Lori Dobson

Our favorite with the chocolate melting cake is to ask for Butter Pecan Ice Cream with it.

Mmmmmm... will definitely try this next time! (y)

I wish I had known that I could ask for a small dish of peanut butter to go with my chocolate melting cake. Didn't find out until right before my 3rd Carnival cruise. Heaven!!! :D

Just returned home from the first Westerdam sailing of the season. It was AMAZING! Everything was perfect, from the weather, the food, the ports of call. You will have an amazing time. Be sure to be outside on deck 10 for Glacier Bay. We got up there at about 7:30, dressed for the weather, Layers, hats & gloves, and hung out there until 11:30, You will not be disappointed. You can run inside to get warm and there the green pea soup in the Crows Nest. Almost a spiritual journey. It Sitka, there is a grocery store within walking distance of the drop off area if you need to make a stop for anything. Easy to find. I loved this cruise, My favorite of all! The food on the Westerdam is wonderful. Be sure to order room service, order it the night before so there is no waiting. HAL may be my favorite cruise line now :) Enjoy, have fun, be prepared to be amazed!

Thanks so much! This is actually our second Alaska sailing - we did the exact same itinerary about 10 years ago and really loved it. Will be interesting to see the changes in the ports. Very glad you had such a great time!

If Pepsi is that important to you, you'll have to bring your own.

It's not for me - my husband has to have it. I'm perfectly happy with water, I don't drink pop.

Lori,

 

I plan to board the Westerdam on SATURDAY.

Hope you don't miss the date.

Happy sailing!

Indeed! My mid is in a whirl... see you on the ship on Saturday!!!

Ah, I was afraid of that - no Pepsi... I will be lugging after all... Thanks all!

Hello Fellow Cruisers,

I am Leaving on the Westerdam this Sunday for 7 days in Alaska. My question - we have the signature beverage package, and does it include soft drinks? And if so, do they have Pepsi? Also if so, can you get a can?

My husband will shrivel up and die without two Pepsi's a day (at the very least) and it MUST be in a can - he refuses to drink fountain pop. I'm just hoping to avoid lugging two 12 packs on board in Seattle.

Thanks in advance!:)

Just booked the RT Copenhagen for Mid-August. Any guesses as to what air will be? I'm thinking at least $1,500 PP...

About a month or three weeks out from you cruise you can call your TA and ask them to check what is available. There may be nothing, or you may be quite surprised. A good TA can often negotiate cabins and rates depending on the circumstances of your cruise.

Hmmm... unfortunately, I have since found that my friend, who is great in that capacity, is not so great as a TA. But again, I am content with my aft balcony so I am good either way! :D

Yes, I have, but I seem to get them more often now that I use a HAL PCC. I think alot depends on the TA and their follow up.

Thanks for the reply! I checked the HAL website and my cruise has every catagory still available except the signature suites - but then we are still about 2 months out from sailing and that of course will change.

Hello Everyone,

I normally book all of my cruises myself, directly with whichever line I am going with. For my upcoming Alaska cruise on HAL, I booked it on-line on HAL's website then a few weeks later had the booking transferred to a TA which a good friend had recently started working for and who was pleading for my business.

Although I have an aft balcony cabin which I am happy with, I am always agreeable to considering switching, depending on the offer - so I'm curious, do you ever get upsell/Upgrade offers if your booking is through a TA?

Thanks in advance.

I don't see the 11 day "Scandinavia and Russia" sailing from Copenhagen itinerary - or anything similar - for 2016 - Pity, I was hoping to book that.

Really enjoying your review and happy you had a great time on the Breeze, I have sailed Carnival several times and enjoyed it each time. I'm not much of a Disney fan and don't have kids so I have never sailed on Disney.

I live in FL now, having moved here in 1997 from Pittsburgh, PA. I guess I am the strange one - I miss Pittsburgh terribly and would love to move back! The winters here are great - much nicer than bitter cold, snow and ice, which I don't like - but the summers here are hard for me to take (months of unrelenting heat and humidity) - extremes are never good, one way or another.

Thanks for posting all of the pcitures with your review - it's a pleasure to read. :)

As many others have posted, the only way to be sure of which line you like better is to try both!

We did an Alaskan cruise several years ago on HAL and the highlight was the scenery. The ship was nice, Food was good but nothing special and service was good.

Just did our first O cruise in Europe this past October on the Marina - the ship and our cabin were gorgeous, food was overall fabulous (lobster tails every night in the Lido? Yes, please!) and service was overall very good (only exception was Guest Services - not very friendly and not very helpful).

What I really enjoyed about O were little things - some of which were no photographers, a spectacular afternoon tea and the no-charge cappucchino in the dining rooms and especially at the bar, which I would take into the truly lovely library on the Marina. The ship was not full and there were no lines for anything, which was wonderful.

We have another HAL cruise booked for this May, again to Alaska - looking forward to seeing how the line has changed since our last cruise with them. But again, we will enjoy it no matter what because we are on a cruise! :D

We did the Viking "Rhine Getaway" in early December 2 years ago and it was absolutely wonderful. I really enjoy Christmas and I remember coming out of the amazingly beautiful Cathedral in Strasbourg, France after our tour - the Christmas market was spread out in front of us, the air smelled of spices and gingerbread, a choir was singing Christmas carols and it was snowing, those big fluffy kind of flakes - I felt like I was inside a Christmas snow globe!

