judi666

18 hours ago, Wynterwynd said:

‘Now comes the question if Oceania will honor the sale on an already booked cruise.  Any experience with this out there?’

 

I’ve had one previous experience with this and Oceania did honor the sale on our already booked cruise.

 

 

I have a cruise ( fully paid for) with 3 segments.  The first and last segment were on the sale.  When I called my Oceania rep, he said the would honor it for the two segments for a small upgrade price.  The next day he called and said they would honor it for the whole cruise. I was a little stunned.  I did the math and I was getting $5800

of ultimate benefits for $1500 upgrade price. The middle section is completely sold out

and they honored the sale.  I had booked for cruise only.  It might not be worth it, if you don’t drink or use the ship tours.  I prefer small private tours, but it was getting difficult to find anything in Spain or France.   We also always have wine with dinner.  I’m sure we can use the SBC for gratuities etc.  it worked out for us.

2 hours ago, susiesan said:

My husband 's new passport was just delivered so we will be on Marina Sunday Dec. 4. Doing a happy dance🥲

Very happy for you!

I love the R ships and have been on several cruises. 19 years ago, the tiny bathrooms didn’t bother me.  They had horrible flimsy shower curtains at that time.  Since I’ve gotten older, I spring for a PH, which are very nice.  Don’t think I could go back to a veranda.  Note the lowest veranda is no different space or bathroom wise than the concierge version.

I often don’t understand why one would not look at the many YouTube’s or other layout photos of the R verandas! Or really any cabin on any line.  It’s all out there and easy to search for.  I don’t like being surprised😩

R ships are still my favorite, never less.

On 11/12/2022 at 5:26 PM, Ladys Mom said:

And you wonder why my husband and I like Regent better than Oceania.  On  Regent you can have all the wine and liquor you want, whether a little or a lot.  If you want liquor in your suite, they bring you a bottle not a glass.  If you want to bring the bottle,, or several bottles, home at the end of the cruise no-one says anything.  In fact, one night when we ordered room service for dinner and we asked for wine.  The person taking the order asked which wine we wanted.  I gave them a choice of two.  The server brought us both.  Gaming the system on Oceania is just an indication that people want luxury, but are not always willing to pay for it.  I can understand if you rarely drink, but it you are a regular drinker just pay the price.  When we calculated what Regent offers us, over Oceania, there was no difference.  We are taking an Oceania cruise to use a FCC, but I am not feeling comfortable about what will be our experience.

Don't get mad.  This is just our opinion.

Their alcohol policy is very nice. Yes you do get bottles in your cabin and once they know what you like to drink, it is offered the minute you sit down.  There is a limit to how much I can personally drink on vacation, so not that big of a perk for me.  Service is good on both lines and in my opinion the food is better than Regent.

The included excursions vary from awful to ok. I felt like I needed to take them as had “paid” for them. I canceled several as were more distressing than fun or imparting knowledge.

 
I like the general vibe more on Oceania, once again  my opinion. All the posts about gaming the system on Oceania seem ridiculous. I don’t understand when paying many thousands for a cruise, many people seem intent on saving a few hundred $.  
 

Both lines have their pros and cons.  I’m sure you will have a wonderful time on either one.

While Regent was very nice, the general vibe was more reserved and less casual. The cabins were very nice. Service good. The food was not as good.  The low point were the included excursions, which were good to absolutely terrible.  This was 2019 pre Covid. They were sometimes outrageously misrepresented as to itinerary and activity level. 
Several of the tours marked as easy, required miles of walking, ( I wear a fitness tracker) very rough terrain and in one case getting into some giant all terrain vehicle ( called a jeep in the description) the first step being as high as my shoulder,  no step or help from the tour operators. After two or three very uncomfortable experiences, I started dreading what would be next and canceled several.  They were not all bad, but enough that were a long glorified bus ride or ridiculously catagorized as to physical ability. Another aspect of the included tours that I did not consider, was many sea days and loss of several ports due to various reasons. This significantly reduced the overall value.

If you are a drinker, you will not find yourself lacking.  One couldn’t sit down for 3 minutes without being offered or many times just handed a drink. After a day or two most servers knew I liked a glass of white wine and I was served one without asking in minutes.  
This was my only Regent experience and it was in their newest ship. 
I have done many more on Oceania and overall I prefer them, particularly the smaller R ships. 

It’s quite a distance to the airport in Reykjavik.  May take longer than 45 min.

I agree it makes thinks easier for some (including myself).  On a recent Holland America cruise, there were many people unable to deal with it. All the excursion tickets were sent to the app wallet. This caused a huge hassle with people missing tours and giant lines at guest services every day.  
I found it much easier to have everything on my phone.  That is until the internet went down for two days and the bars and specialty restaurants could not charge items to the passenger except writing receipts by hand!  
I did not miss, having all the paper, cluttering up everything.

