What A Market

Jam reappeared this morning! Of course though you are limited to cherry jam and orange marmalade. 🤮😜

A sea day for our final day with the Riviera. Mad rush for lounge chairs even before the pool staff was anywhere near finished with their set up. It’s now 8:30am and numerous groupings of loungers that were “saved” by one individual before 7:30am are still unoccupied by the saver.

Different night at the GDR. Different outcome on wine service. From start to finish the young gentleman handling the wine service in our section was all over it. I will say that even when service is mediocre (or non-existent), all the staff in the GDR are working their asses off all evening long.

An “ask, and ye shall receive” moment. Post-dinner glass of wine at the Casino Bar while listening to the String Quartet. My request: Please, may I have a few pretzels. The answer in the photo.

I stayed at the Marriott Stanton for this trip. A little tired. No room service after 9:00pm. The Ocean Front rooms were quiet though. Doubt I would stay there again.

Hi ORV This is normal alcohol gin. There is a recent article online where Mermaid announced its distribution deal with Regent and Oceania.

A note on the Gins onboard. Some nice offerings, including some I’ve never seen. Top of the list is Monkey 47. I’m a big fan. Basically a sipping gin. Too expensive to drink with mixers. Surprising to see it as an offering. Other nice choices include Gunpowder Irish Gin and The Botanist. Also Aviation and the rest of the usual suspects. In the photo is Gordon’s Pink Gin and an assortment of Mermaid Gins that I’ve never seen before. They had three different bottles of Mermaid. (A bottle of their Vodka got thrown into the photo.) Mermaid is distilled on the Isle of Wight. I plan on sampling.

Something else new (meaning, perhaps, just new for me). At lunchtime at the salad station, Riviera has a Power Bowl set up. The ingredients vary a bit day to day. As with the morning juice bar, nice to see an attempt at some healthier options. I start with this for lunch before heading to Waves for some “bad” stuff. Because of course, I’m not a crazy person. Yum! 🤤

Didn’t see your post before I got mine uploaded. I think you’ve got it right. My bags are “free” bags, so I guess that’s why it takes longer.

I should know the answer to this, but not really sure. We’ve sent out laundry twice. The first one definitely seemed like it took longer than what is stated on the laundry tag. Second bag is still out. My sense of time, and the passage thereof, definitely gets messed up on Caribbean cruises.

Something new for me on the Riviera. They now how a real juice bar in the morning. It’s the same location/station where you get milkshakes in the afternoon. Tasty!

loriva Here’s some photos of the card room

Here’s an odd food shortage event: Somehow we’ve run out of jam. The chefs at Terraces said it was all used up yesterday afternoon. So that’s three upcoming mornings (including today) where no jam will be available. Pretty much 1/3 of the 10 day cruise. That seems like a weird thing for the supply chain at Oceania to miss on. (Unless there’s an upstream problem where Oceania can’t secure enough jam.) Sort of an issue for DW who has to eat gluten free. If you’ve ever eaten gluten free toast, then you know from where I speak. No bueno.

I’ve passed my first levels with the Court of Master Somms. (This is not much of an accomplishment anymore.) I can tell you with absolute certainty that the people designated to pour wines in the GDR are not Somms. Not even close. And “choosing the proper wine” is a laughable proposition in the GDR, particularly if you are drinking wine by the glass. And yep, done two of La Reserve menus. Always do. Also hosted dinner in Privee with wine I brought on board.

Hi loriva Yes, the Board Room on 14 is the card/game room. Thought I posted photo earlier, but if not, I will get a photo posted.

Captain came on at 8:30am to tell us that our docking and day in Puerto Plata was cancelled. The problem: high winds. Not on arrival, but the forecasted high winds at departure. I guess a ship got grounded a few years ago due to these conditions. (A gal I was having espressos with in Baristas said this was the third time in a row that she missed this port.) Shortly after the announcement, there was a made rush for lounge chairs in the shade. I didn’t wait…..

Scheduled dinner at Polo this evening didn’t happen. Poor DW was feeling a tad queasy from the motion of the ocean after we departed San Juan. Thought originally to take her to Terraces, but upon further consideration, I thought the GDR would be better due to being down on sixth floor. Also DW thought the roast chicken with mashed potatoes sounded good. I was sorry to miss Polo, but ended up having fantastic dinner of a seared tuna dish followed by venison medallions in an au poivre sauce. Done medium rare as requested. I was sort of blown away at the quality of this dish. The negative: never saw a wine steward. Not once. Credit our server who sensed my growing frustration and asked if I needed some wine. He rushed over to a station and grabbed two reds for me to try. My savior. I didn’t “pay” as none of the wine people (I’m lowering them from “steward” to generic “person”) still thought to wait on our table. I was sort of hoping one of these people would chase me down as we left….. But no such luck. 😈

Here’s some photos of something I ran across in the evening that I’ve never seen before. Adjacent to Baristas (in the food/munchies area) they set up a Bubbly Bar. I did not partake, but I think it’s a cute idea. (If my DD, Shannon, was with me then she would have been all over it!)

Puerto Rico this morning. Arriving on time at 8:00am. A little overcast, but the forecast says very low chance of rain. No excursions planned for today. Like many of you I’m sure, we’ve been to Puerto Rico several times. Just planning on hiking around the city to some of the sites.

Went ashore in St. Barts for some shopping (thank the gods, DW did not find anything) and some sampling of cocktails at some local establishments. I can recommend Arawak. Very fresh cocktail ingredients. Prices were not crazy. But I come from the land of Scottsdale, Arizona where cocktail prices are outrageous. Cocktail photo and my other boat when I’m not cruising Oceania. 😜

Tendering has commenced. If you have mobility issues you were advised to consider staying onboard.

After the visit to the falls, it was back into the cars for a fairly long drive to the river for river tubing. A bit of hiccup here as the tubing company wasn’t prepared for our arrival. Not enough tubes, life jackets, or helmets for everyone. Anyway, this gets sorted in maybe thirty minutes of standing around waiting. Then the river tubing begins. In my teens and 20s I did a lot of river tubing at a spot just outside of the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, so tubing is something I’m comfortable with. Not so with others on the tour, but there were at least a dozen young gentlemen from the river tubing company to get everyone in the water. They also joined us all the way down the river, keeping people in the right part of the current and bumping you away from large rocks. I’m not sure this tour was everyone’s cup of tea (there were comments at the start that people didn’t think they were going to get wet!?!), but I found it fun, exhilarating at moments, and relaxing. All at the same time. No photos because you definitely didn’t want to risk a camera on this tour. When we got to end of river, we had the obligatory rum punch. This version was particularly tasty. Some of us had a couple!

And now the Captain made his announcement — still no tendering. We’re just standing by. Back to yesterday’s excursion on Dominica. As noted earlier, we did the Waterfalls and River Tubing tour. It was well done. Three larger mini-van cabs took our group of 18 off on this tour. Each car had its own guide. Tour started with the drive up to the Trafalgar Falls. Pretty steep climb to get up to the viewing area to see the falls, but maybe only a ten to 15 minute hike (if you’re in decent shape). Spectacular view.

Just as I posted the last message, Steve the CD came over the speakers and reported that tendering is still not safe. He will report back later. We don’t have an excursion planned for today and we’re in no rush to get off ship. Our plan today was to go ashore for light shopping (light being the operative word) and then hike up and around Shell Beach. Followed by some swimming at Shell Beach.

I’ll try posting a photo again. Ha, success. Still no word on tendering yet. Wind is definitely up.