MEFIowa

We had an archeologist give 5 presentations on each leg of our 20-night B2B on Riviera 10-11/2023 (Trieste to Athens and Athens to Barcelona). We had only 2 sea days. Will be interesting to see what happens for our upcoming 22-night B2B on Sirena. Just 2 sea days, too. Hope we have a guest lecturer!

THX. I spoke with Michele about 10 days ago about that. She said it would be up to O's department to contact people. She said her screen was showing only 30 empty cabins. Though the O web site as F-A1 as Available and G as Guaranteed. AND we're past final payment. Which we've made. So for us, we'd have to finagle an upgrade from say F to B.

At least we'll get to retest the same issue over again on our upcoming 22 nights on Sirena where we change cabins. But going from an F to a C1, as opposed to an A3 to a B3 while on Riviera last November. Our 45-day window for dinner reservations opens in mid-July for the 1st cruise and end of July for the 2nd. And yes, we make the reservation at 1201 AM, the very first moment we make it. Only have sailed on Riviera and Sirena. We cruise for excursions and ports. So the upcoming Baltic cruise is 20 days in ports. Only 2 sea days.

Do you realize the SIRENA is unique compared to Insignia, Nautica and Regatta? She has "2", but 1 of the 2 combines the two specialty restaurants on Insignia, Nautica & Regatta. Red Ginger and Tuscan Steak are unique to Sirena. Sailed 10 nights on her 11/2022 and have 22 more later this year. https://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/sirena/culinary-experiences

What exactly seems wide open? As one poster above wrote, "There are always empty tables in specialty restaurants. It may be intentional or no shows. While, it may be difficult to get a reservation online, once onboard there are available reservations." So, (1) why are there always empty tables? (2) Why is it difficult to make a reservation online in advance during your window? And (3) how can there be a plethora of now available tables once onboard?

Just curious, how many O cruises have you taken since COVID? And the number of nights? So far 4 for us for 40 nights (off 2021, 2022, and 2023 cruises) and 22 nights paid for and upcoming (2024). (Gotta admit I thought it humorous when you wrote yesterday that you didn't realize Ember was a specialty restaurant.)

The issue is the purported procedure, the actual process, and how what is stated by O compares to what is encountered on O cruises. So you think it is fine if (1) O says G-B cabins have a shot at decent reservations when (2) O knows they do not because (3) O has secretly set it up to disfavor them without telling anyone about the actual process and how it favors and disfavors groups? That essentially lying and deception against the lower-paying passengers would be ethically appropriate to benefit higher paying passenger. On that, we'll have to disagree.

That fascinating paradox: (A) "There are always empty tables" and (B) "It may difficult to get a reservation online" and (C) "Once onboard, there are available reservations". BUT IF (C) is true, then (B) shouldn't be true. BUT IF (B) is true, then either (A) or (C) shouldn't be true, certainly not both true simultaneously. AND if (A) and (C) are true, then (B) is a created problem, by O. That impacts mainly the G-B cabin passengers.

The G-B cabins have a shorter booking window. The potential issue involves whether O is allowing them full access to actual tables that are available when they're begin told either "There is no reservation available" or "The only reservation time available is 9 pm." Because at the same time, people in higher level rooms are saying, "I just walked up to the reservation desk that day and I got a great reservation at a nice time." How can so many apparently be getting these reservations, after the cruise has started, when others were told 45 days out, "No reservation is available for that day or time". And the issue is at its worst involving tables for 2.

Those in suites do get more, and we both know it. I have little issue with the FEW suite passengers getting to live like royalty, assuming there is some equity in the actual reservation system. As the saying goes, YMMV. We had 630 passengers on Sirena 11/2022. And only 719 on Riviera 12/2021. One was full, the other was "empty". Makes a huge difference. Riviera had the 1230s back in 10-11, 2023. So we experienced the reality of B3 versus A3. Will be interesting to see what Sirena has for our upcoming 22 night B2B. The first half is showing "Available" today for ALL F-A cabins and "Guaranteed" for G. The 2nd cruise is and has been "Wait List" for ALL G-A cabins for as long as I can remember.

