Day 2—HoHo, HoHo, rain, a little fog and Fado

by | Dec 4, 2023 | Food Experiences, Photography

You might notice there are four Hos up in the headline. That’s because today was all about the HoHo (HopOn, HopOff) bus. And there is a lesson to be learned…but we will get to that. Come on along as I tell the story and give you some visual fun as well.

Hop-on, Hop Off

Originally, we had been scheduled to do our food tour on the second day of our trip, but the company called and asked us if we could swap from Sunday to Saturday. We were OK with that, but I think in the end, it wound up costing us some money. Don’t get me wrong, I think it was the right thing to do, but this is where the lesson comes in.

Our original plan on our first full day was to take the HoHo bus around the city. This is something we like to do because it provides an overview of the area, and we learn where we might want to go back and see later. Usually, in cities the size of Lisboa, there are at least two, if not three, routes, and they include some additional stuff with your ticket (discount admission at museums, boat rides, etc.), and in this case, that was true as well. We never had time to use any of that “extra stuff” and we only ended up using the bus for three rides.

I had pre-purchased a 72-hour pass about six months ago based on recommendations from people I trusted. The plan was to use it daily to get around the city. Since we didn’t start using it until the second day, we really lost a day right off the bat. Then, on top of that, we ran into what I am now calling the “running race jinx.” You may recall that when we were in Québec City last October, our day was shaken up by the Québec Marathon being run throughout the city on the only day we were there. We have run into the same thing in at least four other cities, and it happened again. Sunday was the Lisboa Marathon. And even though I considered skipping the touring and doing the race myself ?, it meant that the HoHo bus could not do one of their two biggest routes…the one we wanted to take first. The one that would take us to the area known as Belem.

Not only that, but the bus company neglected to post a sign at their base/first stop (a block from our hotel) that told us that the stop would not be used until after 1:00 pm. So we stood around waiting for a bus until one of their workers came by and told us to walk to the next stop up a hill.

I have to take part of the blame for not realizing the stop was closed. There was a small sign taped to the bus waiting area that said, “Stop will be closed on 3/12/2023 due to the Lisboa Marathon.” And being a typical American (shame on me), I thought it was an old sign saying the stop had been closed on March 12. But in Europe (and most of the rest of the world), they list the day first when writing a date; the sign actually said it would be closed on the third of December. It dawned on me right about when the worker showed up to tell us to walk to the next stop.

I should also mention that the weather had turned bad for us. Some rain, but it turned a lot colder. So that meant that I felt like I was freezing for most of the day. We hadn’t broken out the heavy sweaters and coats we are saving for Prague and beyond because we thought it would be much more temperate in Lisboa. (Apparently, it is because we found the hotel has no heating system for their rooms. To get heat, you just shut off the air conditioner. The buildings are well-insulated, and they don’t have enough cold days to warrant having heaters.)

When we finally hiked to the other stop, we were informed that the Belem route would not be available until 1:30 pm, so we did what they call the “Modern Lisboa” route. It was very nice, and we learned a lot, but for me there were not a lot of photo opportunities. And because it was so cold, we didn’t go up to the open-air top to sit on the wet seats that had been out in the rain. So, no photos except through windows. I don’t suppose Kathleen was as disappointed as I was, but we both would have liked a warmer bus (on the bottom deck) and a softer seat. Old butts don’t do well with rock-hard seats. That route took almost two hours, so after we got back to the first stop, we walked around the Christmas Markets and we just enjoyed each other’s company. We also stopped back at the hotel because we had been told the stop near the hotel would reopen in the afternoon.

We set out again at 1:30, and sure enough, the stop a block from the hotel was open, and so was the Belem route. We jumped on that bus and did a tour that was more interesting but still not as pretty as the city had been the day before because of the blanket of clouds it was shrouded in. Let me drop in some photos here so you can get an idea of what I am talking about. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Pastéis de Belém

Before we go any further, I have to tell you about the BIGGEST reason we came to Belem—Pastéis de Belém. I am pretty sure I mentioned in writing about the food tour that the tiny custard tarts we had eaten to end the tour were from what Fred had told us was “the second best place in Portugal to get them.” Well, Belem is where you find the best. How do I know? A whole lot of people have told me, and the fact that the Pastéis de Belém has been baking them since 1837 in the same exact place.

We had been warned there would be a line for their takeaway window, but if we went to the other side of the building to the sit-down cafe, we could get right in. Even Rick Steves has this in his books. Well, so many people have read his books and seen his videos that now you can get them as takeaways in about 1 minute, but the line for the sit-down cafe was at least a half-hour long. Being late in the day and totally worn out, we decided to skip the sit-down and get them takeaway.  As you can see from Kathleen’s photo, we got them, but we had a REALLY long day getting them. I also might add that we bought two of them. One each. They were truly delicious and were absolutely better than any of the other eight or so we had eaten before this…but be warned. They are 10 euros each for about three bites. Worth it? Not really, except to say that you have eaten a Pastéis de Belém.

After our Pastéis de Belém we were back to the bus stop for a very long wait (it was so long that we considered doing an Uber back to the hotel) the bus showed up, and we headed back. One of the things we didn’t like about the tour to Belem is that you go back on the same route you went out on—nothing new to see here.

So, what’s the moral of the HoHo bus story? Don’t pre-buy 72 hours of touring. You never know what you will have time for. We could have saved some money and lessened our expectations if we had only purchased one day. And there was no discount for purchasing them early, just a warning that you might have to stand in line and wait to buy them. Nothing could have been further from the truth because we were able to get on and off with no line at every stop. It would have taken us about two minutes to buy our passes from the bus driver or one of the workers at the stops. Warning: This may not be true in the high season (March to October) when the crowds are heavier.

