our luggage out the night before, kept clothes and carryons to get off with, had breakfast in Baristas, told Massimo goodbye, packed up and got out of our stateroom by 8:00.

Disembarkation from the ship was a little delayed. The first people were not allowed off until 7:45, so please take that as a warning if you think you will just be able to walk off to catch an early flight. We got off with the first group.

From that point on, we split into two groups. Mike and Cathy were driving home to Wellington (just 40 miles or so north), and I needed a ride to the Avis office to get a rental car for the day. Mike, Cathy and I were some of the first to exit under a covered awning and then into an air-conditioned room warehouse-like room where all the luggage was located. We got their luggage (Kathleen, Jamie and Steve would get ours when they got off), and we were on our way. Their driver met us right outside the building, and we didn't get too wet getting in.

I talked them (and their driver) into taking me the two miles (as the crow flies) but nine miles (as the car drives), which was awesome of them. We had a heck of a time finding it because our driver was only letting his phone show written directions and not a map. We came very close to hitting a median barrier head-on. It was about as scared as I have been while driving in a while. But we did finally get there.

People had warned me about this particular Avis office. That they would not start their shuttle to the port until 9:00 am (when you have to be off the ship) or that they would not have cars ready when you got there, no matter when you reserved them. I was hoping this would not be the case with me, but alas, it was. I was the first customer in the door at 8:00 a.m. when they opened. The lady at the desk said that they were cleaning my car and that I would have to wait. We had reserved a Chevy Suburban because there were five of us with all our luggage, and when I came in, I had seen a white Suburban about a block away in their parking lot.

Did I forget to mention that when we got up this morning on the ship, there was a light rain, and it was 85 degrees? And that as soon as we left the ship, the heavens opened up and literally dumped water. Thunder, lightning and the equivalent of a firehose of water. So, getting from Mike and Cathy's ride to the Avis counter left me soaked to the skin.

Inside the agency, I was told to have a seat. There were four chairs and room for about eight other people to stand, and by the time I left (25 minutes later) the place was full. Not sure what was going to happen when their 9:15 shuttle arrived.

In the meantime, while waiting, I was watching the white Suburban out the window. No one was cleaning it, or anywhere near it, so I kind of assumed it was not my car. Wrong again. After seeing it sitting there with nothing being done to it, my name was called, and I was told that it was my car. Since it was still POURING, I asked if they could possibly pull it up to the office for me so I didn't have to get the two bags I had with me (and myself) totally soaked. I was told (by the three people working there—doing nothing) that I should just walk the block...which I did, getting myself and my bags thoroughly soaked. I mean, I looked like a wet dog who has been walking in Seattle rain for at least an hour.

And when I got to the car, I could not figure out how to open it. I got the front door open but not the rear cargo area. And I knew it was on my key fob, but I couldn't see through the water on my glasses which little icon it was—finally got it figured out and got into the car to try and figure out the car's systems. It was at this point that I wished I had paid better attention in high school Spanish because all the controls on the cars were programmed in Spanish, and I was darned if I could figure out how to change them back to English. In the meantime, 9:00 am had rolled around, so I needed to get back to pick up Kathleen, Jocelyn, Steve and Jamie at the ship. So I had to use my phone to navigate, and I was back in front of the cruise port within about 20 minutes...just as they were walking off. They jumped in the car, and we were off.

Off to where? Originally, we had wanted to do a Miami tour because all of us were leaving in the late afternoon. But at the last minute, Steve and Jamie's flight got moved way up (it's 3:30, and they are already in the air), but ours didn't. That's why I rented a car. I also found a Miami driving tour app that did a nice 1.5 hour tour of Miami with narration and GPS. It worked fairly well, but it still needs improvement. When we were done with the tour, it was time to drop Jamie and Steve at the Fort Lauderdale airport. Once we had them off to airplane land, we headed into downtown Fort Lauderdale to grab lunch. We found a great Mexican place downtown—El Camino. Give it a try if you are downtown, but remember, the portions are enormous.

