Mrs f.

Excellent. Full of great info. Thanks.

2 hours ago, Aloha 1 said:

We have 10 O cruises under our belt and another 40 + on other lines, and Peter was the most annoying CD we've ever experienced.

I think there are 2 Peters. 

53 minutes ago, WESTEAST said:

They only provide when attaining your next level milestones and if memory serves right, these new Oceania swag of hats and bags only commenced a few years ago. That said we've always received pins.  If you don't receive in November and are interested, drop by the FCC office/desk and inquire. On Riviera last month we inquired when we would receive our hats and bags and coincidentally, both appeared with pins that night when we returned from dinner!  We use the ball caps but not keen on bags nor pins - have donated bags but not sure what to do about the pins that's why we asked. Like the bulletin board or world map ideas but have neither to pin 😀

Friends on same cruise who also reached Bronze got theirs.  Oh well .. first world problems 

On 4/27/2024 at 4:37 AM, Hlitner said:

Good Morning from the Med,

 

Last night was real drama.  About 3:30am, we were awakened by the general alarm!  The initial alarm was not the full 7 blasts, but only 3 or 4.  Within a few minutes there were several more alarm blasts (including the ships horn).

 

At this point I looked out our balcony door and the ship was moving, normally, through the moon lit seas.  A few minutes later the cruise director made an announcement that there had been a short-term power failure and the cause was being investigated.  At that point there was no emergency action required by the passengers.

 

About thirty minutes later, Peter (CD) woke us again with another announcement that power was restored.  We went back to sleep, although we heard this morning of some others who actually had put in their life jackets.

 

This morning at 10am, the Captain explained that there had been a failure in a forward electric panel and the Chief Engineer had been able to restore 90% of our power.  But the panel must be repaired by shore based technicians.  We have cancelled tomorrow’s port call at Kotor and are heading directly to Dubrovnik where we will arrive at 2pm tomorrow.  A technical team will come aboard to make repairs.  That should give us 1 1/2 days in Dubrovnik.  Kotor is now the third cancelled port since we embarked in Miami.

 

Hank

We had a power failure for several hours one evening when on Regatta. Nobody told us anything.  People with walkers and scooters were trying to figure out what to do.  

15 hours ago, WESTEAST said:

Have recently read comments about Oceania Club member cap and tote bag received upon reaching a new level achievement e.g.  Bronze to Silver, Silver to Gold, etc.  Am curious what does everyone do with their Oceania Club membership pins given at each of these milestones?  Nice velvet box but have never worn them and right now our collection is growing in our drawer. To date, have never seen anyone onboard wearing them - perhaps Oceania can save $ by removing them and just stay with ball caps (no bags).

We are silver.  Have never gotten a pin. Never got bronze hats. Maybe we'll get silver hats??? Will find out in November when we board ☺️

Depends what you call near cruise port. We are staying at Protea Fire & Ice . It's about a 10 min drive.  Something at the V&A Waterfront would be even closer .

6 hours ago, growlers said:

I am booked on the 27 day Barcelona - Cape Town under Simply More with a $600 pp excursion credit sailing on November 14, 2024..   I booked 7 excursions, all at the same time in the same "cart".  It seems to have charged me full price for all of them despite the excursion booking section offering a 25% discount on 5 or more.  They are all real excursions, not transfers or anything.  

On the confirmation, It shows the 25% off discount price for the first 3 in the "savings" column. The other 4 it shows "0" under the column "savings".   Ultimately though, the total price I paid was the non-discounted price for all 7.  It added up the full price on all 7, took off $600 for the credit pp, and then charged me the rest of the full price balance to my credit card.  

Is this a known website glitch?   I suppose I need to call Oceania to get a refund, but is there some weird rule where you have to buy 5 or more AFTER the Simply More credit is used......?    Was I supposed to click / do something else to get the discount when booking these?

