CruiserFromMaine

Oops, of course! Not sure how I messed that up!

The term “posh” comes from “starboard out, port home” from the British point of view. So, heading west, starboard (southern) side and the port side for the return.

And I don’t have an opinion. Whether Ember is better than Jacques is an opinion and I don’t have an opinion whether Ember is better or not. The topic question is whether we’ll miss Jacques. Many, it seems, will miss it, but I won’t, and many others who’ve never experienced it won’t miss it either. “I don’t know what I’m missing.” Yes, and that’s my point. It’s part of the evolution of the Oceania brand, just like when they added Jacques.

Yes, that’s our cruise. See you on board!

Following along—hope you have a wonderful journey!

I’ve been following this topic with some interest since we’re sailing on the Vista in late January 2024 (next month!) and I won’t miss Jacques, for the simple reason I’ve never been to Jacques. I’m going to give Ember a fair shot. There are several less casual restaurants on board and I’ll try all them too. Looking forward to our cruise!

So sorry this happened to you, that’s awful! I hope we never get seated with that so-called lady.

I turn off automatic time zone updates and manually set to ship’s time “to avoid disappointment” as the cruise lines sometimes say (usually when encouraging you to book early).

@Sthrngary thanks for your well-done and thorough postings!

We were there in April and it’s still wonderful.

Looking forward to your reports! We board in March.

Hi @Lois R! I’m late to the thread, but glad to see you’re cruising again—have a great cruise!

We’re all different types of travelers. I’d prefer an app to always have that info handy. I carry my phone for picture taking primarily but also maps on land, and the marine tracker app if I want to look up a fancy yacht or check the weather. My wife carries her phone since she has an aging father and she wants to be reachable. We’d both prefer an app to the paper, but Regent could have paper be the default with an opt out, or vice versa with an opt in for paper.

I think the very pronounced loyalty to OC was possible since there were only two ships, that weren’t all that different. There were no Whisper or Dawn type of questions to be had. And much easier to get to know the crew since they were on only two ships (OK, three with the Endeavor). On other lines, the crew you see on Whisper you might never see on the Dawn. I’m very interested to see how Crystal incorporates several new ships into their portfolio.

Glad you’re back home! That’s a terrible saga, but I hope it ends up being a good story after the pain wears off! And good to ask Delta first, your insurance might want to see your request denied from them first.

Ugh, sorry Lois! Hope you make it home soon!

They told me it was random, for whatever that is worth. We just flew back from Turkey, and got there via a flight from Romania, and didn’t get the 4S. Keeps us on our toes, I guess. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

On round trip tickets, too. I had it happen to me in Vienna on a flight back home. According to the security staff there, TSA wanted Austrian security to do a check on me. If you can’t check in on-line, that could signal a problem. Go to the airport extra early.

Hi @Lois R! Somehow I missed this whole thread till just now! Glad you had a good cruise! We’ll be on the Dawn in Norway next June.

We’ve been on the Silver Whisper, Spirit and Muse and prefer the larger ships over the Whisper. We haven’t been on the newer SSea ships but have a cruise booked on the Dawn next June. We had one cruise on Crystal in January of 2020. We really liked it and booked an open booking on board, which fortunately was refunded. Our Crystal cruise was the first leg of the world cruise, so the enrichment may have been better than usual but it was excellent. Entertainment was too. Food was a tie with SSea. Service better on SSea (lots of tipping going on the get good seats in Waterside, but that’s not the only reason) and rooms much better on SSea. All in my opinion, of course.

I echo many of the sentiments above. We’ve been on Regent (once), Oceania (once) and Celebrity (eight or so). Celebrity pricing for Aqua class and suites is very high. Celebrity has good cruises, with lots of live music and very good entertainment. But if you want upscale, really take a look at Regent. Oceania has great food too, but on their older ships, many of the cabins are small with hard-to-explain-how-small bathrooms. Entertainment is better on Regent than Oceania but better yet on Celebrity. Think hard about what you want and what’s important to you then take a cruise!

Most of the River cruise lines have a hardware, rather than app, solution for hearing tour guides and it works very well. We’ve had apps on other lines and I find it much carrying the Daily Bugle or whatever the daily program is called. So I take a picture of it and use that as a self-made app. I also get pictures of the all-aboard time and port agent address and phone number.

@lprp @PortolanI’m following along—we’ll be on the Splendor around Iceland next summer. Thanks for posting!

@A Tucson Guy thanks for your reporting on this cruise! I’m particularly glad you got to try the “new” La Dame and I’m glad you enjoyed it.

@boblerm following along, thanks for your thread! We’re doing a similar itinerary next summer, also on on Splendor. Interestingly, when we on Splendor for a B2B in January, there was an in-person muster for each segment, although we got to skip the second one.