shepherd really

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

On the Riviera with very limited internet. A question for those of you at home:

 

In the new release of cruises, going into 2026, are all of the R ships listed; or have any disappeared?

49 cruises listed on the R ships, 51 on the O and A ships, so far for January-June '26.  All four R's have cruises listed, but Nautica has only 4.

10 minutes ago, Kay S said:

My yardstick for "inedible" is my late aunt's jicama-beansprout-avocado gelatin mold. 

Is the mold an ingredient or the form it is made in?

4 hours ago, pinotlover said:

Besides the availability of certain ports, I see the larger changes being in dining? Do they make the GDR and Terrace larger yet? How about the Specialties? With 200 more passengers I’m guessing extra Specialty nights, except for top suites, will mostly disappear.

Excellent question, a 15% increase in the size of the dining venues would address that.  It will be interesting to see how or if this is addressed.

7 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

While I no longer follow Giada, I used to watch her TV shows, I bought her DVDs and I cooked and baked many of her recipes. I have a lot of good recipes that I got from Giada. I definitely would say that yes, she is a celebrity chef.

I’ve since moved onto follow other chefs as I’ve previously mentioned, but I have absolutely no complaints about her professional competency (marital infidelity will not be mentioned. OOPS!)

I half agree with you, she's certainly a celebrity.  The chef part is what I question.  If she had a different last name could her resume get her a job as an executive chef in a Michelin starred restaurant?  

1 hour ago, EJL2023 said:

Yes, no jacket. I’ve never worn one on O. I did pack one for my first O cruise but Delta decided to lose my luggage.  So I took that as a sign….🙂

And now my earworm is Delta Dawn

Delta Dawn

Who's that jacket you have on?

Could it be from ELJ's missing bag

5 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Seems more recognized for quality of cooking shows, not actual quality of recipes or cooking itself. No sign of any of the actual awards that reflect quality of food itself such as James Beard award or Michelin stars.

She's not even a celebrity chef.  She's just a person with a famous last name who pretends to be a cook on tv.   

If everyone is done with the highjack, perhaps we can return to the subject of this thread?  

Anyone remember what that was?

Me neither 😁

1 minute ago, basor said:

It is quite clear that "food" is very subjective and so what one person loves another person hates - look at all of the Jacques is the best restaurant at sea to ate once at Jacques and canceled our other reservation.  I believe that people expressing their "first hand" impressions of the meal and atmosphere when they ate at a particular food venue valuable for me to set my expectations.  My "first hand" impressions are just that, my opinion and no more right or wrong than anyone else's.  Someone, who has never eaten at a  particular dining venue or even been on the ship, opinions are not useful at all. 

I ate at Jacques on Marina about five weeks ago.  I also ate at my favorite local French restaurant last week.  There was no comparison.  Jacques was underwhelming, it just seemed tired.  My local place was superior in all the categories that matter to me.  The only thing I liked better about Jacques was when the meal ended, I was not presented with a bill.  

23 hours ago, ORV said:

Are you sure you're getting the same amount of SBC? Ours in Feb was $250 if we picked a cruise or $100 if purchasing an FCC, or to make FF happy I'll call it a FCDC, not to be confused with the FDIC or the Federal Communications Commission. 

or the CDC

48 minutes ago, Kay S said:

Bernie Mev 😝

I googled it, I thought it was Hebrew.  It's been 50 years since my Bar Mitzvah.  Shoelom. 

"De Laurentiis had a range of products made exclusively for Target. In 2013, ceramic lasagna pans under the Giada De Laurentiis brand were recalled after they cracked and at least six people were injured.^[20] In 2022, Target only seems to carry her books, including a Target edition of Eat Better, Feel Better.^[21]"

Whoops, missed her target.

and this

"On February 10, 2023, De Laurentiis has signed a multi-year deal to create and produce unscripted programming with Amazon Studios."

Her connection to Amazon does not make her ready for PRIME time.

It seems to me she just doesn't have the gravitas for "the finest cuisine at sea".

Wiki also says that she "studied" at Le Cordon Bleu, but not what program she completed.  They have lots of short courses that won't make you a professional chef by any stretch of the resume. 

She just doesn't seem like the heavy hitter they should have courted to maintain, much less advance, their cuisine.  

1 minute ago, jonthomas said:

any recommendations for a hotel near shops, breakfast and shuttle,  safe area, restaurant on site and mid range price?

we are tired of staying at the best western international, willing to pay a bit more.

The Yves Hotel in Miami worked for us last year.  It was reasonably priced, in a nice area, 10 minutes by car from the Port of Miami, which can be seen from half the rooms, and near plenty of restaurants.  

I'd stay there again. 

I've traveled to Italy for "mere pizza" and "mere pasta", it was well worth the price (which I will not bore anyone with).

