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Hi @pinotlover - I think you may have been asking me those questions as I am the one who mentioned the duck salad. Wow - your experience with it on the Riviera sounds very disappointing! I’d be asking my server for a menu and pointing out what was missing and asking for the salad to be replaced. Very disappointing that a dish so different than what it should be was allowed to leave the kitchen. When is say “spicy”, I usually do mean heat. But when I say “spices”, I mean those flavorful, aromatic add-ins that can make a dish complex, layered, and region specific. They don’t have to have heat. That steamed ginger cake in Red Ginger was amazing - the ginger (and who knows what else) in the cake matched so well with the cardamom in the ice cream - definitely spices but not hot! And while I don’t think fish sauce is spicy, I do think it is pungent! And the Thai beef salad I make would be nothing without it. I’ve never thought of fish sauce as sweet - that’s the wording from the Vista menu and that was a bit surprising to me. I’m not a duck girl but at least on two nights on the Vista in December that salad was amazing. It is very disappointing that it was such a poor substitute on the Riviera.

We were on Vista over Christmas - our first Oceania cruise and we thought the food was amazing. We had previously cruised on Paul Gauguin, Celebrity (2X), Celebrity Expedition, Windstar, Disney, and Holland America (2X). While we really enjoyed the food on Paul Gauguin and HAL Rotterdam, we thought the Vista beat them both. We ate in every venue on the Vista. Multiple times in the GDR for dinner, Red Ginger 2X, Waves dinner 2X/lunch X4, Aquamar lunch X4, buffet lunch 2X. Room service breakfast 7X before early shore excursions. About us - we love Asian food of all types, Central and South American cuisine, and Mediterranean/Middle Eastern too. Love spicy hot, but also spices and herbs to create complex, regionally specific flavors with or without heat. Husband prefers fish and chicken, I'm a beef and pork girl. I'll start with the misses: Aquamar Spa - Pita chicken - This was a chicken sandwich in a pita and the chicken didn't have a bit of color on it - looked like it was boiled. Sure it wasn't, and sure it wasn't undercooked, but it was so unappetizing I ordered something else. Ember - Roasted apple tart - a soggy mess. Corn ice cream didn't seem to have much flavor so overall disappointing. In Cabin Dining - Omelets were routinely awful - tried twice for ham and cheese but just a congealed mess. I'm OK with 3 misses on a 12 night cruise! What we really loved: Red Ginger - everything we ate over our 2 visits was very good; standouts were: Spicy Duck and watermelon salad - crispy duck, watermelon, cashews, mint, basil, sweet fish sauce - so good I had it twice (it was ducky and smoky and sweet and savory ...) Vietnamese chicken salad - shredded chicken, cabbage, carrots, onions, sweet chili sauce - this is something that we frequently get at home at our favorite Vietnamese place it it did not miss. Miso glazed sea bass - den miso, hoba leaf - I don't eat fish but my husband loved this. Salmon clay pot - bok choy, basmati rice - again, a standout for my husband. Steamed ginger cake - Apple-cardamom ice cream - so many interesting flavors going on at once - my favorite dessert of the trip. Polo Grill - food was good but mostly not exceptional, entree (ribeye, I think) was the least memorable of the 4 specialties and not as good as the steak in Toscana and Ember. The highly vaunted Key Lime Pie was good but I live in Florida so was not exceptional to me. Cream of Mushroom Soup - creamy and earthy, this made the dinner worth it to me. Baked Alaska - vanilla, raspberry, berry compote - my husband's favorite, and he was happy. Toscana - I was surprised at how much I loved this meal - I was expecting it to be in 3rd place in term of specialties but they were really on their game the night we ate there. Involtini di Melanzane - eggplant rolls, Prague ham and smoked scarmorza stuffing, tomato sauce, Parmesan - smoky, salty, tomato-y - my favorite appetizer of the trip Giada’s Capri-inspired lemon