Woofa

14 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

@commodoredave Hi Dave, how are you?  You hit it out of the ball park.  But it goes far past the VIP area's.  Here are some examples.  If you want early boarding, Pay me a fee.  If you want to stay in the private sundeck, like the Vibe Beach Club, pay me a fee.  If you want to utilize the Thermal Spa, payment a fee.  If you want to stay in the private VIP area like Haven, Retreat and Yacht Club, pay me a fee. In Disney world, if you want the express line with little or no wait, pay me a fee.  Same with Universal.  Delta, if you want to check bags, pay me a fee. My list can go on, and ON.  

 

I don't believe this is the brands creating folks like Chair Hogs.  I do think it is their was of adding more revenue.  Increasing their bottom line. We have not even talked about increasing the fee for gratuities.  

 

This and other reason is why I have started to go Book, Premium-Plus and Luxury brands.  I compared all the stuff I would receive (Perks and Amenities) and still have to pay for area's like Haven, Retreat and Yacht Club.  I then had what call a "Total Price".  I then would convert it to total cost per person, per day.  

I think you hit it on the head here.  The more alacarte something is made, the lower the fare they can advertise.  For those less savvy or knowledgeable I don't doubt this makes for a rude awakening when the cruise is over and they realize they paid double or triple the original low fare.  Even knowing this it is difficult to guess at the real price per day until you actually go.  This kept us from cruising for quite a while until we found O where we basically paid the advertised fare for our first cruise plus insurance, flights and a few incidentals.  I can remember seeing commercials for RC or similar and then determining we would be lucky if we could actually cruise for triple the price advertised.

Have a great cruise

After years of reading these boards this is the first time I have heard of a TA making the specialty reservations.  Not saying they won't but I would check in with them to be sure. If they are not O regulars they may not realize the difficulty it can be for certain reservations.  In a concierge cabin there is a good chance that all early two top reservations will already be gone even if you get online in the first few minutes of your window.  More importantly someone will need to make fast decisions in those first few minutes like would I rather eat alone at 8pm or share a table and eat at 7.  These are decisions I would prefer to make myself.  Of course, you are guaranteed at least one reservation in each specialty even if you wait until your cruise to reserve (and we have found it possible for additional reservations if you work at it,) but that does not mean four two tops by a window at 6:30.  Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

Thank you

Thank you

We are taking our second Oceania Cruise on Marina in November (Cruise only on Hidden Caribbean Coves leaving the day before Thanksgiving.  Antigua, St. Lucia, Guadalupe, St. Barts, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic.)

On our first cruise ( an almost identical Riviera itinerary) we mainly walked off ship (and were generously treated to a resort day excursion by other CC members we met on these boards.).

For our second cruise we have some credit and have already signed up for a cooking class and we are thinking of doing an excursion.  We would like to do a snorkel excursion from amongst the ship options if a good one is available. We are interested in hearing about another excursions you may have loved, hated from this itinerary.

I think we want to keep our costs at or below the $250 per person level and if we could do two, that would be great.

Now, having lived in Miami for many years, I have no real interest in snorkelling for 90 minutes and maybe seeing a few fish.  As far as I have read, the ports on our cruise are generally not snorkel hot spots but...Maybe something is available.

The following is what is listed for St Lucia:

We are taking an Oceania Cruise in November and would like to do a snorkel excursion from amongst the ship options.  The following is what is listed for St Lucia:

3 minutes ago, ORV said:

What's this? A post that makes sense and is not self centered? We can't have that. This is the bashing thread. 

😀

2 hours ago, islabahia said:

We signed up for the same class!

Sounds great, looking forward to meeting you onboard.

Just a follow after many good responses and a little more research.  

Apologies if all that I am about to say is not 100% accurate, these things are too complex to do just some research but I believe from what I have read the following is basically true.

