KS&JW

Looking at the schedule there is a small gap in her schedule.  Last cruise ended on the 18th and next cruise does not start until the 27th. 

16 hours ago, Kate-AHF said:

I for one will really miss not being able to use my roll-up magnetic dry erase calendar.  One glance tells us where dinner is that day (if a specialty) and the time, what shore-x we have planned - and if plans change, one swipe of the finger fixes it.  Don thinks it's the most helpful thing in the cabin, and I agree with him.

 

 This is really a good idea.  Our next cruise is on Riviera (just prior to the refurb) so I think the walls will still work for this. After the refurb? who knows? 

13 hours ago, DENIE said:

We got 4 today, all for a different region.  I don't mind too much, and browse many of them. 😆

Yes, don't mind them.  However, I have never received more than a couple a week.  The latest on Northern Europe was very interesting to me as there were a couple of cruises if I had not already booked something for next summer I would have jumped on.  

19 hours ago, jonthomas said:

Well I can only assume that there are very few people on CC, or very few travelling right now. 

 

So many screaming all over the world of the horrors of air travel right now, but no mention here...all is rosy and happy here. Not a  single post of how someone has missed the cruise since so many flights are cancelled forcing travelers to spend countless nights and days at the airports waiting to be rebooked. 

 

Someone might even mention that I should post evidence if this. Just read the news. 

 

Has anyone spoken to cruise line reps to see what cruise lines are doing about ensuring their passengers get onto the ship? I havent since our cruise is in November, but surely there are those who are cruising now or about to be cruising. 

 

I guess I really have my answer, there is no interest in this topic and no one is having any issues. All is well and all are happy, 

Think of it as a venn diagram.  90% of people flying to Europe have no issues (other than longer lines), some small percentage of people flying to Europe are taking a cruise <5%, and then 5% of people who take cruises are on Cruise Critic.  That means only those people in the intersection of these three circles would post here.  In other words, not many. 

1 hour ago, jonthomas said:

 

 

I should also start a new topic...how to go on a 15 day cruise with only carry on luggage...yup that is what our airport is recommending...

We don't check luggage. It is much easier to do on an ocean cruise because of the easy access to laundry facilities.   We spent one month in Germany/Austria December 2019 with just a carry on. That trip included a river cruise, but they don't have the laundry facilities of ocean cruises so finding Laundromats was a requirement. It can be done.  You just have to plan for it. 

The United website is nice.  However, the assumes you are flying into the country where as cruise ship requirements may be different.  For example, Canada shows 'green' on the United website, but is one of the three countries that Oceania calls out as requiring a test.  The other two are Bermuda and Greece. 

57 minutes ago, jhoo said:

 

When on a grand voyage are there Captains Cocktail receptions on day 2 at the beginning of each segment?

 

Generally, yes.  

I was on Riviera in April and thought afternoon tea was lovely and the same as previous cruises.  The selection was good and it changed from day to day. Service quality was good as well.  They only served food from carts, but that was good enough.  The ship was less than 50% full at that point, so service levels were very high due to crew to passenger ratio.

It is prior to when the dinning rooms open, I want to say 5:45.  So you if you have a 6:30 reservation, you would need to leave 'early', but you would still hear the speeches and have a drink, or two.  

On 7/5/2022 at 4:34 PM, jes95135 said:

Has anyone had any experience of Oceania refunding a deposit to a credit card account that was closed?

The bank says they returned the funds to Oceania as they don't accept funds into a closed account.  I assume Oceania would send me a check, but so far nothing.

I did this at the start of Covid.  However, Chase handled it very well we just had to request the money in check or online transfer.  The transfer did not take a long time.  But yes, lesson learned about putting a deposit on a credit card that you may  not keep open. 

5 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

Is there such a device for android phones?

Tile is one option.

I've used https://www.romelimousines.com and was please with their service. 

12 hours ago, Cruzin Terri said:

Yes, you are tested again because it is a new cruise.  Doesn’t matter how many credits you get.  At least that is what happened on our Med cruise.  Two 12 day cruises.  Anyone remaining on board after the first 12 days was tested.

Terri

That is how it worked on my B2B as well.  Everyone who stayed on for the second leg (there were only 30 of us) had to be tested.  

On 5/31/2022 at 6:59 PM, Cruzin Terri said:

Thanks for your input.  Actually our cruise on the Sirena is on Feb. 7.  We are keeping the reservation. I hope we don’t get sick again.  it was not a pleasant experience even though we were treated well on the Nautica.  We missed the ports we wanted to see and I was pretty sick for about 4 weeks.  Just starting to feel better now and getting my appetite back.

I think a lot depends on how you approach people in the way you are treated.

We have no complaints with the way we were treated.

We are getting a refund for the days we were in quarantine.

Terri

Do you want to see those missing ports?  Come join us on your original  October 13th cruise on Riviera.  🙂

13 hours ago, pinotlover said:

Perhaps you should explain this. If you book a seventeen (17) day cruise from X to Y, that actually consist of a seven (7) day cruise and a ten (10) day cruise, are all those remaining aboard at Day 7 tested. It’s only one cruise credit!

I just completed a B2B of a 12 and a 7 day cruise.   I received two credits as it was a custom cruise.  