And that led us back to where we are now, Fort Lauderdale airport at 4:30 p.m., waiting for our 5:40 p.m. Alaska Air flight. We will get back tonight around 9:00 PST (which will be midnight based on when we got up), and then we have about an hour ride home. Whew. I am tired just thinking about the six-hour flight coming up. Thank goodness we are in First Class. And thank goodness we are heading home. See you tomorrow with a ship tour in photos, provided I get out of bed. Otherwise it might be Monday.

Oh, and we have all decided it was basically a great cruise and a great trip, no matter how many rental car snafus there were🤣 .

2 hours ago, Victoria51 said:

Not sure if you are still onboard, but could you comment on the situation with Covid.   Are people being careful?  I know the staff is masked but how about the passengers?  We sail on the Vista in a few weeks,   We will be getting our vaccines this week so hoping we will be safe.   Thanks and have enjoyed your posts.

I am not onboard, but I am at the airport waiting to fly home. Saw very little if any COVID. Certainly did not hear about it. A few people were sneezing and coughing but I think they were like two of our party who caught colds, were sick for a day and feel fine now. Three of us think that we saw less than 1% of the passengers with masks on. 

One thing I am going to mention as part of what needs to be improved are the sanitizer stations. On most ships I can find them everywhere. On Vista they. are stuck into cubbyholes on walls and can be really hard to find. 

1 hour ago, cluso said:

Just thought you might want to rent a car for the day at the airport--it's not far.  Although, don't know how last-minute prices will compare.

Ours has to be a Suburban because there are so many of us, and I paid a pretty penny for it. Hopefully, that means they will have it ready. There shouldn't be that many people bringing those back.

9 minutes ago, cluso said:

 

Just a heads up.  A couple years ago I reserved an Avis car at the 99 SE 2nd St location-a short cab ride from the port (after a TA).  When we got there, there were no cars available.  They had a tiny lot and were waiting for people to turn in cars.  We, along with about 12 other groups, waited 2 1/2 hours standing on a hot city corner before we got our dirty car.  We had a 12-hour drive back home, so yes, we were pissed off.  It seemed they were counting on cars to be turned in by people starting their cruises.  And they weren't getting many turned in early.  Lesson learned for us was just get a car at the airport.

I have heard that and it is worrisome. But we don't have a flight until 5:40 at night and we don't want to sit and wait in an airport all day. 

Just a quick note about the rest of this review of our Oceania Vista cruise. We are on our last full day today. We are at sea, headed to Miami (where it is predicted to be raining and 99 degrees—how fun) tomorrow to disembark. After we tell Mike and Cathy goodbye (they live in South Florida, so they just need a car ride to get home) we will execute a plan to get the rest of us to the Fort Lauderdale airport at different times. I will also be renting a car there (but thankfully from Avis—and you can believe I checked on it) and driving. Steve and Jamie to catch their 2:51 flight back to Orange County, and then Kathleen, Jocelyn and I will grab lunch before we return the car and get on our 5:40 p.m. Alaska Air flight to Seattle.

My plan is to finish the review at home, where I will do a quick post on disembarkation (probably tomorrow at the airport) and then, sometime in the next few days, do a major post (with photos) about the public rooms on Vista followed up by my last post summing up and reviewing the cruise itself with a comparison with Viking Ocean. I hope you will stick around for the last couple of posts.

Charleston: Bad Bread On My Great Sandwich

Let me explain the headline here. Imagine my day yesterday was a sandwich with moldy bread but a great piece of BBQ brisket in the middle. That was my day in Charleston.

When I finished writing up yesterday's post to finalize NYC, I headed upstairs, and while Kathleen was in the shower, I heard what I believed to be the pilot boat outside our verandah. So I grabbed my camera and went out to shoot photos. What I saw might have been a harbinger of what our day would be like—two tugboats—actually pushing and pulling the ship. In all our years of cruising, I have never seen the wind so bad that it took two tugboats (one pushing, one pulling) and the ship's thrusters to get us on the dock. Added to that bad wind was driving rain. And I was going to go out and walk in that as soon as we docked.

Here was our plan at that point. I had rented a mini-van from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Their office was 1.9 miles from the cruise terminal. I was going to take a walk with my camera on a beautiful sunny day, get the car, and then come back and pick everyone else up for a day of planned activities. Then, at the end of the day, I would drop everyone off, return the car and walk back to the ship.

