powlan

14 hours ago, 0106 said:

Oosterdam. I remember reading their previous posts.

 

Took this cruise. It was fantastic.

3 hours ago, jimdee3636 said:

The "partial charter" problem extends even to high-price cruise lines. ("Full" charters are mostly irrelevant to the rest of us, because the charter group is taking over the whole ship). I follow the Silversea board (I've been on three of their cruises), and there have been major complaints about groups taking over a third to a half the ship. The biggest offenders are the "incentive" cruise rewards for, say, car salesmen and dealers who exceed their quota for the past year. Because Silversea is an alcohol-included line, most of these people will start drinking from the minute they get up in the morning to the minute they pass out at night, in the meantime taking over every eating and drinking venue with loud, obnoxious people who treat it as a Carnival cruise. Not pleasant for guests who are paying well over $1,000 pp/night for an "elevated" experience.

 

As others have pointed out, the biggest problems, on any line, tend to be on Caribbean-based, 7-night cruises. I avoid them like the Plague.

 

Jim

 

 

My wife and I took a Seabourn cruise many years ago and there was a group of people from a large industrial carpet company. Free cruise, all the booze they wanted and we saw them take over almost every public area. What did we do? Basically tried to  chat with those who were somewhat sober and figured that's what it is. and we tried to make the best of it. Didn't complain since that would have taken time and energy.

Decided that the biggest problem was that this Seabourn ship was too small for us. We began sailing HAL (usually Volandam and Zandaam)  where fortunately we haven't run into that problem. 

7 days on Zaandam in May to Alaska, 42 Days on Volandam in November TA, 25 days on Volandam in July (2025) Boston to Boston r/t, 30 days on Volandam in November (2025) Amazon. We think that HAL is the best value for the money and the R ships the most fun in the fleet. We've done Seabourn, Regent, Crystal, Oceania, etc  and find that HAL is the best for us. Don't hesitate at all. You'll love it.

Wife played the penny machine with a minimum of $.88/pull. Won $816. Envious, I went to the same machine and also won $816. We only play to hear the noise and see the graphics but these wins allowed us to buy some stuff in the ship's store that we normally wouldn't buy. We also got to lay out 16 one hundred dollar bills and laugh about the whole experience.

We were offered drinks but we bought the Have It All so it was not important. We're four star and have three more coming up with one being 42 days and one 30 days. Love HAL.

We're going on a 24 day Sea of Cortez trip 12/10/23 -1/3/24. San Diego to San Diego. Not scared at all. I am however carrying an AK-47,  two machetes and grenades with me. 🙂 Truly, I used to be worried about Covid aboard ships (but never got it) and now I'm just going to travel.. Life's too short for me to live in fear.  

Dawn and I were on this cruise and wanted to definitely take home a penguin. When we arrived in Buenos Aires for a couple of days we spent the day in the hotel watching Argentina defeat France in the World Cup. Then flew to NY to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall with the Rockettes. Got caught in the snowstorm, couldn't get out and the hotel gouged us for another night ($600) but it was Christmas and we couldn't find any place. So we sucked it in and filed a claim on our credit card and they reimbursed us. Alaska felt bad and they flew us back to SFO first class. And the cruise? We had a Signature suite which was very comfortable but our friends stayed in a Pinnacle suite which was nice but very much out of our financial comfort level. Looking forward to the April cruise from FLL to Montreal.

On 1/17/2023 at 3:38 PM, Jjg34219 said:

Looking around today, I see a new Atlantic Crossing 12/2024 Barcelona to FLL

25 dollar deposits, reduced airfare, couldnt resist!

Will probably add the Pre extension in Barcelona

 

And booked the lowest cabin too! With so many sea days, cant see much reason to spend more for priority excursions reservations, and even better yet we get 6 month final payment as we have another cruise on the books!

FLL to Rome. Also, lowest cabin and couldn't resist the deposit. First time on Viking. Usually on Oceania but this TA sounded good. 

