bradpole

We have not! That sounds wonderful!

The day prior to Bar Harbor starting at 6. The line started in the theater and snaked through the casino. When we saw that we decided we’d stay onboard and enjoy the empty ship!

Very affordable, $20 plus $10 a gig for the plan I choose. Coverage has been excellent in St. John and Halifax.

I completely agree! We are currently onboard a mega ship and literally the only food that has been miles better than Oceania is their Indian Food in the buffet, it is appropriately spiced! I understand Oceania’s problem, make their food authentic and spicy to please the few and the majority won’t eat it!

Hello, I’m onboard this cruise and have been following along to the OP’s adventures and thought I’d toss in my 2 cents. I purchased an esim subscription for Google-Fi on my iPhone and had coverage most of yesterday as we sailed fairly close to Nova Scotia. It wasn’t 5g, but to my surprise it was usable most of the day.

Hi everyone! Currently onboard Adventure docked on Portland, Maine. We stopped up in the Viking Crown to read and noticed there are contractors onboard beginning the installation of the Starlink internet! I have no information on timing when the service will be turned on, but I’m guessing it will be soon! Attached is a photo of the cables being run and the mounting plates being installed on top of the Viking Crown.

I remember it being included, then the $5 fee but all the Crown and Anchor coupon books (remember those?) had a coupon for one free meal!

In theory, if there was an app it would query a server onboard the ship [intranet] rather than use the glacial internet and connect ashore. This is my biggest gripe about the guest satisfaction survey, I wish it would reference a server onboard rather than try to connect to land at the same time many are trying to check in online, etc... further slowing down the internet. I've been reading all the comments about "to app" or "not to app" and I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents.... We've cruised both Viking Oceans and Crystal. Both of those lines had incredibly useful apps to use while onboard. Neither required internet, they referenced the ships intranet and a server onboard. Although the apps did work, and offered a ton of good information, guess what I referred to during the day? The printed schedule. We would also go down to view the posted menu outside the restaurants to see what was for dinner. Just tradition for us. For me, it was just habit and easier to glance at the printed schedule rather than use the app. Next month we are scheduled to sail on Royal Caribbean and they are now pretty app focused, I'm curious what my opinion will be if the printed daily Compass (daily schedule) isn't easily available and we're forced to use the app. Funny side story, to me at least... a number of years ago we were on another cruise line, a completely different demographic from the typical Oceania guest and this cruise line pretty much reads the daily schedule out multiple times a day. It was/is obnoxious. However during that cruise on a sea day someone casually asked me, "do you know if we're stopping somewhere today?" I overheard someone asking the staff at the entrance to the buffet how much breakfast was. The moral of the story is if people get on a ship not knowing what sea days are, or that the buffet is included in their fare, no, they don't read the daily newsletter so it is semi needed for the cruise director to verbally tell everyone about what is going on. I do wish the cruise director's run downs were a little more condensed but I don't mind them so much anymore.

I completely agree! Oceania's tagline is "the finest cuisine at sea", not "the finest entertainment" or "the finest onboard daily activities". This past July we were onboard one of the incredibly short 7 night Bermuda sailings out of NYC. There were many first time Oceania guests onboard and you cold tell some had done absolutely no research what so ever on what Oceania is or is not. We overheard someone complaining there was no kids club for their daughter (a quick look at the deck plans before hand could have solved that). One morning at breakfast we could overhear the table next to us complain to, "...Celebrity does X, I can't believe Oceania doesn't offer x". (I don't remember what it was, but would not have been a surprise had they done any sort of research what so ever). We cruise Oceania to relax, enjoy the wonderful food, and catch up on the books we don't have an opportunity to read while at home. The only other thing we enjoy doing onboard is participating in the daily "BIG O POINTS" activities; Baggo, put put, and shuffleboard. Generally there are 2 in the morning, and 2 in the afternoon. It took me several years of convincing to get my DH to sail on Oceania. He was afraid he'd miss the big production shows and live bands offered on the mainstream lines. On day two of his first Oceania sailing, "Do we have any more these booked?" Does he miss the entertainment options? A little, but the trade off is the better food, small ships, and wonderful staff!

I've run into the situation where somehow the fare I was booked under wasn't eligible, and when that has occurred rather than replying to let you know that's the case they just don't reply. In both of those instances I've never found out what made those fares ineligible compared to others.

