IWantToLiveOverTheSea

We've never had a problem getting good reservations even at 45 days out, and we've never eaten at 8:30 or later. But we're fine sharing OR non-sharing, which definitely makes a difference. So does having experience with Oceania procedures. Many of the newbies don't know to book early and/or don't realize that flexibility goes a long way in getting their number one choices. Is the system fair? I think so.

Not sure if this was addressed to me or not. But yes, my OBC shows up, along with the Oceania Club amount, and everything is correct. The TA OBC is also reflected in the "Your Purchases" summary I got this morning from the "My Account/Reservation" section of website. It's also reflected on the "Pre-Purchased Shore Excursions & Onboard Experiences" document that O emailed me this afternoon after I used the Chat feature. (And yes, you can call Oceania directly about excursions even if you use a TA. I just had Oceania adjust the cost of what I owe for my excursions. My spouse will do that eventually.........) I notice that somewhere on the "Pre-Purchased" document is a note that excursion packages must be selected no later than 14 days prior to sailing, which is more specific that what was posted on my invoice. Obviously, we have plenty of time to select excursions (or not!), but just thought I'd mention this in case some people were planning to do it a lot later. I also notice there are 4 or 5 cooking classses under the "Other Options" tab. You can't use your SM shore excursion credit for those, but you CAN use OBC.

It just depends upon a number of factors - probably sharing or non-sharing requests most often, plus booking category (suite or lower, etc.), how full ship is, how many Europeans are on board, whether people care about sailaways, whether they might go to Tea at 4, or whether they want to stay off the ship one night for dinner, etc. But overall, I've been on quite a few Oceania cruises and I've always gotten good nights and times.

I didn't see any discount box to check. But I'm just going to figure out what I want, and let my spouse do the same, and then call Oceania to have them book them for me. I have almost used up the SM excursion credit and the shipboard credit I have from O's loyalty program plus my TA's gift. So if I book anything else on the website, I'm assuming I'll be charged for the overage, which I'd rather avoid, at least until I'm sure I know what I want.

Once you book a cruise, you can also see how many reservations you get in your "My Account/Reservation" section. Here's what mine shows (larger ship, oceanview room category, 14 day cruise).

Just a quick question: Simply More is new to us (two people in same stateroom). I love excursions but my travel partner does not. To get the 25% Simply More shore excursion package discount of 25%, do each of us need to book the required number of excursions, or can I get 25% off for mine without worrying how many excursions my travel partner books?

We used Efendi Travel from the airport to a hotel in Sultanahmet, and a taxi from the hotel to port. Both were OK (except for the port complication I described elsewhere) athough Istanbul traffic can be very slow, especially around Sultanahmet. But the port shouldn't be bad if you're coming from the airport. With Efendi you pay for the ride up front (by credit card) so at least you know you're getting what you agreed to get.

Our cab driver knew how to get into Galataport, but once he was directed into the cavernous underground parking area, he had a lot of trouble finding where people embark. We struggled with our luggage to find someone we could ask, and then struggled up an escalator to an elevator. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to described what the right place is. But just to be sure, I would not let a taxi driver go before making sure you are at the correct location for embarking with luggage. Hopefully signage is better now. We were there in May 2022, and there hadn't been many cruise ship visits to Galataport at that point. It was not an easy embarkation, though the Turkish officials at least did a good job of checking us in once we found the right place.

As a P.S., I would think that a cruise in March would fill up quite a bit by that time. My cruise is 5 or 6 months out and still before final payment. There are no suites available. They're all wait listed. And the oceanviews, insides and the lowest veranda category are all wait listed. The lowest-priced concierge level veranda also just flipped over to Guarantee from Available.

