the more ports the better

I agree, the lack of communication is ridiculous. The Nautica sailing is still showing Myanmar. My TA called O today as they are trying to negotiate an exception to a refund and O said they have not made any decisions on cancelling the Myanmar port. Again this is TODAY! For many reasons, as the sailing approached, it became clear that we absolutely could not visit Myanmar. Things were obviously becoming untenable yet O continued to assert that their “ people in country” were assuring them that the situation was improving and it would be safe to sail. We waited as long as we could but cancelled the sailing and lost a large sum of money. We run a business and had to decide if we would be gone for the 4 weeks as we were scheduled to leave on the 30th. It’s clear, now that I’ve cancelled all my hotels and flights and made commitments at work, that O is probably going to cancel the Myanmar port. It would have been nice, as Vaitape stated, if O would have said, we understand that the Myanmar is currently a dangerous destination and we are working diligently to make alternative plans. This way, we would have had the option to go on the cruise. Now, we are just out the entire cost of this very expensive sailing.

I believe you are right. The entire South China Sea will be unstable. Hopefully it won’t come to that, imagine the world economy if the Straights of Malacca closed. I did go ahead and purchase back up tickets returning from Singapore. I also use miles so can chose which flight to take at the last minute. This itinerary has been at the top of my list for years. I really hope that we can travel there before the region destabilizes!

Yep, it is an overland so I technically shouldn’t get a refund as I cancelled within 60 days but Oceania is 100% going to cancel the overland tour. They can’t possibly fly to Bagan when the military is air bombing their own citizens on the ground in that region. O will not pay an airline or tour operator for the overland so why would they keep my $2400?

It is much easier and usually cheaper to book on your own. There is no advantage to booking through O. Your TA and O make money but you lose control of your flights. Book directly on the airline website then you have direct access to them if changes occur. Search Kayak and Expedia for flights and fares but book directly. Flatbush has a great airfare search site. If he sees this, maybe he’ll post it for you.

I spent 60 years in Chicago until I got smart and left so UA was always the most convenient. Now I have a few mil lifetime miles on them and still 1k every year so they are pretty good to me. There is a lot more FF availability as status goes up so I can usually find something for reasonable miles. Right now I have three trips booked, 4 biz Asia and 8 biz Europe segments, and between cc spend and travel, still have 1.5 mil miles in my account! I have 900k lifetime on AA too but that doesn’t get you much! Not leaving UA anytime soon.

Pinot, I agree 100%. I think in that case, which is getting more likely every day, Hong Kong is fully integrated and will be a no go for a very long time. The question is, will O be transparent and let us know where the Thailand Vietnam sailing will end if Hong Kong is off the table so we can get flights? O tends to say everything is peachy until a few days before the sailing then change plans. I am half tempted to book a backup flight from Singapore back to the US as I know I can get to Singapore from anywhere in Asia.

Flyer, you should explain the UA policy of filling in the open jaw with an extra stop for no cost. You can probably explain it better than me! Say sailing BCN to Venice but want to spend four days in Athens pre cruise. Fly ORD-ATH ATH-VCN BCN-ORD

Good point about waiting. If it looks at all dicey closer to final payment, I’ll cancel. I had a 4 segment B2B2B2B booked but now I’m only going to do the first segment. Cruises really are getting so stressful with all the no cancellation no refund policies even in war zones. The last few land trips I took were so much more relaxing. One trip, we were staying in Milan, decided spur of the moment to go to Switzerland to see the Matterhorn. Beautiful train ride and we stayed longer that we anticipated as Zermatt is so much fun and there were spectacular hikes, when we arrived late back in Milan, THE HOTEL HAD NOT SAILED!!! I purchased the Siem Reap/Hong Kong airline tickets with miles so no worries about cancelling or changing. Biz tickets are so expensive to Asia that I save miles specifically for those trips. I’m not concerned about flying to Hong Kong now but they are opening their port for cruise ships in the next few months and if the China/Taiwan situation blows up, I wonder if Hong Kong will be off limits for cruise ships again hence where to disembark fly home from after Vietnam. I would not count on O for air though. Too many people have had flights changed or cancelled and O is typically no help in rebooking as they sell a group rate and basically have last priority. With my FF status, I have fairly good luck rebooking flights.

