Opera 1/14/06 Review Part 1

[donnaw]

Opera – Back to the Caribbean – 1/14/06

 

We returned late last night from the first Opera Caribbean cruise of the season (more on late last night later).

 

A little background so our perspective can be understood – We are an almost mid-50’s couple. We are platinum on Princess and reached Select on Celebrity on the two day cruise just prior to boarding Opera. DH is self-employed and has schedule flexibility as long as he has internet access. I run IT for a small company in addition to handling financials and a myriad of other things. As of January 15th of this year we had managed 25 days at sea out of the last 365 starting with a 7 day Grand Princess Western then 14 day Galaxy TA, 2 day Century Bahamas and MSC Opera. This is highly unusual for us since we generally do 3 cruises every 18 months due to my limited vacation time.

Generally, we vary between cruises and all inclusive resorts because they solve the “Where do we eat “ question. We have totally different tastes in food and standard vacations have too much time wasted with figuring out where we are going to go with the end result almost always being a compromise for both of us. That compromise tends to end up with places like Olive Garden or Hard Rock Café.

When we look at cruises, our primary concern is ports, with either new or favorites winning. Opera had one favorite (St. Maarten) and two new ports (Dominican Republic).

Booking MSC – we had two groups of friends who booked this cruise as soon as the schedules came out. Only 1 of the 14 others that booked had sailed MSC before. We planned to book it last season (its first) but the scheduling did not work due to other commitments. We received many reports from the first season cruisers and felt that this would be a good fit for us. We were looking forward to the European flavor of the cruise since we had enjoyed it on the MS Carousel a few years ago. We didn’t book until mid December due to outrageous air costs from the Chicago/Milwaukee metro area. We finally hit a brief window with reasonable flight times and air prices and immediately booked. The original plan was to fly down on 1/13 and spend the night in FLL pre-boarding. However, we discovered that flying down on the 12th and taking a two day Century cruise pre-embarkation worked out to be the same price and put us up to Select so we jumped on it. Another friend on MSC with us did the same to be taken to elite level on Celebrity.

Expectations – Based upon last season reports, we had developed certain expectations for this cruise. During the interim, there was a top level management change that directly impacted those expectations. Of the expectations that did not work, we expected reasonably priced drinks along with multiple drink specials per day. We also expected real iced tea being served poolside along with gelato. We also had some other expectations based up cruising both Princess and Celebrity which did not work on this cruise (more later).

 

Embarkation – We were off the Century by 9:15 which is the fastest that we have ever disembarked. Our original intention was to stay on Century as long as we could (we were the last group off) then drop off our luggage and take a cab to meet friends at the AmeriSuites on 17th. We took a cab over to the Opera terminal when we disembarked. Another Chicago area couple was already there and waiting when we arrived. Porters were not available so we decided to wait for them rather than lug our luggage all over FLL. Most of the group that we were to meet would be boarding Opera and we would see them on board. One couple was disembarking Caribbean Princess and was also supposed to meet us but they ended up getting off late and went straight to the airport. Porters showed up at about 10:30 but we had to wait until the cabin assignment sheet came out so we could get the cabin number on our tags. We had two separate groups on this cruise. One member of the smaller (six of us) group was considered a VIP due to the number of cruises that she takes and our cabin assignments were based upon hers. We had all booked inside guarantee and we were given cabins 10218-10230 which were the top level of the inside cabins. Once luggage was handed over to the porter (Yes, we did tip), we proceeded to the terminal lounge and waited for processing. Once processed we returned to our seats to be called for boarding. We followed the back to backers and the handicapped to board and were on the ship by 12:10. We were escorted to the floor of our cabin and then our escort left after pointing us in the right direction.

Cabin – compact but generally workable and attractive. It definitely looked 30 sq. ft less than the Century inside cabin that we had just left. Century had two chairs and a table at the foot of the bed but this cabin only had room for 1 chair at the desk and it blocked getting off the bed when in use. Cabin came with mini bar set up in the refrigerator that actually kept things cold. Two power outlets above the desk meant that we did not need the power strip that we brought. Tiny bathroom and shower finished off the cabin. Blow dryer in the bathroom was moderately better than Century.

Exploring the upper levels - Our luggage had not arrived yet so we proceeded to the upper deck to check out the public areas. Deck 11 holds the Cafeteria (directly above our cabin), the open air multi purpose seating area (also has the omelet station, grill and pizza station), the pool, the Spa, the health club and the relaxation room. While we were wandering, the cafeteria opened and we decided to get in line to have a quick lunch of typical first day buffet food. Of note, Opera has large oval plates rather than trays. As all of this is going on, our cell phones were very busy keeping track of the individual members or our group and allowed us to finally get together when everyone was on board.

Dining arrangements – It wasn’t long before we realized that our pre-arranged dining did not happen so it required a trip down to see Mario to correct the issue. Both separate groups had the same problem and ended up standing in line to make changes. It ended up that we managed to get the tables straightened out but wound up in different dining rooms which we decided to live with.

