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12 hours ago, Mary229 said:

Obviously I sailed on a different Oceania than you did.  There was nothing like that on my 12 day Med cruise. 


I believe the reference to lobster and steak at the lunch buffet is actually available at the pool grill for lunch; on the Riviera and Regratta.

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2 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:


I believe the reference to lobster and steak at the lunch buffet is actually available at the pool grill for lunch; on the Riviera and Regratta.

 

Only saw it at the Terrace Grill at dinner and Waves during the day on our cruise on the Riviera.  Waves was one of the things we really enjoyed 👍 

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12 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Agree with you, completely.

 

 

I don’t think RuthC is talking about the langostina (It’s not Atlantic lobster served on Oceania 😉 ) or the offerrings..

 

For me, it was the food out too early, people handling and lack of sneeze guards or preventions to keep people from touching before the serving started.

The centre stations were ok but the ones on the outer edges and the Terrace Grill were not.

Not sure what ship you were on but the one we were had a lot of the same stuff every single day.

And the hygiene that I saw was somewhat scary.  If you wanted a clean table, you pretty much had to grab a cloth or ask someone to do it.  

HAL’s hygiene beat O’s by a long shot for me, especially with a case of Noro.  I’ve been on 2 HAL ships that had Noro and one on O.  O’s handling of it was abysmal compared to HAL.  JMO having the sad advantage of being able to compare.

 

And FWIW, there were a number of repeat O cruisers on with us who shared their disappointment in the cruise.


I found the buffet at the Terrace Grill for lunch and dinner to have sneeze guards at all three serving stations except in the middle of the center station where the bread is and where there is access in and out of station.

Sorry about your Noro experience. I contacted Noro on a HAL cruise but not on Oceania.

Though I initially enjoyed the Oceania experience, especially the Speciality Restaurants, we stopped sailing Oceania four years ago after 10 cruises due to lack of activities and entertainment.

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24 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:


I believe the reference to lobster and steak at the lunch buffet is actually available at the pool grill for lunch; on the Riviera and Regratta.

Ok, I sailed the Riviera and don't recall any lobster at all.  I will check with my sister she has a far better memory of what we eat.  Thanks

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1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

Ok, I sailed the Riviera and don't recall any lobster at all.  I will check with my sister she has a far better memory of what we eat.  Thanks

Lobster plus filets, salmon, lamb chops and jumbo shrimp were served at the Terrace Grill every night. Once we discovered this after our third nite on our first Oceania cruise, we never went back to the MDR.

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15 hours ago, Hlitner said:

My goodness you are right.  After all, we would not HAL to serve lobster and steak at a lunch buffet.  No,...the HAL standard of pre made sandwiches in a paper bag and the usual daily hot chicken is the standard that every line should strive to meet.

 

Hank


Could you please pass me the Grey Poupon, I mean mustard. 😀

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24 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:


Could you please pass me the Grey Poupon, I mean mustard. 😀

LOL.  So my amusing tale of HAL sandwiches goes back a few years soon after HAL shut down their sandwich making station and replaced it with several different pre made sandwiches that were in paper bags.  One day, at lunch, I took 3 of those pre made sandwiches and once I sat down at a table I proceeded to "deconstruct" each of them and then rebuild one real sandwich (it took three to get enough meat to make a sandwich to my specifications).  As I was finishing the Lido supervisor stopped by my table and broke into a big grin.  We both talked about how we missed the old sandwich station (where you could have a staffer make a sandwich to your liking).  

 

I would be remiss not to toss out a complement to HAL. I really like the change to having the salad stations where staff puts together bowls of salad as customers tell them exactly what they want.  It certainly is a much more sanitary option not having hundreds of folks dealing with open salad bars.  

 

Hank 

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37 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

LOL.  So my amusing tale of HAL sandwiches goes back a few years soon after HAL shut down their sandwich making station and replaced it with several different pre made sandwiches that were in paper bags.  One day, at lunch, I took 3 of those pre made sandwiches and once I sat down at a table I proceeded to "deconstruct" each of them and then rebuild one real sandwich (it took three to get enough meat to make a sandwich to my specifications).  As I was finishing the Lido supervisor stopped by my table and broke into a big grin.  We both talked about how we missed the old sandwich station (where you could have a staffer make a sandwich to your liking).  

 

I would be remiss not to toss out a complement to HAL. I really like the change to having the salad stations where staff puts together bowls of salad as customers tell them exactly what they want.  It certainly is a much more sanitary option not having hundreds of folks dealing with open salad bars.  

