ak1004

In our case, each one of the 4 rides could be booked with business car (3 people, 3 suitcases) or business van (5 people, 5 suitcases) at no extra cost.

Actually what we found out is kind of interesting. When I created a Blacklane account, I found 4 (four) transfers. I contacted Blacklane and they explained that each guest is eligible to their own transfer, so the transfer are not per cabin but per guest. So we have 2 pre cruise transfers and 2 post cruise transfers, and they can be use for any ride that is less than 80 km (50 miles), not limited to home to home airport. So even after we took air credit and not using SS flights, we can still use one of the transfers for port to airport ride. In fact, we can use those transfers to any ride (up to 80km) up to 30 days pre cruise and 30 days post cruise, even if the ride is completely unrelated to the cruise..

The current trend is to build larger ships, even on luxury lines. SS moved from 400 guests to 600 and now to 728. 1,400 is a bit high for us, but the difference between 1,250 and 1,400 is not that significant. Considering that the bump is 12% but the ships will be larger by 30%, it means they should actually feel less crowded, with more public areas (maybe small gym issue on Vista will be addressed, and theater will be made larger and more functional compared to Vista). Overall, when comparing Riviera with SS ships of 600 guests, personally I didn't feel huge difference. It's a matter of design.

Mine never appeared, and our sailing is on May 6th.

https://www2.cruisewatch.com/top-10/ships-space-ratio/ Marina and Riviera are 53 (66,000 /1250) and the new ships will be 62 (86,000 / 1400). Luxury ships like Silversea and Seabourn are around 65-68.

Look at the positive side. Much better space to passenger ratios, pretty close to the luxury ships.

There are many things you can say about O. Some wonderful, some good, some just ok. But when I read someone describes food as "edible", to me the whole review loses its credibility.

Our last Cunard cruise in 2022 was pretty poor. Entertainment and activities were amazing, but food and service were poor. Of course it's different if you are in a suite, but in a regular dining room, the food on O is in a different league.

Agree. But I don’t think lines like Seabourn or Explora are less luxury or exclusive, while being significantly cheaper. And the inclusion of excursions doesn’t really help.

Agree about SB unfortunately. For us the price difference is even bigger because we book OV. Don’t really need veranda. And FV on Vista is a great value.

To me, it's pretty clear. Inflation is not 25-30%. Their new "Essential fares" are basically the same as previous P2P fares, but they exclude excursions and non refundable. Those fares are now at least 15-20% more expensive than SB, while P2P are 20-30% extra. Those fares are simply not competitive, and the product simply does not justify those prices.

But you can always find faults if you dig deep enough.. Nothing is perfect, but we find much more positive than negative on O. WiFi needs a lot of improvement (which I understand is already better on Vista), but the app? This is not a 6,000 ship. That said, I never found a good value in R ships. The cabins and the bathrooms are small, upgrading to PH usually brings the price to SB level, and passenger/space ratios are not in line with the newer ships. And if I see a unique itinerary, I usually can find it with other lines for better value.

True. My issue is not with a pair of trousers and collared shirt for dinner. I think it is very reasonable. What is not reasonable is to ask men to put a jacket most of the nights. This has been removed, and it's a positive development. Too bad that at the same time they priced themselves out of the market.

Thank you. I actually got a reply directly from Blacklane? "Yes, they can book the business van and you can join them, Just keep in mind that the business van allows a maximum of 5 persons and maximum of 5 luggage." I'm curious about the credit. We actually have 4 rides available for home-airport transfers (one per guest per direction). Does it mean that if we use only 2 of them (which I assume most people do since most people live in the same address), I can get a credit for the rest of 2?

I'm sorry if this was covered elsewhere, but this is the first time we are doing D2D and are eligible to Blacklane transfer. Can we use port to airport transfer together with our friends? They are eligible to the transfer, but we are not since we took air credit. Can we join them in their transfer? Or is it possible that they book 2 transfers (they are eligible each per guest I believe?) and we take the second one?

This is really good to hear. Just FYI, Skylink by itself does not guarantee good speeds. We had Skylink on our last cruise on SS, but they limited the speeds artificially to around 1.5mb. If you wanted higher speeds, you had to upgrade to "premium" internet at $30/day. So much for all inclusive line. I'm glad that O finally woke up and realized that to attract new generation of travelers, good internet is really important.

It's your truth. Others truth might be very different. We started travelling light, never looked back. No risk of lost luggage, no overpacking of things half of them we never use. No waiting for luggage.

We travelled on Air Canada, Swiss, TAP and couple more European airlines. If you travel in business, they don't even check (unless the size exceeds by a lot). In economy, sometimes they tell you to put it in a sizer, so yes, size should usually not exceed 55x40x23 cm (with AC, and something similar with others). But weight - I have never seen them enforcing it, and not all airlines even have weight limit. For example AC mentions "Although no weight limit applies to carry-on baggage, your bag must be light enough that you can store it in the overhead bin unassisted."

Thank you Hank for your continuous reports! We always loved the bread on O! Do they still have surf and turf in Waves? Also, did you try the afternoon tea?

We are travelling to Europe all the time with one carry on and one personal item. Something like this (we have the next model, but same idea). No issues at all.

Our Samsonite carry on from 2018 still looks like new. We travel 3-4 times a year. It was around 150 euro then, probably around 200-250 euro now. I never buy the cheapest product, but also not the most expensive. Mid range usually provides good value for money.

Yes!! We started travelling like this last year. Each of us one carry-on and one personal item. No more overpacking of clothes (half of them were staying in the suitcase anyway). We managed to travel like this even on SS with their archaic 3 level dress code.

We never spent less than 60-70 minutes in any specialty restaurant on O. And if they brought me the main dish right after the appetizer, I would definitely not send it back just because it arrived too fast. And honestly, if I was the chef of this restaurant, I would delay the next dish by an hour to give a customer "a fine dinning experience", then let it sit for another 10 minutes so it gets cold and then send it to the table. But you are right, Too each his own.

Maybe it's a matter of perspective and attitude? We didn't experience anything like this on any of our O sailings (Riviera and Regatta), and the new ships usually get the best staff available. or maybe we did and just didn't pay much attention? If you are looking for faults hard enough, you will always find something..

So where is the issue? Would you prefer that they wait in the kitchen to give you a pause? I guess you would complain then that they arrived cold?