Fado Dinner

On the evening of our second full day, we booked a Fado dinner. Fado is the national music of Portugal. It is a sad, mournful music. We had heard so much about it that we decided to make reservations to see the show while we had dinner. The restaurant opened at 7:30, and of course, we were first in line. We were seated immediately and they brought bread, took our orders for soup, dinner and wine.

I need to note here (and Paul and Gail our British friends are laughing right now) that we are typical Americans and usually eat dinner at 5:30. So waiting to eat until 7:30 is really different for us. And it got worse. The wine, bread and soup showed up by 8:00, but then the Fado show started. Other Fado shows we had seen on YouTube had shown the servers continuing to bring food while the singing was going on but this Fado place (Club de Fado) did not allow that. They wanted total silence during the performance (and to be honest, that really made it better), but that also meant we didn’t see our entrées until sometime after 9:00.

To make matters worse, we saw others that had ordered after us served way before we had ours. In fact, the only way we finally got ours was by telling our waiter to go ahead and tally a bill with just the wine, soup, and bread, and we would be leaving. Guess how fast the entrées showed up? Almost instantly. We ate them and then headed back to the hotel before the second half of the show. By the time we were done eating, it was after 10:00, and we had to be up at 6:00 am for our tour of Sintra.

To top it off, the food just wasn’t that great. I guess when you are there for the show, the food doesn’t have to be that good. I took a few photos with my iPhone (I didn’t want to carry the big Nikon to dinner), and you can see them below. Since I took them with a phone, feel free to look a them on your phone.

Pre-dawn Photo Walk

Editor’s note: When I went to grab the photos from the bus ride, I discovered I had not shown you the results of my pre-dawn photo walk on Day 2, so please see below for those. They are much better than what I took during the day because it wasn’t really raining, and I could walk further because we weren’t getting on the HoHo bus until 9:30. Again, don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That was our complete second day in incredible Lisboa. Even with the clouds, rain and the late dinner, we had a great day. I think if we do it again, we would find a different Fado show. Off to bed late because tomorrow is our tour of the amazing Sintra. Come back for that.

Frankly, I’d rather go by bus.  —Prince Charles

Lisboa—more day 1

by | Dec 3, 2023 | Food Experiences, Photography

Yesterday, I got you through to a great breakfast at the beautiful  Hotel Portugal.  Our day only got better food-wise as we had planned a food tour with Eating Europe. We had previously done a food tour with them in Amsterdam a few years ago (they have tours in many European cities), and it was wonderful, so we thought we would try them again because the one in Amsterdam was so great. And this one was, as well.

We met our guide, Fred (his actual name is Frederico, but he says Fred is easier) at 10:00 am, and we’re off on a four-hour tour. Three hours were superb food samples around the city with Fred, and one hour was a Tuk-Tuk tour with Miguel (who really loves speed) as well. Tell me the truth. Does Fred not look like Linn-Manuel Miranda? And he has a lot of mannerisms that kept me thinking we were on our tour with Hamilton himself—one of the funniest and most fun guides we have had in all our time touring. We hope to see him again when we return to Lisbon next fall.

Our tour consisted of four stops for food and a one-hour Tuk-Tuk ride. We first stopped for an amazing pork sandwich with a glass of the local white wine, Vino Verde. Both were delicious. As we walked from there to where we would meet Miguel, Fred told us a lot about the history of Lisboa as well as the traditions about food. He was a totally knowledgeable guide who was also a great entertainer and as you will see in my photos, really up for anything.

Once we reached the plaza where the Tuk-Tuks were, we met Miguel, jumped (more like crawled) into his Tuk-Tuk, and off we went for a very crazy and bumpy ride up into the city’s hills. We stopped at a Roman ruin, an amazing overlook of the entire city and found that Miguel was almost as good a guide as Fred—just not as funny.

Our Tuk-Tuk ride took around an hour, and we finished at a restaurant that was high on one of those hills. This was one of the reasons we had decided on this particular tour. The other tours they offered didn’t have the Tuk-Tuk ride and warned of a lot of walking uphill and downhill. With Miguel and his Tuk-Tuk, we only had the downhill. Our second food stop featured two other Portuguese specialties. One was a coated and fried ball with tomato and basil filling; one was veal. Both were delicious and came with a special may0-mustard sauce. We also tried green beans with a tempura-style coating and we learned that the Portuguese had not only invented this type of coating but taken it to the Orient in the 1500s. Who knew?

After this lovely tidbit (nice word, unh?) served with sparkling wine, we started our trek downhill to our next restaurant, which was owned by a former Michelin-starred chef.  There, we tried an octopus salad (even better than the one I had the night before) and a codfish dish. Codfish is a staple in Portuguese cuisine. Fred told us that Portuguese chefs brag that there are 365 different codfish recipes that they can make, so you never have to have the same one twice in one year. Kathleen had skipped the octopus so the chef roasted her some veggies and they too were outstanding. She wasn’t really thrilled with the codfish dish (it wasn’t my favorite either) but by then we were getting full so it didn’t really matter.

While at this very cool restaurant, we saw a hilarious collection of art that is very famous in Portugal. It seems that more than a hundred years ago, after Portugal threw out Spanish rule, the king of Portugal sent a gift to the king of Spain. Of course, once you see the gift, you understand its significance. The king of Spain sent him back an even bigger one, and they continued for some time. Fred was happy to show us these “gifts,” and I have other photos showing the other sizes in my gallery below. The “gifts” are hollow and full of the “best wine of that country.” Often, they had a spigot (as this one does) to dispense the wine. This one that Fred is holding is the largest in the collection. And they had a special surprise on the bottom to make everyone happy. You will have to look at the other pics to find out what it was. And by the way, did I mention that Fred was a total ham?

