Redtravel

now anyone who sailed on Viking can get $100 loyalty discount. It's nice.

Both are nice. Azamara includes beverages and tips in basic fare. Viking includes wine or beer with meals and excursions. Other things to consider are itineraries and accommodations. Azamara ships are old, but nice. Most cabins are small. Bathrooms are very cozy. Viking has larger cabins with verandas. Azamara has Azamazing evening events . I have enjoyed them. They are often over the top events. White night parties are fun. Viking doesn’t have those events. Viking includes specialty restaurants. Azamara specialty has a surcharge for the specialty restaurants. Either cruise is good.

Been on 3 cruises since June. 3 different lines. Most people are polite and are happy to travel again. There are also rude people, poorly clothed people, and people who are pushy. I hate crowding. Crowding on elevators happens too often. More than once, I have been on an elevator when people try to pack it. I have gotten off.

Lucky you. I love the extended verandas. They usually get booked quickly.

Elite plus. Got Covid in June on Summit. Summit was very crowded. Booked Viking for next cruise.

Did you pay for your cruise with a credit card? Some cards include insurance.

No bow cabins for me. There is too much motion. Go low, midship, and between 2 decks of cabins. Also stay away from crew service doors. We were just on Marina deck 10. Midship . It was perfect.

We enjoyed the food and service in most venues. The only exception was Polo. They food was bad. The service was worse. They lost our bottle of wine. We had a 2nd reservation at Polo. We canceled it. Instead we went to Red Ginger an extra time. It is my favorite restaurant.

We were on same cruise. After several canceled cruises, we were happy to sail again on Marina. We had a great time. There was plenty of space in most venues. Chaises were setup in groups of 2. We always got a table for 2 including specialty restaurants. We only found the show lounge crowded. Since the shows weren’t to our liking, we skipped most of them. Peggy Lee again. No thanks. Met lots of nice people. There were some rude people onboard who were pushy. I stepped off the elevator a few times when they tried to pack the elevator. I wore mask only when I felt crowded. We loved the new Barista extended hours. Open till 10 pm was a great improvement. Coffee there is better than any place on the ship. There is lots of comfortable seating since the computer area moved. It was very enjoyable.

Windstar ships aren’t ADA compliant. If you need a scooter, you may have issues. My spouse often uses a walker. He didn’t use it on Windstar. Ship is small. Walking distances are not long. Instead he used 2 hiking sticks. It worked well. Last week, we were on Oceania Marina. This time, distances were longer. Sadly, since he had no problem getting around the Breeze, he left the walker home. He really missed the walker.

We were on the Star Breeze in September. The grill was never open for dinner, only lunch some days. Menus were very limited. Veranda had a more extensive menu. We ate lunch at the veranda. It was disappointing that we never got to enjoy any of Star Grill food. We still ate well.

Relax. We have always been able to get extra reservations. People change dates or cancel reservations. Each day, you can check with a reservation person to see what’s available. On our December Marina cruise, we had no problem getting reservations.

I was on the same Marina cruise. It was our first O cruise since the Pandemic. While it isn’t as relaxed as before pandemic, it is still a great cruise. We had a fabulous time.

Went to tea on Marina cruise several times. The only time that it was crowded was the first sea day. We arrived about 10 minutes after 4. We did find seats. We had a short wait to be served. There is no center table with scones. It is probably a safety move. Just ask for scones and they will be delivered to your table. If anything, it’s more elegant than before the pandemic.

We did Celebrity in June. Just did Oceania Marina. Oceania is better in most areas including included internet. While it isn’t as fast as my internet home service, it is fast and it works. The internet on Celebrity was pathetically slow when it worked. It often didn’t work or dropped off. We are elite plus and found our elite plus minutes worked faster than the All In internet.

Pre pandemic, food on Regent was good. Haven’t been on Regent post pandemic. I have been on 3 post pandemic cruises on 3 different lines. Celebrity, Windstar, and Oceania. I had also sailed on all 3 before the pandemic. Everything is different now. Celebrity food was very good. Had prime rib twice for dinner in MDR. Buffet is crazy. It was better than anything on Oceania. Celebrity menus haven’t changed much. Overall, while we liked the food on Celebrity, we are tired of seeing the same old menus. Windstar was outstanding. Menus have changed. Some ships added more specialty dining venues. Bbq is still good, but doesn’t have lobster or lamb chops. Oceania is still good, but used to be better. Food is subjective.

