Day 18 (May 16): We got up early and took a cab to the Trieste airport for our 6:15 am flight to Frankfurt. It was drizzling but not raining hard.
While the flight was short (1.5 hr) we had a 5.5 hour layover in Frankfurt, so we shared a pretzel and really big beer.
We left Frankfurt around 1 pm to begin our 11.5 hr flight to San Francisco. Luckily we had premium economy seats on this leg.
We arrived in San Francisco around 3:30 pm, and used part of our 3.5 hour layover to clear immigration and customs.
We left San Francisco around 7:15 pm and got back home around 9:30 pm. Time to sleep!!
Reflections on the Itinerary:
Overall, we really enjoyed the itinerary and the cities we visited. We had long enough in port to get a feel for what is in each place and to determine if we would want a longer visit in any of these areas.
Having a few more sea days sprinkled throughout (instead of just at the start and end of the cruise) would have been helpful.
Reflections on the Cruise:
This cruise was on Holland America's Oosterdam.
Likes:
The buffet was more cafeteria style (servers behind the counters) so less cross contamination.
The elevators were fast, so usually waits were short and they were not crowded.
We liked the small size of the ship both for ease of walking to different venues and also smaller crowds.
We loved the itinerary and places we visited.
The Have It All Early Booking Bonus was good value for us.
Dislikes:
We aren't big fans of ship entertainment to begin with but found it particularly lacking on this trip. The venues (other than the theater) were never super crowded, but I think it's because the seating is so low to the ground and uncomfortable.
The food ranged from really bad to average. We opted for ice cream as a dessert most nights, because their desserts were pretty flavorless (and they called whipped cream served in a jar "cheesecake").
The bars were very inconsistent and difficult to get a drink to taste the same each time you ordered. Even when we both ordered the same drink, they were made two different ways.
Our original room was in a quiet location. Our replacement room was in a more central location, but much noisier at night.
The constant up selling was draining. During the first few nights in the dining room, the waiters kept pushing the extra cost menu items. When I checked into the thermal spa, I would get a sales pitch for extra treatments or products despite being clear I was only interested in the thermal spa. The ship photographers were oddly aggressive.
We were not fans of needing to hand over the room card every time we ordered a drink. A few times, bar tenders pointed out the tip line to me even though our package included gratuities and an 18% gratuity was added to every bill. Additionally, I felt like we were held hostage in the dining room, since we couldn't leave until our card was returned. Some waiters returned it immediately after placing drink orders and others held it for the duration of the meal. One even yelled at me for asking for my card back (he claimed he never received it, until his colleague told him he did) and then didn't even apologize when he finally returned my card.
We also felt like there was lack of attention to cleanliness details, ranging from dirty silverware, bird poop on windows, and dust on lamps and other fixtures.
(my smiley face remained the duration of the cruise)
