Cruises
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 — This is our recollection of the first time we enjoyed Barcelona, four years ago… Drive in from a beautiful seaside resort. Pay a small fortune to park the car, somewhere near the tourist haven known as La Rambla. Wander the narrow streets. Get lost. Stumble across a church that's been in a [...]
ON THE MEDITERRANEAN — It was opening night in the theater on the new Oceania Riviera. No doubt there would be stage jitters, if not fright. The show was the music of Sir Elton John and Billy Joel and never mind that the performers wouldn't look like EJ and BJ, as long as they more [...]
ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA — So how does a Greek girl from the Southern United States become the Godmother for life of a cruise ship that will visit, among other places, her ancestral home? She becomes Cat Cora. There is likely a whole segment of the population that doesn't know who Cat Cora is. That [...]
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
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 [...]
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
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
News item: It's estimated that more than one-billion people will tune in for this year's Olympic Games in the host city of London, and Celebrity Cruises has arranged the rare opportunity for guests sailing on its modern luxury fleet to be among them. Question: Does Jacques Rogge know about this? Monsieur Rogge is the [...]
Continue reading about Celebrity Cruises and the Olympic Way