tipsygirl

On 4/13/2024 at 3:21 PM, coolbluegreenseas said:

I have read the literature on Oceania’s site and scoured through here, but still undecided. TL/DR: Bucket list item for hubby. Trip is in October 2025 11 night Antiquity starting in Rome and ending in Istanbul. We tend to spend a lot of time on our veranda and enjoying each other’s company but do like to venture out. With this tiny bit of information in mind, is the suite worth it? The Concierge level is really, really nice, but the butler serving dinner from the speciality restaurants in the cabin sounds really luxurious. Does anyone have personal experience and thoughts? Thanks for any responsess.

We only travel on Oceania in a Penthouse Suite. Once you do it is hard to go back to Concierge. Love having a  Butler.

Thank you for the reply jpalbny

We are new to Silversea. Due to a special program when we booked we have  significant On Board credit. Can we use this when we are booking restaurants before we board for restaurants that have a charge?

I have had the same experience.You can request Gluten free at Tea. but if there are gluten free offerings at Barristas they are not identified.

On 1/12/2024 at 10:26 AM, mountain grandma said:

Any ship that has Jacques restaurant will continue to appeal to us!  Very disappointed that Vista and Allura do not include our favorite dining venue but itinerary still holds precedence for us.  

We also love Jacques, and asked our TA to call O to see if Jacques would remain on Marina. That was a couple of months ago. At that time the agent said that had not been decided. I guess that I will find out next week when we make our  Specialty Restaurant reservations

On 2/19/2024 at 3:59 PM, thebsinmiss said:

I have seen various posts about specialty restaurants not being busy later in the evening (last sitting) or even people being asked by Oceania staff if they would like to eat in a specialty restaurant tonight (ie not busy and offering sittings to get people in) 

 

If we book/use our 4 specialty restaurants and we ask if they have any openings on another night can you get another sitting if its not busy ?  Based on past cruises I could see eating at Red Ginger on multiple occasions.  If they are slow it would seem to be a win win but who knows what management would say about that.

 

Anyone managed to get more specialty dinners ?

If you are flexible on dates and time you can usually get additional reservations.

On 2/17/2024 at 10:31 PM, mauibabes said:

IF you get an opportunity to move up to a PH on a Sale and it is within your budget, grab it. A room 50% larger is always welcomed and your DW will really appreciate you 🤪👍🍷

Like I said, just sharing our Oceania experiences.

Mauibabes

Once we had a penthouse suite we could never go back to Concierge

On 11/10/2023 at 10:56 AM, CAG said:

Easy to get a taxi and there is a flat rate to Miami International Airport.

 

It is easy to get a taxi. Does takes some time, depending on where you are in the line coming off the ship.

On 4/8/2023 at 3:59 AM, honmani2 said:

Has anyone done this?  We are thinking about it when we are on the Marina in June.  I thought it was $295 plus gratuities but when I looked at the website, the total came to $474 per person.

Is it "tasting" portions of Dom or full glasses?  If it's the latter, it's a good deal albeit not cheap.

We did this on our last Oceania cruise and we’re disappointed. The pours were generous , but the food was not as good as the other special dinners. I must not have a Champagne pallet . after that many champagnes I could not distinguish one from another, I do highly recommend the other two dinners. Better food  and the wines were more to my taste.

We will be taking our first cruise with Silversea on Silver Spirit in August. Do they have a good gym? Do they have exercise classes?

On 7/9/2023 at 7:19 AM, RetiredandTravel said:

 

 

Thank you.  Exactly the information I was looking for.  I'll probably go with the suit.

 

 

Glad to hear your report. We are about to take our first cruise on Silversea. We live in a resort in Texas (The Woodlands). Dressing up for dining out means nice slacks and a nice shirt for my husband and a nice top and pants or a casual dress for me. We travel frequently. Often on cruises. But my husband gave up his tux, and I gave up the sparkly ball gowns years ago. He always takes a coat and tie a nice pants, and I will have dark pants and a lacy top.Good to know that we won't have to go out and buy a new wardrobe. 

On 10/23/2023 at 10:40 AM, JSR said:

My SIL had problems and called Silversea and they gave her a temp log in that worked explaining that there is some glitch with first time users and the system. As others have said it is a temperamental website at best. Good luck. 

All was well yesterday. 

Thanks for the clarification. So the SB drink package is like wine on a river cruise.

On 10/16/2023 at 3:10 PM, zteamtwo said:

Good point shepherd. Question:

1. Can you think of any lunch or dinner restaurant where the free wine is not offered? Waves grill?? Room service?

2. Can you ask to sample a couple of wines at lunch or dinner to see what you like?

On 10/17/2023 at 2:54 PM, Vineyard View said:

We are fairly fortunate where we live to easily explore a myriad of different wines, so we have a good idea of the attributes in a wine that work for us….more so from our area, but also from our travels. 
I can say after looking at this list that there are a couple that would be fine. There are more than that which would not work for us, and there are some we are not familiar with. I am always open to trying new wines!  But we always bring wine on board as added insurance, as long as we are in a part of the world that is conducive to! I am not sure I would have counted on Asia but what a nice surprise!

 

An area I haven’t explored wines much in is upper NY, but I have heard that there are some very good wines produced there. 

 

Not sure I would have planned 

On 10/16/2023 at 1:36 PM, LHT28 said:

most of the wines were the same as on the menus that were posted in Jan

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2904150-riviera-new-bar-drinks-menus-and-prices/

 

Since we have never purchased a drink package (we bring our wine suitcase and/or purchase wines onshore) and now have one as part of SB, pardon my questions. I assume that one can order a glass of any wine on the SB list, and the price listed is what someone would pay who does not have a drink package? Is that only with meals, or in bars also?

