osandomir

If you like crowds, a lot of noise and breakfasts cafeteria style then I can understand why you don’t give Oceania advantages over mass market big ships cruising. Otherwise, we wouldn’t put Oceania in the same league as the cruise lines that you mentioned. Onboard experience on Oceania is completely different and much more to our liking after the years we’ve cruised with them. But it’s good to have all options to satisfy all different tastes.

We never booked a cruise so close to departure. But while I don’t know the answer to your question, personally I wouldn’t think that it will work that way. Still it’ll be interesting to learn about the outcome if you inquire about it on board.

As international air prices have settled a little bit for now, there’s a chance you can do better doing your own air compared to Oceania air prices. It was already mentioned before that going to Southampton from the central London isn’t that complicated or expensive. London is so worth several days of exploring.

It would be nice if Oceania offered all these but they didn’t. That’s a reality no matter how long we discuss it here. It’s up to you to decide if you want to cruise with them again.

Don’t cancel yet. We were able to get the onboard booking discount applied to the previously booked cruises given the cabin category that we had booked was still available at the time we were on board the ship.

I’m glad you are satisfied with the outcome. It looks like we all wasted too much time on this thread.

Since you started this thread, would you mind to share how Oceania addressed your complaint? It could be helpful for others with their expectations.

I doesn’t look like the OP needs any help here to resolve the problem that caused them to email Oceania with their complaint. The question was how long they would wait for Oceania to respond. With limited details they provided I’d think it might be more time than they expected if Oceania decided that the case isn’t their priority. I guess no one on this board will be able to give them a better estimate.

If it’s your first O cruise you will have a lot more to enjoy on the ship. Have a wonderful cruise.

I’d prefer my own bathroom to any public shower anyway. We managed our cabin showers on the O ships, never needed to go to the gym to have a shower.

When anyone attempts to make a booking online I believe there’s an option to put the reservation on hold. Then Oceania will send a hold email with all the details and terms and conditions. One can proceed with the deposit after reviewing the invoice.

I believe that it’s going to be a Black Friday sale starting soon. There’s a chance that your cruise will be included with some kind of discount.

You can ask Oceania or your TA to send you Oceania guest copy invoice. The 2 credits of $50 pp should be listed under amenities.

What was the refund for? Was it from the Turkish airline or from your credit card dispute?

Are you in one of the connected cabins on Vista? You may try to talk to front desk about your issue.

And I think some people have an “issue” with themselves trying to find an excuse for not willing to tip in general. As for tipping extra, nobody is forced to do it - personal choice. No need to ask “how much is enough” and it’s not necessary to blame others for something that one chooses not to do.

…or book a tour that includes driving to the rest stop at the highest view point.

The addition of these ports in Japan looks great IMO. Personally, I wouldn’t be interested to spend time in Shanghai anyway now. Did Oceania also come up with the shore excursions for new ports?

That’s just another example how confusing and inconsistent Oceania makes the booking process and communication with their customers. Our experience is that often we need to make multiple requests through different channels to make it right with Oceania. That being said, after 15+ cruises with them we’re still getting mostly very enjoyable experience onboard.

I’m truly sorry you were disappointed as your expectations were not met. Yes, it was different in the past before Oceania introduced Grand Voyages. It’s not longer possible to separate reservations for the cruises combined in the GV. On the other hand, most likely you were booked on the cruise that normally would be cheaper than the combination of two separate cruises of the same itinerary. You need to look at the numbers - possibly you weren’t missing that much in the value of that cruise. And if nothing changes you will be able to get your Silver benefits when you book your next voyage with Oceania.

Not really, any two or more individual cruises individual cruises combined in the Grand Voyage are required double amount deposit equal two individual deposits. The better indicator is if it was only one guest invoice reservation number for two cruises or there were two separate invoices with different reservation numbers. In this case the invoices will also reflect the price reduction for booking B2B cruises.

I understand from the original post that the O Club Ambassador on the ship already explained it to them. If they had a TA he/she should be able to explain that as well at the point of booking the cruise. Anyway, everything should be reflected on the Oceania guest copy invoice.

…and would you gladly pay $40,000 price for that kind of vacation?

I just said that I never witnessed it, not saying it never happens. Based on how long people are willing to discuss the tipping protocols obviously some would feel better if they could reduce the automatic gratuities as well.

If your two B2B cruises were also listed as a single Grand Voyage then you would receive the credit for the entire cruise based on the total number of days. It would also have the same one booking number for both cruises. The deposit is also double for the single cruise if it was listed as a GV.