Sthrngary

I look forward to eat at Embers. Will I miss Jacques, you bet. However, even though I would prefer Jacques, that ship (Vista) has sailed. Nothing I can say or do will change that. Just like the below average experience I had in the Polo Grill on my first Oceania Cruise. The question is, "Will I choose not to sail Oceania on the Vista for all the new and wonderful changes this new ship has. Or will I ship the ship because of one specialty Restaurant?" Nothing is ever perfect on a cruise. This is in any stateroom, on any brand, on any itinerary, and on any ship. Just what cruising is all about. Thanks to the author of this thread for the positive feedback. Thanks to the other contributors for your thoughts. It gives multiple perspectives so we can all make the decision that is right for us. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

This kind of thing happen ALL the time on every single brand I have ever cruised. The situation or item differs but the situation is similar. The first time it happened, I lost my cool big time. Why, because just like the Author of this thread, I had done my due diligence, had my receipts in hand. Our issue seemed to be the third person in the room for that brand did not have the drink package. The representative said, "They don't get a drink package normally." Hogwash and should not have been said because it was not true and made the guest feel even worse. I get more angry. Finally, the rep said I will check. NOT the way to start a cruise. Why do I share this, because in 20 minutes it was fixed with little or no fanfare or apology. The next cruise something similar happened again. This time, I handled it differently. I was NOT upset, I simply smiled and said, "Stuff happens on a ship with thousand of guests. You guy do a great job. Just leave a message on my cabin phone when it is fixed." No more anger on my part because I can get really angry when I a) checked ever box, b) crossed ever "T" and c) dotted every "i". Conclusion, you get more with sugar, a smile and a positive statement then with anger and I am NOT saying the author got angry. I did get angry the first time. Learn from not only my mistake but how I had a not so great first day on a cruise. Lesson learned and it was a good one. Do your best to take all avenues to resolve your dinner reservation pre-cruise, if on the cruise do as other shared and talk to the restaurant the day of your reservation, and go to the general manager if need be. In all cases, start with a smile, provide your receipts and ask to have it corrected and when it is done, call your cabin. Then get a "Big O" martini and start enjoying your cruise. "Cruise well and enjoy every moment."

Pick the cruise that we wanted as a group of four we all agreed. We enjoyed the cruise we were on, and you that by going on the Vista we’d probably enjoy it more in the future. I have no knowledge of Past on board promotions. So to me, with this is all I know, seem to be a pretty good deal for my situation Cruise well, and enjoy every moment

Not sure the attached will be in effect buy he is what I was given in November 2023. See attached. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@AMHuntFerry Heck NO. I liked it and some of the other that also posted. My intent on this and other boards it education which includes mine. You are always both professional, understanding and kind with your remarks. That allows other including myself to learn. My intent was to give folks some differing opinion to gain a positive value proposition. I will say, I was hoping to avoid making to much of that strategy about "Asking for Discounted Commissions" from travel agencies. I failed on that. However if a guest, shops agencies to see what the best offer is and the agencies business plan is to give deep % discount, more power to them. Now my way but I respect other approach. @AMHuntFerry I have never been offended on the Oceania Board except for once. When someone new to Oceania was being over the top complaining about the situation that happened due to the Middle Easter War. That person took my position as a personal affront to their need to have their feelings justified by the masses. The called me out on that which I decided simply to let go and put them on ignore. They have not come back to the Oceania Blog since but did a similar post on another brand site. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@WildWanderers Thank you for answering my question. I educated my guest that just joined my wife and on an Oceania Cruise to review their stateroom portfolio first thing every morning. I fixed several issue. I will contact my travel agent and get my upgrade for the Prestige package later today. Thank you. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

Wow, I had no idea. This is great information and thank you. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

I was with you and we did have some GREAT weather. It made the cruise a real joy. Enjoyed meeting you and your lovely bride. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

I wrote this as I was having my coffee yesterdays. I knew there would be many differing opinions. I was hopping for that. Whether you agree or disagree with what someone else sees as a benefit matters not. Just that you get a sense of how lots of cruisers approach booking, and improving their cruise experience. Whether to book early or late; to get the drink upgrade pre or on the cruise, leveraging a cruisers status with the brand or how to leverage the SimplyMore excursions OBC. The dialog, debate and conversation will help everyone with a serious interest. I have learn some things with the comment and appreciate the honest feed back. Thank you all. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

All the information posted is so helpful. Thank you all. Keep the comments coming.