We just returned yesterday from Insignia's second Bermuda sailing of the year and I scanned some of the "Currents" for you. There are a couple of sea days as well as a port day there for you. Overall I think they give a pretty good representation of what is offered onboard. One thing that was different this cruise from our prior cruises is there was no pre-dinner live piano music in Martini's. I'm not sure if this is something new or just a recent temporary change. I agree! Oceania isn't for everyone, but we really enjoy the product they offer, and have several future cruises booked to allow us to continue to enjoy it! 7.12.22 Insignia Bermuda.pdf

For the OP, I happened across this video this morning. At the 10:34 mark you can see an example of the tea cart. The part when he shows the bottom of the cart (enclosed in plexiglass) that was filmed at the end of last year on Marina, the top was filmed pre-covid onboard Insignia. It looks the same today but is enclosed in plexiglass.

We were the cruise before yours. I can't speak to the teas on offer, I'm like your wife, I am a coffee person. Most days I'd bring a coffee from Barista's to sip on while nibbling on the snacks.

I just thought I'd offer my own 2 cents.... Overall afternoon tea is still a lovely affair, in fact I'm looking forward to enjoying it on our next sailing! Is the selection as massive as it once was, with the tables setup in the back of Horizons for you to server yourself? No. This is not a change from covid, our last "Before Covid" cruise on Insignia in the fall of '19 the tables weren't there. Is the selection of high quality and presented lovely on the cart wheeled between tables (under a plexiglass dome now)? Yes! Afternoon tea is still a lovely affair, and of all the cruise lines we've travelled on Oceania does it the best in our humble opinion. We were onboard Riviera in December, and that particular cruise was nearly booked to capacity and never noticed any decline in service levels around the ship or at afternoon tea.

In theory the online survey is a good idea, in practice it is frustrating. There just isn’t enough bandwidth the last day for everyone to fill it out and submit it successfully. Personally I wish the survey referenced a server onboard rather than relying on the limited satellite bandwidth….or just allow us to do it when we get home. As for the mid cruise comment cards, they do read them. I noted something silly in their, and they followed up with me!

When I read the title of the thread my first thought was, "what nightlife?" 😀 The only other thing I'll add is on occasion there will also be some sort of live entertainment in Horizons at 10:30, but that is not the norm.

I would agree, $79 from Southampton to LHR p/p does sound reasonable, especially considering how much I've seen they charge from Port of Miami to MIA. Don't they charge something like $59 p/p for what is under a $30 cab ride?

You're welcome! All the ports are similar, but also very different, in the ways they handle parking and those arriving via their own cars. All depends on the arrival time on our boarding docs/pass. We'll plan to get there an hour or so before the time on the doc, parking and luggage will easily eat up a good half hour of that time!

We do, it is insanely expensive, but it is Manhattan after all! Celebrity and Royal Caribbean guests who drive to the port have the advantage, Bayonne, NJ across the river is much cheaper and easier to access. However nothing beats the view of a Manhattan departure sailing down the Hudson River! Depending on traffic on 12th avenue it may make the most sense to park your car, then deal with your luggage rather than dropping off your luggage then circling back around to enter the parking ramp. The reason I say this is you enter terminal up near 54th street, upon entering you have two choices as you go up the ramp, a hard right takes you up to the roof where you park. If you continue straight this will take you in front of the terminals where you can drop off the luggage, you'll also be dealing with all the pickup and drop-off traffic on this level as well. After dropping off the luggage you exit the terminals down at 46th street. You'd then need to cross 12th Avenue and travel all the way back up to the 54th street, and make the left into the terminal area again. If traffic is crazy on 12th avenue heading north it can take a while to make it back up the 8 blocks from 46th to 54th street. If you choose to park first, after you pay to park and are directed to an area to park there will most likely be a porter with a luggage rack near the elevator to take your luggage. We've pulled up next to him or her given them the luggage then parked, and then made our way inside the terminal. There was one occasion when after we parked there was no one up on the roof/parking area collecting the luggage. We had to take it down via elevator ourselves to the porters downstairs. Traffic was insane that day on 12th ave, and there were multiple ships in port that day as well, so even though it was a pain to drag our luggage down a level to the porters we saved a ton of time not sitting in the traffic waiting to drive up to the porters to drop the luggage and all the traffic on 12th avenue making our back into the terminal. And one other tip, depending on what time you arrive at the terminal in your car I wouldn't be surprised if the parking attendants are surprised that a guest is arriving for Insignia via their own car and needing to park, it seems the vast majority of Insignia's guests arrive via other options . It looks like on all of Insignia's departures (except 7/26) she is scheduled to be the only ship in port that day. Although that will make for much less traffic the parking attendants might not be ready! This happened to us this past November, when sailed out of Manhattan on Crystal Symphony. When we arrived at the terminal (at our designed arrival time) the ramp up to the parking garage was locked. We drove down to the luggage drop off and had to ask a porter to find someone who could radio to security and a parking attendant to meet us at the parking entrance to unlock the gate and take our payment. I certainly didn't blame them for not having the parking area open and staffed, at sail away there was only one other car parked on the roof!