Flatbush Flyer - Right you are on both counts. Assuming I'm healthy, the insurance companies generally will not refund their premiums. However, when I called them (insurance company) two different people at two different times stated that if I wrote them an email stating that I wanted an "exemption", because of Covid it's possible they would grant me one and refund the premiums. I figured nothing ventured nothing gained. If they say no then I'll go with the credit towards a future insurance policy purchase. I apologize to all if I've been too confusing but I think my fingers were typing faster than my brain. Oh well, don't hate me.

Only paid $750/pp which they or may not keep as an administrative fee. Probably not. As JAZZNRBUBY mentioned, Oceania changed their cancellation policy to from 90 days out to 60 days out. They don't even have our credit card.

Just spoke with Oceania (2x). It was 90 days to cancel without penalty but on December 6 they changed their policy to 60 days. They also emailed this to the travel agents.(which is how we found out at first) They also stated that they would refund the full amount of the $750/pp deposit. Regarding getting an insurance premium refund, it is correct that we would have to have a doctor sign off for medical reasons. We had to do it once before for an illness and there was lots and lots of paperwork but our premiums were refunded. I guess the two major points I was trying to make were that Oceania changed their full cancellation without penalty  from 90 days to 60 days and you can switch insurance dates on a trip prior to departure date until 12/2023.

We have until January 17 which is 60 days prior to what would have been our departure on March 17 which allows us to cancel without penalty. We have that communication, in writing from Oceania and several people on this board. Actually, it's not on this board but rather on the Oceania Roll Call board.

25 minutes ago, jazznruby said:

Just occurred to me though...if OP already paid in full prior to extension, is there a cancellation penalty??

In light of Covid we just cancelled our March 18 TA Mia/Lis cruise. After cancelling all the air, hotels, house sitters and the cruise itself I called the agency that issued our travel insurance policy They told me that we could extend the policy to cover another trip up until 12/2023. I asked about a refund of the premium. They said that it would have to be for a medical reason and a doctor would have to sign the document. Since "fear" of Covid is not considered a medical reason If we wanted the premium refunded we would have to show that we had tested positive and were under quarantine and as a result couldn't take the cruise.  This last option they were a bit muddy on but since neither myself nor my wife, have or ever had Covid, are triple vaxxed, and have never been tested positive we think that we'll probably go for an extension rather than try for the refund. We don't have CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) insurance. 

Any idea when a wait list will clear for the Miami/ Lis TA Riviera on March 18,2022. Any cabin would be acceptable.

Not good. We live in Northern California. 846,000 acres burned. Smoke is being felt in Europe.

Not good. We live in Northern California. 846,000 acres burned. Smoke is being felt in Europe.

On 9/2/2020 at 12:22 PM, RJB said:

My guess is a year from November and I hope my Dec. of 21 cruise will go. 

Mine is Mar. 2022 and I'm even anxious about that. Ports, length of cruise, solvency of cruise line,health, etc. But I'll be on a ship somehow, somewhere. As long as I get the time I want in a specialty restaurant, I'm good.

On 8/27/2020 at 5:23 PM, Mura said:

We were in a VS on Insignia back in June 2006 on an Iceland cruise and don't recall a problem with using the veranda, but given the cool weather (and the port intensive cruise) we probably did NOT try to use it.  We've been Visas on Marina several times and again did not perceive the wind problems others mention. My memory could well be faulty!

 

Yes, you have to be careful to turn all lights off (and make sure the curtains are closed) because these suites are forward.  The only time we had a problem in this respect was on Marina when the housekeeping staff didn't quite close the curtains in the living room.  We received a call asking us to turn off the deck lights but they were not on. ( I often have said that you need a Ph.D. in light switches when in a suite on Marina/Riviera.)

 

As to the departure port, there was one -- ONLY one -- cruise a couple of years ago (maybe three) where at the last minute the port was changed from Manhattan to Brooklyn.  Not everyone got the message in a timely fashion ... But that was only one time as far as I know.