1 hour ago, Ceegeefl said:

Does Oceania test passengers daily?

No

On 5/12/2022 at 8:36 AM, Brentwood Bay said:

Just a further note on this topic.

 

My wife and I have booked an 82 day voyage from Abu Dhabi (Dec 29 2023) to Tokyo (Mar 20 2024).  We are Platinum with Oceania.  Reviewing the financial details between booking as a single voyage vs 6 individual segments we have discovered the following:

 

Comparison (PP)                                  Single Voyage (82 days)        6 Individual Segments      Difference

   Cruise Fare (No Air) US$                                 28913                                    29513                       -600 (2.0%)

   SBC                                                                         250                                        1250                    +1000

   Spa Credit                                                              150                                          900                      +750

   Cruise Credits                                                            7                                               6                           +1

 

The Cruise Only fare is discounted by 2% over the sum of the 6 segment fares (not 5% as discussed on this CC thread).  The Shipboard and Spa Credits are significantly less (by $1750) when booking as a single voyage.  The additional Cruise Credit doesn't mean much to us as we are Platinum level.

 

There doesn't seem to be much benefit in booking as a single long voyage.  I suppose avoiding 5 cabin changes is worth something (but we are considering it). 

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

While saving ~$1000 is nice, no way would I change cabins 5 times for that.  

Having watched a couple with Covid escorted out of their room and to a waiting elevator, they do mist right behind them.  That is the only time I saw any "misting"

I recently took a B2B on Marina.  First cruise was the tail end of an extended journey TA and the second cruise was your standard Med cruise.  Very few, 33 people, stayed over for the second cruise.   The difference between the cruises in regards to mask wearing was night and day.  There were signs everywhere that masks were required and staff always had theirs on.  However, on the first cruise we were often the only people wearing our masks (KN95) in the theater waiting for excursions to be called.  There might  have been two other couples with masks on the bus.  The second cruise was very different with almost everyone was wearing masks in all close settings, ie bus, theater , tender, etc. There were also a much higher percentage of European guests on board than we typical experience which may have contributed to the difference.   I only have anecdotal evidence, but I saw the Tyvex suited crew escorting passengers out of their cabins on the first cruise, but did not see that on the second.    The Ship was only half full so it was easy to dine without sharing a table in all venues and we choose to do that even though we typically enjoy sharing tables.   I had a wonderful time and would do it again in a heartbeat.  

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

Can you give some examples please? I assume it's more exotic places, not Europe?

Others listed above, plus Cape Town to Cape Town, the South America cruises that go to Antartica. 

22 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

True. Will you tell us on Wednesday which ones are the difficult ones?

 

 

Cruises that only happen once a year.  

46 minutes ago, curtdesilets said:

I agree with you whiteowl UK.  We are sailing today on Regatta and I too am unclear on the policy.  In fact the 48 hour testing requirements were not fully revealed to us until just days before our sailing.  I understand the need to sell cruise cabins, but sugarcoating or hiding policy is deceitful. 

48 hours testing before getting embarking has been the rule for months and month now.  It should not be a surprise. 

4 hours ago, maxamize said:

Any news on the mask mandate in European waters on O from people currently onboard? 

Just got off Marina, in Rome.  Everyone was masking as Italy is fairly stringent on this.   No idea situation on other ships. 

On 4/9/2022 at 4:36 PM, Robjame said:

Anyone considering Trieste as a destination or embarkation point might want to visit the Marina, March 19 - April 3 2022, Miami to Italy, 47 page roll call, Some discussion of air arrangements added to the roll call at the end of the cruise.

 

Due to cancellations she sailed with 350 passengers from Rome to Trieste. 

Currently on Marina, Not sure where you got your numbers but it was announced there are 668 passengers on the Rome to Trieste segment of this cruise. 

1 hour ago, osandomir said:

These cabins were often our cabins of choice on the R ships as well. I can understand Oceania business decision to reclassify E category for the solo  passengers. What I don’t understand is how they decided to take these cabins away from the customers who already booked their cruises, two years ago in some cases, and offer them accommodation in the category they would never book at the first place. Some of them happened to be very loyal Oceania customers. Not fair to these people in my opinion, although no one asked me whether it’s fair or not.

On 4/2/2022 at 5:42 AM, shans said:

Why does everyone think that bigger is better?

We have been booking one of the four basically unobstructed view category E cabins.

They are 6030, 6033, 6046, and 6049.

In fact, we now have 8 cruises impacted by this change!

We don't consider category D an upgrade.  There is access to only one set of stairs/elevators. The cabin only has a porthole.  Yes, it does have a sofa, but not important to us. 

We like the sideways layout of cat E and consider deck 6 much more convenient than deck 3.

Yes, we have sailed in category D before.  It is nice there is little foot traffic on 3. No real reason to be down there, unless you are "living" there.

We would have much preferred to just stay in the cat. E cabin.  According to Oceania, not an option.

Some of our impacted bookings have already been reassigned on deck 3.  Some are listed as guarantee status.

At least we will still be sailing on an Oceania ship.  Right? Hopefully, that is, as some of our sailings are showing as sold out!

Have either of you had your TA contact Oceania to let them know you are not happy with the D cabin?  Maybe you can get an upgrade to a C (if they are available).