After our entrée and art show, we were off to dessert back in the old city at the bottom of the hill. It was the Portuguese egg tart known as a pastéis. These tarts are everywhere in Lisboa. By the time we got to this one, we had consumed at least six of them in the hotel at breakfast. On our Sunday tour, we would travel all the way to the suburb of Belem to get one of the originals (and yes, it is worth the trip, and the one you get there IS better than any other). Fred told us the place he took us had the “second-best pastéis in Lisboa, and we agree.

Here are the rest of the photos from the food tour with captions to explain their significance. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the tour (and still suffering from jet lag), we went back to the hotel for a short nap. Kathleen extended her nap into the evening and stayed in to surf the web and keep track of what was happening in the world. I, on the other hand, went out to take photos of the amazing Christmas decorations all over the city. I took a ton of photos, so I will let Lisboa speak for itself. I will just say that this city LOVES Christmas, and when they decorate, they DECORATE! And we didn’t think we would see Christmas Markets until we got to Prague. Were we ever wrong? Here, there seems to be one in every square, and there are big squares everywhere. Here are my photos with very few captions because they’re just the WOW decorations. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

That about does it for Day 1. As you can tell, we were BUSY! Back with Day 2 soon.

Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.  —Edna Ferber

Let me sum up…

by | Oct 19, 2023 | Food Experiences

This should be the last post on our Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami. I hope you have enjoyed following along and the photos I have posted. I promised a final review of what we liked and didn’t. Also, since Oceania has decided to become more Viking Ocean-like with their new Simply More inclusions, I will finish by comparing the two. They both desire to occupy the same space and attract the same cruisers.

When doing this post, I consulted all seven members of our party, and they mostly agreed with me. And please—realize these are my perceptions. Not yours. If you had a different experience on your cruise, let me know, but don’t challenge me on my opinion of what I experienced.

What we loved…

  • Obviously, the food. Oceania promises the best food at sea, and in 90% of their venues, they succeed. Every single place to eat was as good or better than any place I have eaten on any other ship. If cruising is all about food for you—you want Oceania.
  • The new-ship smell. Kathleen came up with the description. It was great to sail on a ship that was only six months old. Everything was bright and shiny. Of course, this won’t be true in a couple of years, but if you get on board this year, you should have the same experience.
  • Service was incredible. We haven’t had service like this in quite a few cruises. Besides the crew members themselves their training, the way they are treated and how they are managed. What a massive contrast to our last cruise on HAL’s Koningsdam, where no one was trained to do their job, and some of the things they did were just dangerous.
  • Vista is beautiful. Great design. Some nice art. Just about every part of this ship is gorgeous to look at.
  • The shower in my brother’s stateroom. I’m not sure if he had a different shower than we did; I do get it. He is a big guy, and a big shower is important to him. Sadly, I disagreed because that oversized shower (a big square) meant there was less room in the rest of the stateroom and less storage space.

What we thought needed improvement…

  • Their entire system for doing WiFi. Come on, Oceania. It makes me log in and out and kick my wife off. Even worse, it meant she couldn’t text me if she wanted to ask me something or let me know where she was. I totally realize that the new Simply More program (which includes two device logins) will be an improvement. But if you have more than one device on the ship with you (a phone, tablet and computer), you will have to log off one to get on the other. That means I have to log off or kick myself off before I can receive something else on the new device. Give us WiFi like every other cruise line if you get “FREE” WiFi. Quick messing with it. Even the guy in the digital center hates it. He said it is his biggest complaint. And from what I have seen on Cruise Critic, it hasn’t worked very well since the Simply More changeover.
  • Speaking of technology—they need to get an app! Every major cruise line has an app that you can text in (without having an internet package), you can see the daily program, you can check your account, you can see the menus for that evening, and so much more. In 2023, not having your own app says you are just stupid and living in the last century.
  • The elevators. I touched on this when I wrote about the ship’s public areas, but the elevators are ridiculous, and for a new ship, they broke down far too often. Thankfully, I don’t believe anyone got stuck in one, but there are just not enough of them. Sadly, they can do nothing about this, but they can improve it on future ships.
  • Very few spaces where you can see the sea. For a cruise line named after the ocean, they didn’t want you to see the ocean when they designed this ship. If you don’t have a verandah, you can’t see the ocean until you are on deck 12. Below that, the only place you can see off the ship is the Grand Dining Room. That’s nuts. All the other windows on decks five and six are covered with drapes, and there is no access to outdoor decks, let alone an actual promenade deck that encircles the ship. Again, this is one thing they can’t improve on Vista but should make note of for future ships.
  • The AC can’t keep up. If you are in the Aquamar Kitchen, the Waves Grille and most of the Terrace Cafe and doing a warm-weather cruise—you better love hot and humid temps. Both the Aquamar and the Grille are open to the outside and have no air conditioning that we could see. On cold days, they have heaters but not even fans for hot days. On our last sea day before we got to Miami, the temperature was in the high eighties/low nineties and the humidity was close to 90%. Finding a place to sit in the buffet where you didn’t get a blast of hot, humid air whenever someone came into or went out of the room was challenging. If you are from Florida, this probably won’t bother you, but those of us from the northern climates were dying.
  • Someplace to sit. There is really no place to sit and have a pre-dinner cocktail that doesn’t have music playing in it. Piano player in Martinis, dance band in Horizons and string quartet in the Grand Lounge. This is especially true if you want to get together with new or old friends and talk.   But this problem is one they can fix now. Just play excellent background music (like they play all day) in Martinis. No Bill Murray-style lounge singer with a grating voice who tries to drown out every single conversation. That should do it. If people want a quiet conversation pre-dinner, the only nice lounge is the Smoker’s Lounge. So many convert that to a regular lounge and just make the entire ship non-smoking?

