DENIE

Ohhhhhhh!!!!! I have to remember that. It's a great solution! 🙂

Absolutely loved the glazed seabass in Red Ginger. Had it our first night, and almost got it the second time we were there, but decided I should try something different!

Robjame...so sorry to hear this. Hope it clears soon. Love the photos!

Following! Booked on Vista for January 2024 and later upgraded to a PH suite. Looking forward to suggestions!

Good luck on your decision! We first sailed Oceania this past June (Mediterranean), and I think it has become our line of choice (aside from a cruise a couple weeks ago with friends on HAL - no comparison!). 🙂

Safe travels! And looking forward to your posts! 🙂

Safe travels! Have a great trip. We enjoyed the Riviera in June in the Mediterranean, but understand she has gone through he refurbishment. 🙂

We enjoy a well-paced 1.5 to 2- hour meal in the MDR when we are dining with friends. Agree that this sort of thing is a hightlight for us. That said, we had some issues on our recent Koningsdam MX Riviera cruise Dec 3-10. We were part of a group and there were a couple occasions where 8-10 of us were seated but forgotten about for 30 minutes. No water, no beverage order, no bread on the table. It was not the staff's fault as we could see they were working hard. But at one point one of our group found the maître-de and explained that we had been seated 30 minutes ago. We also found that the beverage servers were also the wait-staff. Just terribly short-staffed (yet the cruise was sold out). Once the appetizers and entrees arrived, there was no pacing in between; they all arrived at the same time. Granted, we are on vacation on a cruise ship, and it still doesn't get better than that. I must say that we also dined at Pinnacle Grill, Nami Sushi and Tamarind, and had the same 2-hour experience, but was perfectly paced and service and quality were excellent!

Agree with everyone about filling out on board. Don't want to take the time, and it wasn't convenient. We just got of a HAL cruise 2 weeks ago, and they advertised the post-cruise survey would be sent to each passenger via email in a few days. True to their word, it was in our email box about 3 days after we got back. Plenty of time to complete it and give honest feedback. I prefer that way.

Looking forward to seeing some pics or videos as well. 🙂

Agree that food is SO subjective. On the Riviera in June 2022, we enjoyed all of them. However, one of us had our only real "miss" in Jacques when a request for medium rare prime rib was served well done and tough (it was swapped for something else). Everything else there was fine (I had the dover sole). We thoroughly enjoyed Red Giner (2x!), Toscana and Polo. An aside - We were just on a MX Riviera cruise last week on HAL with a bunch of friends, and my wife and I agreed that Oceania's MDR FAR exceeded HAL's in quality and service.

Couldn't agree more. We just sailed with Oceania (I know, different market, different concept), but once you bought the upgraded package, there were no limits and no slips. Even our most recent Celebrity cruises were that way as well.

I will! We typically enjoy a couple mimosas for breakfast (we are on vacation, after all), and a couple lattes. Add a couple of Diet Cokes, and some waters (we drink a lot of water), and half the package could be used up before you even start having glasses of wine. I guess we will be drinking the free water and bringing large empty water bottles. FWIW, we just sailed on Oceania in June and had their premium beverage package. No counts at all. But, I understand, different market, different price point for sure.

This seems to be noted in a couple prior posts. This is from the website regarding the Elite Beverage Package: "A stunning array of premium spirits, cocktails, and wines $15 or under, including Dale DeGroff’s Original Cocktails and all the benefits of Signature & Quench. 15-drink daily limit, unlimited non-alcoholic beverages." It still seems confusing as to whether alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are split apart when counting the total. Seems like it should not be confusing. It sounds like if I want 20 lattes each day, they don't count towards the 15-drink daily limit. Not that I want to, but can I get 15 alcoholic beverages plus any number of lattes that I want? I guess we will find out on our Koningsdam 12/3 cruise in a few days. We do plan to upgrade to the Elite package as we typically enjoy the wines more in that price range. We haven't sailed HAL recently, so honestly don't know...

Thank you! Great review! Enjoyed it very much.

Oooohhhhhh, what a fun post!! 😃 1. Favorite Place - The Mediterranean (pretty much anywhere) 2. Favorite foods - Miso glazed sea bass (Red Ginger, Oceania), Escargot (HAL, Celebrity, Oceania), Filet Mignon (Pinnacle Grill on HAL, Polo Grill on Oceania), Chateaubriand at Murano on Celebrity. Boarding Koningsdam this Saturday 12/3, so maybe will have a new dish to add??? 3. Not really sparkly, but do dress up. I will bring a coat to use some evenings, and my wife will bring a nice dress. Love reading the responses! 🙂

You might want to contact tour TA (if you have one) in the next day or two if you don't receive. I asked the same question and was advised about 14 days out. We board the Koningsdam on 12/3, and on queue, we got ours right at 14 days. If you do not have a TA, you might call HAL direct.

Thanks for your very objective post. I second that of others who recommend sailing on the Marina or Riviera. We just completed our first O cruise (Riviera), and the bathroom was a generous size. This was before the refurb where they are removing the tubs in many rooms.

Never booked a guarantee, but I have seen so many negative experiences that I think I just prefer to select our own room. I get the possible savings, but...

Yes! Exactly! Makes getting up early worth it! ☺️

It isn't a game-changer, but we stayed on deck 9 on the Riviera, and was just a walk down the hall to the Concierge Lounge. It was what others described. I typically did a quick walk down first thing in the morning to grab a latte. It's machine-made, and not as good as Baristas, but closer and quicker to get our morning started. Pastry was nice before heading to the Grand Dining Room or Terrace Grill for breakfast.

Loved sailing her in June. Hope to see what she looks like at some point in the future! 🙂

FWIW, I forgot to clarify - we will be on the Koningsdam. But really appreciated your thoughts, as I know a lot of the features of the ship are the same. 🙂

Thanks for the review! We are back on HAL (Koningsdam) in December. Our last prior cruise on HAL was on the Oosterdam in 2010, which we really enjoyed. We've been mostly on Celebrity in recent pre-Covid years, and finally our first Oceania (Riviera) cruise this past June. We loved it! But i is a bit different product. Will be interesting to see what this one brings. It is the Mexican Riviera out of San Diego.

That's a good point! I will get theirs and see if our TA can do that. It would certainly help! 🙂