DurangoWino

Have to agree with MB, two of our best meals were tables we shared with other couples.

Have to agree with your table guests at Polo, the lobster I got was tough. Also my lamb at our second night at RG was a bit lamby tasting - the sea bass is the way to go there. The second night of Caribbean Night at the Terrace was pretty cool with a whole tuna cut up in pieces displayed. I saw them wheeling it to our ship in St Johns and wondered when/how it would show up. For the numbers of people being served food each meal, I think the crew does a great job serving very good food. Now were these restaurants onshore not sure any would make a repeat performance for dining but on a ship I’ll give them some leeway. But your observations are spot on.

Last night of our fabulous cruise. Finally made it to Embers and it was good but to me ranks 4th behind Polo, Toscana, and Red Ginger. Glad that their rolls were not served all over the ship or I would have gained ten more pounds. Please make sure to see the singers/dancers last production called Into the Night. Fantastic show and was the best of all three shows. The entertainment has been outstanding this trip. Since the last update Tom Franek did two great shows of piano/songs. Very talented guy who is up for three Grammys. High compliments to the Vista staff, everyone was very professional and tried very hard to make everyone’s trip enjoyable. Vista is an amazing ship and worth every effort to take a cruise on.

Confirming that they do have Splenda onboard. Might not be in every sugar bowl but they do have it.

Yes Ember is later on in the trip. Just got out of the French Cooking class and it was very good. Highly recommend taking one of their classes if you are interested in cooking. We do a seafood class late in the afternoon on Thursday.

We will go to Ember later on in the trip. Just based on previous reviews of it compared to RG and T, those two were must go to early on in the trip in case we wanted to try and go more than once. Very interesting on USCG. Funny that you mention the age of the passengers, I commented to my wife that we will be lucky if everyone makes it through the trip. When the USCG came, I told her “you see”! LOL.

Yes Christmas trees are out, heard 1100 people onboard this cruise with about 1000 crew. Not sure on Splenda since we do not use it - will try and look for it. We had to have someone taken off the ship because of a medical emergency yesterday and huge USGG helicopter came to ship in the middle of the ocean to evac them off. Took place just above our room. Pretty amazing, but cannot imagine the cost for doing that.

I think that the capacity is 1200 with 800 crew. Every category was waitlisted so I am guessing around 1200 guests? Not sure though.

We are on a Miami to Miami cruise on Vista and in Barbados today. We are not experienced cruisers, only sailing on Regatta back in 2017 to Alaska, so take my comments in the context that this is only our second cruise - all on Oceania. With that said the Vista is just sooo nice. The rooms are much more spacious than our inside room on Regatta. Love the larger balcony and walk in shower and plenty of storage space for us - everything in our two suitcases found a drawer or closet. The safe is large enough for a computer(s) plus anything else you want to lock away. We are in an A-1 level suite. Later this afternoon we get to do a French Cooking class, the venue for it is totally first class. To date we have tried every restaurant except Amber. Polo, Toscano, and Red Ginger are all fabulous. We had drinks last night in Martinis and a couple from Georgia set across from us who have cruised all over the world on just about every cruise line, recently on Seaborne, and they thought the food on Vista was the best they have had at sea. No arguments from me as we have felt the food and service has been everything we could have hoped for. For those wanting to try a speciality restaurant for a second time or without reservations, we were able to walk up to Red Ginger last night when they opened and were seated immediately at a shared table. Great way to meet other guests. We could also have gotten a reservation earlier in the day via the reservation desk for a shared table at Red Ginger for 7:00 as well. Service in the MDR can be and is slow, we had about a two hour dinner with long waits between courses. Just a lot of people descending on the place at the same time. Breakfast was much better but the Eggs Benedict were like they had been sitting under a heat lamp for some time. English muffin was tough and egg overcooked. We learned this morning that Eggs Benedict can be ordered at the Terrace and they were fresh and just about perfect. Baristas is great with the bakery adjacent. Aquamar is a nice change of pace healthy alternative for breakfast and lunch. Waves is very nice for burgers and had a station open on Day 2 that had a fantastic baked chicken - I look everyday to see if they are having it again. Entertainment has been fabulous. Tom Bristow, a comic, has had two shows and he is very funny. Colleen Williamson is a singer with operatic background that sings everything from Broadway to hit songs. Her voice is amazing and she loves performing. New to this cruise is a new troupe of singers and dancers. They performed for the first time two nights ago and they were so good. They are signed for a six month stint and will only get better. Lots of folks on the elevators the next day asked if you saw the show last night so they made a great impression on everyone. We will go early to get our seats the next time they perform. So that gives you an update on my impressions of Vista. From the food to the entertainment, it is just Simply Incredible!

A number of years ago we did a seaplane out to Juneau to Taku Glacier Lodge for a salmon dinner. Great experience. You might look up the lodge and see what seaplanes service it and book the excursion on your own. Same goes for the trips to see the various glaciers. Don’t just rely on Oceania for your excursions.

We booked a cruise only trip on Vista for Dec 1st Miami to Miami in A-1 for just over $3000/person. New fare for same level is now over $3700. So that’s over $1400 more for two people. For this cruise we will not do excursions and just pay as we go for drinks. Future cruises for us will have excursions that we will take so the extra cost of Simply More may not seem so unreasonable, but if you were someone that books your own excursions - or does not do excursions, plus is a non-drinker this is a pretty stiff bump in the cost of your cruise. Hopefully O’s management will see enough of a drop in bookings that they will allow the choice of cruise only and Simply More.

Based on a conversation with an O representative, she said I could change which package I had picked 100 times prior to the cruise. Not sure if there is a time cutoff but changing packages did not seem to be an issue for her. I am in the same situation as you with respect to which package I choose for our Miami to Miami trip on Dec 1st. Not blown away by some of the excursion choices so far.

We did the Seattle to Seattle trip in 2018 and thought Wrangell was pretty disappointing. Just not much there to see or do. Sitka was our favorite stop and Juneau was our second favorite because of our excursion. We did the seaplane to Taku Lodge for their salmon cookout. The flight was spectacular seeing all the glaciers and then landing in the river in front of the lodge - pretty cool. I am hoping to do another Alaskan cruise in the next few years and hope that Juneau would still be on the itinerary. In Sitka we loved the boat tour seeing all the sea otters, eagles and starfish clinging to the walls after the tide goes out. Really liked the vibe of Sitka.