Onboard Riviera Jan. 4

[Nymich]

27 minutes ago, pilgrimage said:

 

Set an open course, for the virgin sea...  

Your posts last week were so helpful.  It's one of the main reasons I wanted to do this thread.

 

Cuz I've got to be free.....

[World travellers]

Thanks Pilgrimage, appreciate your photos.  

[pilgrimage]

2 minutes ago, Nymich said:

Your posts last week were so helpful.  It's one of the main reasons I wanted to do this thread.

 

Cuz I've got to be free.....

 

Happy to help - even with all the FUD, we still had a great time on our first Oceania cruise.  I'm sure you will enjoy it all as well.

 

So climb aboard
We'll search for tomorrow
On every shore.

And I'll try,
Oh Lord, I'll try
To carry on

 

 

[pilgrimage]

2 hours ago, AlexCherie said:

We dined at Jacques (impossibly fine) on the first night, and at 6:30 I would say the seating was about 70% full. We could go to Polo tonight and share a table at 7:30, but I think we'll just enjoy the GDR. Lobster bisque, Marseillaise fish soup, butter roasted Maine Lobster, Prime Rib seem fine for us tonight. We have Polo later in the cruise.

I don't mind saying that Waves simply blows me away. The burger was out of this world, and surf and turf at the pool bar ... all of it incredible. 
 

 

Speaking of Jacques and the pool bar - this is not something you see everyday 🙂 

 

[PhD-iva]

2 hours ago, Nymich said:

Off to GDR tonight after having Terrace for lunch.

Picture of my DW last night at Red Ginger.

Nymich, your wife is beautiful! 

[kitty9]

Thank you so much for posting everything.  My sister and I were supposed to be on this cruise, but my broken hip still hasn’t healed completely and we had to cancel.  But your pictures and posts help to make the disappointment a little better. 

[Barrest24]

We are on the Jan 28 cruise. Thanks for keeping us posted so we can read what it’s really like on the Riviera. It’s supposed to be our first Oceania cruise so thanks for helping me get excited again about going!

[Nymich]

46 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

Nymich, your wife is beautiful! 

You are very kind and Thank you.  I married WAY over my head for sure!

[Nymich]

Sea day tomorrow and its the old "clocks move forward tonight."  You all know the drill....  Day 3 Currents right here

[Cruze4Ever]

3 hours ago, pilgrimage said:

 

Happy to help - even with all the FUD, we still had a great time on our first Oceania cruise.  I'm sure you will enjoy it all as well.

 

So climb aboard
We'll search for tomorrow
On every shore.

And I'll try,
Oh Lord, I'll try
To carry on

 

 

Wow!  So beautiful...thanks for sharing!

[jagoffee]

38 minutes ago, Nymich said:

You are very kind and Thank you.  I married WAY over my head for sure!

We have something in common.

[Cruze4Ever]

5 hours ago, AlexCherie said:

NYMich is doing a great job, and we are sharing the boat with him and what I believe I heard the Cruise Director say were a total of 640 souls (not including crew).

This ... simply overwhelms. Frame of reference, I have been an executive chef in a different life. I know I am preaching to the choir, but the food is simply beyond reproach.

We dined at Jacques (impossibly fine) on the first night, and at 6:30 I would say the seating was about 70% full. We could go to Polo tonight and share a table at 7:30, but I think we'll just enjoy the GDR. Lobster bisque, Marseillaise fish soup, butter roasted Maine Lobster, Prime Rib seem fine for us tonight. We have Polo later in the cruise.

I don't mind saying that Waves simply blows me away. The burger was out of this world, and surf and turf at the pool bar ... all of it incredible. 

I'll straight up say it - the itinerary sucks. This is a low quality, Eastern Caribbean set of ports (St. Martin, St. Thomas, Puerto Plata, NCL's private island). But they are what they are.

I have told my wife to consider strongly delaying building our next home and taking the April 4 cruise of this ship.  It's been that awesome. 

I am taking notes!  Thanks so much!

[Paulchili]

I am assuming that this is cruise originating in Venice (with what was described as smooth embarkation).

Is there anyone here that disembarked in  Venice or is on a B2B continuing from Venice.

The reason I am asking this is because our cruise in 2023 will end in Venice and I would like to know how this is handled beyond the airport transfers). Is it overnight stay before disembarkation? If so, are there any tours offered the day before getting off?

