Jim and Monika

We are Elite on Princess, Platinum on Carnival, 2 cruises with NCL, and coming up on our 5th with Oceania. We grew tired of Princess and started sailing Carnival. We found that a cruise is what you make of it, and carnival was an inexpensive vacation. We tried Oceania, and loved what they had to offer. The food is over the top, and all included. There are very few announcements, and no nickel and diming like the other lines. Very relaxing, and not much entertainment, we never really go to any of the shows on other lines anyway, but the bars start closing after 11 pm. We are looking forward to many more cruises on Oceania, but will still sail Carnival out of our home port when pricing is good.

They were doing the 70's and older by the pool on Rivera on our last 2 cruises. A couple phone calls to guest relations got the music into the 80's.

My take was that if they put money on both, they would win on one and convert the $50 free play to $50 cash.

Hopefully it doesn't land on 0 or 00.

I'll bite. We were Elite on Princess many years ago and felt the average age to be about 80. A few years ago we started sailing Oceania and noticed the same age average at 80. I should add we were in our 50's. The main difference with the passengers is that the on Princess most seem to have mobility issues, and Oceania very few. The Oceania passengers seem to be much more fit than on Princess. I agree with the above about being boring on Oceania with very little entertainment and bars starting to close between 11 and 12. After that, there is nothing but room service. Like any cruise, they are what you make of them and we have adjusted our expectations and enjoy Oceania. Younger adults should be able to enjoy Oceania just like everyone else, but they need to know what to expect ahead of time and make their decision on that.

Last year, before all the reduced port times, we missed St Bart's because of wind/waves. We then went to St Martin.

And here I thought they removed it from the menu because it was a slow mover...

I have found that some Casino offers are only for 1 cabin, but others allow me to add other rooms.

I have found that Oceania generally has very heavy pours if you are on the package. We have always had the package when sailing Oceania, so without it I'm not sure. Our first Oceania Cruise was a surprise as we had no idea what they were giving us as far as the pour goes. From the next day on, we ask for singles as we will be drinking throughout the day.

Wait...What Times are a changin

While against the rules, we saw several people in the Main Dinning Room with Red Wine in glasses that were not intended for Red Wine. I believe they brought them in and nothing was said.

I have to ask, did you do more than 1 booking onboard? We booked 1 and received the $300 and then got a flyer for $100 on another booking. In the past when we booked more than 1 onboard, the $300 was for the 1st and the other was only $100.

We just got off Riviera on Saturday in Miami and our flight was at 10:15 am. We had early luggage tags delivered for a 7:30 am time slot which was the same as if we carried off our own luggage. We chose to carry off our own and avoided having to find our luggage. We arrived at the airport before 8:30 am. When we sailed last year, our Uber driver to the port was unaware of the location of Terminal J, and drove around the circle. When we got off the ship last year, we were instructed to cross the street for ride share. This year the ride share is on the same side as the Taxi line. We tried to get an Uber and it seemed they were always 5 minutes out, and we believe they couldn't get to Terminal J. We ended up taking a Taxi after waiting about 10 minutes and still had plenty of time to spare.

Just wish there was a door on the smoking section, not sure why this didn't get addressed during the "upgrade".

We were on last trip as well, had a great time as usual. I did not see Cabanas, but there were some connected loungers with "visors".

On Riviera now, love Oceania, and also wish there were more food options later. But we accept and adjust to make it work. Had Pizza last night from waves and it was pretty good. The hours were 6:30 to 9:00 pm which made it a dinner choice, would rather it was open earlier or later to have before or after dinner.

It was listed on the menu above, they really don't have much Bourbon.

Haven't seen any Blantons on the ship, can't believe it would not be part of the package. It's not that expensive, just highly allocated.

She's staring us down out our window.

We would also like to know and test it out in about 4 hours.

Finding this out at the airport on our way to Miami. Sounds like a bait and switch lowering the cost of the base beverage package by $10 and putting the $10 on to the bonus part of Prestige. Booking the Olife beverage choice was a value when you do the math. When we book, we usually go with Olife and beverage package because there was value in taking the perk planning on upgrading to Prestige for $20 each. Seems like the Olife perk with beverage package is the same non value as getting onboard credit as a perk. The Olife perk cost us $600, adding the $600 for each of us to upgrade makes the liquor cost of $1,200. We have never taken advantage of bringing on our own liquor, going to the free drink parties, our the happy hours. Not sure what to do, but we will try to get the price of $20 each which was the cost when we made final payment. Other cruise lines have raised onboard perks, but they make you aware well ahead of time to take away the sticker shock. They also gave you the option to pay the old price ahead of time to be more transparent with pricing being consistent when cruise is paid in full.

We are worried about all the Southwest cancellations, we are flying to Miami on Tuesday January 4 for our cruise on Wednesday. We are afraid our flight might get cancelled last minute. We would still have time to drive, but they would have our luggage. Not sure if we should try renting a car to drive down and fly back, or just drive our own car, Not worried about the drive down, just not sure we want to drive back after our cruise.

We like going to the Nutmeg Restaurant for Rum Punch. We will be boarding on January 4th, still need to figure out how to get to Miami. All these Southwest cancellations have us worried...

I was just kiddings