GeorgiaPeach51

@Joanne G. I did, indeed do a Trip Advisor review! The interesting thing to me is that this hotel is pretty highly rated and has enthusiastic reviews. Puzzling, but perhaps they had ac! I am with you on the bugs. After the first night I had FOUR mosquito bites on my face, and after that I tried to sleep with the sheet over my head. 😵‍💫🙄 Joanie

@Girr I believe starting 9 Aug thru the end of November a/c has to be set no lower than 80. We were there Nov. 13-16 and there was no ac for the rooms, but there was ac in the breakfast area, so I am not sure your info is currently correct. my point in posting is to make people aware that just because a hotel states they have ac does NOT mean you will have it when you get there. If there are governmental regulations about ac, they should state it in their advertising. The hotel at no time mentioned any governmental regulations when we discussed how hot our room was.

Here is a word of warning about this hotel. We are just heading home after 4 days in Barcelona, Nov. 13-16. It has been unseasonably warm here with temps at 75-77 degrees. We checked carefully to see that this hotel has air conditioning, having had some unpleasantly warm stays in hotels without ac. This hotel has ac….until it doesn’t, They turn it off seasonally and will not turn it back on if the weather turns warm. So we would leave each morning to explore, and leave the windows open, only to return to the room to closed windows and absolutely roasting hot. This necessitated opening the windows at night, and in would come the bugs and mosquitoes. I currently have five mosquito bites on my face. So, fair warning that it is either close the windows and swelter or open them and itch. You can do MUCH better than this hotel!

And, once you see Gaudi’s masterpiece, go a few blocks and enjoy Can pizza. They are the real deal. First, the caprese salad. The burrata! We split “the Italian job”. You can thank me later. 😍

A video just as the music began. I cannot imagine going to Barcelona and not seeing this magnificent place. IMG_1843.mov

Well, I said I was finished but am not. We are ending the trip with three days in lovely Barcelona and I wanted to share a few thing for those who have not yet been. Sagrada Fsmilia and Can Pizza. This is our third visit to Sagrada Familia and as always, it is good for your soul and is such a humbling experience to me. To think that the vision of one man could create such magnificence. So here are some photos which do not begin to do it justice.

Disembarking was easy. It is easier if your alarm goes off as it should. We leapt out of bed at 7:30 and ran circles around each other to get out of the room by the requested 8 a.m. We were pleased to find the Terraces about 1/4 full so it was no issue to find a table and eat quickly. Kudos to all the passengers who vacated the area as soon as they ate so new people and staff could do what they needed to do. On Celebrity I remember lots of people just parking themselves in the Lido area and staying there rather than finding seats in the bars, etc. So this was very easy. Our tag color was called pretty quickly and off we went. We did not have an arranged transfer and rolled the dice with a taxi, which was 30 Euros with tip, cheaper than any of the cruise line arranged vehicles. There were plenty of taxis so it was very easy. We went to El Avenida Palace hotel, which is nice. I’m sitting in the lobby waiting for my other half to finish some work before we head out to walk around. If I remember anything else I’ll be back, otherwise, thanks for reading! Joanie

@LHT28 you are exactly right. I stand corrected on the lunch. Thanks for the correction. And yes, we ate in the Terraces for dinner several times and liked the pace of it, if not always the food. It it was nice to be able to pick what you wanted if A or B didn’t work. I will post the times so I don’t confuse anyone,

I was happily reading about your upcoming travels until I got to the moving part. Ugh. After 18 military moves here is one tip I can give you. Put your knives in one ziplock, spoons in another, etc. Then, on the other end they are sorted and clean so you can use them immediately and not have to wash them as you set up the kitchen. If you have kids, put their socks in a ziplock, underwear in another, then on the other end you can just put the whole ziplock in a drawer and get the clutter cleaned up quickly, then can go back and sort the drawers when you get a chance. No idea if that will help you, but that’s all I’ve got! Good luck. Hope it goes well. Just the thought of moving sends me in search of wine.

@briar14 "thank you for reading it! You are always have supportive comments and I appreciate you. I hope we do get to meet someday. It would be my pleasure! Joanie

