Jan.12-26 14 night Riviera cruise

[keithm]

We just got back from our cruise yesterday. It was overall outstanding(Riviera & staff)A few issues with weird pax & some ports, which I'll explain.

 First off the food met & exceeded our expectations. I do agree with Mura that the new bistro & Taste of the world could have some improvement. Some of the selections in the taste of the world were rather plain in our opinion. The taste of Italy was generally like going to a rather modest Italian rest. for example. This might be so a not to step on the toes of Toscana. Still, overall, the GD was still very good. We did terrace a couple of times, but I didn't think it measured up to last year. While the Dover Sole was excellent in the GD, you had to filet the bone yourself in the Terrace. You certainly could ask them to do it for you, but I had to guide the server on how to do that, as she really was not trained in that area. If you wanted a burger for lunch in the Terrace, it was precooked & reheated. Good, but best to go to Waves Grill & get it done to order. If something didn't appeal in GD, I usually ordered the salmon, which is always good.

Specialties: Red Ginger..Excellent overall. Better than last year. We dined twice here. The Sea Bass is no longer the Chilean Sea Bass of last year, but still very good. Bulgogi Rib eye was excellent, but be ready for some "heat" for those who don't like spicy food.

Polo Grill.. Very good, but still my least favorite. Like going to a Capitol Grill type steak house. I had the Sword fish. This had been previously "grill marked" & fast frozen. Likely from a vendor such as Sysco/US Foods. Please don't tell me the food on board  is all made from scratch. It's NOT! Much is preportioned. I'm in the industry, so I know what I'm talking about. Items such as the pastry & Croissants & desserts are made fresh on board. Easily the best I've seen on any ship we've been on.

Toscana..Excellent overall. The Filet Mignon in the Gorgonzola crust was excellent. This is the reason I got it here & not in Polo Grill. Topped it off with a Lobster tail. Just to let you all know, much of the Lobster is flash frozen. Only the whole Lobster did I think was fresh. The frozen Lobster has a slight mushy consistency.

Jacques..Still our favorite overall. We did the Seabass in Puff Pastry, which was outstanding.

Next up will be the entertainment on board & overall ship activities. Have to get ready for Dim Sum, so I'll be back soon.

[Paulchili]

Thanks for the review - looking forward to the rest.

Where in NH do you get Dim Sum and how is it? 🙂

[ginabab]

Good review

I really like the croissants

[keithm]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

Thanks for the review - looking forward to the rest.

Where in NH do you get Dim Sum and how is it? 🙂

Actually we get it at China Star in Lowell. Right near the Market Basket off Middlsex rd. It's excellent. Jan.5 is Chinese New Year so the place will be packed!

Edited January 27, 2019 by keithm
additions

[Paulchili]

33 minutes ago, keithm said:

Actually we get it at China Star in Lowell. Right near the Market Basket off Middlsex rd. It's excellent. Jan.5 is Chinese New Year so the place will be packed!

We love Dim Sum but like the song says - never on Sunday 

Far too crowded any Sunday, never mind New Year. Nothing worse than waiting for an hour to be seated while watching others enjoying their food

Glad you have a place to enjoy excellent Dim Sum.

Edited January 27, 2019 by Paulchili

[keithm]

3 hours ago, keithm said:

We just got back from our cruise yesterday. It was overall outstanding(Riviera & staff)A few issues with weird pax & some ports, which I'll explain.

 First off the food met & exceeded our expectations. I do agree with Mura that the new bistro & Taste of the world could have some improvement. Some of the selections in the taste of the world were rather plain in our opinion. The taste of Italy was generally like going to a rather modest Italian rest. for example. This might be so a not to step on the toes of Toscana. Still, overall, the GD was still very good. We did terrace a couple of times, but I didn't think it measured up to last year. While the Dover Sole was excellent in the GD, you had to filet the bone yourself in the Terrace. You certainly could ask them to do it for you, but I had to guide the server on how to do that, as she really was not trained in that area. If you wanted a burger for lunch in the Terrace, it was precooked & reheated. Good, but best to go to Waves Grill & get it done to order. If something didn't appeal in GD, I usually ordered the salmon, which is always good.

Specialties: Red Ginger..Excellent overall. Better than last year. We dined twice here. The Sea Bass is no longer the Chilean Sea Bass of last year, but still very good. Bulgogi Rib eye was excellent, but be ready for some "heat" for those who don't like spicy food.

Polo Grill.. Very good, but still my least favorite. Like going to a Capitol Grill type steak house. I had the Sword fish. This had been previously "grill marked" & fast frozen. Likely from a vendor such as Sysco/US Foods. Please don't tell me the food on board  is all made from scratch. It's NOT! Much is preportioned. I'm in the industry, so I know what I'm talking about. Items such as the pastry & Croissants & desserts are made fresh on board. Easily the best I've seen on any ship we've been on.