That’s about it. See, we really had a great cruise. Yes, we missed two ports, but O gave us a future cruise credit for the one they were responsible for, and the other was due to weather, so it was not their fault. On the list of all our cruises, I would put it up with our HAL cruise on Nieuw Statendam or one of our early cruises with Celebrity until they decided they didn’t like cruisers our age anymore.

Let’s Compare

Over the last six months, Oceania has been bringing out its Simply More program that incorporates much of what Viking Ocean Cruises does. It adds free wine and beer at dinner, free internet (but only two devices at a time per stateroom) and more. So clearly, Oceania sees itself competing with Viking Ocean for the same clientele.

Since we left Celebrity, we have been looking for a new cruise line to lend our loyalty to. And so far it has come down to Oceania (O) or Viking Ocean (VO). So, since both O and I have decided to make a comparison, here is ours based on this 15-night cruise on O’s newest ship and our 21-night cruise on the slightly older Viking Sky last year around this time. Here’s how I see it. Again, please realize that this is MY PERCEPTION. If you had a different experience, please let me know but don’t attack my reality.

  • Stateroom Design (Viking wins). Staterooms on Viking for close to the same price are much bigger—there is a ton more storage space, which is important on longer cruises that we seem to take now.
  • Bathroom Design (Viking Wins). Even though my brother likes his shower better on Oceania, I like the bathroom layout much better. No wasted floor space
  • Internet (Viking Wins). I think I have been over this enough. From the minute we got on board Viking until the minute we got off, we had complete WiFi on every device we owned. I am not even sure if Viking offers an internet upgrade.
  • Cruise Ship App (Viking Wins). Oceania has no app. Viking’s isn’t perfect, but I can at least see what is going on during the day without a paper copy, and I can check menus around the ship and text each other.
  • Elevators (Viking Wins). Enough said. Kathleen never had to wait for an elevator on Viking. Ever.
  • Lounges (Viking Wins). There were a number of places we could get a quiet drink and have a conversation.
  • Closed-in Ship (Viking Wins). You can see the ocean from almost any public space on a Viking Ocean ship. Not true on Vista, where you can’t see it until you get to deck 12.
  • Promenade Deck (Viking Wins). If I am on deck five and want to know what the weather is like, I have to wait until I get back up to my stateroom to find out. There is no place below deck 12 (other than my verandah) where I can step outside. Plus, as a walker, I much prefer a walking track that is partially protected. With Vista’s being on deck 15, they closed on a number of days to walkers and joggers because of strong winds.
  • Interior furnishings (Viking Wins). This is really a matter of taste, but I just love Viking Ocean’s Scandinavian design. Much of Vista’s public space was beautiful, but some bordered on gaudy. I said bordered (the lighting in the Grand Lounge was really close to Vegas).
  • Horizons/Explorer’s Lounge (Viking Wins). Horizons is a cocktail lounge/dance hall. Explorer’s Lounge on Viking is on two levels. The top one is for quiet reading (I did most of my writing and photo processing up there), and the lower level has a bar and excellent seats for conversation.
  • The entire spa (Viking Wins). I am the first to admit that even though we were in a Concierge stateroom, I never tried the Aquamar Spa, but in my mind, Viking wins this one because everyone has access for free. Not just those in Concierge or above staterooms.
  • Outside activities (Oceania Wins). Deck 15 and 16 had so much you could do on sea days it wasn’t even funny. From bocce to shuffleboard, from pickleball to mini golf (not to mention the golf simulator and cornhole), it was a veritable playground for those wanting an outdoor diversion. If I had one criticism, it would be that they need more barriers to the wind as they had to close these decks fairly often at sea…which defeats the purpose.
  • Culinary Center (Oceania Wins). I don’t even think Viking has a Culinary Center. It is undoubtedly a draw for me.
  • Smoking Lounge (Oceania Wins). If you want to smoke on Viking, go outside in the weather. Vista’s Smoking Lounge is gorgeous. How about both cruise lines ban smoking entirely, and then Vista can open up her Smoking Lounge to people who want to gather before dinner and not hear music?
  • Casino (Viking Wins). Because they don’t have one. The space they saved by getting rid of their casino went into the Wintergarden, a beautiful room where anyone can gather. With Viking, we were drawn to the things they don’t have as much as to the things they do. No kids under 18, no casino, no ship photographers, no upsell in the spa, no indoor smoking, etc.
  • Artist’s Loft (Oceania Wins). Another great extra on Vista. I didn’t use it, but it was jammed every single day.
  • Complimentary pressing (Viking Wins). Oceania said we got pressing of our clothes when we arrived. There were coupons in our stateroom. Five of them. That means that you can have five things pressed. On Viking (in the PV–the stateroom we had), you got free pressing all the way through the entire cruise.
  • Free Laundry (Viking wins). We got about the same amount of free laundry on both ships, but the note on Vista said that it could take “up to three days.” Well, if I have three pairs of pants and two are dirty and I send them to be laundered and then I spill something on the one I kept, I am out of luck for three days. I do realize that they were under-promising and over-delivering because many who sent their laundry out got it back one day later. But I can’t take that chance.
  • Launderettes (tie). Both have great self-serve laundries, although the ironing boards on Vista could be bigger.
  • Beds (Oceania wins). This is a hands-down thing. My bed on Viking was almost unusable. It was way too hard for me. Our bed on Vista was excellent (Kathleen thought the pillows sucked, but they didn’t bother me that much).
  • Ships across the entire line (Viking Wins). We were on Vista, Oceania’s newest ship. The entire line has seven ships, with one on the way in 2025. We have heard that Vista, Marina and Riviera are all about the same size and have the same features. But the other four are old R-class ships with some of the tiniest staterooms in all of cruising.—175 square feet in their verandah staterooms, and their Penthouse Suites are only 260 square feet—they call that a suite? Our Concierge verandah on Vista was 250 square feet. The staterooms on those ships are just too small. And those ships were all built in the 1990s. That’s just too old. Viking has 11 ships, with one on the way in 2025. They are all identical—seriously. You go on one, you go on all of them. And all were built since 2014, with four of them going into service since 2022.
  • Deposit and Final Payment Due Dates (Oceania wins). This is a total given. Viking is notorious for having the earliest final payment dates in all of cruising. For instance, if I buy a Viking cruise today (October 2023) that will sail in December 2024, my Viking Ocean final payment will probably be due on December 31, 2023. But by the same token, Oceania’s final payment will be due 90 days before the cruise sales. Of course, you can still get all your money back from Viking before 120 days with only a $100 PP booking fee loss (and you can apply those to another cruise), but the biggest complaint I hear from Viking cruisers or those who want to cruise with Viking but haven’t tried them yet is this early final payment date. When someone asks me why they have that early a date, I tell them, “Because they can.” Their passengers are amazingly loyal. If people stopped booking Viking or their ships were sailing empty, this might change. But as of now, it isn’t.

