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That’s interesting. Our fridge in the regular cabin on Sirena was stocked with two types of Club Soda cans from the day one with no need of asking for anything.

In case you don’t know there’s a non-refundable $150 pp to cancel from the day one after you pay the deposit. And then an administration fee one month prior to the final payment.

Actually, there are very few “activities” you can expect on the small Oceania ships. It looks like you definitely will be happier on the big ship of any major cruise line.

That’s become normal nowadays for all major museums in Paris. There’s no “skip the line” option to get right in. And it’s normally a long line to go through the security as well.

I can’t tell you anything about Kiel in particular, but if you book your air with Oceania their included transfer will take you to the airport where your flight will depart from.

If you book a minimum of 5 excursions as listed for your cruise you are eligible for the 25% discount no matter whether you have or don’t have Simply More. Sometimes the discount won’t be applied when you book your excursions online. In this case you’d need to call Oceania and they will apply the discount for you. And you don’t need to have a TA to do that.

I’ve seen all that negative reviews about Sirena but really didn’t put too much trust in them because our experience has always been great. We’ve sailed on her many times as well as on all other O ships but Vista. I didn’t understand how things could go downhill so fast since our last Sirena cruise about a year ago. So we just boarded the Sirena today and found the ship in the same good shape. And I’d like to comment about the food. We quickly managed to get reservation in the specialty restaurant on the first night, but after we saw the dinner menu cancelled the Red Ginger as we really liked what was offered in the GDR. Well, I just want to say our dinner was excellent. I don’t think that we’ve equally enjoyed every meal onboard in the past, but tonight we didn’t find the food to be a bit of less quality than it used to be. It was as good if not better than we’ve ever had before. While I understand that the food is subjective and not everyone has the same taste it still makes me wonder were all that people who complained eat elsewhere. And we’re looking forward to enjoying this cruise on the Sirena not less than we have always done.

If you want to go to Paris by train you will need to get to the train station and wait for the train. In the best case you will spend 4 hours in transit round trip. Then you will have only few hours in Paris and you will find that the major places of interest aren’t very close to each other. So you will need to use metro or taxi to get around. We’re in France right now and spend 3 days in Paris. There were lines everywhere an hour or more to visit any museum. Also, many places require online reservations for tickets to get in way in advance. Only you can decide if it worth going to Paris considering all that but I’d think that you wouldn’t be able to see much while you are there. And by the way, there are plenty to see in Rouen for the port day if you never been there before. Enjoy your visit to France whatever you decide to do.

I didn’t ask you to explain it to me. Thank you anyway.

I don’t completely understand what is the reason to discuss all negotiations, discounts and rebates here. It’s nice to have some savings while booking with a TA, but I see it as more of a business between us and our TA and not as a public announcement.

If I remember correctly tips were neither required nor suggested when we visited New Zealand years ago.

We’ve travelled all over the world and I can tell you that all these can happen anywhere. Hotel room wasn’t serviced in time - that’s the end of the world. If we feel so offended every time we get a problem we’d stop travelling altogether and miss the opportunity to see so many wonderful things around the globe. And by the way, we’ve experienced much more “rudeness” towards the Americans in Europe than here at home.

Tip in any currency for hardworking crew is better than no tip at all. Like we witnessed how the passenger from the other country was looking to remove the tips while cruising on “American culture” Oceania ship.

No upgrade is expected. This time Oceania didn’t change the category depending on the date the cruise was booked. If the extended balcony cabins were listed as B3 when one booked the cruise they are still B3 to book now on the same cruise. So there won’t be any concierge privileges extended to anybody booked in these cabins for that particular sailing.

It did happen last fall when Europe 2025 was released. Apparently, we booked the last extended B3 for Riviera in Asia next February. I agree that it was an easy move for Oceania to boost the revenue.

Obviously, a tablecloth isn’t an indicator of the quality anymore. We’re in Paris right now prior to our cruise around the British Isles. We’ve already dined in the several restaurants, Michelin star included. Today was the one without the tablecloth but with the menu changing everyday based on the fresh products available - the best meal of the trip so far. The food on the Oceania ships is good but is in a different category, and the tablecloth isn’t something that is most important.

If you followed his previous posts it was already explained multiple times.

I don’t think the officers participate. Though, I never questioned who was included in the pool. We always tip above for the good service provided.

Thank you all for your responses.

We’re on the cruise from Southampton. Will be staying in London for a couple of days. With the luggage we prefer a car and driver to get us to the ship. Last time we used car service to Southampton was pre - COVID. They seem to be out of business now. Anyone can share what company they used to arrange their transfer to the ship lately?

We’re on the cruise from Southampton. Will be staying in London for a couple of days. With the luggage we prefer a car and driver to get us to the ship. Last time we used car service to Southampton was pre - COVID. They seem to be out of business now. Anyone can share what company they used to arrange their transfer to the ship lately? Quote

I wasn’t talking about someone who brings wine to the restaurant. We do it ourselves sometimes. I just feel that it’s cheap to drink the wine in the cabin to avoid the corkage fee. But then maybe there are some who enjoy to have their drinks in their own company.

It was interesting to read your review. Your opinion is definitely valid. One thing that surprised me most of all is the “great sushi” in the Terrace cafe. We like sushi but find that they are hardly comparable even with the cheapest offerings we had anywhere on land.

I’d rather be engaged in the conversation about Subaru😀. Don’t want to complain with the details, but believe me it was much worse.

There’s no definite answer to what way is better - ship's tour vs private. Not just for different people but also for me personally. We used to participate in a lot of private tours, and while many of them were throughly enjoyable on several occasions our experience was so bad that we regretted joining that tours completely. And I’m not talking about the guides or program inclusions, it’s the fellow travellers who made it unbearable. For some different reasons we started to book more ship's tours lately and we found some of them to be better than others with many that were very good choices as well. And at least we never felt being so badly affected by the other people on the tour simply because of no need to be in so close contact with all of them. So I don’t think I would recommend anyone to do ship’s tour or private because it all based on personal needs and expectations.