jonthomas

We have done 2 cruises on Vista...beautiful ship, excellent food. But will be on Regatta in Sept to Alaska. Now with 2 new ships, it will be more difficult to fill the old smaller ships. If the food is also not at par with what Vista and Allura offer, there better be an "extraordinary" sale to move the inventory on the old ships.

any recommendations for a hotel near shops, breakfast and shuttle, safe area, restaurant on site and mid range price? we are tired of staying at the best western international, willing to pay a bit more.

Also not sure if this is a complete list of Transatlantics.

Yup great news for those on Florida's west coast.

Prices very high, as expected. Very little new for transatlantic. Very few prem econ offers.

Thank you for this.

They made a good decision. We will also be on a celeb ship next Dec with ours. I would not sail celeb if it was just us but with the kids it is ideal. We were fortunate to find our niche. O suits us in every way.

Our Vista Jan cruise was excellent. We missed st barths, Norfolk, one day out of 2 in bermuda. But the capt substituted an overnight in Charleston which was amazing... Second time on Vista, excellent in all ways.

Its not about kids clubs....a different line has so much more to offer than just kids clubs...ours were fascinated by the magic, acrobatics, lights sounds and electrifying displays during the shows...the ample kids pools, the games, the ability to meet and play with other children and that is all outside of kids clubs. Its about choice. An O ship has NO choices for them. Why would anyone want that? We were in the Carib in Jan, two ports cancelled, several sea days. No matter the itin, be prepared for several sea days. Unless of course children would like to be in the library for the day, there are several kids books there. But even then, the old timers that love this sanctuary would not be pleased. One more thought, if they are teenagers, very interested in History and Geography, the lectures for European ports are wonderful and so are the ports. This is more of an educational trip rather than recreational. But even then I would not bring teens or tweens where they have no others to meet and socialize with.

Yes I also wonder why Corporate has not already acted to modify this policy.

back to simply more, means simply less.... there were a number of people on our recent Vista cruise that lost their simply more credits when several ports were cancelled... because all else was booked, they could not apply the credit to another tour and could not use the credit towards anything else.... many see this as a fraudulent practice by O.... we booked another cruise while on the ship and the future cruise consultant took down all comments regarding the simply more policy...she said that O wants to hear from everyone that has had issues with it... I have now booked on line, the tours needed to fill my credit for the SM tours, for this February cruise, one was already waitlisted, yes that far ahead it is no longer available....I stand to lose this credit, if I dont chose a less desirable tour... if this happens I will not stand in line at destination services and file my complaint, I will go and see the GM directly... I encourage everyone else that finds themselves losing the SM credit to do the same... If anyone has already done that, could you please share with us your result... This is our first experience with SM, as all our other cruises were booked a couple of years ago.... As more and more people end the O life and are forced onto SM, we may see more issues and perhaps the policy will change.

There is nothing that is intended for children. Most of the patrons on O prefer a child free, quiet atmosphere. If we didn't we would sail other lines. One of the reasons we do not sail celebrity any longer is that we don't want to be on a ship with children. For that we sail royal Carib where they can do as little or as much as they wish. We have sailed Viking several times. No one under 18. Unfortunately our preferred line O does not have this policy. Most will not be as brutally honest as I have been. They will publicly tolerate the odd child or two but will privately grumble. I always wonder why parents bring children onto a ship with nothing for them, a generally much older clientele, possibly several sea days. So there you have it.

Just off Vista...beautiful....excellent food, activities...loved it all....

Please do not stop posting things that interest you or puzzle you. If we all did that, there would be no posts at all. Ignore those that come across as nasty, most of them do not mean to be and those that do probably wish they hadnt been. Ive had my share here with nastiness, but still persevere with topics that interest me. and will ask a question here that is not exactly on topic but I dont want to start a topic for it... here goes... in the past if you got included gratuities from your TA and you were silver or higher loyalty level with O, O would give you an additional 250 non refundable OBCs. Is that still true?

Not from O. But from our agent. O does not give rebates.

have done 3 VO cruises. one was after 50 with Celeb and we liked V much better, that was 2 years before covid... the second one was during the start of covid, V flew us back home when all the ports closed...they were fantastic doing that and gave us half credit for the cruise and certificates towards a future one... our third one was last march when we and so many others were using up our credits... it was the worst cruise we had ever done, that includes 50 on Celeb, 2 on V and 6 on O. the food was not edible, my opinion, the roof over pool stayed closed the entire time, even though calm, beautiful weather....hot and stuffy in the most sought after area.... I think because so many were using up credits, V took all kinds of short cuts to save money. We are on our 10 O cruise this march, have done several over the last 2 years to get to that level. We are satisfied with all that O has to offer us.

We will stick to our whale watching tour out of Victoria, it is 3.5 hours, the one from Klawock is 2.5. Thank you to all responders.

yes usually around 7 to 10....yes from an agency.....not O....

our total is 3900 x 2....so 725 and 150 for no flowers or wine.... for a B1 cabin to Alaska on the Regatta in Sept.

Feta, we always use the onboard booking...so we got 200pp off price...that is how we got to 3900 pp but our agent also gave us 725 per cabin rebate and 150 per cabin for no wine or flowers... I know someone said they get more than that for no flowers or wine, but I had her check with management....last time the 150 was also refundable....so that added to the rebate... we have run out of where to cruise, been to most places and now will now there is no mid east, no Baltic, no Russia, much of south America is off limits as well... also we are no longer willing to do those crazy flights where it takes you a week after them to recover.... for us Alaska never gets old.... also doing panama crossing, even though we have done it twice... may 1, 2025 is our 22 day TA crossing, but flying home from London, 7 hours, with PE, so that is doable... leaving next week for colonial America ,have not done those ports... anyway, you have my email, keep in touch....

We will be in Alaska on the Regatta in September, they changed Wrangel for Klawock. We had already booked Whale watching out of Victoria but the new port, Klawock also offers a whale watching tour. Out of which port is whale watching better?

To Feta and others... our agent got a reduction from O, based on this latest sale... for a B1, on Regatta in Sept, we went from 4,500 each to 3900 each....a substancial saving... a loss of 100 pp from simply more....we will just cancel a tour we didnt want anyway, used it just because otherwise it would be lost... Feta come with us... johthomas100z@gmail.com

Will definitely let you know.

Take a look at the new sale that only has a reduction for 30 cruises.

The 30 cruises sale, is a new sale. I had looked at the alaska cruise when it was 15% off, now it is much more. easy to miss though, thinking that it is the same as the new years sale.