Vallesan

It’s painfully obvious you don’t like Oceania their pricing or their policies. That’s fine but WE DO ENJOY OCEANIA! WE ARE PREPARED TO PAY THEIR PRICES! If you aren’t …fine! Go elsewhere. ENJOY!

OK, and I have said this elsewhere, when SM was introduced we swapped a cruise over from OLife with a drinks package to SimplyMore with drinks and the addition of the trip allowance and saved £1700, which at todays rate is $2140 approximately. So that is the ACTUAL saving I made in hard cash in my pocket. What prices are now, for 2024 or 2025, is what they are. You can’t possible know what the prices would have been under the old system, as they probably would have increased anyway, so you have no real comparison. The only real point of reference is what you have actually paid for your cruises. I have just paid the final payment for a cruise in May and today’s price is £1570 per person ( $1980) more than I paid. I think you are being rather pedantic because at the end of the day a cruise, or anything else for that matter, is only worth, to a person, what they are prepared to pay. Sounds to me that Oceania no longer offers you value so it might be time to look at other alternatives.

Definitely not!

So glad you’re enjoying it. We’ve never had a ‘bad’ cruise with Oceania. In fact our least enjoyable cruise, which actually wasn’t ’bad’, was with Regent. We have a few Oceania planned for later this year. We like the general atmosphere on Oceania ships and of course the food and staff! The internet is so hit and miss depending on which part of the world you’re in. We had a tip a few years ago before StarLink, if you’re in your cabin prop the door open because the routers are in the hallways. Seemed to help! Anyway, enjoy!

First ‘modern’ cruise was in 2015 and we’ve probably sailed 200+ days with 4 lines, all small ships. I must admit I don’t recall there being any ‘engine trouble’ but then maybe we weren’t informed at the time!

No just one person in the cabin can.

How is the cruise apart from the in port time issues? We should have been on the cruise with you but had to cancel at the last moment. Would be interested to know what we are missing!

Yes I would to but not sure that everyone would like hear that there was a problem with the engines!

Do you think passengers would be happier in the knowledge that the ship had ‘engine trouble’???

Last year the world situation was very different to this year! I can only say that the cruise lines probably know better than we do what their priorities are. I don’t believe any ‘business’ will ‘aggravate’ their customers knowingly without thought. After all without customers they have no business ….. no matter what they are selling!

No reason for that not to be good. Just feel that Turkey may just not be a friendly area to sail in. BTW we did Southhampton to Copenhagen in June last year and if was ‘magical’. We were blessed with wonderful weather. I just put in a couple of sun dresses at the last minute ‘just in case’ and boy did I need them. Enjoy!

Yes it does of course. Just my feeling that this year there will be lots of changes for one reason or another. We have B2B in September/October on the Riviera with several stops in Turkey and an overnight in Istanbul. We booked this in the knowledge that the final cruise may be completely different to the one we’ve booked. We have a cruise in May on the Marina and Izmir was changed to Corfu a while ago. C’est la vie!

Yes I agree. Maybe there are so many other pressing issues that this wasn’t considered a ‘major’ problem as only the times were shortened rather than ports being missed. I’m only guessing, but I think re-routing ships is probably the most urgent issue to be resolved by many lines at the moment. For example the Silver Moon had to stop a cruise going through the Suez Canal half way through. They turned around back to Athens, had to arrange flights for everyone, cancel a couple of upcoming cruises, sail around West Africa towards Mumbai, arranging refuelling stops on the way. The cruise from Mumbai should have departed on February 11th and has now been rescheduled for the 14th, fingers crossed the Moon gets there, with everyone being given hotel accommodation for three nights prior to the cruise. The cruise had also been shortened by two days! It’s only within recent days that the passengers have been notified and some are still awaiting emails. All cruise lines are having issues one way or another and of course the logistics of getting these ships back from Asia in the spring is yet another conundrum to be solved! In the grand scheme of things I think the Riviera problem with reduced port stops is probably not top of the list of priorities. I think there will be a lot more disruption to come over the next 6/12 months or so.

My answer must have crossed with your last post!

It’s usually while you’re on the cruise that becomes number 10. You will need to check that as there have been so many changes over the last six months or so. Ring your TA or Oceania to double check.

I don’t have your cruising history but have sailed on a few different lines since 2015, 14 cruises, mainly Oceania. We have never had these changing time issues before. Strangely enough we should be on the Riviera at the moment but had to cancel. Anyway, we have only had port cancellations due to weather in the past. The past is just that now, the past. Lots of cruise lines are in dire financial straights. Added, to this we have the situation in the Middle East. Lots of ships being forced to take the long route to/back from Asia, which adds huge costs. Ships scrambling for the same ports in Europe. The whole industry is in a mess at the moment and I think if you want to continue sailing, and enjoy it, you just have to go with the flow and expect these changes. I don’t think there is anything sinister in what’s happening with Oceania or other lines. I just think they are trying to keep their heads above water (sorry), and recoup as much as they can in extremely trying times. There would be no point them making these changes ‘just for the fun of it’ to hack off their passengers. Dark times. Things have changed and I don’t see them getting much better in the near future. The choice is ours. …. to cruise or not to cruise?

OK. He should be OK because he can sit when he needs to. The only problem will be how steep or flat the gangway is. This depends on ports, tides etc. So it might just be a case of ‘wait and see’ … sorry can’t be of more help.

Yes I did! I got a ‘warning’ for that! Anyway once you get the onboard prices with the perks etc. you can still take of roughly 10%.

You know that if you book onboard you can still transfer to your chosen TA within two weeks and also benefit from their discount. My TA is roughly 10% off Oceania’s price

Thanks ! Good review.

Thank you!!!

Thank you! I’m sure you’re right!

Does his walker have a seat?

Interesting cruising history! Our first cruise, with Fred Olsen, was our honeymoon in 1969, did I really just write that!! Then we did another cruise and stay with them in 1971. We didn’t cruise again until 2015 when we took a Riviera cruise. Since then we’ve sailed mainly Oceania both sized ships, Regent, which we didn’t like, Seabourn a few times and Silversea once. I loved them all, but all for different reasons. If the same itinerary was offered at the same price by all three lines my choices would be: joint no:1 Seabourn and Silversea and third Oceania. But, it’s never that simple so we have to decide what’s most important to us individually. I’m guessing your Uniworld was a river cruise so not really comparable. I must admit I do/did like the ‘R’ ships but only in a PH. On the ‘O’ class we can take a balcony. I think ‘R’ PH no longer offer the same value compared to Seabourn and Silversea. Really looking forward to the Quest although, when we booked it, I hadn’t realised its size, capacity and age compared with the ‘R’ class ships. Thinking this might just be our ‘go to’ ship in the future!

You are probably right about the Oceania perks. Guess it’s just a psychological thing! Yes we also only sail a few lines, but far fewer than you because we only sail on small/ish ships. In fact we are doing our smallest in April, Seabourn Quest just 450, but the ship is an actually few thousand tons larger than the ‘R’ class ships, so the comparison will be interesting.