Problem one: It was not a beautiful, sunny day. The rain was coming down sideways, and the wind was at (according to the ship's info on our TV) 34 knots. But I had a job to do, and I was going to do it. So I grabbed the big golf umbrella that Oceania puts in every stateroom, and I headed out to go get the car. The walk was not pleasant. The umbrella reversed itself in the wind about every 10 steps until I got away from the port, where I was better protected from the wind. By the time I got less than 500 yards from the ship, I was pretty much soaked from the waist down. The spray from cars going by hitting big puddles didn't help either. But I mustered on. And after a long, wet, dreary slog, I got to the car rental place. Except the sign above is what I found.

I had made the rental car reservation with Enterprise in February when Mike and I were planning excursions. We each took some ports, and I had taken Charleston because we had been here before and loved the city. In all the time since April 28th, when the sign in the window states that this office closed...permanently, you would have thought that Enterprise would have bothered to let me know this pretty important fact? Did they? NO! In fact, they had sent me an e-mail reminder about my rental two days prior showing this address. In fact, if you go online to Enterprise right now, you can still book a car at this address. WTH???

To say I was upset with Enterprise at this point was probably one of the biggest understatments of this century. I was screaming, cursing, soaking wet, standing in front of a closed store. So I call the number on the sign. I was put on hold by their automated system for five minutes and then told that their voicemail was full and hung up on. Did this three times before I finally decided to call their 800 number, which put me in touch with another Enterprise agency about a 20-minute drive away from where I was. Notice I said drive.

At this point, I have to give this Enterprise agency (they are a franchise) full credit. Their manager jumped in and sent an Uber for me, got me to her store, had the car I had reserved ready and waiting and had me on my way back (a 30-minute drive) to the ship in no time. By now, it has been almost two hours since I set out, and I am just getting back to pick up the rest of the gang—minus Kathleen, who had caught Jocelyn's cold—and get started on our day.

Our original plan had been for me to drive the group downtown, where we would grab a horse-drawn surrey and take the tour around the older parts of the city and the waterfront. Not only had we lost the time to do this, but the horse-drawn surreys were covered to protect people from the sun, but those covers would do nothing to stop us from getting soaked by the wind-driven, sideways-falling rain. So we bagged that idea, and I drove the group around the old section of town that Kathleen and I had visited in 2016.

Our plan for the day continued with an early lunch at Rodney Scott's Whole Hog BBQ. When I was here in 2016 to teach a workshop, I met James Roller, a great guy who owns and runs a website called DestinationBBQ.com. He is something of an authority on the vinegar-based BBQ that is all around this state. I asked him then what BBQ place was the best in Charleston, and he said, "Hands down, it's Rodney Scott Whole Hog BBQ." So I went and tried it, and he was right! I mean, this place has a James Beard award for BBQ. That has to say something. And I love going to eat someplace that someone tells me is the best, and it is. So, when I came back with friends to Charleston, I had to take them there. If you go, and you eat meat, you should go there too.

We had the MOST amazing lunch. To me, this lunch was the best thing I ate on the entire trip. Or at least it tied with our meal in Toscana (on the ship) for the best meal. It was so good I have to describe it to you. I ordered the two-meat combo, and the two meats I chose were the "whole hog" and the brisket. Each order comes with two sides and a slab of cornbread. I got the collared greens and the onion rings. Topped that off with a local IPA, and I was in HOG HEAVEN! The meat was melt-in-your-mouth, and the sides were perfect. If you are ever in Charleston, this should be your one must-eat place...unless you happen to be a vegan.

Our next stop was a drive out of town to the Magnolia Plantation. We had booked three different 45-minute tours there in advance. The first started at 1:00 p.m., and we arrived right on time. The first tour is entitled Slavery to Freedom. We met up with our guide for this tour, the wonderful Vanessa (who had recently moved here from Seattle), and she shared with us the life of slaves on the Magnolia Plantation from the mid-1600s through the present day. I am ashamed I did not get a photo of Melissa, but my buddy Mike did, and I will let you know when his review comes online in about three weeks or so. That way, you can see what she (and the other guides I forgot to take photos of) look like. Her tour was definitely the best of the day as she did a presentation, and then we toured four historical slave/free man quarters. See my photos below.

