May 20th – 21st 2025

Just an FYI that we typed a review of our experience on Oceania and while we tried to be concise the letter ended up being 9 pages. After Kathy’s review we sent it to 2 friends to edit for us and they both said it was too long but every point made was necessary so very little to take out. There was a 1/2 page on what they did well and then the other 8 1/2 pages were “opportunities for improvement”. We mailed 4 copies of the letter on Monday to the Director, Vice President and President of Customer Services and also to an address in London that was also listed. We don’t really expect a response but maybe they will surprise us. It was purging to write the letter and now we feel done with the whole episode.

We are now in South Africa. It was overnight and long but a direct flight from Atlanta to Cape Town. We arrived on Tuesday the 20th at 5pm. We slept some on the flight but not well and not long. Since we booked the flight a month ago we did not have much of a seat selection and it has been a bit since we have been in the main cabin but we survived.

As soon as we stepped off the jet way from the plane our escort was waiting with our names on his sign. I was a bit surprised since we have only ever been met after passport control and luggage claim. Our escort walked with us through passport control, not sure why since very easy to navigate, but he accompanied us through. The new passports were accepted. No reason they would not be but with our recent history it was a relief. I was happy that, after everything we have been through, our passports were stamped so no longer “virgin” passports.

After escorting us through immigration and helping us with our bags (we each checked a small/medium size duffle and 1 carry on) we were passed off to our driver who took us to a van and drove us to the AC Marriott where we are spending the first 2 nights of our stay in Cape Town. The weather is nice and cool as winter approaches for this part of the world.

After checking in we asked about walking to the Victoria Waterfront which is a mile from the hotel. Unfortunately due to numerous fences in our way we were informed that it was not a straight path and the areas we need to go through were not recommended after dark. We were advised to get an Uber or taxi. The taxi ride is 10 minutes and 10 dollars. We wandered around the waterfront area that is mostly shops and restaurants.

After some wandering we had some dinner at Cape Town’s version of Time Out like the one in Lisbon just on a much smaller scale and not as busy. Time Out is a collection of several different types of restaurants all under 1 roof and you order individually at each restaurant. They had Italian, Asian, Mexican, Indian and a wine bar, beer bar and a regular bar. You order what you want at each place, pay for it and then go and sit until your pager goes off/ your food is ready. In Lisbon there are lots of varieties of food and it is always packed and finding a seat is a challenge so glad this was a little slower.

After dinner we wandered around the mall & got gelato even though most of the stores were closed. We took a taxi back to the hotel and managed to stay up until 11pm to try to adjust to the 6 hour ahead time change. Our plan was to go to Table Mountain in the morning but we were informed that the weather was going to be bad and if Table Mountain was even open the visibility would be nonexistent.

Wednesday May 21st.

We woke up early and to cloudy skies. We are staying on the waterfront and while I was taking a shower look who pulled in.

Not the best picture but yes that is the cruise ship we were supposed to be on. It was supposed to dock at 10am but we think because of bad weather they came in early. Cape Town has a pretty big turn that has to be made to get into the harbor and when we were here last year on Viking we spent an extra day sitting on the boat in the harbor because it was too windy for us to make the turn. Since this is a disembarkation port for most of the passengers they needed to make sure they docked.

We had breakfast downstairs since it was included and it was quite an assortment of food and included both baked beans and noodles to try and appease all nationalities. After breakfast we checked with the concierge on Table Mountain and visibility. They said it was open and you could take the cable car to the top but visibility was 0. On Thursday it is supposed to be sun shine and clear so we deiced to put it off for a day. The hotel offers a shuttle to Victoria wharf but only at 10, 2pm and 6pm. We got on the 10am shuttle and it dropped us off close to the wharf but by this time it was raining pretty hard.

The wharf had a nice display of painted rhinos. You can also see how wet it is and how gray it is. The temperature never got above 54 and with it being wet it felt colder.

We walked around and tried to stay inside because of the weather. We made our way to the hop-on hop-off bus at 1pm and bought a 2 day ticket. We figured we would do a route today and get our bearings to be ready for tomorrow. We caught the 2pm bus and the route takes you up to the Table Mountain cable car but you could not see anything. This is what we will use to get to the cable car in the morning.

You can see the sun is trying to come out but it never made it.

Some of the art work around town. I thought it was nice how well Kathy matched her shirt to the angel wings which are flip flops without the straps. The penguin statue is a message on the environment and he is standing on a depiction of plastic bags that litter the ocean .

We stopped once on the route to run into Hard Rock Cafe for me to get a t-shirt and it was pouring. we were lucky that it was close to the bus drop off and right after I purchased the shirt another bus was coming so we were not stuck out in the rain for long.

After we did the route once, which took 2 hours with our stop, we opted to stay on and go around again since it was still raining.

A view of the coast with the rain. Hoping tomorrow we will get a totally different picture.

The light house is the oldest light house in South Africa and with its new modern light it can be seen from 23 kilometers away (assuming it is clear).

We finished with the hop-on hop-off at 5:30 and we walked around the wharf some more and watched the seals playing. Since we had not eaten since breakfast we decided to have an early dinner and picked a seafood place.

Kathy had a Stella and I had a strawberry-lime cider which was excellent. We both got seafood platters and we should have shared but we both thought we were hungrier than we were.

Victoria Wharf area

It finally stopped raining and we caught a taxi back to the hotel so we could chill for a bit. Tomorrow we switch hotels so we need to check out and store our bags before we head out in the morning. Then we will have to return here and pick up our bags and then taxi to the new hotel. Remember we were only supposed to be in Cape Town for 1 night prior to going to Victoria Falls but with everything that happened we ended up with 2 extra days in Cape Town so 2 different hotels.

Fingers crossed for clear weather tomorrow for some great views of Table Mountain.