Flatbush Flyer

Cards on the desk? Yes - even as recently as this past October for us. I can only remember once over the years when we got a sheet of paper with multiple TA, consortia et al. SBCs. Never had to sign anything. What would that accomplish? In any case, yet another good reason to always bring proof in writing. In fact, not a bad idea to have appropriate duplicates to provide staff with a copy of the evidence of what is owed to a passenger.

The “short” lines in US airports is for “Pre.” Nexus is for cars and would be useless for travel by ship. Also, remember that, if you need to fly home (emergency) from outside the US, you’ll need a passport book (passport card won’t work). Get the passports and order the extra pages.

Basically, yes. It will show up eventually on your onboard account. But, usually, you will find a gift card on your desk with your TA’s name on it and the amount. O uses the term Shipboard Credit. So, it may show on the card and account as SBC (not OBC).

If the TA item (e.g., to cover gratuities) is designated OCAPP on the O invoice (which is O incentive $ given to TAs or their consortia) or is purchased from O outright by a TA (amenities on the O invoice), you’ll only see it on the O invoice. You won’t see those or most anything other that O Club SBC or an O special SBC (e.g., book onboard bonus) on your O web account. In addition, anything that is out-of-pocket from a TA (like refundable SBC funded from their commission sharing) will generally not appear on the O invoice or your O web account. Instead, you’ll see it on a card or printed sheet on your cabin desk on embarkation day.

Recently spent 47 days on Marina. Other than having to dodge the many passengers without masks coughing all over the place, it was yet another enjoyable O vacation.

Sorry for your disappointing news. But, at least you’re providing yet another example of why it is always better to DIY airfare.

Next time, buy insurance from a broker (e.g., InsureMyTrip.com). Cruise ships’ policies are woefully inadequate and overpriced.

Most hairdryers sold in the US (just like cell phone chargers et al.) are dual voltage. Check the label on her hairdryer to see the voltage(s). If it’s only 220v, it won’t work in the US outlet.

We’ve done Jerusalem from both Ashdod and Haifa. Used ship’s tours and glad we did.

Like the other 3 R ships, Sirena only recently received the major NOW retrofit. That said, Sirena has a few differences. It was formerly the Ocean Princess and it took O’s multi-multi-million $ makeover (just a few years before it then had the recent NEXT makeover) to bring it in line with O’s standards. It’s probably the single best example of an updated R ship across the entire cruise industry. Architecturally, the only major difference (for passengers) from O’s other R ships is that there are bathrooms in Horizons Bar on Sirena! Other than that, the other significant difference is that Sirena’s two specialty restaurants have been reconfigured. Instead of the usual Polo Grill and Toscana, Sirena has a combined Tuscan Steak that combines Polo and Toscana menus and ambiance. This made way for the addition of Red Ginger (only Sirena among R ships has Red Ginger).

You get what you pay for.

Valpo is a port that, for many years, was a cruise ship regular. But that has recently changed and San Antonio is now a main embark port for Santiago.

Then you really shouldn’t be surprised at the current costs.

Ask your boss to give you a break and fly in a day earlier.

Yes corkage required for your bottles.

Their package wines-by-the-glass are mediocre at best. If you want good wine you need to BYO or give in and pay the big bucks for O’s decent bottles.

On one of my numerous work trips to the PCR, I occasionally found myself intrigued by what unknown thing was sitting on my dinner plate. At one meal, my local colleague was stymied as well. He then had a long conversation (in Chinese) with the waiter then the Maitre d’ and finally the chef. Even with all that intel, when I asked “what is it?”, his summary response was “some kind of seafood.”

Travel much? A 4 star hotel in a major city will easily set you back $300-400/night. Dinners at >$150/couple. Add transport, entertainment, excursions, booze, and/or whatever else may be provided by a premium/luxury cruise line and you’ll quickly realize that $1k/night is hardly out of line.

OK but do you understand what I mean about value being qualitative.

I’m smiling because we appear to have different definitions of “value.” For me, it’s not a cheaper price. Rather, it’s getting better quality at a good price. It appears that your math may be right. So, you’d have $675 cash still in your pocket. Now, you may not be able to find your desired routing, dates and carrier for that price. But that $675 could offset the cost of the exact tix you really want. Remember that, if you want O to get you pricing on your Plan A, you’re subject to a deviation fee and any ticket price difference, which can be substantial if you want a carrier that isn’t contracted with O. Want non-stop SFO to SYD? It’ll be significantly more than what O will propose for your initial tix. Want bizclass? You’ve got to pay O the “with air” price and add the bizclass quote amount they give you on top of that. I take the credit and, sometimes along with FF points, my out-of-pocket cash cost for United Polaris SFO-SYD days before the cruise may bottom line at more (or less) than the O “with air” cost. But, when it’s higher, it’s a small price to pay for non-stop bizclass vs O’s connections (plus not getting FF points and all other shortcomings of using O air).

As most O regulars will tell you, take the air credit and DIY the air- particularly if you want bizclass.

NO- carrying personal glasses of wine around the ship without having paid the corkage for the bottle from which it came is not allowed. PLEASE don’t violate the rule. Oceania’s booze policy is extremely liberal (actually, you can bring as much wine onboard as you want. The six bottles is a CYA statement that is never enforced).

You also forgot to mention any limit on preferred lengths of the cruise. Oceania has published multiple-segment cruises (or custom cruises) that would include all three in 2024 (or any year). Use the “find a cruise” function o the O website.

Look again: O has several spring/summer 2024 cruises which start or end in Rome and Jerusalem (Haifa or Ashdod).

Except for the top cabin levels (which get two), the free internet is one login at a time (you can bump each other off as needed. FYI: the paid version isn’t any faster. Rather, it only removes the streaming block.