cruiserchuck

You can also just ask for the cruise price to be reduced by the value of the onboard credit. This is what I did on my recent booking. I did not know this was possible until my TA advised me that I could do this.

Many/most of them are 6 night cruises. Kind of an unusual schedule.

I have received Blue Chip Club email “offers” two days in a row now that contained no offer. It said to use the promo code below, but there was no promo code. There was a link to choose a cruise, but when I clicked on it, I landed on a page that stated the offer had expired. Is anybody else getting these non-offer emails?

Cruises sometimes go down in price right after final payment is due. I once waited for an upcoming 4th of July sale, and the sale price was higher than the prior price.

I suspect it will not be a low occupancy cruise, but instead a cruise where there are big discounts offered to fill the ship.

I would suspect Oceania is satisfied with their decision to skip the stops in Portugal. They have stated they were worried the ship would get stuck in Portugal due to strikes. By avoiding Portugal, they avoided the risk. With 20/20 hindsight, it appears they could have made the stops, but they had to make the decisions in real time, which they did. It seems to me that Oceania has explained the decision as much as they need to/are going to. Missing ports is always a risk of traveling by cruise ship, and the terms and conditions passengers agree to allow Oceania to skip ports as they deem necessary.

Maybe they did not have any fresh pomegranate onboard.

Like many folks today, I use my iPhone for chronology.

In the 1960s - 70s in Southern California, folks used to refer to flip flops by a name that would now be considered an ethnic slur.

When we did a Seattle to Seattle cruise (on a different cruise line,) we did an outside passage, and the seas were very rough. I believe cruises from Vancouver do an inside passage, and the seas should be calmer.

I think they would frown on wearing the new meaning of thongs in the dining room. I did see a gentleman wearing shorts in Blu at dinner on a recent cruise.

On NCL, you have to pay about $25 per day per person for gratuities on the "free" drinks and speciality restaurant meals. Hopefully Oceania will not adopt this practice.

We have done it before, but not in Athens. The ship has to be cleared by the local authorities before any passengers can leave the ship on the first day, so there should be no problem departing for good on that day.

I read on other threads that there were many strikes in Portugal last month. I assume those impacted the cruise.

I suspect Guest Services also will have no information on why the stateroom was changed.

The app is showing the old policy that was in effect prior to the change earlier this year.

According to Celebrity's website, the Southbound Glacier cruises from Seward are scheduled to depart at 7:00 pm.

We have only done one cruise since the startup (Solstice last April), and thought things were great. We did not notice any differences from pre-Covid cruises. We were in Aqua, and service was slow at dinner the second night in Blu (our first night there since we went to Le Petite Cafe the first night.) We spoke with the Maitre D, who apologized, and advised us that we were on the first full cruise since startup, and he had many new waiters. He told us he would try to seat us with his best waitress going forward, which he did. Service was great the rest of the cruise. We enjoyed the food in Blu and the MDR for lunch. The new Clean Cuisine items in Blu were very tasty. On the last two nights, the filet mignons we ordered were probably the best steaks we ever had on a cruise. We thought the food quality and variety in the buffet was also as good as ever.

So your room was never cleaned? If it was cleaned, then your room attendant was existent. I generally prefer it when the room attendant does not interfere with our schedule, and cleans the room when we are out.

I would also be pissed. If they promise it, they should deliver it. On my only cruise in a suite, we got to the ship early so we could have lunch in Luminae. When we arrived, we were told it was closed , since they were installing new furniture that day. We were not happy. Back in the day, we used to enjoy going to Bistro on Five on embarkation day for a nice, leisurely lunch. We are not big fans of going to the crowded buffet on embarkation day.

A guarantee is often much less expensive. When I booked one, it was about $1,000 per person cheaper. For this special mentioned earlier this week, the veranda guarantee was $999 per person, and the cheapest assigned veranda category was over $2,500 per person. The guarantees sold out quickly.

It was my TA who told me not to worry about booking a guarantee, since he could move me to a different cabin if I did not like the cabin I was assigned to. He successfully moved me after my initial cabin was assigned.

In 2018, we had a group of 10 on Millennium in Blu. They sat us at the round table just to the right of the entrance door. The back part of the table had a couch, while the front of the table had chairs. It was tight for 10, but 9 should/could fit somewhat comfortably. Since it was a round table, we did not have to speak extra loud for others at the table to hear us, so hopefully we did not disturb other passengers.

One agent recently offered insurance, but it excluded those 65 and over. Some policies also do not provide much coverage. I am always surprised when I do price comparisons how little coverage some policies offer compared to similarly priced policies.

I recently received an email from Oceania promoting a 20% discount for Oceania Club members on certain cruises. It is unclear what starting price is used for the discount to be applied to, and whether this offer is combinable with other offers. Has anyone been able to use this offer in combination with other current offers from Oceania?