Carol From California

We did the pre-cruise safari through Regent when we did the Cape Town to Cape Town cruise in December, 2018. We chose Bayethe at Shamwari. It was absolutely fantastic. We paid $799/pp through Regent. It was 3 nights at the lodge, not 5. I see that prices have gone up. I would look into doing it privately as others have suggested. 

21 minutes ago, mj_holiday said:

You mentioned seeing many women that had rented kimonos to memorialize the day. Do you have any further information on what they were memorializing for the day? I also saw many women, more than I expected, in kimonos on Sunday.

We were there last year and were told that those who dress up in kimonos have free admission to various sites. We saw lots of them too.

We did the RT Tokyo last year (2023) in April. We were originally supposed to go in April, 2021 but as we all remember, that was during COVID. The itineraries were similar but not exactly the same. It was our first time to Japan and this itinerary is totally focused on Japan ports, with the exception of two port stops in South Korea. We never made it to Jeju, South Korea because of weather problems that day, so we only had one port stop in South Korea and the rest were all Japan. We did the included pre-cruise 3-days in Tokyo. We booked with a private tour guide when we were overnight in the port that accesses Kyoto. The guide is from Tours By Locals. He met us at the port at 6 am and went first on the train in to Kyoto. Then there was a private car with driver waiting (arranged by the guide), so we were able to go to a few of the best things to see in Kyoto since we could easily get from one to the other in the limited time there. We went back to the port on the bullet train all through our guide. Regent's Kyoto tour was to take a bus and then maybe see 1 or 2 of the sites. All in all we thought that it was a fabulous cruise, although there were some issues with the guides in Tokyo, and in some of the other ports that were not great. I think a lot had to do with Japan just reopening for tourism. A lot of people on the cruise were complaining, but to me I did not let it bother me. I was just happy to be there. I loved Japan!

I had my TA reprice my booked cruises and in every case my price was lower than the price I would have to pay for this promotion. If you are booking something new it may be worth it. If you have travel insurance and you had a non-refundable deposit I suppose you would collect on that, so it may be worth it for some to do this. I always book when the itineraries first come out, and I've found that has usually been the best price. However, when they had the 2-category upgrade on all cruises, I was able to reprice one of my already booked cruises and it turned out to be a little less, so I did do that. 

On 11/9/2023 at 3:28 PM, golfgirls said:

The Canopy Hilton in city Centre is far superior to the Hilton Regent(Nordica?) often includes.  Canopy is perfectly located for walking to great restaurants, Opera house, downtown, etc.  We are taking the hotel credit and staying there in July on points, hotel pricey otherwise.  

In 2019 we stayed at the Canopy Hilton and enjoyed it very much. Great location. 

We also always book F2 suites on Explorer, Splendor, and on new Grandeur. 

7 minutes ago, happy cruzer said:

What is the corkage fee now?  I assume you can still carry on a reasonable amount?  Thanks.

On the Oceania website it states you can bring 6 bottles of wine onboard and drink them in your cabin. You can pay $25 per bottle corkage fee to drink them in one of the restaurants. 

57 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

No fee if purchased on the ship or via  a TA

 

Thank you! That's what I thought but wanted to be sure.

We used to cruise on Oceania and have been cruising more on Regent lately. All wine is included on Regent. We are going on an Oceania cruise in a few weeks and I forgot how this works. If we have some wine/champagne in our cabin that was purchased by our TA, or part of being Bronze level, or part of being in a Penthouse cabin can these bottles be taken to the restaurants or is there a corkage fee?  Since this wine is not purchased off the ship is there a corkage fee to bring the wine to one of the restaurants? 

Pacific Rim.

On 5/31/2023 at 6:23 PM, HappyTravels4ever said:

Hi,

 

I am not asking (yet?!?!) for TA names, but trying to get an idea of what perks your TA might give for a $20,000 cruise. Gratuities? OBC? Other?

10% cash rebate. Receive check prior to sailing. 

14 minutes ago, DoulaAnn said:

Gbitsm thanks.  I'll email them and see what response I get.

Email me for the name and email address of the specific person at Oceania to arrange your Meet and Greet. My email address is below my signature.

15 minutes ago, DoulaAnn said:

Are you going to contact anyone at Oceania to get help with a location and munchies? If so, I'd like to know who to contact, as I may be organizing a M&G for our Vista cruise.  Can't wait to get onboard.

Yes. Email me and I will give you the info. My email address is at the bottom of my signature.

4 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

What company are you using?

https://www.twelvetransfers.co.uk/

We book our own air so get our own transfers. Our next cruise ends in Southampton and we booked a private transfer to central London. We are staying in London for three nights before flying home. I usually find it costs less to do a private transfer, and it's not on a bus with lots of people. This time we are traveling with friends so there are four of us. Last time it was just the two of us so I found another couple on Cruise Critic to split the ride and cost with. 