We usually book inside staterooms or oceanviews, with an occasional lower-priced veranda booking. Once in a while we'll book a guarantee on one of those categories. In the past 10 years or so we've typically gotten an upgrade offer maybe 10-14 days pre-cruise. Once or twice we didn't, particularly if the ship was sold out or almost sold out, which happened with our sold out SE Asia cruise in January. I've only accepted one, maybe two upgrade offers over the years, as I'm fine cruising in any room category, even the lowly inside category. But I have to admit I do enjoy the "wait and see what they offer" game, even if I say no most of the time. I would say, however, that if you think you might be interested, don't dawdle if you receive an offer. Also if you have a TA, make sure that person knows you may be interested, and knows your cell phone number. Typically, I think you have the rest of the day to accept, but after that, O may quickly move on to calling another person. I would guess that the most frequent offer involves the veranda rooms, as there are plenty of them, and they seem to sell slower than the higher and lower priced rooms.

Wow. Just wow.

Thank you; that's helpful. And it might be fun to see Azamara Journey ship during our transit. We seldom berth with an Az ship, but I know some of their ships are just like O's smaller ships, so it's fun to look for them.

Thank you. I read a little about the terminal business that's dragging on and on. But I'm still a little confused as to exactly where the famous berths and terminal are located, and how close anything is to wherever we berth. But I imagine in Panama City, it really doesn't matter much, as I'll likely just take an excursion there, or possibly some pre-arranged taxi tour of the city. We'll see!

That Cruise Critic thread on shuttles is really helpful. But keep in mind that 1) some info might be old 2) some folks report a "shuttle" even if it's just a shuttle to the port gate. 3) Oceania doesn't offer shuttles on embark and disembark day. And occasionally you'll find a shuttle doesn't run for an hour or two at lunch time. 4) Some cities in the UK have multiple ports (like Edinburgh), so you may need to know which docking area you'll be assigned to in order to verify that there will be a shuttle. Oceania can usually tell you that, or you can find a port website. (Sorry, forget the title or link). 5) Oceania will let you know about shuttles in the daily paper. For the most part, my experience is that they WILL offer free shuttles in places where you can't just get off the ship and find fun things to do. Also, sometimes there is a tourist representative who will either board the ship, or sit outside on the pier. That person can be helpful in planning a day of independent exploration, with or without a shuttle. And the port talks are worth listening to, either in person or the replays on room TV. And the ship's concierge can help with planning.

It's a lot later now, but I've just rolled through 8 pages of this interesting photo gallery (thanks!) and wondering if someone can try to help me with some questions. I'll be on a cruise doing a daytime transit of the canal in Mid December. Is there any place that shows a port schedule for Canal transits, or do you have to go to various cruise mapping sites to find if you'll be with other ships? I'd like to look at ships going through the canal on Marine Traffic, and also see if we'll have much company in the canal in December. All I know at this point is that we'll be on Oceania Marina (239 metres long and 32 wide, gross tonnage of 66,000) coming from the Caribbean and overnighting in Panama City, with an anticipated dock time of or by 8 PM. We spend the next day in Panama City. Until I can get more info later, should I assume we'll start the transit around 6 AM? Is there any way to anticipate which canal (new or old) we'll go through? And can someone tell me what the current status of the Fuerte Amador cruise location is, or might possibly be, come December? And of course, as mentioned earlier, I'd love to find an official port web site schedule if it exists. Thank you essiesmom, and BillB, for the

I would also love to know what I can expect, although we will be doing the canal transit and then stopping in Panama City (not embarking), with an overnight with the next day for touring. (Dinah, I may be on your cruise.)

I know not that many cruises go to Lima, but I'm hoping someone can tell me a little about the port there. Do you need to take a shuttle to the gates? Is the port in as bad a location as some people say? Do cruise ships normally offer a shutle (paid or free) from the port gates (or inside) to a more central location in Lima? And if so, where were you taken? Also if you can recommend a tour guide, that would be wonderful. It sounds like a huge city, with a lot of time needed to get from the port, to the old part of Lima, and then more time to get to the Miraflores area. And how is the airport there? About how early do you need to get there? Thanks to anyone who can help!

