December 21 - At Sea on Way to Miami

I wasn't able to load this picture yesterday, but this lovely gingerbread town was on display starting yesterday morning.  Can't believe how many hours went into it - it's amazing.

The ocean today.  I never was able to see dolphins or flying fish.

And a last photo of the very pretty chargers in the Grand Dining Room.

 Since this is our last day of the cruise, I thought I'd sum up our thoughts.  We have sailed with Regent most recently and as Oceania is owned by the same company (Norwegian Cruise Lines) and is also considered a luxury line, a comparison seems appropriate.

Cabins - Hands down a win for Regent.  We have always stayed in their basic veranda suite.  We are in the same class of cabin here on Sirena and it is not the same at all.  Regent is a little over 300 sq ft and this one is 216.  The bathroom here is really tiny.  I can literally be on the toilet and wash my hands at the same time.  The closet is much smaller and the entry door is right near the closet and bathroom doors so you have to be careful whenever opening any of them.  If we were to sail with Oceania on one of the R class ships, I would only consider a penthouse cabin which Jan and Tom have and it seems comfortable.

Food - Regent wins this category also.  The buffet here was a disappointment with not as much selection and the food was sometimes cold.  The specialty restaurants are good, but some of our meals were really mediocre there too.  The Grand Dining Room could be problematic.  The layout means that many areas are very close to the serving stations.  Jan kept ducking at one table as the waiters were carrying full trays seemingly right over her head.  The food was occasionally really good, but mostly just average.  And the presentation was lacking most of the time.  An omelet delivered all by itself on the plate isn't very appealing.  The waitstaff worked very hard, but it seemed that every meal included a mistake for at least one of us - something not delivered, or not delivered as requested.  At breakfast the other morning we watched the gal with the pastry tray walk by us at least 3 times before we finally signaled that we'd like to see it.  And for some reason, desserts took up to 15 minutes (we started timing it.)  The outside grill by the pool has a very limited selection at lunch and is really pathetic for breakfast.  The selection of snacks at the coffee bar is also not nearly as robust as on Regent.

Ship - This ship is nicely appointed, especially on Deck 5 with nice artwork, dark wood, and a good layout.  The theatre is a bit odd but workable.  No problems with the pool deck or lounges.    Oceania gets a slight advantage here for the public area decor.

Service - Here Regent gets the nod again.  Within a few days the restaurant staff knew our names and even those we hadn't had any interactions with often greeted us by name,  On this cruise Janet, who checks in diners at the Grand Dining Room, always had to ask our cabin number before she greeted us.  Some of the waiters knew our names and that always was a surprise to us.  Our housekeepers here often didn't get to our cabin until nearly noon, sometimes even when we'd put out the Please Clean our Cabin sign.  They seemed to be doing their best and were always very friendly, so I'm wondering if they don't have enough staff.  The bar service was sort of hit and miss, but generally good.  Sometimes around the pool, we'd have to flag down someone for a glass of water.  

Entertainment - This is a bit hard to compare because we didn't get to a single show.  We usually don't on Regent either.  The Cruise Director, Peter, was fun, but not as visible as we've seen on Regent.  The games seem to be the same on both lines.  Oceania does have the artwork scavenger hunt which at first seemed a bit silly but turned out to be fun.  It gets you talking to other passengers while you share hints and compare answers.  The speakers are equally good and the movie and TV selections are the same.  Sometimes the music in the lounges here was a bit too loud to carry on a conversation comfortably.  So no real advantage to either line for this category. 

Wifi - Here Oceania performs better.  We had very few problems with the wifi and those we had were short-lived.  The one nuisance was that we only got one sign-in per person, so I had to constantly log out from the laptop and log in on my phone.  Regent gives you 2 logins, but their wifi is often a bit more difficult.  Here I could almost always upload my photos over the wifi, but it was all but impossible to do that on Regent.  I believe they are upgrading their ships one at a time, but we haven't experienced it yet.

Laundry - Here is another clear win for Regent since laundry done by the ship is included for every passenger.   If you leave it out by 9:00 am, you have it back that evening by 7:00 pm. There are laundry rooms on every deck if you want to do your own.  I've mentioned it before, but here there is only 1 room with 6 sets of machines for the whole ship.  Laundry service is available, but it's quite expensive; for example, a women's blouse and slacks would cost $17, for men it would be $15, and it takes 2 days. Once a week or so there is a laundry special of 20 items for $25.