Food! I thought this deserved a special category all its own

  •  Grand Dining Room/Main Dining Room (Oceania wins). I HATE Viking’s dining room. There were low ceilings and a staff (at least on our cruise) who was totally disorganized, not to mention some food that wasn’t really that good. O wins here big time.
  • Specialty Restaurants (Oceania Wins). Was there ever a doubt? There are only two on Viking—Manfredis and Chef’s Table. Manfredis is a sorry excuse for an Italian restaurant, and the Chef’s Table has a fixed menu. It changes every few days. If you don’t like what you get when you go on the day of your reservation, you are stuck. I was stuck. All four Vista specialty restaurants are better than either of these.
  • Grille (Viking Wins). Surprise. But the Grille on Viking is so much better than the Waves Grille (for lunch) that it isn’t even close.
  • Buffet (Tie). I almost gave it to Oceania here, but cold desserts and serving entirely the same menu two nights in a row knocked it down to a tie.
  • Mamsens/Baristas (Oceania). I have to get this to Baristas. I love Mamsens, but Baristas’s pastries and coffees are so much better.
  • Aquamar Kitchen (Oceania Wins). Because there is nothing like it on a Viking ship. And I want to eat lunch there every single day.
  • Pricing (Tie): Here’s a comparison of two different cruises in three types of staterooms.

Here’s a price comparison on a 2024 New England cruise. This is much like the one we did, minus Miami and Charleston.

  • Viking Penthouse Verandah (338 square feet) for 15 nights in New England is $8999 per person. Per Night cost on Viking is $599 pp
  • Oceania Concierge Verandah (173 square feet) 18 nights New England on Nautica (one of the older ships) $10,599 per person. Per Night costs $588 pp
  • Oceania Penthouse suite (260 Square feet) $13799 pp, $766 per night pp.

Or I did a Mediterranean cruise in the same time frame. Comparing a Rivera–10-night Med cruise in the fall of 2024 with a 15-night cruise in the Med on any Viking ship.

  • On Viking: Penthouse Verandah for 15 nights Med (338 square feet) $ 11809 Per night $739 pp
  • On Oceania: Concierge Veranda Stateroom (242 square feet): $6299 pp Per night  $629.
  • Penthouse Suite (420 square feet) $ 7599 pp Per night $759

Yes, each line offers different things with their base price, and they aren’t all the same. I met a guy on Vista, an accountant who does an Excel spreadsheet for all their cruises. I am not that interested. A few dollars either way doesn’t make that big a difference to us. Ultimately, it all comes down to what is important to you. If it’s food, sail with Oceania (stick to their bigger ships), but if it is pretty much everything other than their final payment stuff, try Viking. All that said, we have future cruises booked with both of them, so I guess we are still deciding.

Reality doesn’t bite, rather our perception of reality bites.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo

 

 

 

Speciality Restaurants…one is truly special

by | Oct 18, 2023 | Food Experiences

Vista has four specialty restaurants. Unlike most cruise lines, you get to eat there for free. No charge! But you have to make a reservation—in advance. Everyone gets four guaranteed—one in each restaurant. Unlike Viking, where you could get into one of their two specialty restaurants almost any night you tried. We tried to get another reservation for Toscana, but we couldn’t. We really wanted it, but all they could offer us was 8:30 p.m. on the last night of the cruise. We were not doing that one. So the message here is: if you want to eat in a particular restaurant on a particular night, be online on the day you can make reservations at midnight EST and make them. I was lucky enough to get ones that worked well for us.

Before telling you about the four of them, I want to reiterate the Steve Test from yesterday’s post.

The Steve Test

After our disastrous Celebrity Millenium cruise in May of 2022, my brother Steve came up with a way to rate food and restaurants on a cruise better than I have ever been able to do it myself. From then on, I have called this the Steve Test. Here it is: If you eat in a food venue on a ship, be it the main dining room, buffet, grille or a specialty restaurant, and that restaurant were near you once you got home, would you go there again?  

That’s pretty simple. I think it is the best way I have ever heard of to rate food on cruise ships, and I will rate each venue (and, in the case of some of them, by the dish or meal) using the Steve Test.

Ember

Ember (I keep wanting to put an S on the end of it and name it EmberS) is a new restaurant that is only onboard Vista. On Marina and Riviera, you get the French Bistro, Jacques, named after Oceania’s menu-planning chef, Jacques Pepin. So we didn’t get high-end French food; we got slightly higher-end Applebees food. Check out the sample menu on the Oceania website , which will give you an idea of what we ate that night. I had the lobster roll appetizer (mostly bread, very little lobster), salt-crusted beetroot salad (it was “fine”), the pork chop (Mine was OK but the sauce was watery, Mike’s was tough), a side of “potato dippers” with no dip??? Not sure what that was about. I finished up with the fried Beignets (dry as a bone with very little sauce underneath them). All-in-all, it was a very unimpressive meal.

