Dress Code for dinner

[jo-b]

As you can see the only jackets being worn is by the waiters.

 

Was this lunch?

 

You'll see a few jackets in the Specialties.

 

Just wear something clean and nice.

 

It really is a bigger deal here on the board that it is on board.

No this was dinner time.

[Kingofcool1947]

7 days and a wake-up until we board the Sirena for 16 days cruising around Cuba twice! I've got my polo shirts, dockers and boat shoes ready to go with no sport coat in sight. We also have 6 specialty dining reservations, 3 per leg, already booked for when we're not eating up at the Terrace Café. I might even pack a pair of blue jeans as I do feel more comfortable in them when going on excursions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun times ahead!!

 

Just curious, why are you cruising around Cuba twice? You mean same 8 day cruise x 2? It is the same itinerary twice with the same ports of call? Or with different ports of call?

Enjoy your trip.

BTW, I may see you onboard. I have a full body suit. Tats on arms, legs, and recently got my back inked.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Kingofcool1947

[Ken the cruiser]

Just curious, why are you cruising around Cuba twice? You mean same 8 day cruise x 2? It is the same itinerary twice with the same ports of call? Or with different ports of call?

Enjoy your trip.

BTW, I may see you onboard. I have a full body suit. Tats on arms, legs, and recently got my back inked.

We had originally booked an 11 day Pearl Seas cruise way before Cuba opened it's borders to US passengers for $782 per person per day. I know, it was a stupid price, but my DW's best friend wanted to go and she wanted company. Then after the Fathom got to go first and the Pearl Seas was still awaiting clearance, Oceania started to book Cuba cruises for $350 per day for a balcony. We decided to tell her best friend we could do a 7 day Cuba cruise plus the next one, which was 9 days that also included 2 days in the Bahamas, for less that the 11 day one on a better ship with GREAT food. She agreed and we made the switch. We'll visit the same Cuba ports, but we'll just go on different O excursions. The only downside is we had to get separate Cuba visas for each cruise.

[Ken the cruiser]

This is correct. But we also like to eat in the specialty restaurants where the mandates of a formal night would more than likely extend to if implemented.

We are currently on the Sirena enjoying our Cuba b2b cruise and wanted to make a couple of notes. First off I feel very comfortable in the GDR wearing my polo shirt, dockers and boat shoe attire at dinner time. So, King, you should feel quite comfortable as well.

 

Also, we have made a command decision after our first adventure for breakfast at the Terrace Cafe. From now on we plan to eat breakfast and dinner in the GDR rather than the Terrace Cafe as it can get quite crowded up at the Terrace Cafe when trying to find something tasty to eat. Also, at both breakfast and dinner, the GDR menus our full of wonderful choices, some of which are not available up at the Terrace Cafe, go figure, like the Tuscan Eggs Benedict I had this morning. But I must say it’s really tough deciding on which dinner menu options to choose from as there are a bunch and they all sound so great!!

 

As a side note as far as personal hygiene goes, O has high quality hand sanitizers everywhere and they also give you spray bottles of the 63% ethyl alcohol based hand sanitizers in your room just in case you’re out and about and aren’t able to wash your hands if the need arises. The DW really appreciated that gesture.

[Kingofcool1947]

We are currently on the Sirena enjoying our Cuba b2b cruise and wanted to make a couple of notes. First off I feel very comfortable in the GDR wearing my polo shirt, dockers and boat shoe attire at dinner time. So, King, you should feel quite comfortable as well.

 

Also, we have made a command decision after our first adventure for breakfast at the Terrace Cafe. From now on we plan to eat breakfast and dinner in the GDR rather than the Terrace Cafe as it can get quite crowded up at the Terrace Cafe when trying to find something tasty to eat. Also, at both breakfast and dinner, the GDR menus our full of wonderful choices, some of which are not available up at the Terrace Cafe, go figure, like the Tuscan Eggs Benedict I had this morning. But I must say it’s really tough deciding on which dinner menu options to choose from as there are a bunch and they all sound so great!!

 

As a side note as far as personal hygiene goes, O has high quality hand sanitizers everywhere and they also give you spray bottles of the 63% ethyl alcohol based hand sanitizers in your room just in case you’re out and about and aren’t able to wash your hands if the need arises. The DW really appreciated that gesture.

