vlthom

We were on the same cruise as the OP and had no problems whatsoever. We were on the prior segment as well. We never got sick and frankly, I found there to be less coughing and sneezing on these two cruises than I'd observed in pre-COVID cruises. If you are highly concerned, take and wear a mask. They are not handing out masks onboard like they did immediately after opening up cruises again. Avoid riding in elevators, too. Skip the tour buses. That said, we utilized all of these things and did not get sick.

I've used Viator numerous times and have always had a good experience. Usually, we are in contact with the actual tour operator who is listed on the booking information as well. It's easy to look them up and check them out. I've found that the pricing on Viator is comparable to what the tour operator offers, too. For me, it's easier to use Viator if we are booking numerous independent tours as I can keep track of everything in one website/app. There are often specials offered, or "click-thru" offers associated with using Viator which make them an attractive option for me. Sure....I'd like 10% cash back because I clicked thru Rakuten. Or, I'd like 10X the FF miles by clicking through an airline shopping portal. These are things that I take into consideration as well.

Yes, we've sailed in 7133 on Riviera previously. It's a nice cabin with an enormous balcony.

We were on the ship just a couple days ago. There are no built-in USB ports in the cabins on Marina. Perhaps they will be part of the refurbishment process as they were added to other ships when they received their "NEXT" upgrade. Currently on Marina in regular cabins (cannot speak of suites), there is a European style outlet on each side of the bed. Near the desk, there is at least one more European outlet (maybe more) and two US-style outlets. For us, this was problematic as we forgot to bring our European style adapters. We had to make-do with the US outlets, and only one of them was workable at once because they are place too closely together. Unless you have slim plugs, only one can be utilized. We hoped to find plug adapters in one of the onboard shops and were advised by reception that they had them on sale; however, when we checked in the shop, they laughed at us and told us that they'd been sold out for a "long time". I'd recommend getting a European version of a plug with multiple ports if you have numerous devices to charge. In our case, we somehow managed even though we had all sorts of things that required charging. We made it work.

We were on Marina from June 21 - July 11th. We observed a few people wearing masks but they were in the minority. Frankly though, there was more mask-wearing than I expected. Overall, I didn't think that there were many coughing, though we did observe it on occasion on a tour bus or two. We got home yesterday and so far are healthy, thankfully.

Yes, prime rib was still on the menu when we were most recently in Polo. No change there.

No, we did our own air.

Happy to say that they finally managed to post our OBC associated with our gold status as of this afternoon, which is day 7 of 10, for this segment. It did seem to finally happen after I talked to the Ambassador, contacted my TA who said that he spoke to O in Miami (on day 3), I contacted reception who said that they’d speak with the pursers office (day 6), and I explained the situation on the mid-cruise comments (day 6). We finally received certificates for the spa treatments that also come with being gold level, too, as of this afternoon. We were able to get spa appointments on the last day of the cruise, fortunately, as it was the only time that we could fit them into our schedule at this stage. I wish that we hadn’t had to spend so much time chasing this down.

Yes…still onboard until Tuesday

I agree. It was done very swiftly each time I’ve made a request for the shareholder benefit. I was impressed with their efficiency in this case.

Dinner was in Red Ginger tonight. I must say, everything was delicious BUT…….there was no Miso Glazed Sea Bass on the menu! Instead, it was Miso Glazed Black Cod. I’ve never been a fan of cod so I didn’t order it. But I’ve now googled it and it may be a decent fish. I was just shocked that they messed with such a popular dish. Tonight the swag for our “gold” level appeared on the bed - hats, pins and tote bags. We don’t really care about that stuff but would like to have the extra OBC that is due, yet it still hasn’t appeared. Maybe tomorrow?