Even though it wasn’t my favorite meal on board, I do want to thank the maitre’d Raja (also the head of house in the Aquamar Cafe during the day) for taking such good care of us. When I made the reservation, I could only get a table for five and another for two. When I saw Raja in the Aquamar in the afternoon, he came up to me and addressed me by name and told me he would have a table for seven ready for us that night—that is service!

My Steve Test Rating: Not a chance. Worst of the four specialty restaurants. Just not impressed at all. Would I go again—nope, I don’t eat at Applebees. Never have, never will. How bad was it? I didn’t even take a photo. Go down and eat at almost any American restaurant. You will see just what the food looks like. I can’t wait to try Jacque’s on Riviera. They should replace Ember with it as soon as possible.

The Polo Grille

This is Vista’s steak house. I need to say upfront that I am not a steakhouse person. If I want a steak, I will grille my own. We don’t eat that much beef—balsalmic ribs on Christmas Eve, etc. But I can count on one hand the number of times I have ever ordered a steak in a land-based restaurant…in my life.

I thought this was the most impressive restaurant, ambience-wise. High on deck 14, with wrap-around windows and low lighting, it is beautiful if you come in pre-sunset. We barely got here in time to see the sun disappear. We didn’t appreciate that this was the only restaurant where they didn’t have a table for seven for us. They basically just pulled up another chair to a table for six. This made eating a little painful. The number of dishes they brought to the table would not fit on the table. Sides had to be quickly scooped onto entrée plates. And don’t stick your elbows out, whatever you do. Here’s a link to the menu on Oceania’s website. I had the escargot, no soup or salad (None of the selections appealed to me), the rack of lamb (they were “fine” as rack of lamb goes), the truffle parmesan fries and the roasted asparagus spears. For dessert, I had the Polo Quartet. This is a small sample of all their best desserts. It included their chocolate fudge brownie, key lime pie, Bailey’s cheesecake and Granny Smith Apple Crumb Pie—the best part of the meal.

Here are some quick pics of some of what we ate.

My Steve Test Rating: Since I don’t eat at steakhouses, I am not the one to ask about the Polo Grille. My brother loves steakhouses and often orders a good steak. I will let him give the rating on this one—I just texted him. He said he would go back, but it would depend on how much it cost. So I asked him if he had to choose between the Capital Grille and Polo, which would he choose if the prices were close. He said Captial Grille—hands down. Maybe compared to Sizzler ??

Red Ginger

Red Ginger is Vista’s Asian restaurant. Before we went, if I told someone we were going on Oceania, they would tell me that I would LOVE Red Ginger. That it was the best Asian restaurant they had ever eaten in. Having eaten there, I wouldn’t say it was the best Asian restaurant I have eaten in, but it was very good.

The ambiance in Red Ginger and Ember (located on Deck 5) is nowhere near as good as in Polo Grille and Toscana. Mainly because you can’t see the ocean. But that’s OK. The food made up for it. If you have been to Red Ginger, you know that their most loved dish is a watermelon and duck salad. I am sure it is wonderful but I despise watermelon, and Kathleen is highly allergic to duck, so we didn’t even try the dish everyone raves about. And I am not a big soup fan, either. So that meant I got to try three appetizers instead of a soup and salad course. Yummy! Here’s a link to the Red Ginger menu. So you can see what I didn’t eat.

I started with a special appetizer that isn’t on the sample menu featuring my favorite food—octopus. I followed that with the spring roll and then the crisp ginger calamari. I think the pic of the ahi was Steve’s, but I am not sure. My entrée was an easy choice as they had soft-shell crab on the menu, a dish I have loved since I had it in Bangkok. Theirs was excellent. I finished it all up with a steamed ginger cake. All-in-all, a wonderful and tasty meal. Here are a few photos from around the table.

My Steve Test Rating: I would eat there on a monthly basis if this place were nearby. Just about every dish was better than what we get when we go out for Asian food. The local place has much the same type of menu, but Red Ginger just seemed to up the game on every dish. For example, instead of calamari, they gave it a slight twist and added a bunch of ginger. Nice touch.

Toscana

Way up on Deck 14 aft, on the opposite side of the ship from the Polo Grille, sits one of the best Italian restaurants I have ever been to. Usually, we don’t go out for Italian food. That’s because I make a lot of Italian food. So I went to Toscana expecting another great Oceania meal. What I got was a wonderful Italian dining experience. One that I would put up against any place we have eaten in our four trips to Italy.

It wasn’t just the food (which was amazing) but also the service and the bread and the olive oil and balsamic pairings (by the wonderful Massimo from Milano) and so much more. This was more than a meal; it was the way I want to be treated at every restaurant I ever go to. Viking Ocean has an Italian restaurant called Manfredis. Toscana and Manfredis should never be mentioned in the same sentence (shame on me for doing it here).

They will blow you away from the moment you arrive. You sit down; they bring you one of the most amazing bread services I have ever seen. Then they put bowls of superb parmesan cheese (big hunks of it) on the table for you to share. Massimo comes by to pair any of seven or eight incredible olive oils with any of five or six balsamic vinegars to dip your bread in. Then, the wonderful sommelier comes over and recommends some great Italian wine. While you are sipping that, your server takes your order. When you tell him that you would really love to try the lasagne, but you don’t want to eat an entire order of it, and a few others around the table say the same thing, he says he will take care of it. Later in the meal, four entire orders of lasagne show up for the seven people. We all say we will try a bite, but when we finish dinner, there is very little left.

Let’s get on with the rest of the food, though. Click here to see the Toscana menu. I started with the stuffed artichoke. It was just fine, but it was the only thing I had that night that I wouldn’t order again. Then I sampled (devoured) the lasagne and topped it off with my entrée—the best dish I had on the entire cruise on Vista, the Agnello Arrosto.