 

Hola’. Ken the cruiser,

Thanks for the very helpful feedback. Only 2 weeks until I board for my first time sailing with Oceania, and Sirena for Cuba! I’m only on for 8 days, so hopefully I have enough time to try all the different dining venues on board. :D I do enjoy sit down served dining, so plan on GDR for most dining.

I will definitely follow your suggestions on dress code at the different dining venues.

How are you enjoying the cruise? Is the ship in good condition? Shipboard entertainment? Shore excursions?

Enjoy the rest of your B2B Cuba cruise.

Regards,

King

[LHT28]

As a side note as far as personal hygiene goes, O has high quality hand sanitizers everywhere and they also give you spray bottles of the 63% ethyl alcohol based hand sanitizers in your room just in case you’re out and about and aren’t able to wash your hands if the need arises. The DW really appreciated that gesture.

Just because they are there does not mean everyone will use them

[Ken the cruiser]

Just because they are there does not mean everyone will use them

That’s ok. The point is that O is at least trying. It’s up to us to follow through and we are. What other folks do is up to them. It’s also nice to see O uses the higher quality Germstar product rather than Purell.

[Ken the cruiser]

Hola’. Ken the cruiser,

Thanks for the very helpful feedback. Only 2 weeks until I board for my first time sailing with Oceania, and Sirena for Cuba! I’m only on for 8 days, so hopefully I have enough time to try all the different dining venues on board. :D I do enjoy sit down served dining, so plan on GDR for most dining.

I will definitely follow your suggestions on dress code at the different dining venues.

How are you enjoying the cruise? Is the ship in good condition? Shipboard entertainment? Shore excursions?

Enjoy the rest of your B2B Cuba cruise.

Regards,

King

We are being totally spoiled by O and couldn’t be happier. :D The food is beyond great, the 3 O excursions around Havana have been wonderful and very enlightening and the ship is in great condition! And as far as the shower goes in our veranda cabin, I am 5’10”, weight 220 lbs and have no issues with the size of the shower. One suggestion, though, as there is not a lot of extra space in it. Keep the bathroom door closed when your in the shower as the curtain will come in about 2” at the bottom if you leave the door open. As far as entertainment goes, all has been very enjoyable so far, with 2 lectures scheduled for our first sea day tomorrow. definitely fun times ahead!!

[TLCOhio]

We are being totally spoiled by O and couldn’t be happier. :D The food is beyond great, the 3 O excursions around Havana have been wonderful and very enlightening and the ship is in great condition! And as far as the shower goes in our veranda cabin, I am 5’10”, weight 220 lbs and have no issues with the size of the shower. One suggestion, though, as there is not a lot of extra space in it. Keep the bathroom door closed when your in the shower as the curtain will come in about 2” at the bottom if you leave the door open. As far as entertainment goes, all has been very enjoyable so far, with 2 lectures scheduled for our first sea day tomorrow. definitely fun times ahead!!

 

Appreciate these additional comments and follow-ups about life in sailing with Oceania. We are preparing for our Nov. 16-Dec. 5, 2018, Nautica sailing from Athens to Dubai. This 20-day cruise will be out first with Oceania, including also our first visits to the Holy Lands, Egypt, Middle East, etc. Great to be learning more. Keep it coming!!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 201,009 views for this posting.

[Ken the cruiser]

We learned two new things today. First is regarding unlimited internet. My DW likes the unlimited internet because she doesn’t have to log off. However, we did find if you don’t use your established connection for an extended period of time, your response time when you eventually do use it again may be much slower. The lesson learned if this does happen is to log off and then log back on. By doing this your new connection gets put at the top of the queue rather that being at the bottom due to lack of use. I’m sure there’s a more technical term, but you get the point. Of course, the best practice is to log off when your finished and then log back on when you want to use the internet service again. Then you won’t have this issue.

 

The second lesson we learned today was that if you are on the first leg of a b2b in a concierge or higher cabin which includes the free laundry perk, you can submit a bag of laundry up until the last day of the cruise leg. Prior to this we were under the assumption we could only submit it if it was at least 3 days prior to end of a cruise leg, irregardless of whether it was the last leg or not. This made a big difference in our laundry strategy!