I know that this is new topic with little prior experience and hence any info about Venice embarkation/disembarkation is appreciated

[jazznruby]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

I am assuming that this is cruise originating in Venice (with what was described as smooth embarkation).

Is there anyone here that disembarked in  Venice or is on a B2B continuing from Venice.

The reason I am asking this is because our cruise in 2023 will end in Venice and I would like to know how this is handled beyond the airport transfers). Is it overnight stay before disembarkation? If so, are there any tours offered the day before getting off?

I know that this is new topic with little prior experience and hence any info about Venice embarkation/disembarkation is appreciated

Huh??

[ToxM]

Thank you so much for posting the currents. Was really happy to see the poker tourneys survived. 

 

Continue to enjoy your cruise - we are as well 🙂

[kjbacon]

Thank you for this helpful thread! We board Riviera in March for our first ever Oceania cruise and we have reservations at Jacques on our first night. Keep those delicious pictures coming!

[PhD-iva]

7 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I am assuming that this is cruise originating in Venice (with what was described as smooth embarkation).

Is there anyone here that disembarked in  Venice or is on a B2B continuing from Venice.

The reason I am asking this is because our cruise in 2023 will end in Venice and I would like to know how this is handled beyond the airport transfers). Is it overnight stay before disembarkation? If so, are there any tours offered the day before getting off?

I know that this is new topic with little prior experience and hence any info about Venice embarkation/disembarkation is appreciated

This is a Caribbean cruise, I believe. O doesn’t have any Med cruises in January.

[AlexCherie]

Pictures to follow … we were able to simply change our reservations yesterday to 6:30 for the Polo Grill, so we did.

Mind you, the menu in the GDR was off the charts great. The food was so good, so rich that I literally laid in bed for the rest of the night recuperating. Pancetta wrapped veal topped with lobster, and I had the audacity to ask for two grilled shrimp to go with; they served four. The Romanian maitre-de was attentive.

Met Paul, the cruise director just now. Cheery chap - aren’t they all - and we discussed journals. Cherie and I have done the math on this, and although it might be a bit off we think the ratio of staff to crew is 1.3:1.

As in, there are far more of them than us. As Paul’s pictures show, the activities are plentiful and mostly well attended. 

I’ve been in Barrista’s twice now and it’s basically walk up service. No wait time, ever. I don’t know if that is standard, but my Macchiato was completed almost before I finished saying thank you. Almost not an exaggeration.

Smoothies are sort of weird but good.

Bottom line is this: I think if you can swallow some flexibility with ports the trade off here make sense. Even if we were dealing with a full ship, the quality of everything exceeds.

[AlexCherie]

3 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

This is a Caribbean cruise, I believe. O doesn’t have any Med cruises in January.

Yes, this is true on both counts.

I think the earliest they get to the Med is late March. This cruise has been a test case for us sailing on April 4.

[Nymich]

Right off the TV.  Trying to get you the "real time" news

[AlexCherie]

5 minutes ago, Nymich said:

Right off the TV.  Trying to get you the "real time" news

During dinner the CD seemed … a bit stern … during an announcement stating we needed to wear masks walking about indoors.

To me, I see precious little of this going on. 

[Nymich]

Good morning everybody!

Got a notice last night at turndown that mandatory antigen test is needed for Riviera to get clearance for Barbados.  Testing is This Friday 7-11 in Toscana and Barbados port day is Sunday.  

If you are going to cruise right now ports can't be

a priority.  This whole itinerary is different and now we have a mandatory test for a port that wasn't even on our original itinerary.  

[macaroni]

Are you saying AlexCherie that people are not wearing masks indoors?

[AlexCherie]

13 hours ago, pilgrimage said:

 

Speaking of Jacques and the pool bar - this is not something you see everyday 🙂 

 

“I’ll have what he’s having”

[AlexCherie]

10 minutes ago, macaroni said:

Are you saying AlexCherie that people are not wearing masks indoors?

I don’t see it, but it must have made a significant impression on the staff for the CD to announce it in the middle of dinner on realistically the first day of cruising. 

This is my first time on this cruise line so I know I am preaching to the choir here, but half the show really are your fellow guests. We’ve met just the most incredible people here and I think everyone knows the threats.

The one thing I thought (feared?) was that the change in ports would make guests sour. Frankly, not really.

Cheers.