cruiserchuck

We stopped in Marseille last November on an O cruise on Riviera.  We had trouble finding a tour we wanted to do, but the day before we discovered a food tour with the No Diet Club that had great reviews, and offered a senior discount.  We booked it, and took the free ship shuttle into Marseille, and were dropped off about a five minute walk from where the tour started.

It was a great tour.  We learned a lot, saw a lot, and of course ate a lot.  There were two other O passengers on the tour - both were performers onboard.  We were able to catch the last free shuttle back to the ship.  It was a great day, and only cost 50 euros per person.

51 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

Those prices don’t exist anymore. At least not for Europe. But yes, anything under $450-500 on Explora I would book.

There are two Explora Europe cruises in November 2024 with rates less than $400 US per person per day.  They are also offering a significant amount of OBC on those cruises.

Really glad everything worked out.  

6 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

::ponders::  Have you contacted O directly, or is this all what the TA said O said?

Since there is a TA involved, I do not believe O will directly deal with the pax.

8 minutes ago, Noggins said:

Just to pass on what others have reported here - apparently Moet couldn't make enough to keep up with onboard consumption (no, don't look at me....). Obviously it had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with cost.

Call me a champagne philistine but I don't think the change will mar your experience one jot.

🥂🍾

My local Costco sells Moet & Chandon champagne.  If Moet can produce enough to supply Costco, I am confident that they can produce enough to supply one small cruise ship.

This appears to be an issue with the TA, not with O.  I would be surprised if a credit card dispute is successful here.  

I recently cruised on NCL, and they did refund (via nonrefundable OBC) port taxes/fees for a missed port.  Oceania is one of the few cruise lines that does not breakout port taxes/fees in their advertised pricing.  

3 hours ago, SATaxman said:

What percentage of increase does this represent?

On the more expensive cruise, the NY Sale price was approximately 33% lower than the current price.  The lower priced cruise was not listed as part of the NY sale, but many online booking sites had it listed for approximately 31% off the current price.  The lower priced cruise is included on the list of cruises eligible for the Oceania Club 10% discount.  

The online booking sites I have looked at now all show the higher prices.    

16 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Doesn't appear to have a name, just an "Up to40% off" on 30 cruises:

Yesterday there were 88 cruises listed under the New Year's sale.  I had been watching two cruises on Vista - one went up $2,000 per person for an A2 cabin, and the other one went up $1,100 per person for an A2 cabin. 

1 hour ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Are there still actual computers on the lounges?

Yes, there was one desktop computer in the concierge lounge on Riviera last November.

25 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

As of 1 hour ago, the machine in the concierge lounge on Marina had espresso, Cappuccino, lattes and Americano both caffeinated and decaf, the snacks were just fine.  

 

I suspect this "report" should be taken with a grain of salt.

Here is a picture of the machine that I found online.  It is apparently from 2018, but it looks like the machine that was there last November.  There is no button on the machine for espresso.  If it dispensed espresso, then it was too complicated for me to figure out.  🤔

 I was on Riviera last November, and never got my coffee in the lounge, since the machine did not have espresso.  The snacks there did not look that good either.  Instead, I would go to Baristas, where I really enjoyed the espresso and snacks.  We did use the computer and printer in the lounge, since we unexpectedly had to print a number of pages.

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Delta, they not only refunded all of our miles (they would have likely done this in any case) but also decided to refund all the fees/taxes to our credit card (they had no obligation to do this).  

We just booked economy award travel with American, and they allow you to cancel the tickets at any time prior to departure, and with no charge will reinstate the miles and refund the fees/taxes.  I believe Delta's policy is similar for flights departing from the US.

13 hours ago, dock said:

@clo, would you pls share some Food stops in Istanbul, if that’s allowed. TY 

We were in Istanbul last November and had a great lunch at Kikirik Restaurant.  They serve traditional Turkish food.  One dish we tried was called Perde Pilaf, which was made of chicken, rice, almonds and spices in a puff pastry crust.  It was outstanding - we thought the puff pastry was better than the puff pastry fish dish served onboard in Jacques.  The restaurant is about a five minute walk from Galataport.

I suspect Riviera is taking the long way to Rome to avoid the Red Sea/Suez Canal.  Other cruise lines have made similar changes.

I am confident that there will be another sale starting March 1.  I noticed that within the last few days, the Oceania ads on CruiseCritic now say up to 40% off, not up to 50% off like they diid before.  Oceania's website now also states up to 40% off.  The prices for several cruises I am watching have not changed.

I was looking at a cruise on Edge earlier today on Celebrity's website.  After selecting a cabin, there was a section about selecting your dining preference.  It indicated that anytime dining was not available, and offered me a choice of dining at 6:00 pm or 8:30 pm.  

9 hours ago, ppanyan said:

I see that the Concierge cabins on Vista are listed as being 291 square feet with a 27 square foot veranda.  Do you know if the 291 square feet includes the veranda or excludes the veranda.  Different cruise lines include or exclude the veranda from the cabin square foot size even when they list the veranda size separately.

291 square feet includes the veranda.  

11 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Definite possibility! I did catch a different type of error on the same website a few weeks ago; after I asked my TA about what the sale meant (some sort of "BOGO" but it was appearing on various unrelated brands), it disappeared.

Are you seeing the prices in post 57? I'm interested to see if they are legit but don't want to bug my TA. Like I said...just paying attention to see if my cruises go on sale, plus it's a fun distraction 🍸

Yes, I am seeing the $3,849 for B3 and $5,099 for PH3 on several travel agent sites.  I believe this is the same price I saw yesterday when I tried to select a cabin at the $1,600 rate.   

4 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Today there is a Marina veranda, July 10 night in the Baltics for $1600. The only jaw-dropper in today's search.

I saw that yesterday, but it appeared to be an error.  When I tried to select a cabin, the price was way higher.  Plus, the price for cabins always seems to end in 99 (or 49 occasionally), so the 00 ending seemed weird/wrong.

We have T-Mobile, and were always able to get a signal while docked, and usually got a signal for about an hour or so after the ship left port.

I am curious about what happened with the folks that did not take the Middle East cruises, and tried to do a charge back with their credit card company due to the itinerary changes.  I wonder if they were successful in getting their money back.

We were on Riviera last November, and had a great time.  Our only previous O cruise was on Marina about 9 years ago.  We enjoyed our recent cruise more than our first cruise.  We booked the Cape Town to Singapore cruise yesterday.  

8 minutes ago, clo said:

Not at all answering you. But would you be satisfied with 12 reservations for your trip?

Yes, I would be satisfied with 12.  On my recent 10 day cruise, I was not able to get any extra reservations, even though I went to the reservation desk every morning.

I was interested in information about the advance reservations to help me determine if it was worth upgrading to Concierge to be able to make reservations earlier.  If all Concierge and below cabins can only make 4 advance reservations, then I feel there is no need to pay more upfront to be able to make reservations 15 days earlier.

Thanks for the information.  I just looked again at the email from the Oceania rep, and it stated I would get three reservations per restaurant, but did not mention how many could be made in advance.  During my call, I had asked about how many reservations I would get in advance, and she told me she needed to look it up.  So she may have answered a different question than I asked.