Riviera Live — February 10th

[What A Market]

Let’s try to get a photo right side up. 
This is the beach we kayaked to for snorkeling. Some of Pirates of the Caribbean filmed here. 

[What A Market]

The tour included a rum punch. Sampled the local beer after the punch. (More scientific research, of course.

Edited February 14, 2023 by What A Market

[What A Market]

Still no internet, so I get the privilege of activating Verizon’s TravelPass for the second day in a row. Stupid work. And GRRRRR Oceania!

Edited February 14, 2023 by What A Market

[DENIE]

Great post!  We loved our first Oceania cruise (also on Riviera) last summer and booked Vista to the Caribbean in 2024.  This brings back many great memories! 😃

[catgirl411]

On 2/11/2023 at 9:15 AM, What A Market said:

Hi Carol28

I probably can’t give  fully accurate info here as I’m not that familiar with Miami, but here goes.

 

Caught our Uber at 10:50AM.  Definitely took a bridge, not tunnel. A number of other cruise ships were visible next to bridge/freeway that we travelled upon.  Made left at some point to drive up to port entrance, which was another left. Terminal J for Oceania was to our right shortly after entering port area. Seemed like all other ships were to the left. Hope that makes sense.

 

On 2/11/2023 at 2:47 PM, LakeRooseveltBrews said:

 

Cruise director is Steve Campbell.  We find him a bit hard to understand over the intercom, but fine when he's on stage in front of us (for instance, this morning at the Enrichment Speaker talk).  

 

In other notes, Internet for us has been spotty.   Different types of problems, so we never know if it's our devices (or walking over one another, even though the first is definitely logged off), or what.   Also, our phone reception which we paid AT&T for their "cruise package" has been horrible.  We are supposed to be able to both text and phone, and we put it on both our lines.   We can sometimes text one another.  My phone will not text anyone other than DH.  He can text friends & family...... sometimes.    I cannot.  We cannot call at all.  So, I'm not really sure what we paid AT&T  for.  Frustrating because we told family and house sitters that they were going to be able to reach us.   Lesson:  don't trust AT&T.  

 

Otherwise, the cruise has been great so far.  Seas are somewhat high and quite windy out there, and they closed the paddleball and golf areas due to the winds.   

Back in January 2022, our Uber driver had trouble finding Terminal J,even though we pointed the ship out to him. We drove by the ship twice before he was able to get directions from a porter at one of the other terminals on how to actual get to J. It was tricky!

[harlor]

POW317 and lj77346 and anyone else on the Riviera February 20-March 2  BTB/or March 2 -12 Mexico/Caribbean sailing. I'm not sure if you're on the Roll Calls, but we are having an informal sail-away Meet and Greet at the Waves Bar, deck 12, at 5:30pm for both segments. Please join us if you can!

Loretta

[Jancruz]

1 hour ago, harlor said:

POW317 and lj77346 and anyone else on the Riviera February 20-March 2  BTB/or March 2 -12 Mexico/Caribbean sailing. I'm not sure if you're on the Roll Calls, but we are having an informal sail-away Meet and Greet at the Waves Bar, deck 12, at 5:30pm for both segments. Please join us if you can!

Loretta

Thats too bad sad we will miss it.. we board on the 12th

Jancruz1

[What A Market]

Wow, looks like we have WiFi today!

 

Have to get some work done, but I will try to get some Live posts going. 
 

Here’s one: This is a photo of the seating area next to Baristas. From memory, I recall this used to be the area for the Computer Center. 

[What A Market]

Now the Computer Center has flipped over to the other side of Baristas, and is now squeezed into an area before the start of the Library. Far fewer computers now. 

[What A Market]

This is a posting from a couple of days ago. This restored on itself after the internet went down a couple of days ago.
 

Ok, so posting regularly has fallen apart. I blame it on two factors too much wine the night before last, including a big Barolo at Toscana, and no internet all yesterday morning.  The weird thing about the internet is there was announcement in Currents said there would be internet interference due to the island of St. Kitts. Huh???

 

Anyway, the internet came back up in the afternoon (while we were still in port).  We did a ship’s excursion yesterday on St. Kitts — Caterman/Snorkeling tour.  It was nicely done with a fun crew on the Cat. The trip out to the dive site was extra extra long because of the heavy winds, but the dive site was well sheltered so made the snorkeling part easy. Traveled back to ship under sail power which was a nice treat.

 

Another ship’s excursion today for St. Vincent. More snorkeling with kayaking.

 

I’ll get to posting more as best I can. I’ll definitely post on our meal at Toscana. Signing off from Baristas. Ciao

[What A Market]

Here’s another catch up post:

 

Going back in time to the evening of the Super Bowl and dinner in Toscana. Like a lot of regular posters here on CC, I like thinking about which of the Specialty restaurants is my favorite. I’ve even participated in ranking them when someone does a poll. You know what I think now — my opinion (which is mostly worthless…..lol) varies from cruise to cruise, ship to ship, and sometimes even evening to evening when we double up on a Specialty restaurant on a cruise.

 

But on to Toscana. I have a soft spot for Toscana because it is my daughter’s favorite. (If you’ve followed my posting from previous cruises going back many years, then you know about my daughter and our cruises together.) 

