DrHemlock

Aha! Well, as Arte Johnson used to say, "Verrrrry interestink!"

This might not be possible as it would mean missing the mandatory lifeboat drill usually conducted around 5:00 or 5:15 pm. Not likely that a late sailing would mean delaying the drill until after dinner.

Following our 2000 first-ever cruise aboard the Ren VII in the Seychelles, our 2nd, 3rd and 4th cruises were aboard Diamond. Second and third were the usual Caribbean itineraries, but fourth was transatlantic from Funchal to San Juan. She handled very nicely in mid-ocean, gliding along what Capt. Broomhall stated were 15-foot seas. Twin hulls apparently tended to cancel out each other's tilting and yawing. Open bridge was a never-to-be-duplicated privilege on any of our subsequent cruises aboard Regent or Oceania. Giuseppe was levels above any other cruise director we've sailed with on R or O. We were thrilled to find him as hotel manager aboard Navigator a few years later. No idea where he is now, though I had the feeling he was heading toward an onshore career to stay in one place with his new son and beautiful (as in "Oh, my!") wife. Sure do miss that boat.

Bulgari toiletries, Oceania pens and notepads? Yes, absolutely! 😎

As part of the boarding process, you will be asked for a credit card to which all your on-board charges will be applied. Easy peasy and, depending on what type of card you use, you may get FF miles or cash back or other bennies from the card issuer.

I'm with you, ORV, but your comment about price propelled me to further investigation of Cyclo red. (We haven't been offered the white as pinotlover has.) I found this: https://www.vivino.com/US/en/cyclo-reserva-cabernet-sauvignon/w/6282083. That's clearly the bottle from O; it's right on the label. Mind you, I know nothing about Vivino -- whether they're reputable, knowledgeable or neither -- but hey, they're on the internet so they must be experts, right? I confess to having a laugh while reading pinotlover's comment above. Not in a snarky way, but because his/her knowledge and descriptive ability are way above mine. The word "malolactic" has never passed my lips, and probably never will.....though I've always enjoyed a nice mouthfeel. 😎

P.S. to PirateShark: If the Willamette in your signature is the one in Oregon, then you may very well be disappointed by Cyclo. We've enjoyed the products from your neck of the woods; they are levels above the Oceania freebie.

It is not corked (or never has been in our experience). Flawed is an individual judgment as to what constitutes a flaw. It is obviously not hand-crafted in small batches from south-facing slopes in Napa Valley or Bordeaux. For some, that's a flaw. It's a drinkable low-mid-range wine -- probably a blend -- that might retail at Total Wine for around 10-12 bucks. It's free (or, more properly, included) so we drink it -- and have never suffered for it. However, if your level of wine knowledge and palate sophistication are closer to, say, CC poster pinotlover than to ours, then YMMV and only you can be the judge.

Very true. However, it's the old books that people sometimes leave behind that make for interesting swaps. And because we always read at least 3-4 books on any cruise -- more on a trans-oceanic -- we always bring at least a couple of books each in case not enough of O's offerings appeal to our tastes.

Boca de Valeria is a stage set, no different than what you see on the back-lot tour at Universal Studios. Yes, it's worth a visit because the kids are cute and they do appreciate all those gifts and supplies. But they don't live there, and the schoolhouse contains only set dressing. Look around with a gimlet eye. Do you see any actual village life going on while you're there, other than people focusing on you in order to sell souvenirs? Any locals buying things in the "store"? Look into some of the other buildings, including my favorite: the alleged watering hole whose business sign simply says, "Bar." Do they resemble the buildings with advertising signs and ramshackle roofs and old cars that you've seen on shore from your balcony while cruising up-or down-river? No. They're empty shells just like in an old western movie town. We went ashore on our own, walked to the end of the "village" and kept walking out of curiosity. About a half-mile into the woods, we found the real village where the people actually live and work and play and hang laundry, etc.. The rest is strictly for show when the cruisers hit town.

Yes, you can take it to dinner and not pay the corkage. We always do. The wine stewards recognize it for what it is. And since we're always coming from Happy Hour, our defenses are down in terms of nose, mouth-feel, terroir and all the rest. We spent our youth drinking wine far worse than Cyclo so it takes us back to the days of finally being able to buy better than Cribari, if not quite up to Chateau Margaux.

Right. Docking at 8:00 doesn't mean "walking off the boat" at 8:00. You may be delayed by customs & immigration deciding to be persnickety; by luggage being slooowly off-loaded and arranged for claiming, and O won't let you disembark until your color is ready (as happened to us); by lack of available taxis causing you to stand and wait impatiently; and/or by Italian traffic on the highway. You'll be lucky to get to Fiumicino by 10:00, too late to check your luggage (which may be too large to carry onto the plane), and boarding typically closes 45 minutes before departure on an international flight so you wouldn't make it through security, passport control and finding your gate in time.