From there, it was on to our tour of the plantation house. The photo of the outside of the house is here because we weren't allowed to take photos inside. Our tour guide was Millie, and again, you will have to wait for Mike's review to see what she looks like. (BTW: I will post the link when Mike's review is done, so you if follow me, you will get it when it is ready.) It was a very nice tour, and Millie (a retired teacher) was an excellent guide. The house is very nice.

Our last tour started just outside the house when we boarded a tram and were taken on a tour of the grounds to see how they farmed rice in the 1850s when the plantation was in full production. It was a nice tour, but since the driver who did the tour was two cars in front of us, I never got his name. This tour was just "fine," and we all decided that if we were to do the tours again, we would skip this one. It's just not enough to see beyond some swamp and some far-away baby alligators.

At this point, our plan was that I would drive the rest of the crowd back to either downtown or the ship, and then I would go and return the car and walk back. Well, you know I couldn't walk back. This presented another problem. We were 28 minutes from the ship, the rental car return was 25 minutes from the ship, and I needed to have the car back by 5:00. We left the plantation at 3:55. YIKES! Not only that, but if I got the car back by 5:00, they would give me a ride back to the ship. After that time, they would be closed, and I would be on my own. Needless to say, it was one of the longest, most stressful drives of my life. I did get the group back to the ship, knowing full well that I was going to have to turn around and go back out to the rental agency. And as we drove to the ship, we just happened to notice that the road I had to drive back out on was SLAMMED WITH TRAFFIC! I was not in a good place. The ship wasn't sailing until 6:30, but I was beginning to doubt I would be able to get back in time. I was sure I would never get back to the rental agency by 5:00, so I would be on my own to find an Uber to bring me back to the ship. While waiting at a light on the way back, I checked, and the nearest Uber could not even get to the agency to pick me up for 45 minutes, and the ride would cost (surge pricing at rush hour) $64.

But thanks to the Apple Maps app that routed me around all the traffic on some back country roads that made me think I was lost the entire time, I made it to the agency at 4:58. They had their van going out with the incredible Linda driving it, so she took me back to the ship. And she even found a way to get me back on board by 5:45. She is my Charleston hero. I was sure I was going to have to call my friend who lives in nearby Mount Pleasant and get him to let me spend the night and then fly to Miami today. Thank goodness that didn't happen.

So now you can see why I said yesterday was like a moldy bread sandwich with great filler in between. Our lunch and tour were excellent, but getting there and getting back were not.

With all of this going on, I did manage to get some pics you will find them on my blog at jimbellomo.com

That about covers one of the MOST STRESSFUL DAYS of travel I have ever not had the pleasure to experience. Loved the lunch, liked the plantation, and I will NEVER rent from Enterprise Rental Cars again. The idea that they never told me that location closed or that they are still showing it open on their website is just WRONG!

Day 2 in NYC: I Need More Power & better feet.

Pre-dawn photos

Our second day in New York City started early for me (Like, when is that a surprise?) with a two-hour photo walk. But that walk got interrupted before it even began...twice. First, as I was leaving the ship, I looked at my phone (that I use to track my travels, navigate by GPS, call Kathleen if I need to, etc.) and found that it had not charged overnight even though it had been plugged in. Damn! So I walked back upstairs and plugged in. I knew I could get it up to around 40% in under 30 minutes, and that would be enough. Half an hour later, I was on my way.

This time, I got off the ship and through security before I thought, "You should check your camera batteries as well." (I always have two on me. One in the camera and one in a pouch on my camera strap.) The one in the camera was at about 25%, but the one on my strap was...dead. So, back through security, back on the ship, up 4 floors to grab my third battery, which thankfully was fully charged. Finally, I was on my way. Whew! That was frustrating.

