Cruise News
ONBOARD THE OCEANIA RIVIERA — When you talk the talk, you have to be able to walk the walk, right? So when Oceania confidently states its ships have the "finest cuisine at sea"…everybody involved with the cuisine has to be able to "wok the wok." This is especially true when the ship is the [...]
Continue reading about Riviera’s Food Reputation on the Line
BARCELONA — The Oceania Riviera was our christening christening, which is to say our first. If you're like us and you've never been able to enjoy the spectacle of seeing a cruise ship become official, what follows will give you a rough idea what happens… The ceremony begins with the pre-ceremony. Acrobats tie themselves [...]
Continue reading about Oceania Riviera Christening Cat’s Meow
ON THE MEDITERRANEAN — They call it a "christening" when a cruise ship sails for the first time and, religious conflicts aside, it's probably the right term. The word dovetails nicely with cruising, the ship gets a ceremonial bath, and its name becomes official. For the Oceania Riviera, this will happen tomorrow, in Barcelona, and [...]
Continue reading about Oceania Riviera: Big Day in Barcelona
MARSEILLE, France — We loved this first-ever Mediterranean seaport the last time we were here. Then we remembered why. We'd been travelling the roads of France with two teenagers and a pre-teen, squishing five people in hotel rooms built for four (or less), and when we arrived in Marseille, the people at the Novotel [...]
Continue reading about Marseilles: Two Ports Busier Than Ever
Norwegian's new ship, due next year, is going to have the first water park at sea to encourage you, as parents, to take the whole family cruising on the Breakaway. Several ships have water slides and the same strategy. So how many slides does it take to make a water park? According to the NCL [...]
Now here's a novel way to help the stricken people of Haiti, still devastated by that 7.0 earthquake more than two years ago. Send a party to explore Haiti's rich history on its northern shore, where the cruise ships land, to see if shore excursions can contribute to rebuilding the country's equally devastated tourism [...]
Hands up, if you know somebody who has or has had cancer. Hands down, if you've thought about eating better because of it. We've never been vegetarians. One of us (hands up) is more of a carnivore than she is. Yet we have both felt the urge, or need, to become "more vegetarian" because, frankly, [...]
Again, a sobering moment about cruising. Again, a news item that makes people nervous about going…anywhere. Again, a reminder about the world we live in today. In case you missed it, police in Germany questioned a 22-year-old Austrian who a year ago this month was returning from Pakistan and discovered — after weeks of breaking [...]
Continue reading about Cruise Ship Safety Moving to New Level
Anybody who has been on a cruise ship and who has taken the time to find out already knows that cruise lines strive to be environmentally responsible, in as many ways as possible. Times have changed. Raw waste is no longer dumped into the ocean. Garbage from ships is no longer dumped into bins [...]
Only in the family of cruise ships can siblings be born 15 months apart and be called twins. As parents of boys born 14 months apart, it seems like a reasonable time to have an addition to the family, although we do recall the comments of well-meaning individuals that it was, er, a little [...]
Continue reading about Oceania Cruises: The Twins Are Alright