hillsprint

Yes, I would agree that using road transport is probably a limited option, especially when you consider a 3000 passenger ship would require about 54 or so buses to ferry all into the city. Then marshalling them all to get back to the ship would be a nightmare, as afterall we will all want to stay as long as possible, and there won’t be room for 25  busses in the bus terminal solely for one ship.

Hence why the proposal to use docks within the lagoon and then they’ll tender folk back and forth.

Mind you will the canals be up to the increase water traffic and how much damage will all those wakes cause to the infrastructure?

With regard to Redtravel’s post, as far as I am aware  Azamara still has a Cassini unless you are on the new Pursuit which has a different layout to the older ships.

If you are content with the R design ships then I think there are Pros & Cons for both lines, but Riviera and Marina are in a different class, especially on a longer cruise.

We were on Riviera in August and found the Wi-fi connection poor across the ship. Certainly it was the worst I had experienced in the past 7 years of cruising, it was much better on Azamara, Celebrity and NCL. All the cruises were in the Med so they were in similar network conditions. Certainly it is something that O need to improve as more customers now expect a consistent service.

We were on Riviera at the end of August and it was mentioned that within a few weeks all O's Head Chefs were meeting with the Culinary Director in Spain, apparently this rarely happens. So maybe standards and menus would be discussed at that. I am surprised that a chef would be allowed to make a large unilateral alteration to a dish, surely a dish served on one O ship should reasonably represent what is served on the others?

We are just back from a short city break in Palma de Mallorca, it’s a lovely city, lots of interesting shops, Passeig Del Born is the main avenue, there’s a great tapas bar Ombu on it, or go to the Sky Bar/Restaurant in the Hotel Almudaina for fabulous views over the city and port. The cathedral and the Almudaina palace are worth a visit and the covered market Mercat de l’Olivar is fantastic with numerous tapas bars in amongst the market stalls, really great food at low prices. Palma is just a lovely city centre to walk round and it is relatively flat.

We found Toulon not to be a great port to visit, basically is a large French city that is a major naval port, it is not really a tourist spot. If I went again I would probably do a tour. We were docked in the centre of the town, but sometimes they have to use the cruise port which is about 5 miles out. You can check on the Toulon Port website to find which you are in.

My wife did the Cooking with Jacques course on our recent Med cruise on Riviera, the description on the O website made it sound a very simple class about emulsions and dressings, but it actually entailed a full meal of a dressed salad, filet steak with asparagus and then a chocolate mousse dessert, with wine. She thoroughly enjoyed the 2hr class and Chef Kelly was very good. Best bit was I got invited in at the end to taste it all :)

In August we used Friends in France for a private transfer, it was 80 euros and took about 35 mins

Look on Page 3 of the Guest Invoice attachment you get in the email about 3 weeks before the cruise. Look in the Promotional Amenities section, it will list House Beverage Package along with Free Internet and PPGs ( Pre Paid Gratuities).

This is just an observation, on the Azamara board, Bonnie McLaird has been appointed as the Azamara internet rep, or Chief Blogging Officer as they call it. If folk have a query they can address it to her or she picks up an issue that has been raised and can provide an authoritative answer from the company.

On here we see many issues where speculation and misunderstanding of what is provided leads to what amounts to bad PR for Oceania.

Surely it's time for O to recognise that it would be beneficial to have a presence across the various strands of social media, in order to inform and provide a channel for their customers to interact effectively with the company.

Pirouette

Really enjoying your Blog, we were in Bordeaux earlier this year, can you confirm where you are docked in relation to the city, please.

If anyone wants to visit a Wine Bar/ Cave in Bordeaux, can I recommend Le Bar à Vin at the top of Allée d Orléans, which is run by the local wine society, the wines are priced from 3- 8 Euro per glass and the smoked duck accompaniment is delicious.

Looking forward to your next instalment

It's an iPhone 8 Plus, so it's pretty new, it found and connected to the ships network no problem, but no matter which time of day or location I tried, it just froze. Luckily, being in Europe we get our data allowance, so I was using the local 4G land networks to do my cruise blog

I was on Riviera a week ago and the wi-fi wouldn’t even open the CC forum, and I tried in various public places as well as our stateroom, even in the computer area! Have to say it’s the worst ship wi-fi that I’ve encountered. The ship was in the Western Med so it wasn’t in a spot that was out of signal.

Forgot I had this shot

As per above here is what they prepared

Salad starter, Steak Diane with green beans and O mashed potatoes and there was also a rich chocolate mousse

Cheers

Michael

I thought Pacific Princess was still under the Princess fleet?

Did they transfer her to P & O ?

