MEFIowa

And we start with some salient facts. First, Vista is the "hot new ship", "the cool new toy". Second, she is more expensive to cruise on than other O ships. Now, take into account the psychology of these two facts. That do alter peoples' perception. See, for example, the concept of cognitive dissonance. Anyone who knows they paid more, wants more/better. They can alter their perceptions just on the basis of having to subconsciously defend the decision already made and the action already taken. Not all do and it can be subtle. But it is a real psychological phenomenon. So objectively I struggle to understand any claim that adding pizza, a common mundane heavily consumed food in America, seriously enhances an O cruise where a highly salient selling point hammered home is "The finest cuisine at sea." What does Ember truly bring that wasn't at the GDR, TC, or Polo? Pizza Hut and Applebee's ain't that! AND can YOU tell us, does Ember even have tablecloths? I half expect to see crayons and something for people to draw on or color on the table! Like we can find at many American chain restaurants.

Dottie on Sirena (11/2022) wasn't going to have a Veterans' meet & greet, but she was kind enough to help me put one on, when we discussed it. She did the publicity for it on a sea day. We had 25 people show up at Martini's in the afternoon.

Really, so you think you can equate Ember to Jacques? Now we can quibble if Ember is more akin to Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday or some other generic American restaurant chain, but O won't get anywhere in the real world trying to convince passengers that their dining experience on Vista has been elevated if they've already eaten at Jacques. I can't tell what Ember truly adds, menu wise, that you can't get in Polo or the GDR. O has this on their web site, BUT people who have been on Vista can't seem to agree if Ember actually always has...tablecloths! "EMBER Elegant American Traditions When the fuel of classic American dishes meets the fire of culinary masters in a sophisticated setting reminiscent of a Napa or Sonoma tasting room, Ember is the glorious result." The Finest Cuisine at Sea® & Culinary Cruises - Oceania Cruises The picture on the page shows tablecloths, but does it have them? And you really think that adding pizza to ships is somehow a significant improvement in the culinary experience? As if Americans and Canadians, the two biggest demographic groups on most cruises, don't get their fill of pizza weekly or monthly? Check out the data on pizza consumption. See weekends. I guess if O wants the new ships to have a Pizza Hut and an Applebee's then that's objective culinary progress? Will a Denny's or Perkin's be next? See the entire thread on NOISE in Vista. There may be more than one. That's coming from a plethora of passengers. On a variety of cruises and cabins. As for sight lines and other issues in the Vista theatre, I didn't make that up. Repeatedly brought up as an actual problem over and over. I'm just shocked that whoever designed it apparently screwed up an easy thing. And it is an OBJECTIVE fact that people are paying more to cruise on Vista compared to the other O ships.

We just did our 20-night B2B on Riviera in the Med 10/30-11/19, 2023 and will do a 22-night B2B on Sirena in the Baltic Aug-Sept 2024. I will miss Riviera's big therapy pool on the spa deck! Loved that in the late afternoon and early evening after a hard day of great excursions and sight seeing. That gave us 30 nights on Riviera and will give us 32 nights on Sirena since our first O cruise on Riviera 12/2021.

The Vista pay more get less program has its cheerleaders. An Applebee's and a Pizza Hut as culinary progress. Noisy rooms. Bad sight lines and complaints in the theatre. We'll stick to Riviera & Sirena. (The pizza on Riviera was fine, if you like that, though we do that most every Friday evening. I just felt sorry for the guy working there in the evenings, standing around waiting to make & bake a pizza. Competing against all the great food in the other dining venues.)

I signed up for our very first cruise in late Jan 2021 for a 12/2021 cruise on Riviera. Then I saw the O Presidents' Day Sale in Feb 2021. I rebooked it immediately and saved (going to just $2099 10 nights in an A4). And have religiously followed EVERY O sale in 2021, 2022, 2023, and now 2024. See my thread I created on all the 2023 O sales, to be keeping an eye out in 2024.

