lorimay

Getting back to my daily report, today we were in Bodrum. Ate breakfast in the dining room and then went to the AquaMar terrace. There wasn't much shade but it was beautiful. Lots of comfortable seating and a really nice area to relax. We had the gulet boat tour that was supposed to start at 12:25, so we headed to the room to get ready after 11. There was a message on the phone that the excursion had been canceled. Two days in a row - very frustrating. There were high wind warnings and it was very windy so I understand. My complaint is that on both days the cancellations came so late we had no alternative. We ended up walking into the town and then walking back. It seems like a nice beach town. Had a leisurely afternoon. Lunch in the Terrace was a little hit or miss. The had Indian food but not much else looked appealing. They were carving a large ham and I asked for slice. Clearly the staff member didn't have much experience with ham, because he cut several tiny slices and then piled them and a lot of fat onto my plate. Almost more fat than meat. I'm very impressed with the quality of the fruits, berries and vegetables. Went to trivia and there was quite a crowd today. And it was harder. We stayed a little while in Martinis and heard Justine Jones playing the piano. She is fabulous. Dinner was at Embers. I loved the look and feel of the place. It does feel like an upscale American restaurant, bare tables and all. I know some people have compared it to Applebees or Cheddars - and since I have eaten at those restaurants believe me it's not even close. Although the spinach and artichoke appetizer I had could have been served at one of those restaurants, the quality was much higher. The highlight of the meal was the burrata and lemon carrot salad. Incredible - the mix of flavors and textures was amazing. I had the porcini crusted ribeye. It was huge and very flavorful, but I ordered medium and it was overdone. I now think their medium is my medium well, so I will order medium rare from now on. I tried to order the summer berry sundae for dessert but the waiter steered me away so I had the delicious, but huge and rich brownie. Also those rolls are to die for. I thought the food was very good and would like to try it again, but then I always felt Jacques was a little pretentious and it wasn't my favorite. As we were leaving the restaurant, two children came running out. This was the first bad behavior I have seen from any children so far. The boy was in a t-shirt and shorts, not appropriate for the restaurant (and I'm not that picky about what people wear) but worse he was barefood. I said something to the maitre'd about how I love kids but he really needed to be wearing shoes in a restaurant and he just looked sheepish. The boy and girl kept running in and out of the restaurant and then all around deck 5. I have no idea where the parents were. The show tonight was a very funny and likeable comedian. It was a very good show. Tomorrow we are in Marmaris, Turkey. We don't have an excursion booked so that can't cancel it. We plan to just explore.

I can't believe this has turned into an entitled American story either. I can assure you I am NOT an "ugly American". I am always polite and respectful and open to other cultures. This was an impulse purchase - I'm not a big shopper and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be attempting to buy a pair of shoes in Heraklion, Crete. But there's more to the story that was a little embarrassing so I didn't add it to the original post. I have big feet - I wear a US size 10. She said "what size". I said US size 10 - thinking she might have a conversion chart. She kept asking what size and I kept saying "big" and making universal hand gestures for big. She said "40, 41" and I said yes - and even pulled off my sneaker, which had a label with the US, UK and international sizes in it(41.5). I did nothing wrong and was not rude in any way. They did not have that shoe in my size. No problem. But when I picked up another shoe and asked, she refused to even look. She just said "we don't have", grabbed the shoe and put it back on the display and walked away. I don't care what country you are from or what language you speak - she was just down right rude. Maybe having a bad day. But the street was full of tourists, many of them American, and I can guarantee you that most of those American tourists have no idea what European size shoe they wear. I didn't expect her to know what a size 10 was. But she could have brought out a couple of the bigger sizes for me to try on. Maybe she sized me up and just didn't think I was really going to buy anything because I wasn't wearing fancy clothes. No clue. And maybe the poster who jumped all over this assuming that we "expected them to know" was looking to pick a fight.

