Robjame

Currency conversion involves transaction fee and exchange rate. When you use a card from a foreign bank you are subject to both. Forex is the rate banks trade at My experience is mainly in France, but I have found the exchange rate at ATM (2.5%) to be more than what banks in Canada charge - base rate plus 1- 2.5 %, depending on your relationship with the bank. Some banks (Chase) will waive the exchange rate for best customers. Credit cards are typically 2.5%. Transaction fees are waived at ATM if your bank belongs to PLUS, etc. ‘These bank ATMS use the forex which is the official bank rate without surcharges added.” ‘’I have never heard of an ATM that coverts currency at the forex rate always rate plus. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/money-transfer/money-transfer-where-to-exchange-currency/ .

This is a great idea. An attentive sommelier can make a huge difference at dinner. We book the wine tastings through our favourite sommelier. We also ask the sommelier to taste our wines that we bring onboard and they seem to love that. How many sommeliers on Riviera/Marina? They seem to rotate through the dining venues so that does cause difficulties. We are travelling over Christmas so are thinking of some little gifts… or is this tacky?

You will do best for rate to do this at your own bank before you leave home.

It could possibly be the result, but it is not what I board early for. I board early because I am so excited to start my cruise that I would rather be on board standing in line than anywhere else (in Miami). I think it is old hat to you with your extensive experience. For me, it is still like Christmas.

Good to know. We will go to customer service to get this done. Thanks.

As Lyn says. Also if you reread the answers to the OP, some of the regulars are quite unsympathetic to someone who complains about O or questions O’s policies. I am sure that infrequent posters are scared off by these attacks.

Is there a location for Uber/Lyft at the airport? Do I need to pre-book or are cars waiting? Which - Uber or Lyft? Going to Miami and Bright Line or bus is not an option. used to be able to get Uber discount codes that helped us both - Anyone?

Denie - I presume you got your upgrade done at Customer Service. This can sometimes be very busy on embarkation day. I read on the new bar menus that this upgrade in beverage package can be done at any bar or by any sommelier. I will try this to see if it is true. I wish we could upgrade before getting on the ship - it would solve one problem.

No problem. It is Important for Sny to know that not all your post was inaccurate.

You cannot upgrade an OLife House Select package to Prestige on line - must be done on the ship. Purchasing House Select or Prestige can be done in the Oceania Booked Cruises.

? you mean for that cruise? For European cruises? For cruises beginning in the US, of course you can

https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/oceania-beverage-packages/ There are many threads on this. OLife can be use for House Select package. Cost to upgrade to Prestige is $20 per day per person.

Assuming you are not underage……. Out of curiosity, where is your cruise to? BTW I just checked my booked cruises and I can purchase beverage packages.

This is the fallacy of using your OLife for excursions ……or for the drink packages for that matter. It is only a deal if you would have purchased either. There are no free drinks. There are no free excursions. Quite often you can find the same or better excursions for less money from private operators or reliable consolidators like Viator. I only choose Oceania tours when they are unique to Oceania - ie a culinary tour combined with a class in the culinary centre. I choose the drink package because I do drink and my total cost for drinks would be more than the cost of the individual drinks I would buy. Make sure you can say that about Oceania excursions. Better and cheaper excursions can often be found in your roll call, being formed by knowledgeable and experienced cruisers.

Went to book culinary classes for upcoming December/January cruise and they are still advertising it as one person per station. My wife and I would prefer to work together as it has been in the past. Does anyone know if they have gone back to the two persons per station or is it still single stations now?

Of course … and that is what is frustrating. It is inconsistent. . Read the experiences on this thread. It should be a simple process with simple rules.

Once you are on board you will love it! If you read these boards, complaints almost always center around lack of information or inconsistent information. Sometimes written policies are out-of-date leaving clients to search for the right answer. These are reasons most of us use a good TA.

Hard to do when you cannot even talk to them. Being a sycophant would yield you no results. Our TA, who is well-connected with Oceania had her emails ignored. After escalating up the Oceania phone answerers, the supervisor had me send her the information (our request for shareholder benefit had been ignored for six weeks). The supervisor received a reply after another week. ‘Even with all that, the shareholder benefit was incorrectly (wrong amount) allocated. Our TA, in frustration, made up the short-changed amount out of her company’s funds. Lack of consistent policy. Inconsistent service. Absolutely no communication. A number of clients have reported the same which is why this thread pops up every couple of months - and these people who are being treated this way are the owners (shareholders) of the company.

An application is supposed to generate an automated reply. Automated. If it doesn’t then it has not entered their system. Lyn it is an absolutely terrible section of Oceania - inconsistent, non-responsive, not friendly. We haven’t even talked about the methods they use to minimize your benefit once it is dealt with. The whole experience is unkind.

Have you tried spending it in your account? If it has been allocated you should be able to use it to buy La Reserve? it will then show up in your cart. You won’t have to go through with the purchase

It is one benefit per cabin so even if each of you has 100 shares, you still only receive one benefit which is why it is split. My wife owns the shares and the brokerage statement shows that however, the benefit is still split. If you did this through your TA it could be allocated differently, I suppose.

The only thing I would add is to continue sending daily until you get the automated reply that Oceania has received your request. Our experience from sending in Shareholder Benefit Requests on multiple occasions is that this does not always happen and when we have enquired about our request, the response has been that it was never received.

If these were the issues then they should have become evident before now - seven and a half months before the first sold cruise. She was floated awhile back, officials and those supposedly with solid connections reassured all was on schedule. Now - what about the Riviera refurbishment. Will it be on schedule?

SO happy I anticipated a screw-up and cancelled my b2b inaugural voyages!

Yes it shows up on my Oceaniacruises.com for December and January cruises right beside your booking number on Booked Cruises