EJL2023

52 minutes ago, JRIH said:

Ha, we leave in July and the culinary classes still haven't shown up.

There doesn’t seem to be a set date. We also have a cruise in October and those classes showed up a week before the June 2025 cruise. Just have to be vigilant and keep checking as never know when they may appear. 

14 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Sailed on the Marina mid May for 14 nights. Generally the food was fine.

My favourites were and still are:

 

Red Ginger duck and watermelon salad, red Thai curry in fact most dishes we tried we enjoyed.

 

My misses:

Only two both in Toscana. I don’t eat much pasta but really enjoy a linguine with prawns that we have our favourite restaurant in Portugal. So I thought I’d try the past, Lobster tail with Tagliolini and linguine cioppino, with seafood. The pasta served with both dishes was way over cooked and stodgy. Really disappointing.

 

But hey we are only talking about two dishes!

Not bad! I wish I had that success rate in my own kitchen! 🤣

16 minutes ago, Robjame said:

Thanks so much for posting this. I followed up with Oceania this morning and they insisted that the Culinary classes have not even been released yet for that voyage. (I know how they get mixed up). When I quoted your knowledge of specific dates and classes they changed their story and said it is not released until final payment, which for me is not until July 20.

So I will toss this in the lap of my TA and let her sort it out.

Thanks again and we look forward to meeting you on board.

Do they show up in your online account?  We have a cruise in June, 2025 and about two weeks ago, much to our surprise, the culinary classes showed up when in our account. We booked 2 classes online.   The appropriate credits were taken from our account and we received confirmation email.  Final payment on this cruise is in January.

12 minutes ago, Vertygo said:

Here’s O’s description & instructions re Vista’s pool deck that I’ve copied from brochure in my blue envelope for August cruise. Note that they state items will be removed by staff if passenger isn’t present. Now they just need to follow their own rules.

 

 

Had same wording in our non blue envelope package for our Sirena cruise in January.  

So…..any fun trick or treating for Halloween? Well, at least the treating part! Beyond the just being on Oceania treat part that is. 🍫

18 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

It happens on all lines...........

Yeap,  a quick search on here and you can find people complaining and knowing that staff is accepting tips to do it on Seaborn and Silversea! And Oceania forum needs to get with the program, they’re called Chogs per the delightful folks on those forums!

16 minutes ago, Yesimapirate said:

While this thread has morphed into complaining about tipping overall,  the actual issue was whether or not Oceania staff will reserve loungers for the chair hogs.  The tip was speculation but it's really the fact that chairs are sitting empty while other people have issues finding one to use.  

Yeah, as addressed already in several other threads. 

All of this and the OP even stated they have no idea if any money was transitioned.  

2 hours ago, Mags65 said:

My husband and I are thinking of taking this 15 night cruise with stops in Bermuda and the Caribbean, leaving NYC on Nov 19.  I am surprised that this cruise has so much availability still, as it seems that other Oceania cruises book up so far in advance. Does anyone have an idea of why that would be? Is there something going on with this cruise that I should be thinking about?

 

 

Possibly because over Thanksgiving? Some people would not prefer to be gone over the holiday perhaps, especially since a few were lost during Covid.  Now I know some love to travel during the holidays with multiple generations, but that doesn’t seem to be the type of travelers that cruise on Oceania for the most part.  I know we had a cruise booked over Thanksgiving this coming year and we decided not to because of another lost chance for a family holiday, and let’s face it they are dwindling as we all age.  Instead we ended up booking a cruise where we will be back before the holidays. 

11 minutes ago, FeelingCruisy said:

Do we get the 6 bottle set up if we are in veranda

No, that is for Oceania Suites and above.  

13 minutes ago, scooter6139 said:

Thanks for the info!

Well, crap, I don't like shower/tub combos (looking at you most NCL Haven rooms!), and that separate shower is too tiny for my wife and me.  So it's either upgrade to an A3 or downgrade to a B1.    

Agree…..looks like you have your choice for either of those options. And I know that Riviera was misspelled in my post above, but I did so as that is how it was spelled in the title of the mentioned thread. 

5 hours ago, kibutzer said:

Thank you. Hope Dottie is with us in Iceland 

See post #18 above, it may answer your question. 

23 minutes ago, scooter6139 said:

Hi all!  Oceania newbie here!

 

I just put down a deposit for an Alaska 9-day aboard Riviera, and I am trying to find out how to identify which Concierge Veranda Cabins have a single large walk-in shower versus the ones that still have a shower/tub and a small shower in the corner. Do you have any ideas?  I watched several YouTube videos after the 2022 refurbishment, and I saw both. I thought they all had the large walk-in shower.

 

We are currently booked in #9007, an A4 category identified on the cruisedeckplans site as having a single sofa bed.

Per my understanding and something posted before on another thread, all of the B4 and A4 staterooms kept the separate shower and tub. Again, this as I recall. Someone had posted a pic of a letter they had received. Just found thread, it is Riveria Bathtub Updates and post 1 has the letter. As I noted, shower and separate tub remains in all A4 and B4.  9007 specifically listed. 