Cost - Oceania is less expensive for the basic cruise.  And from there you can control how much you want to spend as everything is a la carte.  Drinks start at $12 plus a 20% service charge.  There is a drink package that gives you beer, and wine or champagne by the glass at lunch and dinner in the restaurants for $40 per person per day.  For $80 per person per day, you can have unlimited wine, beer, mixed drinks, and champagne (excluding "premium brands") throughout the day at any of the bars and restaurants.  Regent includes all the beverages you'd like, excluding ultra-premium brands which cost extra.  Excursions range from $70 to $150 (sometimes more) per person, but those same excursions are included on Regent (with a few optional tours you can pay extra for).  I've mentioned laundry costs.  Gratuities (included on Regent) are $18 per person per day on Oceania.  Both lines include airfare on most cruises but on Regent it is Business Class if flying internationally. 

So my thinking is that if you don't drink alcohol, don't go on excursions often, and are happy doing your own laundry, you'd probably be better off with Oceania since it would cost less and be perfectly acceptable.  However, for the way we cruise now, we are happy to pay a bit more for Regent and not have to think about how much every gin and tonic, excursion, or laundry bag is adding to the account.  The price would be pretty close if you compare apples to apples, and Regent has advantages in other areas like cabins, food, and service.  If Oceania were the only line doing a particular itinerary we were interested in, we might consider it, but only in a penthouse.

Our two bags will go out before 10:00 pm and tomorrow our flight out of Miami is at 1:15 pm, so we'll have a bit of a wait at the airport.  We're sorry to end a fun cruise with Tom and Jan but are also looking forward to getting home and seeing the DC grandkids for Christmas.

December 20 - At Sea

 We had a morning lecture by Ed about how various sea creatures reproduce which was really interesting.  It's certainly not as straightforward as one would expect and he had lots of examples of odd and interesting ways nature has of continuing the species.  

Trivia was a banner day because we got the best score for 3 points.  Both of those events were in the morning, so after lunch, we lazed around again.  The seas are a little wild, but if you stay down on deck 5 it's not too bad.  

The Sirena Lounge is where most large events are held like trivia and lectures.  There is an elaborate lighting setup for the entertainers as well, but we never got to a single show, so can't remark on how it works as a theatre.

Usually we have a pre-dinner cocktail up on deck 10 at Horizons, but with the movement of the ship, we thought we'd try Martinis on deck 5.  It's not large and gets full early so Jan and I went to Baristas down the hall to wait for the guys to get us drinks (2 gin/tonics and 2 whiskeys).  They came to us empty-handed because Martinis doesn't have tonic, Aperol, or whiskey.  They take the Martinis name very seriously.  So no 2-for-1 specials for us.  Baristas is a small bar in addition to the coffee bar, so we just got our drinks there for full charge.  Seemed crazy to us.  Dinner was good again, especially the caviar appetizer.

Tomorrow is our last full day of the cruise and another sea day.  I think I'll write up my overall impressions of the cruise, especially comparing Oceania to Regent.  I had trouble uploading my pictures today, but maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

December 19 - Tortola, British Virgin Islands

 This is our last port of the cruise before we head back to Miami where we'll arrive on Friday morning.  What a beautiful place!  We docked by 10:00 am and shortly after Michael and I walked off in search of a taxi to take us around.  Jan and Tom were booked on a tour in an open-air vehicle, but in the end, they stayed on board as Tom wasn't 100% and thought he should stay on the ship.  We ended up doing the tour they would have done, we just paid directly to the taxi company.  It was basically a large pick-up truck with an attachment that could seat 25, but there were only about 12 of us on this tour.  We saw several of the same type of vehicle on ship's tours at a couple of stops we made.  We drove a little bit around Road Town right there by the terminal and then headed into the hills for some gorgeous views.  Made a few quick photo stops and then about 15 minutes at a mountaintop stand with bathrooms and sodas and beers for sale.  Then down to a beautiful beach for 20 minutes (more drinks for sale).  Our driver, DJ, was pretty good but was having a little trouble with his microphone.  So at the beach, he turned us over to his "Pops" and his identical vehicle who would take us the rest of the way.  He mentioned 2 stops and off we went at a much faster pace than DJ.  We made one photo stop but it was so close to the edge of the road that no one got off anyway.  Then we raced back to the ship - perhaps the pier was the second promised stop?  He never used the microphone.  But all in all, it was a very nice way to see most of the island.  This is a British Territory, but the national currency is the USD and while they drive on the left, the vehicles are also left-hand drive, like we experienced in the USVI.  

There are some very nice homes hanging off these mountains.