 

Others have told you that you can get a credit (not a great one recently) if you opt out of the "free" air.  It depends on the route.  Being in NYC we usually book our own air, but on a few occasions we have used O's air.  These days we prefer biz class which is prohibitively more expensive on O that doing it on your own.  On one or two cruises O offered PE at a reasonable price which we did use.  Not that such would be pertinent to a Bermuda cruise from NY!

 

 

 

 

Have always taken the air credit (we live in San Francisco) and use credit card miles to fly. Also, on shorter cruises (ten days or less) we bring a couple of bottles of wine each and supplement it with the wine we can order for dinner. 

On 7/28/2020 at 12:01 PM, njhorseman said:

In 1954 I was one of the 1.3 million US school children who became known as "Polio Pioneers"...the participants in the testing of the Salk polio vaccine. 

 

Obviously it wasn't my choice to participate...my parents made that decision, but having survived that early in my life I don't think I would roll the dice near the opposite end of my life to test another vaccine. 

 

But...my thanks to those of you brave enough to volunteer .

I volunteered. (don't remember which site) but doubt they will take me because of age, 75 and too many meds. However, I thought I should. 

On 8/11/2020 at 5:55 AM, RJB said:

Not just you.  If we spend enough time on these boards we miss it even more. Hope to be back soon, but guess we are looking at at least 6 months or more.  Will keep looking at our wonderful pictures to see where we want to go back to.  Everyone stay safe and hope to see you soon. 

We cancelled a Crystal at the end of March 2020 but needed to have at least something to look forward to. Thus an Oceania TA in March 2022. If I catch it (Covid-19) it would be a bummer but at my age and my medical conditions I want to cruise as much as possible. As was just said, stay safe. BTW, the weather is pretty good in northern California but like most of you we're housebound.

8 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

All non-alcoholic beverages are included - including specialty coffees w/o alcohol as well as virgin cocktails.

That's great. We've sailed 4 x with O but that was years ago. Have a TA booked for 2022 and I always love to look forward to the services and food. I love iced lattes so I'm going to drink a lot  bunch of them. 

Does Oceania have a policy on non-alcoholic beverages?

We live in San Rafael north of SF. I'm a 74 yo man with a heart condition. Just signed up for a 3/22 TA cruise with no regrets. Bankruptcy? Who knows. Heart attack? Who knows? Still shelter-in-place? Who knows? Anyway. It will be what it will be. right?

Does this mean you would fly into Miami, pick up your luggage, get a taxi (not always a sure thing) and go to the port? I also assume that you are seated near the front of the plane for a quick exit and the plane does not arrive at a far gate. .It also assumes you don't drop an anything you are carrying, trip over the unexpected construction etc. Yes. it's possible but there is too much on the line to expect everything to go right.

Upgrades pierside are pretty much not an option. Ships sail full, and when there are open cabins, there is no real discount or savings

 

 

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Oh well, just thought I'd see if anyone had any info on this. I'm certain the cruise will be dynamite and really look forward to it.

Sailing on 7/20 Panama Canal and due to a Guarantee fare have not yet obtained a cabin number. If we don't receive one until embarkation will we still be able to upgrade at the counter?

Alan

We are definitely looking forward to our cruise on the Navigator! I don't know who we'll meet, what we'll eat, (we live in San Francisco) what the weather will be like, if there'll be vibration, the carpet dirty. the water yucky. Water I assume can be fixed. We've sailed Mariner, Voyager as well as Seabourn, Crystal etc and loved them all. Some 7 day and some 18 day. We always travel expecting the best whether its safaris or cruises or just local getaways and have always had great times. We have a great TA who (I believe) gets us the best deal and gives us a large OBC. I wouldn't say we'd always sail Regent or never sail with Regent I simply hope that my wife and myself stay healthy and have enough resources to cruise in a luxury style. Reading CC keeps me informed as well as excited. See some of you on the 7/20 SF to MIA journey.