I could say the opposite, why would anyone fly to Bermuda when (for us) NY is a 2 hour drive to board the ship and we get to enjoy the sea days onboard the wonderful Insignia! To each his own! In this instance Insignia is the destination for us. If she was doing the 10 night Canada/New England, as she has in the past, we would have booked that instead of this all too short 7 Nighter to Bermuda. Being able to board in NY a 2 hour drive instead of trekking to Florida is all we cared about when making this booking.

There was also another email that was sent on 6/3 detailing the Bermuda Travel Authorization process that is required to board the ship. If you didn't receive that one I'd be happy to post it here as well. Let's cross our fingers a great weather in Bermuda allowing everyone to enjoy their excursions or beach days!

As the old saying goes, "you can't please everyone" in this particular situation if it were between a fuel surcharge and leaving early, I'd vote for leaving port early. However, I completely understand the frustration and disappointment that others may feel in loosing half a day in Hamilton. Over the years there have been some itinerary changes that have annoyed me but without CFAR insurance there isn't much you can do this close to sailing.

We are on your same cruise. For this cruise we are booked directly with Oceania (normally through travel agent) and received notification from Oceania on June 6th. If you are booked via a travel agent they should have received the communication and forwarded it to you. My assumption is the departure from Hamilton was moved up simply to allow a slower speed northbound, thus a significant savings in fuel. I'm not defending their decision to change the departure time, but considering the price of fuel it is understandable. This is the email we received. INSIGNIA 07-12-2022: Booking: xxxx Guest: xxxx - Itinerary Update MPORTANT NOTIFICATION CONCERNING YOUR CRUISE RESERVATION Dear Valued Guests and Travel Advisors, We would like to advise you of an update to your cruise itinerary aboard Insignia. To accommodate operational needs, please note the arrival and departure time changes for the calls to St. George and Hamilton. The revised itinerary is included below for your reference: DATE DAY PORT ARRIVAL DEPARTURE 12-Jul-22 TUE NEW YORK, NEW YORK 5:00 PM 13-Jul-22 WED CRUISING THE ATLANTIC OCEAN 14-Jul-22 THU ST. GEORGE, BERMUDA 1:00 PM 15-Jul-22 FRI ST. GEORGE, BERMUDA 16-Jul-22 SAT ST. GEORGE, BERMUDA 6:00 AM 16-Jul-22 SAT HAMILTON, BERMUDA 8:00 AM 17-Jul-22 SUN HAMILTON, BERMUDA 8:00 AM 18-Jul-22 MON CRUISING THE ATLANTIC OCEAN 19-Jul-22 TUE NEW YORK, NEW YORK 7:00 AM We look forward to providing you with a memorable cruise experience. Warmest regards, Carlos E. Ortega Vice President, Guest Services

My personal opinion is Atlantis Events, but that is just an educated guess. This year they have Marina chartered on 7/31. If they do in fact have Vista chartered next year they'll most likely announce the charter, and open it for sale, on that 7/31 cruise.

I would consider yourself very lucky. Unless we’ve splurged for a concierge verandah, when the reservations have opened at 45 days out (at exactly midnight I might add) I’ve never managed to secure anything earlier than 8:30. Once onboard we have occasionally been able to secure something a little earlier but not always. Like everything else there are many variables in play, especially the length of the cruise, but in the end some are lucky, some aren’t.