Toscana..Excellent overall. The Filet Mignon in the Gorgonzola crust was excellent. This is the reason I got it here & not in Polo Grill. Topped it off with a Lobster tail. Just to let you all know, much of the Lobster is flash frozen. Only the whole Lobster did I think was fresh. The frozen Lobster has a slight mushy consistency.

Jacques..Still our favorite overall. We did the Seabass in Puff Pastry, which was outstanding.

Next up will be the entertainment on board & overall ship activities. Have to get ready for Dim Sum, so I'll be back soon.

Ok now onto the rest of the review. I'll also post it on the CC cruise review site.

As to entertainment & ship activities: Nightly entertainment is rather lame compared to larger ships. Much of the budget goes to food, rather than entertainment. I've frequently said the entertainment IS the food! The shows at night pretty much repeated from last year. Most of the cast is a new selection of recent theater & music graduates from their respective schools. The shows started off rather poorly, but the quality was markedly better during the latter part of the cruise. Sets & backgrounds are pretty standard. The visuals from LED lights from the stage backing are pretty decent however. The singers & dancers are visible frequently & went on many of the excursions, so you're able to chat with them if you wish. Do remember this is their time off, so please don't pester them too much.  

The Primavera String Quartet was very nice as last year with, I think most of the same members. The comedy magician was quite good & very funny. Tom Drake(C/D Dottie's husband) was funny, but not the best I've ever seen. I know many seem to love Dottie, but we found her to be generally rather "scripted" in what she does. We preferred the flamboyant one from last year. The enrichment lectures are very informative, especially the one about Pirate history in the Caribbean. We've notice the "port lectures" were really just a plug for shopping destinations.

   Overall, we found the staff to be a delight. They seemed genuinely concerned about how your cruise was going. Ivy, who hosted many nights in the GD was really great. She remembered us from last year & was very helpful in getting into some of the specialty rest. more than one time. Faid, the ex.chef was great & very visible throughout the ship. We feel the quality uptick was because of his experience. Overall, the ship looked very nice as last year. It's going for a 10 rehab before going off to Europe. Our cabin was nice as last year. There was some "buckled" floor tile caused by the shower door not being aligned correctly. This was remedied in about the third day. I think they'll still have to make floor repairs in the 10 rehab.

As a whole the pax were good & properly dressed. Only one person seemed to be bent on wearing jeans into the specialty rest. The signs banning jeans from last year were not posted by the restaurants. We heard of one woman who was insistent on wearing a bathing suit into Jacques one night. She snuck past the Maître D, but was very verbally called out by other pax to the point she was forced to leave. Though we didn't see it happen we heard about it from the staff & several pax we dined with on occasion. Sport coats were less visible in the GD than last year but still the majority in the specialty rest. most especially Jacques. Several more pax wore ties this time around. We never did & just wore open collar & sport coats as fits the "Country Club Casual" style. Day time wear was as usual, pretty much any thing goes, which is fine by us. We did feel that bathing suits & t shirts at the formal tea service is still not PROPER ATTIRE. Most pax were well behaved, with the exception of a fairly loud & rude group of "New Yawkers"(as I like to call them & I'm originally from the area)These pax need to know the world does NOT revolve around them & being rude to staff/pax & cutting others in line should not be tolerated. Here's the part I needed to mention. Richard & I had finished lunch & were  reading the menu put out for the night's dinner.(this was just past the midway point of the cruise) This guy & his wife come up to check it out as well. All of a sudden he touches my stomach with both hands & exclaims "Wow, you look like you're about to have twins!"(I weigh in at about about 225lb)His next response was "Boy, you must need to use a lot of toilet paper when you eat that much!" Normally, I would have been all over this clod with great come backs, but it was so out of the blue, I was totally stunned. The fact that he wasn't that much "lighter" than me didn't help. What a slug!! My spouse, Richard was appalled & told his wife to get her husband away from us. Some might find it funny, but imagine it happening to you, & you'll realize it's not.

 Now to the Ports:

Antigua..Great as always. Did the Champagne lobster cruise on a Catamaran. Great excursion & I recommend it highly.

Guadalupe.. Rainy day. Island really isn't much for tourism. There's is a very nice botanical garden, but it's a long ride. Cab drives speak very little English, so be sure to establish fares first.

St.Lucia..Also very nice. We did a beach tour less than 10 min. from the ship. It's on the other side of the small air port runway near the ship.

Barbados..Also nice. Been there many times. Just did a beach excursion to Harbor lights beach. Nice. The vendors are not as aggressive as in other parts.

