daleandrews

We are scheduled for our first Oceania cruise this November, Marina, ending up in Barcelona on November 19. We are spending one night there before flying back on the 20th. This is our first time in Barcelona (would like to have spent more days but need to get back for Thanksgiving). On previous cruises on other lines there has usually been a one day tour available ending in a transfer to the airport that is offered at disembarkation ports. Does anyone know if Oceania does this? We are thinking of staying at an airport hotel because our flight on the 20th is in the a.m. and we want to be sure we have plenty of time but would still like to at least see something of Barcelona in the little time we have. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

As far as I can tell all of the on-line Oceania provisions relating to reimbursement for Covid quarantine days have been deleted from the Oceania website. Unless I have missed something I would surmise from this that Covid refunds for quarantine days are no longer given.

Ditto! The best penthouse view I've seen. (We will be on board and in one in a little over 2 months.)

Their earlier program, previously outlined on the Oceania website, was very generous. It was in place when a pre-boarding test was still required. Under it if you showed up and tested positive, but could show you had tested negative recently (I think it was 72 hours) your fare was reimbursed. If you could NOT show such a prior test the fare was not reimbursed. And then if you tested negative at boarding but later tested positive during the cruise you were given a per diem refund of your pro-rated fare. And during any quarantine on board medical cossts were waived for services performed by the Oceania medical team. Also, if you were positive at the time of disembarking Oceania paid for quarantine costs at the disembarking port. I was very surprised when I read about the program -- it struck me as more generous than a traveler should expect. But, in any event, all references to that program are now gone as far as I can determine.

As far as I can tell it looks as though the Oceania provisions concerning reimbursements related to testing positive before (or for that matter during) a cruise are no longer on their website. This, along with their statements in several provisions that travelers should carry insurance for Covid-related expenses, leads me to believe that the reimbursement program no longer exists. If this is the case it would be nice if Oceania had so stated rather than just eliminating the provisions.

Our first trip isn't until November, but the description for the beverage upgrade on Oceania's web page says the following: " PRESTIGE SELECT Enjoy unlimited premium spirits, Champagne, wine and beer wherever and whenever you wish . . . .

We are on the Athens to Barcelona segments, November 1 through 19. (I exchanged messages with you some months back on one of the Roll Call threads.)

I suspect the segment at issue in Flatbush Flyer's example is the same one we encountered (Med cruise on Marina this coming November). When I noted the same segment with the "ultimate" savings option I had our TA check it out and after what was reportedly a LONG conversation with Oceania we got nowhere. The O rep our TA talked to tried to see if they could apply the sale for one segment to our existing 18 day cruise and were told "no." Then they tried to see if they could re-book the whole cruise in segments, and were told that our PH cabin would become available to any wait-listers as soon as the cruise was cancelled even though it was going to be immediately re-booked. And finally it became apparent that even HAD they been able to re-book the cruise to get the increased OLife advantages on the one segment the price of the basic cruise on the separate segments would increase to the level that the actual savings over our booking was almost nothing.

Just an FYI -- my wife and I mentioned to our regular doctor that we would be cruising the Med this fall and he promptly wrote a prescription for each of us for Paxlovid. He told us to take it with us just in case. The prescription was free under out health plan.

We are taking our first Oceania cruise (on Marina) this November -- 18 days, Med. We had selected the drink package as our OLife option and I called Oceania yesterday to ask about upgrading to the prestige package. They said this could not be done on-line nor by calling and (as noted above) must be done once you are on board. The rep also said that an upgrade had to be purchased during the "first three days of the cruise." I don't know if this time frame varies based on the length of the cruise but I pass along what the rep said just for the sake of FYI.

We are booked on the November 1 through 19 Mediterranean cruise on Marina, our first cruise with Oceania. The cruise was originally scheduled to have two days in Venice, though we were not surprised to see the port changed to Trieste given the present docking restrictions in Venice. We have never visited Venice and were planning to book an all day tour through Oceania, a couple of which were offered (without prices) for the last few weeks. I note that today prices have been posted for offered tours but now none of the Trieste tours presently listed are for excursions to Venice. We have never seen Venice and would hate to miss it. Query: Have others on Oceania cruises visited Venice from Trieste on O-offered tours? Is it likely that Oceania will add more tours as we get closer to our cruise dates? I know we could book independently but Marina is currently scheduled to leave Trieste at 6:00 p.m. and I am a little worried about booking with a company other than Oceania at this port for fear of, err, "missing the boat."