Stockjock

It was pretty loud. Didn't interrupt my sleep, but I tend to me a sound sleeper. But GF said it did keep her from getting to sleep.

I just got off a quickie weekend cruise today. Did Chef's Table. Drinks included. Not cheap though. Brought 2 bottles of wine. Opened 1 on last night. Was not charged a corkage fee (maybe the accounts were being closed down?). Took in a bottle of Sprite. Snuck in a small amount of tequila. Made poor man's margaritas. Got 4 coupons for 50% off a soda, beer or glass of wine. Tried to use 2 of them. They brought my GF the wrong wine and let her keep that one (they brought her Moscato rather than Conundrum white blend). Then they returned, to tell me that they were out of Conundrum. I asked if they could just bring her a glass of Chardonnay, which they did and didn't charge us for, presumably because it was the third try. So granted, it was a really short cruise, but I only paid 50% of the price of one glass of wine. Out of fairness, the Chef's Table was about $180 for two, although as mentioned, it covered one evening's worth of drinks. I too thought the drink package was too pricey. I would have purchased it if it was much less. I think MSC has one of the better-priced drink packages, especially if baked into the cruise fare.

That's likely the case, as there were a ton of kids and families on this short sailing. I think that most of those kids were running and jumping on our ceiling, but that's a separate issue.

Just got back today, so let me know if there are any questions. It did end up being a bit noisy though. I'd book it again. GF said she would not due to excessive roof noise. As mentioned in another thread, our waiter said it was the first sold out cruise since Covid hit. There may have been 1 inside cabin left, but apparently they considered it to be sailing at full capacity. https://youtu.be/_oMpPPA3SdY

Weather was nice. Around 70 at the coast and maybe mid 70s inland where we went.

Correct we are on navigator. Got them mixed up. Traffic was crazy in Ensenada today. Our tour group was late but the ship did wait for us and probably some other tours as well.

I’m not sure if what he said was accurate, but he said that this is the first time they have had a sold out ship since the start of the pandemic. They may have one or two inside cabins left, but they are considering it to be sailing at full capacity. This is a three day cruise sailing out of Los Angeles over the memorial day weekend, for what it’s worth. It’s a quickie but we’re having a nice time so far and we have a tour planned in Ensenada this afternoon. Once I get back I will do a full review with some photos in a discussion about Chef’s table which we did last night.

I’m thinking that Celebrity did not credit me for watching their glitchy freezing program. That’s because usually I get a little email saying thank you for attending, but today I got one telling me that if I missed it I could watch it and still get the points. But the thing is, I did watch it so I guess I will watch it again. Kind of annoying, but it is what it is.

It's a discontinued Panasonic model. Not sure of the model, but they have many similar that are still produced. Maybe just do an Amazon search?

I had a frozen screen and then a black screen. Refreshed a few times, no luck. Maybe on the 5th or 6th attempt, it started working again.

Call number six, lol.Call number six, lol.

I guess if Iva is so inclined, she could simply resubmit the request.

I know they've released a couple of 2024 world cruises, but I'm talking about the full schedule for 2024. Any idea when that may come out?

Yep, puts the cruise business on a more solid footing with a cash infusion from the parent's container shipping business.

While I've not booked with Oceania, I have booked with NCL, Carnival/Princess, RCCL/Celebrity, etc. I've not received that reply, but at least they replied, as noted. But hard to see a reason why they couldn't put the shareholder credit onto your booking.

Still trying to decide whether or not to book, but I do own NCL stock, so apparently I'd be eligible for a shareholder credit if I do go. I did a search and found a 2020 post to the request form, but the link was bad. So here's a current link for anyone interested: Shareholder Request Form

To my knowledge, there aren't any other major cruise lines with deep roots in the shipping business, such as what we see with MSC. That's probably why they seemed to me to be "sweating" less than some of the others. Guessing that the parent was in relatively good shape due to strength in their container shipping business.

Here's an article on the shipping boom/windfall... https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-05-23/shipping-s-500-billion-profit-can-take-on-amazon

Is their diversification of income/revenue sources. With respect to other cruise lines, when their travel and cruise business is off, they're pretty much cooked and have to hope they have enough cash and borrowing ability to ride out the storm, such as what we've seen during the coronavirus pandemic. But MSC is unusual in that they are the world's #2 shipping company, so when cruise revenues are soft, they can make it up on the shipping side, which could potentially give them greater financial stability.

FWIW, I did get call #5 today. But they didn't call yesterday, lol.

If I book, I think I'll do a C2 or better. We've never been fans of inside cabins, and the price differential isn't all that much.

Here's another question. On the R-Ships, I noticed there are very few inside cabins, which I don't prefer. But if one were to book an inside, is there any reasonable chance at some form of upgrade, or is that unlikely?

As an example with Amex Platinum. Their platinum card is $695 per year. I think that with a $3k to $4k spend in the first few months, there's a bonus of something like $700 to $1,000 worth of Amex points that can be used for travel or whatever. The firm I work for actually provides that card sort of free (you pay it, and it's reimbursed), if certain criteria are met. To be clear, I'm not here representing the firm, as I qualify as a client and not due to employee status, but I think the criteria is: $25,000 or more in a certain type of liquid account and... $5,000 or more in direct deposits each month (can be less if social security) and... Some other form of a brokerage account. So the card has great perks, such as free first class lounges, potentially free hotel rooms and such, but also one can pick up perhaps $700 to $1,000 of "free" month to apply towards travel.

I usually do flights with frequent flyer miles for several reasons. 1. They're mostly "free". 2. They will usually allow me to cancel and credit back to my account without penalty. Sometimes literally at the last minute. I have a good chunk of miles on American, United, Delta, Southwest, Alaska and also Amex points I can use. I mostly get these miles through promotions. I'll get a new card w/a bonus (and preferably no annual fee the first year), play their game to get the miles, and often close the account in a year. Then, I'll do the same deal when I'm next eligible, which is often 2 years. I currently have a summer sailing on a different cruise line and booked flights through American, where I seem to get the most bang for the buck. My flights into one Northern European city and out of a Southern European city was 55,000 per person or 110,000 miles total with about $70 pp in taxes (higher taxes if I use certain airlines like British Airways). But, I can cancel those at any time with no penalty. Takes awhile to accumulate a lot of points, but with a combination of the aforementioned sign-up bonuses, normal spending, and actual paid travel, they add up. Plus, some cards, like my Amex Platinum, not only give you a $600-$1,000 sign-up bonus, but often, 5 times reward points on travel purchases. I threatened to cancel and they gave me another $300 worth of points with a $3k spend over 3 months, but most have gotten $500 to $700 worth of points. I took what they offered.

I mentioned in another thread that my girlfriend has a milestone birthday coming up in a couple of years and I was thinking of taking her on an Oceania cruise. I took her on a Princess cruise almost 10 years ago, so I wanted to step it up further for this one. Did some due diligence by reading reviews, asking a question here, and talking to Oceania. Candidly, some of the recent reviews have scared me away. But now, I'm getting daily telephone calls from Oceania. I think they've called 4 days in a row. I answered the first time, but have let the rest go to voicemail. They seem pretty pesky, which is surprising. One might almost say desperate. Anyone else have this experience?