Snaefell3

That's a "should I choose pistachio or chocolate ice cream?" question. 😉 The only non-usual thing I would mention is that the non-suite (category A to G) cabins on R-class ships (including Riviera) all have the same unexpectedly small bathrooms. The showers, in particular, are a running topic of "they're very bad" vs "they're small but quite usable".

Yep. But only recently enough to have not yet rolled "random inspection". Or is it they have and the report is "moving at the speed of government"...?

👍 and even better, the actual report that shows what was wrong and what was done. "Cruise Ship Inspection Search": https://wwwn.cdc.gov/InspectionQueryTool/InspectionSearch.aspx PS: The inspections can only happen when a ship reaches a US port, so no Vista report yet.

Indeed! But 4 ships to 3, what category should O be in? File me under "overly picky", I guess.

Sorry, but gotta wonder about #1 in "Best Cabins" after sailing in an R-class non-suite. Maybe those CC folks don't bathe? 😉

Fever (for COVID, flu, norovirus, whatever) is screened for with an old-tech infrared camera, not facial recognition: Someone watches the "false-color" images and says "You!" to anyone showing a red face (elevated skin temperature), taking them aside for confirmation and diagnosis by the medical staff.

Not last March on Regatta 😞 YMMV

Assuming the navigation team knows its port from its starboard... 😉 Vista is chugging along at only 10 knots and nowhere to be until Wednesday (they're skipping Saguenay, right?). Methinks they don't want to go slower, so they were wandering around to burn time? They've since made a U-turn and are headed (slowly) for the St Lawrence.

I'd put it as "O is likely to take the opportunity to encourage your friend to be a big spender" 😉

::heads back to the TARDIS muttering "'23", "'23":: 😉

Datum: Mar '24, LA Pier 92, Regatta • All classes were seated in same room, waiting for boarding to begin at 11:00. • Top suites were escorted aboard • Then penthouses were escorted aboard • Then concierge verandas were boarded without escort • Then steerage 😉 were boarded I've heard that other sailings in LA ran the four categories in parallel instead of one after the other. YMWV

For the cost of satellite bandwidth, yes, but there are a bunch of other factors, including just how much bandwidth your ship *chooses* to buy. What gets missed is that just about any satellite has enough bandwidth available for even Icon of the Seas, but GEO satellites have cost-driven pricing that would mean $100+/day to give just one passenger "broadband" internet-at-sea.

Nor, methinks, is the density of potential customers 😉

Oh! When in port (especially Skagway), IT-savvy ships buy their internet connectivity from shoreside cellphone companies, etc., instead of satellites.

OK. Time, I guess, to go down into the "weeds". GEO satellites orbit much higher than MEOs, far enough up that they can't do the trick that MEOs do: fly 10 steerable, directional antennae and sell the same bandwidth to 10 ships (that aren't too close to each other). That brings their cost down to where the ship's budget buys enough bandwidth to share at-home bandwidth among the pax. Actually, a ship *could* buy enough bandwidth from a GEO satellite to "do opera" but would go broke doing it. The current GEO and MEO satellites are in equatorial orbit and can't be seen over the "bulge" of a spherical planet if you are too far from the equator. GEO satellites are much higher and can be used much farther from the equator. The current LEO satellites are in polar orbit, so one or another of them are always available, even at the poles. I don't have a handle on Starlink's costs, and while they're selling bandwidth cheap now, it might be a loss-leader that won't continue.

Understand that until and unless a ship is using Starlink, with its polar-orbit satellites, the ship's latitude makes more difference than which ship. The at-home-speed satellites are in Medium Earth Orbit over the Equator and go below the southern horizon before you get to as far north as Seattle or Southampton.

Hmmm.... "Travel agent said", "Travel agent relayed", "Travel agent told us". Maybe the problem is Oceania, but I know where I'd put my rent money if I were betting. As for wheelchairs for embarkation/debarkation? Would Venice's porters union permit cruise ship wheelchairs to be used shoreside? I know that when my DW wrenched her knee on the dock in San Pedro, it was a shoreside wheelchair that got us aboard and to our cabin door and that "shoreside" were fairly territorial about it, nevermind their chairs were too wide for a standard cruise ship cabin door. (A knee brace from the Medical Center fixed her up for the cruise, thank you for asking)

Personal opinion, repeat: opinion... Wave's lunch menu is much better than its breakfast menu. ::grabs some popcorn:: 😉 ...and a surf & turf sandwich.

Yep. You'll find it filed under "Stuff Happens". 😳 I've seen folks on a ship's tour (not an O ship) who weren't able to re-board at Dunedin follow us up the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, not be able to re-board at Christchurch, and finally get back on board Picton after 2 days of busses, hastily-arranged meals, and best-available hotels. They didn't enjoy the detour, but they did enjoy telling stories of their adventure. Those folks found out what is guaranteed is "the ship *really* wants you back aboard before sailing, but there comes a point at which they will sail without you and take care of you as best they can until they can get you back aboard, even if it's two or more ports down the itinerary"

Nothing O markets as a "specialty restaurant" charges a fee, even on extra visits: Jacques, Toscana, Red Ginger, Polo Grill, Ember, Aquamar. (Vista doesn't have a Jacques 😪 ). O does have another category: "private dining", which does. 3 figures per, I think. Lastly, everything bigger than the R-class (Regatta, Insignia, Nautica, and Sirena) has a classroom kitchen where you eat your cooking lessons. $89 per.

"It's tough to make predictions ...especially about the future" -- Yogi Bera My rule of thumb is at least 6 hours from scheduled docking to scheduled takeoff, but if a passenger were to go overboard the night before docking and had to be searched for, or fog, or customs officer strike, or dock workers strike..., or..., or..., or..., it wouldn't be good enough. Have a Plan 'B'. In your case, I wouldn't worry much about O not being willing to accommodate you unless the ship hadn't docked yet or hadn't cleared customs yet. Also: are you sure transportation is readily available at 2am?

AIUI, the GDR runs menus on a two week cycle, irrespective of when voyages start or end, perhaps because they often run overlapping voyages. In other words, no fixed "first night" menu because your Day #1 meal might be Day #3 or #13 for other folks. If I'm wrong, watch for folks mocking me 😉

I'd not sneer at environmental regs or insurance clauses being the reason, but the slope of the nearshore affects the rate at which the "ripple" dampens. So, as the real estate folks say, could be "Location, location, location". Added thought: The presence of growlers (truck-sized floating ice), ready to slice hull, could also factor in. None of O's ships hold an ice class rating.

Or --more likely-- the likelihood of non-trivial waves from glacier calving events. JMNSHO 😉

Or this year, out of Los Angeles (Hurricane Hillary)