St. Martin..Lots of damage still apparent from the hurricanes. Ate in a local restaurant with good Asian fusion food. When you get dropped off at the pier take a right & it's about a 10 min. walk. Many shops are still in disrepair, but bargaining is good.

Dominica..Again severe damage, but cleaning up quickly. We did the river tubing(which we did in 2010) The area is completely different, due to storm damage, but tubing was still a lot of fun.

Grenada..Had hoped to do tubing again, but was not offered. So we strolled around town & had a nice lunch at Nutmeg's. after that there's a couple of really nice chocolate shops to explore.

Tobago..Not too developed. We did a nice beach excursion. Nice sand, but water was rather cloudy due to the powered sand.

St.Barth. Gorgeous island. Did a beach trip to shell beach. A 20 min. walk from the pier. Wear boat/water shoes, as the name, shell beach is well deserved. Good for snorkeling. Be aware of black sea urchins near the rocks. I brushed against one & they're quite painful, worse if you step on one.

 So there you have it. A great cruise & we booked again next year. Not totally sure whether we'll do it again as it's into March & it gets pretty warm at that time, but there's plenty of time to get our deposit back should we choose.

[CruiserTarheel]

We were on the same cruise.  What/where was the Bistro and Taste of the World?  I don't remember ever seeing them.

[ORV]

47 minutes ago, CruiserTarheel said:

We were on the same cruise.  What/where was the Bistro and Taste of the World?  I don't remember ever seeing them.

They're at lunch in the main dining room. 

[CruiserTarheel]

Ah, thanks...never ate there at lunch.

Edited January 28, 2019 by CruiserTarheel

[edgee]

Appreciate your review. Please elaborate a little about Dottie being more "scripted." Did you mean fewer jokes...less than her usual over talking on the PA system? We are traveling on Riviera in March and, assuming she and Tom are still on the ship wondered what you were referring to. Thanks!

Edited January 28, 2019 by edgee

[Cruzin Terri]

We were on the cruise as well. We thought it was a great cruise. We did feel the food was a bit below our expectations except for Tuscana.

The ports were great and so was the weather. 

We felt the ship staff really went out of their way to make sure everyone was having a good time.

Terri

Edited January 28, 2019 by Cruzin Terri

[Straughn]

Newto Oceania. What is the 10 rehab to which you refer?

[WNcruiser]

19 hours ago, edgee said:

Appreciate your review. Please elaborate a little about Dottie being more "scripted." Did you mean fewer jokes...less than her usual over talking on the PA system? We are traveling on Riviera in March and, assuming she and Tom are still on the ship wondered what you were referring to. Thanks!

We are on Riviera now and that’s a good description. She just isn’t overly fun or exciting. She reads her PA announcements 3 or 4 times a day and so far just seems to be doing her daily routine. 

 

I agree about the food so far. Definitely was much better on Marina 4 years ago. Breakfast and lunch at the cafe has not been good. I asked for a bottled water at the pool today and was told they can only bring me a glass of ice water which was very small. I had to walk up to the gym on deck 14 to get a bottled water. Dinner reservations have been a huge pain, wont allow us to change anything. They keep saying all the restaurants are full so we either have to eat at 9 PM or share a table. 

 

Really hoping the rest of this cruise improves! 

[WNcruiser]

21 minutes ago, Straughn said:

Newto Oceania. What is the 10 rehab to which you refer?

10 day dry dock for refurbishment. 

[Straughn]

23 hours ago, WNcruiser said:

10 day dry dock for refurbishment. 

When is the scheduled to occur?

[WNcruiser]

21 hours ago, Straughn said:

When is the scheduled to occur?

April 

[keithm]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 7:18 PM, ORV said:

They're at lunch in the main dining room. 

The taste of the world is offered at night as well.

[ORV]

That must be new. I've never seen it on the evening menu. 

[keithm]

On ‎1‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 7:09 PM, WNcruiser said:

We are on Riviera now and that’s a good description. She just isn’t overly fun or exciting. She reads her PA announcements 3 or 4 times a day and so far just seems to be doing her daily routine. 

 

I agree about the food so far. Definitely was much better on Marina 4 years ago. Breakfast and lunch at the cafe has not been good. I asked for a bottled water at the pool today and was told they can only bring me a glass of ice water which was very small. I had to walk up to the gym on deck 14 to get a bottled water. Dinner reservations have been a huge pain, wont allow us to change anything. They keep saying all the restaurants are full so we either have to eat at 9 PM or share a table. 

 

Really hoping the rest of this cruise improves! 