We have Ember tonight. I’m looking forward to it. The menu is different than I expected. i think your estimate of the number of children is about right. So far we have not seen any bad behavior. One family even brought their nanny (she was wearing a uniform). We ate in the Terrace the first night near the family you are talking about. The staff wanted to move us because the baby was shrieking. Luckily it didn’t last long. I think they try to keep everyone away from their table. I’m beginning to think this cruise is fundamentally different. I’m not sure how Oceania marketed it, but there are tons of Aussies on this cruise, an equal number of Brits, and a large contingent speaking Spanish or Portuguese. Americans are definitely in the minority. Also quite a few groups of Asians. Many large family groups overall.

We were on the same tour and found out last minute too. Destination services was already closed. Very frustrating because out tour yesterday was canceled too. When we got outside we realized they weren’t lying that it was too windy. We were blown down the pier. It will be interesting to see how the money works out. We had $300 in simply more credits. Took a sixth excursion so got the discount for all of them. Now we are below the threshold for the discount.

Yesterday we were in Heraklion. Because our excursion was canceled the night before, we didn't have plans. If we had known how small the old city is we would have just walked arountd, but since we didn't know the area we took the hop on hop off bus. Got off and walked up the main road to the fountain. I tried to buy a pair of shoes from one of the many shops, but apparently I offended the shopkeeper because I didn't know my European shoe size and she couldn't convert it. After telling me they didn't have a pair in my size, she didn't want to sell me anything and turned her back on me. Heraklion is a nice city. The bus took us out to the Palace of Knossos entrance. Our excursion was canceled because the tour guides were supposedly on strike, but the place was mobbed and we heard someone say the line to get in was very long. Got back to the ship in time for lunch at Waves, A nice basic lunch, as always. At 4pm we went to trivia. There's not a huge crowd at trivia on this cruise. We have a very port intensive tinerary and a very international crowd so that might be the reason. Once again, Julie said she had to hurry to get to a cocktail party. I do wish that Oceania had a few more activities. I'm not talking belly flop contests, but a couple more interactive things throughout the day would be nice besides putting and baggo. A round of name that tune or another quiz would be welcome. This has been my complaint since our first Oceania cruise - it's all about the food and not much else. The crowd on this ship is much younger, which may be the trend, and Oceania is going to have to adapt. I asked a crew member this morning and found out the ship is at basically full capacity - about 1180 passengers. The way Vista is designed it never feels crowded except in the Terrace in the mornings. We ate at Polo for dinner last night. The food was very good and of course service was excellent. My husband's steak was delivered medium well instead of medium, but he had already complained about the ketchip/honey salad dressing for the BLT salad, so he didn't want to send it back. It was still very tasty and well prepared. I had the lobster wellington which was well prepared but very rich. Overall, a good meal but I wasn't wowed. The show was "Into the Night" by the production cast. We had seen this show on the Regent Grandeur, but this cast was much more talented. I'm continuing to love the Vista despite a few quirks. I'm sitting at the AquaMar Spa Terrace now and it's absolutely stunning. A great place to spend a quiet morning.

I can confirm the Regent Grandeur has the same issue. We were on it in December and had the same issue. No noise today from the next cabin so I guess we are lucky.

We are currently on the Vista with Julie James. She’s way down on my list of good cruise directors. And it’s not just me - we have talked to several other people on the ship who feel the same way. She clearly sees trivia in the afternoons as a chore and rushes through to get to her cocktail parties. Her announcements are awful. We loved Leslie Jon on our first Oceania cruise.

