Moochi

Watched a lot of cabin/ship tours on YouTube when we first looked into Oceania. That suite looks fantastic. Congratulations on booking it! I look forward to read your and Lain’s live post.

It is huge. The shape on the deck plan is not very accurate. It is more of a right trapezoid. One side is the normal depth of an SS balcony. The other side adjacent to the royal suite is double depth.

Yes. These two cabins have larger bathroom with separate shower and bathtub. But there is only one swing glass door in these cabins vs. two sliding glass doors so your view from the cabin is more obstructed. Also there is vey little shade above the balcony makes it very sunny most of the day. They used to have the same butler assigned to the PH, allegedly the best on the ship. Guess it doesn't matter now.

Not a problem at all. Last time it took us 62 minutes from the ship to the airport gate. It would be less than 55 minutes with TSA pre check. You can safely book flights after 9:30. This experience only applies to FLL.

@Alsmez thank you for the pictures. The XL bathroom is a lot better, although still ugly and bare minimum. And I heard there is no door between the bathroom and living area, just the glass doors for toilet and shower in your picture right? Edit: to keep the discussion Celebrity related, below is a picture of the vanity area of a Sky Suite on Beyond. It is within the budget in the VV ad, when you snag a deal.

That’s funny. That $5,430 cost on “the other line” for a week in the Caribbean gives you Retreat on their glorious newest ship (the March sale). Retreat comes with: - free PREMIUM internet - unlimited drinks, $1,800 value - real bed - free specialty coffee that doesn’t taste like dish washing water - a bathroom that is big enough for an adult - a cabin that is big enough for two adults - nice thick fluffy towels - icy towels and cold water at pier to welcome you back to the ship - organized and pain less embarkation and disembarkation process - no need to book any main dinning room or show, because there is always space available - a real pool or two, maybe - can’t forget that, free lobsters I’m willing to give up the gimmicky red hammock for all these. I like Virgin. I have another booked and will book more if the price is right. But there is no need to attack other lines.

Totally agree. Have been wanting to try YC and Haven for some time, but can’t find anything cheaper than a Sky Suite.

VV should adopt Celebrity’s silent disco idea for Scarlet Night. Then I will have a really good time doing people watching 🤣

Last year’s price includes $850 OBC and gratuities. That’s around $1,000 difference

Carlos was on Valiant during our sailing last week. It was the new version - ticketed event in the Red Room. It was awesome! I arrived 10 minutes before starting and the venue was very full. The only reason I had a decent seat was because I was by myself.

We are finally on to Day 5, Puerto Plata We booked the Wake for brunch. We had an excursion later on, and budgeted 70 minutes for the brunch. We thought we would have plenty of time to enjoy a peaceful brunch before heading into the heat. As it turned out, it was not enough. When we were seated, we heard in the broadcast that there's a crew safety drill happening soon. Our server didn't mention anything. We thought, oh, there's nothing to do with us. After our drinks were delivered, there was a long pause before the food came out. We noticed the venue all the sudden got quiet. The table at the far end that was sharing their life story left. Along with all the servers in the restaurant. The customers were just sitting there waiting. Ummm where's everyone? What's going on? Did they go to the safety drill? When are they coming back? Are kitchen staff going to the drill too? Can we make it to our excursion? 25 minutes later, my clam chowder showed up. It was as great as I remembered. But I started to worry about the time. Then the poached shrimp was brought to us. We were almost running late so I shoveled all the shrimps in my mouth and left like a chipmunk. I know I'm not supposed to walk around with food still in my mouth. But I think it's more rude to ask our tour mates to wait for us in the Puerto Plata heat. The food was still delicious but the experience was weirdly rushed in the end. We fully understand the importance of crew safety drill, and won't ask anyone to prioritize anything above safety. But since it's a planned drill, it would be really nice if the staff let us know that the service would be delayed by about 30 minutes and we can decide if we want to dine in or go somewhere else.

