pilgrimage

13 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

@Pilgrammage 

I saw your lunch desert selections. That sure looks like a scoop of the Humphrey Slocum ice cream. It is WONDERFUL and no matter how many times I said no ice cream for lunch, I could not resist the temptation. 
It sounds like the pre-cruise skeptic is warming up to Oceania and the Finest Cuisine at Sea 👍🤪

Ciao, Mauibabes 

Yes - I think that was the "Secret Breakfast Coffee" (bourbon ice cream with corn flake cookies) HS selection - I only remember because that was one of the few times I remembered to get a picture of the menu.  The other 2 items were the Yuzu Lime Eclair and the Chocolate Mousse Verrine.  That eclair was fantastic!

I tried several of them and they were all interesting and delicious.  I think my favorite was "Elvis (the fat years)" - that was banana ice cream with bacon peanut brittle.  I heard more than a few people say "there's bacon in the ice cream?" and passed up a really good thing.

I don't *think* I was ever a skeptic - I must have made some comment at some point that gave that impression.  I was very impressed with almost everything on my cruise.  No complaints about the food, for sure.

Even the desserts on the lunch buffet are beautifully constructed (and delicious!)

5 minutes ago, AlexCherie said:

FWIW - dinner at Red Ginger … simply the best meal I have ever eaten bar none. Crispy Duck with Watermelon? OMG. 

Yes - let's see if we can tow this thread back on course...

One thing that I really appreciated onboard was the display on the in-room TV with all of the days menus - something that I had not seen on my previous cruises with X and Princess (maybe that has changed in the past 3 years).  Made it very easy to decide if we wanted GDR/Terrace/Waves, even with the lunch/breakfast menus for Terrace/GDR.  I wish they would provide a download of *all* menus for our cruise (as a PDF, or whatever) to look back on, since I usually forgot to take a photo of the menu before heading in.

Speaking of Waves - the first 2 or 3 days, they had a special grill station setup next to the regular Waves grill area with a daily special.  Beef kabobs, Jambalaya, etc. - usually some grilled meat with a rice/vegetable side.  Great flavors when I tried them, but then they stopped doing it.  Not sure if they had a problem with the grill or some other reason to shut it down.  Curious if it is back online now.

20 minutes ago, Nymich said:

I have an urgent announcement to make.

We are now having lunch at the GDR and not Waves.

 

Also funny joke by the Captain difference between a boat and a ship?  Ship sinks you get in the boat.  Boat sinks you get into the water.

Visual Aid.

5 minutes ago, Twiga said:

For those who have been onboard or are onboard now, can you decline taking the covid test if you don't want to get off at the port requiring it?  Or is Oceania requiring everyone to get tested whether they plan on getting off the ship or not?

Barbados required it of everyone on board in order for the ship to visit.  That may not be the requirement at every port, but it was for them on our cruise last week (tested on 12/27).

I think the intent is to determine a total % infected on board and they use that to determine if it is above a set baseline (1%, etc.) to deny entry.  Of course, that information then has to be provided to all other ports of entry and they can deny as well based on that, even if they don't have a testing requirement.  That happened to us for 3 of our 7 ports.

6 minutes ago, macaroni said:

Tell us what everything was…I know the 2nd item is the famous miso glazed seabass!

Edited post to add names.  As always, the problem is deciding which items to sacrifice!

4 hours ago, kjbacon said:

Thank you for this helpful thread! We board Riviera in March for our first ever Oceania cruise and we have reservations at Jacques on our first night. Keep those delicious pictures coming!

Here are a few from Red Ginger:

Seared Salmon with Scallop Ceviche

Miso Glazed Seabass

Beef Teriyaki

Broccoli and Shiitake Mushrooms

5 minutes ago, Nymich said:

Very stressful trying day today.  Pool time followed by Waves.  Finish off with:

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt 😉

Just now, Nymich said:

It's funny you have Pilgram in your name because you were the Pilgram last week with all this.  That being said I think we can all agree things have escalated since then and what was once acceptable last week may not be this week.  For that matter the Jabn 14th cruise will be different than this one.  The whole thing is very fluid constantly changing.

