Pies4u

The general rule is - quite rightly - no food or drink in the pool or jacuzzi. The fact that some waiting staff actually ask people if they want a drink when they are in the jacuzzi is one of those irritating aspects of luxury cruise lines. It is a safety, hygiene and communal harmony issue in the final analysis. To be fair most Regent staff seem to be pretty good at resolving issues when folks wander into the pool clutching a drink in one hand!

Not sailed on Vista but we were on Marina in the Baltic last Sept. Thought the restaurants were excellent, Toscana & Jacques in particular. Not quite up to Regent in many respects, minor things/little touches, but very good service and a very comfortable ship. The staff were friendly, courteous and helpful. (It is our only Oceania cruise to date). We were in a Vista suite and enjoyed a few perks but rarely got to use the huge balcony due to the wind and generally poor weather. I’d expect Vista to offer the same quality experience - I’d say the evening dining is on a par with Regent tbh but we prefer Regents b’fast and lunch buffet quality & range.

Had no problem in 7 seas aft suite on Voyager - lovely ship. We were in s e Asia and experienced zero vibration. I think Voyager and Mariner are a great option, not as glam & glitzy as the newer ships and no PAC Rim, of course, but they are still beautiful and luxurious vessels. I’d say itinerary is the most significant factor for us and whilst our next 2 cruises are on Explorer and Splendor we’d go on Voyager again anytime if the price and itinerary were right.

Apart from the awful lasagne my wife had in La Terazza, we found the food to be generally excellent on our recent Dawn cruise. That was our first SS cruise so it was an interesting comparison with Oceania & Regent. Tried room service hamburger, which was very good tbh but found the pizzas at Spacca….to be a tad uninteresting and fairly ordinary tbh. All other evening meals at La T were excellent, the prawns and steak there were superb. Only dined in Atlantide twice in 22 nights, food was lukewarm and indifferent - the steak there made me ill! The surf and turf in Kaiseki was beyond words, best lobster I’d tasted in a ship other than Jacques on Oceania. The lobster bisque in La Dame was also exceptional. The meals in SALT were all very pleasant - we had 5 from memory. Personally, I don’t think there was an individual restaurant that was superior to Jacques or Toscana on Oceania Marina or Prime 7 on any Regent ship (in respect of quality of food, presentation and menu variety) but, overall, it was interesting to try new dishes and sample the SS culinary experience. Other than the 1 dodgy lasagne and the steak ant Atlantide all the other meals were enjoyable and service was first class throughout. I’d say S Dawn offered a better choice of restaurants than even Oceania - to have the pizza and The Grill options in addition to 6 other restaurants is very impressive on a smaller ship. I’d certainly be happy to experience SS cuisine again!

You can just inform your butler, on a daily basis, each morning usually where you are going to dine. Equally, if you have specific plans fir certain nights, you can get several sorted at a time. It’s worth making the 2 or 3 (depending on which ship) x “1 per restaurant” in advance in any event.

We recently had our first SS cruise - 22 nights on Dawn - and found the restaurant booking system to be absolutely hopeless. We opted for 7 - 8 and I was advised we’d be allocated specific times once on board. We discovered we’d been given 7.00 pm for every booking! Had to change them all, so why don’t SS do the same as every other cruise line that offers bookings and enable you to book a specific time on the quarter hour? Why inconvenience virtually every customer, and cause unnecessary changes left, right and centre? Plus, having been waitlisted for 2, Kaiseki and La Dame, we found out hours prior to the booking that we now had a confirmed booking. On both occasions the restaurants were less than half full, all night! Apparently, La Terrazza had been fully booked every night prior to the cruise commencing - everyone was told they’d be “waitlisted”. Somehow you just know that was also complete nonsense. Thought it was one of the poorest aspects of our cruise tbh, together with embarkation, which was an utter farce in Barbados. Pity, because many aspects of the cruise were excellent, particularly the excursion process - meeting shoreside instead of herding people into the theatre and issuing bus tickets like others do, the SS system was much more user friendly and practical.

Just as an aside: Even if it is expressly required, I doubt anyone over 60 could get a yellow fever jab in the UK now. We tried several years ago and the medical advice then was that it is regarded as too high a risk. We got the certificate with an “exemption” stamped on it - that us universally accepted under WHO regulations. My brother had his jab when he was 62 - but it was the same appointed clinic that advised me, 3 years later, that it is no longer deemed to be safe for over 60’s.

Agree - Paris CDG & Schipol are dreadful airports, absolutely awful. Unfriendly and unhelpful staff, extremely busy, shockingly poor signage and generally Schipol is supposed to be getting a new terminal - the whole place needs condemning in my opinion!

It appears to be port/country specific. We are on Dawn, embarking in Barbados in March, and there are no pre cruise tests required. I checked again today. You only need a test for Japan if you have travelled via China, HK or the Philippines etc.

This all sounds odd to me. There is no additional requirement for fully vaccinated (3 not the 4 most Brits have had) passengers entering Japan. The UK Gov site is up to date and it makes no reference to pre-arrival testing.The SS site, and the Japanese immigration link, make it clear that fully vaccinated passengers do not need to do a test unless they are entering from Chinese territories. The critical issue is completing their “fast track” admin process in advance, that’s all. No idea where the original poster got this info from. Until it appears on the official sites I wouldn’t worry about it.

That’s all very helpful, thanks, I appreciate the responses. The conclusion is that it is sensible to make a couple of bookings for the restaurants that particularly appeal and chance the rest. (I see absolutely no sense at all in cramming dates in when I have no idea how I’ll feel or what/where I might prefer to dine). I am also far less keen on making loads of bookings in advance then simply cancelling them later - that is what unnecessarily fills up restaurants in advance & can prevent everyone else who wants to dine there making reservations! It seems somewhat selfish to me but I know a lot of people do it. Why book something that you probably have no intention of fulfilling? Still, each to their own.

Yes, thanks, I understand that. My concern was more about whether you actually need to bother making advance bookings or not. I assume, possibly incorrectly, that you can easily get a table in La Terraza, for example,without booking it prior to boarding. I don’t want to predict where I want to eat 3 moths before boarding if I can avoid it. Having said that, I appreciate you need to reserve La Dame & Keiseki if you want to certain of dining there.

Just as a slight deviation to this thread - which restaurants, other than the “additional cost” options, do you need to book in advance? We are on our first Silversea cruise in March (Silver Dawn) and the dining booking opens up soon. I’ve read various things re: booking but they’ve been varied and inconsistent. As you can’t reserve Atlantide it seems that Silver Note & La Terraza are the only ones you need to bother with - yet plenty of folks suggest you have no problem booking them on board. Interested to hear any suggestions & thoughts on the matter. Thanks in advance.