I am pondering what to do about flights for a Bangkok to Hong Kong sailing in Feb. I purchased flights into Siam Reap to visit Angkor Wat precruise, and returning home from Hong Kong. With Asia heating up, would it be prudent to get a backup flight? The last port stop before Hong Kong is Hanoi. O has been substituting Taipei for Hong Kong since they resumed sailing but if things heat up in the South China Sea, Taipei will definitely not be the answer. My TA is cancelling 6 of the 9 sailings I have booked with O but the 3 remaining bookings are places I really want to visit so I’m keeping those bookings. After the O debacle in Myanmar, with all the bombings and sanctions and O refusing to cancel the port, I finally cancelled that sailing. I’d rather be overly cautious in February and have my own back up plan as opposed to relying on O and losing another $24k. Any opinions on Hong Kong next year and alternative cities to fly home from?

I am the OP, I went ahead and cancelled the Singapore to Dubai sailing next month because of the Myanmar situation, between war and sanctions, it is to risky business wise and personally. If they would have just told me that they were skipping it, I could have gone on the sailing. I booked the sailing to see Myanmar and Bagan but would have gone if they refused a refund after announcing the cancellation of the port. They refused to give an answer on Myanmar so I didn’t even have that option as it became apparent that Myanmar was not going to get better as they claimed so visiting is a non starter. Now that I have cancelled the sailing, airline tickets, hotels, and scheduled normal meetings and deadlines at work, they will cancel Myanmar, probably after everyone arrived in Singapore. O said they could not consider an exception to refunds unless I cancel first so I cancelled the $24k sailing and their answer is they will give us a $5k pp future cruise credit which has to be used in 2023 and will not even refund the Bagan overland which they will obviously not be offering, therefore clearly not paying an operator and pocketing my money. I am out a lot of money due to O’s lack of transparency and it is maddening.

Sofie, thanks for the info. I will forward it to my TA who is advocating for an exception to the refund policy. I did cancel the sailing. O said they could not consider an exception until I cancelled. I wish they would have just admitted that they were cancelling Myanmar as obviously they are not stopping there for three days. I am still really frustrated that I’m out 24k because of their less than scrupulous practice of refusing to admit that they are cancelling a port stop in a war zone. Crazy! Hopefully O will do the right thing.

Sofie, thanks for pointing out the Myanmar/Burma issue. A few months ago I was in White House Black Market looking for conservative clothing for the sailing. A saleswoman told me she was from Burma. She asked me to please pass the word that citizens of her country would appreciate if we referred to their country as Burma. Back to the reduced/skipped port issue. We all understand that it happens. What we don’t understand is O’s refusal to inform passengers when they determine that changes will be made.

Susie, I agree, a future land tour is the way to go. Bagan was the entire reason for booking the trip. I would love to go there eventually but now is not the time. I kind of laugh to myself when hearing posters defending O for pushing people to violate US treasury sanctions which is a felony and sailing their ships and passengers into a war zone. Since I made a $24k final payment, of course I’m expected to commit felonies and dodge IED’s. How silly of me to think otherwise. Realistically, O is not permitted to spend money in Myanmar therefore they cannot pay port fees hence they will be forced to cancel and have 8 sea days in a row. O just won’t admit it until everyone has already travelled to Singapore and boarded. Kind of funny that these kinds of business practices are peachy with so many people but I guess I expect a bit more honesty from companies I do business with. I doubt they will change, however, as the amount of people who accept and defend these practices is astonishing.

