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osandomir

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Everything posted by osandomir

  1. I can imagine how disappointing this’s for everyone on board. We’re booked on the similar cruise with the stop in Manila next year. I wish Oceania would stop this practice of shortening the port times on every cruise just before the sailing or even after people already boarded the ship. We’re planning on booking ship tours using the excursion credit and also exploring some ports on our own. Such schedule changes make really negative impact on the port experiences - often our main reason for booking a particular cruise.
  2. I see that you are saying the same thing again and again. Probably you are right that Antarctica isn’t on the top of everyone’s list, but it looks like you didn’t notice that almost all posters on this thread have completely opposite opinion about eliminating Antarctica from the particular South America cruise.
  3. I don’t oppose the new cancellation policy. It makes for more planning before we book the particular cruise, but I understand that at the end it would help Oceania’s business operations. So, I don’t mind to put a non refundable deposit when I’m serious about the itinerary in the whole. The problem here is that OP didn’t agree to buy a cruise which wouldn’t go to Antarctica at the first place. I can’t imagine to put a deposit on the cruise to Alaska and ended up cruising in the Mediterranean for example. But yes, Oceania can do it and keep non refundable deposit in case one has no interest to go to Europe. Keep in mind that the decision was made a full year prior to sailing. Maybe the initial Antarctica offering provided for more bookings and better revenue than just Brazil and Argentina. Not the best business practice in my opinion.
  4. I completely understand your frustration. Sure some posters here will jump in saying that Oceania can do this per their contract and just because they are always right. But I believe that this particular cruise was booked by many for the opportunity to sail in the Antarctic waters, so eliminating this part for whatever reason a year in advance made it a completely different product. It’s not like just missing some port weather or something else related. Subject to a credit card dispute like others suggested. A good business practice on Oceania part will be allowing people to cancel without penalty and giving some credit to those who are willing to stay. I believe that good reputation should mean something for Oceania as well.
  5. People have different tastes. No need to force others to like or dislike something the way you do it. One of the pleasures of cruising is to dine in different restaurants and have nice meals to satisfy one's preference. No way to figure out Ember or Jacques - which one is better.
  6. Yes, it was deducted from non-refundable SBC, but as I said it was for visa on arrival and not for the tourist visa required to be processed before boarding the ship. We contacted Oceania prior to boarding and were confirmed that visa on arrival can be payable on board. So I advise you to call Oceania and get a confirmation from them regarding your particular cruise destinations.
  7. If you pay for visa through Oceania it’ll be a separate line on your invoice and you will pay for it with your credit card at final payment. In one case, though, when it was a visa on arrival we refused to pay upfront and it was deducted from our account when Oceania arranged it for us on board the ship.
  8. We used to book our cruises way out and didn’t wait for the sales. Most of them never went on sale and some were sold out long before the sailing dates. Now more and more we started to look into escorted tours and all types of land vacations for two reasons. Most importantly, we’ve been to the vast majority of the ports the cruise liners are capable of getting to and there are so many interesting places where there’s no much water around. There were never guarantees that any cruise would go as advertised, but now because of the financial and political state the cruises became much more unpredictable than we can tolerate. If more people started thinking the same way it can explain all countless cruise sales which are obviously indicative of not that much of demand. That being said, we love cruising and have couple of Oceania cruises booked and one of them is the part of this New Year sale. I’ve contacted our TA to find out how we can benefit from this sale.
  9. Oops, I didn’t know anyone is prohibited to post on this forum. And I didn’t suggest that anyone needed to consider switching from O based on the recent changes. It’s still an excellent “product” for many. BTW, despite of all this changes we’re continuing booking O cruises and have no plans to switch to another line.
  10. The “product” is pretty much the same or so. It’s the price hike that people are concerned with. The excursion credit and ability to use it is just a part of the equation. I’m sure most people would make their decision based on the total cost of the cruise and on how much the experience would meet their goals.
