Rome to Monte Carlo on Riviera Live

Folks, embarking on our first Oceania cruise today. We flew in yesterday evening, Pre-cruise, to Rome Fiumicino Airport, to save on doing the Red Eye flight on the morning of Embarkation. We stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport Hotel, which is attached to the airport by an overhead walkway

The hotel is a good transit point being 30 mins to Rome by train or providing a relaxing breakfast before, in our case, a transfer by the highly recommended Rome Cabs to the Riviera in a sunny Civitavecchia, where it was sharing the docks with a few esteemed friends, both large and small

We have had a walk round the ship and been to our Concierge stateroom and I have to say it all looks in great shape.

Cheers

Michael

I know that the menus are often of interest to CC members, and those on this Med cruise seem to reflect the region

The Waves Bar Menu

The GDR menu for tonight

Happy to answer any queries

Cheers

Michael

Thanks for posting this info. Do they have the Blue menus at the Waves bar?

On Marina recently they had new menus around the pool for drinks. Maybe they haven't rolled them out to Riviera yet.

White Zinfandel? GROSS!

Michael - Thanks for taking the time to post - I will be following along with you!

Sorry, the bar menu is from the Terrace, will check out the Waves menu ASAP

As to white Zinfandel, that along with Rosé is not something I would normally order, but each to their own, it’s a big world :)

White Zinfandel? GROSS!

Why? whats gross about it... a most popular wine, refreshing and in made Sutter Creek.... Get real your living in the suburbs of Richmond where white satin and ripple are the van du pays. Get a grip.. I assume B&K liquor is still there.Where the brothers and the Chevron workers gather Yes I know your accustomed to your Romaine Conti..... but I have yet to taste a truly bad wine.

White Zinfandel? GROSS!

$10.25 a glass is obscene never mind Gross!

Why? whats gross about it... a most popular wine, refreshing and in made Sutter Creek.... Get real your living in the suburbs of Richmond where white satin and ripple are the van du pays. Get a grip.. I assume B&K liquor is still there.Where the brothers and the Chevron workers gather Yes I know your accustomed to your Romaine Conti..... but I have yet to taste a truly bad wine.

Friends don't let friends drink White Zin :)

Thanks for the details I am on this same cruise in May......

White Zinfandel? GROSS!

Agree, despite the admonishment from Dan

And on top of it ,no red (real) Zinfandel on the menu!! They used to have Edmeads

Friends don't let friends drink White Zin :)

Aw come on... after living 25 years in the wine country, with friends who owned wineries, and other in the business, no othe topic/product has an much smoke and mirrors connected with it. I am reminded of the late great Jean Sheppard, who quoted his father " People only like meat and potatoes and the only eat other stuff to impress each other"

So it is , even much more so with wine. Many times we would put the same wine in 4 different bottles each with more and more impressive vintners of fame. Each ascending taste would bring about raves of how much better and better each bottle was from the last.... It was hard to keep from laughing. Eyes and egos not brix and tannin rule the day.

Friends dont let friends become wine snobs.....

Aw come on... after living 25 years in the wine country, with friends who owned wineries, and other in the business, no othe topic/product has an much smoke and mirrors connected with it. I am reminded of the late great Jean Sheppard, who quoted his father " People only like meat and potatoes and the only eat other stuff to impress each other"

 

So it is , even much more so with wine. Many times we would put the same wine in 4 different bottles each with more and more impressive vintners of fame. Each ascending taste would bring about raves of how much better and better each bottle was from the last.... It was hard to keep from laughing. Eyes and egos not brix and tannin rule the day.

 

Friends dont let friends become wine snobs.....

Wine zin is on a different playing field than just a wine snob. It's overly sweet, tastes like a jolly rancher candy and is best served with KFC (I'm actually not kidding about the KFC, it goes great.) I love Rose, don't get me wrong but White Zin is a mass produced cavity inducing drink.

Folks, embarking on our first Oceania cruise today. We flew in yesterday evening, Pre-cruise, to Rome Fiumicino Airport, to save on doing the Red Eye flight on the morning of Embarkation. We stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport Hotel, which is attached to the airport by an overhead walkway

 

 

The hotel is a good transit point being 30 mins to Rome by train or providing a relaxing breakfast before, in our case, a transfer by the highly recommended Rome Cabs to the Riviera in a sunny Civitavecchia, where it was sharing the docks with a few esteemed friends, both large and small

 

 

We have had a walk round the ship and been to our Concierge stateroom and I have to say it all looks in great shape.

 

 

Cheers

 

Michael

Michael, thanks for taking the time to share. We are counting down to our virgin Riviera cruise in October, so your posting is timely and informative. I’ll be bringing my Total Wine sourced vintages onboard and paying the corkage fee. All reds for me.

Thanks Michael - Looking forward to hearing more about the Riviera & your ports. We're sailing in November.

