su-arizona

I agree with Mura - I rarely hear announcements.  So I couldn't say whether Dottie makes more announcements than others...

What I do remember most is that Dottie is one of the only CD's who showed up for the M&G and stayed long enough to meet and greet most of the attendees.  Greatly appreciated, and set a good tone for the rest of the cruise!

Since OLife began, I noticed that private tour participation on Roll Calls went way down.  That's when I began taking the OLife shore excursion credit...On our Greece cruise in October, I took a couple private tours with Niki Tours (which were excellent) in Olympia and Santorini - where we could take shared private tours.  In Gythion there was not enough interest in shared private tours - which is an excellent reason to take the O tours to less-popular sights.  Another time the O tours can be more advantageous is tender ports - especially in smaller ports.  On Patmos, all tours - O or private - go to essentially the same two sights.  Taking the O tours allowed us to be on the earliest tenders, when the sights were less crowded.  And the O tour was really great, with an excellent guide.  So for me, it works to take the limited number of free O excursions, some private excursions, and some independent exploration in ports where we can easily walk or drive to interesting sights from where the ship is docked.

Choosing the O Life shore excursion option always makes financial sense for us, but you need to do your research and choose wisely.

Viking River is certainly the 800-pound gorilla of European river cruises. There are more Viking longships than I'd care to count.  But there are still many other lines offering river cruises, and they differentiate their products in many ways.  And there are still more lines building new ships to enter that market.

I expect that we'll continue to see lots of competition in the ocean cruise market as well.  I know I've been curious about Viking Ocean, but haven't been able to find a cruise I'd want to book.   Viking does a lot of advertising, and they seem to fill both their river and ocean ships.  Leaving room for me on other lines....

Aren't we fortunate to have so many good choices?

In October, we cruised with friends who were in a Penthouse suite with extended veranda on Deck 7.  The weather was lovely, and they dined on their balcony several times.  The balcony is very spacious, and made the cabin seem larger as well.

We often dine outdoors in the Terrace Cafe...more frequently than in elsewhere if the weather's nice.  Service is usually excellent, though the Terrace doesn't have course by course table service.  We enjoy the "buffet", choosing what we'd like for dinner.  It is often difficult to carry your own plate to the table as staff is quick to offer help taking your plate to the table.  Wine service is like the other restaurants.  Having just taken my first mass market cruise with a buffet, I can guarantee that the Terrace Cafe is a buffet in name only - not your typical buffet.

Hate to sound environmentally insensitive....but I always grab a plastic bottle of water when leaving the ship, drink it while touring, and drop it in the nearest garbage can before returning to the ship.  Maybe I can be trained to bring a reusable container back with me from shore excursions...but many times that bottle has been some really dirty places. 

I live in the land of no-plastic-straws already so I've heard all the environmental arguments (funny how no one talks about the cost saving benefits for the restaurants) and it's okay as long a restaurants wash the rims of their glasses thoroughly.  But I can't count the number of times I've received glasses with lipstick on the rim (in restaurants ashore AND on O).  Windstar already provides reusable bottles of water/sparkling water and it tastes dreadful.  Not looking forward to the experience on Oceania...

The Grande Bretagne has a lovely view and a fine restaurant. As others have noted, the price [for non-point folks] is significantly higher than either the Ava or Athens Gate. But it's also farther from the Acropolis, and the many restaurant choices in the Plaka. I mentioned the included breakfast with view at Athens Gate...according to Expedia, breakfast is an additional 43 euros at Grande Bretagne...definitely out of my price range! And Syntagma Square is right at your front door, which is fine unless there are protests/demonstrations/strikes going on...

It's nice that Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor provide a forum to give folks different perspectives on travel. We can all agree that a view of the Acropolis is magnificent from any direction!:champagne-toast:

The Ava looks like a great hotel and is only 3 minutes walking from the Athens Gate where we stayed which was very good location for restaurants etc. Will keep this find in mind for next time.

We have stayed at both the Ava and the Athens Gate. They're both nice hotels, and centrally located in the Plaka area close to all the sights. But the view from the Athens Gate is simply unbeatable. The rooftop restaurant offers a stunning view and makes the included breakfast very special. I also found the staff at Athens Gate very helpful.

Someone said there's a view of the Acropolis from the Ava, but I sure didn't see it...We're returning to the Athens Gate again next week.