We have booked a cruseon Silver Spirit forAugust 2024. I was trying to get into MySilverSea this morning and got the message that the server could not be reached. Am I doing something wrong. I have tried both Safari and Goggle Chrome.

On 9/20/2023 at 8:48 PM, Victoria51 said:

We paid for our cruise on Vista before the new Simply More pricing.  We asked our Oceania agent to see if we could switch over and it was terribly confusing. We had to pay a lot more and I have no idea how he priced it.  We finally gave up asking for explanations.  Anyone else have this experience ….switching to SM …and understanding how it priced out?  Thanks. 

We switched ti the Simply More pricing for considerably less.I left it to my TA to work out the pricing 

3 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

The House Select package is identical to the Simply More package. Beer and wine during lunch and dinner at the food venues.

Thanks for the info. We never purchase a wine package on a ship. We like to pick up wines onshore. But it would be nice to have an OK glass of wine for lunch without opening a bottle and paying corkage.

We booked our cruise using the Simply More promotion. Our invoice states that we have the Simply More House Beverage program. Does anyone know how the contents of House Select package and the Prestige Select package differ from the Simply More program?

We were avid Crystal cruisers for years. And we’re very sad when they went out of business.Now that they have been bought and are beginning to sail again we are waiting for reviews before we book with them again. In the meantime we have booked a cruise on Silversea fo 2024.I would appreciate comparisons of  Crystal and Silversea from those who have sailed on both.

Cindy

I am interested in information on the Silversea air program. 

Cindy

On 1/9/2023 at 6:25 PM, Jancruz said:

Has anyone stayed in Civitavecchia while waitng for the ship..We will be on Vista May 6 - 13 and prefer to stay near the port..

does anyone have a really nice hotel they stayed at there??

If we stay in Rome it will be at Hotel Art or Corso Boutique..has anyone stayed at either

..I have been in Rome many times but like to change hotels to preview them..

Thanks,

Janncruz1

There is a nice Hilton hotel that is connected to the airport by a walkway. We have stayed there several times pre-Covid. Don’ know if they still do this, but they used to have a shuttle into Rome for guests. So you could go into the city for a few hours to dine or see the sites.

6 hours ago, ORV said:

Sorry to hear of your infections. Lots of that going around. It’s hard to shake.

We always travel will prescriptions medications from our family doctor...Inhalers, antibiotics, and Medrol packs. He is a traveler like we are and, keeps us up to date on what drugs to take with us.This has saved us from going to the ships doctor more than once. We also take an assortment of over the counter meds for congestion and pain relief. And we have MedJet insurance, and trip insurance through our credit card.  We now also travel with CoVid test kits. 

On 8/20/2022 at 2:37 PM, PhD-iva said:

I like that Oceania‘s pricing is à la cart. That way I can pay for what is important to me, and DIY other aspects. For example, I can bring on board bottles of wine and only pay a $25 corkage fee in a restaurant. There’s no fee if I consume it in my cabin. At happy hour I can get a cocktail (double) for the price of one. When I have an unlimited beverage package, I probably drink more than is good for my waist line. So, I like being able to consume alcohol without having an unlimited enticement.

I have heard that Viking does good shore excursions. Depending on the area visited, I might prefer to join in a private group excursion; more customized and more personalized instead of paying for it in the cruise price. It all depends on your preferences.
One thing Oceania does so much better than Viking, is the cuisine. Everything I read tells me this is true. O’s food is much better than Viking’s. For this statement, I rely wholly on the vast majority of opinions I have read on cruise critic; I have never cruised on Viking myself. Enjoy your cruise!

We were on our first Viking Ocean cruise earlier this year. Regarding Viking's included excursions, most were very good. We had one very bad included tour, and one very bad ship tour that we paid for. FYI, On Viking it does no good to complain, which we already knew from previous Viking river cruises.  Food was definitely NOT up to Oceania standards, and the main restaurant was very crowded, with tables very close together.  No social distancing. Also, though wine is included with meals, it was  not very good.

Their ships are beautiful. 

We are about to take our 3rd cruise on Oceania. We have only sailed on the larger Oceania ships. 

Regarding pricing on Oceania....If the cruise is one where we want to do excursions we pick the O Life price and select the excursions option.

If we are not concerned about exploring the ports we will be visiting , or plan to arrange our own tours, we select the cruise only fare

We usually book our own air and take a credit for the air. 

We either bring our own wine on board (we have a wine suitcase), or purchase wine onshore. We don't frequently drink mixed drinks, so don't buy the drink package, and pay as we go for any bar drinks we

purchase.

 Oceania's Brochure price is just so Oceania can advertise 2 for 1 pricing.

We love the food on Oceania and the service is very good. We especially like the Penthouse suites where we have a butler and a nice size cabin. 

We like the flexibility of the Oceania pricing

We are wine drinkers and rarely  drink hard liquor. We bring our wine suitcase with wines we prefer and pay the corkage fee if we take it to a restaurant. We also bring on wines from ports if we find something good. 

The wine dinners in Privee are one of our favorite things.

On 7/12/2022 at 10:30 AM, Mary229 said:

Don’t fly on holidays, don’t fly July and August particularly to Europe, go at least one day early and plan to stay one extra day.  Try not to fly on Sunday regardless. 

I would add have Global Entry, or at least TSA pre-check. If you have a connection be sure you have a generous amount of time between flights. If you are not traveling with carryon luggage only (I have not mastered that skill) be sure to pack items that it would be difficult to replace on arrival in your carryons.(We pack some shoes since we both have irregular shoe sizes.Also some underwear. Again, irregular sizes .) 

Most of our problems recently have been on return flights, so we pack our carryons with items that we would need for 1 or 2 days.