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| Schweppes tonic |
So why a photo of tonic? One part of traveling we both enjoy is learning about food products (and packaging) in other parts of the world. Many years ago during our travels we learned about Indian tonic, difficult if not impossible to find in the States. One of Cap's first requests after getting settled in the stateroom is to request Indian tonic-typically you get Schweppes. It contains quinine and is not the sugary/minerally stuff you get in the US. And think about 6 or 7 gins from which to choose, a Schweppes & Plymouth gin is a wonderful hot weather thrist quencher.
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| Ivo, Suzy & Cap |
And thanks to Ivo, our butler from Mumbai, we never were wanting. We enjoy a larger stateroom where we like to entertain dinner guests, typically fellow travelers and enrichment lecturers.
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| Jemelie, Diman, Sandar |
Equally important were our stateroom attendants. Almost all staff onboard are contract workers on 6 to 8 month contracts away from home. And many have spouses with children at home.
An interesting fact is Oceania staff has tremendous loyalty to Oceania for two reasons, Oceania treats their employees better than many other cruise lines and Oceania 'sails full.' What this means is that a significant portion of their income is gratuities and full ships equates to income. We can't recall any cruise where we've not met staff from previous cruises.
Our Brunch cooking class (scones pictured), before and after. Suzy baked some at WC and took them to our Scottish neighbors with some clotted cream and homemade jelly. BIG hit.
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| Production cast 'practicing' for the Country Faire |
We wrote earlier about making friends with some of the Production Cast. When not performing you'll find them being Oceania Ambassadors. This runs the gamut from assisting with staff & guest receptions and more formal events to the casual and sometimes goofy. Here several are practicing knocking over partially filled plastic bottles with a weighted cord hanging from their belt. They were much more fun to watch attempt this event than us 60, 70 & 80 year-olds.
On any cruise you see many other cruise lines and sizes and shapes of ships. (Did you know you can put a boat on a ship, but not a ship on a boat?) So with several apps Cap has and Google it's fun to investigate and learn about what you're seeing.
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| Celebrity Edge |
The Celebrity Edge we saw anchored off Nassau was evidently undergoing sea trials; here she seems to be testing a rather unique tender elevator system where the tender is raised and lowered, perhaps to pick up excursion guests?You can board her soon with 2,900 of your closest friends. Go to the wiki link and notice her most unique bow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Edge
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| The World |
In Alicante we saw The World. If you're not familiar with her, some years back this ship was converted to private ownership residences. There's some interesting history should you have the time to Google her history. No, we're not in the market, but should you be, here's an intro; http://aboardtheworld.com/residences/
Our cruise ended with a night departure from Nassau and early morning arrival in Miami.
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| Nassau-Atlantis in background-evening departure |
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| Miami morning arrival |
The Barcelona-Miami leg completed our 15th cruise (206 days onboard) with Oceania, recognized by 2 'gold' pins. <One single lady had 1,100 days onboard Oceania!>The golf towel Suzy won participating in Country Faire events.
We've cruised many other lines with a few we'd still like to try. We learn a lot from talking with our circle of friends about their cruising experiences. For now and with health permitting we'll continue to return to Oceania with five more cruises booked beginning December 2019. Before then in October we'll do some inland sailing from St. Paul to New Orleans. We are really looking forward to visiting the WW II Museum.
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