karska

We like celebrity, but just did our first Oceania. There are definite differences. We do celebrity for Caribbean, wouldn't spend the money for O there.

Entertainment is lacking on O, but you know that going in. It's an older crowd, but there were folks in there 40's.

People did dress on O, much better than celebrity. Food much better on O and no nickel and diming. We did western Europe very port intensive. 14 nights docked at all but one port. Huge plus. Pool area was busy on sea day and afternoons. In Europe itinerary is the deciding factor for us. How this helps. Also we booked another Europe cruise with O next fall.

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Were you happy with the ship? There have been many comments on these boards about the refurbishing of Insignia. Some saying it was great, others that it looked tired or some things were not updated.

 

Also did you ever go up to the Terrace Cafe for dinner? I know they are trying to replicate the experience on the bigger ships. On Marina and Riviera, we loved the cafe at night as it had tasty lamb chops, lobster and other good things.

 

Thank you.

Being our first time on insignia, I can't compare. But turnip eater's post did.

I thought the ship looked great, but bathrooms are tiny. Rooms are smaller than some mainstream lines.

We ate dinner once at Terrace Cafe, it's a buffet. Food was good but I prefer being served my dinner. We ate breakfast there all but twice, we had those breakfasts in our room. Food was good and they'd make any type of eggs you wanted. Polo Grille had great filet and rack of lamb.

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How was the weather & seas? I'm looking at a similar itinerary on Marina in September next year. Sunny days?

Weather was perfect. Was warmer than usual. We always travel Europe sept/Oct

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Thank you for taking the time to post the review.

 

Could you let me know where this cruise went to? The way Oceania names their cruises is nice but don't give a clue to where the ship is going. Thanks much.:)

Started in MonteCarlo with an overnight, then..

Barcelona

Malaga

Cadiz

Lisbon, we did a Bikemyside tour with Daniel,,,fabulous

Porto we did a Segway, gulp

Bilbao. Wine tour

Bordeaux overnight , wine tour Medoc

Lorient, submarine museum

St-malo, rented car and drove to Mont St Michele

Southampton

You helped us with how many ships were in port.. Seven in Lisbon so we were glad we had booked in advance.

This was our first O cruise. I want to give our opinion/review.

The ports were wonderful. It was port intensive with just one day at sea. we booked our own tours, plus one from a fellow cc cruiser. They were great.

Some days we got off walked around, had lunch and got back onboard.

Everyone speaks so highly of the food so maybe my 'expectations' were a tad high. I'd say the food was very good, more detail could've been put into the presentation. We ate 3times in each of the specialty restaurants. Loved Toscana, At Polo Grille the rack of lamb was fabulous the first time, not so much the last time. Service in all venues was fabulous....except first night in gdr, waiter was discombobulated at best. And last am, waitstaff very busy cleaning instead of serving, never had my caffeine. We had to be off the ship in the first two groups.

Our room steward Adhi, was wonderful. We did have an issue several times with the air conditioning, too warm-too cold. Kind of like Goldilocks. :oBut Adhi made sure the engineer was brought in quickly.

Even with reading cc forums on the entertainment, the 'shows' were fair. Only one evening Vincenzo, a classical guitarist was fabulous. So I spent my evenings at Martinis meeting new and interesting people. That was a very busy place Michael made fabulous Martinis. And knew you by the third evening. ;)

We would definitely cruise O again, but we'd like to try the O ships to feel the difference.

We just got off Insignia, Sept 6-20 and JR Lustig was listed as cruise director. Never saw him, totally invisible. Then a few days later a new cruise director was on board for remainder of cruise. Can't remember his name. He was visible though. Don't know what happened.

Hi Karen, still in London? Wyn

Yes, having a great time. Walking and walking and love the tube. Leaving Friday for home.

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They do (sometimes) offer and deal - $20 for 20 pieces of laundry. No telling when this is available but it is a good deal when it is offered.

Did that service, loved it. But also did our own laundry. Not an issue. Had to wait only once on a 14day cruise

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#35 to the top of where?