@WildWanderers Greg, so here is my question. My I or any Oceania Cruise guest, upgrade from the SimplyMore drink package to the Prestige Unlimited Drink package pre-cruise. Up to now, i thought that was not possible. Can you clarify. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@FeliciaLee Please share. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@SATaxman Great information. Keep it coming. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

I don't want to come of as the expert here because I am NOT. What I do want to do is create a forum to openly discuss having a pricing strategy for Oceania Cruises. The more you watch how a brand moves their prices, the better potential you have to gain a great value proposition. It is important you like the brand, ship and Itinerary or else the information is mute. Let's assume those that comment WANT to take another Oceania Cruise. Request: If you have an issue with Oceania; changes Oceania recently did; Oceania pricing today; please create your own topic and do not hijack this stream. Thank you in advance for your assistance. Here is my experience which usually came after reading some ones post right here in this CruiseCritic.com Brand Blog. Book As Far Out As Possible: I booked in November 2023 for a cruise in October 2025. The fare was reduced by 5%. Best Value Often Times is the Older Ships: When the Vista was launched the prices for similar itinerary to the Riviera or Marina made the Vista much higher. As the months go by, the Vista pricing on some itineraries are leveling down. Not 100% but it is noticeable. The Riviera and Marina for the same itinerary right now are the positive value proposition to the Vista still. See a Sale Online, Check with Oceania: Whether it is a sailing you have booked or one you are considering. See a sale, call your Agent or Oceania to gain accurate pricing. You can also from time to time go to a third party site to check out pricing. When doing that, make sure the check box saying "Non-Refundable Fairs" is not clicked. You want accuracy. Check Your Credit Card Perks: Some of these Perks are combinable with other sales; some are not. Worth checking it out because the rules seem to change like the wind. Book Onboard For Extra Benefits/Value: I booked my next cruise while cruising on the Riviera. I got the information on day one, booked the actual itinerary on day 5 of a 10 day cruise. The last day is super crowed at the future sales desk. My future booking was: 5% off for booking so far in advance; $250.00 of OBC on my current or future cruise; $400.00 off the fair for a Concierge Level booking; my travel agency game me free gratuities, and this cruise was booked with the SimplyMore amenities which in my case was $800.00 for excursions. This $800.00 was reduced to $600.00 on January 1, 2024. Guest Paid Discounted Upgrade: Never any guarantees however as either a sale happens or you get close to the actual cruise, call Oceania or your travel Agent and ask to be considered for a "Paid Guest Discounted Upgrade". Like chicken soup, can't hurt. Like the stateroom and pricing you have disregard this suggestion. Travel Agents Perks to You: I want to be crystal clear here, I was a commission sales professional and never cut my commission. I don't believe in asking my agent to cut hers. She offered once and I said, No your commission is your income. I will take a perk if I have brought business to her and she sales product. Consider that my commission. Yet, may agencies especially ones that do lots of luxury YouTube.com tour video's make offers to those that allow them to do your bookings. The same hold true for many of the agents that work with many of you. My agent gave me free gratuities through her agency. That one I accepted. Read Post Online and In Social Media for your Brand: Historically, I learn about sales, fare increases or decreases, program adjustments online in social media before they are ever shared in other ways. If you don't keep yourself informed, you might miss an opportunity. Private Travel Agency Sales: On this one, it usually happens with the bigger agencies. Tell your agent you want a heads up if one should show it lovely head. These kinds of sales are usually not make easily public. Airfare: See how much the fair goes down when you pull the airfare out. In my recent case it was $1,400.00 per person plus $199.00 to fly from my local airport which is not a hub. Now I keep this as part of my booking until I can actual book directly with my airline brand and itinerary of choice. Usually 330 days in advance of the return flight. If you get in early enough, you can gain a fully refundable fair at about the same price as the $1,599.00 example I gave above. Your flight amount may vary. Learn the Drink Programs/Benefits: Keep the SimplyMore only. Upgrade on the ship. Bring bottles of wine or spirits onboard all giving you the option to or not to upgrade to the Prestige Drink Package. Be an educated consumer. Learn About Percentage Discounts for Booking Lots of Excursions: This is something I don't use. I usually arrange my excursions on my own. Based on my experience and is not every ones experience. However, there are benefits to booking a certain number of excursions with Oceania. Learn the rules and you might same some money. Remember, if a excursion or port is canceled having nothing to do with you, you might lose the benefits. Again, know the rules to the game if you want to play. Please remember if you make a reservation for far in the future, if you cancel it, you will be charged a $150.00 administrative fee. This just recently happened and to me it sends a message. The message is if you book a cruise, take a stateroom out of inventory, cancel the cruise you should think twice before you book it. I get that as a business strategy. Now, please add your approach. This topic is about gaining a good value proposition by stay aware of what is available. "Cruise well and enjoy every moment."