Also, what happens if you book exactly 5 for the discount and then Oceania has to cancel one of the ports after sailing?  Do they take away the 25% discount? My point being, they could take away the 25% discount on all 5 and then effectively not refund you for their cancelled excursion (assuming they all were similar base prices).  TIA

 

We are on that cruise 

Call Oceania..they will straighten if out. That's what I did

Depends on the port

We had a couple of places where the shuttles stopped for an hour during lunch times 

Each night they leave a copy of CURRENTS. It will give info about the port. Very helpful.  

We did a 35 day Australian circumnavigation of Australia on Oceania. Was great 

10 minutes ago, roger b said:

We came back in December  from Ludawitz, there was a stand on the Dock with trips to Kolmanskop.

thanks

On 4/2/2024 at 1:52 PM, ssawjo said:

You have to get there very early in the morning in order to see the forest elephants.  There may be monkeys hanging around, LOL, but the forest/jungle itself is fascinating as is the canopy walk.  

 

Also, strongly recommend visiting the castles along the coast.  A lot of history there, mostly sad.  Unfortunately, you probably wouldn't have time to do both, Kakum and/or the Castle.

 

Try the Star Beer if you can.  It is very good.

Our private excursion includes the canopy walk and a half hour stop at Cape Coast Castle which is a UNESCO world heritage site 

1 hour ago, Snaefell3 said:

"WiFi calling" is a current selectable option on both Android and Apple phones.

 

For shipboard WiFi calling to work,

• Your cellphone provider has to allow it.

   - AFAIK, all US providers do

   - Last I looked, Australian providers were forbidden by law from doing so

• You must be logged onto the ship's WiFi with audio-grade internet available.

• Your cellphone has to be new enough to have the option (last 10 years?)

• Your cellphone must have "WiFi Calling" enabled

• Your phone must be in Airplane mode or have "roaming priority is by WiFi" selected

 

Whether voicemail or texting works is up to your cellphone provider.  Ask them.

 

PS: We've gotten spam calls at 5am Hawaiian Standard Time, 8am PDT.  😒

 

Thanks

On 11/30/2023 at 2:18 PM, CruiseLibra said:

We got this beach bag in our Concierge room on the Riveria in November. It is a great bag. IMHO, it's much better than the old blue bag. 

The old bag had a zipper all the way across the top. I felt it was safer. 

27 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

A point on WiFi.  I kept my phone on silent and connected during the night.  Using wifi calling I was able to receive voicemail.  The next morning I was able to return the calls, again using WiFi calling.

 

Now, with 2 accounts per cabin, my wife and I were able to text each other.  I consider both a plus.

Anything specific we have to do in order to text? It would be grand to be able to text my husband on the ship. We're frequently looking for each other

There used to be a stand/canopy set up in town offering a trip to kolmanskop. Someone posted a photo but I cannot now find it.  Does this still exist!

7 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Viator isn't a tour company - they're just the middleman connecting travelers with various tour groups. Which is why you'll see the same type of tour offered 4+ times on their website with slight variations, because each is run by a different group. So Viator itself has no guarantees, it's all up to the specific tour company you book through the Viator site. And not all of them cater to cruise passengers or any guarantee at all, so read the fine print before booking.

 

Can you share the details so the rest of us can avoid them?

I can tell you it WASN'T my guy ..Sipson Tours.  He is listed with Viator if you Google Sao Tome shore excursions.  

3 hours ago, www3traveler said:

I find it interesting that the couple being interviewed several media outlets stated that they would NOT be re-joining the ship and yet they did.

 

Question: how were these people able to reach out to the media outlets in New York City to get their story aired??

They might have texted or emailed a friend/relative and that person picked contacted the local media.  We saw the story first on our local TV station (NBC affiliate) since we are in the town next to where the Campbell's  live.   My guess is then the national channel picked up the story.  And there are so many unanswered questions. 