I think part of the issue is O's decision to offer the excursion credit as opposed to just a free excursion in each port, which while as I have stated is IMO a good thing, it can be confusing.  This makes some people believe that they are in fact paying for that credit.  In fact, you are paying a higher price for the cruise and getting a credit which lets you (possibly) make choices on which excursion to choose.  Having read multiple topics for other lines now including Viking, Regent, Silver sea and Seabourne, which all seem to have an included excursion per port, none of these will reimburse you (from what I have read) for any cancellation of that "included" excursion.  And to be clear, only O gives you even the possibility of choosing your included excursion Amongst any of the excursion options even if you have to pay more to make up the difference. All, including O will reimburse you for actual, out of pocket excursions you choose to pay for.

Plenty of people on the topics for those cruise lines also unhappy that they do not get anything back.  Of course if you do not have a glass of wine with dinner, you don't get that money back either.

Now, in regards to the missing time/cancelled ports issue, it is really difficult to discuss as no one has, as of yet been able to find industry data to support their claims that O is worse.  From what I have read, they probably are.  However, every line on CC indicates issues.

What I would say is that from what I have read, leaving ports early to support their green initiative is a real thing.  Whether it really works, I have no idea.  whether you agree it is a good thing is just one of those things where you vote with your wallet.

There was also a recent post from someone saying that O management is extremely conservative to make sure no real issues ever arise.

I would venture a guess that like the smaller ships of the luxury lines, O offers more smaller, hard to get to ports which have more tender ports and this combined with a conservative decision making captain could lead to more missed ports.

Regardless, you now know port time can be lowered or ports missed so make your cruising decisions accordingly.  I would never blame anyone for choosing another line which better fits their needs.

One caveat I do not necessarily agree that the majority of O cruisers cruise mainly for the ports.  I would also argue that on a Caribbean cruise like the one we have taken ( and are about to take again), an hour less here and there makes little or no difference.  

While I have no doubt certain cruises like Mediterranean or similar are different, I would guess the majority of cruisers on our cruise were back on the ship for lunch (if they even left in the first place)

While I know that few are happy with the new fares (I don't like using the term SM, they are simply the current fares,) as suggested above the prices were going to go up one way or another (as everything has.). 

Whether or not this prices O out of our future plans remains to be seen (our second O cruise is on Marina in November and we still have cruise only,) but I would prefer to look a little more positively at the outcome.  The new higher fares do allow us to have some wine with our meals ( current threads suggest the level of champagne has gone up as well) and perhaps add in a few excursions as well. Certainly, O could have just added in a set excursion option for every port. This would most certainly have been easier for O.  Instead, they allowed us options. True, not everyone is going to be able to use up their credits getting fewer ( or one) higher priced excursions but it can happen. Personally I prefer this possibility to one pre chosen bus tour in each port.

We will choose to look at the changes in as positive a way as we can as the truth is, what other options do we have?  I know many have suggested they will stop cruising and if things continue to go up we will as well.  Others have suggested changing to other cruise lines but our recent online check confirms what we found two years ago when we chose O for our first cruise.  Excepting special sales which greatly limit availability, and understanding that cruise fares vary greatly by itinerary, season, cabin size and level and other factors like newness of the ship, I have not found one "premium line", " luxury line" or "ship within a ship" which can compete with O's veranda level (and below) pricing across the board.  When looking for the lower fared cabins, most don't even come close.  (Once you get to PH and above on the newer ships on desired itineraries it can change.)

True, you may find ones that suit you better and by all means, take them.  We are fortunate to have a few posters on these threads who spend their time researching and give all of us the benefit.  I plan to use the information they post when looking for future vacations.

So, are all things to our liking?  No.  But our first cruise on O convinced us that at least for now, O was a good choice for us.  O is just a business, trying to do what they believe is right to keep the majority of their ships sailing full and keeping them in business in a very difficult post Covid world.

It depends upon your cabin class and will be listed in your account online.  For our upcoming Marina cruise in a B3 ( and most cabins below concierge) it is 45 days before the cruise.  Please note that on a "O" size ship like Riviera or Marina we do not expect to get two tops for all four specialties at times before 8 pm.  Maybe one if we are online the first few minutes when the window opens.  Maybe not even then.  Good luck.

17 minutes ago, yogagal47 said:

New to Oceania-someone please tell me what is the timing for reserving before a cruise?

