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17 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

We made final pay a week ago, for an Alaska cruise that is now part of the sale.

Also the price has come down 400pp.

O will only give us 200pp non refundable obc, even though we booked on board with best price guarantee. 

Doesn't seem fair, but thems the breaks.

Why did you pay final so early?

Confusing.  I booked us originally on 15 June 2023, then got a lower fare on 2 Jan 2024.  We have an A-2 Aft for Sep '24 Alaska/Pacific Coast.  There are 3 categories of Penthouses available.

I do have a O Connoisseur agent now.  I should probably talk to her.  Any hints on the Penthouse cabins--location, etc?

31 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

You can also tell them that you are cancelling, then making a new booking. The math (cancellation penalty vs. savings) will vary depending on when you booked ($0 or $150 before/after the new $150 cancellation fee) and how far before embarkation you cancellation ($0 or >=$500).

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Did you book on board? Otherwise best price match probably won’t apply. 

 No, this will be our first O cruise, so I booked directly with them by phone.     We have been on 4 "R" ships before.

The way it's written, it says "Upgrade Now".  To me that kind of means already booked can upgrade.  But, then the fine print.

I noticed today that O is having a 4 category upgrade sale on some of their cruises.  It says in small print "For new bookings only".  One of my booked cruises is in the sale--I booked directly with O.  I thought I have read on this feed some people were able to upgrade a current reservation.  Is that true? Just call O?

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Thanks Kevin..... I have to tell you that we LOVED CHARLOTTETOWN.    I have a feeling that the New England Cruise may again be on the agenda.   Maybe not on Celebrity but would love to do on a small ship where you can get into ports that you can't on the larger ships.

 

Oceania Insignia Oct 16-27, 2025, great leaf peeping. "Canadian Connoisseur" Montreal to Boston.  Most ports are in Canada.

Yep, Capt Tasos is great, have cruised with him many times.  Cruising out of one of the many Norwegian fjords, he stopped the Constellation and did multiple 360"s.  He called it "Dancing with the Waterfalls" which were on both sides.  Pretty cool.   Unfortunately, E class is not our cup of tea, so don't know if we will see him again.

7 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Africa sounds wonderful.   Going to have to start researching.

 

We did safaris with "andbeyond".  They have lots of locations in Africa.  Just a heads up--Early, early morning, small bite to eat, then off in the Rovers BEFORE sunrise.  After several hours, back for a normal breakfast.   Multiple activities mid-day, then off again at dusk for several hours, then dinner.  Those times are when the animals are more active.  It was wonderful!  Maybe you shouldn't tell Iain that part.  🤐

On 4/23/2024 at 3:37 PM, durberville said:

*sighs. Thanks for the honest review but man o man am I bummed. Have booked our first Oceania cruise on the Regatta for October (25 days). Sounds like it will be a floating nursing home with poor food. I convinced my husband to try this line since we’ve become disillusioned with Celebrity. Full of regret now. 😟

We are on Regatta this October, and we are not ready for a nursing home.  We will be doing The Tail of the Dragon twice this July.  Zoom, zoom.  🤪

On 4/22/2024 at 9:09 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

Next up is something new for us.      September 14

 

Oceania Cruises --- 12 night Alaska and Canada.    We wanted to try and have booked two cruises with them this year.  

 

We will be on that cruise too, our first Oceania (although we have been on 4 "R" ships in the past.  Just booked another Oceania, "Canadian Connoisseur" Montreal to Boston October 16-27, 2025.  Mostly Canadian ports.  Tired of the Caribbean and also long flights over the ponds.

5 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

O-Life is the legacy plan before SimplyMore. You can ignore it since it will not apply to you.

I guess I meant to say "OS" Oceania Select Excursion.  What does that mean (since some excursions don't have that added). 

10 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

 O-Life shorex 

 I saw this listed on some excursions, but don't really know what it means.  Newbie here, can you please explain.

8 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

It isn't in the cart as I already paid for it.    When I go to the excursion there is no option to cancel.    The only thing I can do is book another excursion but of course my $600 OBC is showing fully used.  I will have to call in and have it credited.

Being O newbies, I guess we will be learning a lot on this first cruise.  🙄

12 hours ago, jonthomas said:

12 hours ago, jonthomas said:

The other issue I have is that O let us know in an email that they were dropping Wrangel because of berthing issues. Now I see that they planned to go to K if the port was finished on time. Seems shady.

Sorry about the repeat at the beginning of this.

