Flatbush Flyer

FWIW: we’re currently on the final transoceanic segment of a seven week cruise on a premium line with excellent food and services, great crew and space ratios and 1200 passengers. There are less than 12 children onboard AND there is no amusement park/Walmart atmosphere. There are, however, two excellent lecturers, an artist-in-residence (with classes) and a hands-on cooking school (with a dedicated laboratory space). There will be a variety of extra events added for some of the sea days. I mention this because you may want to broaden your consideration horizons a bit and look at one way itineraries that start in Polynesia and end in LA or SF with Hawaii stops included. There’s nothing wrong with RT SF-HI. But, the cruise line you pick will be your home away from home. IMO, Princess (and other mass market lines) aren’t great choices for longer cruises and/or transoceanic itineraries.

There are four - easy to distinguish on both the Marina and Riviera deck plans.

This may be it: the particular itinerary is on the current list for “Advantage” (and would be there with/without the Black Friday deal). It appears to be in addition to regular O Life perk choice.

Pick an adult oriented premium line with segment itineraries that can be booked in multiple configurations. We’ve done the British Isles/Ireland AND Iceland/Greenland as a multisegment transoceanic on Oceania which has terrific space and crew ratios on non-behemoth ships with 670 or 1200 passengers as well as excellent food and service. As for “no flying,” there’s probably multi-segment Oceania itineraries that could get you what you want.

I think you’d find that most contemporary higher ed. organizational consultants, if given an opportunity to propose efficacious alternatives to 4/4, would prefer other arrangements with far greater flexibility. Of course, some faculty opposition would be a certainty. However, that (“don’t change anything”) attitude is often defended as doing what’s best for the “body of knowledge” without any understanding that there’s also a “business of knowledge.” End of my commentary with apologies to all who have been bored.

And the University of California System is no small entity. Plus, there are numerous other major university systems (i.e., some with hundreds of thousands of enrolled students) that utilize other than the traditional 4/4 semesters (and have done so for as long [or close to] what I originally posted) found most readily at some community college or private college campuses.

On Marina and Riviera, our preference will always be a B (balcony) over an A (whose “concierge” perks have little to interest us). And it’s a “no brainer” for many of us who prefer the B3 extended balcony (see pic) And do know that there are four of the B3 extended balconies that have railing on two sides instead of only the outer one. We’re in one of them on Marina right now (47 nights- BCN-ATH-FCO-BCN-MIA). At many $ hundreds per person/per segment less than “concierge,” one of those four “open corner” B3s makes the choice so easy. Of course, as hard as it is to get one of the regular extended balconies, do know that there’s an art to landing one of the coveted four.

Of course, this is not the correct forum to discuss what constitutes the factors/criteria best suited to determine the excellence, value, degree appropriateness/usefulness and other merits of one university campus/system over another. That said, however, you might want to take some time to look at real data (using those types of criteria) rather than something like U.S. News (or other popular periodicals’) college “rankings.” Might I suggest starting with something like the “first time pass rate” for numerous professional licenses and/or certifications right here in California (pick from among health professions, engineering….. You may be VERY surprised at which campuses in the Golden State excel in ways that mean the most to Californians. Follow that with a bit more difficult research regarding how many institutions/systems (public or private) across US States (and major cities within them) have tried to copy everything they can from the organization, management, performance reviews, etc created and/or utilized by the CSU. But, back to the earlier discussion. Someone posted that the average college semester is 14 weeks. For the traditional semester scheduling and award of courses/units (e.g., everything from humanities to sciences and professional programs of all ilks), one would be hard pressed to find still existing traditional semesters that were anything less than 15-16 weeks in length (in order to include enough instructional hours to justify credits offered and meet Regional Accreditation requirements for those credit awards). BTW, I could easily demonstrate that with some real life academic programming exemplars. But I doubt anyone here wants to pay the consulting fee. One final thought for parents wanting to send their kids to the “best” college in some major metro area. When your kid takes “whatever 101” At “ranked number 1,” it will very often be taught by a part-timer who also teaches at the community college (or two or three other colleges) in the same neighborhood or not too far across town.

Reread my post(s) above. Some colleges use traditional semesters with a short Christmas break and return in early January. Many that used to use that two semester arrangement, now start later in order to add an intensive instructional period in January. It’s called 4-1-4 and it’s been around for a very long time -particularly in large public institutions. I haven’t checked lately but there are others that primarily use quarters and, as aforementioned, trimesters (or something akin to that) has often replaced optional “summer” school with required “summer” school. You’ll find that to be the case with many professional programs attempting to squeeze three years of major coursework into two calendar years - thus offering the possibility to actually do what has become a 5 year baccalaureate degree completion in the original four years. For folks interested in what is going on at the forefront of academic calendar scheduling, I suggest they peruse the 2022-2024 calendars of campuses in the trendsetting state university systems like the California State University and the University of California. You might be very surprised.

Perhaps forty years ago. Yes - there are still colleges that use traditional semesters. But even those have morphed in ways including the 4-1-4 academic year. As I mentioned earlier, there are many colleges and universities, particularly in the U.S. that have trimesters, quarters, 12 month courses of study (particularly in professional programs with mandatory field instruction).

