MarkWiltonM

We were in 8015, pretty far forward on the starboard side. We could not hear our guests on either side of us, and we have very good hearing.

I get daily emails from Celebrity touting their "semi-annual sale." I imagine that means the first six months of the year, to be replaced by the other "semi-annual sale" which will run for the last six months of the year. Not literally, but sort of. If it's always a sale it's never a sale, of course. And yet, prices do change. I suppose this is based on changes in the "full fare" so that the amount of the discount is consistent. We have found that in some cases, it's much less expensive to book when new itineraries are first released. We usually do this as a refundable-deposit fare because the sail dates are so far out. But usually within six to mine months the current fares for a non-refundable deposit are often more than our refundable-deposit fare. However, in some cases we have seen very high fares as soon as itineraries were released, so it all depends. And it doesn't seem to matter if it's a new ship or not. For example, we got a very reasonable fare on Ascent when fares first opened up for the brand new ship. We got a refundable-deposit Sunset Veranda for $178.50 per person with a $200 OBC per stateroom. We recently booked another SV on Ascent for April 2026 and the refundable-deposit fare is $226.50 per person. This was, again, when the itineraries were first released.

Having been on all three classes of Oceania's ships, I think anyone who crosses off the Vista (and/or Allura) because of reports of thin walls will miss a wonderful cruise ship experience. These ships are a real step up for Oceania, in my opinion. We had such a good time on Vista in December and we will greatly favor booking Vista and Allura in the future depending, of course, on itinerary. Even if the walls were thin and noise was a big factor, I'd still prefer those ships, with earplugs for sleeping if necessary. We are on Marina in November and Allura in 2025 (with 2 Celebrity cruises in between). I'm delighted that Marina will have the Aquamar Cafe by the time we board. It was a real treat to have breakfast and lunch there on Vista.

Perhaps we got lucky, but our B3 veranda stateroom was so quiet on Vista in December that I suspected we didn't have guests on either side of us. It took me a week to realize we did have guests on both sides. But it was because we saw them (coming out of the stateroom and once on the veranda). Never heard a peep on either side.

We agree. Vista is a beautiful ship that will be very familiar in layout to those who have sailed on Riviera and Marina, but we would prefer to book only Vista and Marina if possible (and we love the casualness of Ember and never cared for the old-style Jacques; to each his/her own, of course). That said, we are on Marina this November and then Allura in 2025. We got a super deal on Marina quite a while back while on another cruise, and our Marina cruise is going to Guadeloupe, which is one of the few Caribbean islands that accept cruise ships that we haven't been to.

I worked as a magazine editor for 20 years. The article is an advertorial. The magazine's marketing department typically writes or hires someone not on the editorial staff to write the article to the specifications of the client (in this case, Celebrity). The reason advertisers love these is that many readers fail to notice they are reading sponsored and intentionally biased material.

We are booked on Marina this November and we were bummed out when we learned the veranda staterooms and the bathrooms, in particular, won't be refurbished in the spring refit. We were on Riviera last year and loved the redesigned bathrooms, which are nearly identical to those on the newer Vista. But I'm more concerned now with reports of faulty A/C in some Marina staterooms. I've read posts where people didn't have A/C for the duration of their cruise and the only accommodation to them was a fan! (???) Does anyone know how pervasive this problem is on Marina? No A/C in the Caribbean would ruin our cruise.

We like to eat early and on all three classes of ships we usually arrive at the Grand Dining Room a little earlier than 6:30. On evenings that they expect to be especially busy they will sometimes open the dining room 10 to 20 minutes early. Usually, there is a short line waiting for the dining room to open but the wait is quite short, usually 5 minutes or less. On some ships we have noticed that if you come at 6:30 or 6:45 there can be a significantly longer line on some nights but I think that moves fairly quickly as well. Now, once seated, the service can be efficient or slow. This depends on the servers. If we sit in a section and find the service lacking, we don't allow the host(s) to seat us in those servers' sections again. We don't like to complain about any servers in particular, so we just say we don't want to sit in that area and leave it at that. (There are always at least a few careless, inefficient, and/or unenthusiastic servers in the main dining rooms.) Once we hit on a service team that is (1) efficient, (2) friendly, (3) has good communication skills, and (4) can discuss the menu with some indication that they know (and even care about) what they're talking about, we then ask to be seated in that team's section for the duration of the cruise.

Interesting because we love chickpeas! Have them almost every day, and we make hummus every week. So we would be happy to see them on a plate with fish.

