MarkWiltonM

We were on Equinox in a regular veranda in November 2021. There was new carpet and a new curtain; everything else was the same. No new furnishings. I noted at the time they had refreshed the carpets in the public areas on a couple of lower levels and then stopped. When you were on a staircase between the floors you could see how different they were and they did not go well together. We were on Sillhouette in 2020 and the veranda rooms were more updated and there were new carpets in all the public areas.

I am still getting brochures, including one touting Simply More. I wish I could stop the mailings. Poor trees.

Interesting that the Murano menu doesn't have a single meat-free entrée. I suspect that will change. They are offering more plant-based menus in some specialties, such as Le voyage and Eden.

If this page on Celebrity still applicable to Edge-class dining in the main dining rooms? https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/celebrity-select-dining This page says you can select Early dining, Late dining, or Anytime dining. For Anytime dining, it says "you can choose your dining any time between 6pm and 9:30pm." For the last few months, I've seen threads that suggested early and late fixed seating was no longer available on Edge Class, despite what your reservation says, and it's all Anytime dining. Is this true (and if it is I'm not sure why Celebrity's website hasn't been updated)? If it is true, should I have my TA switch me from the no-longer-available Early dining (fixed time of 6pm) to Anytime dining so I have the ability to make online reservations? If fixed Early dining is indeed still available, will I still be assigned to a particular dining room? If I want to try all four dining rooms will I be able to? If I can try the other dining rooms, will I be able to go at my regular early seating time or is based on table availability?

There is also a plant-based tasting menu on Daniel Boulud's Le Voyage on Beyond (and will be on Ascent as well), in addition to a regular menu and a regular tasting menu. Having plant-based food is a great way to attract younger cruisers (by younger I mean primarily under 40 or 50). I'm in my 60s but am eating plant-based foods more and more. We cruise on Oceania a lot and they are behind the curve on this but they're trying to provide a few more healthy options on their new ship, Vista. I was looking at menus recently on Carnival (must have been bored) and there were lots of options but extremely unhealthy (lots of barbecue, burgers, chicken sandwiches slathered with cheese and mayo, etc.): "comfort food" I guess you call it.

If anyone has a link to this video, please post it.

I don't think juices from a bottle would be "fresh juices." But all juices and smoothies they have onboard are included in the Zero Proof package.

I booked an April 2025 cruise back in December 2022. I'm wondering when cruises for the second half of 2025 are likely to be released. Any idea or typical schedule?

Some TAs have relationships with Oceania (Connoisseur Club members) that allow them to provide prepaid gratuities for their clients on certain cruises. That may be why they don't include grats as part of the program.

I wonder how Oceania is going to handle guests in restaurants at lunch and dinner who have beer and wine included versus those who booked cruise only before the new pricing regime. Will the cruise-only guests be quarantined to a particular part of the dining rooms? Will we have to wear scarlet letters indicating we don't get "free" wine and beer"?

Another thing to consider is how often Oceania cancels port calls, due to weather, the possibility of labor unrest (?!), etc. On our cruise to Bermuda in March, which was titled "Pink Sands Soiree" and was to spend 3 days in Bermuda, the entirety of the Bermuda portion of the cruise was canceled and we instead had two nights in (wait for it) -- Jacksonville, Florida!!! The third day was an extra sea day. We didn't have any Oceania excursions booked in Bermuda, but for those who did choose excursions as their O Life option, they had to settle for hastily arranged excursions in frickin' Jacksonville, Florida. I have never seen so many sad faces on a cruise in all my years of sailing.

We originally switched to Oceania because (1) the food was supposed to be incredible and (2) we didn't have to "pay" for alcohol as part of our fare, because we don't drink. We also don't buy cruise lines shore excursions any more, and Oceania didn't include these until now as something "free" that you actually are paying for in the increased fare. (Free is never free.) Regarding the food, we do not find the food to be incredible. It is more consistently decent than on less-expensive lines like Celebrity and HAL, but it's still often disappointing. We've had crappy food in Jacques and especially Tuscan Grill, but also Red Ginger (we've also had very good food in Red Ginger and some good food in Jacques). Never bothered to go to Polo. We usually enjoy the GDR and Terrace Cafe. But the food can't compare, IMO, to the food that we had on Crystal ("old Crystal" as it's now called compared to "new Crystal" launching at the end of the month). Yes, Crystal was more expensive and did include alcohol, but I think food-wise it's a fair comparison because Oceania boasts that it has "the finest cuisine at sea." All that said, as long as we could purchase "cruise-only" fares we were keeping Oceania in the mix, planning to alternate the small ship and larger ship experiences. If Oceania brings back the cruise-only fares at some point, we'll take another look. I believe FDR, Jr. said the Simply More program was in response to travel agents' indicating that the O Life packages and choices were too confusing. They were. But I don't think it would be too confusing to slip back in a cruise-only option in the future. Not holding our breath, but since Celebrity backtracked on the same strategy perhaps Oceania will as well.

With the Simply More program, we are no longer looking at Oceania for future bookings. Ironically, we started looking at Oceania a few years ago when Celebrity tried to force cruisers to take their "Always Included" package of alcoholic beverages, internet, and gratuities. We don't drink alcohol so we have avoided lines that include this with the fare (except for "old" Crystal, for which we made an exception because the food was so good). Now, Celebrity is once again giving cruisers a choice between "Cruise Only" and "Always Included" and Oceania is doing what Celebrity tried to do for several years. We've booked three cruises recently on Celebrity and have two more cruise-only Oceania cruises booked, on Vista and Marina. Although there are a few things we enjoy about the smaller ships of Oceania, we are actually looking forward to getting back to Celebrity, which in our opinion have a more vibrant, more contemporary atmosphere. Anyone else going back to cruise lines you had abandoned in favor of Oceania?