Seriously it was that good. Here’s the description from the menu: “roasted stuffed lamb loin, spicy soppressata sausage, spinach, aubergine stiletto, tomato jam.” That sounded amazing to me when I read it, but to be honest, it was all about the sauce. I would give my right arm for the recipe for that sauce. But everything just came together for that dish. I can’t say more great things about it.

How good was it? I didn’t even have dessert. I didn’t even think about dessert. What I really wanted for dessert was another serving of roasted lamb, which was beyond amazing. When you do another Oceania cruise, forget the other specialty restaurants. I will book Toscana for four nights and order the lamb. Maybe the photos will make you even hungrier.

My Steve Test Rating: If this restaurant were within 100 miles of here, it would be our “celebration restaurant.” It is the kind of place you go for your birthday or anniversary. If it was within 30 miles, I might go once every other week if I could afford it. I have to try and find out how they make that sauce. But it was more than just than just that one dish. It was the entire experience. I would sail on Vista again to have that Toscana experience one more time. 

I think that about covers food on Vista. If you have any questions about the food or the restaurants, please ask away.

Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale.
—Elsa Schiaparelli

 

 

 

 

It’s All About the Food

by | Oct 17, 2023 | Food Experiences

As is the case on so many cruises, it’s all about the food. There is something about being able to eat out at a restaurant every single night during a vacation, and they never bring you the check (except for drinks).

Within the cruise industry, it is common knowledge that Oceania is known to have the “best cuisine at sea.” Is this true? My judgment is that I expected too much and that 90% of their food is better than 90% of the food on other cruise lines. Other lines we have been on have had some dishes or meals that have stood out over the years. The original United States Dining Room on Celebrity’s Infinity was amazing, as was Qsine before Celebrity ruined it with their stupid Petit Chef. Some meals in Club Orange on Nieuw Statendam were as good as anything we ate on Vista. The grille on Viking Sky is better than the Waves Grille on Vista. But all in all, Vista has better food overall.

The Steve Test

After our disastrous Celebrity Millenium cruise in May of 2022, my brother Steve came up with a way to rate food and restaurants on a cruise better than I have ever been able to do it myself. From then on, I have called this the Steve Test. Here it is: If you eat in a food venue on a ship, be it the main dining room, buffet, grille or a specialty restaurant, and that restaurant were near you once you got home, would you go there again?  

That’s pretty simple, right? I think it is the best way I have ever heard of to rate food on cruise ships and I will rate each venue (and, in the case of some of them, by the dish or meal) using the Steve Test.

Please keep in mind that the Steve Test Ratings below are my ratings. Steve will (I hope) chime in with a comment about what he thinks passed his test.

Editor’s Note: Since this is about the food, I struggled to figure out how to cover it. I didn’t want just to list things we ate. So let’s take it venue by venue. And sorry, but I don’t have the menus for every restaurant, but my buddy Mike will when he does his review. I am more about taking “pretty pictures,” and Mike is about remembering that you want to read the menus. I will post a link as soon as his review is up. Is it done yet, Mike?

The Grand Dining Room

This is the best place to start. We ate dinner here our first three nights and never went back. It wasn’t that we didn’t like the food. It was because they had just about the same food in the buffet, and when we went to the buffet, we didn’t have to dress up and put on hard-sole shoes. We also found that dinner took so much longer there. If we went to dinner when the dining room opened at 6:30, we never got out of there before 8:30. Sometimes that is fine, but when you are going to bed at 9:00, it leaves you stuffed and feeling bloated when you are trying to sleep. We also found that we ate too much. We would be seated; they would bring out some bread to keep us going while we went over the menus. They would take our order and bring more bread. We would eat it. They would bring the appetizers…and more bread. Then the same thing through the salad course, the soup course and finally the entrées. The only course without bread of some kind was dessert. And yes, I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to bread of any kind. So we switched to the buffet for dinner.

I will say here that the dining room food and ambiance were far superior to Viking Ocean or pretty much any cruise ship dining room we have eaten in for quite a while. Here are some of the dishes we had in the Grand Dining Room. I tried to remember what they were, but it’s been two weeks. I will mention if they were either exceptional, bewildering or just bad. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping.

We also had breakfast in the Grand Dining Room once because they serve lamb chops for breakfast, and we all had to try that—because we all love lamb—at least Steve and I do. Here’s the pics on that.

My Steve Test Rating: Nope, not special enough. Nothing really stood out. If this restaurant were next door to my house, I wouldn’t go back.

The Terrace Cafe

In the buffet, we found pretty much the same food as the dining room but in a more relaxed setting, and we also found (much to our surprise) that we ate less. For one thing, a lot less bread. We would all go grab a salad or some sushi, have that, and then instead of eating bread and waiting for the next course, we would just walk back and get an entrée or two. When we were done with that, we went back and grabbed a dessert. And all of it was excellent food.

We did have a couple of quibbles. First, the desserts were always cold. Even cobblers and bread puddings that should have been served warm were kept cold on purpose. It ruined a bunch of very good desserts. Second, sometimes, they would repeat menus/theme evenings. The last two nights had the exact same menu, and we actually think that some parts of what was available that evening were just leftovers from the night before. Sadly, this is what their parent company, Norwegian Cruise Line, is doing with their top-tier Haven product. They have the same menu every night in their Haven dining room, so why not migrate that idea to Oceania? It would also be nice if they had a couple of other large tables. With seven of us, we had only two tables in the buffet where we could all fit. Steve and Jamie would often go up and save one of those two big tables so we could all eat together. Other than those three rather minor things, we loved the Terrace Cafe.