Tiger, I did ask O for an exception and they said they would consider it but no guarantees. Hopefully, they will do the right thing but I’m not holding my breath. If they don’t, I’ll just complain with the appropriate agencies and file a suit. I live in FL so there are a handful of cruise lawyers in Miami. I practiced law for the first 20 years of my career so it won’t be a big ordeal and it’s a fairly cut and dry case. If I got off the ship to miss the Myanmar port, I would have to disembark in Phuket then fly to India and reboard 8 days later as that is the next port after Myanmar. I’ve been to Singapore and all other ports in Asia except southern India so the Bagan temples in Myanmar plus India were the reason for booking the sailing. Susie, I own an AI company in nuclear energy so yes, the question of what countries I visit is asked. Even when getting global entry you have to list all countries visited, plus Myanmar would be stamped on my passport. I’m not going to lie or omit something on a contract anyway. Company reputation is everything and certainly a vacation is not worth ruining it. As for travel insurance, there are exclusions on most every policy for voluntarily traveling to a country where there is a level 4 do not travel alert issued. Everyone’s travel insurance will be invalid while there. The US pulled consular services quite awhile ago and there is no support in country if something were to happen. Sorry for hijacking the thread but waiting until the last minute and skipping ports is becoming common place along with shortening ports. Just sounds like financial trouble all around.

I agree, service dogs are very well trained and stick to their owners like glue. They would never be jumping on a table. A seizure dog may be in a stroller as some of them are little but, again, the dogs live with a trainer until the are 18 months old before they begin service training for a year. They are very disciplined. It’s crazy that people are getting away with bringing non service dogs on a cruise ships. That just makes it more difficult for the people who really need them as they will be scrutinized even more. I think I’ll leave my kitties home when I travel. They don’t listen to anyone anyway and look at me like I’m a complete moron if I try to get them to do anything.

Spain day tours have always been great for us. Reduced port times are a non starter. I also don’t cruise to sit on the ship. I’m usually the first one off in port and the last one back on. I have always been a huge O cheerleader but lately, they been pretty secretive and almost shady. RCCL seems to be much better positioned than NCLH so maybe it’s major financial issues on O’s part. I just booked two SS sailings. The cruise only costs about the same as O in a PH. The SS door to door with air is about 2000 more than O life with air but the business upgrade is only $1000 each way with SS. Plus everything is included so a much better deal. OBC is useless on SS unless you want to go to the spa. I was burned $24,000 from O as I risk losing all my federal contracts if I go to Myanmar for three days next month and violate treasury sanctions but O refuses to cancel the port. I’m sure they will cancel last minute once everyone is already in Singapore getting ready to board but I can’t take that risk so I have to cancel. They said no refunds for not wanting to visit a port, even though it is a civil war zone with a do not travel warning and sanctions from the entire free world! I’ll sail my remaining bookings on O over the next 18 months but hopefully, I’ll like the SS sailings and that will be my new home going forward.

My daughter is blind, some of you have met her as we cruise together a few times per year. She had a service dog for a few years when she was younger and was able to take her anywhere. It was getting so crazy on planes with all the fake service animals that people had all kinds of birds and reptiles on planes. They finally cracked down when someone tried to bring a peacock on a United flight. Now they do ask for certified proof of training for the animal and they verify. The cruise lines do the same. My daughter spent six weeks at a residential facility training with her dog before she was allowed to bring her home. There are only a few facilities in the country that train guide dogs. I imagine it’s the same for seizures, epilepsy etc. The certification stopped all the fake service animals in a hurry. If there is an animal on O, it is probably there for good reason.

I guess I just had faith in O that they would be straight forward and let us know what is going on. Clearly, they can not stop in Myanmar. My TA assured me that if O dropped a three day port, we would have the option to refund or move the funds to another cruise. My TA’s company is a huge group and they have a division for luxury sailings with numerous agents that just book O. They have the pull to make those assurances. O told the agent today that Myanmar is safe and they will not issue a refund because I do not want to visit a port. I didn’t think that O would wait until all passengers are in Singapore before announcing that they would not be visiting Myanmar so no one has the option to refund the sailing unless they want to turn around and fly back home. That kind of business practice is indefensible.