Thank you for posting the photos and for all the great information. Disappointed about the closet in the Penthouse. We did like the walk-in closet and read someplace that the PH would have a walk-in closet on the Vista. Then I saw the layout on Oceania's website and could see it is not a walk-in closet. 😒

Excited to be boarding in August! I am organizing our Meet and Greet. Thanks for posting this.

1 minute ago, gbits said:

I organized the Meet & Greet for the Vista cruise leaving Trieste next Saturday. I emailed the groups department (groupsOCI@oceaniacruises.com) and they got it approved for me. They will provide a segregated area for the gathering (usually, but not always, in Horizons) with servers to take drink orders and a table for name tags (that I am making and bringing myself). I had to provide a list of attendees with their cabin numbers so they can send invitations to each persons stateroom. I asked if any officers could attend and was told it will depend on availability. Kiara was very helpful. Will let you know how it goes after next Saturday. We had 52 sign up.

I did finally get through to someone at Oceania who is supposed to put me in touch with someone to get our M & G set up. I was told the arrangements will be the same as you described. Thanks for this information. We have around 24 people now and I'm sure by the time August rolls around we will have many more. Have a great cruise!

10 minutes ago, Mrs f. said:

If you are on Regatta or Nautica

Yoselin Yepez

Group Coordinator 

1-800-531-5658 ext 42114

For the other ships, I would call Yoselin's number and find out who group Coordinator is.

 

I set up our meet & greet in December 

I told them we wanted Horizons,  gave date and time and how many people roughly.

They put up a sign that said "private function "

Thank you! I left her a message. 

5 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

FWIW: we had M&Gs on Marina pre-Christmas and Regatta post-Christmas. The groups were large enough that O was contacted for a dedicated space. Officers attended. In the past, we’ve also had some M&Gs where, depending on the GM for that cruise and who was arranging the event, comp hors d’oeuvres were served.

As for your situation, it’s my understanding that Vista has an event space associated with the Culinary Center. Perhaps the $9/pp is the rental cost (and hopefully gets you some edibles). If not, you could always pick a public space, not go through O and hope for no conflicting use. After all, that’s often the case on the existing ships.

 

BTW: for as long as I can remember, the default CC M&G has been post muster/pre-restaurants opening and they’ve been held on the starboard side of Horizons across from the bar.

The $9 pp is what Regent quoted me last month. On Regent all food and drinks are included so this is what was surprising. 

I am organizing a "Meet and Greet" on an upcoming Oceania cruise. In the old days we used to contact Oceania prior to the cruise and they would tell us where we could have it and they would host it. Many of the ship officers and crew would attend. I was on a Regent cruise last month and I organized a "Meet and Greet". When I contacted Regent they said we could have it but would have to pay $9 pp. They also told us we could not have name tags. This was really surprising since on Regent all the food and alcohol is included, and why would they care if we have Cruise Critic name tags? We just went ahead and did it....but did not have name tags. Does anyone know if Oceania will host our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet on the August 4, 2023 Vista cruise? We have around 10 couples so far. Hoping someone from Oceania will read this.  

On 4/2/2023 at 5:52 PM, RachelG said:

That is the flight we are on.  And the other problem is that if we get to the airport that early, we probably won’t be able to check in with AA yet.  So we wouldn’t even be able to wait in a lounge.  I am desperately looking for options.  Everything I have found so far is already booked for the 11th.  I have emailed a couple of places and haven’t heard back yet.  Very annoying because literally every Regent cruise we have been on previously has provided some sort of tour then airport transfer for the later flights.

We are on the cruise that ends on April 25 and we are flying home from Narita. We have a late flight. I booked a transfer from the ship to the airport. When we get to the airport we will check our bags and put our carryon bags in lockers. Then we are going to venture out to the city of Nartia which is very close to the airport. https://trulytokyo.com/narita-day-trip-itinerary/

3 hours ago, fudge said:

Thank you so much for the information and the link, thats a superb site for information.

 

We are also looking at a Christmas/New year cruise Dec 21st 2024 Cape town to Cape town 15 days on the Splendor, has anyone been on this ship recently, what is she like?

Looking at a C class penthouse suite, are they nice, they look good on the virtual video.

We were on the Splendor in October. Loved it! We did the Cape Town to Cape Town holiday cruise in 2018 on the Explorer. I would not hesitate to go on the Splendor (ships are the same). I think the Splendor has a slight edge. I liked the color scheme more. We never book a Penthouse but many others do and say it's a gorgeous suite. We are perfectly happy in the Superior Suite, which is the same suite as a Concierge suite.

Thanks for sharing your recent experience on the Origin in the Galapagos. We did this trip in December, 2021. It was absolutely fantastic! Did I recommend Dennis from Guanguiltagua Expeditions to you? We used him too. We booked our own air (business class) and took the credit from SS. We went in a couple of days early and toured around with Dennis.   

My cruises are now showing again. I was able to book an excursion to replace the one that was cancelled by Oceania. I did not receive any notification about it being cancelled and heard from others who also had this happen.