I also won't comment on expensive mediocre wine and beer on Oceania, since I haven't actually seen any that would retail for $2.00/ bottle for wine or $.65 for beer.  I enjoyed many of the selections offered on my recent cruise under Simply More. but what is actual firsthand experience worth unless you repeat it 200 times?

18 minutes ago, DOJO466 said:

She Is also Godmother of Vista right?

correct

Oceania just announced her as co-chair (with Jacques Pepin) of the Oceania Culinary board as well as Brand and Culinary Ambassador.

Oh well.  Pretty thin credentials. 

12 hours ago, jackdeb said:

fdnycruiser are you confusing Jack Nicholson movies of “ The last detail “ with  “ five easy pieces “ and his egg salad sandwich? 

Just bring me the wheat toast.

9 hours ago, riversights said:

You are the experienced voyagers; we are your ignorant mates .

You literally asked experienced people for their advice based on actual experience and then, after receiving said advice reply like this ^.

Good luck and please tell us after your trip how you packed and how that worked out for you.

Oh, and you're welcome, happy to help.

1 minute ago, ORV said:

For three weeks I'll disagree with the other posts. I'm assuming by trunk you simply mean a 28" suitcase. Since you are going to be on the Nautica it only has 1 laundry for the whole ship if you do it yourself. 

 

We just did a 3-week cruise that required warm and cold weather clothes (SA & Antartica) My wife and I each took our Rimowa 29" cases, which oddly enough are about the same inside dimensions as other brands 26", a carry on each, mine is a Briggs & Riley compression case, which holds more than a typical carry on, wife's is a standard 21" Rimowa  and we each had a personal item backpack. Even with that I did laundry twice, I like clean clothes and went home with most of my clothes clean. 

 

This was on Marina, for our upcoming 10 day cruise on Regatta we are taking carry on only. Part of our decision is that we have a connection in ORD that is about 1 hour. When I booked it, the connection was almost 3 hours, but you know those airlines, always messing around with your flights. 

 

 

But that pesky 50 Lb weight limit will rear its ugly head if you really fill that 28"er up.  Your point about the Regatta (all the R class ships) only having one laundry is right on.  That changes the packing strategery. 

10 minutes ago, ORV said:

Socks with sandals is just plain stupid looking, but if that's the look you're going for give it a try. 

 

 

 

Unless you are 90 years old wearing an overcoat on the beach in Miami, then you are good to go. 

Will a 28" check in size suitcase fit under the bed? yes

That said, my wife and I both use 25" Travelpro soft sided luggage.  They also easily fit under the bed, and they were more than adequate for a recent 20-day cruise + 3 days on each end.  Packing cubes are your friend.    

On 3/29/2024 at 5:28 PM, gzathome said:

We recently went on the Oceania South America/Antarctica cruise, which we enjoyed thoroughly and we especially loved the educational lectures by the scientific team on board.  We are now looking at cruises to Greenland for our next trip, and we're wondering whether Oceania offers any lectures on those trips.  I don't mean like cooking or arts and crafts or overview of tourist attractions, but something a little more nerdy, like eg deeper dives into local ecology, history, or politics, etc.  Do any of the cruises offer anything like that?
 

So, you kept hearing "Hello, this is Andy from the bridge" on the loudspeaker, offering interesting tidbits?  Andy was very engaging as were the other lecturers.  

2 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

For Antarctica, the most important difference StarLink makes is that it's satellites are in polar orbit (and actually overfly Antarctica) rather than equatorial orbit (and can't be used from high latitude) like all the other satellites used for internet-at-sea.

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised that we had any service at all on Marina.

If a TA wants to charge you a fee the correct response is "no, thank you" followed by hanging up and blocking their phone number.

1 minute ago, patty1955 said:

I'm surprised that no one seems to know the answer. 

I know one person who ditched their Oceania "elite vacation consultant" when they ghosted her for a week after a cruise she was on was cancelled.  

They are employees of Oceania, you can "fire" them at will if they aren't serving your needs.  

3 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

I do think  that the ‘sales’ we saw in 2023 were probably ‘extraordinary’ for a number of reasons.
 

Firstly, I think that pre 2023, lots of ‘cruisers’ were still not sure about cruising and being in ‘close’ contact with others. We sailed August 22 and there were very few people using lifts and quite a number still using masks.

 

In 2023 people seemed to be generally more relaxed but there were still those who chose to ‘distance’ and/or use masks.

 

The confidence in cruising is still not back to 100% but I do think it’s improved from 2023. So, in my opinion, as ‘appetite’ improves we won’t see the ‘sales’ we saw last year. I think the principal of  ‘supply and demand’ will come into force and we won’t see the sales of 2023.

 

Time will tell!

Don't forget that many people had credits that expired by the end of 2022, so there were lots of folks riding on FCC's from cruises cancelled when covid shut the industry down.