DrKoob

8 minutes ago, Murt22 said:

Wow - thank you so much for the detailed explanation. We have Global Entry - does that help with US Immigration? We got it, but haven't used it yet. It sounds as if we should be OK, if no big snafus.

We have Nexus but it didn't make it easier to get out of Canada Place. We took our own luggage and were out and gone within 15 minutes total. Everyone might be walking off with their luggage (and bringing it on board) if the longshoreman's strike continues. They thought they had it settled but the general membership voted a resounding NO!

We have sailed into Monaco on two different ships (the last was a Viking Ocean) and both times our itinerary said "Tender" and both times we docked. 

Greetings Oceania Pros,

Newbie here doing our first O cruise on Vista exactly 60 days from tomorrow at 9:01 pm here on the West Coast. Have not seen this mentioned before. 

There are seven of us. We are all in Concierge staterooms. I have all the reservation numbers. I am hoping to make reservations tomorrow night. Do you know if anyone is able to get a table for 7? We are willing to share with one other person if they would like to. So, are there tables for eight in the Vista specialty restaurants? And do you think they will seat us with seven?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jim

6 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Mike is my  go to guy for photos   of the ships

See you onboard 😉

Are you on our Montreal/Miami cruise? How about that. Look forward to meeting you.You can tell Mike how much you like his pics.

34 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

They used to  list the Officers in the Currents   on the first day   maybe they do not do this  now

this from the Preismans blog    as example

 

https://www.thepreismans.com/bermuda_regatta_dailies.htm#day1

I see. It's funny you would quote Mike's blog. Mike is one of my two best friends in the world and we are sailing on Vista together from Montreal to Miami in October.

19 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

GM means General Manager, and it's a term that has replaced Hotel Director on many cruise lines because other lower level personnel such as the Cruise Director can also have the word "director" in their job title. By changing the Hotel Director's title to General Manager it clarified that other jobs such as CD are of lower level and report to the GM.

Interesting. Is this common on Oceania? After 31 cruises I have never heard it before on any ship (Celebrity, Viking Ocean, Azamara, RCL, HAL). 

I would like to know what a GM is? General Manager? On a ship, that is the Hotel Manager. Or are you looking for the CD (cruise director)?

If you find out, I would love to know too.

We did 21 days on Sky in September and here's what we did in each of these places (with pics and descriptions).

In Bari, go to Alberobello: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/17/beautiful-bari-and-alberobello-italy/

In Kotor, climb the coolest hill ever: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/08/kotor-in-four-parts-sail-in-olives-climbing-and-the-dark/ 

In Corfu: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/06/corfu-and-some-more-thoughts-on-viking-sky/ 

We were on Sky last September in Greece and it was easily 100+ and had no problems. Room (and entire ship was nice and cool.

Great review. We did three weeks on Sky last year and agree with all your points except for The Restaurant. We found it so noisy we couldn't hear each other talk. And our service was sporadic to say the least. We were very pleased with many of the Mediterranean menus in the buffet for dinner. We wound up eating there most nights. We found both specialty restaurants to be meh. We did like it enough that like you, we are going back.

I hate to say this but the easiest thing to do is lie. Just call as your father. They will talk to you. How do they know as long as you know his details (which you do). Otherwise they have no clue who you or your parents are on the phone. 

18 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

That sounds like it would be lovely. November would be more difficult for us than spring, but I may need to look into that concept more as I read more. We’ve travelled a lot in Spring as that is our best time. We really do prefer earlier than this itinerary. I am not aware of a lot of small ship November itineraries though, so would need to do some homework. Thank you. 

Oceania has a 10 night cruise on Riviera in November 2023 (as a for instance) that stops in Athens (Piraeus) | Kavala/Philippi | Istanbul | Istanbul | Messina (Sicily) | Naples/Pompeii | Rome (Civitavecchia) | Florence/Pisa/Tuscany (Livorno) | Provence (Marseille) | Barcelona. 

Sirena is doing a 10 night in November with this itinerary: Athens (Piraeus) | Mitilini (Lesbos) | Istanbul | Istanbul | Ephesus (Kusadasi) | Syros | Valletta | Messina (Sicily) | Salerno | Rome (Civitavecchia)

Viking Ocean has a couple of ships in the Med in November including a 14 night that hits: Athens (Piraeus) | Athens (Piraeus) | Ephesus (Kusadasi) | Crete (Souda Bay) | Sicily (Messina) | Naples | Rome (Civitavecchia) | Florencepisa (Livorno) | Florencepisa (Livorno) | Monte Carlo | Marseille | Montpellier (Sete) | Barcelona  

So there are cruises in November out there on decent ships..  

If you can do it, travel in November. We have done Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes in November and we were the only ships there. Most of the TA cruises happen before then. Was it cold, nope but it wasn't shorts weather either. In Santorini we went up and down the gondola without standing in a line for more than five minutes.  

3 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

Our friends sailed with Celebrity for 30 years, reached Elite plus. We finally convinced them to try O. They are not going going back to Celebrity. 

I agree. Besides, they took away all the Elite benefits by giving them to everyone on the ship. Slowed down the WiFi, no more Elite cocktail party every night, etc. But the OP is right, they do have a more vibrant and contemporary style. As for me, I am too old for vibrant and contemporary. 😜

On 6/20/2023 at 4:49 PM, CHEZMARYLOU said:

I never, after 25 Celebrity cruises, though I would be posting this.  What do you like about Oceania? What sets it apart? Can you compare it to other lines, especially Celebrity. If you were jumping ship why would it be to Oceania? Anything else you can share for someone very disappointed in her favorite cruise line?