My original intention had been to re-walk the High Line, but since I had done that the day before and also five years ago, I decided to go out and shoot some light—Times Square. On the way, I thought how ridiculous it is that I would NEVER walk in the dark for that distance in Seattle. I would never have felt safe. But here I was in the Big Apple, and I felt totally secure. Working people were everywhere, a friendly cop on most corners and strangely enough, walking three miles around Manhattan, I did not see a single person high on fentanyl, asking for money or doing anything but getting on with their day. What a difference a few years makes. Seattle wishes it was as safe as NYC.

At any rate, I had a fun walk around the Times Square/Broadway area and these are the photos I brought back (and of course they have captions). Sadly CC doesn't do well with photo galleries so you will have to click over to my blog at www.jimbellomo.com to see them.

Midday trek

Back to the ship, and after a quick breakfast, and five of us were off in an Uber to explore NYC. Jocelyn was still getting over her cold, and Kathleen felt like it was coming on, so they elected to stay on board. We were first headed to Zabars on the Upper West Side. If you have never heard of Zabars, just imagine the most well-stocked grocery store you have ever been to, where you can get ANYTHING, and it is all crammed into two 7-11s...with an entire kitchen shop on top of it. That's Zabars. Here are three quick shots to show you what I mean—you can see them on my blog (no ads...and I am not selling anything...come on over: jimbellomo.com.

All the sections of the store were as well-stocked, with as many choices as the cheese section. Add an upstairs cooking supply store, and for people like me who love to cook, it was magic. We stuck around there, but I knew I wasn't going to buy anything because I didn't want to have to lug it around the rest of the day. I am ashamed to say that every product I saw in the kitchen supply shot that I really wanted, I took a photo of with my phone and will be ordering those from Amazon when we get back home. I love to support small businesses but Zabars looked like they will survive (they have for a very long time).

I got done looking long before the rest of the gang, so I went outside to find a mailbox to drop some postcards I had written. Yes, I still write postcards. And then I planted myself in front of the store and did some street photography until everyone else had made their purchases. Here's a quick gallery of photos from that session of waiting about 15 minutes. Again, galleries don't work on Cruise Critic so please stop by https://www.jimbellomo.com.

I forgot to mention that this midday foray into Manhattan had totally broken one of my absolute travel laws—never go anywhere unplanned. For me, the worst thing to be when traveling is just wandering around and going, "What do you want to do now?" Just typing those words bothers me. I know. I should just be spontaneous. But more arguments and ruined vacation days have come from those seven words than I want to remember. But there we were outside of Zabars, asking ourselves where we wanted to go. So we checked the map and found out we were just north of the entrance to Central Park, and since no one in our group except me had ever walked through the park, we decided to head that way.

Once we were in the park, the next question was where to go. I had never been to the Belvedere Castle, so we headed off to find that. Hopefully, it would make a good photo-op. It did. After exploring the castle and the views from the castle, we spoke with a park guide who suggested a great walk down the rest of the park to Columbus Circle. I was all up for this, but that's because I am the walker in the group. The rest of the group decided that what they wanted most in NYC was a pastrami sandwich at a deli. So they headed off to find one on Lexington Avenue, and I headed south into the park on the route the guide had suggested to shoot more photos. Here's what I got in the park. (By now you should know where to find the photos.)

After I took the second Belvedere Castle shot, the battery in my camera died, and I had to switch to my partially charged backup. Talk about worried. I knew I had a long way to go to get back to a charger. So I walked through the rest of the park, making sure my camera was only turned on to take a composed shot that I liked. For me, this was sheer torture. I like taking pics of everything (that's why my batteries keep running out) and then sorting them out later. I probably discard 80% of the photos I take. But on this walk, I only took the ones I absolutely HAD TO HAVE. And this situation put me on another search. I was in Manhattan. There must be a camera store nearby where I could buy a new Nikon battery. Hopefully, they will have one fully charged and ready to go. So I popped out Google Maps on my phone and Googled nearby Nikon stores. I about fell on my face when I saw I was only 1.9 miles from the midtown home of B&H Photo.

