osandomir

Yes, as I remember now it did happen to us even more than once. Last time it was Oceania booked PE flight with a short connection in Frankfurt last year. But as you mentioned not everyone had made it before the flight departed after the delay.

A lot has changed since 2022. We often book an air with miles and I need to have the same amount of miles and even more now for international PE that I used to redeem for BZ class couple years ago.

Never say never… it doesn’t happen all the time but did happen to us. We were the only ones on the delayed connected flight and were allowed to board the plane even after the gates had been closed. Were flying in BZ class if that matters.

Some years ago on the Asian cruise it was arranged for local bank representatives to come on board so we could get local currency before going ashore. They also were there to exchange it back prior to departure. Though, it probably was before the credit cards started to be accepted everywhere.

Unfortunately this happened often on the group tour. If that I find it difficult to be patient and keep myself from reacting strongly against those people. We always appreciate when the tour guide constantly reminding everybody to stay on schedule.

Maybe we got lucky but we have never met that person on the Oceania ship. Though I wouldn’t be upset with the way how others spend their money.

It’s not like requesting a specific table. But we often asked to be seated with the particular server and almost always it was granted.

Your observations are all spot on. We’re on the cruise leaving from Tokyo in February, 2025. I already have our one way air to Osaka booked. We are also planning to spend 10 days in Japan pre-cruise on our own taking the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo to board the ship. But unfortunately, a lot of people don’t feel comfortable to book anything themselves and leave it to the cruise line to make all the arrangements. And there’s also nothing wrong with that because everyone should do whatever suits them best.

I think that embarkation with the luggage in hand is not a best time for a glass of anything. When we started to cruise on Oceania I found the absence of the cheap sparkling wine greeting to be a class indicator in a good way. As for the late room access, we tend to board the ship later in the day which allows us to explore on land more, so normally we are able to avoid this problem altogether. Though, I understand that some people want to embark early to start their cruise vacation as soon as possible. Maybe a glass of champagne at that time is important for some too.

Oceania will be offering free pre-cruise hotel stays on select cruises. Book starting April 1st. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oceania-cruises-offers-free-pre-cruise-hotel-stay-on-a-range-of-sailings-in-2024-and-2025-302098868.html

Is it necessary to question the small details of every single statement? For me it’s not critical for the subject of this thread.

And for us the food on Oceania or any other cruise ship has never been the best. You are right that the tastes are different and it depends on what you compare it to. We had much better meals on land back home and all over the world, but I wouldn’t call Oceania dining just acceptable even recently. And most people still don’t find it so bad. Maybe your experience was different. I responded to the other post trying to provide a balanced input.

Pay attention to the sales. We converted one of our cruises. With the sale discount plus the wine included in the price it was definitely less than what we paid when we first booked that cruise.

You follow this board closely so you probably noticed that more people rated Oceania food as good overall, definitely not awful. We always found it enjoyable. Probably not “the best” - it never was. With some choices better than others but still very good so we always were able to find something that we liked.

That’s correct, but even with the record locator PNR that Oceania normally provides when they send the flight schedule one can go to the airline website to see if the tickets are on hold (on request) or the ticket numbers are there. So the record locator normally is sufficient to see reserved flights and then the ticket numbers will be visible when the flights get ticketed. Some airlines allow to choose the seats even before the actual ticketing but others don’t.

Depends on the airline normally you can see the status of your flights online. Don’t call Oceania customer service. If it’s not ticketed by Monday call your TA (assuming you have one) and have them call Oceania air department to request the flights to be ticketed now.

It’s great that your TA took responsibility to make it right for you.

I found nothing bad about Oceania itself in this review. It only shows that the 70+ age reviewer was never taught about being kind to other people in general. I wouldn’t want to meet this person on the ship or anywhere else.

Since you booked through TA it’s their responsibility to find out with Oceania what happened. At the very least they should have a cancellation invoice from Oceania. If your TA can’t prove that cancellation was submitted and processed correctly and get your deposit refunded, then they are responsible for your loss. In this case all you can do is dispute this charge with the travel agency. That being said, I myself always make sure that I have all cancellation emails for the cruise and also for any travel arrangements that I canceled.

Some people find it more convenient to take a taxi than travel on the metro or bus in the unfamiliar city. To each their own…

I’d ask to talk to the chef directly. It looks like your complains were not communicated to the kitchen at all. I’m not sure about Viking, but on Oceania when I had a problem with the food a quick talk to the chef was enough and all my food was served to my liking after that.

We haven’t ever cruised on Viking, so I can’t comment there. But I’m curious why had you suffer from that salty food for so long. Did you try to talk to the chef? If so, did it make a difference or there was no chance for improvement.

Some people can’t see the difference between Oceania and Princess, HAL, Celebrity, etc… Then paying more for Oceania doesn’t make sense when they can sail and enjoy their cruise on the other lines for less. We also started cruising on the big ships long time ago. Since we booked our first Oceania cruise in 2012 we had no desire to go back to those cruise lines again.

My post wasn’t about the general dissatisfaction with the line. No one would be satisfied with for whatever reason missed port. But for most of the people, us included, that’s not enough to abandon Oceania and miss otherwise very good experience onboard. I just said that refund of taxes and port charges wouldn’t affect the dissatisfaction with the skipped port, not that it would influence the decision to sail with them one way or another, at least not for us.

I suspect that even if they’re returned no amount of taxes and port charges would affect customer dissatisfaction with the excessive port cancellations and poor communication on the Oceania part. That amount is really insignificant in comparison with the messing up of the travel experience.