zalusky

Maybe so I asked for a watermelon daiquiri and he said they did not have the ingredients. He could have suggested what they could have done but as you said. In Horizon I was looking for an ice cream style drink at one point and did not see anything available. They all have different menus and the pool bar is the only one with the big selection of margarita’s and Daiquiris. Which does not help when they are closed at night.

I have to disagree. Why did they redo the rooms recently that cost a lot of money. They could have spent that all on food. At a certain point we all die and they have to bring in younger people. I don’t even understand how not having bathrooms next to the Horizon even passed code. Of course they probably don’t have building codes. Now I am not a complete whiner. The staff and guests were great. Everybody was very friendly. Everytine I sat down I had wonderful conversations. Even the six plates of snack surprise in our room after the penguin parade was appreciated. Our butler was 0 to 60 in all our needs. However the things I mentioned detracted from my enjoying the cruise. I was also surprised that given all the hype about the food. I was somewhat unimpressed except for the Waves grill which I hit many many times. The Terrace grill had its moments but was also quite repetitive.

So first impressions don't matter and its love it or leave it and don't you dare suggest improvements.

People aren't staring at their phones to check their account status or request/checking reservations. They are staring their phones to do a lot of non cruise stuff like read social media or news ... I saw plenty of people looking at their phones on Regatta. I am not suggesting an app to text your other friends on the ship. Just one example is many times when I am at a port I want to know my reservation times or whats on the ships menu to decide if I should eat in town or go back to the ship. And yes that means I should be able to access the ships data over the internet and not be limited to accessing it just while on the ship. Regarding plumbing yes thats an issue but not as bad as you think in most cases there are cabins above and below implying plumbing is all around and just has to be connected to. Taking out an inside cabin and replacing it with a laundry room would be one of the easiest changes they could make.

Lets see here what else could they have done in the latest R redo: Little or no bathrooms by the two largest lounges on the ship - steal some casino/Horizon space Visibility in Regatta lounge is very erratic - maybe raise the stage a little One self service laundry room for the entire ship - just steal an inside cabin on another deck Things they could fix now: Closing Waves at dinner time when Terrace offerings is less than impressive or you want a mix. Lousy Sushi - very dry rice and tiny tiny cuts of sashimi Cannot get any drink at any bar - especially since they have different hours Also this has been mentioned in other threads but I seriously wanted an app at times to do quick checks on my reservations / shipboard account / port info and other Currents data. Having to look at my TV is old school.

I get that but I chose it for the itinerary and I was curious to see if the best food at sea was true. There really aren't many lines that do the circumnavigation. Hindsight I might have like the Seabourn itinerary better. I am not a loyalist I am willing to try lots of lines to see what they offer. Maybe we will try the O class ship at some point. I don't mind a small ship but I would bet if O were building an R class ship from scratch they would change quite a few things.

On the other side of the coin we chose the Sydney Metro Marlow hotel because it was one of the pickup spots for the fabulous Blue Mountains tour by Andersons. We knew we were going to be mostly out and the hotel was less important but it was awful. The AC did not seem to work on our entire floor. They had to replace the door on the safe in our room. The towels were paper thin. The beds were awful. On the second night we asked if there was a room we could be moved to where the AC worked and they put us in a room with a double and a single. The bed wheels did not lock and the bed moved across the floor a little too easy. The AC was weird as it made the room cooler but did not seem to reduce the humidity. The one positive thing is it was close to transportation. There were two different trams within a block and Chinatown was a block away.

One of my big complaints this year was being in Fremantle during the big New Years week holiday. Rottnest Island was a disaster packed with locals vacationing. It looks like 2024 is scheduled later. Good Luck!

When I said tired I meant architecturally tired. The carpet/pain/etc were fine. The Regatta lounge is flat and it's hard to see the entertainers if you are not in the front row. I had to bend my neck many times even in the so called aisle seat near the center. There is only a single person bathroom for that lounge. The Horizon lounge has no bathrooms. You have to go down a floor. The casino was only used about 20% and should be repurposed. There is only one self surface laundry room for the entire ship and was always busy.. They should repurpose some inside cabins on other decks for additional capacity. I am not happy with the bar situation. They all make different drink. One time I wanted a daiquiri and was told only the pool bar has the ingredients for it and it is not open in the evening. All bars should have access to all ingredients. Personally there were a number of times I was not interested in the main restaurant or the Terrace Grill and just wanted a Waves item but its not open in the evening. Now the staff was excellent and we were lucky enough to have gotten PH room or I would more to complain about. My only complaint on the entertainment was the strings. They were just off. The cruise director and the rest of the entertainment including the guest entertainment was great. We are on Viking next in May and I look forward to compare. I am not a loyalist.