We have had some service issues with our room. Coming back to no water bottles in the room, or empty ones, after being gone all day. Running out of tissues in the bathroom and not being replaced. Dirty cups and saucers from morning coffee still in the room when we returned in the afternoon. Same with wine glasses from the night before. Not huge issues but notable because we don’t have it happen ever. Each time we have left a note or spoken to the cabin attendant but the overall level of service didn’t remain consistent. bar service is good but the bars have their own menus. Last night I ordered a drink called the Bogart. We were in the bar adjacent to the Martini Bar where we normally go. The bartender in this bar could not make the drink and the bar server had to go to the Martini Bar to get the drink. I assume this is a stocking issue rather than a skills issue, but I found it strange. I know I said it before but O really should be ashamed to offer essentially the exact same bar snack every night. And they call this the best food at sea? SMH. but drinks are very consistently made, so big kudos for that. today is a sea day so everyone was in Terraces or Waves Grill (outside area near the pool). And it was super crowded. I cannot imagine how they handle it with 500 additional people on board! There are no other lunch options, so if it is too cool or too blazing hot to be outside, it reminds me of being on Celebrity and struggling to find a table, and just walking round and round in circles. They do put tablecloths after breakfast, BTW. I mentioned previously that they did not have bar service in the theater, but after multiple cases of there being none, they suddenly had two waiters for the whole theater one evening. Not sure why one show had none and the next show had some. I mentioned that the ice cream was really good, with unusual flavors. I still say that, but several times it was icy, as in ice crystals in it, which made me think they are dealing unsuccessfully with melting and refreezing issues. on both of our O tours I felt the groups were too big. One group was 35 and the other was 37. Much bigger groups than we have experienced on R for the included, no extra fee tours, which had a max of 12-28 people. I thought the staff on board was very good. Smiling, interacting, engaging. Same as on R, but I did notice on R a much greater focus on staff remembering our names, which I think is unbelievable feat, considering the number of passengers. We ate two evenings in the Terraces and enjoyed setting our own pace. The food was hit and miss, it had the same items you would order in the MDR, so if you tried the special that night and didn’t like it you could easily just go get something else. Both nights there were lots of people, so lots of folks opt out of the set times of the MDR and perhaps longer pace of the specialties. Overall, and here is where I warn O cheerleaders to sit down and find their smelling salts…..O reminds me more of Celebrity than it does Regent. On this ship and on this cruise….. As I said, I would cruise O again, if the price is right, and on the refurbished Riviera or on the new Vista. I would not be eager to do the Marina again in her current status. But, itinerary is key, and many of us sail based on the itinerary, which ultimately means that this cruise, with its’ disastrous itinerary changes was doomed from the beginning to not be a favorite. For that reason, I am willing to try O one more time, different ship, different scenario, but always, in the back of my mind will be the nagging memory of feeling we were taken for granted, that the lack of even simple acknowledgement that we got something we didn’t buy or order, and that the sacrifices and adjustments and stress of the passengers mattered not one iota to O corporate. You know that old saying, the one about getting only one chance to make a first impression? There you go. Joanie I will be glad to answer questions if I can

Final thoughts. Every single person I spoke to on this ship mentioned their dissatisfaction and disappointment with paying for an expensive Israel/Egypt cruise, and getting none of the above, ending up with 6 of 8 ports changed. Only the last two, Malta and Tunisia remained the same. And no, I did not ask questions that led to them revealing that…it just seemed uppermost in everyone’s thoughts. Equally common was the sentiment that O could have gone a long way to even slightly smooth ruffled feathers by offering even a small OBC. But nothing. Nor was there any kind of apology or explanation or any addressing at all of the big elephant in the room. It was as though O just decided to ignore the whole thing, pretend it’s all good, refuse to discuss or explain or amplify in even the slightest manner….and the passengers, United in being well and truly STUCK just have to go along. I have seen comments on the O boards that O is counting on passengers to just forget. Perhaps. But in our personal case, what happened and O’s handling of it will ALWAYS factor into our consideration and it will never be to the benefit of O. We personally have very long memories in regard to the behavior of companies and have stayed consistent for YEARS regarding companies we boycott. So each has to decide what they value and what makes it onto their “I’ll just live with it” ranking. First, would I go on O again? Yes, but only if it was cheap! I found nothing on this ship that would cause me to rank O above R as a whole. I think O saying they have the finest food at sea is a big stretch and would put my money on R in a head to head competition. The ship is in good shape but really needs an update. An example. This ugly brown, utilitarian bathroom that looks like it escaped from an old junior high school. Ick. In contrast, there are several bathrooms that are high gloss black tile, walls and floors, so shiny that it has a hall of mirrors aspect. I was there one evening and a lady came out of one of the big shiny stalls that had its’ own sink and proceeded to open the adjacent stall door trying to exit the bathroom. Then she opened another stall door, same thing. Then a third attempt. By this time she is swearing and I am so tickled that I am bent over my purse pretending to search for something and just dying to laugh, but she was so mad by this time I was afraid to…I was so happy she finally found the exit door so I could hang on the sink laughing. Thing is, I couldn’t have helped her cause I didn’t know which was the exit door either. 🙄 more in a minute. Some Wi-Fi challenges.

Tunisia. Fascinating place. Two new ports in two days. Unfortunately, that’s it for the cruise. One more sea day and we are gone, with mixed feelings about Oceania, which I will get into tomorrow. We went on an O tour that had 37 people…way more than we ever experienced on R, I have to say, and those are included. Tour guide, Ali, was fantastic and the bus driver looked like Omar Shariff! I look for pluses where I can find them, so there you go.

@kjbacon Yes, you can. Into Valletta. Great little town to explore. You have to have transportation for the medieval towns like Mdina. We really enjoyed it. The only photos I took of Valletta are the sailing away photos. The rest are in Mdina.

Sailing out of Malta.