Elite status gets 15% off any drinks package

Does anyone know the current a la carte prices for smoothies, bottled water, and specialty coffees (cappuccino, espresso, Americano)? Please indicate whether the price is before gratuities.

When is the date you can check in? Is it the day of the cruise or much earlier?

Even if it says you have a fixed dining time, you can go to whichever restaurant you want at whatever time you want. Just show up. If there's a line at one restaurant, try another because as everyone has noted, you can order from any menu of the four main dining rooms.

We purchased this for an Apex cruise in a couple of months but I'm not sure we'll get our money's worth. And that's even with our Elite discount. We have a couple of cappuccinos a day and a couple of smoothies. We like bottled water but we don't care if it's premium water like Evian. When we're on Apex I'm going to calculate the a la carte charges we would have had without the package and see how it compares. I also purchased the non-alcoholic package for two additional future cruises but will cancel those if it seems not to be worth it.

This is an interesting thread. I usually book just after itineraries open, and then I check sales to see if the fares have gone down, but they never have after my bookings. We always book a B2 or B3 veranda. Maybe it's because we book so early and usually the price either stays the same or increases. ??? Now that you lose an administrative fee if you cancel at any time after booking, I assume that fee would offset any savings if I found a slightly lower price and tried to cancel/rebook. But if this isn't the case before final payment, please let me know.

I have encountered a lot of people who used Move Up for Aqua class and they were disappointed with the location of their stateroom. But if you are a thermal-spa-type person it's probably the way to go. And I agree with the earlier poster that specialty dining isn't all that special. If you switch to Aqua Class, I'd save my money and eat in Blu.

In my experience you won't necessarily have the same wait staff, but if you prefer particular servers you can ask the host to seat you in their station, assuming there is availability and they are working there that evening (which is likely). With Anytime Dining, you can just show up to whichever restaurant you choose whenever you choose. You can order from any of the four main dining room menus regardless of which one you are seated in.

This is interesting, because I was considering a Silversea cruise and looked at the Silversea message board and at least one person said that their latest Silversea cruise was terrible. Inattentive service and not very good food. They spoke to the captain who said they have had staffing and training issues. The post said they prefer Oceania, especially considering that you pay a premium for Silversea.

In Baristas on Vista, there is the "bakery," which has about five or six pastries or, in the afternoon, a quiche of the day, and a staff person there to serve you. (Wish they had the quiche at breakfast but that's another issue.) Then there's a small self-service "buffet" closer to the coffee bar that has cookies and other pastries (not the same ones at the "bakery"), and this area also has bagels and toast in the morning and small sandwiches in the afternoon. It does seem like Oceania must have had a grander vision for the bakery because it's largely redundant, and it's weird that you need a staff person to serve you pastry at the bakery and yet if you walk 20 feet toward the coffee bar you are deemed capable of serving yourself. We never saw many people actually getting pastries at the bakery and the staff member there always looked extremely bored. And, yes, there's an oven there but there was no baking going on.

We left from Terminal J on Vista in December and returned to Terminal E. They said they had shuttles to take people back to Terminal J (presumably, back to the parking garage across from Terminal J. Terminal J is shared with other smaller, mostly luxury cruise lines that don't have a dedicated cruise terminal.

I was looking to book basic Wi-Fi for a cruise-only cruise booked on Ascent and the only option available for purchase is "Premium Wi-Fi." Is that all they are offering now?

Ditto. We were on Vista in December as well and our stateroom was so quiet we didn't think the rooms on either side of us were occupied. We only realized late in the 10-day cruise that there were guests in those rooms. This review comparing Oceania, an "upper-premium" line at a lower price point compared to luxury lines Seabourn and Silversea, comes out quite favorably on the side of Oceania, in my opinion. Especially since I don't drink champagne and caviar is something I can take or leave but am not inclined toward. Those seemed to be among the reviewer's favorite things about the luxury lines.

As a newly Elite Captain's Club member, I am going to try the perk of one free port day in the thermal suite. Can you make a reservation for this prior to your cruise, or only onboard? Can I come and go throughout the day or is it a single visit? We will be on Apex and I believe there are eight different rooms/functions. Any favorites? Any that aren't worth the bother?

Update: Although I got an email recommending that I make reservations in the main dining rooms, when I go on the website to do this, it says "Reserve" but then when I try to click on our names, it says "Dining time already set." I assume this is because we selected early dining. But we didn't select a particular restaurant. Regardless, we'll just go where we want as walk-ins.

If you move up from a veranda to a suite, do you get to eat in Luminae?