spaghetti - lemon cream, jumbo shrimp, mascarpone, Parmesan, fried capers - delicious but super rich, was happy to have gotten the appetizer portion Filetto di Manzo alla Fiorentina - filet mignon, Gorgonzola crust, sautéed spinach, red wine reduction, served on polenta - perfectly cooked, best steak of the trip. Ember - enjoyed everything here (except for the apple tart) Grilled Beef Tenderloin - fully loaded baked potato, charred corn on the cob, chimichurri sauce - perfectly cooked and full of flavor - so much better than the steak from Polo. It was quite the surprise. Aquamar Spa Gazpacho - tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, sweet onion - so much flavor, I had this all 4 times we ate here. Panini - buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil, grilled ciabatta bread - a really good panini. Well grilled and the basil adds some nice flavor. Pita Sabich - Falafel, roasted tahini eggplant, red cabbage, flat parsley, pita bread, lemon tahini sauce - again, really a lot of flavor and the falafel are huge. Waves Oceania Cuban sandwich (lunch) - we live in Florida and this was a delicious Cuban - had had it twice. Matador Burger - jalapeño cheddar, applewood smoked bacon (asked for double bacon), barbecue sauce - good enough I had it twice. Best burger I've had on a ship. Burrata & Crudo - fresh burrata, tomato, prosciutto, rosemary focaccia (dinner) - so good paired with a freshly made Caesar salad from Terrace. And it is big enough for a meal, not just appetizer. Main dining room - we actually did not have a miss here the whole trip, most everything was excellent but these were the standouts for us. Auguste Escoffier’s Bouchée a la Reine - chicken, truffle, mushrooms, supreme sauce - the sauce is so delicate but delicious. Falafel Fritters - harissa mayo, cucumber, mint, capers - perfect spices Colombian Sancocho Soup - chicken, beef, corn - such good flavor, not sure which herbs/spices made it so flavorful but a very nice soup. Mulligatawny soup - red lentils, coconut - great flavors, would not have thought a lentil based soup would be so delicious Chicken tikka salad - tomatoes, cucumber, mint, lime dressing - lotsa flavors going on between the mint and the dressing - delicious Serrano Cured Ham - marinated artichokes, pecorino romano, bread sticks (good enough I had it two nights; this is available every night) Cuban Casserole - I couldn't find the description for this one online but there was chicken, tomato, onion, peppers, olives maybe, and rice. A big portion and really good. Terrace Cafe - lots of deliciousness here, but these were the standouts for us: Empanadas - served on the day they had Mexican food and they were just right! Mole beef - again from the Mexican lunch - this was perfect. So tender and complex spices. Humphrey Slocombe Ice Cream - Secret Breakfast (cornflakes and bourbon), Elvis the Fat Years (banana ice cream with bacon peanut brittle), Meyer Lemon Pound Cake, and Strawberry Chocolate. Wanted to try the Black Sesame but never saw it on our cruise. What we really loved was the ability to get simpler, less fussy but still delicious food for dinner. We get tired of the 3 course meals for dinner after a week, so being able to get a salad and pizza, or that amazing burrata rather than a full meal was a life saver for us. We've got Seabourn, Regent, and Silversea cruises booked over the next year or so and I'm seeing that that's not really a thing on these more luxury lines - we may end up thinking food on Oceania is a better fit for us, I don't know. Have a great time on Oceania!

Thanks so much for this thread kej1! My husband and I are on the Pursuit in August, Darwin to Sydney, with 4 stops in Indonesia and 2 in Papua New Guinea. I am hoping that people disappointed in the excursions are making that disappointment known to expedition team/Seabourn. I understand this is a new itinerary for them, but we were assured when we booked the trip that aside from weather issues there would be ample snorkeling, and your report is giving me a little pause. Thanks so much for reporting your experience so I can put my expectations somewhat in check. Hope the rest of your trip is fantastic!