DrKoob

8 hours ago, WayneLaR said:

You forgot New Brunswick.  You can't forget NB and I'll try not to take offence.  And technically, NFLD (Newfoundland) is not a Maritime province.  An Atlantic province but not a Maritime province.

Sorry, I knew there was one more. 😁

9 hours ago, mauibabes said:

@DrKoob

For your O vs. V competition, I would like to offer my “dagger in the heart” of why I would never book V. I will not pay in full for my booking because we routinely book 18-24 months in advance.  I will not be their Free or almost free 💰. I have talked about this with my TA owner and he is actually on my side and will not travel V either and he makes a living off them. Personal decisions 😇. 
 

Thanks for your comment. You may not know that once you have a cruise booked with Viking Ocean, you don't have to make a final payment until six months before the cruise. And it is fully refundable up until 120 days before. Also, when people tell me this I tell them that Viking does this...because they can. They are not sailing empty ships. In fact, a cruise we have with them this November has been sold out for more than three years (when we purchased it). I know because I want to upgrade our stateroom and I check once a week. Their current pax grouse about it but they pay it. 

I almost forgot another thing that drives us crazy about the internet on this ship. They throttle everything unless you upgrade to their most expensive package. That means no YouTube or any other site that shows videos. If you try to go to a site that might have videos, the system scans it and then says, "(your browser name here) can't open the page because it can't get a secure connection" which is crap. I get secure connections to these sites all the time. 

13 hours ago, gentlemancruiser said:

Just saw the forecast.   I guess we'll have to keep any eye out for more

Let's hope not but I was really impressed with how well Vista handled the seas and the 39 knot winds the other day. They were just a touch slow opening up the outside of decks 15 and 16 after the wind had died down.

On to Cape Breton

EDITOR'S NOTE: This report is a lot better on my personal blog at www.jimbellomo.com. You get a lot more of my photography and it lays out better to.

Yesterday morning, we arrived (early) in the quaint town of Sydney, Nova Scotia. We had been here on our previous New England cruise five years ago, but we had horrible colds and had elected not to get off the ship. This time, we felt great, and our buddy Mike (the god of shore excursions) had arranged an awesome tour by Blackwoods Tours called The Highland Village Baddeck Bell Museum Tour. That is both a mouthful to say and not descriptive enough for the wonderful day we had.

I first need to mention that Sydney is the first of four tender ports for Vista. For non-cruisers in the audience, when you "tender," that means there is no place at the dock for your ship, so you get on a "tender" (which is usually one of the ship's lifeboats), and they take you to a small dock. There were three ships in tiny Sydney yesterday, and we were the smallest. So the two big ships (one Princess and one Royal Caribbean) got to dock, and we got to tender. That said, Vista's tenders are wonderful. We believe they are electric-powered, which means there is no diesel smell that always permeated other tender rides. The ride was smooth and quiet, and the boat was very comfortable and extremely clean. Lots of help getting on and off was very much appreciated by everyone in our party. The great condition of the tenders is due to the fact that they are so new. With Vista only being launched last May, her tenders have (as someone on the boat mentioned) that new car smell.

When it's a tender port, there is an announcement made that we have been cleared to start tendering, and in the case of this cruise, we were to go to the theater and pick up tender tickets, which would then allow us to get off the ship. Usually, this means that those taking the ship's excursions were allowed off on the first tender (a lifeboat carries about 60 people when being used as a tender—double that when being used as a lifeboat), and then everyone else in the order of your tender ticket. We were fortunate that the ship was cleared to start tendering early. The original schedule called for us to arrive at 9:00, but we were on our tender by 8:40, well before the ship's tours were going to be going.

All in all, the tendering at this port was an outstanding experience. Well done, Oceania. (Is it just me, or are you totally sick of the word tender now? I mean I don't even want to know if there are chicken tenders for lunch 😁.)