 

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Gilbrafaro castle. Then down to Alcazaba. Go out to left then

Stay to the right if you want to walk down from castle. We got confused, didn't realize you had to leave castle area...not connected. Figured it out eventually. Better walking down than up. Read all posts on this thread, campo lady is extremely informative.

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Campolady. Thank you for your advice and suggestions. Listening to you, we chose to spend the day in Malaga. Loved it.

Took #35 bus to top and walked down. Ate at El Pimpi. A wonderful town. Thanks again.

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:D:D

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We're going on the Insignia this Saturday. Our first time with O. I'm hopeful that all will be wonderful. O

Thank you everyone. We are off today for our Insignia cruise on Saturday.

You use cabin number and password u create as sign on. One device at a time but as many devices as u have with you

 

As I have posted before occasionally we have experienced a glitch in the system and we can both be on at same time. Don't count on it

 

 

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Will that work if we have different last names, and email addresses. He's DF (dear fiancé) not DH. Lol

We're getting free wifi on the ship. It states for one person per cabin. So my question is if DH wants his emails on our iPad, can I also access mine on the iPad. What about my cellphone/smartphone?..DH has a flip phone.

Thanks.

Thank you all for your info. Like the free site, whatsinport.

Monte Carlo - 9/6 - Star Flyer

Monte Carlo - 9/7 -- no other ships in port

Barcelona - 9/8 - Island Escape and Riviera

Sea day - 9/9

Malaga - 9/10 - no other ships in port

Cadiz - 9/11 - Azura

Lisbon - 9/11 - Queen Isabel, Silver Cloud, Costa Mediterranea, Costa Luminosa, MSC Opera, MSC Orchestra, Wind Surf, Viking Hemming

Leixoes, Oporto - 9/13 - no other ships in port

La Coruna - 9/14 - no other ships in port

Bilbao - 9/15 - Oriana, Celebrity Infinity

Bordeaux - 9/16 - no other ships in port

Bordeaux - 9/17 - Seabourn Legend

Lorient, France 9/18 and St. Malo, France 9/19 - no other ships in port

London, Southampton - 9/10 - Independence of the Seas

 

Hope this helps. I like to Google the ships to see how many passengers will be in port - particularly for ports where they are multiple ships.

 

StanandJim: Have no clue how to refer to the ships that are missed by Cruise Cal -- perhaps obscure ships is a better word?

Thank you so much!!:). Good thing we booked our guide for Lisbon months ago.

We're doing Bikemyside.

Is there a fee to join Cruisecal?

I'm a member of CruiseCal.com. Although they sometimes miss foreign ships they are pretty accurate. If you give me the dates of your cruise and the ship, I'll be happy to look it up for you.

It's the Insignia, Sept 6-20

Thank you.

What site do you check to find out how many ships are in port?

Thanks.

Whew, that's a relief:)

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We were in Ephesus on a cruise loved the history. . Went into a rug store but were afraid to buy. Lol

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Check out Wallaroo, alot of their hats have ties in the inside trim.

Great for all sizes. I have a small head and they work great for me.

Also some have 50sunscreen and are packable. I personally wouldn't wear a

baseball cap unless I'm playing golf. I dislike screaming tourist.

Perhaps with increased purchase of the Prestige Beverage Package, Horizons at night will be busier. I know we did our best :)

We'll do our best on the Insignia in Sept. We don't need 'nightlife' per se.

But music with a little dancing would be nice. I'm not much for the production shows.

Better yet

 

Let's turn the underused Casino into an onboard teaching kitchen so we can cooking classes on the R ships.

Love both of your ideas!! We'll be on Insignia in four weeks, port intensive.

But there's always time for a cocktail or two....and would love the cooking classes. :)

We also had a bad experience on royal Caribbean. Formal night and the next table had shorts and tee shirts. They could've gone to buffet but were allowed in mdr. Food mediocre. We love celebrity, princess was good until huge movie screen at pool etc etc. Doing Oceania in a month.

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