We had similar issues on Regent.  Several excursions (easy to moderate) required long hot slogs to the bus. One was over 3/4 mile, according to my Apple Watch.  This was never indicated in the pre excursion info. One(easy) we ended up being walked around a small town in Morocco 3 times, for a total of 3.5 miles.  It became obvious we were going in circles and the guide didn’t care.  He also made us wait over an hour in the street for a museum to open (it never did). All would be fine, if the description and amount of exercise would have been noted.   A second excursion (easy)required getting into a huge Jeep thing that was over 3 feet off the ground to enter, with no step. I’m less than 5 ft and in my 70S.  So every stop I had to jump out and then have my husband and others help me back in. It was truly embarrassing and horrible.  Regent is in the “first class category”  while ship service was fine, many hassles and misinfo on excursions.  These are included in the price and so totally not worth it. Complaining, in the interest of improving the experiences for others, fell on deaf ears.

I learned a a long time ago, one has to be flexible and roll with travel. Still you expect to get what is promised and paid for.

At least you got a response and compensation.  
It becomes more difficult to do things as we get older and ironically, have the finances to do them.  
While not perfect we have had mostly good experiences with Oceania.

The Lisbon HOHo bus is great.   3 routes. Quite a bargain.

I was on the Noordam in May. It was in good shape. Our Sig suite was like new.  The only thing I didn’t like was the cloth shower curtain.

There were service issues ( first cruise with passengers in over 700 day). Staff seemed in chaos a lot.

Ship itself is good and was very uncrowded.

Liked the Lido pool area!

That seems like everything that could go wrong did. Sorry!  we did a 19 day HAL cruise in May.  It was the first time the Noordam had sailed with passengers in over 700 days.   It was pretty hit or miss. Our Sig Suite had about 1/4 inch of dust on all surfaces. Our travel companions the same, plus find unflushed feces in their bathroom! The stewards did a great job and all was ok by day 2. 
 

No bites, but I did have some lingering allergies, probably from the dust.

The staff seemed like they rounded up a bunch of guys off the street in Indonesia and gave them a 1/2 hour briefing on service.  
 

The dinner in Rudi’s was probably the worst meal of my life. ( we were compensated for the cost).

Canelletto was always good, but seldom open.

The Dining manager was a clueless jerk. There was no sommelier of anyone to ask about wine selections.

In the end we had a great time and  spent wonderful time with family members.  It was far from perfect, but we kind of knew that going in, considering Covid protocols etc.

I hope your next cruise will be a better experience.

I just booked a cruise in Mar. No problem with them taking my deposit. 10 hours later, they charged the whole amount to my cc.  ( not due until Dec 2022.)  it took 3 hours waiting on the phone to resolve. Really unacceptable.

It was ok when we were on it May.  Much better than Regent.  That said, on a 17 day cruise it was completely out for 2 days.  Since everything is done with the app, it was an inconvenience.

Just received a cancellation on the Feb 2023 Tokyo to Tokyo on the Westerdam. Probably was going to cancel anyway, as not 100% thrilled with the Noordam cruise I’m on right now.  I understand it is the first cruise for the Noordam in 2 years, but less than clean cabin (very dusty and traveling companions had  unflushed feces in their toilet upon entering their cabin on embarkation.). We both have Signature suites. Very hit or miss on getting any help with issues. Huge line at guest services.  Other party uses cpap and had asked for distilled  water to be in

Their room. It never appeared even after several calls.  Very little information in cabin about anything.  No room service menu or even a #
the Navgator app is a good idea, but unfortunatly

doesnt work well and not intuitive for a ship full of seniors.

The crew is trying really hard, but seems untrained.  Food surprisingly is good, but for some reason they just informed us that the Canelleto will not be open for the rest of the cruise(this is the second of 17 days)So basically we have the choice of one other restaurant or the lido market.  Really odd for a ship of this size. It would get really old on the 28 day Asia cruise, if that happened again.

That said it is a very nice,older ship  and we are enjoying being able to cruise again. Just a little disappointing at a glaring lack of oversight.

40 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

I have never done large group tours so I honestly don't know what to expect. I understand that I have already paid for the included tours and I want to take advantage of them. I am interested in previous Regent cruiser experiences and how to make the best of these group tours. I know that there are advantages to using the ship tours.

I found they varied from really good to pretty bad.  It is hard to actually glean what you will get from the descriptions.  Also found the description could change on the ship as well as the rating for mobility.  There were anywhere from 15 to 30 people.  The buses are nice enough, but some tours are just getting on and off, every 15 to 20 minutes at different sites.  
I was on a similar cruise ( different line)as the one you are taking and used Tours by Locals in most areas.  There is no comparison.  With 2 to 6 people you can make your own itinerary, spend time on things you like.  
Regent is a very nice line, but after 24 days, I don’t think the excursions alone are worth the extra cost. This is very subjective and as I said we had some really nice experiences.  

