Pet

Hi - Wonder if someone could clarify the OBC for a bronze member. On the Oceania Website it states that a member is entitled to USS$100 obc. However, on the invoice for our 6th Oceania cruise next month it states that myself and my wife are each entitled to $50 plus $200 each selected from the O Life choice!  I would have thought that the amount of $100 is per individual member, not per cabin and in addition to the O Life selection. Before I ask my TA appreciate others knowledgeable views?

Regards Pet😁

Hi - Doing this cruise early next month so be interested to hear your thoughts on the new ports of call especially. Also how popular this cruise is (we were on Marina in April and there were only 350 PAXs so not much atmosphere). Has the Covid rules been relaxed - I heard that they are not demanding a test 48 hours prior to embarking the ship from this month - is that right?

Many thanks

Pet 😀

We are booked on BA flights from LHR to Barcelona which MSC arranged (and return). It leaves at 06.15 and is still shown on the BA flight schedules so fingers crossed. Now that the check in staff at LHR look like they are accepting a pay offer that is one problem less to worry about. If the Cruise Company booked the flights then the chances of getting to the destination are better than doing it yourself in the currant climate. They won't want to loss customers. 

We have a family cruise booked on MSC Megalvinia next month sailing from Barcelona with flight on BA from LHR arranged by MSC. Some key staff working for BA have voted for strike action next month but have not yet fixed a date or duration. If the strike goes ahead on the day we are due to depart (or indeed arrive back in the UK)  does anyone  know if  MSC arrange alternatives, perhaps involving another airline, airport or even having to pick up the ship at the next available port and how do we get round the rule that a negative Convid test must be taken no more than 48 hours before embarkation?  We have already had this cruise cancelled three times for obvious reasons in the past three years and are using the FCC that MSC have given. However, if we don't sail this summer both the grandchildren will be over child price age and I doubt that MSC compensate for that for any future cruise certificate.

Appreciate this is hypothetical at the moment but perhaps others have experienced similar issues recently!

Many thanks

Pet

Our Marina cruise on 4 Sept is now doing two nights in Tallinn, Riga and Visby in Sweden instead of St Petersburg and Kleipeda. More or less happy with those change as they are new ports and have done St P a couple of times. Also an extra month to pay balance.

On the question of discounts I wonder if the port taxes are less in the new ports? If so we should indeed get some form of refund?

Presumably if the sanctions being imposed by Western Governments designed to terrify Putin into seeing reason include telling US owned cruise lines not to sail into Russian ports then either the lines will offer a refund or alternative venues. St Petersburg is a beautiful and interesting port of call and, in the maim, the people are friendly and welcoming. Unfortunately being under a virtual dictatorship and communist state in all but name leaves them no option but to conform.

20 hours ago, TravelMadBrits said:

Thank you ~ probably why I’m struggling to find anything to book. Will go back to the original plan of CPS and learn to be patient!! We have a boarding time of 11.45 so will arrive no earlier than 11.30am and join the queue to wait for the 12 noon opening. 

A friendly word of warning. A few years ago we drove to Southampton down the M27 to join a cruise. Unbeknown to us it was the day of the boat show; Southampton were playing at home and a well known flat pack furniture store was doing special offers. The upshot was it took over 3 hours after leaving the motorway to get to the port - fortunately the Captain was also caught in the traffic so departure was delayed! Suggest you leave plenty of time. 😊

We are joining Iona Saturday. Our e ticket and boarding passes give an arrival/embarkation time of 11.45. We will be driving our car to Southampton and parking with CPS via testing at gate 20. My question is should we aim to arrive for the test about an hour before 11.45 or is that the time you should get to the test centre?

Thanks

😊

Cool - like it! He looks like me wit his mask on!!

5 minutes ago, Cruiserjules said:

The amazing Joe was in the Theatre, and we booked via the cruise personaliser before we boarded.  The act in The Limelight Club was La Voix, and I understand it was fully booked.

