Witzlers--3rd try at South American cruise

 December 1-26, 2021, Part 3--Wine and such Oceania has a tagline-- The Finest Cuisine at Sea . I’m certain those who have sailed Silversea or Crystal (if they’re back sailing) might debate that statement, but Suzy or I can’t. Please note Suzy’s recent foodie blog entry. What I’d like to do is add a bit more detail about the food & wine experience.   Oceania’s 1,200 guest O-Class (Marina & Riviera) ships have four fine dining restaurants (Jacques <think Pepin>, Toscana, Polo and Red Ginger) where reservations are required. Our current San Antonio, Chile to Buenos Aires leg has only 410 guests so reservations have not been a problem. One of the nice things about any of these restaurants is there is never a surcharge.   There are, however, three special menus served only at La Reserve. Seating is very limited and they do have additional charges as these meals are prepared by Senior Executive Chef Laurent Trias and his staff and each cour...

  December 1-26, 2021,   Part 2, Food   We’ve already covered the special wine and food pairing dinners at La Reserve, and our Culinary Center cooking classes, so we won’t repeat those here. We also don’t want to bore you with too much on the food we’ve experienced, so feel free to skip if you’re not a foodie. We’re dividing this into several parts: Provisioning and our Favorite Dishes onboard. Food off the Ship will be covered in our next report on excursions, and Cap will eventually add something on wines, we think.   In San Antonio, Chile, the industrial port for Valpariso and Santiago, we docked overnight, as it was the stop/start point for the two cruises we combined, and both passengers and staff got off and on. It was a provisioning port for the galley, and we thought you might enjoy a few photos of that, because we had a good view of the process.   Pallet after pallet meant for the main galley (there are five different refrigera...

Saturday, December 25, 2021--Sailing the Chilean Fjords Merry Christmas! Many have asked us what Christmas is like when you are cruising. In fact, it’s really very pleasant. The crew goes all out to decorate the ship. In addition to the large tree on the atrium stairs, there must be 15 other trees around the ship. If there’s one live poinsettia, there are 200. And decorations are everywhere. It’s really very festive. And nearly everyone exchanges holiday greetings of some kind as you pass. The Christmas with masks we will remember a long time! We try to bring a little something to hang on our door, as do other guests. This year our suite is at the end of a hall with not too many other passengers, and our 'wreath' at right fell off the door the first night, so we just brought it inside for our cabin crew to enjoy. A gingerbread village graced the atrium (top) and one house was delivered to our suite (below), a little the worse for wear after a week. ...

  December 12-22, Part I, Testing Procedures We apologize for no blog updates, it’s something we enjoy doing and reflect back on in later years. Unbelievably, there has been almost no time. This cruise onboard Oceania’s Marina is just so different than any of our previous 30+ cruises. We are the 1 st cruise ship in 2 years to visit this part (South America) of the world. Everyone, including guests, cruise lines, countries, tour operators and medical testing staff (to name a few) are trying to learn what the ‘new normal’ might be. And then the next question is for how long. We feel safer onboard and on excursions than we would in Denver eating at home, or going out for dinner or to the grocery store. Every country we’ve visited requires facemasks & social distancing. There are short lines outside many businesses as shops and restaurants are capacity controlled. And as you might expect, sadly a few of the folks on excursions don’t think they need to comply....

  Saturday, December 11, Panama Canal Transit   This full transit of the Panama Canal was our third (1970s on Cunard Sun Princess, 11/2011 Regatta), and we’d transit it again tomorrow. It is fascinating and awe-inspiring when one considers its history. The slide rule was developed in the 17 th century; what role did that ‘computer’ have in the Canal engineering? As in the past, we had an enrichment lecturer board for our transit from Colon to Panama City. We can’t do the Canal justice with any written description, so here is a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal we’d encourage you to read and a enjoy few photos from our transit. And a bit of a brain teaser for some: we are sailing from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean (east to west), but our Canal transit was from west to east. How can that be?   There are also a few photos of the ‘mules.’ One of the original mules from 100+ years ago you can see in a grassy area. A newer...