Back from our cruise. The Zoot Suit with hat was a great hit! DH got many compliments. 

We'll be on the Whisper. The Jim Carey pic is close but the suit is a subtle black stripe with matching vest (more buttons and longer than a waistcoat) with red/black handkerchief and tie. Black hat - no feather. Elegant and eye-catching for sure. Sounds like the vest won't be enough unless the crew is French and speaks fashion ~~~~~~~~

Oh, the vest is part of the zoot suit so will be along anyway. He's hoping said vest would work for after dinner in the public spaces, too. 

He'll wear his spats, too! The outfit was a must swing dancing at the Avalon Ballroom on Catalina Island.

On informal nights, would it be OK for a man to wear a suit vest as a jacket? The word “vest” was originally a French term “veste,” meaning either jacket or sport coat. My husband is packing a zoot suit for formal nights and separating the slacks or coat to wear separately does not work. He REALLY wants to wear his zoot suit, and prefers not to bring another jacket. Thoughts?

19 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

I dug out one of my catalogs (the 2023 Europe and North America was handy), and found the following under Stateroom Amenities (p. 87):

"King size bed (cannot be converted into twin beds) for Owner's, Vista, and Oceania Suites on board Marina, Riviera, & Vista and queen-size bed for all other suites and staterooms ...""

Pretty sure O has not changes bed sizes. Sadly, the fact that one cannot have 2 beds in a suite means we will never book a suite. We will happily settle for a verandah cabin

Before the cruise, yes, I always use our TA. But we have our air booked via SS and it seems to me that when problems arise with flights that SS should take the lead in resolving the situation. I do not expect any TA to stay vigilant 24/7 especially concerning return flights when changes or cancelations can arise at any time. Still of issue is that SS sent this message to our 'alternate' email address.

SS sent this message to our 'alternate' email address. This should go to our primary address, right?

Anyway, sounds like SS wants to go through our TA if flights go awry.

Dear Esteemed Guest,

As you are probably aware, airlines are currently experiencing an unprecedented number of flight disruptions as they deal with staffing shortages, bad weather and increased travel demand.

We understand how these challenges can impact our guests' air arrangements, and wish to assure you that our dedicated Silver Sky Air Concierge team is diligently working each day to find solutions for those guests who may experience a flight change or cancellation.

In these instances, we always strive to fulfill our guests' preferences with the same or similar flights. Unfortunately, this is not always possible due to the close-in nature of the changes and cancellations, as well as the high costs the airlines very often impose with little to no price protection being offered.

To minimize any possible disappointment, we urge you and your travel advisor to closely monitor your flight reservations. If you encounter changes or cancellations and wish to inquire about alternate flights, please have your travel professional contact our Silver Sky Air Concierge team to review options. Please note that special requests or deviations may incur airfare differential charges.

We appreciate your understanding, and look forward to welcoming you on board.

Sincerely,
Silversea Cruises

9 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

How long was the cruise you booked??

 Usually 15 days +  the  penalty  period is  180 days

20 days

We booked a cruise yesterday and the deposit was $500 pp. However, they increased from 120 days to 180 days when their administrative fee of $500 for any cancellations goes into effect.   

We just found out the SS is not offering any air on our cruise from Brisbane to Singapore, so we're on our own. We really want the safety net that comes with SS booking the fights. Business Class air is showing at ~ $8300 pp. Sadly, we're really considering canceling the cruise that we booked over a year ago.

There's an interesting article in our local newspaper today about Ecuador. Here's a part of it.

"If all had gone as planned, I would have toured a farm and vineyard in the mountains east of Quito, Ecuador, yesterday, and dined last night at a lakeside place called Nuum Gastronomia, whose Instagram page — full of indigenous Andean ingredients, treated in gastronomic ways — is as exciting as anything I’m seeing stateside. Tonight, I’d be leaving my loft in the historic heart of Quito to eat at another place called Quitu Identidad Culinaria, which might be the most cutting-edge restaurant in all of Latin America.

None of that is happening, though.

A nationwide strike — led by Indigenous activists calling for cheaper gas, food, healthcare, and more — continues to grip Ecuador, primarily in the capital of Quito and the nearby mountain communities. Having now watched hours of live footage of the protests and read every report I can find in both English and Spanish, from mainstream sources to social media — all in an attempt to determine whether I should still go to Quito with my 12-year-old son in tow — I’ve become a bit of a minor expert on the politics of Ecuador.

In short, the strike, which seems to largely be about inflation, is causing roadblocks that are restricting the flow of goods and services in unpredictable ways. It’s also led to the deaths of both protestors (who get hit by tear-gas canisters) and government forces, whose convoys and offices have been attacked and burned. Cabbies and buses are being stopped in the street, tires slashed, in an effort to force the shutdown. Underlying it all is a simmering anti colonialist sentiment that continues to rise in South America and across the globe, so many of the battle lines are being carved around perceived race, wealth, and upbringing as well.

While there is large left-wing support for the Indigenous movement, many Quito residents — and much of Ecuador at large — seems ready to go back to work and generate income. Over the weekend, the increasingly unpopular center-right president lowered gas prices, ended a sort of martial law that had been going on for weeks, and briefly agreed to talk.

But those talks ended on Tuesday less than two days after they started. The protests fired up again, with allegations of abuse coming for all sides."

58 minutes ago, Guest said:

Thank you. Do you happen to know if the martini’ s are a good size ship wide or would a person find then a little on the small size?