Sorry Lynn, you are correct, was getting my Adonia (R8) mixed up, and you think the name would have told me:)

Yes, Azamara recently purchased R8 from P&O, and reportedly have an option on P&O's remaining R vessel ( Pacific Princess). R8 was refurbished here in Belfast and named the Pursuit. They made several variations to it over their existing pair of Rs, including the removal of the casino, it has only been sailing for just over a month in Europe and seems to have had good reviews. It will be interesting to see what the US audience make of it when to crosses the Atlantic.

I have sailed with Azamara, it has a dedicated following, as Oceania has. As I haven't sailed of one of O's R ships I can't directly compare products, but I can comment that I think O's food is better (there is a also a charge for the Az Specialty venues) and that the age group in Az would probably be slightly younger than on O.

Having sailed on Riviera, I much prefer it's larger size and more dining option to Azamara Journey, but I'm happy with both products and my choice would be down to itinerary and price as the main deciders.

Azamara seem to has a successful product and a growing business, yes on CC there are those who comment about the size of the bathrooms, plus the usual niggles about food, drinks and dress codes, as they do on every Line forum on these boards.

Lynn, are you using a camera or smartphone to take the photos?

I use my phone and then use Tapatalk app to post on the forum, I think you can post 6 pics in each reply. When on my recent cruise as linked above, the CC app suddenly stopped me posting pics, so I went back to using

If I have documents or photographs that I want to post these days, I find it easier to take a photo of them with the phone and post them using the apps, rather than trying to go through a photo hosting site, after Photobucket started charging.

My wife attended a Culinary Class on Riviera last week, which I had booked about 8 weeks before we sailed, as a present for her. Think it was a Cooking with Jacques one, what she cooked in the class was much more than the class description on the website seemed to indicate. It was a full 2 hour class they prepare a complete meal, which I got invited in to taste and she enjoyed the class thoroughly.

We ended up with an unexpected sea day on the cruise, and they put on an additional class, Knife Skills, but had a poor take up on it as there wasn't much pre-publicity for it. The classes are £52 ($69).

I see that one of the Reviews we have been talking about, the one with the list of complaints, seems to have been removed. There were 588 reviews of the Riviera, but now it shows 586.

It does seem to take time for reviews to get posted, I completed mine first thing on Friday and it still hasn't made it onto the site. No doubt it will appear soon.

That "pic" shows day wear(obviously you KNOW that!)At night those shorts & shirt would NOT be acceptable in any rest. on board with the exception of the terrace. We never saw any pax dressed that casually at night on our Riviera cruise. It's Country Club Casual not Wal-Mart Chic at night.

Keith, as you probably KNOW, I was using the email to show what O sent out, including the written part of it.

Maybe you should contact O to point out the mixed message you perceived ;)

Having just returned from my Rome to Monte cruise. I have submitted my Review of it and am awaiting it being published. When submitting it I saw the last two reviews, read them and couldn't believe it was the same ship.

We were very happy with Riviera, it was in excellent condition, our veranda stateroom was fine, all the staff I was in contact with seemed happy and were keen to help. We don't do the shows, so the entertainment is not that important, we prefer to socialise elsewhere on the ship. It is a quieter ship than others from the volume lines and the entertainment team are not "in your face", where there has to be some raucous event happening throughout the day. I would call it a refined and relaxing atmosphere, which is what I want on a holiday.

Our cruise was not perfect, but it was very close to it, and I would have no hesitation in taking another cruise on Riviera

firsttimers68, yes I think our paths did cross at the Baggo/putting/shuffleboard/golf/quiz, it was great to meet you, Did you have to pay for extra baggage for all the O Points merchandise you got? :)

Go Barflies,

Folks here is the Pre Cruise email I got from O before our recent Med cruise

On our cruise, like the email suggests, I don’t remember seeing any jackets, even in the Specialty venues. However, I must say I never really bothered to study what my fellow guests were wearing, I just got on with enjoying my own O experience.

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Thanks so much for all your posts! We are doing the same itinerary on Nov 2 on the Marina. Loved your last pic at Monte Carlo so was just wondering if I should pick a certain side of the ship for my cabin? I booked a concierge guarantee but now I'm getting worried I won't get the side with a view.

Riviera seems to berth pointing out, however a word of caution. We picked the Port side of the ship to get the view, however on the full day in MC, the ship was anchored at sea ( despite as I mentioned the O itinerary stating it was in port). When anchored the ship consistently pointed due East meaning that the Port side was facing out to sea and also had very poor/ none phone signal.

Now where the ship points at anchor depends on the winds and tides, so it may swing about or it may not.

So you are only in the harbour from late at night until you get off to disembark, unless you are on a B2B.

So Buyer Beware ;)

And finally the “Money Shot”, MC by night from our veranda

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