(Completely unrelated: Do we want to go on Celebrity Ascent in March? 7 night in Retreat for $5,500.) For Extra Virgin, I got fried calamari for starter and DH got beef carpaccio. I love fried calamari. Whenever I see it on the menu, I order it. EV's calamari is bad. It's more like fried elastic band. Over cooked elastic band. I ended up eating hubby's carpaccio. It was quite good, despite the fact I don't truffle flavored anything. Not that I don't like truffles. There was a story involved a bar in Detroit, $280 worth of cocktails down in two hours, and truffle popcorns. I'm sure no one here needs to hear that story but it ruins truffle for me. For pasta dish, I got bucatini carbonara. Although the flavor was great, I was not a fan of the texture of the noodles. It tastes gummy, like the dough didn't develop enough gluten. I was almost certain the noodles were extruded not rolled and cut. It was my own fault. I didn't know what bucatini was when ordering. I googled it later on. That shaped pasta gotta be extruded. For main, I ordered braised pork cheek. It was flavorful, savory, tender but the meat still held its shape. Very solid dish. The dessert. The lovely couple (They have sailed on VV 17 times!) recommended chocolate olive oil cake. My head was full of the idea of having gelato. Knowing we had another booking in Extra Virgin on a later date, I decided to go with gelato and try the chocolate cake the next visit. Why did I want gelato so badly? Because I was disappointed at the ice cream at the ice cream place. It was full of ice crystals. So, I put on the biggest smile I can, and asked for one scoop of every single gelato and sorbet they have. I got what I wanted. It was delicious, satisfying, and ridiculous. I ate everything so fast, because the gelato was melting. My husband probably was laughing hard inside, but I didn't care.

The towel between the pool chair and guest property is property of Oceania. If they lift up all four corners of the towel together carefully... Oops

Continuing my thoughts on Test Kitchen food on Night 3. The first half is here. Sorry for the wrong order. That's what happens when we enjoyed ourselves too much onboard and neglected to post. The 4th course, beef. The presentation was beautiful. The star was a piece of slow roasted beef, with cherry sauce that made a splash effect on the plate, tart cherries, and some thickened gravy poured table side. The beef was nothing special. Not juicy. The side dish, the crispy potato stack, got my attention. I'm not a huge fan of potatoes in any form but was impressed by the Test Kitchen potato. It was crispy, fluffy, soft, buttery, with a nice fried aroma. There was white powder on the potatoes. It was dehydrated something. Didn't hear what the server said. Sigh. The paired red wine was a pinot noir? Tasty but too light bodied for this dish. The 5th course, blue cheese dessert I didn't hear what was in the dish. It was a pudding/mousse with pear, pecan, and some oil? It was cold, smooth, creamy, with the blue cheese funk. I inhaled it. The last course, chocolate This was the only dish I didn't care much about. Not the biggest fan of any chocolate desserts, and I was full by then, plus the wine pairing was not great. I would be much happier with a glass of tawny port. My thoughts about the restaurant overall? Idea is great, food is awesome, presentation is excellent, service is average, drink pairing shouldn't exist. I'm very excited to go back to Test Kitchen on our next voyage to try the other menu.

It was coconut panna cotta. It looks beautiful and tastes great. The raspberries were filled with jam. Yummy! It was excellent. The only thing I would improve is to add pine nuts just before serving so it doesn't get soggy. Why double deserts? I ordered "the wake" benedicts, and it was not what I have imagined. Let's leave it that way.... I only provide constructive criticism to things that has a way to save.

Test Kitchen for day 3 dinner We were seated in the middle section of a very long table with another couple. They obviously had experience with Test Kitchen before and modified the menu with a few vegetarian dishes. We were served the menu with mushroom. There are three available drink pairings, wine, cocktail, and beer. I ordered wine pairings and DH got cocktail. We both love drink pairings. It is always fascinating to me that the chef and sommelier can find the perfect drink that enhances the taste of the food and vice versa. It’s odd that drink pairings are not printed on the menu under each dish. I thought it’s because of supply challenges and everything is subject to change. First course mushroom. It has similar texture as liver mousse, but made with mushroom, and shaped into a cute mushroom. I love liver mousse and mushroom, and find the dish very tasty with the crunchy bread. The wine pairing was…well I don’t know. I think it was a sauvignon blanc? Honestly I don’t understand much of what our server was saying. Neither do other three native speakers sitting next to me. It didn’t bother me enough that I ask for a different server. I see it as a game of guess what’s in this dish and what’s the chef’s intent. The only issue was, the wine and the mushroom dish didn’t go well together. The mushroom mousse was umami, savory, earthy, creamy, airy. I think a buttery creamy oaky Chardonnay or a light bodied red wine such as Pinot Noir can work well here. The pairing was a crisp white wine with some minerality and almost feels too sharp for the dish. The second dish was green peas with raw egg yolk and caviar. The presentation was great. The dish came with a glass smoke dome. The runner reminded us to have the camera ready. The dish was not bad. I wish there was more salt on the peas. It will cut some of the grassy taste from the very raw peas. I’m more used to raw egg yolks served with warm food, but cold is not bad. I will take that. The wine pairing was still unknown and weird choice for the dish. Actually the first wine will work better with peas. The third dish was scallop. It was delivered by the runners. Our server was with the table next to us so we didn’t even get the explanation of the dish that we couldn’t understand. There were seared scallops, prosciutto, and two different types of seaweed, in a very flavorful broth. Ha I found the salt that was missing from the pea dish. The broth here was very salty, and all the ingredients in the broth were naturally salty already. The whole thing was… you guessed it, very salty. So I chugged that unknown wine pairing. Besides the over seasoning part, the dish was delightful. The scallops were perfectly cooked, and the broth was swept clear. I cleaned plates of all first three dishes, despite the little flaws.