Really on the reservations? We book an inside & then take the upgrade that's always offered(offered so far anyways.)You're kind of at the bottom of the list when you're an inside cabin. We booked our reservations for 6:30 each night. Jacques was the only one we had to agree to share. When we were seated, the next couple arrive a few minutes after we did. When they saw us seated, they quickly declined to sharing the table. Pretty obvious they didn't want to sit with a gay couple. Hey, fine with us, we had a splendid dinner. I do have to say the LGBT community really isn't too highly regarded by some on this line. We saw it last year, too. No real issues, but we had a couple last year in Polo who certainly weren't too happy to sit with us. This is a reason we tend to avoid sharing a table, unless there's no choice.

[LHT28]

Just now, keithm said:

Really on the reservations? We book an inside & then take the upgrade that's always offered(offered so far anyways.)You're kind of at the bottom of the list when you're an inside cabin. We booked our reservations for 6:30 each night. Jacques was the only one we had to agree to share. When we were seated, the next couple arrive a few minutes after we did. When they saw us seated, they quickly declined to sharing the table. Pretty obvious they didn't want to sit with a gay couple. Hey, fine with us, we had a splendid dinner. I do have to say the LGBT community really isn't too highly regarded by some on this line. We saw it last year, too. No real issues, but we had a couple last year in Polo who certainly weren't too happy to sit with us. This is a reason we tend to avoid sharing a table, unless there's no choice.

 

That is  a shame that  some people are like that

🙁

[keithm]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 11:17 PM, edgee said:

Appreciate your review. Please elaborate a little about Dottie being more "scripted." Did you mean fewer jokes...less than her usual over talking on the PA system? We are traveling on Riviera in March and, assuming she and Tom are still on the ship wondered what you were referring to. Thanks!

Well, I mean she follows a strict routine & really doesn't stray. I will say her jokes were among the worst I've ever heard. A few were ok, but most really lame. The director last year was really flamboyant, but also very funny. The best C/D we ever saw was on Regal Princess in 2016. His name was Martin(British, I think)Hysterically funny & very approachable, especially ashore. I know a lot of pax like Dottie, we just thought she was a little too straight laced. Still she's better than Ben on Celebrity Eclipse. We really found him to be quite condescending overall.

Terri, what part of the food didn't meet your expectations? Terrace was decent for dinner, but breakfast & lunch are rather cruise ship average. Polo Grill is still our least favorite(though still very good)We found Red Ginger to be better than last year, the reason we did it twice. Toscana is excellent, but Jacques is still our favorite. The Seabass in puff pastry was excellent. We do tend to like French cuisine a bit more than other foods. 

[1985rz1]

On 1/27/2019 at 12:29 PM, keithm said:

Actually we get it at China Star in Lowell. Right near the Market Basket off Middlsex rd. It's excellent. Jan.5 is Chinese New Year so the place will be packed!

I think you mean February 5.

[keithm]

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

 

That is  a shame that  some people are like that

🙁

As long as they're not rude, you just roll with it. We do prefer a table for 2, simply because we know some pax are like that & we don't want to impinge on their enjoyment, as much as we don't want them to impinge on ours. that way everyone's happy.

[keithm]

1 minute ago, 1985rz1 said:

I think you mean February 5.

Yes, thank you! Feb.5. We'll likely do the new Year dinner. I just let Richard take it & run. He's Chinese, so he & the staff really like to get adventuresome with the food. A lot of Americans really wouldn't touch what we eat, as most get a "dumbed" down version of what they think is REAL Chinese food. There's no such thing as Pu Pu platters/Crab Rangoon/General Gao's chicken etc. if you're Chinese. It's all made up for the American consumer.

[Cruzin Terri]

1 hour ago, keithm said:

Well, I mean she follows a strict routine & really doesn't stray. I will say her jokes were among the worst I've ever heard. A few were ok, but most really lame. The director last year was really flamboyant, but also very funny. The best C/D we ever saw was on Regal Princess in 2016. His name was Martin(British, I think)Hysterically funny & very approachable, especially ashore. I know a lot of pax like Dottie, we just thought she was a little too straight laced. Still she's better than Ben on Celebrity Eclipse. We really found him to be quite condescending overall.

Terri, what part of the food didn't meet your expectations? Terrace was decent for dinner, but breakfast & lunch are rather cruise ship average. Polo Grill is still our least favorite(though still very good)We found Red Ginger to be better than last year, the reason we did it twice. Toscana is excellent, but Jacques is still our favorite. The Seabass in puff pastry was excellent. We do tend to like French cuisine a bit more than other foods. 

First of all, Keith, Jim and I would have been very happy to share a table with you and Richard. Sorry you had that experience with the sharing table.

As for the food, we were on the Riviera in the Summer and found the food selections in the GDR much better than on this cruise.  We are not fans of Red Ginger or Polo but did enjoy Jacques but really like Tuscana.  We were in a PH and luckily our butler was able to get us a few extra reservations there.

We really enjoyed the cruise and meeting at the M&G,

Terri