There was a long section along the highway of murals of life many years ago in Tortola.

We're parked next to a sister ship, the Azamara Onward.

The weather was better still - mid 80's with around 75% humidity.  Still a bit hot, but much more comfortable.  Had a quick lunch at the buffet and then just lazed around watching life in the Caribbean.

We missed getting trivia points by one answer this time.  Dinner was in the Grand Dining Room again.  They had escargot on the menu for the first time and they were very good.  For my entree, I just had a baked potato as nothing else really appealed to me and I've been eating so much on this trip.  The clocks go back an hour tonight so we'll be back on East Coast time.

December 18 - Roseau, Dominica

 We were here a few years ago with Regent and did a river tubing tour that was fun.  We had no tour this time, but since we were docked in a good place, right in town, we decided to just walk around.

This is a lovely, green island

The weather was a bit cooler and less humid than we've had lately.  There were a lot of vendors in white tents along the water, but they were all selling the same stuff and I wasn't tempted.  Michael said he noticed that the tents said USAID on them.  We're guessing they were sent here after a hurricane and have been repurposed.

A medical school!

We ran into some of the crew in the supermarket - not unusual.  Prices for most things didn't seem that out of line with ours at home.  Back on board, we headed up to the buffet for lunch - the only option -  and we ran into Jan and Tom just returning from their tour.  They were very impressed with the beauty of the island and the knowledge of their guide.  Unfortunately, they got stuck in a traffic jam that tied them up for 45 minutes or so, but at least their bus was air-conditioned.

I spent some time in my new favorite place, deck 5 on a lounger in the shade.  This time I was on the shoreside so I could really people watch.  Just before lunch an ambulance came zipping up, backed all the way up the jetty to the ship, and a gentleman was loaded on by stretcher.   He was conscious and the doctor spoke with the wife for a bit and then they both went off to the hospital.

The ambulance and stretcher ( coming down the gangway)

I was out there again just before we sailed and he and his wife arrived by private car and he walked back on the ship to be met by the doctor at the gangway, so I presume all is OK.

We had trivia with our new Cruise Director, Carson and he is a little more strict with the rules.  Only the top 3 scores get points, unlike Peter who gave them away to 4 or 5 of the top team scores.  Ah well, he seems like he'll be just fine.

At trivia, we learned that George and Mishawn also had reservations at 7:00 pm at the Tuscan Grill, so we had them put us all together at a table of 6 and had a very nice time with them.

December 17 - Bridgetown, Barbados

 It was nice to arrive at land again.  We didn't dock until 10:00 am and the morning was very quiet since we changed Cruise Directors today.  No lectures (they all got off here as well) and no trivia.  We were able to do another load of laundry since many people had gone off on excursions leaving the machines available.  It's really hard with only 6 sets of machines for the whole ship of 620 people.  The penthouses do get 3 free laundry services, so many people probably use those, easing the demand some.

So after our laundry was done, we ventured off to see what was going on outside.  There were some shops right here at the terminal, but the prices seemed a bit high.  So we headed off to town.  It was hot and humid again.  Since it was Sunday, it seemed pretty quiet.  We didn't really make it into the town center but checked out a couple of little tourist shops.

It's a pretty industrial port and we had to take a shuttle to get to the gate area.

This looked like a cute shopping center, but it was closed.

I guess a "friendly bookie" is better than an enemy bookie. (You'll have to click on this to enlarge it to read the sign.)

After an hour or so, we headed back.  I had a small lunch at the buffet on board which wasn't that great, but then ran into trivia teammates, Mishawn and George, who said they had greata flying fish sandwiches at the little grill in the pier shopping area.  We thought that sounded good so headed back out to the shuttle again.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there around 2:00 pm, they had run out of the flying fish.  Rats.  You would have thought they'd have a good supply since there were 4 ships in port today.  Ah well, not to be. We had a beer and chatted with a couple from a different ship who shared our table.

It poured rain after we got back, fortunately.  We hung out in the cabin before joining Jan and Tom in the upper lounge for a beverage before heading to the Red Ginger for dinner.  It was delicious as usual, although the sorbet dessert was almost tasteless.  Then we were able to join the weekly sibling Zoom with a remarkably good quality connection.

December 16 - At Sea

 Again, there were three lectures.  Clive talked about dangerous places he has lived or visited, which sounded better than it proved to be, but I still learned some things about Venezuela.  Ed gave a very colorful talk about the coral reefs of the Caribbean.  And finally, Bill talked about food for astronauts.  For once I could understand everything he was talking about because he didn't even mention the word "quantum" once.  I was especially surprised to learn that John Young (think I have the name right) brought his own corned beef sandwich from his favorite deli on the first Apollo flight that was long enough to require a meal.  He didn't care for the meat and vegetable paste in a tube that NASA provided.  

