Sebbiesgrammy

Maybe the only R ship, but on Marina, restrooms are in th outer area of Horizons. I assume Riviera is the same.

If memory serves, on Nautica, the nearest ones were down one deck but it was a year ago right after the refit. I remember thinking it was strange then.

Why the hate? Using my suggestion, the later cancellation would be refundable in green dollars. And as far as being "enamored" with O's excursions, not many people would book SM and leave $ on the table. The $100 credit for Olife would still be applied to another excursion. You don't get refund and you might have lost a $199 excursion only to get $100 toward a replacement. Geez, I thought you knew this stuff...

One possible solution to avoid this problem is to book all your SM credits for excursions in the early days of the cruise and use your cash to pay for the later ones. If an excursion that was paid for with SM gets canceled, the credit gets applied immediately to a cash paid for tour and your on board account is credited as a refundable credit. We're on a 51 day cruise now and this method has worked for us after 2 excursion cancellations by O. I agree with the posters who recommend using your SM shore credits very early in your planning process to avoid sold out tours. Example: there are about 1200 of us in Marina now in Brazil. The very popular Boi Bomba show in Paratins is coming up in a day or so and has been sold out for ages. The show only gave O 500 tickets so you can imagine there are a lot of disappointed folks who are calling SM a bait and switch, but that is not the case here.

Always, always call OceanIa to book excursions directly with them. We are in a 51 day on Marina now and some people are telling us they booked on line, paid for what SM didn't cover but found no reservations when they boarded the ship. Some disappointed people who now think SM is a Simply Misleading if there are no available excursions to book. Lots of excursions sold out weeks or months before they even booked and they feel they should have been told or they should be able to use their shore excursion credit as a shipboard credit. We booked and paid the difference 6 months ago or more and we were able to get pretty much what we wanted.

You can book as many excursions as you want to spend your credit although, frankly, you'd be lucky to get one, maybe two really inexpensive ones. If you go over, the excess is payable in order to keep the reserved tour. HAL lets you book excursion as soon as they are available but you must pay with credit or green dollars to reserve them.

We are on Marina now in an A1 concierge level cabin. No butler service available. That is Penthouse and above. 3 bags of wash and fold laundry on a 21 day itinerary but they no longer offer 3 free garment pressings at this level. Must also clarify that a concierge cabin in the R ships is significantly smaller than on the purpose built Marina or Riviera.

And you can only book in advance if you take a cabana for the full duration of the cruise. A day pass can be purchased at any bar in board but good luck getting one for the days you want.

I know its common practice to one up on this board sometimes so I hope I don't come off that way , but we are USA based travelers taking only our second O cruise in two weeks. We are only blue status. We booked in March last before SM, then switched to SM and paid only $100 extra pp and gained so many percs and saved $. One big one is partial PPG of $918 pp. Ours is a 51 day trip so we will have to pu the difference, but still a good deal imo. Our TA is amazing but I doubt she worked any magic and the PPG is not from her agency.

Agree completely. Isn't the Sea View pool adults only anymore? Agree that the Lido pool can be noisy even when there aren't many kids since that is where poolside activities are normally held but the smaller Sea View on most, if not all ship classes in the HAL fleet, is usually quieter.

And, once again, a case where a good TA with expertise in cruising, might have saved you a lot of grief and not cost you a dime. Folks, if we don't support these valuable businesses they will disappear and we will be the less well served for it.

Not true when we spent 32 days on Nautica this year. We ordered 2 of the same drink, one for each of us, every afternoon. We boarded in Cape Town with 8 bottles of wine. We don't drink a whole lot, but after 32 days our total drinks bill was about $950, which included the corkage fee for our wine. A good deal for light drinkers I'd say. In February next, we have Simply More for a 51 day trip. We won't bring wine but will still rely on happy hour deal for our afternoon cocktail most days. I expect our drinks bill will still be less than 1k.

Also, a space for Morimoto specialty restaurant included in the Tamarind/ Nami Sushi space. Already booked our table for opening night😃

In February this year we had a wonderful 3 days with Ligia who we found through Tours by Locals. Can't say enough great things about our time with her.

Only thing I can imagine could be an issue is walkers or scooters that get left in hallways but that could happen anywhere. Were booked in 10053, starboard. We noticed the inside rooms near us, but cabin doors open to port side.