Robjame

I have always looked upon Jacques as a homage to classic French cuisine - not what you will find today in most bistros, cafes, restaurants, in France. As long as they retain Boeuf bourguignon, sole almandine, bouillabaisse, escargot, foie gras etc., and the classic desserts, I will be happy. The changes which pinotlover speaks of above are part of the reason we cancelled our Vista voyage to sail on Riviera instead. Mura, I agree with your choices.

In typical Oceania style, they manipulate the voyage descriptions to their benefit. ‘’We have one booking number for a 22 day trip. It is a combined voyage of two legs, 12 days and 10 days. ‘Rather than allocate $250 shareholder benefit for the one booking number, Oceania has given us $100 for each of the two legs making up the combined voyage. A savings of $50 for them. My question to the rep: since you are treating this one booking as two trips, will you allocate two cruise credits? So to answer the OP question, you should expect them to break up your voyage into the individual segments, each worth $100 shareholder benefit.

Just for accuracy - pecorino is not a goat cheese. It is made from sheep’s milk. In fact pecorino is not a specific cheese but is the Italian name used for any cheese made of sheep’s milk.

Agreed. The only thing that makes sense is someone things that because you are Canadian, you must have paid for your stock in CAD. Of course, you can’t. You have to pay in $US. It even shows that on the submitted brokerage statement. This is the department that handles Shareholder Benefit so you would think they would have some expertise in that area.

After over a month, the involvement of our TA and utilizing one of the senior Oceania reps, we finally received our OBC - or at least some of it. We are booked on a b2b cruise, each with a Booking number and each over 17 days. The OBC is $252 Canadian for each of our bookings. $252 Canadian??? That is $195 US. No explanation. (sit should be $250 US or $322 can. Why is this such a difficult process? I know - you had a seamless, smooth process. We didn’t…And this is not the first thing. It often seems to be a fight. I should not have to involve our TA for what should be a simple transaction. Oceania is a luxury cruise line in every way …. Except customer service. It is inconsistent, slow, with different responses and results for different clients. The Oceania higher ups should be embarrassed for their customer service and should crack some heads.

To provide a different viewpoint on Privee, we spent a delightful evening with 8 strangers on our first cruise. We answered a post in our rollcall and the ten of us joined together for one of the most memorable meals of our lives. The beautiful room and table are designed to allow quiet conversation among all the ten guests. We all shared the price. I would not give up on Privee too quickly. A post in your rollcall might be fun and result in some new friends. It did for us.

Things have changed in Privee and I believe you are no longer limited to the menus from Polo and Toscana. https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/oceanias-new-privee-private-dining-menus/

The only way beverage or tour are a bargain is if you would purchase them any way. Personally, we have found excursions VIA TOURing with private companies identical to the Oceania offerings at one third the cost. Full cancellations. That leaves us with the beverage package. Oh well……… You do what you have to do.

Bookings can be made with or without the OLife Perk. The important thing to know is that the cost of the OLife perk is identical to what you will be allocated as OBC. If you decide on OBC your money will be tied up and only be available for specific uses - better to decline the OLife perk if OBC is your choice. As you have mentioned, that choice can be made closer to embarkation.

on my return flight from Europe, I am flying LIS-Toronto- ORD. I am not getting off in Canada... will I have to have smart phones and crap to get that silly" arrive Canada I do not intend to set foot in any of Canada?" …that silly arrive Canada is being used by a country that has fared far better than the US In every metric of Covid response - about one-third of the Covid deaths per capita. There are plenty of electrical outlets (same type as at home) where you could plug in your monitor and CPU as the arrive Canada app has a web-based source as well. That quarantine in a foreign country just might improve your chance of Covid survival and there won’t be any astronomical medical bills at the end. 😜

La Lido Loca (vlog) has reported that a $12 a day fuel surcharge was added to his onboard account. He said he was not told that this would be the case. How do you feel about that?

At least one cruise ship, Margaritaville At Sea, has begun adding a fuel surcharge ($12 a day) to guests on board account. This was done without any prior notification - just slipped into the bill. We know from experience that what one cruise line does, others often follow.

It is so annoying that these rules have to be “discovered’. I knew that SB requests had to be sent in more than 15 days prior to embarkation, but it is the first time I have heard the 60 day or less rule. A customer based business should have a clear policy which is readily available - especially to shareholders. ‘And how hard is it to send a reply to SB requests saying, “your SB request has been received and you will receive a reply within 10 business days”? My request went in more than 3 weeks ago and no reply from Oceania. My TA has been trying to track it down and she is getting the run around. In my experience this is typical and someone should clean house.

There was a rumour that something would be coming out July 1…

Probably won’t be a wholesale change like flying. ‘’could it be if you are vaccinated and up to date with your boosters then you will not need to be tested pre-cruise. Just a guess.