Today we were in Santorini, along with at least eight other ships. We were planning to get off in the afternoon, but after hearing the announcements in the morning of the port being so crowded that they could only assign one tender to the Vista, then shutting down tender service due to overcrowding in the port, plus the heat, we made the decision to stay on board. We'lll have to come back another time. I just couldn't face a long wait in the sun for the cable car. I think the Vista is a huge step up in design from the Marina and Riviera. What I like about the Vista so far: -The decor -The layout of the Grand Dining Room. I think they layout with dividers and separate "rooms" makes dining more intimate. One of the things that has turned me off on the older Celebrity ships (the cruise line we have mostly traveled with) is those large banquet style dining rooms. -Terrace Grill layout - once again some separation between eating areas -Pool deck. I absolutely love the little "cabana" areas in the shade on the side. We spent the morning there with beautiful views and a breeze from the open window and actually had a little privacy. -The bakery area and the enlarged Baristas seating area with more comfortable seating -The beautiful, larger, more private library -Enlarged Waves with table service (and expanded menu) -There is an enclosed smoking room on the pool deck and not open air smoking What I don't like: -The silly layout so that the aft elevator doesn't go down below deck 6. So stupid. - lack of usable storage in the cabin -noise from other cabins. Today we can clearly hear the tv and conversation from the next cabin. It seems to come from behind the tv. Service continues to be excellent. The food has been good, although we have only had pretty standard items from the menu. Ate breakfast in the GDR and the food was good. Nothing outstanding. Ate at Waves for lunch and had a good Philly cheesesteak, which wasn't authentic but tasted good. Dinner in the GDR where we had excellent prime rib and wonderful conversation with the couple at the next table. Continue to not enjoy Julie, the cruise director. She handled trivia today and really did not seem to be enjoying herself - it was more like a chore. I found other people are also not enjoying her. She seems nice but somehow grates on my nerves. The show tonight was Martin Kaye, who energetically sang and played the piano. We left part way through - not my kind of entertainment but he seemed very talented. Tomorrow we will be in Heraklion. Came back to the room after the show at about 10pm to find a letter from Destination Services that our tour to Palace of Knossos had been canceled by the operator because of a strike. No alternative given. I think we will take a taxi into town and do a walking tour. We switched our tour in Bodrum to the gulet boat I was glad to hear someone post that it's a good excursion. Tomorrow night we have a reservation in Polo Grill. So far it's been a very relaxing cruise with no major snags, good food and very nice people.

We’re just a few doors away from your cabin. I was concerned about the crew door across from us but no noise at all from that direction. We could hear talking from the cabin next door but it wasn’t loud and didn’t last long. I am a light sleeper and sensitive to noise and it was silent last night. I will say it’s a long walk to the other end of the ship and up one floor to the concierge lounge. We don’t hang out there but checked it out. Snacks are nothing special and it’s a windowless room. Furniture was comfortable. Not a perk we will be using much.

We just did this transfer Saturday. We had a 90 minute transfer time. The plane arrived but because it was before 6am couldn’t land earlier. We were business class so got off early, otherwise I don’t think we would have made it. Very long walk to the bus but the purple signage was excellent. Escalators up and down. Got to the other terminal- more escalators. Security was very slow even though we were fast track. I got pulled over for special screening of my shoes, then my bag got pulled out of line for a search. No sense of urgency at all. I had forgotten that in my travel purse I had a small bottle of hand sanitizer and it had to be tested. Finally we make it through and there was no gate information until 7 for a 7:50 flight. Once it was posted made a mad dash up and down more escalators to a train to the gate. Then the gate numbers were confusing and stood in the wrong line. Finally the uninterested gate agent pointed to the correct line. Held up at passport check while both agents worked at a snail’s pace. Then more escalators and a very long jetway walk. I would say it would be very difficult if you have mobility issues. I will never do this again, except we have to on the way back. Does it really keep anyone that much safer?