 

I ordered pretty much my standard fare for Toscana. I start with the beef carpaccio, followed by a starter sized portion of the lobster risotto, and then the veal piccata. I’ve always felt Oceania does a great job with beef carpaccio. I have the olive oil guy (yes, there’s an olive oil guy in Toscana) add just a touch of one of the peppery olive oils. The nit about the carpaccio tonight was the topping of chopped iceberg lettuce. WHAT?!?  Where the heck is the arugula?  Sheesh. I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to hear about Covid supply chain problems again. Ha!

 

Onto the risotto. Ah, Oceania’s risottos. Toscana always seems to get it right with the risotto being al dente. Tonight was no exception.  But guess what? It was only tepid, at best, temp-wise. I don’t like sending dishes back, but I sent this one back. I wanted them to take my wife’s dish back so we could eat our courses together like civilized people (can’t remember what she was having), but she laughed in my face. Anyway, bing bang boom out comes my risotto piping hot and full of lobster. Perfecto.

 

Finally, the veal piccata limone. This dish can be somewhat hit or miss. Lots of things can go wrong with a veal piccata — the quality of the veal, how thinly it’s been pounded out, how lightly or heavily dusted with flour, is it over-cooked, and then the sauce being too thin or too thick. (Yes, I obsess about veal piccata.) Tonight’s verdict:  Toscana hit on every count, except the sauce was a bit too thick. But it usually is so I give them allowance for this. Plus they always nail the potatoes served with this dish. 

 

I don’t have dessert at Toscana because I love the biscottis they serve at the end of the meal. A couple of espressos with my biscotti and finish off the Barolo — a great evening.

 

Following this post I’m adding some photos of of the DD, Shannon. They come from this past September on our Pacific Coastal cruise on the Regatta. We had a chance to celebrate her birthday. I arranged for Toscana to bake a fully gluten-free cake for her. (Like mom, she is also Coeliac.) The bakers pulled out all the stops with this cake.

[What A Market]

Here’s the birthday photos. Thank you again Oceania. 

[What A Market]

20 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

Just curious, what times did you arrive and leave St. Kitts? And what time did you arrive in St. V? (Did both off Sirena 11/2022. Thankfully while we were forced to skip St. Kitts none of our times were shortened afterwards. (Thinking we actually added some time at Dominica.)

I think we arrived at noon. They added 30 minutes to the departure time. I think we departed at 6:30pm. 
 

Our excursion was at 1:00pm, so not interrupted. 
 

As for St Vincent, I think we arrived at 11:00am. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by What A Market

[What A Market]

I’m posting now in real time again. 
 

This morning we arrived in Roseau, Dominica. We’re on time having arrived at 8:00am. Weather is perfect, if a touch warm. No winds, no seas. I think I heard the CD report the high temp for the day would be 84 degrees. 
 

We have another ship’s excursion planned — River Tubing/Waterfalls. Looking forward to it. 

[schmerl]

13 hours ago, harlor said:

POW317 and lj77346 and anyone else on the Riviera February 20-March 2  BTB/or March 2 -12 Mexico/Caribbean sailing. I'm not sure if you're on the Roll Calls, but we are having an informal sail-away Meet and Greet at the Waves Bar, deck 12, at 5:30pm for both segments. Please join us if you can!

Loretta

 

 

Hope to see you March 2. 🙂

[SSFrance69]

2 minutes ago, schmerl said:

 

 

Hope to see you March 2. 🙂

I'll be there!

[SSFrance69]

5 hours ago, What A Market said:

I’m posting now in real time again. 
 

This morning we arrived in Roseau, Dominica. We’re on time having arrived at 8:00am. Weather is perfect, if a touch warm. No winds, no seas. I think I heard the CD report the high temp for the day would be 84 degrees. 
 

We have another ship’s excursion planned — River Tubing/Waterfalls. Looking forward to it. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your live report with fantastic photos. It's making me look even more forward to our sailing just around the corner. That cake they made for your daughter looks wonderful! 

[What A Market]

Some amazing offerings in Terraces this evening for dinner. Whole suckling pig and a red snapper at the grill station. 

[ORV]

3 hours ago, What A Market said:

Some amazing offerings in Terraces this evening for dinner. Whole suckling pig and a red snapper at the grill station. 

Maybe it’s just my taste, and I grew up in the sticks and ate a lot of weird stuff and wild game, but I just can’t find that appealing. 

[What A Market]

I get it ORV, I guess. I think a lot of people shared your opinion because the little guy stayed whole for the evening. 
 

But I like staring my food in the face, and say “I’m going to eat you!”  😜

He was tasty too!

 

[What A Market]

Thursday morning and it’s St. Barts.  Partly cloudy with some light passing showers. The wind is up a bit from the previous couple of days. I see a Windstar ship in port with us along with the usual collection of super yachts. This is the only tender port we have for this cruise. With the wind up, it should make for some bumpy tendering.

 

The Wi-Fi is alive this morning, but on life support. I will note that this has been pretty frustrating. Way worse than our September cruise on the Regatta and worse than I recall from previous cruises on the Riviera (and the Marina). 

[What A Market]

Bad photo shooting into the sun.

[What A Market]

The CD just announced that the seas were running too high for tendering and the Captain is moving the ship to a different location. He said we would try tendering again at 9:00am from the new location.

 

[What A Market]

Photos not loading

[What A Market]

I’ll try posting a photo again.

Ha, success.

Still no word on tendering yet. Wind is definitely up.