Our first O cruise was on Marina during her inaugural season. This particular cruise had Jacques Pepin onboard, too. I spotted FDR onboard as well, so everything was running about as well as can be. We were completely enthralled. Kathryn Kelly was teaching the culinary classes then, too. On this occasion, we were in one of her classes. At that time, wines were also poured in copious amounts to pair with the items being prepared in class. Ms. Kelly said that she spied Jacques Pepin returning to his suite from the spa and she thought that she’d surprise him and have him come in to say hello to our class. Indeed, he was quite surprised to be dragged into our class while in his bathrobe. My husband snapped a photo of him entering the room and I still laugh when I see the photo of the expression on his face.

In our case, we enjoy taking longer trips, but it means that we need to stay in touch with things at home and DH must do some work occasionally. This requires some decent internet usage, plain and simple. Our friends admire the fact that we may vacation 6 weeks or more at a time, but we only do so with some tradeoffs where internet is needed. There are often sea days or other downtimes when we do this. Having 2 log-ins would be useful - perhaps not imperative but we could make better use of our time when we need to be connected if we had the 2 log-ins. Having sailed on both Viking and Regent where every passenger has wifi usage, I can say that the additional load on their bandwidth didn’t seem to make any difference. The wifi seemed about the same as what we get on O with only one login per cabin.

I’d like to point out that during our first segment of this trip, we were in a different cabin (same level, just on the opposite side of the ship). In that cabin, there were no issues whatsoever. The HVAC worked great. The closet doors stayed closed and the lights inside did not flicker during the night. The bathroom door did not need to be slammed in order to close. That’s not true in our latest cabin; however, we removed the lightbulb from the closet. It’s unnecessary anyway. And we wedge a pair of the provided slippers in between the closet doors at night and they don’t move. Those “fixes” are not a huge effort and we go on to enjoy our cruise. We’re having a fine time. Now if they can only straighten out issues with our account, we’ll be set. They can’t seem to provide the correct SBC or loyalty status despite this being the 5th day of the cruise.

Dinner in Polo tonight. Huge line-up at the entrance prior to opening. I haven’t seen that since our earliest sailings on O. We had an excellent meal. Everything was hot and nicely prepared. We ate too much but were pleased with everything. Skipped dessert, as we often do at Polo. I meant to comment yesterday about our dinner in the GDR last night. During the prior segment, we were seated on the port side of the GDR every single time that we ate there and we found the service to be slower and less attentive than we were accustomed to during past sailings. But last night we were on the opposite side with obviously experienced wait-staff. It was a totally different experience. Quick service….everything accurate and seamless. We’re hoping that the less experienced staff manage to get trained up to this level.

I’ve emailed or TA but he hasn’t sorted things for us in the past. We probably need a new one.

Thanks for the info…..too bad about the answer, though..

We have a breezy, drizzly day in Kristiansand today. There’s a large Princess ship here as well which means that the port is crowded, but at least we made it here today and did not have to skip another port. We just walked around the shopping area and the big church before returning to the ship as it was largely uninteresting and we didn’t book a tour. But it was good to get off the ship and stretch our legs. This voyage marks our 15th trip with O - at least by the way that they count them for loyalty purposes. I am still waiting for our onboard account to reflect this for purposes of the SBC and other perks. I even visited the “Ambassador” yesterday, who confirmed our count and then told me that it might take several days for the system to reflect our Gold status, but if it did not happen, I should return and she’d take care of it. Now why would I want to have to try to match up our schedule with that of their office hours in order to chase this down again? This seems like a process that should happen seamlessly on the first day.

Only the “Allumettes” in Polo

Also applied to any bottle of wine that’s purchased, which seems excessive given the markup, but also given that the service associated with a $150 bottle is the same as the service for a $75 bottle.

The scheduled dry dock should take care of the issues.

I removed the light bulb and we wedged a package of the provided slippers between the closet doors, That did the trick and we were able too sleep without the lights flickering on and off and the doors rattling all night. Now if we can keep the water bottles from rattling, we’ll be in great shape.

I guess that we’ll see how it plays out as it is not clear presently and may not be for awhile.

I question this as the wifi was never part of OLife, but a general amenity for all.

The captain indicated that it’s a protected port so hopefully, we’ll be able to go ashore. Fingers crossed.