Culinary discovery tours

Palm beach post, my local newspaper did a feature on May 3 about new culinary offerings. The article described 2 " culinary discovery tours" during 2014 European cruises on Marina and Riviera.

One was in Cork, Ireland and consisted of a tour of a chateau now a famous cooking school plus cooking demonstration and tasting of traditional Irish food.

I couldn't find any mention in the shore excursion booklet. When I called reservations, they had no knowledge of these tours and could find nothing on their computers either!

Does anyone have better information or have booked these tours? We are scheduled for a London to London 10 day on the Marina July 23 with a stop in a Cork. We are very interested in the tour mentioned at that destination.

Any info will be appreciated.

Maryasha

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http://www.oceaniacruises.com/findcruise/transoceanic/mna140522/excursions/cbh/cbh-1ct/default.aspx

listed for the May 22 cruise so far

tours are not on all cruises

I have see ads in the magasine "Saveurs" (French) for a "Croisière Gastronomie" offered via the magasine. 29 Oct to 8 Nov this year and prices start at €2890 pp. Cruise goes from Athens to Monte Carlo and price includes flights from Paris to Athens and back to Paris from Nice.

The ad says it includes "dîners gastronomiques" as well as cuisine classes on flavours of the East and of Italy, wine tasteings and a dinner at La Réserve with the editorial board of Saveurs. sounds like an amazing trip but you would have to speak French. I can't go this time but will be on the lookout for something like this in 2015 or 16.

If Saveurs is involved you can bet it will be wonderful!

We did the culinary tour with Chef Kelly in Tangier from onboard the Riviera last year. We visited the local market, had an excellent lunch of local cuisine in a restaurant with a view, and spent time in the Culinary Center onboard learning, cooking and tasting. A wonderful experience that I recommend highly!

-Sukey-

I have see ads in the magasine "Saveurs" (French) for a "Croisière Gastronomie" offered via the magasine. 29 Oct to 8 Nov this year and prices start at €2890 pp. Cruise goes from Athens to Monte Carlo and price includes flights from Paris to Athens and back to Paris from Nice.

 

I am not sure this is what the OP is talking about :confused:

It is a 1 day tour as an Oceania excursion price $125- $295

See the link I posted above for the description

We are on the Marina for the July 23 British Isles (which is also a Jaques Pepin food and wine cruise - whatever that means?). Anyways, there are ZERO culinary tours on our 10 day cruise. I found that surprising given the "food and wine" nature of this cruise. We did a culinary tour on our last cruise (Baltics) in Helsinki and it was a total blast. Small group of 10 people met the culinary instructor (Chef Annie) and went to a very cool market. We were given a tour, and then set off on our own with some Euros to buy items to makes crepes later. Then we headed to the Helsinki culinary institute to make a WONDERFUL traditional Finnish dinner of reindeer sausage (from scratch) lingonberry sauce, a salad, breads, etc. We worked in teams of 2 or 3 on different items (I "lucked out" and got the sausage - it's true what they say about politics and sausage making! LOL) It was one of the coolest things we'd ever done, super intimate, lots of wine/good food, and plenty of new friend. After the HCI we headed back to the ship and had an hour off. Then we all met back up in the culinary school and proceeded to make some of the most interesting and wonderful crepes with all the stuff we had found. Savory and sweet. And we can all say "crepes are EASY (if you know the tricks). It was really a great tour. Too bad we don't have any on our upcoming cruise...

We are on the Marina for the July 23 British Isles (which is also a Jaques Pepin food and wine cruise - whatever that means?).

It means Jacques Pepin will be onboard & there will be cooking demos & book signings

I am surprised there are not shopping/cooking excursion with him

From the website

This culinary sojourn is hosted by world-renowned master chef Jacques Pépin, who is Executive Culinary Director for Oceania Cruises. Guests will be treated to specially designed signature menus, engaging lectures, culinary demonstrations and much more.

http://www.oceaniacruises.com/findcruise/signaturesailings/default.aspx

It means Jacques Pepin will be onboard & there will be cooking demos & book signings

I am surprised there are not shopping/cooking excursion with him

 

From the website

This culinary sojourn is hosted by world-renowned master chef Jacques Pépin, who is Executive Culinary Director for Oceania Cruises. Guests will be treated to specially designed signature menus, engaging lectures, culinary demonstrations and much more.

 

http://www.oceaniacruises.com/findcruise/signaturesailings/default.aspx

Thanks.... It should be fun and from what I can see the cruise booked up VERY quickly (we booked it onboard last August and couldn't get our "go to" cabins of 7009 or 7008). I am a little bummed there are no culinary excursions, but we made our own (e.g. The Belfast Cookery School, etc.). Either way, sounds like it will be a fun cruise. This may be the ONE cruise I actually buy the beverage package as it sounds pretty "drinky" from our roll call. :)

Thanks.... It should be fun and from what I can see the cruise booked up VERY quickly (we booked it onboard last August and couldn't get our "go to" cabins of 7009 or 7008). I am a little bummed there are no culinary excursions, but we made our own (e.g. The Belfast Cookery School, etc.). Either way, sounds like it will be a fun cruise. This may be the ONE cruise I actually buy the beverage package as it sounds pretty "drinky" from our roll call. :)

Lots of excursions to the distilleries if you enjoy scotch or whiskey ;)

enjoy

Lyn

Lots of excursions to the distilleries if you enjoy scotch or whiskey ;)

 

enjoy

 

Lyn

We are doing a few tours like that - neither of us is big on scotch or whiskey, but when in... Scotland/Ireland. ;)

Usually we load up on specialty rest. reservations, but it sounds like the MDR might be the place to be for this given the "special" menus? Literally "food for thought" :D

I'm guessing it's more likely that the culinary events haven't been posted yet than that there won't be any. Sometimes the culinary tours and classes are posted later (much later in some cases) than the 'regular' shore tours. We were told that the instructor chef's contracts are shorter than some other crew members, and that O often waits to post the culinary events until the instructor chef is confirmed for the voyage.

We were on the 2013 Jacques Pepin cruise on Riviera - he gave a couple/few lectures (one mostly Q&A, which was particularly fun), dropped in on most culinary classes, did a few book signings and was generally very open and gracious to being chatted up. You could even buy a book and leave it at reception with signing instructions if the book signings didn't fit in your schedule. Some people brought their own well-loved Jacques Pepin books for him to sign. We had great time!!

I didn't notice any particular difference in menus on our cruise, but maybe that just means I need to spend more time on O :)

Palm beach post, my local newspaper did a feature on May 3 about new culinary offerings. The article described 2 " culinary discovery tours" during 2014 European cruises on Marina and Riviera.

One was in Cork, Ireland and consisted of a tour of a chateau now a famous cooking school plus cooking demonstration and tasting of traditional Irish food.

I couldn't find any mention in the shore excursion booklet. When I called reservations, they had no knowledge of these tours and could find nothing on their computers either!

 

Does anyone have better information or have booked these tours? We are scheduled for a London to London 10 day on the Marina July 23 with a stop in a Cork. We are very interested in the tour mentioned at that destination.

 

Any info will be appreciated.

 

Maryasha

 

 

We are booked for this tour on the May 22 cruise from New York to London. The announcement of the tour did not come out until about 3 weeks ago, so don't give up, it might be offered on your July cruise. I will try and remember to post about the tour after we complete it.

 

Cenia