catandmouse

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Atlantic Beach Resort. It's on 41st Street Collins Avenue and is reasonably priced for a beach front hotel. It's not a luxury hotel, but we took a sea view room with balcony and the only sound was the waves, so it's very quiet. The hotel and the room were very clean and the staff very promptly dealt with small minor issues we had. There are a couple of restaurants, but there's also the trolley which will take you up and down Collins Avenue. We Uber'd from MIA, about 20 minutes and then Uber'd to the cruise terminal, maybe 15 minutes.

I prefer my coffee more European, Italian style. I don't like adding milk or cream. In any case I always managed to get the baristas to make the coffee the way I wanted it. After 2 or 3 visits, as soon as they saw me coming, they knew exactly what I wanted in any case and they were always friendly about it.

Indeed, even though I'm currently on the Marina, I'm getting contradictory information on what the refurb entails. They're making most noise about the restaurants and much less about the cabins, but it sounds as though the bathrooms in the penthouse suites are being redone though whether to match Riviera or not isn't clear. The veranda staterooms sound as though they get a carpet job and possibly paint, though in my opinion not necessary.

No the shower in the tub is still there but using it tends to flood the whole bathroom as the glass screen only provides partial protection. Sometimes I wish the guys who designed these things had actually tried them out before installing them.

Just coming off Marina after a 15 day cruise in a Concierge Veranda cabin. In my opinion the weakest point is the bathroom and the miniscule shower. At least there's no way you can fall over in the shower! We visited a vacant Penthouse Suite with a view to potentially upgrading our next cruise and was shocked to find the same miserable bathroom as our veranda stateroom though obviously the rest of the cabin is a marked improvement, particularly the walk-in closet which is a major improvement on the largely inaccessible closet in the veranda stateroom.

There is a fundamental difference between tipping in the USA and the rest of the world. In the US wait staff are paid a pittance, whilst in most other places in the world staff are paid a proper living wage. I live near Geneva, Switzerland and the minimum legal wage is about 25 CHF/hour (about 27 USD). I know Switzerland is a high cost country, but that's nevertheless orders of magnitude above what happens in the US. Wait staff are paid a proper living wage here and that's even true in France, where the minimum wage (the SMIC) is lower, but still just about allows you to live. I understand the situation in the US. I've worked with many US colleagues who went through college and partly financed themselves by working and living off tips, because that was what was expected. However, the tipping culture in the rest of the world is very different. I feel no need to tip waiters here, though I will usually round up a little, but certainly nowhere near the 20% expected in the US. As far as Oceania is concerned, I will let the auto-tip/auto-service or whatever they call it, stand. I would prefer if it was built into the fares that we have to pay, but I recognize that most passengers are North American, that Oceania is a US company, and I therefore accept that's the way you have to do things. I hesitate about adding any more, sounds like tipping the tips.

Our last cruise was on Insignia around South Africa in January. I'm pretty sure that in Terraces the coffee came from automatic coffee machines, with built-in grinder (a bit like Jura machines, but commercial size). It was not bad and certainly an improvement on the stuff in thermos flasks. If you want an expresso, they'll run an expresso from the machine. My next cruise is on Marina in December and I'm hoping I can still get decent coffee.

On my last cruise I very carefully explained to the barista in Barista how to prepare a "lungo" or long black. I had to stress that it was not an Americano and that pouring hot water into a coffee only scalded the coffee and made it taste vile. It's easy to prepare, you just run the hot water through the grains until the cup is full, pushing the button a second time if necessary. Apparently this goes totally counter to what barista-schools in the US teach. In any case, that was one of the advantages of Oceania, it's sufficiently small that the baristas recognized me and remembered how I wanted my coffee prepared! By the way, I do drink expressi later in the day, but in the morning I like my lungo.

A lungo is a long coffee. You just run the hot water through the ground coffee to fill the cup. Don't add any extra water. Indeed you make it just like an expresso but run more water (about twice as much) through the coffee. Contrary to what the barristas tell you, it doesn't make the coffee bitter. If the coffee tastes bitter that's a reflection on the quality of the coffee, how it's been roasted or that it's been ground too fine.

I can't stand Americano coffee. The hot water that's added scalds the coffee. I prefer a proper lungo. On my last Oceania cruise I explained to the baristas In Barristas how to prepare a proper lungo and they were more than happy to prepare me what I drink here in Switzerland, and I even found some other cruisers who followed my line!