When we arrived on the dock, we were IMMEDIATELY met by our tour guide, Dan (the Man). We jumped in his van (which adequately fit seven people, although since our seven people are pretty good size, we were a little tight), and we headed out to explore Cape Breton. As we left Sydney, Dan started telling us about his island. It was clear from the start that our guide was both a native who loved his home and an entertaining guy to listen to. We have been on so many tours over our years of travel where the guides spout facts in a way that just says, "This is just my job, and I get paid by the word."

It is so great to find a guide who not only loves what they do but truly loves the place they are taking you to tour. Dan could not wait to tell us everything he knew about Cape Breton but also to tell us about the music, the history, the geography, the geology, and so much more. Looking back on yesterday, I don't feel like we took a paid tour but more like a good friend showed us the place he loves. That's what makes a great tour guide. We have had guides like this in our 20+ years of touring, but they are few and far between. Out of hundreds of tours, I can count them on one hand—Marcello in Naples, Sylvie in Monaco, Luigi in Cinque Terre, and Tong in Bangkok. That's our tour guide hall of fame. Well, you can now add Dan to that list.

While telling us about the history of his island, we drove to our first stop, St. Ann's Lookoff. This is a great place to take a photo of the start of Cape Breton's Cabot Trail. It truly is a great place to take a quick shot and stretch your legs. With three avid photographers on board, we all appreciated the few minutes it took to get out, and of course, Dan had some great stories about what we were seeing, like how the little house in the foreground was owned by Canada's tallest man. And, of course, Dan had an entire story to go with that fact.

Then, it was on to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, where the first telephone was invented. (I bet you thought that was in the U.S., right? I know I did.) I usually am not that much of a historical museum guy, but this one was good. There were lots of great displays, and I learned a lot of things I did not know about Bell. We also did some drive-by touring of Baddeck, a cute little village on a beautiful lake. And I forgot to mention (but you will see in my photos) we had the most beautiful and sunny day. The weather was just about perfect.

Then, it was on to the highlight of the tour, Cape Breton's Highland Village. Back in the 17th century, a large contingent of Scottish people immigrated to Cape Breton. This village highlights their journey and life here on the island. You start with an old croft house made of stones that we had seen on our tours in Scotland, and you finish with what their houses looked like in the early 1900s. Along the way, there are structures that reflect the years in between, jumping 20-30 years each time. Throughout the village, there are people dressed in costumes that are appropriate to the era of the building they are in. Check my photos and captions for a better idea of what I mean. Suffice it to say that it was very interesting and a genuinely excellent way to learn the history of the Scottish people on Cape Breton.

After that, Dan took us to one of his favorite beaches to see the sand and the gypsum (it's too long a story for this post as to why those matter—but they do), and we headed back to Sydney to meet the ship. On the way back, Dan not only continued to tell us about the island but played some tunes from local musicians singing about the island and its history. While I fully realize that sounds relatively dull, Dan loved it so much and told us the background of the songs and the singers in such a way that his enthusiasm was contagious.

This just about concludes our day on Cape Breton. All in all, we spent a great day in Dan the Man's van! Oops, I didn't mention that Cape Breton is in Nova Scotia, which is part of what is referred to in Canada as "The Maritimes." Those are the provinces that sit up in Canada's northeastern corner and border the Atlantic sea (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island).

Two posts today. One about the ship, one about Sydney/Cape Breton.

Internet Frustration

First up, this morning is the reason I missed posting yesterday and the most frustrating thing for the two of us on this cruise—being online. No, it's not the speed of the WiFi/Internet connection. Oceania's internet speeds are some of the best we have had during our time cruising. Our problem is with their stupid rule of only allowing one device at a time (per stateroom) to be online at the same time. And not only is it only one person, it's only one device at a time.