True - although I found masking to be very prevalent on our cruse.  In Terrace grill, the staff was adamant about people putting their masks back on when coming back to the buffet if they forgot while leaving their table.  Of course, once seated (anywhere there was food or drink), it was wheels off.

People seemed to handle it very well all through the cruise.  Although we had a disturbing encounter when disembarking in Miami and waiting in line for the port elevator to take us down from the gangway level to the customs level.  A couple was *extremely* adamant about limiting the number of people in the large elevator, but people behind were having none of that - there was just the one elevator and a line building up.  Once in the elevator, there was a bit of a shouting match, including some f-bombs and a passive-aggressive threat of physical violence (i.e. "someone is about to get their f-ing head bashed", or words very close to that effect).  I think there was some pent-up frustration all around.  Never saw anything like that onboard, however.

39 minutes ago, AlexCherie said:

“I’ll have what he’s having”

Saw him another day having a burger at Wave's grill.  The man knows a good thing 🙂

1 hour ago, AlexCherie said:

I’ve been in Barrista’s twice now and it’s basically walk up service. No wait time, ever. I don’t know if that is standard, but my Macchiato was completed almost before I finished saying thank you. Almost not an exaggeration.
 

Even with our mostly full ship, I never had any problem at Barista's - at most I had to wait at the counter with a couple of others, but they are very fast.

Be sure and try that frozen coffee drink when you need a quick afternoon boost - it will make your hair stand on end.

45 minutes ago, Nymich said:

Good morning everybody!

Got a notice last night at turndown that mandatory antigen test is needed for Riviera to get clearance for Barbados.  Testing is This Friday 7-11 in Toscana and Barbados port day is Sunday.  

If you are going to cruise right now ports can't be

a priority.  This whole itinerary is different and now we have a mandatory test for a port that wasn't even on our original itinerary.  

What was really strange about the Barbados test requirement on our cruise was that we had enough cases to trigger 3 other islands (Curacao, Grenada, Antigua) to deny us, but Barbados was just fine with whatever we had.

I will say - the onboard testing was *much* smoother than our pier-side experience.  We were in and out in 5 minutes.

2 hours ago, AlexCherie said:

We dined at Jacques (impossibly fine) on the first night, and at 6:30 I would say the seating was about 70% full. We could go to Polo tonight and share a table at 7:30, but I think we'll just enjoy the GDR. Lobster bisque, Marseillaise fish soup, butter roasted Maine Lobster, Prime Rib seem fine for us tonight. We have Polo later in the cruise.

I don't mind saying that Waves simply blows me away. The burger was out of this world, and surf and turf at the pool bar ... all of it incredible. 
 

Speaking of Jacques and the pool bar - this is not something you see everyday 🙂 

2 minutes ago, Nymich said:

Your posts last week were so helpful.  It's one of the main reasons I wanted to do this thread.

 

Cuz I've got to be free.....

Happy to help - even with all the FUD, we still had a great time on our first Oceania cruise.  I'm sure you will enjoy it all as well.

So climb aboard
We'll search for tomorrow
On every shore.

And I'll try,
Oh Lord, I'll try
To carry on

8 minutes ago, World travellers said:

Thanks so much for all your information so far.  It especially enjoyable as we look out our window in Victoria viewing a snow storm.  😀

Is Martinis & the pool bar open with seating.

No seating allowed at any of the bars (walk-up orders are OK).  Lounge tables, etc. are normal seating - they are just trying to prevent cross-pollination at the crowded bar.  You can see the sign on the backs of the chairs in the photo if you look closely.  Plus, they have the seats hooked over the rail so you can't pull them out.

The happy bartender is Baptist - look him up (I mostly saw him at waves), he's a good guy.

On 1/4/2022 at 5:27 PM, Nymich said:

I'm sailing away......

 

Set an open course, for the virgin sea...  