20 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I'm disappointed that these TV people won't push more on that.  "Can you describe the issue?  Did you spend a lot of time at lunch or shopping?  Why wouldn't you have told the tour operator that you needed to get back to port earlier?"

 

Do we even know for sure that this was an actual tour company?  Or was it just a guy on the dock with a van that holds eight and asking everyone who walked by if they wanted a "Private Island Tour" until he filled his seats?  I could easily see that scenario happening.

It was an actual tour company.  I emailed the article to my guide there and asked if it was him and he told me what company it is.

31 minutes ago, Wehwalt said:

Regarding whether the company would have a "get you to next port" guarantee. I doubt that catering to cruise passengers is a huge part of the company's business. I see there are only eight more days on which a cruise ship is scheduled to dock in Principe in 2024, and only five in 2025. Most likely the greater part of their business is people who fly in, for example from Portugal.

We'll be docked there this November. Doing an Oceania cruise this time. 

WE booked first week January 2024. 

I don't think this cruise was originally supposed  to be. Because of what is happening at the Red Sea, i think they had to reroute.  Its' the November 14th Barcelona to Capetown Cruise.

WE just took the cruise without airfare. No sale.

22 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

Because I have to much time on my hands, I look at cruise pricing almost every day.  I really focus on them the first day of every month.  I booked a cruise last November will cruising on the Oceania Riviera in the Mediterranean.  The cruise we booked was October 2025, on the Oceania Vista, 10-Day Mediterranean Cruise that went so mostly different ports then our Riviera Cruise. By booking onboard, we got 5% off the fare because we booked it so far in advance, $600.00 per cabin off because it was a Penthouse, $250.00 OBC for the new cruise, and $800.00 of SimplyMore excursions which is now $600.00 if you booked it today. 

 

As of this morning, the rates for this cruise which is wide open went up $400.00 per guest.  I was hoping to say a reduction or sale but not this time.  I found this interesting and will watch in the future it a few months from now, they do a "Super Sale" reduce to fare by simply giving back what they just added.  That last sentence is simply a theory but one that I will enjoy watching if it should unfold.  

 

Fare watching is a hobby of mine.  In this case, I am very happy we pulled the trigger on the ship.  What I am unhappy about is the darn cruise is so far away. 

 

Cruise well and Enjoy Every Moment. 

I also regularly check prices. Our November 2024 cruise that we booked for roughly $8,200 pp is today $12,000 pp.  That's insane. Wonder if it's a misprint.

On 3/31/2024 at 1:33 AM, Kay S said:

So has it been confirmed or not that this was a ship-sponsored excursion?

It definitely was a private tour.  

But the 80 year old was on an NCL tour. But that's another story 

On 3/31/2024 at 1:44 PM, EJL2023 said:

It seems they end up being on quite the adventure. Per some postings it sounds as if the next port where they may have been able to join has been cancelled. I saw that mentioned a couple of times in that thread. Next port I think it said was in Senegal. 

They were supposed to reboard in The Gambia  but that port got cancelled.  The next port is Senegal.  No word on if they ever got back on ship.   

23 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

And....just like that...poof....story came and went.  

 

No more about the tour company who didn't get the passengers back on time, not even a blurb about where the passengers are now.

Everyone on Sao Tome knows who ran the tour. I know who ran the tour.Their website looks good. Wondering what delayed them.   I have a private tour later this year.  NOT WITH THAT COMPANY.  I spoke to my guide and he knows what time i want to be back.. We are starting at the furthest point and working our way back to port. 

The passengers were interviewed on our local station. They come from the area.  They and their guide should have kept an eye on the time.   In any case NCL doesn't look good in the press.

3 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

It seems they end up being on quite the adventure. Per some postings it sounds as if the next port where they may have been able to join has been cancelled. I saw that mentioned a couple of times in that thread. Next port I think it said was in Senegal. 

According to the news i heard the next port is The Gambia Monday morning...is it Monday there yet? Do you know what port was cancelled? Just curious