Our Marina cruise departs November 27 and I have been checking regularly.  Yesterday we were able to book.  Three options currently, we signed up for Farm and Fisherman.  Quick and easy, $89 each.  So in our case just over six months ahead 

I believe that the individual cruise can make a difference.  On our 10 night Riviera Caribbean last year I spoke to someone on the day before disembarkation who had eaten in specialties 9 nights.  Now, I do not know what level of cabin they had or how many nights they ate in shared tables or at what times.  Certainly, it seems that on many cruises you can get extra reservations if you are open and diligent.  For our upcoming cruise I will shoot for an extra night or two in a specialty but continue to want to eat at least one night each in the MDR, Terrace and Waves pizza.  maybe twice in Terrace if the weather lets us sit outside, we really enjoyed the grill station.

Walking back to Riviera on our cruise last year.  The boat next to us literally blocked some of the sun.  And this was Riviera...

Having been born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island I have yet to find a comparable bagel.  I have been told it is the NY water which is one part of the recipe not to be the same anywhere else.  

I did not enjoy our bagels on Riviera last year but found the croissants quite good and (horror of horrors,) had cream cheese and smoked salmon on my croissants many mornings in Terrace.  We all have to make do.

Sleeping that first night on the super comfortable O beds with maybe just a hint of the ocean rocking you to bed.

Just 4.  Your booking number is required for them to make a reservation for you or vice versa.  That reservation will will disappear from your cart.

Just to clarify, Simply More (SM) is not something you choose like the old Olife program.  It is simply O's marketing name for the current base fare.  Unlike with Olife, there is no longer an additional "catch-all" program you can purchase (or maybe get free from a TA or during a promotion) on Oceania.  Truth is, things on these boards would be much simpler if O had left this as the new base fare without naming it anything.  Since last October anyone booking now gets the base fare (SM) which includes some items (beer, wine and champagne at lunch and dinner and an excursion credit,) which previously were not included in the "cruise only" base fare.  This has angered some who were used to cruising O before these things were included.  Of course the price of cruises did go up when they removed Olife and instituted these changes.  Complicating matters is that many people are still taking cruises purchased under the old pricing structure and will be for some time.

From what I have read, the bigger issue for most is the excursion credit.  Many O regulars were used to cruising with private or no excursions and the recent implementation still has kinks to be ironed out.

For now, as has been said above, the credit for excursions is a use it or lose it proposition.

Hope I have this right and this helps.  Have a great cruise.  We took our first about a year ago and will be cruising again over Thanksgiving.  We found it to be a delightful vacation.

It is my impression that the new refurb is not for another few months.  Best current info is that it will be similar to Riviera's refurb but cabins below penthouse will not be completely redone with new bathrooms.

Not sure we will know exact info til after.

@Sthrngary

As always enjoy and appreciate your perspectives.  While I dont't always read them fully now, I know I can always find them, if I need them in the future.

Hope to cruise with you someday.

1 hour ago, SATaxman said:

We were looking at a TA cruise. What do you do for 5 days at sea?

While have not done one it is on our bucket list for the future.

Relax, eat, sleep late, eat, be lazy, eat, read, oh and did I mention eat.😀

This thread feels like it has gotten out of hand.

Lots of good suggestions for the OP to follow up this week.

I suggest we let the OP do that then report back.

One suggestion, as its not clear from your post.  If you don't already have one I would look into getting a good TA who specializes in luxury cruising.  

I would also try and determine what ports are most important to you.  Mediterranean cruises can be very port intensive often with no sea days.  This combined with overseas flights can overwhe!m some travelers, even younger ones.  Not sure how much time you can take but given the option I would think about a 9 or 10 day cruise combined with at least one day pre and post cruise stay.  Sounds like a great trip, have fun.

I wonder if in fact the best thing to do when this happens is to make sure management knows about the issue. (Either on the mid ship survey (assuming you can fill it out) or to a higher up person on board the ship.)  While I don't doubt they know it happens, they may not be aware of how many people are affected (and how big a deal it is to some people).  I know from previous topics and posts, at least sometimes O follows through and frees up chairs.  Perhaps they just need to implement that policy more regularly.

From our limited experience and all that I have read, I assume O does not want to get involved if they are not clearly in need to.