I haven’t done room service on embarkation day. You can order room service be delivered to you anywhere on the ship. You don’t need to be in your cabin. Just call with your order. Tell them where to deliver it. On one cruise in the dining room, I asked a waiter for an apple. He said that there weren’t any on the ship. Called room service and had them deliver the apple to me. When room service delivered it to me in the dining room, the waiter apologized. Guess he was too lazy to get it for me.

Before the pandemic, Oceania had fabulous food. Unfortunately 3 years later, it isn’t as good as we remembered. Just off Marina yesterday. We were disappointed with food in the grand dining room. Portions varied from overwhelming to tiny. One night I ordered a cod dish. Cod was good. Portion was size of a quarter. Another night I got shrimp and pasta. 3 shrimp, not huge and a tiny ball of pasta. Waiter brought me a side of pasta that was 4 times as large as the pasta entre. The Serrano ham and artichoke appetizer was huge. Some things were cold that should’ve been hot. We also thought that the menu offerings in the GDR had too many repetitions. We enjoyed Jacques, Toscana, and Red Ginger. We used to love Polo. Unfortunately our dinner at Polo was terrible. Service was bad. Meat was tough. Lost our bottle of wine. We canceled our 2nd Polo reservation. We know other guests who also canceled too. Waves and Terrace Grill were excellent. In fact, after a few nights of not so great food in GDR, we went to Terrace grill. Terrace grill was packed at dinner. Terrace grill was a good choice.

Just off cruise. During the last few days, there were several postings and announcements telling guests to complete the online survey. Prizes to be given to 2 selected winners. I usually get survey requests after cruises. I like to take time after getting off to reflect and think about my experience. That includes everything that happened. Most cruise lines send out email requests after you disembark. Not Oceania. I never did the survey on the cruise. I didn’t want to take my cruise time to do a survey. I looked at it briefly. It required your passenger number to get in. Not knowing the number, I stopped. Rather enjoy my time onboard doing what I enjoy. On the last morning, while we were waiting to disembark, cruise director announced the winners of the survey. Prize was $100 OBC. That was awarded after all shops and accounts were closed. OBC that you cannot use on that cruise. Maybe it could be used on a future cruise? It just reinforces a good reason not to respond to the survey. Had they sent me an after cruise email, I likely would respond. Rather, after I have time to reflect on my cruise experience, I will post a review.

Just off Marina. We ate at all 4 specialty restaurants. Twice at Jacques and Red Ginger. Polo was not nearly as good as we remembered. In fact, we cancelled our second reservation at Polo. We also met other people who didn’t like Polo. Toscana was ok. Service was extremely slow. Jacques and Red Ginger were excellent.

On some cruises , there are additional added excursions.

Be careful when booking online. There is no way to get a real “cruise only” fare . The online booking includes the Olife with or without Air. You must talk to an agent if you want a cruise only fare. We booked a future cruise onboard. We declined air and asked for cruise only fare. Agent then asked us our choice for the free amenity. Did we want the beverage package, onboard credit, or free excursions? We said that we didn’t want any of them. Price dropped. Funny thing is those free amenity and free air really isn’t free. When we finally finished, agent told us how much we saved…$300 amenity, $600 air, etc. She couldn’t quite understand that it isn’t a savings. It’s what we chose to not buy from O Raina. The real onboard booking this week was good. We saved $200 each plus we got $300 future OBC. Also, deposits were $250 per person.

Specialty restaurants don’t have price cost listed. Nor are you presented a check for food. If you buy drinks or wine, you automatically have 20% added to the cost of the drinks. Ate on Red Ginger last night. At the end of the meal, we said thank you. We have never seen anyone offer a cash tip.

We just disembarked from Marina today. We were using up fcc. It was use it by end of 2022 or lose it. We met lots of people who were doing the same thing. We had a great time. We booked another cruise onboard.

Oceania is more expensive than Celebrity. It’s worth it. We are elite plus on Celebrity. Our most recent X cruise was Summit in June. Crowding was awful. It was impossible to avoid it. We wore masks, ate at tables for 2, and tried to space ourselves away from people. Even tables for 2 were very close to next table. My spouse got Covid. Just off Oceania Marina. The ship was full, but there was lots of space. The only crowded places were the evening shows and some elevators. Ate only at tables for 2. We loved it. We booked a future cruise on Oceania.