It was pretty miserable, with thousands of screaming people and children on the dock and environs. We did manage to walk to a restaurant we liked in the past and have a nice lunch and drinks.  Really hot and very high humidity. It was nice to be off the ship after 5 days at sea, but I’m not sure it was worth the effort.  We probably should have done an excursion, but have been to San Juan and other parts of the Island several times.  The only worse port experience I remember is years ago in the Riviera Maya area. I forget the name. Basically a giant shopping center in the middle of the jungle with thousands of people and nothing really to do.

I hope those doing the Rainforest tour enjoyed it. It is a lovely unique area.

Unlike TC, I’m more than ready to leave the ship, it’s been over 22 days.  Long enough for me until next time.  The connectivity issues are just too frustrating when my husband had to stay in touch with work and I needed to check in on my elderly fur companions.

Service and wonderful crew members have been great.  Not a fan of the CR, it’s just too big and noisy.  The 6 times ( and lunches) we ate at the other restaurants was really nice.  Thank goodness for the Seti Mari.  A nice space you can go to every night, if you wish.

My husband, who was in the Jeep with TC, was also really annoyed. He is pretty low key so know he wouldn’t have said anything.  Regarding cell phones on tours, 90%  of passengers use them to take photos, so it would seem an impossible rule.  I realize you

mean talking on them ....,

The amusing thing, is the 4x4 excursion we were on last week, also had a German couple( different couple) in the back seat talking constantly on their cell phones.  They also managed to spill a Coke all themselves and the floor of the Jeep. It was mildly annoying but the top was off on the jeep and so noisy ( plus the driver didn’t speak English to narrate) it really didn’t matter.

A few people on the bus tours have talked for a few moments on their phones, but really wasn’t an issue.   The bus tours themselves are another issue.  I am at the point of not ever wanting  to do another one.  Most of them have been ok, but the endless getting off and on, like

every 15 minutes gets old.  One would think

they could plan them with less stops and more time to enjoy the stops that are given. My other gripe is why is there always a stop (often not in the tour description) at someone’s gift shop, wine store, factory etc. where you are given way more time to buy stuff than necessary?

Perhaps it’s just this cruise, but I definitely think the excursions could be vetted by destinations to a higher degree.  I know the excursions have been a big topic lately for various reasons, so no point of going on about it again.

The Thanksgiving dinner in CR was couldn’t have been nicer!

We have 7 rescue dogs. Please consider adoption when thinking of getting a fur companion.  You won’t regret it.

28 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Thank you for your interesting post.  We cancelled our morning excursion - partly because some of the “included” excursions have been disappointing.  I do understand why some people appreciate included excursions and, in certain areas of the world (like the Middle East), we do take included excursions.  In general, we prefer to do our own thing.

 

To me, the issue of going to another cruise line because of excursions is a double edge sword.  You don’t pay for excursions upfront, however, if you want to do excursions, sometimes they are more than twice the price of Regent Choice excursions.  For instance, we have taken an identical excursion in Greece on both Oceania and Regent.  On Regent the cost was around $250/person and on Oceania it was close to $500/person.  

 

Caroldoll - thank you for your view of the floor.  I’m definitely going to look into it when we get home.

I agree the tours you pay for on Oceania are outrageous in price and often exactly the same sort of thing as Regent.  I was more thinking of private or limited tours you book yourself.  Many of the roll calls consist of people looking for tour shares.  Tours by locals is a great company

and have wonderful guides and vehicles. Usually limited to 6 people. The cost is usually much less.  Of course there can be duds on any excursion.  They are excellent about refunding tour cost if the port is canceled. I’m finding the bus tours to be some amount of fun, but if you are slow , there is barely time to look at something before you have to start trudging back to the bus, so as to not inconvenience others. 

I have only had to sign in once in two weeks.  I wonder why you have to each time?

Regarding some posters;  I think people often don’t understand how what they say may construed as negative and there are real people with feelings behind the posts they may critic. This is a problem in almost all social media platforms IMHO.

So nice to meet you and Dennis last night.  Hope we can have a dinner.  I promptly forgot you suite #, but ours is 867.  Possibly on one of the sea days?   
I know there is a lot of discussions about the excursions.  My frustration has been not really knowing what to expect.  The rating system is useless in many cases.   We have had a few we really liked; the one with the camel ride and the one where you are pushed downhill at top speed in a flimsy wicker basket, were unique and fun experiences. I think most people could do them.

 I will admit that the thought of not having to do so much research on private tours , as well as looking throughout a roll call for others to share them ( although we have made lifetime cruise friends this way) seemed appealing.  The reality has not been quite as I hoped.   Although, I really love the Explorer, I am on the fence as too booking again.   Someone mentioned “just don’t do the excursions, if it’s a problem”. I get that, but since I have to have some sort of a cruising budget, paying aprox 20% more for something I’m not using  doesn’t make sense.