Book shows as soon as you get onboard. Move around your restaurant bookings if necessary as soon as you get onboard. Remember there isn’t enough space for everyone in the restaurants or theaters. Ask for mattress padding if you don’t like the bed.

Any line doesn't provide that? Then I'm bringing my own Charmin ultra strong😉 along with some flushable wipes that will guarantee to clog the lines. Cotton swabs should be available right? How about cotton pads for removing eye makeup? How is the body lotion for very dry skin?

Disagree lol. That burger didn't have onion jam on it. Another failed rice dish. I didn't learn my lessons did I? And this time I got two bowls! The tuna and five spice chicken. The rice was cooked magically with slightly less water this time, but still mushy. I love rice. I can eat a properly cooked bowl of good short grain rice on its own. This is the third time I've tried rice on VV and it's consistently terrible. What rice do they buy and what rice cooker do they use?? Tuna has too much sinews to my liking but the flavor is fine. It had too little seasoning to be the topping of a big scoop of rice. I just ate all the tuna and very little rice. The five spice chicken was tasty but dry. Yes, I'm very picky about Eastern Asian food.

The moly shrimps were so good that when we ordered shrimp from Dock House everyday after that, we wish they were moly shrimp from Pink Agave... I think I need to learn how to make the sauce. My favorite Youtube channel Epicurious had a great video on that by Chef Saul. The duck was great. I like how sweet the sauce was. Growing up outside of Shanghai, every dish has sugar in it, especially braised red meat. A sweeter sauce just tastes right to me. If I had to say something less positive, I wish the skin was either more crispy or broken down. It was slightly less tender than the meat. The milhojas was refreshing after the heavy duck dish. It was probably assembled in advance so the puff pastry was less crispy and crumbly than I like. But it was still a very tasty dessert.

They asked us to wait outside after check in and gave us the bracelets. We were joking about what if we gave the bracelets to someone else and let them board.... We sat at the 2nd floor waiting area for about 10-15 minutes after passing X ray. Then they called DBE and SOR to board. That group has at least 300-400 people, so there was another 10 minutes waiting in the line. It's just designed so backwards.

I have Virgin Voyages and Oceania booked. No future X booked but I’m not saying goodbye to it.

X ray people didn’t say anything, and there was no one at the desk where they take away the bottles. So we walked straight to our room. Again, this is a different line. Our experience with X has been similar.

The only time I got alcohol confiscated was when Gulmohar’s sent our bottles directly to the ship naughty room. We were on a mission to go to the French side to buy chartreuse so didn’t want to carry the bourbon around. We are currently on a different line that doesn’t offer drink package. We accidentally smuggled a bottle of rare tequila onboard. We were ready to turn it in but no one was paying any attention.

you are not wrong about the ingredients in a typical old fashioned. Bourbon, sugar syrup, angostura bitters, and an orange peel. An old fashioned style cocktail would consist a base spirit, or split base in this case; a small amount of sweetener such as sugar, or sugar syrup, or a sweet liqueur such as maraschino liqueur, benedictin, or yellow chartreuse; and bitters for seasoning. This drink fits perfectly in this formula. So yes, it’s an old fashioned. It’s possible that the bartender has his own take on this drink and pour way too much larger on top to make it a high ball. But either way, there shouldn’t be any citrus juice or simple syrup in this drink.