The upfront advertisement says "free internet included," but this is the reality. And since Kathleen and I both LOVE being online, this is pretty much a huge pain for us. Especially since due to the software I use to write a blog post (Wordpress.com), I have to be online to write one. And that takes some time for me to kick her off, especially on sea days when there is not a lot to do. We could purchase an additional log-in. but the cost is more than $25 per day, and you have to purchase it for the entire cruise. Their policy is that you can't just buy it on a daily basis. They also offer some packages that are by the minute, but that's so last decade. I, for one, do not want to be sitting here typing and looking at a clock. That's one of the best things about retirement—not having anything but self-imposed deadlines. We don't need their WiFi when we are in ports, as our T-Mobile plan has free cell data around the world, so we just use our phones as mobile hotspots on port days.

I should add that Oceania is changing its internet policy. All cruises that sail after October 1 of this year (we sailed on September 29) will get internet connectivity for two included devices. But since we started our cruise before October 1, we don't get that on this trip. But again, that's only for two devices. What year are we in? Everyone wants to be connected all the time, right? It is a total pain that when I want to get on, I have to log off whatever device I last used to access the web.

This is another win for Viking in my Viking Ocean vs. Oceania competition to become our cruise line of choice. There, we had total internet for every device we had. I could use the phone in my pocket all day long to text others in our group about when we were meeting up, I could take my iPad to the gym to watch while I ride a stationary bike, and at the same time, Kathleen could be checking in with the kids, doing her daily puzzles/games and so on. Instead, I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning (of course, I am usually up at that hour anyway 😜) to write this blog so that when she wakes up at 7:30, she can log me off to go online.

18 hours ago, zteamtwo said:

Dr Koob. Enjoy all of your comments. We are sailing on Vista in January and I was wondering if that smart tv would allow me to "wirelessly" connect my over the ear headset to the smart TV? Maybe you could ask some IT guy on board. How is the tv noise from adjacent cabins? I kinda keep the tv volume a little high.

You really can't connect anything. Nor change a whole lot. You would need to be able to get into the Settings on the televisions, and they have those blocked on the remotes in the rooms. We wanted to find a way to make the picture brighter last night and discovered there was no way to access the settings. 

Yes, we have been getting bleed-through sound from the stateroom next door when their television is on. One of the problems with today's flat-screen TVs is that the speakers point to the walls. So when the sound comes out it comes out towards the walls (unless you have a sound bar, which these don't). So if you play it fairly loud, you are going to disturb those next door. Luckily for us, our neighbors keep theirs fairly low so we can only hear it when we are in silence. And they turn theirs off early (as do we).

Please people. Stop with the toilet paper stuff. 

12 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Change directions 8 laps in to undizzy yourself!!! 🤣

No, please don't. While I love the laugh, and I know you meant to be funny, they have a sign asking that people walk counter-clockwise on the track. Otherwise there are two corners where you can't see what is ahead until you turn the corner and run right into someone. Yesterday during my walk I had to point out the sign to at least four people who hadn't seen it and almost ran into me. I am fairly big and walk fairly fast. It would not have been good for them...or me.😁

41 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

Fairly small since it is a rather small ship. I saw somewhere else that someone had thought from what they recall that 16 laps equals one mile. 

The one here on Vista is 1/10th of a mile. Did 40 laps today. 

25 minutes ago, turnip eater said:

We’ve sailed on SAGA too. We haven’t been on SofA, but we sailed on her sister ship SofD (Spirit of Discovery ).

You will love the Vista. Lots of different places to eat.

The time will fly by.

Enjoy your cruise.

I would agree that this ship (and maybe this entire cruise line) is all about the food. Amazing food.

3 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Curious as to whether the layout of the stateroom is comfortable. Has the size adjustment after a few days brought you to be able to enjoy your stateroom as much?  We tend to spend time on our balcony more than inside, but I am curious as to how you are enjoying yours after the initial thoughts.

We always sailed in PV on Viking so I understand the comparison. Our stateroom on Seabourn wasn’t quite as large, but the layout was great and didn’t feel small at all. We are booked on Marina, but with an extended balcony, so different ship and likely a very different comparison. 
 

