PhD-iva

I was trying to explain some of those complications to my wife over dinner, and after listening to just a few, she just said " It's your problem, pour me more wine'!!

I like your wife's attitude![emoji106]

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Prior to posting my reply, I went to the Celebrity website to get the right name (Cellar Masters). So, as of today, it is still noted on the Celebrity website!!!!

We LOVED Cellar Masters! [emoji35]

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WHAT?????!!!!!!

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I also prefer to cruise w fewer children (I love mine own, but others'...?). We recently cruised on Marina's Copenhagen 21 June departure. There were some kids (all ages), but I must say all were well behaved and unobtrusive.

Enjoy your cruise!

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An advantage of using Oceania Air is the flexibility it provides to take advantage of last minute offers to switch itineraries or departure dates. If you booked a very popular itinerary/sailing date, you might get last minute upgrade offers. We got some very tempting upgrade offers, and finally I was able to talk my DH into pulling the trigger. For us it was still on the same ship and departure date, but we had the flexibility to consider anything thrown at us. If we had booked our own air, we would not have had the same flexibility.

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We are trying Oceania (reportedly best cuisine at sea) this December.

 

BON APETITE

I know this is a Celebrity forum, but I will just add that we did a 9-day Oceania Baltic cruise this past June and the food really was amazing.

Due to my special issues, I prefer a buffet to allow me to select a little of each item, and return for seconds when I find food that "works" for me. The Oceania cafeteria buffet was amazing; unlike my recollections of X, Princess and HAL, at least half of the Oceania buffet offerings changed daily. Many dinner items offered in the GDR were available at the buffet.

The Grand Dining Room was also excellent. All specialty restaurants are included at "no extra charge" (they get you with the more expensive cruise prices).

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My DH and I were on the Reflection DEC 2013 and on the Solistice previously. We discovered the Cellar Masters, which is a self-serve wine bar that dispenses wine in various sizes, such as 1 oz, 3 oz, 5 oz (I don't remember the exact offering). It is usually very quiet and it gives you the opportunity to try some exquisite wines that might otherwise be out of reach, or you might decide you don't care for if you could only purchase a full glass.

Since we're not heavy drinkers, we found it made more sense to spend our alcohol budget there (as well as bringing a bottle or two on board and enjoying in our stateroom).

Enjoy your cruise!

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I am just off the marina, and was in concierge veranda level A1 state room. I had difficulty getting the hairdryer to work until my excellent state room attendant explained to me that it cannot be used in the bathroom. She plugged it in by the desk and it worked fine. I have short hair and can dry my hair quite quickly. The point is that it will not work well or barely at all in the bathroom.

Enjoy your cruise!

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I am just back from a wonderful cruise on the marina, which was a truly fabulous experience. We selected the option of free shore excursions, but I think if I could do it all over again I probably would have chosen the OBC. OCeania's shore excursions that are available as part of the Olife program are not good values. There are not many choices available to choose from, in my opinion. You are probably better off going with one of the third-party providers that get good reviews here on Cruise critic. That's what we didfor the non-Oceania shore excursions that we selected.

Have a great cruise!

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Although we were very anxious about our ability to navigate a 90 minute transfer arriving in Chicago from Stockholm, we were able to make the connection. We literally RAN through the airport to get to our gate just as boarding began. Immigration in Chicago was very fast and customs was a snap.

However, the concern that many things could go wrong weighed on us throughout our cruise.

The cruise was fabulous and worth it!!!

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Hopefully I have posted a photo of the Jacques menu, which includes chocolate soufflé. I ordered different variations at least twice during our cruise on the Marina. Very good!

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On board Marina now. Our first dinner reservation was for the Red Ginger on embarkation night. We were really looking forward to having excellent Asian food, as we don't have good local choices in the college town where we live in Central Texas.

Of the three dishes I ordered, two were just awful; the bay scallops were excellent. The two side dishes that I ordered were never delivered. I was not able to get enough food to eat, and didn't want to try to order more food as the service was really bad. I mean really bad. Orders were placed incorrectly so there were delays to fix the dishes. Most or many of the wait staff were brand new, and struggled w the tasks even though the restaurant was not full.

To get enough to eat I ordered room service as soon as we got back to our stateroom.

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On Marina now. Very hard to get registered to use the Internet service, and very frustrating to use it. Very few of my text messages to family are delivered. Hard to download daily newspaper (WSJ). [emoji34]

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Very interesting thread. We embark a week from today on the Marina, and I am looking forward to using my scendiletto. As I recall from my year in Italy many decades ago, letto means bed and scendi is from the verb scendare, which I think means "to descend" or "to get down". Well, I'll have to google it.

Are the slippers disposable? (Hope so - wouldn't want to reuse someone's slippers). And, do all staterooms have them? Thx!

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Yes, we can have cruise only. That is the way we will have to go in the future, we liked the included air because if there is a problem with the air arrangements it is down to Oceania to solve the problem.

My husband and I are using the included air arrangements on a return flight after the June 24 Viking Tales cruise from Copenhagen to Stockholm. We are a little concerned about the short layover in Chicago during which we need to collect our baggage, get through customsand then re-check our bags and find our gate all within 90 minutes. This is scheduled during the late evening, and we're afraid if we miss our connecting flight to Austin that we might have difficulty rebooking the flight because Oceana booked us on two different airlines. To clarify, we are flying from Stockholm to Chicago on Scandinavia air, and then from Chicago to Austin on American Airlines. When we spoke over the phone to someone from Scandinavia air, they were not confident that we would be able to receive a printed boarding pass for our AA domestic flight before we board in Stockholm. We are a bit nervous about having to navigate all the difficulties that might arise in Chicago to get a boarding pass, or to rebook our connecting flight if it is missed.

Any thoughts or suggestions? We are really looking forward to our first Oceania cruise, we are sure it will be fabulous. [emoji41]

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"As long as you arrive by cruise ship, stay no longer than 72 hours and are either with a ship's tour or an official Russian guide, you will not need a visa."

To be accurate, you WILL need a visa, but the tour company or cruise ship will process the paperwork for you.

We booked group tours with SPB Tours; my sister-N-law went on several baltic tours with them last year, including SPB, and highly recommends them. We selected and reserved our tours on their website.

Have a great time!

Many thanks for all of your replies and thoughts!

We`re just back from a ho-hum cruise on Celebrity (our sixth cruise overall and third w Celebrity) and I am ready to plan for an upgrade to Oceania for our next cruise.

Now that I have several cruises under my belt, I notice that I lose a day or two to seasickness when cruising in the Caribbean, but not when cruising in the Mediterranean. The pills/patch make me drowsy, hence I try to get by without medication when possible. After a day or two, I get my sea legs, and I'm fine.

I have wanted to move to a smaller ship, which even the O ships would be when compared to Celebrity's Solstice-class ships. I'm wondering if experienced Oceania cruisers notice if the smaller R ships experience more "rocking" than the larger O ships.

Thanks for your thoughts. I know motion sickness is very personal, but at some point I will have to make a choice between the R and the O ships. So, your thoughts will help me to make the decision.

Thanks for a great review! We're departing this Saturday on Reflection, and your review is very helpful. Good thing we didn't upgrade to the alcoholic drinks package. I will try to stick to "bubbly" water and specialty coffees.

Speaking of coffee, how was the regular coffee on Reflection? I heard it's not made from syrup and is pretty good (I'm quite particular about coffee).