Linda

Why? whats gross about it... a most popular wine, refreshing and in made Sutter Creek.... Get real your living in the suburbs of Richmond where white satin and ripple are the van du pays. Get a grip.. I assume B&K liquor is still there.Where the brothers and the Chevron workers gather Yes I know your accustomed to your Romaine Conti..... but I have yet to taste a truly bad wine.

Huh?

Where did you come up with CK Mondavi White Zin being made in Sutter Creek?

In any case, most wine savvy folks think it's Kool Aid, which is why it appeals to many non-wine drinkers.

As for B&K, when was the last time you were here in "poor man's Tiburon" on the Richmond Riviera or even nearby Marina Bay? Next time your in town, check out the Up and Under Pub or one of the local craft breweries as well as Riggers Loft with its small wine maker operations right on the estuary.

Trying to work my way back to the original topic ...

You are doing the reverse of the cruise we did on Riviera this past May ... I'm assuming the ports are the same, but maybe not.

Mura

Like Mura (thanks for taking this back on topic) we too will be on a similar cruise and look forward to your posts Michael and thank you for taking the time to take us along on your trip.

Moving on from Zin-gate, we met up at the CC Meet & Greet organised by Ros (Aussietwo) and it was nice to put some faces onto some CC regulars, Corrie Powell, the CD stepped by to say Hello. Our fellow passengers come from all corners of the globe, with a wide range of ages. Incidentally we had arrived at Civitavecchia at about 11.30, there was a queue for the security check,which was about 5 or so minutes of a wait, but after with no queues at the desks everyone was being allowed to check-in and get onto the ship.

The Terrance and Waves were both open, the service and choice of food was excellent, though with the high numbers, the bar staff did seem under to be under some pressure.

We then sat in the shade at the pool bar until our A3 stateroom was available at 1.30pm. We are delighted with the room, our steward Komang appeared giving us the rundown on everything and sorting out which drinks we wanted in the fridge. So after unpacking we went on a tour taking in a coffee and treats at Baristas ( I had to try the Irish coffee) and then when on the lower decks we also decided where our preferred spot will be in Martini’s.

We dined in a very popular Polo Grill, which was about 90% full. The food was certainly up to the standard expected and our waiter Eric very attentive, it was a pleasant way to round off our first Oceania day.

So today it is Portofino, we are tendering into the town itself and this was the view that greeted us this morning

Cheers

Michael

Enjoy your cruise and thank you for taking the time to write a review! We are counting the days until we board the Riviera in November, so we love to hear and read all about her.

In some posts on another thread there was some negative comment on the condition of the ship: wear and tear, for example chairs in the dining room with sagging seats.

What do you think of the condition of the ship?

We are also on this cruise and were on the previous one, Venice to Civi. It is good to actually see bar menus again. They were removed on the previous cruise, presumably due to GI illness measures, though nothing was said.

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First of all can I say that from what I have seen the ship is in excellent condition. I have not as yet seen any signs of lack of maintenance.

At the Muster Drill it was. Stated that the ship was a Healthy Ship and passengers were reminded to wash/sanitise their hands at the appropriate times. So we all hope that folk take care to do so.

Anyway back to Portofino, which is our favourite call in the Western Med.

The Silver Whisper has followed us in from Civitavecchia and both ships were tendering into Portofino, a first for us as we have always previously gone into Santa Margherita. Open tendering was declared at 10am and we went in at that stage as we intended to get the ferry to Santa Margherita at noon. Feeling energetic we took the steps from beside the pier up to the church, very steep and if you are not up to it, you can go via a street that leads off from the side of the Square. Anyway the church is on the hilltop overlooking the town and the view is worth the effort.

The walk back down to the town produces various other vantage points

A stroll through the town produced some retail opportunities and we headed back to the ferry pier to buy our tickets, 12 Euro each for the return journey.

Cheers

Michael

Beautiful pictures

The trip to Santa Margherita takes less than 15 mins and you arrive at a pier close to the statue of Vittorio Emanuele

Crossing the road behind the statue, keeping just to the left snd then first right brings you to the shopping area with various bars and cafes along its route

We had a glass of Pinot G and a stroll round the town. I always enjoy sitting in a cafe in an Italian street watch it’s daily life passing by.

Anyway we took our return to Portofino and had a plate of prosciutto, bread and a glass of Vino Rosa at our favourite waterside bistro before returning to the air conditioned tranquility of Riviera

Heading off soon for some Afternoon Tea, will report back later

Cheers

Michael

In some posts on another thread there was some negative comment on the condition of the ship: wear and tear, for example chairs in the dining room with sagging seats.

What do you think of the condition of the ship?

On every sailing the crew are always cleaning, painting & repairing something some place

If you want to find negative things you can

The ships are usually well looked after

they are in service 365 days a year for several years so doing maintenance daily is normal for the crew

I would not worry

JMO