[ORV]

That’s ok. The point is that O is at least trying. It’s up to us to follow through and we are. What other folks do is up to them. It’s also nice to see O uses the higher quality Germstar product rather than Purell.

 

They may have changed procedures but it's been my experience in my Oceania cruises that you only see those little bottles in the room when there has been an increased number of GI cases. Hopefully not your case, maybe it's become SOP.

[Ken the cruiser]

They may have changed procedures but it's been my experience in my Oceania cruises that you only see those little bottles in the room when there has been an increased number of GI cases. Hopefully not your case, maybe it's become SOP.

Just checked with customer service and they said it’s a relatively new policy to place the higher quality spray bottles in the cabins when the ship is visiting higher risk ports. They mentioned areas like India, Africa, some places in South and Central America and in our case Cuba. There may be other places on the list, but those were the ones mentioned.

 

Sport coat update: we ate in the GDR this evening and finished up a little after 8 pm. We looked around for men wearing sport coats in the packed GDR and we saw only 3 gentlemen wearing them. At the Red Ginger last night, I think I saw 2 gentlemen wearing them.

[LHT28]

They may have changed procedures but it's been my experience in my Oceania cruises that you only see those little bottles in the room when there has been an increased number of GI cases. Hopefully not your case, maybe it's become SOP.

We had them on our Dec Caribbean cruise & no sign of G I that I was aware of

[Ken the cruiser]

A couple more lessons learned today. First off when I went to pay for a couple of Monte Cristo #2 cigars, the price was the same whether I paid for them in CUCs, US dollars or euros. They were about 10 CUCs (or $10 or 10 euros) each. Our O tour guide said only government run stores required CUCs, but they usually took us to privately owned businesses which took any form of the above currency to include Canadian dollars on a 1 for 1 basis.

 

The second lesson we learned was that the Cuban O excursion tour guides, which are government employees, are not paid a salary per se, so tips are very much appreciated. For more detailed information about this, ask your Cuban tour guide how it works if you book one or more of the O excursions.

[docmark]

A couple more lessons learned today. First off when I went to pay for a couple of Monte Cristo #2 cigars, the price was the same whether I paid for them in CUCs, US dollars or euros. They were about 10 CUCs (or $10 or 10 euros) each. Our O tour guide said only government run stores required CUCs, but they usually took us to privately owned businesses which took any form of the above currency to include Canadian dollars on a 1 for 1 basis.

 

The second lesson we learned was that the Cuban O excursion tour guides, which are government employees, are not paid a salary per se, so tips are very much appreciated. For more detailed information about this, ask your Cuban tour guide how it works if you book one or more of the O excursions.

 

First of all ,thanks for all your Cuba posts...

Since Monte Cristo #2 is one of my VERY favorite cigars, I was surprised that price is that high in CUBA , I pay $250 for a box of 25(shipped from Europe) , but expected lower price THERE. Perhaps a box would not be as much

[Kingofcool1947]

A couple more lessons learned today. First off when I went to pay for a couple of Monte Cristo #2 cigars, the price was the same whether I paid for them in CUCs, US dollars or euros. They were about 10 CUCs (or $10 or 10 euros) each. Our O tour guide said only government run stores required CUCs, but they usually took us to privately owned businesses which took any form of the above currency to include Canadian dollars on a 1 for 1 basis.

 

The second lesson we learned was that the Cuban O excursion tour guides, which are government employees, are not paid a salary per se, so tips are very much appreciated. For more detailed information about this, ask your Cuban tour guide how it works if you book one or more of the O excursions.

 

On O excursions I’ve booked, do I tip the tour guides in CUCs, or US. Dollars? What is the recommended tip amount (in CUCs, or US dollars (if accepted)? 10% to 15%?

Thanks for the updates.

[Ken the cruiser]

First of all ,thanks for all your Cuba posts...

Since Monte Cristo #2 is one of my VERY favorite cigars, I was surprised that price is that high in CUBA , I pay $250 for a box of 25(shipped from Europe) , but expected lower price THERE. Perhaps a box would not be as much

You can get special deals if you buy 5 or more and definitely if you buy a box.