The only serious issue is whether G-B cabin passengers who are trying to book their reservations when their reservation window opens up are being denied reservation times and tables because O is keeping these available for higher-level cabins AFTER they already had their window open for their reservations. And one notes how few suites and suite passengers are on say Riviera when she's got 1235 passengers. Compared to all the G-B cabin passengers. This isn't much of an issue for the suite passengers, assuming the G-B actually had a real chance at decent reservations when their window opened.

Who sits at a table in the TC wearing a hat? And yes, who doesn't enjoy being able to be quickly and efficiently served food in the TC? Esp. if you can eat under the stars, as we do. No desire to spend 2 hours in the GDR, but that's us. And we BOTH know that the actual FOOD in the TC has no comparison to any basic "buffet" served in the usual or average buffet setting. I try to enjoy the lobster, shrimp and lamb at the grilling station to start. 😉

A big issue is whether and when G-B cabin passengers can actually book reservations in them on their cruise, since they have to WAIT and book them after the A and higher-level cabins have supposedly had their first cracks at booking. So for the G-B passengers, tends to mean 8:30 and 9 pm reservations, if any, on a given day. And if O forced you into a 9 pm reservation slot, they'll reserve the right to then back you to a 8:30 slot because there are so few passengers with these late reservations. Seems like many of the PH and higher passengers claim they could just make daily reservations in them at "good times" when the G-B passengers had already been told, "No reservation available at that time." Learned the fascinating ins and outs from our B2B on Riviera that started off in an A3 for 10 nights but we then moved to a B3 for the 2nd 10 nights. We had nothing but undesired reservation times for the B3. No problems with the A3. Hard to tell how "fair" the system is actually being applied to the various classes of cabins.

Though Sirena is interesting since she has Red Ginger and combines two of the other specialty restaurants from the other O-class ships into 1 restaurant. So a bit like having "3" on her. We enjoyed our 10 nights on her 11/2022 and look forward to our 22 nights on her starting Aug 28th for a Baltic cruise. And Riviera has the BIG therapy pool on the spa deck, which I have thoroughly enjoyed on 20 of my 30 nights cruising on Riviera. A fantastic place to relax at 5 pm after a hard day's excursion, esp. if there's just 1 or 2 other people in the therapy pool with you.

That 668 seems a bit high, but I guess some cabins are having 3 or 4 passengers? Kids? Prior to the addition of the SOLO cabins, capacity on the smaller R-class ships had been 650. I'm thinking we had about 630 on Sirena in 11/2022 and that was near capacity.

Again and again, you miss the POINT. Which is customer misperceptions of corporate cost-cutting and revenue enhancement efforts to pay down their mountain of debt. People wrongly think they are getting some enhancement or benefit, blindly accepting ad hype and marketing efforts. Sometimes the Emperor has no clothes. Simple as that. And since I've got 22 more nights on Sirena booked and paid for starting August 28, 2024, I will be sailing with O. But I keep in mind how I can adjust to their actions and minimize my costs. As an informed passenger. Study EACH NEW PROGRAM and CHANGE. Then ask yourself, Is this actually really benefitting O or me? SM added $600-800 per PP per cruise and gave back pennies on the dollar. The perfect revenue enhancing scheme, where you "think" you're getting far more than you actually are. See all the issues and complaints about O excursions tied to the SM Excursion Credits, that can only be used on excursions.

This is about massive debt as a Sword of Damocles over their heads requiring significant and immediate measures to get it under control and start paying it off. Which means PEOPLE, passengers, need to understand what is (1) a cost-cutting measure (Ember, pizza station, etc.) and (2) a revenue enhancement measure (e.g., the entire SM program). It is weird how so many can't seemingly understand these issues and they buy into the marketing hype on the changes (a form of polite deception).

