Lots of questions

[fireguy091]

Just booked our first Oceania cruise, can't wait...:) I understand the food is great so I won't ask,lol But how is the room service menue. What can we expect from a PH suite? Are the drink and beer prices comparable to the other lines. How is the wine selection? I'll have other questions I'm sure

Thanks

[Rickey 88]

There is a "Room Service" Menu that has items (somewhat limited) that are available 24 hours a day. However, in a PH, you have the option of ordering anything from the dining room menu and it will be served to you in your suite and in courses. BUT, this may only be done during the regular dining room hours. We've tried it several times, and it was perfect.

Enjoy your cruise!! :)

[boom_boom]

I echo the previous post on room service in the PH suites. Your butler will take care of your needs so long as you let him know what you want.

I found the by-the-glass prices a little higher than other lines for wine & beer. The wine selection is pretty good, they have a nice selection of some higher-end wines at a reasonable bottle markup. They seem to mark up the cheaper wines more than the higher priced bottles. The wine stewards are not the best (at least on Insignia) because they tended to always recommend a more expensive bottle than what I selected and they did so without asking what food we were pairing the wine with. Nonetheless, O is an excellent cruise line and we will no doubt sail with them again.:)

[shedevil]

One of the highlights of our recent Baltic cruise on Insignia were the nights we choose to "dine in" and have the butler serve us dinner in the room.

 

You just let the butler know that you are going to eat in your room and let him know which menu (Polo, Toscano and/or Grand Dining Room plus the wine list) you would like to order from......He would deliver the menus around 6:00pm and you let him know what time you would like to eat and he makes it happen. You will be able to have dinner service from Polo, Toscano or the Grand Dining room each evening from 6:30pm to 10:00pm.

 

We timed it just right for leaving the Kiel Canal and we were able to dine while watching as the ship entered and left the final lock of the canal. A wonderful meal and the engineer husband was thrilled he did not miss the lock.

 

We also ordered off the room service menu a couple of times and while it was good....we found it was second rate to the in-room food served from the restaurants.

 

The drink prices are about what you pay at any hotel bar...7.50 to 10.00 bucks for mixed drinks and 7.00 to 12.00 for a glass of wine. They have daily specials and those are usually 4.25.....I will admit that I took advantage of the mimosas when they were 4.25.

 

The wine list is good. Not extensive but we were always able to find an interesting wine for dinner. The wine stewards were not as knowledgeable as we expected. :( They seemed to be focused on price points and not on making the wine compliment your dinner. Several times we asked the wine steward for a suggestion and not one of them asked what we were having for dinner nor what our wine preferences were...... A plus was that they have proper wine glasses, you seem to get them automatically in Polo and Toscano, it seemed that we had to ask for them in the Grand Dining Room and at the bars.

 

We found some interesting wines in port to try and often the cost was cheaper, even with the $20 corkage, than the wine list. There is a great wine shop in Copenhagen....on the left as you enter the major shopping street....and we found lots of things we wanted to bring on ship and try. An interesting note, it seemed that the higher the retail price of the wine.....the lower the percentage of mark-up.

 

Just ask the butler and he will have clean wine glasses in your room each night. One of the things about the butler....they want you to enjoy the trip and you need to take the time to talk to them about what you want and expect.

[Tulupi]

Great information