 

Sail away – We returned to our cabin and unpacked prior to muster. Muster and then sail away was upon us (at least we thought so). Muster was directly to the outside deck station and went rather quickly then we were off to meet everyone by the pool bar as planned. The day had started out cold and extremely windy but this was our pre-arranged party location so we bundled up and headed up. When we finally had everyone, we moved into Il Patio to escape the wind. We attempted to sail away on schedule only to end up moving back into our berth. The Zuierdam was directly behind us and the winds were so strong that she had to leave first or we could have easily blown into her. The additional time spent waiting to pull out of FLL and rough seas on Saturday/Sunday ended up taken from the San Juan stop, which meant that we were only there 3 hours. Seas were rough enough that I actually put on the patch as a precaution (I haven’t worn it on the last six cruises).

Ports

San Juan: shortened time due to late sail away and a rough trip over. This night was open seating in the dining room so we went down early for dinner in preparation for getting off. Part of the group went to the buffet and felt it was unsatisfactory. Most of our group disembarked and headed to Walgreens to pick up Diet Coke (ship was still serving Coke light) and a few other necessities.

St. Maarten: We all went in different directions. Some went to Orient Beach and had a great time. Others took a city tour then shopped. We took the water ferry over to the shopping area and wandered about then relaxed in a cafe and people watched. We were the smallest of 4 ships in port on the Dutch side which accounted for the huge crowds and had to be back on board for an early departure.

La Romana: The group again went separate ways. One stayed on ship and the other five from our dinner table headed to the beach (Bayahibe) by van which cost us a total of $60.00 for 4 ½ hours on the beach . ($45 round trip including the first two hours then a reduced additional fee the next two ½ hours since we told him not to wait but just come back and pick us up). Everything we read indicated that we would probably not meet anyone who spoke English but many at Bayahibe did. Chair rental $7.00. Band playing close by for the entire time and cold Presidente beer at $2.00 each. Great beach and a great day. We returned to the ship to change and grab something to eat since we were doing the ships Kandella excursion and it left prior to late seating. The five of us that went really enjoyed it though we thought it was a bit over-priced since it did not appear to be the full show (due to our sail away time). Returned to the Sangria sail away party on pool deck which was very well received.

Cayo Levantado: Private island. Actually owned by a group and leased to various cruise lines. Set up quite nicely. This was a tender and seas were (again) very rough. We went over when tickets were no longer required and found the rest of our group and beach chairs to relax and enjoy the music and sun. Lots of vendors (requires cash). We waited in line for 25 minutes to get the tender back to the ship and we were definitely running late since it was very difficult to hook up so we could board. Some ate at the beach bbq and said it was good. We waited until we boarded and had pizza.

Shops – Much less focus than other cruise lines. A small selection of MSC logo items and upscale resort clothing. Small jewelry shop, perfume shop and equally small duty free shop. Liquor purchased during the cruise is held until the last day. Cigarettes can be taken immediately and are very low cost at $11.90/carton.

Positives (please note that many of these are highly subjective):

1) The ship. New ship with beautiful public areas and constantly being maintained and cleaned.

2) Pizza. A definite highlight for us though others did not like it.

3) Pasta and Risotto (lunch and dinner in the dining room).

4) Chilled soups.

5) Fish and seafood entrees.

6) Entertainment Team alternately known as animation team. High energy and fun. Wonderful at getting people involved.

7) Shows – only missed one but the rest were great. Since this really was a multi national cruise, it was a challenge to come up with shows that pleased all and they appeared to succeed.

8) Cabin Steward – She was very good. All you had to do was ask once and it was done immediately.

9) Our waiter. It was a very slow start but we really appreciated him by the end of the cruise. He was more than willing to do whatever was needed to keep us happy.

10) Lively and fun pool area with the animation team keeping the fun going.

11) Great pool lounges with sun shield.

12) No corkage fee on wine brought to the dining room.

13) Availability of reasonably priced ½ and full carafes of house wine.

14) The galley buffet. This was something we have never seen done. The galley for La Caravelle dining room was set up with a buffet (separate of Grand Buffet) and it was fun to see the area where food was prepared.

[ctdahlquist]

Donnaw:

 

Thanks for the great review. I was on the same cruise and posted a review myself. On several trips to the duty free shop, we were allowed to take liquor back to the room for our enjoyment. We were told to not bring our homemade drinks to any of the lounges.

 

Thanks again for the review.

[mdmudda59]

My husband and I are going on the Opera on Feb. 11th and I really appreciated your review!

I have begun to prepare him as our last cruise was on RC Enchantment.

I'm sure there will be plenty of differences yet enough positive to look forward to.

Thanks again!

And if you have any photos to share of your excursions in the DR, I would love to see them!

[donnaw]

My husband and I are going on the Opera on Feb. 11th and I really appreciated your review!

I have begun to prepare him as our last cruise was on RC Enchantment.

I'm sure there will be plenty of differences yet enough positive to look forward to.

Thanks again!

And if you have any photos to share of your excursions in the DR, I would love to see them!

 

I'm sure you'll have a good time. It is different so just go with the flow. Part 2 has some hints to make it a bit easier adjustment. I haven't even looked at the pictures yet but most of them are beach shots since we took off on our own.

 

Have a great cruise!