On the bright side, the included alcohol, is a nice feature.  We have perhaps overdone it a bit in the beginning 😍.     Internet seems better today. Actually, has been better overall on this second leg of the cruise. Everyday on vacation is a good one no matter the tiny inconveniences.

We had a vacation house in a resort area, that we rented seasonally.  We had to upgrade the internet several times, or it simply would not be booked and rented.  It is a very high priority for most people.   
It is a little shocking that on such a new ship, it doesn’t seem to have thought of as a priority. 
It has seemed to Improve in the past few days. 
Who knows why.  It was a really low bar.  

Hi TC,  we have found the internet to be better outside our suite, good tip.  The net continued to be much better than on the first leg of this cruise.   I’m a terrible typist and actually type really fast on my phone.  Years ago it would take me minutes to text a simple line, but I’ve become much faster.

We were sitting on the table next to you last night at the P7.  At least the boxes checked, dinner with an officer and British husband.  I thought it would be rude to introduce ourselves as you were having a nice conversation. 
 

It is a little strange the would not alert you of the price increase on your excursion, but at least minimal.  The thing that had bothered me is the changing of the difficulty rating on some of the excursions.  I have had to scramble to see what else is available.  I did one 3 rated and it was by far the least difficult of any so far.  The difficulty

was the very tall step into the 4x4.  I’m very short , but the driver did find a stool.  I did want to change the other 2 excursions, as seem to be some even higher truck thing, with the new information.  One is successfully changed, the other no.

Im so sorry you feel the negativity has ruined your posting.  Your information was by far the best. It is obvious you love the ship and many crew members.  After a few weeks of being on board, It’s really nice, but I’m not quite as bowled over.  But we each have things we feel affinity for. The excursions in many cases are just not very good, and I wish they were optional.  Planning your own excursions is a lot of effort, but at least they are  specific to one abilities.

The internet seems to have taken a big leap forward today.  That’s a big plus.  Previous cruise it would last about 5 minutes and slowly die. Today I’ve been on for over an hour and though quite slow, I have uploaded several photos, messages etc with no problem. They also put a door closure thing on the bottom of the closet, so no longer sliding back and forth.

TC I’m wondering why you you use the ships computer instead of a personal device?   I’m only using my iPhone 11 for all internet related things.  Usually , I bring an iPad, but it seemed superfluous.  Does the internet work better on the ship’s computer?   Just curious...

Missed the CC m and m. Just too tired from the long excursion yesterday. 11am seemed too early for cocktails.   Hope you had fun! 

1 hour ago, flossie009 said:

The new outside area for coffee looks good and should be very popular on warm weather cruises; thanks for the photos.

 

I am very surprised that they did not focus on fixing this annoying issue during the refit ............. and a more permanent solution to the sliding closet doors that need to be wedged during rough weather.
We have suffered both these issues during past cruises on Explorer and had hoped that they would have been properly addressed by now.

Good to hear that the dangerous steps in the theatre have been lit.

It would have been impossible to address the other design/structural issues in the theatre during a short refurb. Hopefully the theatre auditorium, especially the balcony, will be improved on Splendor.

 

We have had many rough days and nights, with ports canceled and the schedule revamped.  The closet door slams back and forth unless you wedge something under it. Several people have mentioned their shower doors are slamming back an forth. We have not had that issue.  Our toilet completely quit functioning ( not a clog issue) and had to be removed and new parts put in both in the bath and outside.  It took several hours, but we were out most of the time.

Hope certain things have improved by the time you get here.  A huge communication problem with WiFi and the tv.  Dinner in every restaurant took from 50-65 minutes to get the main course, after appetizers.   Last two nights have been a big improvement .   Many excursions have issues and considering they return 2-3 pm. the only thing available is the pool grill.  Very small selection available at that time for non meat eaters.  The service in that area has been not the best.   Today I was sitting for 20

minutes and not offered water or a drink.  Not the first time. Everyone knows you and I’m sure will give you wonderful service.  
Our toilet had to be completely replaced. That meant no usage for 3 hours.  We were on an excursion, so really wasn’t an issue.  I’m not complaining, it’s been fun and is a beautiful ship.   The internet issue is a big problem that hopefully can be addressed.

Safe travels and be sure to have lots of motion sickness meds.  It’s been a rough

ride so far.

8 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

 

Sorry, I wasn't talking about you.  I've had some bad tours myself-in fact once we got off the Van and took a taxi back to the ship 

and talked to DS.  I've also seen people complain about nothing-just because.  I should have made them two different comments.  Again sorry the way I worded it.

Thanks I just took it the wrong way.