Hello from the beautiful Vista. We boarded today after a few days in Athens before the cruise. We traveled on Friday and luckily did not have any airline delays, but made the mistake of having a transfer at London Heathrow. This was discussed recently in a different thread and please read it if you are considering a transfer that requires going to another terminal at Heathrow. We had a 90 minute timeframe which was barely enough, but the the hassle of the whole thing made us decided to never do it again. The ordeal includes very long walks, a bus transfer, many, many escalators, multiple security screenings if you aren't lucky (I got screened three times and had a major issue over a very small bottle of hand sanitizer I forgot was in my suitcase), then a train ride and many more escalators. We had been on the Marina and Riviera but this is our first time on the Vista. It is stunning and very reminiscent of the Regent Grandeur, which we sailed in December. I love the cool colors. Embarkation was the easist we have had on Oceania, although we did have to take a shuttle bus to the ship. But they had lots of staff doing checkin and it probably only took 20 minutes from luggage drop off to getting on the ship. We arrived early because our check out time at the hotel was 11, so our A2 stateroom wasn't ready. Ate a light lunch in Terrace Grill, did our muster check in, then spent a little time in Martinis waiting for the room. Since we don't drink alcohol, this is probably the only time we will be there. The string quartet was playing and they were very good. The ship seems very well staffed and everyone is very happy. Great service everywhere. The food at the buffet was good, but my Oceania complaint is that they have almost no ingredients at the salad bar. I noticed that on our other cruises and clearly nothing has changed. Concierge staterooms opened at 1:30. We have an extended balcony cabin on deck 8. I really like the cabin, but feel that there the storage was not very well thought out. Not enough deep drawers. Most of them are so shallow you can't fit much in them. Another minor complaint - the hangers in the closet do not have grooves to hold shirts on them. All of my stretchy shirts keep sliding off. I know, first world complaint, but I just can't understand why no one thought about that. Our room steward Luka seems wonderful. The cabin is very clean and we like the deep balcony. We had a penthouse on the Marina with a horrible butler experience, so we have gone for veranda cabins since then. However, I don't know if I could do a long cruise in this cabin. Maybe I'm spoiled after the Regent cruise, where the standard veranda cabin we had was full of storage and lots of space - probably the same size as a Vista penthouse. We were offered an upgrade to a PH for $1000 each this week, but didn't feel like spending the extra. I decided to do a load of laundry since we sweated through our clothes in Athens. If you aren't aware, they are having a heat wave and the temperature has been in the high 90's and above. Sightseeing was miserable. First time in Athens and probably the last as I was not impressed. We love history and the ruins are great, but the rest of the city looks like it was bombed out with lots of abandoned buildings and graffiti everywhere. The laundry was hopping but I got a washer and put my clothes in. I was delayed by our room steward so was about five minutes late to get my washing and someone had already taken it out of the machine. I got dirty looks when I started putting it into the dryer. I have previously had some weird encounters in the Oceania laundry room, so I wasn't surprised. The passengers are a very international group. Have heard a lot of non-English language. It's fun to try and guess what language they are speaking in the elevator.. I think Americans may be in the minority. It is also a much younger crowd than on our other Oceania cruises and we have seen quite a few well-behaved children. We ate dinner in the Terrace. I just couldn't face a long sit down meal in the GDR, which is not our favorite place anyway. The sushi station is excellent and I think a great addition. I had lamb chops and lobster tail from the grill - what can be better than that? We went to the show at 9:30. Did I forget to mention that the cruise director is Julie? I am not enjoying her at all. My husband told me not to be mean so I won't say anything else about her. The entertainment staff seems very talented, much more talented than the staff on the Regent cruise, and put on a nice show. The show band is great. Apparently there have been a lot of issues with the excursions and the heat. We received advisories about three of our booked excursions. One was changed from moderate to strenuous activity, and the the other two had heat advisories. We are rethinking some of our choices. We found the heat so oppressive in Athens that it is dangerous, even drinking a lot of water. Tomorrow is Santorini. We plan to get off the ship late afternoon since there are supposed to be a lot of other ships in port and we're hoping the cable car line will be shorter. I'm happy to answer questions if I can.

If I remember correctly from the Beyond, the upper area by the Sunset Bar is a smoking area. We found the smell drifted down and it wasn't pleasant sitting outside the OVC because of that.

We are booked on the 10-night itinerary, basically the same except for the Greek ports, leaving Oct. 10, 2025. Because of this post, I looked into the pricing. We booked it in 2023 for 2024 on the Silhouette, which obviously got cancelled last year, so we decided to switched to this itinerary on the Eclipse. I had already repriced for a lower price in January. When I called today, it was 30% cheaper than the January price. This is cruise only - no air or packages. I almost couldn't believe it was true. I would encourage anyone on these sailings to call and check the pricing. Even if it ends up being just a Greek islands cruise, the price for us is cheaper than a Caribbean cruise.

