lilybug

Enjoyed your review, thank you!

Your updates are very enjoyable.   Seems like you have a nice, relaxed, positive attitude.  Glad you are enjoying your first O cruise!

Well said ... vacation is about enjoying what makes you happy!

21 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Not every port has provisions.  No grapes has been going on for over a week.  No grapes in Athens?  I went on an excursion in Athens that included lunch. Dessert was fruit. Those grapes were beautiful. 

There may be grapes in Athens, but that doesn't mean O is at liberty to purchase them.  They contract with purveyors in certain ports, same as restaurants.  

On 5/29/2024 at 11:00 AM, mauibabes said:

We certainly have experienced certain fresh fruits, vegetables and meat and fish outages and when we asked the people who actually know, we find out the Provisioners were unable to deliver the shipment at that port and time. We have also seen entire pallets of fruits and vegetables left behind because they were substandard and the Chef would not allow them aboard. Quality is very important to O and its guests and fresh products do spoil.  
I am still amazed to see my local grocery stores with reduced supplies of vegetables or fresh fruits and berries, bananas, etc.  I was talking to one of the managers yesterday and he was lamenting how difficult it was to fill shelves like they used to. Call it Supply Chain issues or whatever, things are just not the same as yesterday. 
I guess we will just have to enjoy what we have and not worry about what we don’t because we really have no control over things, especially in todays market environment. 
Mauibabes

This is a show on tv, I believe it is a few years old, "Mighty Cruise Ships", it's more about the workings of the ships and what goes on behind the scenes.  So many episodes - and they cover just about every cruise line - they stress that the chef inspects all the provisions and often turns away what they consider substandard.  And they don't get provisions in all ports.  Sometimes they just can't get what they ordered.  It's just like planning a dinner at home and you go to the store and can't get all the ingredients you need.  Seems to happen frequently these days.  Also, I've found the quality of fresh fruit and produce can be disappointing, even in the higher priced food stores.  Just the way it is ....

Friends from here in Florida on Marina right now - their first time.  I will be interested to hear their thoughts when they return.  We will be on Marina in July (5th O cruise), and have friends who will be on Marina in late August - first time.  I think it was the itineraries that sold both couples.  We have always "talked up" O to our friends, but none would join us.  We always did Celebrity with friends.  They always felt O was too expensive.  I can't wait to hear if they feel it was worth it.  

I have been trying to ge them out of the cart for well over a week - every day, several times a day.  I can't proceed with shore excursions because they will charge my credit card for over $1200 for the drink pkg.  Excursions are from Simply More.  When I called O, he said my travel agent has to do it, she said she will take care of it.  I have a feeling she may be having the same difficulties I am.  Their technology is so frustrating that this may be our last cruise with them.  I understand people are still cruising under the old beverage pkg., but is it too much to expect that they would also provide a separate Simply More option?  This is nothing to do with maintenance.  

We also received the thank you for booking email with 3 question survey and error message.  I tried to purchase Bev. pkg. and the old upgrade went into my cart and I can't remove it.  Every time I hit "remove", screen turns gray and nothing happens.  I've called them and also asked our TA to help but nothing has happened.  I want to prepay gratuities, purchase package and a couple of excursions but I can't get that old pricing (over $1200) out of the cart.  Very frustrating.  I know I can do this onboard, but I wanted to have it paid for beforehand.

We were on Riviera last summer and loved the bathroom.  I guess that is the disappointment for us.  As for pizza oven ... well, pizza is something we can get here anytime, any place.  We were thought the Marina was going to mirror Riviera.  It really is not a big deal for us, but having always sailed the R ships until last summer, we thought Marina and Riviera would be the same.  All that being said, looking forward to our cruise in July!

On 5/13/2024 at 11:19 AM, ORV said:

Nope, not the suite, I just checked my Jan/Feb book for Marina, 24 day. On page 4 it has personalized information about us, on page 18 it has our stateroom with our name, a picture of the room and a deck plan showing where the room is. 

 

Then for our most recent Regatta cruise that left on 4-20 for 11 days only had a generic book about Regatta and no personalized information. No suite for either cruise. 

 

So, it's one of a few things, they simply quit doing the personalized info sometime in March(my pick), they don't do them for the smaller ships, or it depends on cruise length. Or something else. .

 

We recently got the same thing, I was disappointed as last summer we had the personalized version and it was handy and informative.

On 5/11/2024 at 5:00 PM, thebsinmiss said:

Yes, there is another thread discussing the "blue envelopes" reappearance.

 

No, there isn't anything else based on what three other couples and ourselves received for our June Riviera sailing.  Nice luggage tags and the nice glossy PR piece on the Riviera. Nothing else

We received the same last week for July 6 sailing.  Last summer, all our information was printed in the front of the booklet.  I was disappointed, too.  