@AlexCherie - the Terrace Cafe is no slouch for dinner either if you want a less structured approach or al fresco dining.  I found the selections to be very good (often the same items as served in MDR).  Plus, it seemed the 2-lobster order was very popular at the grill station 🙂

3 minutes ago, ohmark said:

Enjoying the live posting here from all of you: pilgrimage, AlexCherie, and NYmich. Thanks so much to all of you. Looking forward to more.

Mark

Mark - I was actually on the prior 12/23 sailing, just got off the ship yesterday.  Figured I would chime in anyway since I don't think much has changed so far.

31 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Thank you so much, and for being so generous with us Jan 14 people taking over your live-from – we really need this info!

 

I have two dinners in La Reserve booked, and DW and I are wondering if that venue has sufficient social distancing to feel comfortable.  Can you give any advice?

This is the layout they had last week - I walked by once while they were having one, and I think this was the same spacing they had for the actual dinner.

15 minutes ago, AlexCherie said:

NYMich is doing a great job, and we are sharing the boat with him and what I believe I heard the Cruise Director say were a total of 640 souls (not including crew).

This ... simply overwhelms. Frame of reference, I have been an executive chef in a different life. I know I am preaching to the choir, but the food is simply beyond reproach.

We dined at Jacques (impossibly fine) on the first night, and at 6:30 I would say the seating was about 70% full. We could go to Polo tonight and share a table at 7:30, but I think we'll just enjoy the GDR. Lobster bisque, Marseillaise fish soup, butter roasted Maine Lobster, Prime Rib seem fine for us tonight. We have Polo later in the cruise.

I don't mind saying that Waves simply blows me away. The burger was out of this world, and surf and turf at the pool bar ... all of it incredible. 

I'll straight up say it - the itinerary sucks. This is a low quality, Eastern Caribbean set of ports (St. Martin, St. Thomas, Puerto Plata, NCL's private island). But they are what they are.

I have told my wife to consider strongly delaying building our next home and taking the April 4 cruise of this ship.  It's been that awesome. 

The food was very good on our recently ended cruise as well - we really enjoyed Waves grill for lunch on several occasions.  Outstanding burgers, and the Salmon burger (*not* your usual salmon patty) and Maduro grilled tuna were great as well.

We also had dinner at Jacques our first night, and it was definitely the highlight, although we had a late 9pm seating (only 2-top we could get when reserving) and were maybe a little rushed, the food was fantastic.  The scallops were the highlight for me - very few places cook them properly. 

6 hours ago, Love.II.Cruise said:

Got it.  Sounds like they did good having the main party on the pool deck.  

 

Do you have to do a COVID test to get off the ship in Miami?  If so, and you test positive, what happens?  Seems like protocols change so quickly that I can't keep up!

 

Thank you for sharing your pictures and have a safe travel home!

No test required, although they did offer optional testing yesterday for people who need that related to their final destination.  It was listed in the Currents one time as mandatory, but I think that was a mistake (maybe a cut/paste from our Barbados testing requirements) since it showed as optional the next day and was never referenced as mandatory anywhere else. 

We did hear multiple people throughout the day yesterday being requested to contact reception, don't know if that was related to the testing.  I don't know what the protocol would be for a positive test in that case.

Glad you enjoyed the photos!  Not looking forward to the airport today.

1 hour ago, Love.II.Cruise said:

Did they do New Year's Eve parties and if so how was it handled?

I skipped the festivities - not my thing.  It sounded like things went on as planned, just with masks.  I think the main party was on pool deck, so at least it was outside.

16 hours ago, AlexCherie said:

Have they been able to maintain all entertainment venues?
Any changes to access to pool/sauna/hot tub/gym?

And please remember ... wipe down all surfaces before you leave. Our seat at Waves is set up for the January 4. 

Cheers!

I haven't heard about any limit on those - the only thing I've seen is them disallowing drinks in the Riviera theater so everyone will keep their masks on.

Lazy day in a lounger planned for this sea day, Toscana tonight.

St. Maarten went off without a hitch today.  Beautiful day on the island