babydrum

My 27 day May cruise is over $20,000 and I received PPG and refundable OBC of about $700. They did offer cash back after the cruise as an option but I thought this deal was okay.

I'm doing a 27 day Dubai to Barcelona in May. Were any of your ports canceled?

Yet they seem to do it all the time. Those explanations don't make sense to me when I see the number of complaints of missed ports and shortened port stays. It's concerning and trying to plan around it is very difficult. I only take excursions that allow me to cancel within 24 hours or that don't charge me if the ship doesn't dock. Even then, last minute changes like the one described by OP would not be covered in the cases where they require 24 hour notice.

I thought I understood it until I read your post. You bring up some good points, particularly in terms of what happens to your credit if the port is cancelled. I'm on a port intensive cruise in May that I know will probably lose at least 3 ports based on everything I'm reading. I received 1800 shore credit for both of us and I booked 4 ship shore excursions. The rest are private and I guess we'd just have to lose the credit if they cancelled the ports that I booked because I won't take a lesser tour just to use up ship credit. I assumed they would give us shipboard credit before reading your post, but it makes sense that they won't since the credit is explicitly for shore excursions.

This had me dying laughing. There are several and it is so irritating. At some point it becomes a bait and switch and the T&Cs will not provide cover but O is careful not to cross the line.

How can a passenger be responsible for a ship leaving port late? Don't they just leave with you or is this in the event of a medical emergency or something? I've heard from passengers that they have missed ports because of medical evacs. It never occurred to me that the patient might be responsible for the cost to the ship. Would trip medical insurance cover this?

We completed a 21 day Baltic and Norway cruise in May and I didn't gain 1 pound! The food was mostly awful. We are doing a 27 day O cruise in May 2024 from Dubai to Barcelona. I am going to lose 5 lbs so that I have some room to grow. Hopefully, O will be up to the challenge.

I see what you did there:)

I believe you. I honestly can't imagine it being worse. I think my expectations for HAL from my pre-COVID trip may have been a little unrealistic in these times of cost cuts and staffing shortages.

I think I may be over researching on CC running into posts with seemingly legitimate gripes. Reading too many in a row can give a distorted view the ratio of negative reviews vs positive. I know the ship looks absolutely beautiful and the itinerary is fantastic so as long as we make most of the ports, I believe I'll have a good time.

The decreasing time in port is one of my concerns mainly because I plan to do mostly outside excursions and I worry if they shave too much time off of ports like Petra where it's a long ride to the site, I might be cutting it close. I agree with you all that the food has to be better. HAL let me down on my recent cruise but I lost two lbs. on a 21 day cruise so there's a bright side! I'm looking forward to my upcoming cruise with Oceania and I plan to look to the bright side whenever I can. I guess I'm just managing expectations at this point.

I just booked a 27 day on the Riviera and I'm getting concerned about the increasingly negative comments about Oceania. This is my first cruise with them and I'm hoping it will be better than my recent HAL experience. The room was fine but the food was terrible and tendering was terrible.

Is Nationwide available for US residents? I'm looking for travel insurance and have been reading horror stories about Allanz and other insurers in terms of claims. I'd like an insurer that pays for missed ports as Oceania is known for canceling ports at the last minute and to cover my non-refundable excursion costs. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd appreciate it.

I keep hearing about Allianz and them paying a small amount for missed ports too. It's good to know they actually honor their claims. I'll check into them for so. I'm also considering AIG.

I will. I just felt like they didn't ask enough information to determine how much to charge me. Thanks.

How does annual trip insurance work vs insuring a specific trip. I just looked up a quote and it didn't ask me anything about the amount of my trip, and the cost was about 1/4 of what insuring my trip would be. Is that typical?

I'm trying to determine whether to switch to SM. I almost always do shore excursions on my own but with the SM package, I'd get $1800 in shore excursion credit so I would feel obligated to use it. When I look at the list of available shore excursions, there is a Tour Price, Simply More Shore Excursion Package, and an Unlimited option. The prices for each are different. My question is, do I get the Simply More Excursion Price if I take the SM package regardless of the # of tours I take? Also, there is a 3rd passenger who I'd have to pay for. I assume I'd have to pay the higher tour price for his excursions. Does anyone know or have a feel for this? Here is an one of the tours I'd consider under the SM. Will I pay the $269 from my shore credit for my husband and the $359 for my son? Will I get the 25% off for my son if I purchase 5 shore excursions from the cruise line or is that a thing of the past? Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to talk to him this week and get that removed.

I booked mine online and then transferred it to a travel agent and he gave me $1100 OBC. I had selected OLife $1400 OBC because I thought I had to select one and I preferred the flexibility of the OBC. There are 3 of us so we will have $1500 in gratuities so the remaining $1000 is refundable since it came from the travel agent but I'm sure we'll spend some of it. I wish I had known that I was paying for it dollar for dollar because I would have opted out. The SM offering doesn't look like a good deal for me because while it only increases the total cruise cost by another $500, it changes the $1400 OBC to $1800 shore excursion credit. I don't plan to take any shipboard excursions unless I can't find anything else so that's a deal breaker for me. I will speak with my travel agent tomorrow to make sure I am correct in my reading of the situation. Our cruise isn't until November 2024 so there will likely be other offerings.

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Some cruise lines like Azamara have made it part of the fare and you still get these threads where people insist on tipping beyond that. I think on cruise lines where it has been included as part of the fare, the crew should not be allowed to accept tips because it is bound to create a culture where tipping is expected. They have a crew fund that you can donate to instead and it benefits everyone at the end of the year. If you just have to give more money, that is the type of option that should exist not additional tipping.