Square footage isn't everything....The location of the love seat and chair in the penthouse, stuck back in a corner, is not particularly useful IMHO. And the table at the foot of the bed was just something to trip over - not to eat on. I enjoy the walk-in closet, but much prefer the floor plan of the concierge cabin, where I can sit on the love seat and enjoy the view through the sliders. A 15 day advantage for booking the specialty restaurants is not a big deal, and I find the butlers more annoying than helpful.

Should also say that this is true for the O-class ships, where the bath is spacious in balcony cabins. On the R-class ships, the extra space and more spacious baths are clear winners!

StanandJim,

"There are times when fixing something on the cheap, LOOKS CHEAP. "

No argument with that! Originally there were some really gross old raised spas there, so the new things look much better. And the old "pool" was a small rectangle near the entrance to the Compass Rose lounge, complete with portholes looking into the pool water from the entrance to Compass Rose.

I rarely use our own pool, and have never used the pool on any cruise. I often use the spa terrace on Oceania, and the forward spa on the bow on the Star* on Windstar. And the sports platform...I do enjoy telling friends I kayaked in Albania!

So I wasn't really bothered by the pool situation, but I certainly see how it would be awful if you love sunning by the pool. Worst of all are the lifeboats which spoil the view from the sun lounges around the 'pool' area!

That's what makes Cruise Critic so helpful - you get perspectives from many people to help you make the best choice for *your* perfect cruise. And you guys are always SO helpful, and a great source of information and photos! Thanks!

We're Oceania fans, but for Greek intensive itineraries, I'd send you to Windstar.

https://www.windstarcruises.com/

We've sailed on both Windstar and Oceania a number of times. I cruised Istanbul-Athens on Nautica, and Venice-Athens on Star Pride and both were wonderful cruises, with a number of stops at small ports in Greece.

We always choose a cruise primarily for the itinerary. For some itineraries - particularly Caribbean - Windstar has a clear advantage because of the sports platform. When you want to go in the water or take in a beach, Windstar is a much better choice. That being said, we took a cab to the beach in Zakynthos on an O cruise and had a great day.

I had said my next Greek cruise would be only on Windstar because I really wanted to swim in the caldera at Santorini...but when I questioned the captain on our last Windstar cruise, he said the sports platform can only be used when anchored...and ships can't anchor at Santorini! So we're booked on an Oceania Greece-intensive (Athens-Athens) in a couple weeks. Both lines have Greece-intensive cruises, but not many of them. Our O cruise has been fully waitlisted since December.

There are +/- things to be said about both lines. But as much as I enjoyed my very first cruise on Wind Star [ship] I won't repeat the experience 25 years later in the small sailing-ship cabins! I will now sail only on the Star [refurbed Seabourn] ships with large cabins and baths.

We enjoy cruising the Med in the fall, when the heat and crowds are lower - but....

We have experienced some seriously bad weather cruising ~across~ the Med in November. The Strait of Bonificio (between Corsica and Sardinia) can be especially exciting in late fall. And I would entirely avoid any Med cruise in the winter/Mistral seasons. Most US cruise lines don't have ships in the Med then, but Viking Ocean does seem to have a few...perhaps it's the Norwegian seafaring heritage?

I wouldn't hesitate to cruise along the coast of the Med in Italy or France in fall, but I would really avoid crossing the Med (like from Italy to Majorca).

Although I enjoyed my first cruise on the R3 many years ago, and my first Oceania cruise on Nautica, I am now a fan of the O-class ships. I have been spoiled by the much larger and more comfortable bathrooms on the O ships. I don't find the O ships anything like just "larger versions of the R ships".

We cruised on Sirena most recently, and I did not enjoy going back to the clingy-curtain shower days. I believe I read that Oceania is adding glass shower doors on the coming updates of the R ships, so perhaps I'll try again if I see a great itinerary...

As for Azamara, I was tempted by some of their golf-oriented itineraries - but the very high cost of those sailings cooled my enthusiasm! In general, it seems their prices have gone up quite a bit lately.

After reading these posts, I went back and checked the Riviera reviews. The most recent reviews have been very positive.

As for the negative reviews...perhaps some of the reviewers were confused, since there is no Tuscan Steak on Riviera....

Ken, think we are on the same cruise (Greece 10/14) - look forward to meeting you! Hope the Riviera is as lovely as it's been in the past, especially since we are bringing some friends along for their first Oceania cruise!

Rome Cabs. Have used them many times for port transportation and tours and they are terrific. For a day in port, I prefer to have them pick us up at the port, and then arrange for them to pick us up at the end of the day at a pre-arranged place and time to take us back to port. But we have been to Rome before and prefer doing our own thing. It's even better if you can get a group together on your ship to share costs of the transport...

