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Bridge on Oceania


Shawnino
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I'm told they have bridge games regularly--what's the standard of play?

Obviously the passenger roster changes each cruise, but how should I set my overall expectations?

Is it comparable to what might be seen at a small Duplicate club, or better, or worse?

 

Thanks,

S

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As you can judge by the lack of response to your question, bridge is not overly popular. I have been on almost a dozen cruises, though, and there has always been some level of activity. On the larger ships your analogy of a small duplicate club is pretty accurate with six to eight tables. If there are a few days at sea there always seems to be an ACBL director who gives lessons and conducts duplicate sessions. On the smaller ships there will be a signup sheet in the card room which will lead to a few tables playing party bridge.

It is always a fun part of the cruise for us as you get to meet some nice people who share a similar interest.

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I'm told they have bridge games regularly--what's the standard of play?

Obviously the passenger roster changes each cruise, but how should I set my overall expectations?

Is it comparable to what might be seen at a small Duplicate club, or better, or worse?

 

Thanks,

S

 

I'd suggest you set your expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

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I'd suggest you set your expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

On our recent TA Montreal to Southampton the duplicate games on sea days had an average of twelve tables. Even on port days there were several hosted duplicate games, with 8 or more tables.

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there always seems to be Bridge games announced in the CURRENTS

 

I do not play so have no idea of the levels

 

but there seems to be a lot of bridge players on O

 

JMO

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I grew up in a family who didn't allow card playing, so I know very few card games. But I'm hoping to take bridge lessons on my next cruise on Insignia. I'll have lots of sea days to hopefully learn and get practice.

 

 

 

I’m with you, I play kitchen bridge but could use some lessons

 

 

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I grew up in a family who didn't allow card playing, so I know very few card games. But I'm hoping to take bridge lessons on my next cruise on Insignia. I'll have lots of sea days to hopefully learn and get practice.

 

I would take a basic set of lessons before you go.

 

Or buy/read through a basic book like this:

https://www.amazon.ca/Club-Introduction-Bridge-Bidding/dp/0943855004

(This may well be the lesson book used at your local club if you are in N. America.)

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Based ***** my recent cruise which was long and had a number of sea days:

The O web site noted there would be a bridge instructor on board. There was, and a VERY good one.

 

There were 6-7 tables for duplicate, several tables for beginner bridge play, and there were 2 lessons in the morning on sea days: 9:30 AM for beginners and 11 AM for intermediate. Best lessons I/we ever had and pleasant duplicate, too.

 

All in all, on any sea day, better than 5% and less than 10% of the passengers were learning and playing bridge.

 

Best bridge experience ever

 

FYI: we were on Insignia from Beijing to Sydney

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Based ***** my recent cruise which was long and had a number of sea days:

The O web site noted there would be a bridge instructor on board. There was, and a VERY good one.

 

There were 6-7 tables for duplicate, several tables for beginner bridge play, and there were 2 lessons in the morning on sea days: 9:30 AM for beginners and 11 AM for intermediate. Best lessons I/we ever had and pleasant duplicate, too.

 

All in all, on any sea day, better than 5% and less than 10% of the passengers were learning and playing bridge.

 

Best bridge experience ever

 

FYI: we were on Insignia from Beijing to Sydney

 

That was my experience on our cruise that went out to French Polynesia. Excellent instructors. Lots of players.

 

Frances

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Normally there will be a bridge instructor on board when there are 3 (4?) or more sea days. But if you want to be sure, you should ask Oceania to confirm. When they can sell all cabins they will do so. It is all about the money. I have decided not to make such cruises anymore when a bridge director is not guaranteed. Probably you can check it at the website.

On our last TA Montreal - Southampton the bridge instructors were very good and friendly as well.

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Normally there will be a bridge instructor on board when there are 3 (4?) or more sea days. But if you want to be sure, you should ask Oceania to confirm. When they can sell all cabins they will do so. It is all about the money. I have decided not to make such cruises anymore when a bridge director is not guaranteed. Probably you can check it at the website.

On our last TA Montreal - Southampton the bridge instructors were very good and friendly as well.

 

Hmmm.... any chance, do you think, they'd be there on a Caribbean cruise with 2 sea days at the start and another 2 sea days at the end?

 

That would be wonderful.

 

GC

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If there is not a bridge director, there will be some party bridge, but on average you will see 2-3 tables only. Besides, a real tournament is so much nicer..... Also on the smaller ships there will be a bridge director now and then. No difference with the Marina and Riviera there. Just check in advance.

I read about the book of Audrey Grant. Very good indeed.

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Our only experience of Oceania so far is a week on Riviera from Barcelona to Rome, with ports every day. Bridge was billed in Currents and took place in the Polo Grill at 2pm. So generally only enough people turned up for one table of social bridge. It was disappointing on one occasion that we got there to find four people already playing and we waited a good while to see if another couple would turn up. They didn't. It would have been nice if the group already playing had offered to rotate with us, at a suitable break in play. This is what we would have expected to happen. We will be on Nautica's Round Britain cruise in September - just two sea days, but it might be nice to get a game.

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Most cruiselines just don't make it worthwhile for directors to sail. I looked into teaching bridge on Celebrity but the per diem they would charge wasn't all that much less than I could get with a good sale, and I'd rather be a passenger than working unless it was going to be really in my favour. I'm not surprised that they don't get as much interest from directors.

I'm an accredited ACBL and Bridge America director and I've never worked a cruise for that reason.

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Celebrity does not offer duplicate or any acbl sanctioned Bridge. The best bridge experience outside of a Bridge cruise is a luxury line and a cruise with lots of sea days. CrystAl has a dedicated Bridge room!

 

 

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On the one O cruise that I took instruction in the morning and then played duplicate in the afternoon, it was really well attended. A beginners class as well as intermediate class was offered.

 

And only on sea days. On that itinerary, there were lots! I think the instructtor had a good time too.

 

Frances

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On the one O cruise that I took instruction in the morning and then played duplicate in the afternoon, it was really well attended. A beginners class as well as intermediate class was offered.

 

And only on sea days. On that itinerary, there were lots! I think the instructtor had a good time too.

 

Frances

 

Beginners' level would be great. I'm still a bit rusty, and DH is only recently starting to play.

 

However, our next cruise has 4 sea days, but the one after than has none.

And then after that, unless our schedule changes, we'll have our first trans-Atlantic, so that will give us more time :)

 

GC

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