From what my long-time Oceania friends tell me, Marina is only slightly different than Vista and his stateroom is basically the same. We have an extended verandah, and it is just fine. This cruise does not lend itself to sitting outside. A little cool. This stateroom is like any other traditional verandah stateroom we have had at sea on a typical cruise with X, HAL or RCL, except that the extra square feet listed are pretty much all taken up by the bathroom to the detriment mostly of storage. If you are used to the PV size and storage, you will be sorely disappointed. 

20 minutes ago, Wheelhouse said:

The single ply toilet paper on this ship is about the worst I have ever encountered.  I’ll bring my own next time. 

As much as I would like to endorse that idea, regular two ply toilet paper clogs ship's pipes badly. That's why what we have is so crappy (pun intended.😜)

Québec City...in the Day Light

I tossed in that "in the daylight" line because the last time we were in Québec City, we were here overnight, and I was lucky enough to be able to get some incredible shots. This time, I got a chance to actually take the same photo at midday that I took five years ago at 5:00 a.m. It will give me a great photo to show to people when they think I am crazy for getting up so early just to take photos. If you pop over to today's blog post at www.jimbellomo.com you can see the comparison. 

We had a pretty good day in Québec City. Kathleen and Jocelyn had gotten totally worn out from our three days in Montreal, so I set out with Cathy, Mike, Steve and Jamie to explore the city. As I mentioned above, we were here just about exactly five years ago. It was a lot warmer yesterday than it was five years ago. Our ship was docked just a few hundred yards up the pier from where we had been that time. But both were just a short walk from downtown. We walked through the lower town to the funicular that, for $5CAN, would take you to the upper town. It's a good thing we were early because when I walked by the lower station later in the day, there was a line the proverbial mile long.

Once up at the top, we found something that amazed me—the Québec Marathon. What were the chances that the two times I would come to Québec City in my lifetime, I would be there for the marathon? Of course, that meant that we would have to see the city and work our way around the city, avoiding the race. We were able to get across the track with the help of race officials, but we still seemed to run into the racers wherever we turned.

We walked around, as Cathy was looking for a kind of embroidery museum that she had seen on her previous land-based visit. It was part of the works of the Ursuline nuns who pretty much-founded education here in Québec City. When she had been here before, she said it had been a cute little shop attached to the convent. Now, they have a complete museum, but it was more about the order's history than the embroidery. The others decided to take a look and I decided to shoot a couple of photos of the church next door. Mike and Steve were out in almost no time, but Cathy and Jamie really enjoyed it.

I decided at that point to head off on my own to take some more photos and then head back to the ship to have a late lunch with Kathleen and Jocelyn. We ended up trying the Waves Grille. I would tell you all about the lunch and the Grille, but I am saving those thoughts for a big post on the food. That is really what Oceania is all about, and I want to hit it all at once. You can see my meager number of photos from Québec on my blog post at www.jimbellomo.com. The light was just too harsh for me to really get into taking photos. 

I'll be back tomorrow (or maybe later today—another sea day) with more about the public spaces on Vista.

8 hours ago, Azulann said:

So glad I found your  live trip report! I so enjoyed your trip report on Viking Ocean. My question is : does the new Vista  have the same openness as a Viking ship? Can one see sky, water when in common spaces ? Or is there drapery  hanging from the  ceiling ,are there  walls of windows?  I am a Viking Cruiser because of the ship design ,first and foremost.  Eating on he Aquavit deck and enjoy the expansive view from the Explorer  lounge are my favorite spots on an any cruise ship I have ever been on( Celebrity 10 cruises) before I found Viking. 

Look forward to your wonderful photo of your journey to Miami.

I'm glad to have you back reading my humble musings. I would say, on the whole, this ship is more closed up. I know exactly what you mean. I find the Viking ships to be VERY open. Like most cruise ships, some lower decks are public. In the case of Vista, that is five and six and some upper decks that are public: 12 through 15 (there is no 13). You can only see the water from the upper decks or your own verandah. I am typing this sitting on deck six. You can't see a thing anywhere on this deck except in the dining room, and there, we have been put in a windowless corner every night because of the size of our party. Most of the rest of the dining room is covered with sheer curtains you can see through. Some people sitting by the windows have opened those up. 

