tvmovielover

I was on Nautica earlier this year. Baristas is next to the GDR like other R ships. Like ToXM, I find this a nice sociable or not if you wish location to start my coffee day early in the morning. Trivia is in the theater and still a good time. I do miss having the 4 specialty restaurants to chose from at night especially since one of the two was not good on my recent voyage-too many new inexperienced servers etc. I still love the R ships though.

We flew Turkish Air to Egypt a few years ago. You have to stop in Istanbul. We stayed there for a couple of days on our way to Egypt but only had a short layover in Istanbul on the way home. The flight from there to Cairo is only 2 or so hours. Turkish has many connections to Africa and India. Their business class is very comfortable but their economy is not bad. We flew from Atlanta.

We were booked into an accessible cabin we did not want long before the cruise was full and said we would be happy to move (past Feb cruise). We eventually decided to wait until boarding to see about a move and no move was available. It was upsetting to think of someone else needing it and being told none available.

Did you read my whole post? We are not always cruising nor are we the cheapskates you imply only able to cruise at the most off-peak times. I was remembering a favorite cruise and saying at the end that "TC" was the best venue when conditions were right.

Our first O cruise many years ago was in the South Pacific. We had good weather the whole time and ate many meals in Terrace (though only some "under the stars"). None of our cruises since have been just right weather wise to make Terrace the choice it was on that cruise-too windy, too cold, etc. Still when the weather is right and you can beat the crowds, it is the best dining venue.

We booked Privee for ourselves and BIL and SIL for one of our anniversaries on Marina. We had a wonderful meal and lots of attention and our waiter recognized and was very good to us in the MDR for the rest of the cruise. I would do that again and liked it as well or better than our somewhat pretentious La Reserve meal on our last cruise. I miss Marina too.

If you do not get there soon after they open, the Terrace does become increasingly zoo like but I prefer it to Waves for no special reason. Terrace has opened early on some occasions-either a port where many are going off early or on debarkation day. It is easy to get hot or cold food quickly if you take what is already made so that you do not leave the ship hungry but early it is still easy to get an egg or omelot made quickly too.

There was a Oceania County Fair on the pool deck on Nautica in Southeast Asia. All of us really enjoyed it. We were on a 14 day segment of a much longer cruise but this segment had 4 sea days so this activity was a welcome diversion on the last one.

I always preferred Toscana but it was not good on our Feb Nautica cruise. Service was not good but that might have been newer help. The pasta was tasteless. However on the first of our 2 visits (I tried again in vain), I tried the often recommended Oso Buco which was good, well done and warm enough when served. It was not to my taste-too much meat-but I would still recommend it.

There is a coffee machine and food available all day in the Concierge Lounge but I would not get a concierge cabin just for that (there are some other perks). there are too many other choices. Baristas has the best coffee on the ships available from 6:30 (and sometimes earlier) and different snacks etc. Horizons and Terrace have coffee machines that as said above provide a better cup of coffee than the dining rooms if you work the machines right AND Horizons also has some morning foods from 6 and sometimes earlier. There are things available for those of us who get up early and leave so partners can sleep.

There are a couple of museums in the downtown Jacksonville area and the symphony has a concert tonight but yeah, bummer about only tour to St Augustine Saturday. The zoo and gardens are nice but go today since so far Saturday will be cool and maybe wet. I feel sorry for both first timers and O lovers. We had a disappointing short cruise in Europe on Riviera last fall in terms of ports. The good part was that all the restaurants and special dinners were good. Weather here is unseasonably cool this year and seas rough.

ORV I would try the free shuttle to St Augustine or the St Augustine historical tour if not wanting to walk much. I live on Amelia Island-the "historical tour" is just okay. The Island is a nice place for a quiet beach vacation or a second home but cool in the winter.

I too am curious to know what they are offering as excursions for Jacksonville and where they will dock. I know there is a cruise port near Jaxport but that is not that close to Jax beaches or downtown Jacksonville museums. I live in the area like the city too but I am not sure I would prefer it to Bermuda.

On our recent SE Asia cruise, passports were collected on embarkation. For one port in the middle of the cruise, passports were needed and were redistributed and then recollected when we returned. We got them back at disembarkation.

We used USPS but paid for priority shipping to designated passport office (philidelphia) and return of new passports to us. Just followed all the directions carefully and double checking for each. You can send two passports together and use one check but amount of everything is double (except sending them the old passports) as each item will be processed individually. We got the new ones within 3 weeks. As pointed out above, a regular paged passport and one with more pages cost the same so it might always be better to opt for the one with the most pages.

Because we are going to several different countries in SE Asia next month, we did the rush job since we were down to 3 1/2 pages. You do not have to be within a year of renewal to get a new passport (and we ordered the extra page one this time), you just have to pay a lot more and stay on top of it. Renewal is now the only way to get more pages-we had more than 5 years left but no pages.

We visited Bordeaux on Nautica. The second day everyone left for tours in town but had to return to Le Verdon or get back on the ship before it left town. As said above, the tides are as important as the size of the ship.

We tried Viking Ocean because we had enjoyed some of their river cruises but we have cruised more on Oceania. Like many, we choose by itinerary. As said above, Viking has the best bathrooms at sea and I like that all cabins have balconies. Viking has some excellent lectures and lecturers. If not equal to O, the food on Viking is still very good and they have some nice cooking classes too. The one thing where O is better is excursions. Vikings walks around towns on river cruises have always been very good. These "free" excursion are not the same for the ocean ships because they are not always close to town so many of the freebies become bus tours that are not as good. There are some O tours that are more bus than anything but that is what some cruisers want. The big drawback for Viking is that they changed their policy on when payment is due. They used to have final payment within 6 months of cruise and for a long time kept that for repeat customers but no more. I love the Viking ships but it will have to be a great new itinerary to get me on one again.

Although the ship staff and food were as good as ever, our Sept/Oct 7 day Riviera cruise was a disappointment due to a missed port and revamping of times for the remaining port due to weather, events not accounted for, etc. I would not sign up for a 7 day cruise again or less than 10 probably-I do like 1 scheduled sea day if possible. All 4 specialties were very good and our cabin attendants were great. Some people were a little annoying but I think some of that is due to everybody being happy and anxious to get back to cruising. I think there were some with covid but as said above-we are given no info about it.

Pinotlover Thank you for this prompt reply and the information. It sounds like those who want to do more can and those who cannot will also be accommodated.

pinotlover, Did you like the Angkor Wat deal when you did it? The private tour we are looking at costs about the same (yes neither option is "free") but spends more time looking at temples and less eating and visiting shops. It would be easier and as you said make the cost less annoying.

We got ours today for Sept 26 embarkation. However, we have not gotten the book on all of our past cruises including the first one and it was not a problem. They have everything at check-in. The book is in fancier packaging now but has the same old info inside as said by others. Do not get uptight about the blue book.

Thank BBTONDO, making sure I have all needed apps!

bbtondo Tell me that you got back to Florida today-I am getting worried about our cruise later in Sept in terms of air flights. I am happy to hear you were enjoying the food and cruise on Riviera too much to post very often.

If you are interested in the class of Red Ginger recipes, when I took it a few years ago they offered the watermelon salad and the sea bass that are so popular-just do not go to Red Ginger the same night. The classes are fun but you do not do very much cooking or prep work. I liked them as an activity on a sea day. All the ones I took, we were at individual stations so class size was limited and this was well before covid.