Today on the pool deck was the County Fair where each of the departments set up booths with games you could play to win raffle tickets.  It was all good fun.  I won the "getting the pillow into the case" challenge at the housekeeping booth.  And even though we had lots of raffle tickets, we didn't win any of the prizes.  

Michael demonstrating his knot tying skills.

Jan trying to keep the sun's rays off.

Here's another picture of one of the prettiest places on the ship.  This is the entry to the Sirena Lounge, which is the theatre where most of the indoor activities are held.

And as this was Peter's last day, I got his photo after our very successful day of trivia - first place points again.  

Dinner in the Grand Dining Room (delicious pasta tonight) and then off to the cabin.  Jan said that they got those little towels by their bed last night, but we didn't and don't have them tonight either.  I really don't understand why those are put out sometimes.  I'm just glad they always remember that little chocolate on the pillow!

December 15 - At Sea

 The seas got a bit rough during the night and the swells are making walking around a bit challenging.  There were 3 good lectures today.  First up was Clive talking about North Korea. He was able to visit in 1990 and he told us a bit about that along with the history of the country  Ed did a sort of marine trivia "contest" and we won, but not exactly.  I was keeping score for our team of 4 and when Ed asked for scores, Tom misread my paper and said 24 which turned out to be the highest.  We actually only had 20, but it was too late at that point to correct him since Ed called us all down to be awarded our "prize".  It was an "all-expense paid trip to Hawaii" and he had us close our eyes to imagine it while he blew wind and sprinkled water on us.  Good fun.  Ed's second lecture was on climate change and the effects by and on the oceans.  Interesting and frightening at the same time.  

I was sitting out on the deck on 5 again and took another picture from the same vantage point as yesterday.  What a difference a day makes.

And since I had no other options for pictures, here are a couple more taken today on board.

The Grand Dining Room

Mary Grace who makes our coffees each morning.

Finally got a top score in trivia today.  And we got our passports back with entry and exit stamps from Brazil.  

The guest laundry facility on Deck 7 was reopened this morning, but we weren't able to get a machine until just before dinner.  When it was time to move it to the dryer we were on the appetizer but Michael ran up and moved it along.  So we should be good for a while now.  Since Jan and Tom are in a penthouse, they get 3 bags of laundry free so they've been doing that.  I'm jealous.

Daniel called by video during dinner, so we called back once we were back in the cabin.  The quality was very good considering we're on a moving ship.  And it is still moving a fair bit which will make for a nice sleep.  While we were in the Amazon, the ship turned out as many outside lights as possible and requested we make sure no light was visible from our cabins because of the bugs that it attracted.  Now that is back to normal again.  The casino is once again open and there is a lot of pent-up demand judging by the noise coming from the machines.  And liquor sales seem to be back to normal now that there is no longer the 25% additional tax.

December 14 - Sailing on the Amazon River

 Today was the last day on the river, and I won't miss the brown water.  It was quite windy all day so they closed off one side of Deck 5 outside, then a few hours later the other side.  I sat out there for a while and the breeze felt good.

Vacuuming the deck

This morning Ed gave a lecture on sea turtles which was interesting, as always.  There was also a lecture this afternoon by Bill Lee on Quantum Mechanics, but I knew I wouldn't understand Bill's explanations, so I passed.  We had a light lunch up by the pool outside - just a quick salad.  We heard that the Mexican buffet inside was good - if they do it again today, we might give it a try.  Otherwise, we did a lot of lazing around.  

In the late morning, the four of us had an invitation to dinner with Cruise Director Peter, so after a late trivia game (got 2 points today) we skipped the late lecture on Columbus and North America and got ready for dinner.  This time, everything went as planned.  It was a very pleasant dinner and we got to know him a bit better.  He's actually getting off in Bridgetown, our next port.  He was supposed to get off at the end of the last cruise, but they asked him to stay on to cover for another CD who had an emergency at home.  The home office has to do lots of schedule adjustments when there are surprises like that.  It's not just a case of calling someone in to cover - there are lots of logistics to consider.  Anyway, he's really looking forward to getting home in time for Christmas with his wife and son.  He worked on Princess for many years, but I don't think our paths ever crossed there. He seemed a little concerned about the lecture that Clive gave where he talked about that village (Boca de Veleria) that didn't seem quite real.  I guess he'd had some negative feedback about that.  We all generally agreed that it could have upset some people, but that we felt he was being honest.  He made it clear that he was expressing his and others' impressions, not facts, and that it was many years ago.  We felt it was beneficial to look at the village with a more critical eye and not just take everything at face value.  I don't think there's anything wrong with the residents earning a living that way; I just wish they didn't have to use the kids, but they're working with what they have.  It happens all over the world.

