Jayne E

Hello Hank, I’ll be in Osaka….could you please send me contact info for your guide? jayne1126 at. gmail dot com No comparison. O’s tours are shorter, large groups, trinket stops, jewelry factories, restaurants filled with other tour groups and more expensive. Thanks for info!

I booked one month ago. It is now $900 pp more. Don’t tell me I booked a year ago. I know what I see. The increases are not uniform as I expected. However, the cost of SM excursions are less than initial prices. For those who booked OLife excursions, need to do the math as to what comes out better, should your cost only be increased a few hundred. Our $1,800 increase is a no brainer to stay with cruise only. haven’t looked at remainder of booked cruises yet but prob more of the same.

It appears that the Simply More increases pp are all over the place. No continuity. Definitely not $400 pp verandah cabin for 10 day cruise as some have posted.

Comparing to what I am paying. Booked a month ago. Now $1800 more.

Vista A2 11/19/23 to Caribbean 12 days for 2 is now $9,198. We are booked at $7,398, cruise only. Simply More is Simply $1,800 More for 12 day cruise! We have $700 shipboard credit and book 1 Caribbean excursion only to use up some of it, so an additional $800 excursion credit is of no use to us. This is a very substantial increase. Happy we’re booked “cruise only” into 2025.

Perfectly said! We had dinner with F&B Manager on Riviera last month. He told us 1/3 of all O employees did not return post Covid. This has been a major problem for all cruise lines. We found service and food for the 21 days to be excellent. Far better than waitstaff back home, which is mainly young local college students who are inexperienced but do try to please. Looking forward to next O cruise

Our Oceania cruise stays in Abu Dhabi until 11 P.M. We have an O excursion ending at 2:30 P.M. in the city. We’d like to return to ship later on our own. Are taxis easily available and how long is the ride back to cruise port? Thanks so much.

Appears to be no shuttle in Abu Dhabi. Any info regarding taxi availability from city to port would be appreciated. Looks like approx 20 minute drive. We want to book an O tour which ends at 2:30 P.M. in city. Would rather stay longer and take taxi back to port. Thanks!

Absolutely! Enjoy. Still have a pasta special nightly also.

My issue is mostly with the excursions almost always being problematic. On recent cruises we’ve booked at least one excursion to use up shipboard credit. Only one excursion was very good. Left on time; hours of tour same as advertised; lunch good; bus in good condition; guide friendly and informative and approx. 30 people. All cruise ship excursions are overpriced compared to a private tour, so that’s to be expected. It’s the quality of the excursion that’s lacking, especially a lot of “free time” to do nothing much but shop trinkets.

Staying in the UAE is quite different than going from 4 Croatia ports to 3 Turkey ports + sea day. Sorry, not a good comparison. Furthermore, you received an explanation, I just received a different cruise itinerary. Oh…was offered $250 SBC for “inconvenience”.

That really is strange…..however your contract would override the website. I’ll have to look more carefully at our upcoming Ticket Contracts. Thanks for info!!

On several occasions, within 180 days prior, O has made major changes to itinerary, forcing us to cancel. Example: 4 ports in Croatia replaced with 3 Turkey ports+sea day. There is nothing in O’s cancellation policy allowing no penalty cancellation for such a situation. Will be at the mercy of pleading your case to O

10% penalty for180 days out +$250 pp is harsh, especially in light of the average age of O passengers. At least the penalty should be issued as a FCC.

Agree…present bookings are in accordance with a contract and if terms are Cruise Only, it would appear that booking would stay “as is”.

We have only sailed O since 2007. 20 cruises and 5 pending. I understand changes happen…..however if O’s excursions weren’t so utterly terrible, being forced to take some of them wouldn’t be such a disappointment come July 1. Those on this thread who have never cruised O and comment that they look forward to everything being included haven’t gone on O’s overpriced and underpromised excursions. Nor have they used O air and been assigned 3 stops to Europe. There’s a strong reason why many of us love O, but always book Cruise Only.

We were too....a cafe setting OK but with more ambience and elegance as the norm on O dining venues, not a chain style venue. Hearing that some have refused additional visits there says it all!!

Didn’t feel any difference on Riviera. Mattress was new and extremely comfortable.

Maybe they didn’t get delivery of enough mattresses and ordered whatever available? Very strange you had different mattresses on a new ship.

Sorry to go off Embers topic, but has anyone on a Vista Concierge extended balcony cabin had loungers on them? Heard none provided on several previous Vista cruises Thanks so much! On topic, for a cruise line touted for its food, what were they thinking eliminating Jacques for a casual noisy venue? We have JR Alexanders here…it’s casual, average food and noisy. We switched a Caribbean cruise from Vista to Marina….similar itinerary and Jacques.

Whoops….typo…..2024 but thanks for asking 😄

Here’s my two cents from a loyal customer with 20 O cruises, all Cruise Only. As I wind up with extensive shipboard credit…$500 Platinum, TA and Shareholder, we’ve lately taken one O excursion to use up some of the credits. They are way overpriced, often delayed with long wait time in lounge, shortened time than advertised and overall quite poor. On one, majority of Catamaran seating was on the floor. On another, dropped off at the wrong place and long walk in hot sun. On return, bus was an hour late and waited along the road. My leg was cut from a sharp piece of metal protruding from seat leg. I respect your two cents regarding future growth, but yes, you haven’t sailed previously sailed O. BTW: if my math is correct, being given cash credit to pay for “full price” excursions compared to paying $100 pp on OLife for excursions priced up to $199 pp, plus a higher priced cruise is a double price hike. Implementing cash credit for any purchase would have been more flexible…..spa, wine tastings, bingo, cosmetics, etc. Regarding lunch/dinner with drinks, those on full day private tours do not have lunch onboard. MDR ceased being open everyday for lunch several years ago. Now only sea days. Drinks at lunch in Terrace/Waves will likely be under utilized. We’re booked Cruise Only into 2025 and def turned out to be a good thing. Will reevaluate choices comparing to SS or SB.

We’re on Riviera April 2023, Tokyo to Singapore, Singapore to Dubai. The Riviera is reason we booked this “bucket list” cruise now. We only use small ships for short cruises, 7 days NYC/Bermuda on Insignia in Sept. Wish they would return Marina to Tahiti

Sorry, but we missed 4 ports. We were on the prior 10 day cruise and missed Amalfi port, for total of 4

I was also on this cruise. We were initially told there were port strikes and that wasn’t true. I feel captain came on several days later with more detailed explanation only due to passengers quite angry when they learned there was no strike. Absolutely nothing added to sea day activities. O made no attempt to liven up the day. This was our 20th O cruise, so we’re quite aware that this is not a cruise line known for day/night entertainment. Food and service remained outstanding and we enjoyed ourselves despite missing 4 ports.