We saw a guy get turned away from breakfast in the dining room last year on Edge because he had on a tank top/muscle shirt that was really loose and low cut under the arms. He was arguing with the host because a woman, wearing a fitted tank top was allowed in and he wasn't. On another voyage we had a young man show up shirtless several times in the OVC. No one stopped him from entering.

I have recently had trouble with the Oceania website, where the sale popups would load and I couldn't get past them or scroll up or down around them. I was using Chrome as my browser. I switched to Safari and it works much better.

A couple of comments - I've sailed on Regent and didn't even come close to paying half of the "$50,000" that @zitsky seems to think everyone pays. And it's a whole world away from Celebrity and way off topic for this question. For me, the biggest change for the good in the last few years has been the incredibly fast embarkation and disembarkation. None of the other cruise lines we have sailed have come close. There's also the replacement of the live muster drill with the do-it-yourself version. That's a huge positive. The biggest negative change has been the food and service in the dining rooms. I don't have a problem with the Oceanview except the quality of the food. You can always find something, and there's usually a large variety, but the fried chicken is now all legs, the barbecue is steamed and covered with a big sticky sauce, the Asian food is not great, etc. Large variety - but low quality. On some of the ships the fresh pizza is quite good. We can always find something to eat and really appreciate the variety, but wish the quality was better. On the M and S class ships, the dining room experience for us has been sad. Tables for two are now so close together that you might as well be eating with the tables around you. There are no private conversations. We've met some nice people, though. The service is not what it used to be. Each waiter has many more tables and nothing is personalized anymore. They run around like crazy trying to cover everything. On one of our cruises last year on Equinox, the waiter refused to give me a steak with my lobster on lobster night - he insisted I had to have two completely plated meals. It's a little better on the Edge class ships in the smaller dining rooms, but not always. On the last four trips I've taken on Celebrity, I have found it impossible to get a refill on a non-alcoholic drink at dinner. They aren't making money, so they can't be bothered. The main dining room food on all of the ships has taken a nosedive over the last few years. The menu is probably half of what it used to be, and very repetitive. While I don't mind the smaller portions, the quality of ingredients is poor. You will see the same rice, potatoes, carrots and broccoli every night with most of the dishes. Nothing is plated nicely and everything is uninspired. You can tell it's all about cost cutting or trying to get you to go to the specialty restaurants for a fee. One thing that hasn't changed is the service. We have found all the staff to be very friendly and they do their best for you no matter where you are on the ship.

Is it ridiculous on a true luxury cruise line? Regent does the exact same thing.

On our first Oceania cruise on the Marina, we were offered an upgrade from a concierge stateroom to a PH a few weeks before sailing. I don't remember the cost, but it worked out to be less than if we had booked the PH at the time we booked the cruise. For our July Vista sailing, a couple of weeks ago we changed from an A3 to an A2 for $50 (total) because we were in a stateroom next to the bump out - so the next stateroom had the extended balcony and could see into our regular size balcony. The stateroom we picked had a regular balcony. A couple of days later I discovered they had moved us down a deck from 9 to 8, but put us in an extended balcony cabin. We didn't receive any notification of that upgrade (still an A2 so not technically an upgrade). I suspect that it depends on how many unsold cabins they have if you will be offered any chance to upgrade.