  11. It’s not about what we like or don’t like. Of cause, you are entitled to your own opinion and I just expressed mine. No, I don’t have facts because I’m not in Oceania management. I think so based on my understanding of the price difference to have a dinner in the land based nice French restaurant compare to the establishment serving Modern California flavoured bistro style food here where we live. It cost more to serve Baked Sea Bass Fillet than Fish and Chips on the Ember menu.
  12. My understanding is that replacing Jacques with Embers has nothing to do with people’s preferences or changing the demographics. It’s all about saving a lot of money on food cost and preparation, and service when compared one to another. We’ll be on Riviera next but will miss Jacques when we cruise on Vista in 2025.
  13. … and maybe the compensation is due to the passengers for the inconvenience?
  14. We’ve cruised 15 times on all of the O ships and never seen signs about dress code at the entrance to any of the restaurants. The reminder in the Currents is usually enough for most people. It’s one of the pleasures to cruise on O that we don’t normally see the signs like that.
  15. We’re trying to travel “light” now days with minimum luggage when it’s possible. But I would rather not describe it in details expecting that others suppose to do the same. I think OP didn’t want an advice about the amount of luggage, but just posted that their expectations about Oceania included luggage delivery were not met.
  16. That’s what we normally observe too on Oceania. But that being said, a lot has changed over the last decade in cruising and everywhere else as well. So I think it’s time to accept that if people are dressed nicely it doesn’t matter that much what they wear. Let it be nice jeans, sandals or anything we’d observe while we go out on land or at sea.
  17. Normally airport transfer works for the flights booked by Oceania. I would think that their transfer will take you to whatever airport they booked your air tickets from.
  18. Got email this morning with NO single supplement sale.
  19. I’ve seen this on the AmaWaterways advertising.
  20. This contract was written by the lawyers - a lot of small prints, so I’d think they would be able to safeguard themselves if situation gets a bit complicated. Hopefully, Oceania will let you know about their plans with enough time for you to change your flights. We also love to use points to book our flights as the points are refundable in case we need to make changes any time before the flight date. But I see your point that the flights can be more expensive, not every time though, if you book them closer to the departure time.
  21. Realistically, it would be very complicated if at all possible to provide the transportation for everyone who booked air on their own schedule over several days prior to embarking. Even Oceania transfers work with their air and on the ship departure date only. In your case I wouldn’t expect free transportation to the new port if the embarkation port gets changed. But I think you won’t be able to change your flights until any changes are announced anyway.
  22. Is there any confirmation on March/April winter 2025/26 new release? Our next cruise is in late April and we’re looking forward for these cruises being available to book onboard. We like to cruise to the new faraway places so we’ll gladly book on any of the R, O or A (big?) ship.
  23. I believe if people are satisfied with Celebrity/HAL/Princess cruising experience there’s no need for them to look for call it premium or luxury features on the upscale cruise lines. They will always compare them to what they are used to and perfectly fine with and won’t see too much value for them. It’s understandable that they won’t be willing to pay more for that experience.
  24. Based on our experience sailing on O ships many times we definitely didn’t notice that no self serving buffet stopped transmission of the viruses. I don’t know if there’s any evidence to how this favorably compares to the other lines. But that being said, we much prefer O buffet where one is served by the staff to the self serving version on the other lines.
  25. …and I think it might be two specific reasons for that. First, any cruise in Mediterranean in November would be significantly cheaper than the similar cruise during the prime season. Second, possibly you booked this cruise when it was on one of the Oceania’s sales that also would be an indicator that the cruise wasn’t the most popular. Therefore, the price was lower than normal. So it’s not a fair comparison to the average mass market cruise price wise. Fortunately, there are many other cruise lines to choose from if you wouldn’t want to pay regular Oceania prices. I completely understand that there were some positives but also a lot of misses on your cruise. It’s interesting that another poster who was on your cruise enjoyed it and didn’t have any problems, but you didn’t like your experience that much. Not everything is always perfect for everyone on any cruise and obviously this Oceania cruise didn’t meet your expectations. As you mentioned, you would have a choice to try Oceania another time or look elsewhere.
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