If it's sky and water you want, stick with Viking. And thanks for making me think about this. It's not something I normally would even contemplate, but you really made me realize how little there is below deck 12. When I got up in Québec, I wanted to see the city. I had to climb to Deck 14 and go into the Horizons Lounge to be able to see the Hotel Frontenac. On Viking, I could have done that from at least three lower decks. 

This also reminds me that on sea days, I exercise by walking on the ship. On Viking, there is a wrap-around promenade deck that I walk on. Here the only place to do that is a very nice walking/jogging track around the back portion of deck 15. The Viking promenade is 1/4 mile and the Vista track is 1/10th of a mile. So you see a lot of the same things again and again. 

5 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

How do you get your clothes out if your suitcases don’t open up? 😉Also, I believe they will store your suit cases for you if they will not fit underneath the bed. 

You unzip them. When people say the open them up, they have hard sided ones like my brother has. So when he opens them both sides are flat and thus, half the height. Ours stay the same size, the zipper cover lets us take out our stuff. But they are still the same size to fit under the bed. We asked about them storing them and that's when we found out that they have a tool to lift the beds because they don't have room for everyone's suitcase.

Montreal, Day 3:

Yes, there are two posts today. If you are a cruising fan and missed the earlier one on our stateroom, it is below this one.

Here they are for my readers who follow me for my photography and have been asking about what happened on my third day in Montreal. I'm so sorry I forgot to put them out there. I got into the cruise stuff and forgot to add them.

On our third morning, I awoke onboard Vista. One of my favorite things about overnights on cruises is that you can get on or off at any time of the day or night. So I was up at my usual 5:15 and walking out of the port at 5:30. If you would like to see more than the one photo I can post here, you will need to jump over to my blog at jimbellomo.com.

Back on board for breakfast

Once back on board, we met the group (sans later sleepers Jamie and Steve) for breakfast in the buffet—which was outstanding. I will do a whole post on the food toward the end of the cruise. Then we took a walk down the waterfront with most of the gang to see Old Towne. I took about 25 photos, and I am not happy with a single one of them. The light was directly overhead and incredibly harsh. Not even going to bother to show them to you. Just know, they were bad. And nothing I could do made them in any way special, and I can usually fix them somehow.

Afternoon boat tour

We wanted an activity that didn't involve a lot of walking, so we decided to do a harbor cruise on a smallish boat. We used Bateau Mouche. Don't use them. It was NOT a good value. $21CAN for a 45-minute ride, of which half was the same sights as the first. We got to see the river and learned some fun facts, but we all voted that we wished we had gone with another company or skipped it altogether.

I got some photos, but the best ones were of the Six Flags amusement park that sits on a man-made island in the middle of the St. Lawrence. Those were fun. And a couple of other river-cruise-type shots. Stop by my blog at jimbellomo.com to see the photos. Hope you enjoy them. 

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

Been in several different categories on O.  Boarding times and room access times don’t really interest me.  I used to think getting on the ship early was a plus. It isn’t.  If you go later, there are no lines.  Spend your time seeing the sights. Waiting on a deck chair to go to a cabin is ridiculous.  We did an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver. We arranged a full day tour that finished by dropping us off at the pier.  Had a great time, ate lunch locally, and didn’t wait to board.  On our most recent O cruise, using O air, we got the ship at 3 pm.  We checked in and got on the ship very quickly. Terrace buffet was closed.  Our food choice was Waves or room service. We ordered room service. My days of hurrying to get onboard early are done.  

Different strokes for different folks. And once again, my problem with boarding times was NOT with the time change but with the way it was handled. To us, we want the cruise to last as long as it can and to start as soon as it can. And once we were checked out of our hotel, it's a little hard to continue touring with luggage. Yes, we could go and drop it but I carry a 35lb bag with my camera and computer it in that I WILL NEVER check with anyone. Carrying that around a city is impossible.