 

Hank 

Ditto, ditto, ditto. It only took 3 pre made sandwiches to make the original. Actually I have done the same thing. What a waste!

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If I want a decent sandwich I gather my meats at breakfast and put them in the fridge.  Yes, the Dutch do like breakfast cold cuts more than at lunch.  Also room service has a pretty good sandwich.  The ones on the lido are bread sandwiches.  

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7 hours ago, KirkNC said:

On world cruises they have a sandwich station, the guy is super busy at lunch.  That should tell HAL how popular they are.

We heard about that , not long before the Covid shutdown, from a lady who has done several worlds.  It occurred to me that we could spend $70.000 and book a world just so we could get decent sandwiches, but DW did convince me that is a lot of money to pay for sandwiches :).  

 

Hank

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My last two cruises in 2019 on Noordam and Oosterdam did have the pre made sandwiches in bags but there was a small, not obvious, space next to them where the staff would make you a sandwich.  The selection of meat/cheese wasn't large but I could pick my bread/roll and toppings. You kind of had to "discover" the possibility. I really wonder why they don't want to make sandwiches when so many passengers like them?  Staffing? 

 

~Nancy 

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30 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We heard about that , not long before the Covid shutdown, from a lady who has done several worlds.  It occurred to me that we could spend $70.000 and book a world just so we could get decent sandwiches, but DW did convince me that is a lot of money to pay for sandwiches :).  

 

Hank

There are some other benefits as well.....😉

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Our last HAL cruises were in 2019. January on the Nieuw Statendam and March on the Koningsdam. On both ships I am sure there was a Lido station that made sandwiches to order. I never tried them because I was much more interested in the host of other Lido lunch options. I can make sandwiches at home. When I cruise I want to try to eat things I normally would not be fixing at home.

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59 minutes ago, oakridger said:

My last two cruises in 2019 on Noordam and Oosterdam did have the pre made sandwiches in bags but there was a small, not obvious, space next to them where the staff would make you a sandwich.  The selection of meat/cheese wasn't large but I could pick my bread/roll and toppings. You kind of had to "discover" the possibility. I really wonder why they don't want to make sandwiches when so many passengers like them?  Staffing? 

 

~Nancy 

 

We saw this as well on the Amsterdam in Alaska, and the Zaandam for New England.  Both in 2019.  You really had to look for the station, and you had to flag down someone to make the sandwich.  But so much better than the premade stale sandwiches.

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14 hours ago, Mary229 said:

If I want a decent sandwich I gather my meats at breakfast and put them in the fridge.  Yes, the Dutch do like breakfast cold cuts more than at lunch.  Also room service has a pretty good sandwich.  The ones on the lido are bread sandwiches.  

 

From the wide choice of meats and cheeses at breakfast, I fill a small plate that will fit in a gallon-size Ziploc bag in my minibar.  If I don't want to augment a lunch-time bagged sandwich, I always have a late-night snack option with the packages of crackers that I collect from the Lido Market lunch.

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9 hours ago, Lady Chew said:

 

We saw this as well on the Amsterdam in Alaska, and the Zaandam for New England.  Both in 2019.  You really had to look for the station, and you had to flag down someone to make the sandwich.  But so much better than the premade stale sandwiches.

 

We had a station as well on both the Rotterdam and the Prinsendam.  On those ships the station was just next to the pre-made sandwiches.  

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2 hours ago, kazu said:

 

We had a station as well on both the Rotterdam and the Prinsendam.  On those ships the station was just next to the pre-made sandwiches.  

Yes, on our last few cruises - since the inception of the bagged sandwiches - it was on the corner of that station.  Not as many choices as before, but still way more preferable and nice and fresh.

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I also think self-serv buffets will be gone and I don't mind it a bit. DH and I have been fully vaccinated since January and just this past week we tried two different buffet restaurants here in FL where we live. One had a washing station you had to use first, then plastic gloves to serve ourselves. You had to repeat the process each time you got food and got new gloves. The other didn't have a washing station, but there were disinfectant stations all around and you did have to use different plastic gloves each time. We felt ok about both, but prefer to be served.

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44 minutes ago, MTAK said:

A return to discussion of HAL sandwiches must be proof the pandemic is winding down...

We haven't discussed the popcorn issue in a while.  I thought I might breach that subject on this thread.  

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