britfan

We just returned a week ago from the Montreal-Boston cruise on Insignia. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at each port and on the ship. Montreal is definitely worth an extra day. It was the last itinerary before repositioning for the winter and we had expected to find the fall foliage well past peak and to have poor weather; but the price was very good with the ESS sale and we had never been to many of the ports before. The exchange rate was great for US $, too. While it was definitely cold in some locations (highs ranged from 30's in Quebec to 50's in Boston), there was a lot more leaf color seen and we only had a little rain once in 11 days; snow showers one other time. We missed one port, East Port, ME due to weather. We did a mix of ship excursions and exploring on our own. The one caution is if arriving after Oct 31, it's the end of the tourist season and many places then shut down. This caused several excursions to be cancelled although they did try to find some alternatives. We were the very last cruise ship to visit in several of the locations. Our one disappointment, other than the missed port, was that on an otherwise good excursion to the Anne of GG museum on PEI, the shop was closed. Of course, that was the one place where I had promised to buy gifts for some of my younger family members! There was no time afterwards in Charlottetown for shopping where I had spotted items earlier in the day but had decided to wait until we got to the museum shop. oh well....

Perhaps so, but they didn't give us any pushback at all and the charge was credited quite quickly. The only caution was not to go below the minimum of 5 excursions. I think at the time I only checked the fine print on the physical tickets that were in the cabin for us and the only restriction mentioned was the 36 hour business. I guess we were just lucky!

Maybe that's so with the new SM scheme but we were able to cancel YWYW excursion in July when we realized that a 7.5 hr tour was as appealing as we had thought. Fine print said it had to be done no less than 36 hours pre-tour and we still had the requisite number of tours left to maintain the YWYW prices.

I meant the specific cabin within the C1 category was not what we would have chosen. It's closer to what may be the gangway depending on which way the ship docks and which deck they use. But we signed up for a GTY knowing we gave away that choice in favor of paying the price we wanted. It's ok - we are very much looking forward to the cruise!

We had a GTY for a C1 on an upcoming cruise and just got our cabin assignment 2 weeks prior to embarkation. Alas, no upgrade (the ship looks to be completely full with every category but one waitlisted) but our cabin is a C1, which is what we paid for, and we're happy to have it. The location is not what I would have normally chosen but should be ok from what I've read.

Scandinavian with Chef Stephanie: salmon rillete (really good - I've already made it successfully at home for a dinner party), swedish meatballs, saffron dessert crepes w/berries. She demonstrated how to do gravlax. We drank glogg and a nice red wine throughout - lots of fun!

I rarely post but this topic compelled me to weigh in. We were on Riviera in July also and had a fabulous time. We had been upgraded to a PH cabin - very nice, plenty of space & storage, very comfortable. The very few cabin-related issues that came up were dealt with the same day, to include finding me one of the older desk clocks they used to have b/c none of us, including our butler and cabin steward, could figure out how to set my new travel alarm clock that I had brought. We had never had a butler before and weren't sure how that was going to work but he was great. We didn't utilize him as much as others did but he checked on us usually twice a day and each evening brought our nightly glass of wine/scotch. The food was overall very good and the very few times I was underwhelmed, I attributed it more to a poor choice on my part and not the execution of the dish (can't even remember those now). The grill chefs at the Terrace get particularly high marks. The desserts are exquisite! We enjoyed each of the specialties and had good company sharing a table each time. We didn't partake of the on-board entertainment much (did enjoy the string quartet) but we don't sail on Oceania for the entertainment. Really the only thing I was mildly disappointed with were the lectures (pretty dry and very basic powerpoint visuals). I don't think we ever encountered a staff member who wasn't friendly, eager to please, and professional at their job with two exceptions: one at destination services, who seemed peeved that we cancelled one of our pre-booked excursions, and one person at the dining reservation desk who just wasn't very personable. My husband had a good experience with the Spa (even though the prices are outrageous - helped, however, by him winning a discount voucher in their first day raffle). We missed one port, Pammiut, but totally justifiable: fog and icebergs. The fog was 'pea soup' thick; more disappointing was the fog persisted such that if we cruised through Prince Christian Sound, we couldn't see any of it. Anyway, we're booked for a Canada/New England cruise in late Oct and we'll be back in an ocean-view cabin on Insignia and very much looking forward to it!

I did one of culinary classes on Riviera just a few weeks ago: 1 person per station. However, the chef made a note of saying that if somebody wanted in a class that was closed, they should just show up at the designated time in case of no shows. At that point, there's not enough time to call people on the waitlist and be able to keep to their schedule. Our class had 2 vacancies. Also, I noticed that more classes were added after the date that I originally signed up online.

What did you make? I'm signed up for the same on Riviera in July.

Thanks!

Please forgive me if this is an old question but I've spent way too much time searching the forum in vain for an answer. Can you purchase the prestige beverage package once you're on board without having pre-purchased the house select package? All the many Q & A's seem to deal with upgrading scenarios. We have a ridiculous amount of OBC coming to us (the 'retro' OBC from the ESS) that will only be available once we're actually on board. Originally, I had determined we didn't really need either package but now it seems silly not to have the convenience. Thanks - it will be our first Oceania cruise in about 15 years!