The clocks go back an hour tonight. The extra sleep will be welcome.

December 13 - Alter Do Chao, Brazil

 This is our last port on the Amazon River.  All during the night we could smell wood smoke, presumably from burnings in the forest.  This town is on a tributary river so we got away from the smoke for the day.  It was really hot and humid (91 degrees and 85% humid).  Again, there were no tours here since it's a beach resort of sorts.  We elected to stay aboard rather than tender over and walk around in the heat.  The big attraction is the beautiful beaches, but lounging on a beach wasn't in the cards.  We heard from a few people who did go ashore that it was a lovely place, probably because it was so different from anything we've seen here.

The movie Oppenheimer is now on the TV so I spent the late morning and early afternoon watching that (a 3-hour movie) with a break for lunch and really enjoyed it.  I'd like to watch it again just because I think I'd get more out of it a second time.

Ed Sobey gave a talk on Flying Fish and Swimming Birds with some amazing photos of the little flying fish.  We finished completely out of the points today at trivia.  Shortly after we sailed at 4:00 pm we smelled the smoke again.  Pretty soon we could see several areas of smoke not far offshore.  

Here's the smoke as seen from our balcony.

This looks like a volcanic mountain in the distance, but I didn't think there was anything like that here.  

This good-sized grasshopper was hanging around the back of the ship outside the Grand Dining Room.  I think I saw him a few days ago also.

We had another good meal at Red Ginger.  They have the miso-glazed sea bass that we like so much on Regent, although this version has a bit less sauce.  

December 12 - Parintins, Brazil

 Parintins is an island town of about 75,000 people.  We anchored around 10:30 and since we had no tour planned, we took it easy this morning.  Trivia was better today - I think Peter took pity on us.

After lunch, we took the tender in.  One of the things to do is take a pedicab ride around, which sounded good to us.  Right off the boat, a man offered us a "tour".  His was not powered by leg power on a bicycle, but rather by motorbike.  That turned out to be OK since it was cooler that way.  

The biggest thing that Parantins has going for it is an annual festival to rival Carnival in Rio.  It's a two day affair that centers around a sort of musical play that I couldn't understand, but involves lots of huge colorful props and a bull.  The play goes on for hours and there is some competition between 2 teams - red and blue are their colors.  They put on mini shows lasting about an hour throughout the year and that was the only tour offered.  We saw the stadium (whick holds 30,000 people) and if they had to sit in the open sun, I'm glad we didn't go.  There were airconditioned boxes, so maybe that's where the tour went.  

Our general impression of Parintins was positive.  The streets seemed pretty clean and not much graffiti, but rather street artwork was everywhere.  Our tour only lasted about 20 minutes, but that was actually enough for us.  This was a very hot and humid stop and our cooling neck bands got warm within minutes.  Afterwards we walked a little bit around the souvenir stalls near the port, but decided to just return to the cool ship.  

We tied up to this boat and walked through.  Guess docking space was at a premium.

Some of the stalls available for the passengers

In our "pedicab" which was more like motorcab.

And off we go

These dogs barked enthusiasstically at us.  The little hair ties sort of took the edge off of their "ferocity"

This was the sort of graffiti we saw around

These are some of the characters in the festival which are on disply outside the stadium

This represents the two teams involved in the competition

The stadium looked modern and clean

Looking closely, you'll see that the ad for Coca Cola shows both the logo in red and blue - they don't want to be seen as taking "sides" in the competition!

There are 2 young children on the motorbike with mom and dad.

Playing pool outdoors was a new one to me.

On the way back to the tender

The afternoon was very quiet.  I found myself up at the Horizons bar where they have tea every afternoon.  They set up every table and it was reasonably well attended when I left after about 20 minutes.

We all had dinner in the Tuscan Grill again and the food was very good.  Of the three times we've been there, only the first time was a bit of a disappointment with the tough filet.  Tonight I had the branzino fish and Michael had the osso bucco.

No invitation from Peter yet, but at the start of trivia he looked over at our group and I thought he quietly said something about Friday night.