DrHemlock

"Attention O-Mart shoppers!!"

Never say 'Never'.  Romeo Void.  (Youngsters will have to look that one up.)

2 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Are you certain ALL such specialty reservations are so made? Especially for those in Suites and those in higher levels of O's Club system?

No, of course I'm not certain.  I can only read the rules you've quoted and which have worked well enough for us on 19 O cruises.  

Certain anecdotes in earlier posts indicate that fudging may happen.  I suspect that timing and a warm smile may have had more to do with getting those extra reservations than suite occupancy.  And if O Club status made a difference, I believe I'd have known since we've been gold for a while now.  Mind you, we don't wear our gold level caps to dinner so maybe we're just too incognito....

15 hours ago, mozfoz said:

So does that indicate it is ok for any passenger get up at 6:00am and reserve 6 lounges with towels by the pool and not sit on them until 10:00. Or is that only ok for Penthouse guest since they paid more.

No, it does not.  That's false equivalence.  Specialty restaurant reservations are made within O's established system and published rules.  There is no such system for pool lounges.

10 minutes ago, mozfoz said:

free from favor toward either or any side.

But these aren't sides.  They're levels based on fare paid.  Everyone within a given level has equal opportunity with everyone else at that level -- though fortune favors the diligent, as it is in life.

5 hours ago, iowananny said:

I can guarantee you're not going to starve no matter ... who you have to eat with.

Mmmm, maybe.  I've met a few I'd rather starve than eat with....

12 minutes ago, ORV said:

Well…….

 

im still thinking this through. Are we gaining, are we losing, is it a wash?

Should I stay or should I go?  My thoughts are clashing........

4 hours ago, Harters said:

But almost no-one has stayed strictly on-topic to suggest a fairer way of making reservations for the specialities, as mozfoz had raised.

"Fair," in this case, seems only to mean "more beneficial to me even though I paid less than those with more options."  That's not the way life works.  Speaking as a 45-day-out specialty reserver in the middle of the pack, I can't always get what we want -- but if I try sometimes (usually at midnight), I get what we need.  Does that mean the folks in penthouses and suites have an unfair advantage?  No, they have a perfectly fair advantage that maybe I could have had, too, if only I'd saved more and not had so much fun in years gone by.  

3 hours ago, iowananny said:

and pay thousands of dollars more just for the chance to tell people in the bar they have a reservation in a specialty restaurant that night. 

Actually, there are more reasons than that.  What about the free bottle of faux champagne in the room?

3 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

I was just thinking that if Oceania booked them they would have a responsibility getting us to the car and making sure the car is ready.

Good luck with that.  See pinotlover's post immediately above.  Believe it.

18 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Note that MedJet insurance is for necessary air transportation AFTER you’ve reached aid/initial treatment on land:

True, but note also that MedJet is not insurance.  It is membership in an organization that provides emergency evacuation service.  Medical service up to that point is the responsibility of the sick or injured person who, therefore, needs travel medical insurance; a separate entity.

There's a fjord in your future.

5 hours ago, ORV said:

I guess I should look at a name tag every once in a while. 

If you can read the latest version of O name tags without sticking your face 12 inches from their chest, you've got better eyes than mine.  

Yeah, I've heard it too but in the TC (also in the morning).  A bit weird with breakfast...but who's complaining.  I've also heard the string quartet play "Stairway to Heaven."  Not half bad!

At least we get a $100 dividend on our 100 shares of NCLH stock every time we cruise on O.  With the stock price rarely rising above the teens, it's almost paid for itself by now.

6 hours ago, ORV said:

It's right next door to a very good Italian restaurant

That would be Umberto Menghi's Giardino restaurant.  He's been cooking in Vancouver since 1969 and by now qualifies as a legend.  First experienced his Tuscan cuisine in 1985 at the original little yellow house restaurant simply named Umberto.  Multiple times since then -- now at his newer bigger place -- when visiting Vancouver.  Reservations not easy to obtain, so apply early -- and tell him we said, "Grazie!"

2 hours ago, Thought2go said:

So “Simply More” is becoming simply less.

Becoming?  That ship sailed when SM was inaugurated.

On 6/8/2024 at 10:40 AM, clairol said:

I had forgotten how lovely and intimate the library is on the smaller ships. Such a luxury! 

Abso(frickin)lutely!  It's why some of arrive at the pier as early as possible on boarding day: not for lunch with the crowds at TC and Waves, but for first crack at whatever's new on the shelves.  

It's also where we enjoy waiting on disembarkation day between 8:00a.m. "out-of-cabin" time and when our luggage tag color/number (usually the last) is called.  

Such a sweet "good-bye" it is as we reluctantly trudge down the stairs to the gangplank.

There's also the challenge of "which side is which" for those of us who are not native seafarers.  It would be too tacky to say, "As you stand looking toward the front, it's on the left (or right) side."  So, I always have to re-remind myself of the mnemonic based on facing forward:  "Left" and "Port" each have the same number of letters, while "Right" and "Starboard" do not.  

Do not attempt this procedure while facing aft lest confusion reign supreme.

2 hours ago, ORV said:

I believe they're talking one level up

If so, then they're not responding to the OP's question re R-class.  One level up from the pool on an R-class ship is the walking track where it would be a tad too windy for ping-pong while underway, or even on a calm day in port where an errant volley would risk flying overboard.  Where the table is on A-class Vista is irrelevant to the OP.

12 hours ago, slw207693 said:

On some of the ships the ping pong table has been moved to the starboard side outside the gym area where the couches and other seating under cover were.  

Are you sure the ships you're referring to are R-class ships that the OP asked about?  The seating area you describe is -- or was? -- the smoking area, meaning that smokers would have been moved to someplace else.  But where?  Maybe nowhere...as in Oceania experimenting with going entirely non-smoking as most hotels have done?  Smokers were still starboard-side on our Insignia trip in March.  Anybody currently aboard an R ship who can comment?

17 hours ago, Kay S said:

I think that's  where it is

That is where it is: on the forward/port side of the pool deck around the corner from the pool bar.  Basically, the opposite position of the smoking lounge on the forward/starboard side.  Or...catty-corner across the pool from Waves Grill.

3 hours ago, richardbohn said:

...we frequently travel to Aruba. We will spend a few days at our favorite resort before flying home.

While there, try to visit the donkey sanctuary.  Pet and feed the animals...and, by all means, leave a donation.  It's a magical place filled with the goofiest, kindest and safest-from-traffic four-footers you'll ever meet.  Another "meet & mingle" just like on the ship but minus the cheap champagne!

Stop at the store to pick up some carrots and apples; you'll have the residents eating out of your hand.

6 hours ago, ORV said:

Is it necessary to book the 1 category? What's the savings to go to an A3 as opposed to an A1? 

The OP mentioned that A1 cabins are amidships.  I suspect that's the operative factor as it represents the smoothest (or least rocky) ride in exuberant seas, while A2 and A3 radiate forward and aftward from there -- as in "Pass the dramamine, please!"  (Not telling you anything you don't already know, ORV; just mentioning it for the benefit of newbies who may have wondered the same thing.)

49 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Thing is, they mostly consider anyone under 60 a kid.

Well, some of us were kids until we were 60.  And beyond!  (If somewhat pathetically....)