On 9/7/2023 at 5:23 PM, Europe and beyond said:

Thanks for info. It would be lovely to dock right in Bordeaux. 

Bordeaux is one of those places I do hope to visit one day.  Overnight ... wonder how much fine wine I could taste?  After reading posts about this port, maybe a river cruise is a better way to experience this area.

Every time I sign in and look at cruises, I get calls.  If I just want to look, I don't sign in.

I'm sorry I can't answer your question, but it seems like now that everyone has excursion credits, there are very few available.  It's becoming a quest to see if you can actually use your credit.  We do a combo of local and O tours, but it's getting very difficult.  This will be our first cruise with Simply More, but I'm simply not liking it😆

Well, lots of good tips here but bags are packed and once again, unsuccessful at packing light.  We will be gone 19 days and cool weather, then perhaps hot weather.  I admire those that can pull this off, but unless I get a special wardrobe for travel, so many things are not easily washed and worn.  Also husband is famous for wearing his food on his shirts creating laundry problems!  So for now, we will be lugging our bags around🙂

14 hours ago, Sujormik said:

Welp, we were supposed to get a mid-trip response card this evening but never got one, unfortunately. I’d have some comments.  
 

Called the butler about heavier blankets for the balcony use and he told me to call housekeeping, haven’t seen him at all today. Housekeeping didn’t return my call.  We went to tea around 4:15 today, had to ask 5 servers to get some hot water, finally a bar guy brought some to us. Went to a spa “ladies pampering party” (why weren’t men invited?) which was fine but they didn’t give any samples, to some peoples’ surprise. Dinner in Jacques was quite good, especially enjoyed a crab salad appetizer and Dover sole. Not getting offers to refill wine, or after dinner wine, not too big a deal, just that service thing.
 

In general I’m finding the food very good, the service quite less so. Maybe we have cooties but we haven’t had any especially friendly (not even considering effusive) waitstaff or really any staff engagement at all. I’m really wanting to love this line and it’s challenging.

 

Also a nitpick: salade nicoise at lunch had Kalamata olives, not nicoise! And dressing was tasteless, but even that took awhile to get after salad was delivered.  Like I said, service hasn’t been great.  Looking forward to hitting port tomorrow.

This could be due to staff being very busy, but I sometimes think they just don't bother if you have the package that includes wine with lunch and dinner, after all, money has already been collected (along with gratuity).  This may be viewed as cynical by some.

1 hour ago, 1985rz1 said:

I assume you're saying that you will take a bottle to the various venues and pay the corkage fee and are sticking to your cabin for the by-the-glass drinks.

I will buy bottles in port for cabin consumption and I will purchase bottles of Chianti from O because it is much less expensive than by the glass.  Their corkage fee is way more than I normally spend for a bottle.  

Thank you for all the great ideas, very concise and to the point.  We have a day before embarking, and a week in London/Stansted, total of 19 days abroad.  We were each going to take two full size 25 or 26" suitcase, but now I'm hoping to get it down to one 25" and one carry on.  I am so tired of lugging it around and we are not getting any younger.  If I manage this, I'll be happy.  

5 minutes ago, Hanoj said:

We are booked for a British Isles cruise the latter part of August. We might have preferred a concierge stateroom (weren't available when we booked) vs. a veranda stateroom but the concierge would have been $1,000 higher for our 12 nights itinerary. I won't again spend my time doing self serve laundry, but for the $1,000 lower fare we can pay O to do our laundry and still come out well ahead. We will pack one trunk suitcase each (these will be checked), which will be "lighter" than our last trip overseas in 2019. Our suitcases will each include an empty carryon bag should we decide to bring more home than with which we left. Hopefully, we won't experience much inclement weather since I only plan to bring one combination of clothes for such a contingency. 

I think one lightweight rain jacket will do.  Right before we fly, I'll check the 10 day forecast and adjust if necessary!

Yes, we are doing Belfast-Southampton the end of this month.  Our daughter lives outside London and right now, they are having summer weather but I think I'll prepare for both chilly and warm.

Thank you for all the drink information, prices about the same as nice restaurants.  I only drink red wine and of course, my wine of choice is Chianti and I see it's one of the highest priced by the glass🙄. I'm hoping to bring some on board if I can purchase it in Belfast before boarding.  I'll have my first glass in our cabin and purchase by the bottle for consumption around the ship.

What is your best tip for packing light?  I can't believe people can take a 7-10 day cruise (some even longer) with only a carry-on bag.  Bring on your ideas!

Thank you.

Thanks for the idea, I'm going to check into Donegal Town.  

We will be getting off the ship in Southampton and need transportation to our hotel in London.  What do you recommend?

Good information here, thank you!