Too funny, from someone who didn't realize that Ember is a "specialty restaurant"! Which is a cost-cutting measure by eliminating Jacques. So O had you fooled into even appreciating what Ember is and why it's there now.

Then you're not understanding the DENIAL of the cost-cutting and revenue enhancement efforts underway. Going from Jacques to Ember is cost cutting. Same for pizza station. SM is revenue enhancement. The list of cost-cutting efforts is seen in menus, cabin service reductions, and more. What is fascinating is how the Vista Cheerleader types, for example, can't understand that The Emperor Has No Clothes, the cost cutting measures. I hope that doesn't include the reported CABIN NOISE issues on Vista. And the WHY is simple: They are drowning in debt and need to repay it.

It is quite the brilliant cost-cutting move. Remove Jacques and replace with Ember. And convince people that this is some culinary enhancement. O will likely save a significant amount on food over the 20+ years of Vista and Allura. They certainly will for those passengers who love to eat lots of bread, rolls, and pizza.

O doesn't do such bidding. We've gotten two kinds of offers in the past: 1. They've asked us to switch to an entirely different cruise, usually the same itinerary on a better ship and better cabin (e.g., move from Sirena to Riviera). Likely due to an over-booking/guarantee problem. 2. They've asked us if we'd like to PAY to upgrade. Usually 6-8 weeks out. The couple times I looked at the offers, the price wasn't very good. Once it was literally tied to the current list price! No saving whatsoever. I have read things here about some Travel Agencies getting access to late secret sales. Esp. for ships with lots of unbooked rooms. BUT, I did raise this with my O sales rep (I always use the same one) for our upcoming London to Stockholm cruise on Sirena. O's web site shows all the F-As as "Available" and the G level as "Guaranteed". She claimed there were only 30 open cabins, but did say that maybe someone from O that deals with this issue might contact us. That was about 3 weeks ago and I haven't heard anything.

From May 1st, 1st quarter results: "The cruise company's Q1 earnings report beat expectations, but only slightly, said Patrick Scholes, a securities analyst with Truist Securities. He added that Royal Caribbean Group has "set a very high bar with several massive beat and raises this year." While there is "certainly nothing wrong" with NCLH's performance, Scholes said, it was probably "not good enough to jump-start the shares, at least today." Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings touts cost-cutting measures during Q1 call: Travel Weekly

O's demographic skews older and I believe even more so on such TransAtlantics. We sailed 10 nights on Sirena 11/2022 in the Caribbean and have 22 more nights on Sirena booked starting Aug 28, 2024 in the Baltic. Their video library should have some old, taped lectures, but not sure how many live lectures you'd get on a TA. We had 5 lectures each on our recent 20-night B2B on Riviera in the Med (Oct-Nov 2023). There should be a nightly show (usually 9:30 pm), but we've only paid attention to the comics. Heard some mediocre reviews about many of the shows on the smaller R-class ships. As for daily activities, they range from needlepoint & bridge playing to team trivia, bean bag toss, and such. You can walk around the ship in various places, including the deck overlooking the pool. Lap distances rather short. The pool is small. More for walking around than swimming in.

It is weird the slings and arrows that emanate in discussions about O's obvious cost-cutting moves. BUT, people need to understand that NCL's (including O's) DEBT rose dramatically the past few years. From just $6.1 billion in 2019 to a peak of $12.6 billion in 2022 that has come down to $12.3 billion in 2023. So, we are seeing a plethora of cost-cutting measures & revenue enhancements, many decently disguised, but still intended to either cut costs or raise revenues. SM was a generalized price increase disguised as a benefit enhancement. We're seeing all sorts of cost-cutting measures, some subtle and some not so much. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Long Term Debt 2011-2024 | NCLH | MacroTrends Norwegian Cruise Line Looks to Cut Costs and Debt—‘No Sacred Cows’ - WSJ

Pulled up NCL's debt. Rose from $6.1 billion in 2019 to $12.3 billion in 2023. Hit a $12.6 billion peak in 2022. That's a steep wall of debt that has to be paid down.