@SATaxman My personal apologies. I should have know that. My bad. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@Jim_Iain please read post #288 from @SATaxman above. My cruise as you know now is to many of the places you are considering on the Oceania Vista Ship. I am using that as a foundation for my comments. I have been in the least expensive stateroom on another line and some of the most expensive ones. My comments will be tempered with an assumption you know the fares for all the Staterooms you mentioned and they are all acceptable to your budget. I want to support what @SATaxman said about the Oceania Suite. For many of the reasons that he said. I choose the Vista Suite because the Oceania Suite was waitlisted at the time. It would have been my first choice. The reason why is the TV Room was a nice touch, the balcony had less wind issues even when it was sailing. On the Vista ship (I will be on the Vista Ship October 2025 for 10 days to the Mediterranean again), the Exercise room in the Vista Suite has been eliminated giving the space wasted space to the guest in a better way. If you search the ship "Vista", the stateroom "Vista" or "Penthouse" or "Oceania" or even "Concierge" you will get some very nice tour videos on YouTube. If I did not want to spend the money for the upper suites, I would choose the Penthouse because I like having the butler. Now everyone does. If money was no option, I would do the Oceania Suite. Why I liked the Upper End Suite is because I am as my daughter says, "Bougie". I don't feel like I am Bougie, I feel like I worked hard all my life, I saved by not getting everything I wanted so I figure at my age, I am due. Again, me not everyone. One of the things I liked with the upper end suites was: Six Litters of Spirits: Some of which I took home and still going through them. I know this is silly but I liked it. Specialty Restaurant Extra Nights: Even with a Penthouse, you only got 1 pre-cruise Specialty reservation per specialty restaurant. With the upper end suites, you get two. One thing I left off my review because I did not what to have to explain it at the time was something my butler said. I asked if he could get our table for two to be a table for four so our best friends joining us could eat with use for the extra four dinners. He said of course and then said, "Mr. T, those in the upper end suite get special priority for reservations, changes and adjustments we just don't talk about it much openly." The Bulgari Gift Box: It is now in my Master Bathroom at my home reminding every day of a very nice cruise. The Oceania Terrycloth Bag Gift: This is a lovely Terrycloth bag with all kinds of items like towels, hats and other brand items. Separate Bedroom and Dining: So I had my Butler bring coffee from Barista's with two Danishes every morning. We would close the bedroom door, here him enter and exit knowing our coffee was waiting for us. If we were in a Penthouse, there is no separation between bedroom and dining table. On the Ship First: The upper end suites had a 11:00 AM embarkment time which I love. We were one of the first onboard and our suite was ready at 11:10 AM. Not sure if I got lucky on this one or that is the normal situation. Bathroom: The bathroom on the Penthouse only had one sink. I thought that to be strange. All the upper suites had two sinks. A little thing but I noticed. What you have to remember is for the most part, once you leave your stateroom, everyone is treated the same. Unlike the NCL Haven, Celebrity Retreat or the MSC Yacht Club. So all you are paying for is the extra space, butler, and items outlined above. I am currently booked for my 2025 cruise on the Vista in a Concierge Suite. My hope is to catch as four category upgrade sale if it happens and get the two staterooms I have booked to be Penthouses. I asked my Travel Agent to tell Oceania, if a Oceania Suite becomes available at the last minute to consider me as a potential Guest Paid Upgrade. I will see what happens. I hope this information helps you in your decision. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@FetaCheese It does tend to be very confusing and that is why when a sale does come up, that is available to one of the cruises I am booked or would like to book; I always ask my Travel Agent to get involved. This is the major lesson I learned last year. What you see is not always what is available. I also, go to a site I can't mention to look at their prices and often times the real price is there. On the Wait List Issue, that is a bit nuts but stranger things have happened. I hope you get the itinerary you are looking for. I hope my booked cruise for 2025 has a four category upgrade. FYI, the cruise I booked on the ship two months ago price just went up, the Excursion Credits went down. Thank you for your great review on Viking. Love reading it and all the comments. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@GALSews Thank you for thinking of me. My last cruise I had even better Almond Croissants but only one over a 10 day period. HOWEVER, every morning I did have Lox, Cream Cheese and a toasted bagel (Cruise Bagels are a 5 on a 10 scale). Add to that two eggs over easy and sausages links. Yummy 10 days and missing the Croissants was no issue. LOL Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@FeliciaLee Thank you for such kind words. I loved your entire post and it gives me hope my second Oceania Cruise will exceed my first one. So happy you enjoyed your cruise. Happy New Year to you and yours. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@FetaCheese As always well done review. Fair and balanced. Thank you. Viking is a brand I have always considered. You are a CruiseCritic.com member that is always so generous with your time and feedback. Thank you again and please enjoy your cruise. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@SATaxman Thank you for your kind words. You have always been great with your questions, comments and responses. 1) Did I get $200.00 of OBC. No. When you book onboard, you are making a specific commitment to a specific cruise. You get $250 of OBC that you can use on that current cruise or in the future. We used it for the future. If you wait and do it after you get off, it is $200 as I understand it. I did get a $200.00 certificate in the mail, asked if it could apply and was told, "NO" it was not combinable. 2) I also got money off the fare. The amount went up for every fare category. I booked (A4) and got off $400.00. 3) I booked a cruise for 2025 and got another 5% off the fair for booking so long in advance. Your question of where it shows or if it shows is a little confusing so allow me to do my best from my on-line account. The $250.00 of OBC shows and you can see in when you go to the "Manage Your Booking". In the same area was the $800.00 for excursions which ONLY can be used for excursions. Let's debate that for another two years, LOL. The Agency I used pays for the Gratuities regardless of the stateroom I choose. So if I eventual upgrade to a PH, they will pay for that. However this took my AMX perks off the table because the better value if you only took one was the gratuities. In your situation, since your agency is not giving you gratuities and instead I would assume it is OBC, you can get your AMX perks also. I would ask if I were you. I think I answered all your question, let me know if it helped. Cruise well and look for every discount you can fine. Make it sport and share your findings.