I looked at a cruise I have booked on Vista this December in a B3 veranda. This is a cruise-only fare. If I booked it today with Simply More (without airfare), it would be $50 more per person per day, or $500 more per person for the 10-night cruise. If we wanted the included alcohol at lunch and dinner (we do not), and if we wanted the $400 shore excursion credit, which I assume is per person (we do not want this either), the additional fare would be reasonable. But since we don't drink alcohol and book our own shore excursions (and this is rarely done in the Caribbean), it's a significant increase without any additional value to us. We also have a cruise booked on Marina in late 2024 but I can't locate that cruise on Oceania's website currently (tried yesterday and today). Maybe they haven't updated the fares for this yet so it's not showing up. (???) Wondering what others are finding for their cruises in various stateroom categories.

We pretty much cruise exclusively in the Caribbean. We live practically next door to Port Everglades and are an Uber ride away from Port of Miami. It's so convenient. When we travel further afield, we travel by air and land and tend to stay in destinations for multiple days rather than the hop-on hop-off cruise experience. We don't drink alcohol and rarely do shore excursions in the Caribbean, so the Simply More program is not for us. We will keep the two Oceania cruises we have scheduled (on Vista in December and the to-be-refurbished Marina in late 2024), but our future cruises will be on Celebrity, HAL, Viking, or Crystal. Yes, I realize that Viking and Crystal also include alcohol and, in the case of Viking, shore excursions, but Viking is more to our taste than Oceania. The only problem for us is that Viking has so few Caribbean cruises. We loved the old Crystal, even though we lost value by not drinking alcohol. If the new Crystal seems to be on par with its glory days, we'll book that. Crystal has decided to "homeport" at Port Everglades beginning next year, for part of the Caribbean season, so we're very happy about that. I imagine with the Simply More program, Oceania fares will creep ever closer to those of cruise lines like Crystal, and the "old" Crystal, at least, was vastly superior to Oceania in every metric that's important to us: food/dining, service, staterooms, public spaces/decor.

We book Edge-class sailings as soon as possible after the itineraries are released, because we prefer the "real" verandas of the Sunset Veranda category and they sell out fast. For example, we booked a 04/07/25 Beyond sailing on 12/13/2022 (28 months). We also get a refundable deposit, but because fares usually go up over time we find that it's still more affordable with the refundable deposit than booking later. It seems like the cost of refundable deposits is creeping higher (just seems that way; may or may not be true). If that is a trend and it continues, it would be harder for us to book that far in advance because we want to option to cancel if our plans change.

Is this retroactive or only for newly booked cruises?

This new program may well end our Oceania cruising. We have Vista and Marina booked as cruise-only fares; after that we'll have to see. We don't drink alcohol and we rarely go on shore excursions through the cruise line, so we've always booked "cruise only" fares. If there is no longer an option to book without alcohol, etc., the value won't be there for us. That's also why we don't book luxury lines (with the exception of Crystal in the past). Celebrity tried to move to an all-inclusive fare (drinks, internet, grats--not shorex) but gradually reintroduced cruise-only fares. It will be interesting to see how this works for Oceania. Although we enjoy Oceania, we will be happy to sail cruise-only on Celebrity and HAL, possibly Azamara. And if Oceania's fares increase much more, we'll look at the new Crystal.

The same reason an airplane needs an annual inspection to be considered airworthy regardless of whether it has flown or not. I have read elsewhere that cruise ships have to go into dry dock at least every three years "by law" but under what jurisdiction was this law created, if anyone knows? Just wondering since cruise ships are registered in various countries around the world.

If you do, the chef may point out how highly processed those cookies are compared to theirs. Artificial flavors, preservatives, etc. https://www.fooducate.com/product/Kirkland-Signature-Gourmet-Chocolate-Chunk-Cookie/08C830D6-9D9E-11E0-86F7-1231380C180E

I think I read sometime in the past that if your spouse, residing at the same address, is not at your Captain's Club level you can have them linked to your account. Does this require a call to the CC desk, or is it automatic? I know I have already purchased pre-cruise drinks packages and Internet and I (we) got the Elite discount, but I'm not sure if it's also automatic once we're on board without formally linking us.

We think Oceania has better food than HAL (and Celebrity) overall, but we love the buffets on HAL's Pinnacle-class ships. And the burgers on HAL are good and the fries are way better than Oceania's. Unfortunately, there's not much else we care for on HAL other than the buffet (and the Crow's Nest, I guess) so we don't cruise that line often.

The cookies seem to be low in sugar and butter. They are not chewy. I do not like very sweet desserts. I do like butter. In general, Oceania's desserts seem to me to have less sugar than found in most bakeries and restaurants whether on land or sea. I like that, personally, but I know people who like very sweet desserts.

Sorry you had such bad food. We had decent food recently on Sirena but poor service in the MDR. And we had okay but mostly humdrum food in Riviera even more recently but with good service. None of the food on either ship was outstanding, but it was more consistently okay than other cruise lines we've been on (mostly Celebrity and HAL). However, we order room service frequently for lunch and it was quite good on both ships. Food cooked properly and even warm when it arrived. Specialty restaurants were not worth bothering with--none of them. But, overall, you just never know about the food from cruise to cruise and it comes down to the ship's chef at the time and, I suppose, many other variables. All that said, we have three more cruises booked on Oceania because we like the line overall. I do think Oceania's marketing of "the finest cuisine at sea" is a classic case of "overpromise and underdeliver."

Wow, I love the Ember menu. It's way more edited and concise than Jacques but there are many more things that appeal to me. IMO, Jacques' menu is quite dated and too much of the food is rather heavy. I also applaud the idea of turning the tables over faster. We love to eat but we don't linger.