The Celebration Night began with an announcement from the captain at about 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening.  We all had a voucher for a free glass of champagne.  We ate in the MDR and received a couple of pieces of whisky fudge in a presentation box, and a nice keepsake menu.

The majority of passengers embraced the dress code - one - my husband- took it further than others, and raised a few smiles.

Join Iona two weeks today so thank you for very good, timely review. I was following the ship on cruise ship tractor most days so what you were told was rubbish. Was JP in the limelight club or was some one else there? Presume people were using mobile because the P&O apt in on it to book various things. How was formal night?

Many thanks

😀

I need to buy travel insurance soon to cover a week staycation on Iona. All the online sites I tried seem to ask where you are going to travel to, such as which European country or World wide - there is no provision to put in "nowhere"! So is the best thing to do say Europe or France even though the ship isn't supposed to stop anywhere during the cruise? 

Thanks😁

Had an email from Oceania this morning advising that our cruise on Rivera departing 26 September round Western Meditterrean  has been cancelled. Deposit will be refunded. No offer of FCC instead. Similar cruise in Sept 2022 suggested but it will cost another £1,000pp so will wait and see what next year brings before booking again.

😪  

We have a cruise booked on Seaview round the Med in late July but it now seems the ship will deploy to northern Europe or Baltic at that time. So the question is will we be required to rebook another ship staying in the Med or have the opportunity to stay with Seaview on its northern route? Looking at our booking on the MSC site we have been moved to early June which is no us as the kids will be at school. Hopefully clarification will be forthcoming shortly!

I may have missed it in the deluge of comments today - but I am not entirely clear whether the 25% FCC is 25% of the total price of the cruise that P&O have now cancelled, or 25% of the amount paid to date i.e the 5% deposit. If the latter then it is hardly worth worrying about, but if the former then that's over a grand in our case which I assume can be used to book one of the trips round the UK when they come on stream?

🤪

We had to pay £80 each for a Yellow Fever jab and vaccine passport in order to cruise to South America in 2019. This vaccination and the Oxford/AZ vaccine I had a couple of weeks ago are shown on my on line medical records which I can easily access and print off if I needed to. Whether this would be consider "proof" that I received the Covid jabs is debatable.

One thing for sure though is if HMG or any other body come up with a vaccine passport then the criminal fraternity across the world will be churning out fake versions for sale to anyone who wants them.

A hypothetical question right now I know, but is it possible that P&O (which serve a predominately UK based clientele) may consider resuming cruises round all or part of Britain only assuming sufficient UK Gov Covid 19 protocol's are in place by the early summer? What I could envisage is that some ships, especially Iona which is scheduled to undertake one week cruises to Norway, could, if it is  not possible to meet the requirements of the Norwegian Government at that time, instead visit some UK ports, where presumably guests could go ashore and wouldn't be travelling outside the UK at all. Probably wouldn't make for the ideal cruise holiday, but after well over a year of going nowhere anything would be better than nothing IMHO. 

Hi – Regarding Oceania UK’s policy on refund of deposits when the customer cancels the cruise before the Company does so this year.

I had two identical cruises booked with them for 2020, using different TA’s, and cancelled both before the balances were due. Although it has taken some months, I received the full amount of the deposit paid in one case direct from Oceania, but the other refund, which came via the TA, has been reduced by £400 with no explanation. I appreciate Oceania T&Cs state an admin fee of £200pp will be charged when the client cancels before the balance is due, but don’t understand why it was applied on one booking but not the other. The only thing I can think of is that the TA has kept this amount as their admin charge, not Oceania.

Has any UK customer had this experience recently?

 Thank you

12 hours ago, Medeba said:

That's good news.  Has your TA confirmed in writing that they have cancelled your cruise?  Only asking as your 121 day deadline is fast approaching.

Hi - Extract from TAs letter seems to make it pretty clear.

Your cruise operator is in the process of refunding you directly the monies you have paid, removing the need for us to process this and therefore reducing the time this takes to complete. We have been advised that this will be done within 90 days of the cancellation of your reservation.