1 hour ago, jwindham said:

I for one am glad that the beds are not so high. At 5 feet the couple of times we stayed in an Oceania Suite I had to hoist myself up on the bed, not fun. Open the suitcases and they will go under the bed or just lift up the end of the bed. I did this on the Vista in August and it was not hard at all. Julia

Our suitcases don't open up. The beds don't need to be higher. The bottom of the bed frame needs to be higher. My wife is barely over 5 feet tall and has no problem with other cruise ship beds because they are all a standard height. The frames on these are too big or too low. And to be honest, the ones in this stateroom are darned heavy. I am 6 foot, two inches and lift weights, but I could not lift the bed high enough while still pushing the suitcase to get them under there. That's why the stateroom attendants have a special lever tool to do it.

21 hours ago, makai 7 said:

Hi Jim- we cruised with you and Kathleen on Azamara wayyyyyy back when from Singapore to Hong Kong (Beth and Kevin).  We will be on Vista in February, so really looking forward to your perspective on the ship.

 

do you think that you might get to sound the ship’s horn again 🤪?

 

Glad to see that you both are still cruising!

Hi guys! No, I doubt they will let me blow the horn. 😜

3 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

Personally I see nothing wrong with allowing those who have spent a lot more money to have larger suites to board first.  Same thing, after all, happens on planes.  (And giving access to airport lounges etc).   We always cruise in "high end" suites - principally because we like more space. And for that we are paying a lot more than someone in a normal size suite.  What's wrong with that?  We also fly Business class to have more space and especially to be in a lounge before boarding.  And on trains we travel in 1st.  Our choice.  Our "perks" !!

I have a problem with it when you tell me you aren't going to do it and then you do. That's the problem. And my problem on the other cruise lines (especially Celebrity) is that there are parts of the ship you can't go. The entire ship should be open to everyone. It is your choice and you should get the perks. We too fly Business on long flights but they don't stop people from using the forward lavatory (at least on the planes we fly on) who are in coach. 

3 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

I am curious to know how you like the Vista suite?  We will be in 9000 on 24 April.  if you sail before then please do post about the suite!!  Thanks.

We are in a Concierge Verandah (9118) and today's post is about that. You won't be able to see all my pics here but you will find them on my blog at jimbellomo.com

Vista Day 1–Embarkation and Our Stateroom

When last I wrote, we had just boarded Vista and been through a beautiful embarkation. When we left the hotel in three separate Ubers, we truly believed we would not be boarding until at least 1:30 or 2:00. But about halfway through our Uber ride (Kathleen, Jocelyn and I), my brother texted that they were letting anyone on and should they go through. We said to hang on; we would be right there. The cruise port was only a 10-minute drive from the hotel. But by the time we got there, the others had gone through and were waiting to board the ship.

We got in line (which was a little longer by then) and were also on board within ten minutes. The port of Montreal is the EXACT opposite of the port of Vancouver, where on our last cruise in May, embarkation had taken three hours and forty-five minutes (you can read about that fiasco here).

When we reached the inside of the ship, we were met by an officer who asked for our key cards (which came to us in a really cool little leatherette folder) so he could see where our muster stations were. We had already watched the video at home when we did our check-in and again a few days later when they sent another reminder (I think we got about five e-mail reminders to watch the video). The officer directed us to our muster station (we were in the main dining room), and we headed there immediately, got our key cards scanned and as far as Oceania was concerned, we were through with them until we sailed the next afternoon. We headed up to the buffet for lunch, where the rest of the gang was holding a table for seven for us, and we started to sample the amazing food that Oceania calls "the best at sea." Just a note here. I could start going on and on about the food here, but I am going to do a complete post on the culinary glory that is Vista cuisine (at least so far).