Thank God for the Extraordinary Savings Sale in early 2023. Our 10 nights on Riviera Triest to Athens 10/30-11/9/23 in an A3 was just $1899 PP and our 10 nights continuing on Riviera Athens to Barcelona 11/9-19/23 in a B3 was just $1749 PP. Sailing O by serious sales is the only way to go! (USD)

Though O already ran its New Year Sale in Jan-Feb and currently has a smaller one going on now. The current one pushing about 30 cruises. So O will have sales to fill those ships on cruises in serious need of passengers.

The only thing more fascinating is...that with all the complaints about noise from one room crossing into another on Vista recently, no mention of anyone complaining about couples getting jiggly. Reminds me of the old classic dinner theatre play, so I'll update the title, "No sex please, we're on Oceania."

Weird, a topless woman on a beach at St. Bart's doesn't cause the end of the world, but a topless woman on an O cruise ship does? Odd how a tiny bikini makes all the difference. More power to the nudists if they've got the numbers to charter the ship. The nudist colonies and resorts, like bowling alleys, have struggled in the USA. The more fascinating issue is...do they change any policies in regard to cellphones? They say the rise of cellphones that can take immediately take and store high quality photographs has hurt the nudist business.

Pretty simple, there was a GAP in the Aug 2023 published 2024 Collection of Voyages. Appears O filled part of it with your 28th September cruise. Which was NOT in that 2023 publication. Nothing still shows anywhere for anything on September 21st.

Pulled out the 2024 Collection of Voyages. From Aug 2023. For RIVIERA: Aug 25 Rome to Monte Carlo 10 days Sep 4 Monte Carlo to Barcelona 7 days Sep 11 Barcelona to Athens 10 days -------------------- GAP Oct 15 Athens to Venice 10 days Oct 25 Venice to Rome 10 days

READ your daily Currents each evening the night before to know exactly what will be taking place where and when the next day. Study it carefully each night for the next day. It is a most wonderful daily resource for all things happening during your voyage.

And that inflation includes the double whammy of a seriously declining currency. Took about 19TL to the $ in late 2022, but was at 28TL to the $ in Nov 2023 and is now over 31.50 TL to the $ today. So they raise prices due to inflation just in TL and raise them again due to a declining TL to foreign currencies. Turkey has to import so much.

Though when I compared prices in TL for the underground cistern tour and the Raki hard liquor in the Jan 2021 Rick Steves' guide to Istanbul, prices have skyrocketed: - Basilica Cistern Jan 2021: 20 TL ($1) - Basilica Cistern Nov 2023: 450 TL ($16)

As I clearly said, "For very inexpensive transportation in Istanbul". Public transportation there is quite amazing for tourists who want to use it. And Rick Steves' guide to Istanbul gives you some great walking tours on both sides of the Golden Horn. We did one each on both sides. This was in comparison to what Southern Gary said, "The Manger of the stand said the Taxi Driver would take us to the Bazar, stay with us and bring us back for $60." I spoke with someone who paid $100 for his taxi trip to the old walls. We paid TL90 or a bit over $3.00 total for the 2 of us. And we WALKED from the ship across the Golden Horn to Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Spice Market. You can walk to the Bazaar on a nice day.

I was on the same cruise as Southern Gary and did the B2B off Riviera that brought us back to Istanbul the next weekend. So 4 days and 2 nights there. For very inexpensive transportation in Istanbul, there is a metro station just outside Galata Port on the main street there running WEST (e.g., to Old Constantinople, across the Golden Horn to Hagai Sophia) and EAST (e.g., new Dolmabahçe Palace). You will find a kiosk there that lets you buy and load an Istanbul card for public transportation. Single trips on the metro were TL15 or about 55 cents. We took the metro west to the big stop on the west of the bridge crossing the Golden Horn. 15TL. Then took #38 bus (from the bus station right across the Golden Horn, north of the metro stop) to the Old Walls about 4 miles out. Again, TL15. We walked a Rick Steves old city neighborhoods route back about 2 or so miles. Then took the metro back to the port. Again, just another TL15. So that was 45 TL each for us or total of 90TL. Was 28TL=$1 then. Now around 31.60TL

Though what about your cabin? What type? Deck? Any issues? What do you love about it?