Anyway, the first invoice I received for this cruise said:

"Schedule Change-Notification sent 6/8/23

Due to a berthing conflict, please note the call to Juneau has been replace with Wrangell."

They must use that phrase a lot.

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I guess I will have to wait until Wednesday since this is a Holiday weekend.

Have you tried taking it out of your cart or cancelling the tour--both from your account?  I wasn't sure from your first post.

3 hours ago, cboyle said:

 

If you know someone who has cruised with Ponant, they can refer you; both you and they will get OBC. I believe it is the same amount as the New Guest OBC and that you can only claim one or the other.

 

Hope that helps.

Thank you for your inputs, I am trying to get my ducks in line for a first time Ponant cruise.  So, there is Ponant Bonus, First time cruise, Status match (Celebrity Elite+) and personal referral from someone that has sailed Ponant.

Do you know which of these you can combine?

Is booking directly with Ponant a good deal?

12 minutes ago, cboyle said:

I should mention that there are other discounts, such as for your first cruise, back-to-back cruises, etc.

 

Also, if you have loyalty status with another cruise line, Ponant offers status matching. 

https://us.ponant.com/benefit-from-the-status-match?_gl=1*18pzext*_up*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAiAiP2tBhBXEiwACslfnunedvPTAxXY8dGlNQUz9_EztJ3q5rOUQrpNjVJxhtZraNMHdAmRpBoC_L4QAvD_BwE

Thank you,

This would be our first Ponant cruise and we are Elite + on Celebrity.  Looking to upgrade our experience and downsize the cruise size.

Also, once booked are you able to take advantage of any sales?

Advertising emails and the Ponant website list "Ponant Bonus" (a percentage off) for certain cruises.  So, are those percentages already taken off when you see "Starting at...." OR are they taken off when you actually book?

Thank you

On 11/15/2023 at 1:40 PM, rmzlvacationers said:

Husband and I are going next August for SB Alaska & Hubbard Glacier cruise on Radiance of the Seas. End up in Vancouver on a Friday and plan on staying in Vancouver until Sunday. 

 

TA gave hotel option for Westin Bayshore for $1139 US for the 2 nights.  Not really comfortable with that price just for 2 nights when we will be gone pretty much sightseeing out and about.

 

 

Check out my input above this.

Check out Times Square Suites.  That's where we stayed numerous times and will do it again in September 2024.  Great location.  Decent prices.

So friendly!

How fun!  Fort-de-France, Martinique 14 Jan 2024,

First day Of Carnival!

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

After creating a spreadsheet with our current bookings I narrowed it down to either a Oceania Boston to Montreal and a Alaska Vancouver / LAX.    To cut down on any more long haul flights we settled on the Alaska LAX one.     My agent is currently on the Icon OTC but said he is also working from the ship.    Hopefully he will be able to book it tomorrow.  

Awesome!  Hoping to finally meet you two on board.  We are doing the 12-day cruise, spending some time in Vancouver first.  We enjoy that city.

Kim

On 1/23/2024 at 7:54 PM, Jim_Iain said:

 

   I think I have narrowed it down to either Nautica  Boston to Montreal  and Regatta Vancouver to LA.    

 

 

Hi Jim,

We booked the 2024 Sep Vancouver to LA cruise on Regatta.  It will be our first Oceania cruise but our 5th time on an R class.  Got an A2-Conciege Veranda (aft).  You get a few perks there.  Celebrity Elite+ doesn't mean much to us with all the changes nowadays.  Just got off our last booked Celebrity cruise a week ago.  We looked at each other and commented that it might be our last Celebrity cruise.  We want to downsize the crowds and upgrade the experience. Our first Celebrity cruise was in 1985 on Chandris Amerikanis before it turned into Celebrity.

Kim

On 1/2/2024 at 11:38 PM, wrk2cruise said:

 

It's not like they don't know your Captains Club status.  Discount should be automatically applied in Cruise Planner or given a choice if multiple discounts available.

Agree

11 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We had a problem with this on our last cruise and the Retreat Manager and Hosts just would not get it fixed.   

 

They said that if you Book it online and pay for it it is discounted and they can't double dip.    

I figured that would be the answer.  Oh well, this is our last Celebrity cruise in the foreseeable future (never say never).  Three more cruises lined up for this year. One is Oceania's Vancouver to Alaska and down the West Coast to LA in September.  BTW, Oceania is having a sale and yesterday I got our cruise fare reduced by $1200.  Next year, we are taking Jim's lead and want to book Ponant on the Great Lakes.  They have 10-day cruises on the Great Lakes now.  😁