The thing I really loved the most, Terrace, was the service they gave our buddy Jocelyn, who was walking with a cane. Almost every time she would go to get some food, she would come back to the table with no plate in her hand…but she would be followed by a server or maitre’d with her plate in their hand. I loved how they took such great care of her—heck, of all of us.

My Steve Test Rating: I would go back…for certain items and for the amazing selection of things. There was never a night (not even when we had the same menu two nights in a row) that I couldn’t find something I really wanted to try.

I also need to mention one amazing meal that we ate in the Terrace Cafe. Other than our night at Toscana, this was the most memorable food I had on board. I wish they had done this menu again and again. I would have eaten there every day. It was a Mexican-themed lunch. And the Chocolate Mole’ Braised Short Ribs were the second best dish I had on the entire cruise…from any Vista restaurant. It is really hard to get a chocolate mole’ sauce to work. So many chefs try it but Vista’s chef hit the ball out of the park. That plus there were a lot of other great Latin-American dishes as well.

My Steve Test Rating: If I could get this dish at home, that would be the only restaurant I would ever eat in again. Well, maybe not the only one, but I would get really fat if I could drive to this within an hour.

The Aquamar Cafe

My incredible Poke Bowl

This is a new eating venue for Oceania (or so I think–please correct me if I am wrong) and other than the design (open-air to the outdoors) it is one of my favorites. The idea is healthy alternatives for breakfast and lunch. We never ate breakfast here but I can tell you, when these guys do healthy lunch, the knock it out of the park. We ended up eating lunch here at least eight days out of 15. Maybe more. They had a poke bowl that knocked my socks off. Easily in the top three things I ate onboard. They also had some of the best sweet potato fries with chipolte mayo. Only problem was, you had to order them again and again because they never brought enough ?. The crispy chicken burger was Kathleen’s favorite. I had it once and really liked it but it was really hard for me to eat there without having that Poke Bowl. Here’s a few pics.

My Steve Test Rating: I could eat lunch at the Aquamar Cafe every day for the rest of my life. If it were next door to my house, I might never go anyplace else. Oceania hit it out of the park with this restaurant for lunch.

Waves Grille

On the opposite side of the ship from the Aquamar Cafe was the Waves Grille. They were really two restaurants in one. At lunch, they served burgers, paninis, one specialty dish (paella, chili, BBQ chicken, etc.) and had an ice cream counter. In the evenings, they turned into a great little pizza place with some pretty great pizza.

As a grille at lunch, I wasn’t impressed. Nice place (very crowded), burgers were OK. Paninis were “fine.” Fries (thick steak fries) couldn’t hold a candle to the sweet potato fries in the Aquamar Cafe. You could get the ice cream at the buffet, and the two times I had the specialty dish, I was unimpressed.

But at dinner, their pizzas were excellent. They do New York style, but the crust was a little too thin for me. But the choices were excellent, and one of our favorite parts was that you could order a pizza and have it delivered to the buffet next door. One night, we decided to do a pizza night, but there is not a single table that would hold seven of us in the Grille. So we took up our regular table in the buffet (just inside the door to the grille) and ordered one of every kind of pizza they made. They gave us a number, asked where we were sitting and brought us every pizza…and a BBQ beef flatbread that was WONDERFUL!

My Steve Test Rating: For lunch—FAIL! I would not go there for burgers. The grille on Viking Sky was far superior. But for dinner, their pizza was really good and that night was one of the most fun meals we had. That said, I probably wouldn’t go back there either—I make better pizza ?.

That’s going to be it for today. What’s left here are the four specialty restaurants on Vista. I have some work to do today, and I want to get this post online. So tomorrow morning, I will hit those and then the final review and comparison.

There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
—George Bernard Shaw

Vista’s Culinary Center—two of us took a class

by | Oct 16, 2023 | Food Experiences

This is a short bonus post for anyone who, like me, likes to cook. Vista has a culinary center on deck 14 forward that ranks with any facility that I have ever taken a cooking class in.

Prior to the cruise, I signed up for the only cooking class available in the online reservation section for our cruise. I had hoped to do a few classes, but the one I ended up taking was all that was available for pre-cruise booking. We later found out from the instructor that there are usually spaces left for some to book on board and that there are cancellations as well. So, if you aren’t able to reserve the class you want or as many classes as you want, check with the reservations desk on Deck 5 when you are on board. Happily, the one class I signed up for, Cathy, signed up for as well—so I had a cooking buddy.

The cost for the class was $79, and that included two hours of instruction by our amazing teacher, Noelle, cooking and having fun, as well as eating what we made. To say that this class was well organized, that the facility was impressive and that the instructor was excellent would all be a gross understatement. All those things were true.

Our class was called “Lovers Together” or something like that. Cathy and I kept teasing Mike and Kathleen that they better come up and keep an eye on us. But the “Lovers” the class description referenced were the wine pairings—when wine and food are “Lovers.” I know—stupid marketing speak. Just say Wine and Food pairings.

I would guess by now you get the fact that this class and facility were top-notch. Forget the fact that we are on a ship; I would take classes here (at a great price) at sea or on land—just an amazing experience. If you like to cook, take a class on an Oceania cruise. You won’t be disappointed. Another great thing about these classes is that Noelle had three assistants who would set us up with everything we needed for the next course and clear out our refuse from the previous course while Noelle would have us come forward for instruction.

Here are some photos I took (with my phone) of the culinary center, the food we made and the class itself. I put captions on these so you will know what you are seeing.

After photography, cooking is my second favorite hobby and I love experimenting and taking cooking classes. These were great. The instructor was super helpful and answered all our questions including helping us with possible substitutions. That’s a great teacher—willing to adapt.

Be back tomorrow or Wednesday with my final review.

I’m not a chef. But I’m passionate about food – the tradition of it, cooking it, and sharing it.   —Zac Posen