21 hours ago, NanciEA said:

If you don't mind, what cabin (or area of the ship) are you in and do you hear noise from deck 9? We are looking at booking a Penthouse on Sirena and they are only on deck 8 with the Terrace Cafe, etc. directly above.

 

Not on this current cruise, but in February we were on Sirena in suite 8057, which is below the TC.  We did hear some rolling of the carts when they were doing set up and take down of the buffet stations. Of course for most of these situations we were not in our room for take down after breakfast (off ship) and most for lunch (off ship) and for dinner as usually out and about on the ship. I guess when most noticeable was on a sea day and we were in our room more often during these times. Even then it would typically be for only 20 minutes or so and still not crazy loud.  With regard to early breakfast set up….if for some reason I was already awake I would hear it, but it never actually woke us up. And we are both pretty light sleepers.  

2 hours ago, Harters said:

Absolutely. It's not a discount, just a different way of costing a cruise for markets that do not have a tipping culture (or not a significant one).

 

But let's see what the actual situation is. In this I need the help of one of our American cruisers who can look at O's website priced in USD and see what a fare is. Have a look at Vista's cruise departing 3 June 2025 "Epicurean Awakening" .  On O's site, priced in sterling, an A1 concierge veranda has the brochure price of 6099 GBP and a promotional price of 5299 GBP. That converts to $7788 and $6767. What's the listing on the US site?

It is $7649 with airfare and $6249 without air. 

10 hours ago, kahuna21 said:

And, for our 22-day cruise starting this month, the classes were never announced to us. I kept checking. They became available about 6 weeks before the cruise. When I checked, I got the last 2 spots available in any class. So all classes sold out in, at most, a few  days. 

They were never announced to us either. You just have to be vigilant in checking your online bookings to see when they are available.  We got one class on the October cruise and 2 for the June, 2025 cruise. Those were all booked just yesterday.  So they can linger for a while. I was surprised there was still availability for the October cruise. 

And you never know when they may be available. We have a cruise in October and they just became available about 3 weeks ago.  We also have a cruise for June, 2025 and they were available last week.

It’s been over several threads. 

18 hours ago, ORV said:

Curious how one poster can report all these negative things happening, yet I haven't seen others reporting it, nor have I personally noticed any of them in the 35 days I've cruised on Oceania the first 5 months of this year.  

They just seem so very sad. I’m surprised they didn’t jump ship, literally based upon their non stop negative comments. I guess at least they are done with O now, so they can get back to enjoying things again. Hopefully. 

1 hour ago, EJL2023 said:

It depends on the number of ports, not the length of the cruise. They indicated 10 ports for their cruise. They usually run at least 50% and sometime one above the 50% threshold.  We have a 20 day cruise coming up with 19 ports and 10 is our minimum. 

Actually 18 port days and 10 required. Maybe they have lowered it since they lowered the excursion credit amounts since the introduction of SM??

5 hours ago, roothy123 said:

Our cruise is 14 days/nights, and we need 5.  So for a 12 day cruise, I doubt it will be 6.

It depends on the number of ports, not the length of the cruise. They indicated 10 ports for their cruise. They usually run at least 50% and sometime one above the 50% threshold.  We have a 20 day cruise coming up with 19 ports and 10 is our minimum. 

1 minute ago, osandomir said:

No, we normally get a sale price for the cabin that we booked originally. It might be some other type of competition if one is past the final payment date. Most of the time we get to keep the promotions that we have already had. Though, some sales and promotions are not combinable with all booking onboard benefits, but the “Best buy guarantee” was always honored in our experience.

Uhh….was just joking with you because it autocorrected the word “guarantee” to “quarantine” in your post above.  😉

20 minutes ago, osandomir said:

On our recent cruise in April we booked another cruise on board like we do most of the time. The OBC was the same $250 for the duration of the cruise. Though we also saw it changes on the some other occasions. The feature that we value most is the “Best price quarantine” for booking onboard that potentially can result in much more savings than just OBC.

 

What I actually found very unusual there was barely someone at the future cruises sales desk every time I was passing by. Nevertheless, the sales person stated that the sales were going very strong for the O cruises in the future.

So if you get a better price, they make you sail but in quarantine!?! Is that so you won’t be able to take excursions and save money somewhere else?! They are just deviant!!! Gotta love autocorrect, huh!? 🙂

23 minutes ago, jbandkb said:

Thanks for the replies - I believe our cruise will qualify - 12 days with 10 port stops.  Shore excursion PDF will be available soon so will look at that as a guide for the number needed to book for the discount.

It will qualify. Most likely either 5 or 6 will be required for the 25% discount. 

1 minute ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

IMO (and experience) the varying SBC bonus may just be random. I’ve seen it change mid cruise - in either direction.

Which is why I said not to make a blanket statement. The poster just happened to say the same thing on January 24th in another thread on the same topic.  They were asked if not sure they were referring to the FCC and the reduced SBC for those.  As others said they have not experienced that and the poster never responded.  I guess this poster is just really unlucky and gets the diminishing SBC on their cruises. 🤷🏻‍♂️