Boy, is it ever! The libraries on Marina and Riviera look like they were squeezed into nooks and crannies after being left out of the blueprints. The chairs are so close to the shelves that it can be difficult to browse without bumping into readers (and sleepers) sitting in the furniture. Terrible design. And yes, we've often swapped books we've brought aboard and finished for books left behind by other pax.

You'll be directly beneath the gym (aerobics classes; people dropping weights, etc.). Better to be in an even-numbered deck 8 cabin like 8000-2-4 which are underneath the computer and card game rooms. We've cruised in 8000 and 8002 and never heard a sound from above.

Exactly. Not that I'm defending O's decision, but sometimes you gotta change your plan when trying to reach a new or different goal.

Wow...I had no idea. Can't imagine what their logic might be, and frankly don't want to get into it. Guess I'd better qualify my remarks above with "YSMV" (your state may vary).

Further to GeezerCouple above re MJA's "over 75" renewal procedure: They send you two forms: one for you to complete; the other for your primary care (or possibly other) physician to complete. Your form is basically just "How ya been feelin' this past year?" The physician's form is also brief, asking a few questions about your observed health and concluding with attestation to the effect that "This person is healthy enough to travel." I schedule renewals to coincide with my annual Medicare "wellness exam" so the doc has a fresh impression. He completes and signs the form at the end of my exam and tacks an extra fifty bucks or so onto the bill since Medicare won't cover that expense. Easy peasy -- although perhaps more difficult if a person has had illnesses or other medical issues over the past year. Haven't yet had that experience. Important to be aware that MJA is not insurance, per se. It is membership in a company that provides medical evacuation transportation; period. Costs for any pre-evacuation medical care that you receive locally, along with incidental expenses incurred during that medical care, are your responsibility and require separate insurance, e.g., GeoBlue for medical expenses outside the U.S., supplemented by trip interruption coverage from a travel insurance policy or credit card. For us, the combined annual cost of MJA plus GeoBlue is significantly less than buying individual travel insurance policies for each overseas cruise and land journey. However, single-trip policies may make better financial sense for infrequent travelers. There's also the issue that MJA grants membership only up to one's 85th birthday. After that, it's the Wild West for true geezers....

Our cabin was port-side on that cruise so at least we had a nice view of the Rock (including Marina already docked there) as we sailed past, having departed Casablanca about 8 hours late due to "propulsion problems."

We are among those who covet the forward-facing cabins on R ships because we love seeing what the captain sees. We use our balcony frequently at sea -- though certainly not always. Various factors contribute to the balcony's utility on any given day. For one, the ship's speed, which is only as fast as it needs to be in order to reach the next port on time (slower speed saves fuel, same as your car). Island hopping in the Caribbean, port-hopping in the Med or sailing the inside passage in Canada/Alaska usually don't require pouring on the coal. Also, the ambient wind direction contributes. Sailing into a headwind makes the forward balcony less pleasant -- not only because of your hair getting messed up or your hat blowing away, but also because of the wind-chill factor -- while that effect is lessened when the ship has a following wind. For us, there's nothing like looking forward, especially when sailing into a new port with basically a 200° view. Still, as others have pointed out, you gotta be okay with the motion of the ocean while at sea. We find it exciting to watch the bow plowing through the waves and, occasionally, having to be careful to maintain our balance -- always shower in port! -- but that's because we're lucky never to have been affected by seasickness. If you're "iffy" in that regard, then it's probably better to follow the usual guidelines for center-ship cabin location.

And in exuberant seas, they rock 'n roll.

Exact proximity to Cuba may change slightly dependent on weather and tides. On our cruise with exactly the same itinerary, Cuba was indeed a smudge on the horizon.

It was I who heard it at breakfast in Terrace Cafe aboard Riviera and subsequently posted about it. As soon as the weird instrumental break in the middle was completed, the song was cut to some other muzak-style song without bringing back Jimmy Page's guitar or Robert Plant's vocals. Maybe some diner of a more recent generation asked the maitre d', "What the heck is that?" -- and that was the end of that.

"Better still." "Until they go wrong." (Anyone recognize those two lines of dialog?)

We didn't need to show our vax cards but that doesn't mean cruisers boarding different itineraries wouldn't need to do so. What we did need to do is fill in the dates of vaxes and boosters on an O med form. I, for one, couldn't have done it without having the vax card in my hand to refer to. YMMV, but it's better to have the card and not need it than to not have it and be SOL.

Same exact experience as jondfk on our two recently-completed O cruises.