We found the Happy Hour 2 for 1 drinks were small - to -normal size, but the regular bar martinis were a good size. 

Greetings!

SS sent an email about a canceled excursion. I had to figure out which one then look at second choice options. I reserved one 'select' excursion and an overlapping 'included' excursion that is waitlisted. 

Seems odd that I can reserve overlapping excursions.

Is there a way to make sure SS knows we want the waitlisted excursion and that the 'select' excursion is a far behind second choice. Would you explain how this waitlisted thing works especially with overlapping tours, and how to know how many are on this waitlist - you know, the usual sensible questions.

Oh, the one we really want that is waitlisted is an 'included' excursion and the second choice is a 'select' excursion. Would SS keep us on the  'select' excursion to collect more money from us? I hope not.

We really appreciate learning about SS and are super excited to sail this summer.

Our cruise was canceled by O on 1/4 - no refund yet. I just got this message from our TA:

"No response from my email to O, so I called O directly.  Refunds take 45-60 days..... due to the high # of refunds they are processing.  So, they said if you don't see in 60 days, them please call them back ---"

7 minutes ago, cruisingxpert said:

If the O policy mimics what NCL has posted it looks like you can use the FCC for an existing booking.

Norwegian's Peace of Mind | Norwegian's Commitment to Our Guests | Norwegian Cruise Line (ncl.com)

"Can I make a new booking before I receive the future cruise credit for a cancelled booking?

Absolutely. However, for FCCs associated with the Peace of Mind policy, the FCC must be first generated and attached to the guest profile before it can be added to a reservation. It can then be applied to any new or existing reservation or group booking."

Oh, good. I was wondering about this. At this point I would much rather apply any FCC to an existing booking. Actually, I would rather get a full refund but we'll see what happens.

5 hours ago, Jockocruiser said:

@goletans pasted this on several Marina roll calls.  In the interest of simplicity, perhaps we can consolidate the impact of Oceania and information (or lack thereof) on this thread?  Mods?

 

I talked to 2 O reservation agents just before 7pm ET closing time Monday 27Dec, and neither claimed to have heard anything from a traveler  or received any notice from the company.

 

First question: where is the source of the information that this is an official announcement of the Brazil government?  ie: Let’s not confuse the O situation with Silverseas info.

 

Second question - if you are on other segments now what?  There are at least three segments that contain Brazil, all starting with the 28Jan2022 Marina rotation

Consolidating here is fine - makes life easier. In past years we only followed our roll calls so would not get news on this Oceania board, but posting on the affected roll calls that information is here is really helpful Thank you! 

We don't see anything new nor official from Brazil regarding cruisers. We don't see that Silversea has given any official details to their clients either. We made our final payment last week so we still hope this cruise will be a go. If not, we have the 2023 cruise in our back pocket. 

I just saw this post on Silversea. This does not bode well for our South America O cruise in February.

Even more reasons to love "O"!!

Interestingly, our flight schedule las two legs with United. I have my reservation # and confirmation # and on UA's website found that O has assigned us two seats. I am able to change and upgrade these seats online, paying for the upgraded seats. This puzzles me because O has not ticketed the flights. The United rep I spoke to confirmed that I could change and purchase seats AND that the flights were not "properly" ticketed. I take this to mean that the flights are on hold with O and the ticketing has not been completed. Since it is very possible that there will be schedule changes, it would not be smart for me to change/upgrade seats now as we are still four months out from sailing. Puzzled about why the chance to pay for seats on this unticketed flight is even possible.

With fear and trepidation I opened today's email from our TA titled, "I was wrong" "The $50 is not a penalty to use a new credit card, it was a further deposit on the booking to establish the new credit card in the booking prior to the air desk charging the $350." So that is cleared up. Here's a bit of other related and not surprising news from Oceania: "With regards to the tickets please note that due to Covid-19 situation and due to the constant flight cancellations and schedule changes, we issue tickets at 30 days or less before sailing." 

2 hours ago, ORV said:

Say what now? When did this start? I've paid using different cards on the same cruise for various reasons over the years. 

 

From your understanding is this an Oceania policy or the Travel Agency you're using? 

That was my reaction. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!  Our TA said this is O's policy. I've never had this issue before with changing cards. I'll do so to get more rewards that change on various cards from time to time. We were told that the only way to get the new card into their system, so that we could request that card be charged for custom air, was to pay $50.

Maybe Jancruz can shed some light on this.

We'll manage getting to LAX as we've done in the past. It's just extremely frustrated with all the mixed communication we received from various people at Oceania. So, we bought the custom air and paid $50 to change the credit card on file. Yep, there's a fee for that, too.

Today we are told that SBA is not an option even if we paid $199 pp. O's air contracts are changing and they do not have a contract for South America that allows Santa Barbara. Adding that segment ourselves becomes a luggage nightmare. Sigh. Our TA and I spent hours settling on our desired schedule to find out O could not consider our request after all.

This is what I have learned. Oceania will search for a client's preferred flight to include some components of the itinerary - airlines, stops, cities, travel days. I pay $175 pp immediately if O finds flights that meet my request. However, the search is limited to O's Air Gateways. Because I want to use SBA, I must pay an additional $199 pp (dues at final payment) and O will search for flights that use SBA. O knows that smaller airports run higher, so add the $199 to cover that expense. That $199 does not show up in the airfare differential. Why? I have no idea. Bottom line is that if I want O's custom air I pay $374 pp