 

We are with you. Out there, trying new lines after 20+ cruises with X. They are nothing like the cruise line we started with in 2004. I totally understand that they need new and younger cruisers but now it's too the detriment of their long-time customers. 

We tried Viking Ocean first (we had too high expectations) and are booked on Vista in September. We have a friend who we met on X who says Oceania is his favorite cruise line. We are sailing with him and can't wait to try it. Someplace there is a cruise line that we will love and shower with $$$. We are very loyal. X lost out.

Riviera is sailing in Asia in spring 2025

7 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

I have seen this happen on other brands in the past.  Specifically change.  The post here represent the exact same posts from the past.  The question is why?  Change is difficult for MOST of us.  MOST of us like knowing the rules to the game and accepting them.  Human nature really.

I think the why can be answered with one word—Viking. Maybe two—Viking Ocean. Everything they are adding is pretty much what you get on Viking Ocean. Drinks at lunch and dinner (maybe a little more with simplyMore), kind of included shore excursions, Wifi for all. As Oceania moves forward with Vista class ships, they need to increase revenue and their culinary (which is clearly superior) offerings may not be enough to push the very loyal Viking clientele to try something else. And Oceania's three newer ships are much closer to the size of Viking Ocean ships.

There is mention on these Oceania boards about Azamara, Celebrity, Regent, Seabourn but let's be honest other than maybe AZ, the big competitor for their cruising dollar is Viking Ocean. They can compete with AZ because they are sailing some of the same ships but as they bring out new, larger ships, they are even more competing directly with V. 

Just my thoughts. 

7 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

As mentioned in post #10, you don't just rely on waiting in the physical line.  You multitask with a voice call and with the airline app.  I remember a time about a dozen years ago when KLM was completely FUBAR at AMS due to horrible weather.  I was standing in a line, with my laptop and with my phone, working all three.  By the time I reached the front of the line, I was rebooked and only needed a physical change to my record by the agent at the desk.  They loved my ingenuity.

 

One other thing.  You don't need to be in any specific line for a rebooking. (Airlines tell you that so as to keep everyone together and not "bother" other agents)  If there was a line of a hundred people, I would have found a different BA counter to work with.  And at LHR, there is no shortage of BA staff.

 

You have your methods, I have mine.  I'll just say that over 2 million miles of BIS air travel tell me what works in the big picture.

 

 

So, is there something wrong with having someone else also trying at the same time. Someone who is a professional in the travel industry? And this particular incident happened in 2002...well before I had cell phone and before I carried a laptop. I never understand why folks don't use TAs. If they are good at what they do (interview them, get to know them, become friends...you love to travel, you have something in common) because it doesn't cost you anything. 

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

And a savvy traveler would also know the EU compensation regs (they are very well publicized) and would have contingency plans. 

 

Basically, you are saying "I want someone else to be responsible for handling any problems along the way".  That's fine, as long as you recognize the downside to that choice.  You are introducing an additional layer into the resolution process, and are willing to introduce extra time into the resolution. While things could be taken care of directly at the airport, you're choosing to have an indirect process.

 

Not my way of doing things - I much prefer the direct approach to the party that can fix the problem.  AKA the airline involved.

 

 

Great idea except there were a hundred people in line to do the same thing. I got rebooked before 75 of them. Worked for me. 😀

45 minutes ago, mikenannie said:

We need her contact info... she sounds terrific. 

Just learned that our TA misspelled our email address and that's why we never received the final document pdf files. Being first time Viking cruisers, had I not learned about them here in this forum, we would have had no idea that we were supposed to get them. 

Would love to tell you but Cruise Critic rules prohibit that. Sorry.

This depends on the type of of TA you have. If you are dealing with an online TA, Costco, AAA, etc. Go with Viking. If your TA is a local person you know, go with them. They usually have backdoor numbers and websites that they can check. Our TA gives us their cell phone and says to call at any time. Once we had a problem at Heathrow. We called her (not BA), and where she was (West Coast USA) it was the middle of the night. She said, "Give me 30 minutes." She called back in 25 minutes and had us booked on a different flight with a bump to Premium Economy with no extra charge for us. She knew what to ask, what the EU gave to people who were bumped and found us a new flight on another airline.

We are on Vista in a GTY in October. I called yesterday and was told it would probably be the week before the cruise unless we wanted to pay to buy out the guarantee. We normally NEVER do any kind of guarantee (first time in 35 cruises) but we had to because that was all that was left when we booked. 

If you are lucky, the day you get off there will be a festival going on. I got these shots off Viking Sky last September. One of my best days of photography ever. Here's what it looked like: 

5 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Having just sailed Venice, and Rome in the past, I totally agree with this statement. 

But Taragonna was one of the best ports on our 21-day Sky cruise. 

We had the same thing happen to us last September (2023). We were on a 21 day Athens to Barcelona. No shore excursions were available to us for Venice until we boarded in Athens. Then no shore excursions were available to book until we arrived in Venice. Then no shore excursions were available to book for Barcelona until we arrived in Rome. In each of those ports, some people got off and some got on. This 21 day cruise was part of a 28 day cruise that started in Istanbul. 

We didn't really care about this because we had planned to get off the ship in Venice for the two nights we were there and stay in lodging in Venice itself. We did that and it was a super experience but spendy. Rad about what we did here: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/13/venice-day-1-we-get-there/