@ak1004 I went on the Silversea Website to check it out and consider it. Your two paragraph explanation is so point on accurate. To @Psoque point, it did take a bit of study to understand Oceania Cruises as well. In both cases and other brands as well, they seem to change up on things to differentiate themselves. As a consumer, I wish all cruise brand marketing departments would do a much better job of communicating. For now, that is just a wish. All we can all do is find a cruise brand that suits us today. My experience is our taste evolve over time and we look for different things for me as I get older. Every consumer should be educated before they commit their funds. We should all have our respective head examined to even consider cruises on any brand after reading the contract. Really want to get confused, that will do it. But speaking only for myself, I kind of like cruising. I really and truly don't think any cruise brand is trying to be deceptive. I do think they are not giving all the details. Knowing that, we as consumer need to help each other with actual experience. For that, this board is really good for me personally if I want to cruise Oceania. Cruise well and always remember to ask great question.

@MEFIowa Hello friend. I loved our discussions on our last cruise. Just to clarify. I have used the four category upgrade to get to the PH level. Worked great. Hope it happens again. Cruise well and keep sharing the best place to buy wine at ports. That was great fun.

@seasoon Celebrity was always sold to me as an improvement over Royal and NCL. The Celebrity Retreat was at the least the same as the NCL Haven. With the exception of the really nice Retreats Suites Restaurant which was great, I found the rest of my voyage lacking in personalized service. I found Oceania excelled in dining and personalized service. I also found the investment in Oceania a much better value proposition than either NCL Haven or Celebrity Retreat with far less nickel and dining along the way. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

The last port of my October 2025 cruise on Oceania Vista is Trieste. It actually says, "Venice (Trieste), Italy". When I booked the cruise, I immediately checked the distance between Trieste and Venice. It 99 miles, One Hour and 38 minutes with light traffic driving. This was followed by how to get from Trieste to Venice. Several options available with the only issue being the number of pieces of luggage my group will have. I then looked at the flight situation which in my case since I am booking direct with Delta Airlines, can't be actually done until 330 days before the return flight. Just Delta's rules. It became clear, the flight would have to be into the Marco Polo Venice Airport (VCE). Since when we go to Europe, we usually spend a night or two in a nice hotel before and after the cruise. The question which is still not answered yet is, do we visit Venice, Trieste or both. I am working on that. All odds are that you will be using the VCE airport in Venice. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.