We're heading toward our third night on Riviera and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. This morning we docked at Cadiz.
We got off the ship at a leisurely hour and wandered around the Old Town, including a market featuring seafood of all kinds. We took some great photos but will wait to post them until we have a better Internet connection.
We're watching an interesting little political wrinkle. As part of our welcoming package, Oceania provided a letter informing us that the Spanish government was now collecting a 10% tax on any alcohol sold while the ship is in a Spanish port, sailing from one Spanish port to another, or sailing within 12 nautical miles of Spain. This seems to mean that, for example, if we ordered one of the two liquor packages, we would pay tax on the entire amount even though the final days of our cruise will be spent in international waters.
Needless to say, we bought a couple of bottles of wine at the Carrefour Market, and will cheerfully pay the corkage fee as a matter of principle rather than fork over 10% tax to Spain.
We met again our favorite cruise director, J.R. Lustig, who was called back from his vacation and filling in for a few days while another employee had an emergency leave. A whole batch of new employees joined the ship with us in Barcelona and we've noticed a few service glitches, but nothing at all serious.
So far we've eaten in Toscana on the first night, at the Tapas on The Terrace buffet last night, and Polo Grill tonight. We have an invitation for a Thanksgiving luncheon in Toscana with the hotel manager, so it's time to keep walking to fight off those calories.
We got off the ship at a leisurely hour and wandered around the Old Town, including a market featuring seafood of all kinds. We took some great photos but will wait to post them until we have a better Internet connection.
We're watching an interesting little political wrinkle. As part of our welcoming package, Oceania provided a letter informing us that the Spanish government was now collecting a 10% tax on any alcohol sold while the ship is in a Spanish port, sailing from one Spanish port to another, or sailing within 12 nautical miles of Spain. This seems to mean that, for example, if we ordered one of the two liquor packages, we would pay tax on the entire amount even though the final days of our cruise will be spent in international waters.
Needless to say, we bought a couple of bottles of wine at the Carrefour Market, and will cheerfully pay the corkage fee as a matter of principle rather than fork over 10% tax to Spain.
We met again our favorite cruise director, J.R. Lustig, who was called back from his vacation and filling in for a few days while another employee had an emergency leave. A whole batch of new employees joined the ship with us in Barcelona and we've noticed a few service glitches, but nothing at all serious.
So far we've eaten in Toscana on the first night, at the Tapas on The Terrace buffet last night, and Polo Grill tonight. We have an invitation for a Thanksgiving luncheon in Toscana with the hotel manager, so it's time to keep walking to fight off those calories.
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