What A Market

Birthday!!! Love you Shannon! Thank you for cruising with me and mom!

More photos

Starting to fall behind on posting Live, which is fairly typical for me. Let’s catch up to last night’s dinner at Toscana. First off — Amazing time, food, and wine. Service was beyond great. May be a touch influenced though by the all the attention given by the staff, from top of house on down, to Shannon for her birthday. A big shout out to my also amazing TA. I know, no names. But her mom is big time TA with Oceania as well as a frequent poster here. TA helped be arrange for Oceania to bake a gluten free cake. Wait until you see photo. Small nominal cost, but holy cow! Beautiful and probably the best cake I’ve ever tasted, GF or otherwise. Thank you my unnamed TA and Oceania! Everything about the dinner was what I remember as Oceania. One bust dish (stuffed lamb), but everything else crazy good. I know all food posts are subjective, which is certainly true. But I noticed no “slippage” in last night’s dinner as compared to anything pre-Covid. Polo tonight! And now some food porn. (And some bday pics. Probably multiple posts.)

Thank you, thank you! Her first Oceania cruise was my first Oceania cruise — 14 days on the Regatta, Stockholm to St. Petersburg to London, June 2004. Seems like forever ago. We also sailed together on what ended up as the Riviera’s maiden voyage, Venice to Athens. We both had the joy of sailing with two of Cruise Critic’s most famous posters on that maiden voyage Don Horner and JimandStan. I hope they are both sailing and posting away in the next life.

Ha, so here’s this morning’s for you. But we way overindulged in Toscana last night. So some food porn to follow later.

For the sins and overindulgences of last night. (Although I already had two pieces of baguette bread. Note: The baguette is way way way better on Oceania as compared to Celebrity. Way!)

This morning’s cappuccino

Morning two at Baristas. Crazy, the barista remembered my order after only one day. Very, very calm evening sailing from Catalina to Ensenada. Just arrived in port and Leslie Jon just gave his “ship has been cleared” message. Nice evening last night. Drinks in Martinis, dinner again in main dining room, attended the magician show in the Regatta lounge, and finished at the roulette table with Shannon and Blaine. It’s Shannon’s birthday today. She played her new age number at the roulette table and HIT it! Happy Birthday Shannon!

Better photos up at the Wrigley Monument compliments of Blaine.

Absolutely spectacular day in Avalon, Catalina Island. Hiked up and back to the Botanic Gardens and Wrigley Memorial. Then some adult beverages in town before heading back to ship to lounge by the pool.

Nice way to have breakfast. Sitting outside on the patio of Terrace Cafe. In port at Catalina Island. Beautiful day!

Before a late dinner, we spent a couple of hours at Martinis. We were taken care of by Baptiste — an awesome bartender. The gin offerings were way deeper than I was expecting, so good on Oceania for that. Shannon and Blaine will sometimes drink a vodka cocktail (for me that’s 🤮), but all three of us stick with gin. They had a Japanese gin I’ve never seen — Wa Bi. Tasted like a Japanese gin, along the lines of Roku.

Here’s some shots (pun intended) of some of my cappuccinos and macchiatos.

Good morning from Baristas! This will be every early morning hang out to consume several shots of espresso and watch the sea pass by. Had to be a bit patient this morning as Baristas doesn’t open until 6:30am. It was a relaxing day on ship doing a whole lot of nothing. I have to say, it was awesome taking such a short trip to get to the ship (Phoenix to Los Angeles). I’m sure most of you, like me, are used to the sometimes multi-day process of traveling to a ship. Made all the more fun (not) by the headaches of dealing with air travel in this Age of Pandemics. But not this time for us. Way more relaxing. The kids spent the day exploring every inch of the ship, giving particular attention to testing the offerings in each bar. Some photos to follow.

Eight days total for this cruise. In and out of the Port of Los Angeles. Ports include Catalina Island, Ensenada, San Francisco (overnight), and Santa Barbara.

First meal at Waves consumed. The Maguro — grilled ahi sandwich, requested medium rare. Perfect.

We’re on! Arrived at berth in San Pedro. Probably took ten minutes for the the multiple check in/security steps. Easy peasy. No lines anywhere.

And there it goes….. 🤣

Shannon and Blaine already in Waves getting ready for some Surf & Turf.

I will be on the lookout!

Thanks ORV! In car on way to port. WooHoo!!!

So excited for this Oceania cruise. My fondest cruise memories come from cruising with the gang joining me for this cruise: DW — Heidi DD — Shannon and Previously just and SO, but now an SIL — Blaine. Here’s a couple of photos from the last time we were together on the Regatta. Standing out on the balcony of an Owners Suite in Bordeaux. (Docking downtown Bordeaux on a R ship is the way to go!)

Hi Everyone Sitting in airport in Phoenix for quick flight to LAX, and then boarding the Regatta for first Oceania cruise since before Covid started. Looking forward to posting live as frequently as I can. Any and all questions welcomed! (Ok, maybe not any/all…. 😜)

I think it was called R1 (or R something). If it was the first of the R ships built, then it was R1.

Here’s a couple of photos from the balcony of a Penthouse Suite on Apex