Bruce,

I have been to Paris twice - I speak some French - enough to hold a slow conversation - and this was very helpful. English is pretty widely spoken there as a second language but efforts to speak French, at least a few words and phrases, goes a long way - as will a smile and a polite, friendly attitude!

Enjoy your trip - Viking is fabulous! :D

We did the "Rhine Getaway" with Viking and the food was absolutely fantastic. They did have a lot of "region specific" choices depending on where we were at the time but there are lots of more "normal" dishes as well. Please don't worry, there are plenty of choices and you will have lots of memorable meals, whichever cruise line you choose!

Happy cruising!

I would do it in a heartbeat!

My husband and I were on the Legend for the last transatlantic that Carnival did - Left from London, went to Ireland, Scotland, Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland - we called it the "Land" cruise. It was fantastic! Carnival is not Oceania - I just did a Med cruise with them in October - but Carnival still did a great job.

I wasn't aware that the new ship "Vista" is going back to Europe, thanks for the info - I will definitely be waiting to check out those itineraries! :D

Sorry if this is a duplicate, I haven't read the whole thread...

In the MDR, I always ask for some peanut butter whenever I order a chocolate melting cake. Put a bit of peanut butter on your spoon for each bite of melting cake... results in a warm, melted Reese's cup! It's wonderful! :D

MY DH would not be interested in the spa, just me and some friends who are in a separate cabin. Would my DH have to purchase a pass as well since he is in my cabin, or can just I purchase the pass?

I looked at upgrading to a spa cabin on our cruise, but right now we are booked in an aft extended balcony and we booked when our itinerary was first released. Since then, prices have skyrocketed and it would be $1000 for us to change to a spa INTERIOR. I think I will just buy the pass. :)

My husband and I were on the Splendor a year or so ago - Great ship - and got the spa pass for a week. Keep your aft balcony - they are wonderful! And also get the spa pass. The thalasso pool is HEAVEN after you have been walking around port all day and are sore and tired. :D

Have a great cruise!

Some of the perks that have dissapeared off of some of the lines are still available on others - a friend and I did a Med cruise in October 2014 on Oceania, they still have champagne as you board, an excellent afternoon tea and I had lobster EVERY night I went to the buffet - that was wonderful! Specialty coffees are no extra charge and there are nibbles and cookies in the afternoons. Specialty restaraunts are also availlable for no extra fee.

Also, the river cruise lines, at least Viking who I have sailed on twice since 2013, still have a lot of the old perks - warm orcold, wet towels when you come back on-board from port, as well as lemonade/water/champagne when you come back onboard from a port - complimentary red or white wine with dinner, as much as you like -and they also send out a lovely leather portfolio with your travel docs, a book about the ports and their history and lovely leather luggage tags before the cruise. There are cookies and light sandwiches in the salons in the afternoon and specialty coffees are not an extra change. Champagne is freely available at breakfast for mimosas. They also give out little gifts during the cruise, pins and bags and such. And overall service is top-notch. I love river cruising! :D

I can't say I blame some of the cruise lines for removing some of the things that used to be standard - free sodas (remembering the post from the person who saw the kids having a "soda fight" on deck) - and it still appalls me to see the amount of food wasted on some cruises. People with the "load your plate to the sky and eat none of it, it's free" mentality as well as the "I'll act/dress (and my kids also) any way I want to, it's my vacation" have taken a lot of the charm out of cruising. :(

These are not cheap cruises in comparison to say carnival or NCL.

 

They are however a very, very good bargain and you get way better value for what you get......way better than say Celeb, Holland America charges.. The intrinsic value of having such variety, 1/2 to 1/3 the passenger, the ambiance, service and the finest food afloat....

 

When you add it all up these Oceaina cruises can not be beaten for value and price.... As a cost comparison I ran everything I received on Oceania against a Holland America cruise of similar length and it was hundreds of dollars a day more on Holland ( which cant even come close to any of the standards I experienced on Marina.....

Looking forward to proving you right. This will be my first O cruise! :D

So you think they should have different fees depending on how much effort they expend...the problem with that is figuring out how much to charge would add an extra layer of complexity and would raise the price for everyone.

 

 

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I did not say that - Anywhere in my original post. I think this should be part of the service we are already paying for - these are not cheap cruises. Just my opinion, just as you have yours.

I am not sure how the flights are set up but here is my theory ;)

They have X number of seats contracted with XYZ airline for a specific day (embarkation day)

you want a different day so they must check with XYZ airline to see if the price is different or seats can be obtained for the contracted price

 

I am sure someone with more insight on how it works will comment

 

I also pick my flights send them to my TA ..not much work involved but I still get a good deal with the deviation fee ..it is worth it for me to book through O

 

YMMV

Agree! :)

The reason I grouch about the "air deviation" fee is I am the one who does all the research and pick out the exact flights that I want - then all Oceana had to do when I call them was see if those flights were available, and if not, I had Plan B ready to go. I am sure you are all correct - when dealing with groups or individuals that change their mind several times, they might be earning their fee - but they are making money off of me, for 5 minute's work, as it was for my October cruise air deviation.