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

You should not have had to ask

 Your TA was WRONG

You and ORV are perfectly correct of course.

The slightly worrying thing is that not everyone has access to CC so how many people take the reply from the TA at face value and either forfeit their money or rebook something that might not be entirely suitable for them? We had initially looked at Marina's Nov 2021 trans-Atlantic cruise but the main issues were that it isn't going to the Bahamas, nor was it offered as O Life Ultimate, so would have cost much more overall than the 2020 equivalent cruise when we booked it even though the brochure price is roughly the same. 

On 7/19/2020 at 10:52 AM, Medeba said:

Pet. I've just had another thought.  You need to check with your TA if they are saying you will lose your deposit because of their T&Cs and not Oceania's.  As you are probably aware from reading posts from UK cruisers, UK TAs have their own T&Cs which often state that you lose your deposit if you cancel your holiday.  This was the case with me but my TA refunded my deposit anyway.  That may be why they are offering to transfer your deposit to another cruise.  That's a very hard line to take under the current situation but they may be just mis-interpreting Oceania's T&Cs.  I hope that is the case for you.

TA has now responded saying that I was right that a full refund of the deposit should apply under the T&Cs and that they will contact Oceania to arrange it. So no money back yet of course but looks like a positive result so will hopefully be able to book a cruise with them next year once things are clearer. Just goes to show if you don't ask you won't get! 

3 hours ago, Glenndale said:

Yes, I think the TA's T&Cs could be different to Oceania's.

 

Thanks again . The TAs T&C regarding cancellation simply refer to the appropriate  Cruise Company's policy, which I set out above in 788. Armed with your advice I have written back, copied to Oceania,. If that doesn't get the desired result I will go direct to Oceania 

Thanks for advice guys. Just to clarify further:

The booking summary provided by the TA when we booked in February which is on Oceania headed paper,  entitled Guest Cancellation Schedule states that "The following cancellation charges will be assessed for all cancellations  received prior to departure up to the scheduled time of departure.

     121 days or more prior to departure              0% of full fare

      120 - 91 days prior to departure  24 July - 22 Aug 20    £200 pp"

We are booked in a PH3 suite and the cruise duration is 16 days. No mention is made of loss of total deposit anywhere in the documents sent by the TA. When we booked we were required to send the deposit direct to Oceania account by the TA and the transaction statement shows that was what happened, so I don't think the TA has access to the monies paid to date. Not sure that changes the position.

HI - Grateful for advice, especially fellow UK Oceania cruisers who seem to have been in a similar position. Booked on Marina's cruise on 21 Nov from Europe to USA but have today advised my Travel Agent that I wish to cancel before the 121 days before departure stated in the T&Cs which I read to show that at worse £200 pp would be taken from our deposit for admin charges. However the TA suggests that the whole deposit would be lost if I cancel now, This doesn't seem to be the outcome for other  members who have cancelled prior to the stated 121 days minimum. The TA suggests transferring the deposit to another Oceania cruise but that doesn't appear very practical in the foreseeable future or would it be best to ask for a FCC?

Email from TA below:

Thank you for your email.
Oceania have not cancelled your cruise at this current time and therefore if you wish to cancel the cruise, you would lose you deposit in total.
I would suggest you wait until nearer your balance due date 16/08/20, to see if they have made any further updates or cancelled the cruise and therefore they may offer you a cash refund but only if Oceania cruises have cancelled the cruise.
If Oceania do not cancel your cruise by the 16/08/20, I can look into transferring the cruise to a another ship and sail date to ensure you do not lose your deposit.
Many thanks

Thank you for the logical reasons for Marina's voyage to Europe. We are booked on her TA in November but I doubt if it will take place for the reasons expressed by Flatbush Flyer above. I have every respect for his/her views but sadly both here and in the USA there is a minority who believe there views on whatever subject is important to them need to be expressed through large gatherings which in the main ignore the possible repercussions to the majority.