Snaefell3

Regatta sails out of San Pedro, not Long Beach.  I wonder how a cruiser with 100 cruises wouldn't know.

Had a room service take an hour on Regatta this week.  After I mentioned it, the Restaurant Mgr stopped me in the hallway to apologize the next day.

Stuff is going to happen, but Regatta, in my experience, was into making it right.

13 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Depending upon the port/terminal, from which you Embark, you may need a copy of the invoice, with boarding time, to be allowed into the port and/or terminal facility. Some ports/terminals from which we have embarked turn away cruisers arriving before their designated Embarkment time. We have witnessed this both pre and post Covid.

 

This requirement is not mandated by Oceania, but the various Port Authorities to better maintain security and a managed flow of passengers through their facilities. 
 

It is highly recommended that you carry your documentation. 

Oh yeah and verily bring your "Boarding Pass" and watch it be checked.

"Ticket Contract" not so much...  until you don't have it, so says Murphy's Law.

You won't need the contract unless for some strange reason (don't ask) you do, and then you'll likely *really* need it.  They probably emailed a copy to you as an attached PDF file.  Copy that PDF file to your smartphone?

That said, no one on Regatta asked to see ours this week.

On 5/15/2023 at 6:35 AM, slw207693 said:

First timers party was initiated last fall, but have been discontinued due to lack of guests attending.  

Could be...

No newbies' party on 7-day, M/S Regatta, 11 May 2023.

14 hours ago, bob brown said:

I just read a post on the AQV board, that did a “speedtest” aboard the Starlink equipped American Empress riverboat, and achieved 20 MPS both upload and download.

And BTW, internet on AQV is included to all, in the base fare.🙂

Knowing what everyone else aboard was doing at the time is crucial to a speedtest's credibility.  Your and everyone else's traffic is merged on the ship's uplink, which is a choke point.  3am will give you delightful speed.

That said, TV-quality audio+video takes 5Mb/s.   (by convention, "b" is bits and "B" is 8-bit bytes).

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

I’ll bypass the term “ bait and switch “, but I clearly see the potential of what we experience on the newly introduced Vista, for some period, being different from what happens fleet wide over a longer period in this regard.

"Bait and switch"?  Nah.

Just a matter of it's gonna take a bit for the uplink market to settle after a new entrant, plus StarLink is still pricing off hoped-for costs, not actual.

Enjoy the Vista!    ::mutter, mutter, you lucky dog, cuss, cuss::  ;^p

Yup...  *IF* you mean "how much is on offer by the satellite companies".

The cost per MB/S of satellite uplink greatly affects the " 'offer to guests' " part, no?  ;^)  My point was that we really don't know where StarLink's uplink rates will settle yet, so we don't know how breathless to be.

Before one and all get too excited about StarLink, the important question is "how much will StarLink charge for bandwidth?"

The O3b medium Earth orbit satellites were a great improvement because their operating costs (and hence what they charged ships) was much lower than the legacy GEO orbit satellites.  StarLink is enough different than MEO- or GEO-orbit satellites that I'm in the hope-but-wait-and-see camp.

41 minutes ago, latitude 22 said:

California based Cruiser here. 

 

Home port SFO I’ve done northbound and southbound a zillion times and cell phone service always hit the ship towers, 

 

many times it appeared to hit land but HAHAHA the cell phone bill said otherwise! 

 

Face it, once a ship slips her lines and she's allowed to switch on her tower, what's the closest tower for anyone aboard?

WhatApp (if those ashore have the app, too) or WiFi calling.  Both are, however, at the mercy of whether the ship has bought enough satellite bandwidth so you can stream audio.

1 hour ago, AMHuntFerry said:

As LHT28 says, get the shore excursions pdf for your cruise. It has package info as well as other critical info such as cancellation (by you or O) policies.

⋮

Do not expect the shore excursion PDF to be the last word, however:

Our booking-time PDF showed "Solvang on Your Own" on 17 May to leave at 8:30am or 11:15am.  Today, O's website shows changed to noon or 2:15pm

Some coastal cell towers can reach up to 40 miles, *BUT* your cellphone latches onto the nearest tower, which once at sea and they switch it on will be Regatta's own tower, leaving you paying Cellular At Sea's piratical rates.

"WiFi calling" might be an option if (1) your cellphone provider offers it, (2) your cellphone is equipped with the option and you enable it, (3) there's enough bandwidth from Regatta at the time, and (4) it's not

blocked as "streaming" (or you pay for the "WaveNet Prime" upgrade).

A caution: WiFi calling dials and rings just like normal, so if it gets de-selected by accident you're back to paying Cellular At Sea rates.

See you aboard!