We also were only on the Bali to Sydney leg and di not experience the issues on the first leg but as I mentioned I am curious of experience on other Oceania cruises of examples showing why Oceania is so loved. Was this a complete anomaly or normal for Post Covid. I know the shore excursion people talked a lot about losing a lot of tour operators post covid so I won't fault them there. I am more curious about food differences pre and post Covid and whaqt they did for trip interruptions on other sailings.

Oceania cancelled 3 excursions before we boarded and then two more were cancelled on boarding day. What we did notice is even though we went below the YWC minimum of 8 they did not take away YWC status and we continued to receive the 25% discount for the one we added. As previously mentioned we also lost two port days with the hull cleaning ironically those were ports that had shore excursions on boarding day. Makes me wonder if they knew. We also had a engine failure for 5 hours around dinner time. Basically lost propulsion and the no hot water for a while. The Terrace kept working but I think I heard that people in the specialties had issues. The staff treated us pretty well but the ship is a little too tired for my tastes. This was my first Oceania cruise and I enjoyed the socializing with other passengers a lot but I plan to check out the competition to see where to land. Seabourn hits a lot of the ports I liked here and I might try them next time if I go down under. I would be interested to hear from Miriam as a more experienced Oceania cruiser a little more on the insulted and disrespected comments to put them in a appropriate place in our experience. IE what did Oceania do previously that they did not do here.

Wow I loved Burnie. If this is going to be a regular deal. They need to rejigger their itineraries completely and add an initial sea day or something.

We like to have the TV on when we get ready in the morning but that’s just us. I am also working with my solar provider to add extra panels before the NEM changes and keeping in touch on a daily basis.

Relative to other cruises you have been this has been the most erratic for internet. If it’s not going to be available in port I just wish they would spell it out similar to the shops not being open.

What terms can I search on to explain why shut off the internet connection when in port? I am not getting anything specific. I may stop by the internet guy later.

Regatta seems to lose its live TV and internet every time we are in port. What’s up with that? Today in Melbourne the P&O embarkation totally messed up with the city shuttle. They would not allow them at the normal spot so it was very confusing as to where we were picking it up let alone tryying walk off when 6000? Passengers where walking on.

This is our first Oceania cruise and we decided to book a PH cabin for the extra space. We did not know what we would do with a butler but I have to say he has been quite helpful. For example my wife is diabetic and was looking for low carb keto type options. She mentioned to the butler and he asked her if she would like to talk to the head chef. She said yes and the head chef called within 5 minutes. The head chef said he had some frozen keto hamburger and hot dog buns with almond flour. He said to just ask the various venues for the buns and they would get them. As soon as she hung up the butler showed up with a heated bun for her to try.

I can't tell you how many times I tried to look at pictures to get a good sense of outlets and what kind of USB outlets were available on each side of the bed and desk areas. I usually have to ask roll call people to post a picture. People want to know that kind of stuff!

8 is the required number. They cancelled one (The cheapest one actually). So now we only have 7. The prepurchased spreadsheet with the 8 count discounted it to $59.25 from $79 We got refunds of $89 each - Go figure! I don't have one for the 7 count. Are you guys suggesting they will create a debit on the shipboard account now that we are not at 8? Our TA said we still had the discount.

This just happened to us and I asked our TA and she said Oceania indicated we still have the discount. We shall see soon once we board. Anybody else with personal experience on this?

Just to bump this thread. I got my Oceania documents for our upcoming cruise and when it comes to the Grand Dining Room they use the phrase "Casual Jeans" are not permitted. So we have to figure out what the difference is between Casual and Dress when it comes to jeans.

I presume you have separate medical and evac insurance covering pre-existing conditions then.

Viking insurance will reimburse for cash for covered reasons such as getting sick or a death, …. You just need to look at their list. Vouchers come in to play when it’s not a covered reason. The problem is they do not insure vouchers so if you used there vouchers on a subsequent cruise and used Tripmate you are at risk. However if you used a different insurance that covered the vouchers you would be ok on that subsequent cruise. I still prefer cash because you might want that subsequent cruise to be on a different line for whatever reason which turned out to be the case for us.

That I can understand because world cruises are one of a kind. It’s not like you have a lot of substitute choices. Traditional itineraries are more a dime a dozen and easily replaceable. So I could see them being tougher.

What is the definition of a large voucher? Is it specific or the luck of a nice agent?