On R class ships, the PH bath and additional space are worthwhile. On O class ships, even though the PH has more space, I much prefer the layout of the Concierge balcony cabin to the PH. The little table at the foot of the bed (in PH) isn't really useful and just generally gets in my way, and the sofa is tucked back in a dark alcove. Only real asset IMHO is the walk-in closet. The butler is just a nuisance to me. Booking restaurants 15 days later has never caused us to have difficulty getting desirable time slots for the restaurants.

I know others will disagree, and they should definitely book suites!;)

We've always charged our electric toothbrush using the plug in the bathroom. Never had a problem.

I just booked La Cuisine Bourgeoise yesterday for an October cruise (as I said when I began this thread). There were only 5 spaces available at that time.

So you can book it ahead. But it shows up online only as a menu, not as an available dining option. You need to call O and ask if it is available on your cruise, the date it is available, and make and pay for your booking on the phone. It was $112.10 per person, and it couldn't be added to my invoice (final payment is still a week away) - it had to be paid by credit card over the phone.

Hope they've omitted the white sauces! The menu doesn't show any white sauces...madeira sauce is the only listed sauce, and that can't be white. Maybe they've modified the menu...?

Anyway, thanks to all for your reviews.

There have been posts on this board discussing the NCLH strategy with pointers to the slides from this year's Shareholder's Meeting. I recently reviewed those slides before buying NCLH stock, and I think they answer these questions.

NCL just launched a big new ship. Regent has a couple new builds in progress. No new builds currently scheduled for Oceania.

There has been a conspicuous absence of big sales for Oceania (I know, because I watched for Memorial Day and July 4th sales before booking something) and many of the cruises I've looked at recently appear fully or largely waitlisted. So I'd conclude that Oceania is doing just fine with the current product. But then again, I bought the stock. ;)

I just booked La Cuisine Bourgeoise for our Riviera cruise in October. I've seen discussions of booking this, and I know some regulars (Mura and Jancruz, among others) said they've booked it...but I haven't seen any reviews or discussion of the food.

So...how was it? :wine-glass::D

Hope it was good, since I already paid for it!(yn)

Last time in Livorno, I wanted to rent a car - but online (in advance of our departure) all car rental agencies showed that they were closed for our Sunday arrival. Because I was unable to reserve a car in advance, I booked a private excursion.

When we arrived in Livorno (on a Sunday) there were several car rental agencies set up right at the port - no need to even go into Livorno. Expect it would be the same on other days as well...

It's been a couple years since we were in Provence with Oceania...but at that time, I'd planned to catch the train from Marseille to go to Avignon. I was thinking we would dock in Marseille like we had a few years earlier. Turned out we docked in a remote port location (Listed as 'Provence' in O's itinerary) which was ~45 minute bus ride to Marseille. Our plans were impossible, and our only option was to book an O tour at the last minute, or sit in an ugly deserted port.

At that time, I saw no car rental facilities, or much of anything else at that port location. Perhaps things have changed in the past couple of years, but suggest you check your docking location carefully...

uhhh...excuse me, but - just who is this "port guide expert"? Surely you don't mean the useless folks in "Destination Services" who only book Oceania shore excursions? Sometimes there is a nice person from the local port who is shuttled in when the ship is docked in port, but of course they are there too late to help with much advance planning.

This is one of my big gripes about Oceania...they provide NO assistance with information on ports except to promote their own expensive shore excursions. The talks on destinations rarely provide any useful information either.

We have missed one port on every one of our 5 Oceania cruises. Usually, it was attributed to weather conditions, although we missed St Malo when the pilot struck a buoy in Bordeaux....On 5 Windstar cruises, we have missed ports on 2 of 5...

I have to admit I sort of expect to miss a port on every O cruise now...and it will usually be the port that I most wanted to visit. Maybe it's just bad vibes or something...:rolleyes:

Actually, the link in my reply takes you right there! Whoopee!

Hi Jeb & Geezers! We do have a Roll Call for the Oct 14-24 "Glorious Greece" itinerary on Riviera, and we'd love to have you join us there! I was looking for others for a private tour from Gythion, and have a couple thoughts about Katakalon/Olympia too. Right now, others are working on Santorini tours! Lots going on, come join in!

Don't know how to send a link like Geezers did, but if you look in Riviera Roll Calls you'll find this entry:

October 14-24, 2018 Athens to Athens - Glorious Greece!