For those of you who are not nutso, serious photographers like me, B&H is our Mecca. They are the ultimate camera store. They are only in NYC, but half the serious photographers in the USA buy from them. I had considered going there earlier, but I would have been the only one interested, and it would have been way too tempting for me. They literally have everything! Of course, as it turns out, they don't have everything. They don't sell fully charged Nikon batteries. Damn! (But that was OK. I got to spend about an hour browsing B&H and didn't spend a cent.) Did I mention that B&H was at 34th and 9th? Because now I was way past Pier 88—so off I went to get back to the ship and to rest my feet. My total miles walked on this day in the Square, The Park and B&H was 14.2. To say my feet and legs were mad at me is a huge understatement.

The walk back was uneventful. I didn't have any more photo opportunities because, by now, my camera battery was totally dead.

Sailing away from Manhattan

My plan (since I had shot our sail-in to NYC) was just to take a few photos as the ship was sailing back down the Hudson to the sea. But when I went up on deck and found that there was almost perfect light focused on the city, I had to stay and take more than a few photos. It was a good thing I had completely charged one of my camera batteries as soon as I had gotten back to the ship. Because, in that 45-minute trip from Pier 88 to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, I shot almost 300 photos. Everywhere I looked, there was perfect light on something else. I hope you agree. And don't worry. I culled them down to a few of the best. And of course you can see them at www.jimbellomo.com.

Other than an evening meal at Ember (another of Vista's specialty restaurants–that I will review soon along with the other three and all the food), that was about it for this day. It's a good thing because my feet could not take standing anymore. I was thrilled that yesterday was a sea day, and I didn't have any place to go except an onboard culinary class—more about that tomorrow. Today, we are in Charleston, South Carolina, and I look forward to a short walk to pick up a rental car, a covered surrey ride around downtown, some of the world's best Carolina BBQ at Rodney Scott's and a tour of the Magnolia Plantation. With a 90% chance of rain...this should be fun.

19 minutes ago, turnip eater said:

We were on the back deck at 1:00pm today, in t shirts, some in light jackets. Absolutely packed out.

Had a class in the Culinary Kitchen today. Never made it up there. Today would have been the day. Certainly not yesterday. I tried going out there and lasted about 5 minutes. And I love the cold. 

4 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

we will pass on the offer

Thanks

Sorry to hear that. We were looking forward to meeting you. Maybe on our next O cruise. Going on Riviera in Japan in 2025. 

5 hours ago, kibutzer said:

Go to Barristas after 6, go on back deck in Terrace. Lots of places to meet up and ta.k.

I haven't thought about Baristas. Didn't even know they did cocktails, but you can't get the 2-for-1 cocktails there. It has been a bit too cold to be out on the back deck. Today at lunch was the first time we saw anyone out there, and then only a hardy few. 

Just went up to Baristas. I was right, that you can't get the 2-for-1 Happy Hour there and they don't have any place to sit that we can fit the seven of us. But if you don't do those two things, that could work.

16 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Not sure  what VO has in the way of lounges   but Vista as well as the O class ships have several places  to hang out

Horizons, Grand bar (hallway) martinis, Founders Bar, pool deck

But  just depends on your personal choice

Hope you will meet us for a drink in one of them. Maybe tonight? I look exactly like my avatar. Will probably be on the port side of Horizons as far from the band as we can get.

On 10/9/2023 at 6:45 PM, Myrtle Ave. Mayhem said:

@DrKoob - Just found your thread & blog & am reading(devouring) every word. Huge Viking fan who's looking for another line to give a whirl. Originally was interested in Oceania after seeing renderings of Vista until I saw actual interiors from her maiden voyage. 

 

Here's the dilemma I'm seeing as a frequent Viking cruiser who has yet to try Oceania. Oceania clearly seems to win for dining in every way. Viking food can be very good, rarely excellent. Viking Ocean's cookie cutter ship design is perfect in every way(IMHO). LOVE the glorious light filled public rooms chock-a-full of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out to sea! All the quiet nooks & crannies with varried seating. As you mentioned, the full wrap around promenade deck is most enjoyable for daily walks. The Scandinavian Modern design of Viking vrs. Country Club of Oceania. Viking big win. It seems that Vista, having many more dining options has less lounge/bar space. Aboard Viking, The Living Room & Explorers Lounge are my daily & hangouts. Somehow Vista looks cold in comparison. 