Our stateroom–Concierge Verandah 9118

When we boarded, we were told that our suites would be ready by 2:00 p.m. and the rest of the staterooms soon after. But about halfway through lunch (close to 1:00), there was an announcement that suites (not us) were ready. We were in a Concierge verandah, and they announced that those would be available by 2:00 and the rest of the staterooms by 3:00. Lo and behold, at around 1:30, there was an announcement that our staterooms were ready. It was then I realized what had happened with our embarkation time, and what was now true about stateroom readiness was that Oceania was one smart cruise line. They were practicing one of the greatest marketing tools known to business: underpromise and over-deliver. Tell us things will be bad; we grumble a little and then be a hero by getting them done a lot better. It's impressive to me and something I love to have happen. Should they not have been able to deliver early, they were fine. I had already grumbled.

But getting back to our stateroom, we are in Concierge Verandah 9118, which is aft of amidships on deck nine. We had read that the staterooms were pretty large, and our last stateroom on HAL's Koningsdam was only 185 square feet, so we thought these would be much bigger at 250 square feet, but honestly, they don't feel any bigger. Sadly, we have been spoiled by our last three major cruises. In July of 2021, our first cruise back after the pandemic shut down was on Celebrity's Flora in the Galapagos. Those staterooms are HUGE—almost suite size (330 square feet). Then we were lucky enough to snag a Neptune Suite on HAL's Nieuw Statendam, and they are even bigger (380 square feet). And last year, we did 21 nights on Viking Ocean in a Penthouse Veranda, and it was smaller than the Neptune but much larger than we are now (338 square feet).

I am only really concerned about the comparison to Viking Ocean because we are VERY loyal cruisers (as evidenced by our 20+ Celebrity cruises), and we are looking for our next cruise line to give our loyalty to, and the stateroom we are in now is just about the same daily price as the much larger one we had on Viking Sky. Not only was it larger and had about 3x the storage space (the worst part of our current stateroom) and about the same size bathroom. The shower is bigger, but not by enough that I noticed it. But where we have a tiny couch and the usual oval miniature coffee table today in 9118, on Viking, we had a full-size couch and coffee table plus plenty of room between the bed and a full-size dresser/desk. Let's look at some room photos instead of continuing with the comparison. And I apologize for the fact that I took the pics after we had unpacked. I usually get them right away, but because Jocelyn was in a regular verandah stateroom, she came down to ours while Kathleen unpacked, and I walked around the ship taking photos.

A great feature of the stateroom that I almost forgot is the huge (for this size room) television. There are a lot of choices on this Smart-TV. Free movies, TV shows, A great bridge cam, two maps—one interactive, a music library, ship info and of course you can check your ship account as well.

One other thing that is kind of a pain. If you cruise, you know where your big suitcases go when you are done unpacking them—under your bed. You can't slide large suitcases under these beds. They are too low. We were kind of worried about that until Mike told us that you could ask your stateroom attendant to put them under there for you. They have a special tool that lifts the beds. Sorry, but that's poor planning on Oceania's end. I mean, buy a bed that's a little higher (like every other cruise line).

All in all, we feel like this Concierge Verandah stateroom is a poor value when compared to a similar-priced Penthouse Verandah stateroom on Viking Ocean. Score one for Viking. But that might be the only one. Stay tuned.

If you would like to see the photos of the stateroom (with captions) you will need to stop by my blog at www.jimbellomo.com. See you there. 

3 hours ago, Wheelhouse said:

We are also currently on Vista and I just want to comment that our room is very quiet.  We have seen comments in other threads to the contrary. 

Ours is as well. Was mentioning to my wife this morning that you can tell the ship is new because there is no creaking or squeaking in the staterooms when we are moving. We had also heard before the cruise that the announcements outside the stateroom were very loud. We can barely hear them.

17 minutes ago, kibutzer said:

Boarding was very easy and the change was no big deal for us. We still boarded by 1and we were not in a suite. 

Yup. Going to talk about that tomorrow.