We’ve been all through Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE and Thailand. We have also been to Singapore many times for business. The primary reason for booking was Myanmar and Southern India. I contacted O many times as did my travel agent prior to making final payment. They assured us that they had people in country and the situation has improved greatly. Completely untrue! Fortunately, my travel agency documents all calls. Today, they are still telling us that Myanmar safe, ridiculous. I do strongly disagree with the above post that since cruise lines are in the business of sailing, they have no responsibility to avoid dangerous situations and they can just sail anywhere they please. They always have a duty of care and a duty to inform. Many millions of dollars if not billions have been paid out in settlements by cruise lines for putting passengers in precarious situations. Unforeseeable accidents are losers for the cruise lines. In this case, any tragedy that may occur related to the civil war is 100% foreseeable. I practiced law for many years, I would take that passenger case 100% of the time…… on contingency!!

Paul, we are going through the same thing right now trying to cancel and refund our sailing in May as it ports three days in Myanmar. O will not admit, even at this date, that there is a civil war going on, that the military put the entire government in prison and the citizens are forming militias to fight the military. I have contracts with DOE and DOD. I’ll never get another one if I go to Myanmar right now and violate sanctions. I have an overland to Bagan paid for and the fighting in Bagan is constant. No consular service and we have sanctions in place so how are we going to even pay for flights on their airlines. Very frustrating. The whole reason for booking the sailing two years ago was to see Bagan. I have been trying to move payment to any other sailing to no avail. I did not think to contact the Dept of Transportation but I will now. Talk about deceptive practices! I imagine DOT will not be all too happy. I just figured that I would file suit as their T&C are unconscionable when taking a war zone into account. Plus, I practiced law for 20 years prior to getting smart and quitting law and going into tech. Even if I lose, the case will not cost me anything but it will cost them at least 20 times the fare that I paid. Upon registration, rights to a class action are signed away but prior to registering for the sailing, it is not waived, also, it is unconscionable in this circumstance so probably a class action is still an option. Typically, I am a big O cheerleader but this situation is beyond unreasonable.

I booked the overland to Bagan on the O website. It leaves the first morning, tours Yangon then flies to Bagan, stays the night and tours the temples the next day then flies back to Yangon. My only question is that we have sanctions against the military in charge of the country and their airlines. I wonder how we are going to fly there without violating the sanctions.

We are booked to sail early April porting three days in Myanmar. O is not giving any indication that they will cancel Myanmar. State Dept has level 4 do not travel alert due to civil war, military coup, unexploded mines and no consular services….. travel insurance is not valid as level 4 do not travel advisory is issued by the state department. We will breach one government contract and one private contract by traveling to a designated war zone and having no access to diplomatic channels should something happen. We are in business in critical energy infrastructure. We can’t even go into the port without breaching a contract. O refuses to make a decision and says they have people on the ground monitoring the situation. My gut tells me that this one should be a pass but then I loose all funds paid for a very expensive 20 day Asia sailing. Would they let me move the sailing? On the other hand, the Bagan temples are the main reason for the trip so if they skip Myanmar, it defeats the purpose of the cruise, Unfortunately, my TA is out until April 15 having a knee replacement so no help there. Any suggestions keeping in mind that O absolutely will not give us an answer. Is there a way to move sailings? Does travel insurance, Allianz, cover these situations? thanks!

I was the OP on internet news as it was relayed to my by the internet manager on Riveria in January so I am assuming that it will be installed on all ships over the next several months once NCL and Regent are completed. The bad news is that I just sailed on Royal Caribbean’s new Wonder of the Seas with 22 kids and grandkids, plus my mom. We stayed in top suites so had the best internet service included. Royal has Starlink and service was terrible. We have several members of our family in telecom, engineering, Physics, tech, AI, etc and all agreed that Royal Caribbean did not purchase nearly enough band width from Starlink to service the ship. In the middle of the night, it was lightning speed up and down but was overwhelmed quickly as people logged on. Due to lack of band width. if anyone from O is listening, please purchase maximum bandwidth and charge us a fair price. Everyone will be happy! Also, on another subject, we love to travel and see the world but having family all together on a fun ship like wonder is what life is all about.

When my TA’s company called O, they said I could not get the OLife Ultimate added as my cabin category PH2 was sold out. Only categories that have availability are eligible for O life ultimate. Kind of frustrating!!!

Thanks CJ, that’s what I was hoping to hear!