The sweet spot for most sales, especially the "big ones", tends to be the B and A cabins. The 4 category upgrade sales, for example, bring the price of the Bs and As down much closer to the G and F cabins. I use them to get out of an initially booked G or F into a C, B or A. And summer with Vista is starting off during peak time on the newer ship, which O isn't normally looking to discount, if they can help it.

And NARY a single dollar figure provided. And nothing on how much you spend thru your TA in the past 1, 3, 5 or 10 years. Funny how it is always vagueness. But it is never gauche to make all the claims about the benefits of TAs? Odd. Isn't that your point, "Look at us and what our TA does for us!" The whole POINT is to encourage people to look at and use O SALES. Each and every time a new sale happens, study it.

And... how much have you spent with your TA on all your various cruises over the past 1, 3, 5 and 10 years? That's the point! Lots of bookings.

What, none with any specificity, just as I immediately note you didn't provide any specificity. I never get numbers. I'm happy to give out numbers. Our 10-night B3 at $1749 and our 10-night A3 at $1899, both on Riviera. Airfare came in at $1000 round trip. As I said, alcohol just for the 20 nights and excluding what I took home under $60 total. AND we had $725 each in OBC! I seriously DOUBT on our recent 26-nights in Europe, 20 on Riviera, that any of them paid less than we did overall. But then we book under sales and rebook under sales and my wife loves to track airfare. I even did the currency work, buying our Euros the year before when the Euro was at about 99 cents to the dollar. We bought E500. (As of Wednesday's WSJ page, 1E=$1.0859. I'm tracking 4 currencies for our upcoming Baltic cruise.) 10-nights on Riviera 12/2021 was A4 $2099 and 10-nights on Sirena 11/2022 was B2 $2399

No, I'm not. I book under sales and rebook under sales. Did "cruise only" before SM and book our own excursions and airfare. Bring our own alcohol on board. I did contact one of those supposedly amazing TAs. They make some wonderful videos of O cabins, for example. They did NOT want my business. So, for those without a TA, try this: Call a TA up and say, "I only want to book an O cabin on a deep sale with no airfare and no alcohol upgrade package and we'll do our own excursions." Then tell us all, how did it go? What is weird is how those extolling the virtues of TAs NEVER tell us how many thousands of dollars annually and over a 5- and 10-year period they spend with their TA. TAs know their whales and they know the clients that generate them money. They don't work for free. Unlike those who talk in generalities, I provide specific details on what I spend on the cabin, airfare, and excursions. I spent about $100 for all the alcohol I bought in Europe for our 26 nights there (including 20 on Riviera), and I packed 3 bottles of hard liquor in my checked back, looking at them as I type this.

Opened technically at 0700 on Riviera (20-night B2B 10-11/2023). We did laundry on both decks 9 (had an A3) and 7 (had a B3). I think wife and I used the self-service laundries 5 times total, because we started after 3 nights in Venice and were ending with 3 more nights in Barcelona. Did last load the day before the cruise ended. Our room on deck 7 was pretty close to the laundry. I stopped by at 0645 and it was open. So I started a load. (I had a blast being "Assistant Deputy VP of Laundry Operations" for the respective decks, due to my expertise in using the detergent, washers and dryers) Having access to the newspapers in the Concierge Lounge from our A3 was nice while doing laundry.

Calendar Qtr 1 is Jan-Feb-Mar. Calendar Qtr 2 starts Apr 1. Sounds like another such increase. Often seen around Jan 1 or Jul 1, too.