FINALLY! A chance to get off the ship and see a port we’ve never visited before. Malta! Very interesting. Loved the colorful balconies. Fascinating history. Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginian’s, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs took turns invading and ruling. UNESCO World Heritage site. Here are a few photos if you are interested.

@kjbacon I DID have the salad and it was 100% as you described. Simple and sublime. Thank you for the recommendation! @Tsunami74 I did not see your suggestions until we returned the our cabin, so it was too late. We did happen to see someone else who ordered the sea bass in puff pastry and it looked fabulous. Being a creature of habit, and ascribing to the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” theory, I had the salad, French onion soup and pork once again. Dessert was a perfect little pot de crème, chocolate. My husband had the gnocchi I had the night before, pumpkin soup and both the pork and lobster Thermidor. Loved the pork but not the lobster. But it was another lovely meal. I have to say that we enjoyed Jacques more than we have enjoyed Chartreuse the last two times we tried it.

I think so! The guest speaker is Rupert Wallace, an expert on Middle East affairs. He has given some fascinating talks on that conundrum. slot tournament and blackjack tournament wine tasting ballroom dance lessons movies in the Marina Lounge Bridge gsmes with the staff for points so you can get hats, visors, tshirts trivia and Mensa every night @0:15-11 is the 4 Corners band…tonight is 90s till today. 11:45 till late Jukebox….you pick the hits. line dancing shufflebosrd Bingo music by the pool with 4 Corners Bsnd culinary classes for a fee table tennis putt putt golf Does that help?

Here is the best I could do with the full bar menu. I hope it is legible.

@kjbacon Thanks for the tip! I will try the salad tonight. 👍🏻👍🏻

@DeepFreeze63 Last year on the Splendor, my wife didn't feel well but I persuaded her to join me for soup in CR. She had soup and we started to leave. The CR staff were all over us! What was wrong? What could they do? After my explanation, my order was delivered to our room. Way to go Regent. I LOVE that story. Yep, that’s the Regent we know. I have to repeat one of our favorite R experiences……my husband decided he wanted to see if the MDR could make a traditional New England lobster roll for him, so he requested it two or three days prior. We were gone all day on a tour the next day and when we came back to the room there were no less than three anxious phone calls from CR asking what is this lobster roll? Is it hot? Is it like sushi? When we went to dinner that night we were barely seated when out came two kitchen emissaries, anxiously asking for him to tell them what this was and how to do it and full of apologies that they were not yet able to honor his request. I just sat and watched how very sincere and precious they were and truly, had to blink a few times lest someone see me getting emotional over a lobster roll….but they just touched my heart…they were so very endearing and earnest to honor his request….in the end it didn’t matter whether he got it or not because their efforts were the story. That is why, when the passenger said no one cared or interceded as they left, it was so shocking to me, because I really believe R staff might actually politely chase you across the dining room and into the hall, wringing their hands the whole way, in order to find some way to make things right. If you are an O fan and you think this is a gross exaggeration, I assure you, it is not. Joanie

Those are some of the drinks. I will take some bar photos for you today as we travel around. It is a sea day, so I’ll be back with photos and will post if I can keep hold of Wi-Fi, though I am having to share with about 800 others. You know how that goes. For the most part internet has not been too bad. I have gotten very good at just giving up when it is appropriate, lest I give in to temptation to sail this iPad right off the balcony into the briny deep. Kind of like trying to parallel park on a steep hill when you haven’t done it in ages. After three attempts and everyone on the street stopping to watch you humiliate yourself, best to just call it a day and drive away as they shake their heads and laugh. One unexpected consequence of our changed itinerary….my other half calculates port or starboard cabin choice on the ship’s route, based on when the sun will be on the balcony because we don’t enjoy the sun blasting in all day. But that is, annoyingly, exactly what we have every day. Small annoyance.

Last night we had our first truly delicious meal, and it was in Jacques. That is the restaurant O, in its’ infinite wisdom, has done away with on Vista. Based on our wonderful meal last night I would say that is ill-advised. We did not have a reservation but were told to show up at 6:30, and they seated us at 7. Service was excellent. Food was truly yummy. I got a lobster gnocchi appetizer that was perfect, light and fluffy. You know who got half of it. True French Onion soup that I wanted very much to finish but could not if anything else was going to be enjoyed. Pork something or other with apple and a lovely sauce. Delicious potatoes. Every single thing was really good, and the portions were small, so you could enjoy without having to waddle out the door. For dessert, having learned my lesson, I got the pistachio crème brûlée AND the chocolate mousse, and the chocolate mousse was the only disappointment….it was just a touch salty and had the consistency of that old package whipped pudding, the name of which escapes me. Readi-whip? Rolf got the escargot, which he loved. Then he had Coquille St. Jacques, which he did not…scallops were not tender and there was no sauce to speak of. He pronounced my version at home to be much better. So he got half of my pork. He didn’t want to bother with ordering something else. The waiter was certainly concerned that he didn’t enjoy it. We are in Jacques again tonight and looking forward to it. Our favorite so far.