I apologize if my post wasn't clear. But I was talking about a situation in which a person (like Redtravel) "purchased" (with credit only or $$), the required number of excursions (or more) to qualify to get "shore excursion package" prices (25% lower than a la carte). Then due to cancellation by Oceania of that critical 5th or whatever excursion, the prior purchases no longer qualified for 25% off the whole package. If Oceania had to cancel an excursion, you get credits/refunds, but may no longer qualify for 25% off unless you book another excursion. I suppose if I really want to get my money's worth, I could book all the least expensive excursions for the first half of my trip. Or I could just not worry about extra dollars I might end up owing at the end of the cruise and book what I want to book, then relax and enjoy the cruise.

Thanks. I started to answer what happens, but it was a bit complicated. Some day I'll ask my travel advisor to confirm what I was told by someone else. But I think if you lose an excursion due to port OR excursion cancelation (by vendor or O), you get the shore excursion credit back. But I was told that to maintain the package discount of 25% off the price of excursions in your package (or additional ones you may add), you must maintain the required number of excursions for your cruise. So if the package requires you to book at least 5 per person and you drop to 4, you need to book another or O might re-price the 4 you previously booked. If you paid any money to purchase excursions in the shore excursion package, you get that money back. I was told it shows up initially as a shipboard credit but you can request a refund at the end of the cruise. You can kind of use the online booking system to do tentative bookings. The advice I've read, however, indicates you should call in your excursion choices. (And yes, you or your TA may do call.) That's because there have been comments that the system doesn't calculate prices accurately all the time. I found it a little confusing, though. I have a good amount of shipboard credit from my loyalty status. So I couldn't really tell how, or if, the system was using that credit or not, and what happens when I fall below the required number of excursions. Anyway, I can't say that the above info is entirely correct, as I haven't yet cruised using Simply More. But at least I can tell you that on our last 2 cruises, both two weeks, one in February, and one a year ago, we only missed 1 port, and luckily it was my least anticipated port. So I remain optimistic that despite global warming and rising seas, wars, unrest and other challenges, cruise ships WILL likely make all or certainly most ports on their itineraries.

If you can, please let us know if the amount was adjusted by the end of the cruise. And just curious - for the last minute (I assume) "replacement" port, was Destinations able to arrange excursions in that port? Thanks.

Yes, pdf copy is the way to go. Mine was 31 pages long for a 14 day cruise, but I like to have a hard copy, so I printed the whole thing. I noticed there were a few excursions on the pdf for one port that weren't listed on the website. I'm not sure if that's because O isn't offering them on our cruise or if the website (or pdf) is oudated. But it doesn't matter to me, as they weren't anything I'm likely to book.

In February we were in one of the veranda rooms that had a longer than usual veranda. It had two loungers, plus the usual small table & two chairs.

There are plenty of people on Oceania who take ship excursions. There are also plenty of people who arrange their own, or just walk of. From my persepective, Oceania's just trying to stay competitive, and to a lesser extent, simplify some things over how those things were done in the past. Many people rely on excursions, and it seems like most cruise lines now include at least some in their price. And Oceania has ADDED some nice things (faster, free for 2 internet, new ships/restaurants, included excursions, etc.) but inevitably those things seem to get a bit ignored when it comes to comments. And some of the things that keep me coming back to Oceania (unusual and/or port intensive itineraries, wonderful/positive passengers, outdoor dining, served/combo grill/buffet dinner restaurant, free shuttles and often visits by tourist info personnel, etc.) may not even be considered plusses to others. But they are to ME, so that, plus cost, keeps me coming back for more. Just keep an open mind and I think you'll have a great time.

You can order take out? To eat in your room, on a lounger at the pool, to take on a long excursion, or whatever/wherever? Or do you just take your meal to the Terrace, out back, to join your Terrace-loving travel partner?