Mozio.com is a search engine for private airport and related transfers. At a minimum, it gives you a “ball park” idea. Since you do your own air, I assume you use ITA Matrix in your comparative air tix research.

pretty sure that transfers are now included for folks that use O air but don’t purchase the hotel piece. But that’s probably only good on day of embark/disembark and only between airport and cruiseport. Call O for correct info (or ask your TA to get the info. Even if you could purchase the hotel-cruise terminal transport from O, remember that all their travel related charges are “per person.” Why not prebook the transfer with the concierge at your embarkation city hotel. I’m betting it would be less expensive than O’s charges. Or- just arrange your own (check mozio.com for average airport et al. travel transfer cost).

Each time you get an original or updated Oceania invoice, it should usually have a group of other docs (some also updated). One of the updated ones will be the Shore Excursions PDF - the first iteration of it may be almost blank. Oddly enough, that occasionally updated PDF may be more accurate than the O website and both of those items may not jive with what Oceania reps (either directly or via your TA) see in their company reservation system.

In most cases, when O cites a specific opening date for any kind of reservation, required payment or optional purchase, it’s based on Eastern time.

Basically, “spring break” can happen at any time in the spring. For K-12, many public schools use the week prior to Easter Sunday while many Catholic schools use the week following Easter Sunday. As for colleges, it’s “all over the place” - often depending on the “terms” of any individual campus (or university system) including semesters, trimesters, quarters. Easter may be involved as might the middle of a traditional spring semester. Obviously, whatever time you choose, your chance of having a peaceful vacation are best served by selecting cruises that exceed 10 days, avoid the Caribbean and Mexico and are a $$ stretch for most college kids.

You can request a higher cabin category (than your norm) and/or a cruise longer than 14 days. Of course, if approved, you would then be responsible for the prorated fare differential (both cabin level and itinerary length).

The taxes and fees will vary with the itinerary. Ours were several hundred $.

I don’t know much about solo policies. That said, I do know: The basic O Life tours number you see advertised for a specific cruise is “per cabin” based on double occupancy (and they must be split evenly). The specific YWYW minimum tour number cited for a specific cruise is “per person.” So a cruise with the O Life SBC option set at $800 (per cabin) could be done instead as 8 excursions (per cabin) split evenly to 4 tours per person. If the YWYW minimum on that cruise is published as “6,” that is “per person.” So in this case, each person in the cabin would need to add 2 paid tours to their 4 O Life tours to get the YWYW 25% discount on the non-O Life ones purchased pre-cruise. One can then add more YWYW discounted tours once onboard.

Oceania. Wonderful libraries and numerous other quiet spaces on both the 670 and 1200 passenger ships. The two 1200 passenger ships even have a covered/secluded outdoor area called the Sanctuary.

The YWYW minimum requirement number is per person.

Read the fine print. There are some few cruises where the discount may be limited beyond just the itinerary/cabin. Also, you can get book onboard rates within 30 days pre-embark.

If you search here on CC, you’ll find several of my extensive tutorials on O Life - particularly the strategies for combining the tours option with YWYW. But, here’s the short list items per your questions. Read the T&Cs and Ticket Contract for specs on cancel deadlines. You can change which O Life perk you initially choose but it’s set in stone at some point prior to your cruise. As regards the tours perk, choices must be made at least two weeks prior. There’s no changes allowed after that though, if O cancels the tour, you have a choice: $100 SBC refund to your account (though, while you may have a $199 value tour cancelled, all allowable tours have a base value of $100- just like the SBC perk). On page 1 of the ShoreEx PDF, the minimum number of tours required for YWYW 25% off is stated. Your O Life tours count toward that minimum. And you must then add enough prepaid tours (in your initial tours selection precruise) to secure the discount for the entire cruise (yes, you can add more YWYW discounted paid tours once onboard). Also, all cancel deadlines will be printed on your individual tour tix. But, you must always have the minimum requirement covered to not lose the discount on everything purchased. O Life tours are assigned $0 cost in the perk with the most expensive (<$200) auto assigned to the perk. Do not use the website to buy tours. Do your own spreadsheet first and then call O directly (preferably an agent with whom you have established some relationship) and have him/her verify that you’re on the same page about the charges. Book the tours with the agent once you’ve verified that s/he will send you the “prepurchased shore ex” PDF, which shows you all the associated math - absolutely essential doc if you then have O cancelled tours/replaced once onboard. Your TA can also get the total math doc for you and even do the booking work. But, YWYW confuses a lot of folks - including most TAs. O onboard accounting of your purchases has changed. You can get printouts of your account but the former complete details of each purchase now requires a supervisor to print them (at least right now on Marina). So, that’s the basics. Again, many of my previous “tutorials” have even more detail.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLzBDhilDL0

Hardly “elitist.” After all, many of those folks started on a mass market line.

If you want a giant hotel in the middle of a floating amusement park, premium/luxury lines are not for you. Whatever the case, you’ll actually find far more interesting/better food (both quality of ingredients and preparation) on the premium/luxury lines. You’ll also find better crew ratios, cabin/sleep amenities. And then there’s what you won’t find: “nickel diming,” never ending announcements, phony art shows, bothersome photographers, thousands of passengers, prom nights……. FWIW, if you look at the “net daily rate” for a premium/luxury cruise on smaller ships (I.e., all your required and optionally preferred items which may all be covered in their fare), you may find that these cruise ship have “far greater bang for your buck.”