[docmark]

Thanks for the info...I thought so

 

I assume then you are buying the cigars for a friend !! not for you..

[Ken the cruiser]

On O excursions I’ve booked, do I tip the tour guides in CUCs, or US. Dollars? What is the recommended tip amount (in CUCs, or US dollars (if accepted)? 10% to 15%?

Thanks for the updates.

It’s pretty much up to you what you feel is a fair tip. For us we give 5 euros to the driver and 10 euros to the guide for a 3-4 hr excursion. They will take what you give them, but we feel it’s easier for them to convert euros into CUCs at their bank if they actually needed to, so we give them euros. From what one guide said, the reason why private store owners don’t mind taking $$$ is because they are now able to travel to other countries and they don’t have to pay the exchange rate to convert CUCs to $$$ or euros when they chose to go abroad.

[Ken the cruiser]

Thanks for the info...I thought so

 

I assume then you are buying the cigars for a friend !! not for you..

Yes, my son.

[Ken the cruiser]

I have another lessened learned. As you can see from my signature line, we have a few O cruises booked in both 2018 and 2019. Since three of the four GV cruises we have booked are currently not wait listed in our category, we were able to get the onboard booking savings applied to each of those booked cruises. However, we have a GV booked in July 2018, 2 months from now, that has been wait listed in all categories for quite some time.

 

To our delight the onboard future cruise specialist submitted that GV for discount consideration as well, but we didn’t have high hopes of getting anything. To our surprise even though we didn’t get any cruise price reductions on that GV, we did get $100 per person of nonrefundable OBC posted to that cruise as a concellation gift.

 

So the lesson learned here for us is to always ask if O is offering any onboard discounts on any of the cruises we may have booked, even if it is past the final payment date and your category is wait listed.

[Kingofcool1947]

I have another lessened learned. As you can see from my signature line, we have a few O cruises booked in both 2018 and 2019. Since three of the four GV cruises we have booked are currently not wait listed in our category, we were able to get the onboard booking savings applied to each of those booked cruises. However, we have a GV booked in July 2018, 2 months from now, that has been wait listed in all categories for quite some time.

 

To our delight the onboard future cruise specialist submitted that GV for discount consideration as well, but we didn’t have high hopes of getting anything. To our surprise even though we didn’t get any cruise price reductions on that GV, we did get $100 per person of nonrefundable OBC posted to that cruise as a concellation gift.

 

So the lesson learned here for us is to always ask if O is offering any onboard discounts on any of the cruises we may have booked, even if it is past the final payment date and your category is wait listed.

 

Sorry to ask, but what does GV mean?

Thanks.

[Cruseforme]

Sorry to ask, but what does GV mean?

Thanks.

Grand Voyage. These are longer itineraries (used to be also available as single voyages, not sure if that has changed since we took our last GV in 2015).

[Ken the cruiser]

Sorry to ask, but what does GV mean?

Thanks.

As cruseforme noted, it stands for Grand Voyage. In our case all of our GV cruises are 2 cruises booked together under the same booking number. You can also book the included legs as separate B2B cruises, if they are offered, and get the 5% B2B discount.

 

There are different perks to booking the legs as either a B2B or as a single GV. On shorter GV cruises, 24 days or less, you only get 1 Oceania Club cruise credit, where as if you book the 2 legs as a B2B, you will get 2 cruise credits like we did with the 2 cruises we are on now. However, since the GVs we booked are between 25-34 days, we get 2 cruise credits and the GV discount is a little better than if we booked them as a B2B, so we chose that option.

 

However, I’m not sure O will let you book a B2B anymore if the set is also offered as a GV. But I’ll leave that discussion and any other beneficial perks to the more experienced O cruisers if that have any further insights to add.

[Ken the cruiser]

Another lesson learned. By default if you book a concierge cabin or higher, you get a complimentary bottle of champagne among other things. However, if you would rather have a bottle of red or white wine instead, all you have to do is ask your room steward. For me since my DW doesn’t drink, I can make a bottle of wine last 2-3 days versus a bottle of champagne where once you pop the cork you’re pretty much committed.