May B

I was on Octantis, which is an expedition ship, not river nor ocean. The World Cafe is always open for dinner, no lines, no waiting; but it’s buffet. Plenty of variety, usually at the correct temperature. Wait staff serves drinks and clears table. There are I think six seats overlooking the grill area, similar to overlooking the kitchen at some fine restaurants. I think you’d still be getting your sides yourself, though. We didn’t try it. The Restaurant and Manfredi’s require a reservation. Depending on load factor, you might or might not be be able to get seated at The Restaurant without a reservation. I don’t think that’s likely to work at Manfredi’s, but I would never say never. For our seven nights, we ate twice in The Restaurant and twice in Manfredi’s. That left three nights at the World Cafe.

There is a $200 pp discount, but I thought that was for being a past guest. It even seemed to refer to my level of past guest. Should I be getting $200 pp, twice?

Btw, Clay Clayton, I do like your comment about their always wanting to say Yes, to any request ON BOARD. What’s up with the early final payment dates? I thought after I was a past cruiser, I wouldn’t have a final due more than six months prior to my next cruise, but for June, they wanted me to pay by Sept. 30th.

The funniest thing is, I thought the travel bloke was adorable. I think he’s Canadian, and perhaps named Jeff McDonald or MacDonald. I almost visited him, just for fun!

Great post! Worth showing it all again. Since there’s no breakfast on Octantis in The Restaurant, they probably didn’t have lamb chops at all, but I definitely understand about their desire to please. I felt like the service was on a par with Crystal’s.

None that I saw, but evidently Mr B threw away the offer before I could see it. Just for that, I shouldn’t take him with me! But then we came home and HE found the great itinerary. Plus it’s our anniversary. So I guess he lucked out despite goofing up. 😉

That sounds GREAT! And yes, the overnights in both of those wonderful cities makes for a very special itinerary. And all the unusual stops! Plus we’ve never been to Berlin.

Close! We’ll be boarding, the day you disembark.

In case anybody’s interested in reading my review, here’s the link. I forgot to say what a nice touch it was, that they gave us a little parting gift of fudge from Mackinac Island (one of our stops). I actually thought I reviewed all our stops, but I don’t know where those comments are posted. https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=689568&et_cid=3500453&et_rid=16922743&et_referrer=Party - Celebrity

Remember that my only experience is on Octantis, but I just found out on Facebook that a guest had success booking presumably ALL nights at The Restaurant, onboard, on the app. Is it possible that I didn’t try that? The guest was responding to somebody who had the same experience as I did, booked four out seven, ate the other three dinners at World Cafe. Queenie, bon voyage!

Mr B just bought a new wallet and pronounced it to be his last wallet. I’m not too worried, as he uses a wallet until the credit cards start to fall out. Then he goes to Marshall’s, walks all around looking for wallets, can’t find them so breaks down and asks somebody, tries to follow their instructions but almost fails. Then there are so many choices, he finds it challenging to make a decision. Use it in good health, I tell him, after he reports on all the ones he rejected, as well as the one he purchased. Ain’t life grand? Happy anniversary, Keith and Anne Marie. Roy, I salute your plan.

And I’m sitting here, trying to remember my last night’s dinner!

Manfredi’s also has a fish of the day and a pasta of the day. We easily dined there two out of seven nights.

Ah, ok, thx! Is there a particularly good night to dine there?

Guaranteed one reservation in WHAT specialty restaurants?

That having been said, when I filled out the end-of-cruise survey, I was perplexed at having to answer regarding Viking’s comparison to its competition in the cruise industry. I’ve never in my 49 other cruises cruised on a ship where I couldn’t dine every night at a full-service restaurant. I agree there was great variety, much of it very good to really nice, at the World Cafe. Does any venue ever serve rack of lamb?

And very helpful! Two of my fellow guests went out of their way to help me, on Octantis. I felt like it was not a coincidence. I also agree that crew, staff and officers go out of their way to be helpful. I guess that’s why we’re considering the Baltic on Viking Jupiter next year for our 55th anniversary.

This whole topic about restaurant reservations boggles my mind. If I take a ten night cruise in a deluxe veranda stateroom, might I have to eat EIGHT dinners at the World Cafe?

That is NOT why I take a cruise vacation. I take a cruise vacation to enjoy the company of Mr B, and sometimes friends and family who join us. Every time we take a cruise alone together, the two of us, we come home and say, the best way to cruise is just the two of us. We’ve decided to try to alternate: one cruise alone together, the next cruise with friends or family.

Exactly! Thx!

It turns out that phone’s only available on four of the ships, not the entire fleet. That makes sense, as you describe it. Thank you!

That’s frustrating about not being able to use OBC, but is that special price only if purchased in advance? If you can just wait to purchase at embarkation, that would be so helpful to you. I would expect the social media package to be fine for texting to your dad. And of course, depending on where you’re cruising, you might be able to text for free whenever the ship is in port.

Keith, I have good news for you. It’s only four months until Thanksgiving!

I did call NCL, and evidently Encore isn’t one of the ships that offers the cell phone for guest use? So they’d just use their own phones, and they’d download an app called Free-style?

Asking for a friend: #1-can you think of any reason to upgrade to the unlimited Internet package, before embarkation? when onboard, OBC can be used, so my thought is just wait #2-is it honestly true that upgrading to unlimited, the regular speed, is just $49.93 for an entire seven-day cruise? the booking already has 250 shared minutes #3-if purchasing the $9.95 pp texting and calling to other guests, is one expected to use one’s own cell phone? but what’s this rumor about a phone lent to guests from the Haven for use onboard?