First, once the cruise is done, I will come back with a full review and parts of it will be an extensive number of interior photos on my blog. In the meantime here are my thoughts on the lounges. They are fine but, what we would really love is someplace quiet where we can have a nice cocktail and talk. The first day we tried Martinis. A great lounge but, after we had been there for 15 minutes, a piano player sat down and played some great music. The only problem was, we wanted to talk. There are seven of us and that's why we came together from all over the country...to socialize. After he started playing, we couldn't hear a word we said to each other. 

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with background music...but that's where it belongs, in the background. But we thought that night, "No problem...we will move to the Grand Bar (which is a very nice long hallway with lots of seats) tomorrow night." But just about the same time as the night before, a string quartet (who are VERY good) set up and started to play. Again, we were expected to stop talking (got shushed a bunch of times) and listen. I get that. So the next night we said, let's go up to The Horizons Lounge. 

Same thing—talked for five minutes and the ship's band started playing. Loudly, for dancing. Great. People love to dance. We just wanted a place to have a pre-dinner drink and talk. I need to mention here that the Founders Bar has only tables for two so that wouldn't work for us. 

So my biggest problem with Oceania's lounges is that there are really only three indoor lounges. And not one of them is conducive to having a drink and talking. We cruise to either be with friends or to make new ones. If we want to listen to music, we will put our Airpods in our ears and listen. We just want to have a discussion without having to yell over music or ruin other's musical enjoyment. Can't there be one place where there is true background music? You won't find one before dinner on this ship. 

Whew! NYC wore me out...but it was GREAT!

So much to tell you. I hope I get this done before I have to go upstairs to do laundry (If I'm not the first person there on a sea day, I will never get it done.)

So, to go back what is now three days, there will be no report on Martha's Vineyard. After a fairly bumpy ride on Saturday night, the Captain made the decision that the seas were too rough and the swells too high to use the tenders safely, so we skipped the Vineyard and floated around out at sea for most of a day. But that worked out as early Monday morning, we sailed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into New York Harbor. We got incredibly lucky with the weather for both of our days in NYC. From the sail-in until the sail-away, we had either sunny or partly cloudy skies. Temps in the 50s and 60s, so I was loving it.

Day 1—we sail in

My day started at 4:45 a.m. when I headed up to the Horizons lounge at the front of the ship to watch the city get closer. Then, around 5:45, we sailed under the aforementioned VN Bridge, past Lady Liberty and all the way up the Hudson to Pier 88. We arrived at around 8:00 a.m., and the captain made what I thought was a miracle turn into our berth... I came back in from shooting photos to warm up. Even though the temps weren't that bad, the wind on the deck made it feel a whole lot colder. But I got some great pics, but if you want to see them you will need to go over to my blog at www.jimbellomo.com. 

Day 1–The Whitney and a High Line walk back

After a quick breakfast, the entire group (minus one who was still not fully recovered) set out to the Whitney Museum of American Art. We had pre-purchased tickets to see their collection. We had planned this because we were on the East Side of Manhattan, and the gigantic Columbus Day parade was on the West Side. We would head that way tomorrow. The main reason I wanted to go to The Whitney was that they have the largest collection of paintings by my favorite American artist, Edward Hopper. Sadly, not a lot of them are displayed (BOOH!). But we still enjoyed our two-hour visit. Then we walked across the street to see The Little Island up close and personal.

The Little Island. Taken from the outdoor viewing area of The Whitney Museum[/caption]

The Little Island is one of the newest parts of the waterfront. It is entirely man-made and very reminiscent of the Gaudi architecture in Barcelona. The entire island sits on what looks like flowers coming out of the water, but once on the island, you would never know it. We walked all over the island. There's an amphitheater, food stands and some incredible views up and down the Hudson. You will see them if you head over to my blog.

After our visit to the Little Island, we grabbed a quick bite of pizza in front of the Whitney, and Kathleen, Mike and Cathy took an Uber back to the ship while Steve and Jamie did a little shopping, and I set off to walk back to the ship via the High Line. If you are not familiar with the High Line, it is an elevated platform that runs from just outside the doors of the Whitney up Manhattan's west side to just about where Vista was berthed. It used to be an old elevated railway but is now a beautiful pedestrian walkway.