With concierge class on an S-class ship (like Reflection) the cabin is exactly the same as regular veranda stateroom. The location may be a little better. Really, it's a regular veranda with a few extra perks. There were never lounge chairs on those balconies anyway, so you haven't lost anything. There is the lunch (limited times, very limited menu) on embarkation day. The menu is usually a choice of a salad and maybe one other starter, choice of three entrees (chicken, beef, vegetarian) and choice of two desserts. The only nice part is that you don't have to fight for a spot at the buffet. You will get truly awful canapes every afternoon. See if you can get them to bring you a fruit and cheese plate instead. You might get a bottle of sparkling wine on embarkation day. On some sailings, you will get an invitation to the helipad for a sail away. There's no way to predict what days or if it's going to happen. You may get an invitation to a backstage tour at the theater. Sometimes they have a special cocktail party for concierge guests. This one is controversial, but in my experience we received priority seating for select dining (not fixed time). If you don't have a reservation, they may seat you in front of passengers in regular cabins. I've been told it doesn't happen - but it has happened to us on several sailings. That's about it. If you didn't pay much for the upgrade, it may be worth it to you. If you're collecting points then it also might be worthwhile.

I'm not quite sure why the return of this documentation deserves big applause. I have my blue envelope right in front of me for our July sailing. We received it about two weeks ago. It contains the "personalized" letter (has my name at the top and the name of the journey at the bottom) which is a generic letter with no useful information. There are four "do it yourself" paper luggage tags, which might be useful but they changed our stateroom without telling us so the number on the tags is wrong. These go inside the four plastic colorful luggage tag holders. Then there is the completely generic booklet with deck plans for the ship. One thing missing - no copy of the itinerary. I'm still going to have to print that out myself. I would rather they save money on this and the multitude of sales brochures I receive weekly and lower the prices.

The room steward has been happy to provide a kettle for me on all of the Celebrity ships I've been on. Not all lines are the same - I couldn't get one on my recent Regent Grandeur cruise and Oceania doesn't provide them either.

I would say there are more similarities than differences between the two. If you go on RSSC, it will feel very familiar. We had a completely different experience than the other poster. We found the service on Regent to be every bit as good, and we actually preferred the passengers on Regent. Definitely fewer very drunk people than we have encountered on Oceania on our Caribbean cruise. Food was very similar, but we thought Regent had a little edge in quality of ingredients. The main dining room had a much better menu than GDR on Oceania, but we had major service issues in the Compass Rose on Regent. Specialty restaurants are very similar, although the French restaurant on Regent is more classic French than Jacques. Terrace buffet wins hands down over the Regent buffet because of the evening casual service and the grill. The pool cafe on Regent had a much bigger menu (and a buffet area) than Waves. Entertainment and activities are about the same, although Regent has a very nice "Krew Kapers" show at the end of each cruise where the crew performs. Very heartwarming. They also have cocktail party in the halls once per journey (can't remember what it's called) where they serve drinks and canapes and you can meet your neighbors. Shore excursions are similar, but I think group sizes on Regent may be smaller. We encountered a lot of people on Regent who don't take all the excursions. The smallest staterooms on the newer Regent ships are about the size of the a PH on Oceania, so they are larger than the normal staterooms on Oceania. We found the layout was better. Overall, there seems to be more public space per passenger. All of this depends on which ships you are comparing, so take it with a grain of salt.

I know this is a completely different class of ship, but we had a short cruise booked on the Summit last year and were taking our twenty-something son with us. We booked a cabin that had an overhead bunk and a sofa. The problem is that he's very tall (6' 6") and we had doubts there was no way he was going to fit into the overhead bunk. No problem - the room had a sofa and we assumed it was a pullout sofa, like we have had in many categories of cabins. Upon arrival, we discovered the sofa was just a sofa and the overhead bunk was not going to work. We had to go and beg (on a full ship) for a different cabin with a pullout sofa or he was going to have to sleep on the floor. Luckily there was a cancellation at the last minute and they were able to switch us. My point is that you really need to verify that there are enough beds for all four of you.

Yes! You guessed it! Still worried about last minute itinerary changes though.

My suggestion on the plain water vs. sparkling water refill situation was that they should have a different color paper coaster for those of us with sparkling water, so the server can see at a glance who has what. Believe me, this little annoyance doesn't ruin my trip or turn me against a cruise line. And it happens everywhere - it happened on Regent too.