susiesan

I like this quote from the article: Weinstein — making his first appearance on the panel since being promoted to CEO of Carnival Corp. last August — said cruises are 25% to 50% cheaper than a land-based vacation. 'We've got to do a better job communicating the value proposition of what a cruise is ... and we are working on that.' I'd say a big not. Land based trips are always cheaper than cruises for me. It all depends on how and where you travel.

Sent you an email.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner. 🤨

Was it a deconstructed Cobb salad?🥑🥩🍅🥗

Here's an example of a private tour: I've arranged a tour to Granada to visit the Alhambra during my upcoming Sirena cruise, Sept. 4. There will be 14 people from the roll call. We are being picked up at Motril, bus to Granada, guided walking tour of the Alhambra, back to the ship. 7 hours total, 99euros per person. Oceania is offering the same excursion for these prices: Tour Pricing $259.00 UPC $109.00 YWC $194.25 The exact same tour, probably operated by the same company, Spain Day Tours.

My last cruise with AZ was in 2009 when they were part of celebrity/RCCL. When they became Azamara Club Cruises the prices went up due to inclusions that I don't care about. I always book cruise only so Oceania was less expensive for the same itinerary on the same type of ship. My next Sirena cruise in Sept. will be my 6th overall Oceania cruise. I looked Azamara's version of Canary Islands itineraries, AZ's either begin or end there. I would have had to fly into or out of Tenerife with my UA miles and therefore no award tickets available. So I booked with O as I fly into barcelona and out of Lisbon and have award tickets from UA for this trip.

I actually like the R ships. I got in 2 Ren cruises before they went out of business. I've been on them twice before with Azamara, 4 times with O, and my upcoming Sirena cruise in Sept. will be one more. We are not big people so bathroom/shower size is of no consequence to me.

A number of regular O cruisers are moving over to Azamara including me. I booked one of their Croatia intensive cruises for Sept. 2024. On similar cruises from Oceania the port times are considerably less. Example: for Dubrovnik AZ has me there from 8:00am to 10:00pm. O has their ship there from 7:00am to 4:00pm.

I have just booked an Azamara cruise for Sept. 2024, 9 days from Venice. There are 8 ports, most in Croatia. Port times vary from the shortest at 8:00am to 5:00pm to the longest at 8:00am to 10:00pm. I was going to book a similar cruise with Oceania but went with AZ due to O's green policy of reducing port times. I have one more O cruise coming up in September, Sirena to the Canary Islands. After that I am probably done with Oceania. Oceania is my current fave go to cruise line but they are losing my business in the future. I won't stop cruising but it won't be on Oceania ships unless they revert back to the way they were if they can before all this sustainability BS started affecting how they operate.

Maybe you can push the sofa over closer to the window.

Last time I cruised on AZ, which was a long time ago in 2009, there was sushi every night. That's very disappointing for me that AZ changed that. It's one of the things Like about Oceania.

Due to Oceania shortening port times now on all of their cruises I am thinking about cruising with Azamara in the future instead. I have been on O 5 times, most recent was Dec. 2022. I was last on Azamara in 2009, I know there have been changes. I know about and have sailed on the R ships and enjoy them a lot. I cruise in either an outside cabin or occasionally a veranda if the price is good. 1. Is specialty dining still included on AZ like on O? If not, what is the cost per meal? 2. What sort of beverages are included? Is wine and beer served with meals? Are cappuccinos included an extra charge? 3. I think gratuities are included in AZ prices. True? 4. Is there 1 free shore excursion in each port included? 5. Is the Windows dinner buffet like the Terrace on O? Is there a grill and sushi every night? I have been happy with the Oceania ships and service so far but am very upset that they keep limiting time in the ports, using the "going green" excuse. It doesn't appear that Azamara is doing this. Will I be happy with Azamara as it stands today, coming from Oceania?

Is there sushi at the buffet at dinner time?

Why are all Croatia ports being cancelled now for a cruise in August? What is the reason being given? I don't see that Riviera is in the Med in August 2023, she leaves in June.

Thanks, Jane. I hadn't read about that ship yet. I found a company called APT Tours that runs this cruise, is that who you booked with? https://www.aptouring.com/trips/europe/euccdr14/apr2024-oct2024 Can you email me to discuss this cruise? susiesan8 at gmail.com

I have already decided that after my Sirena cruise Sept. 2 to the Canary Islands that I won't be cruising for a while, and especially not on Oceania. This cruise had time shortened in 3 out of 6 ports. This is unacceptable to me. I won't be surprised if O drops more time off the ports the day after final payment is due, that seems to be the way they are operating now. For 2024 I'm looking at land trips in Ireland, Japan, and Croatia with a small ship trip like this: https://cruisecroatia.com. These boats carry only 38 people. Has anyone done one of these trips?

Agree, but it was still better than not having any sushi at all. Years ago the sushi chef would make you a custom hand roll to order but not anymore. That was great.

You can always take some tuna and salmon nigiri, take some tuna and salmon sashimi, and put a second slice of each fish on top of the nigiri. or just get a plate full of sashimi. You can make your own ponzu by squeezing fresh lemon slices into the shoyu.

So which ports have you missed? Have they all been related to weather?What was the total amount of ports on the original itinerary?

Was this announcement made of skipping St. Malo after final payment was due? I wonder what other European ports that Oceania stops at will the same thing start happening?

So is it possible that you might not ever get to get off the ship for a landing if your lottery number never comes up?

Even if you do your own air with award tickets you can still only get crazy routings. For our cruise from Barcelona on Sirena in September I used UA points for biz class tickets. Our routing is MCI-ORD on UA, ORD-ZHR on Swiss, ZRH-BCN on Swiss.. We overfly Barcelona to Zurich and then backtrack. UA has a new ORD-BCN flight starting in May but you can't get decent award rates on that flight.

We carried on all of our luggage when boarding Marina in Miami in December. Even though our cabin wasn't quite ready we dropped off all off our luggage and put it on the sofa before heading to lunch. It wasn't in the way for the cabin steward to finish tidying up. After finishing lunch the cabin was ready and we unpacked.

When was this? Recently?

Interesting. So they didn't grill anything Caribbean style? On my 14 night Caribbean cruise last December there was no Caribbean night at all.