I had previously walked the High Line on our last trip to NYC in 2018, but that was before sunrise when it was empty. This time was midday, and it was jam-packed with people out for a holiday (Columbus Day—which is still celebrated in NYC) stroll. 

Our evening—sorry, no pics

After I got back and gave my legs a rest, we all met up at 4:15 to go to dinner at Kellari Taverna. Kathleen and I had eaten there on our honeymoon in 1999. We loved it then, but not so much now. Their menu had gone from traditional Greek to pretty much seafood, and we had all come with dreams of a great Greek feast. The only truly Greek dish on their menu was mousaka, but it was a vegan dish (are you kidding me???). They did have a tasty octopus that I liked and a nice Greek salad. At least their baklava was excellent.

Almost forgot to explain why we were going to dinner so early—we had tickets to a Broadway show! Come on, you can't come to NYC without seeing a Broadway show. When we booked the cruise, one of the highlights was this overnight stay in New York. But one big problem—most Broadway shows are dark on Monday nights, and we were there...on Monday night. But thankfully, a few still run, and we were lucky enough to snag tickets to Six. If you have not heard of Six, it is the story of the six wives of Henry the Eighth. I know, sounds boring, right? But what a high-powered, amazing musical that turned out to be all about feminine empowerment. Each of the wives sang in the style of two of our current pop stars—for instance, Catherine of Aragon sang in the style of Beyonce and Shakira. And she and the rest of the Six could sing. Grab the cast album from your favorite streaming site and have a listen—an uplifting and energizing show. It is on a national tour currently, so if you get a chance, go see it. You won't be sorry—we weren't. By the time we were done with Six, we were exhausted, and it was back to the ship and bed. I needed to be up for Day 2's predawn photo walk. More about that in my next post.

34 minutes ago, Elbig said:

Not sure what your exact concerns are about size of ship but I was on Regent Splendor which holds about 750 pax and it was a great experience and seemed a very reasonable size. I can’t imagine that 900 pax experience would be that different. I strongly suggest you give it try if you can find the right itinerary especially considering you are looking around. 

Thanks for the recommendation. I will have to take a look. I was thinking they were under 300. 

Please Stay Tuned...NYC got in the way

Good morning, all! Just a quick note: your favorite travel blogger will return in a few days. I usually write in the mornings before dawn, but today, I took this photo (and a lot of others) as we sailed into NYC. We will be here until late tomorrow night, so I will be using tomorrow morning for a long walk on the Highline before the sun comes up. Thankfully, we have a sea day after we leave here so that I can catch up. Until then...stand by.

14 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

@DrKoob

When you see the Maitre d again, tell him of your experience and ask him if there is a way to have another fabulous dinner with him?  Sometimes each evening we have “stopped bye” early and late to see if there was some availability. 🤪👍🙏.  I realize your ship is full but my guess is you will be successful. Now you can understand why my DW has shared her need for a PH when we sail. Again, Happy Wife, Happy Life.

Bye the way, we have found the Baristas are usually from Toscana.  Make a good friend there and ask how you can get another dinner reservation. 
Really appreciate your writings and we heard you lost Martha’s Vineyard today.  Bummer, nice stop. 
Have a great rest of your trip.

Mauibabes

Our problem with getting another reservation is that there are seven of us. So, there is only one table that will fit us all in all four specialty restaurants. Embers doesn't even have a table that big at all. I had to do 5 and 2. And yes, we did lose Martha today. But they refunded all tour monies to accounts and came up with a bunch of activities to do. Just wish they could open deck 15 so I could walk the track. Too much wind. We are getting 39-43 knot winds from the south east.

16 minutes ago, makai 7 said:

Jim- thank you for this… I will have to try it when we cruise on Vista.

 

if you are willing to eat without your entire group, find the Maitre d of Toscana and ask if they have any sharing table openings.. often if you are flexible with date and time you can get another reservation.

I can't desert the rest of the family/friends. That's why we can't get a reservation again. We need the only table that will hold 7. They could do it for us on Monday night when we are overnight in NYC but we have tickets to a Broadway show and dinner reservations just off Broadway, pre-show.