durberville

First time Oceania cruiser (booker) here. Thank you so much for this!
 

One note…I’ve read so much about Oceania’s tendency to skip ports, I start every conversation with my husband by saying “We’ll probably miss that port but…” I am fully expecting a 25 night cruise locked up on the Regatta so I will NOT be disappointed… surely we’ll make one or two ports!  😉🤣

4 hours ago, ORV said:

This, a lot of people don't get this. You could book a cheap $49 HOHO bus tour or something similar, even if you don't take the tour, and still pay less for your excursions overall. Just did this in Jan & Feb on our 24 day South America cruise. 

Yes. By booking one more excursion (in our case 7) to get the 25% discount,  we are paying less than we would have paid for 6. 

I believe the Regatta will be upgrading its internet to Starlink shortly. Hopefully this will help. 🤞🏻 I suspect our cruise up to Alaska and then across the Bering sea to Japan will have abysmal access. 😬🤷‍♀️

🙂 As a soon to be first time Oceania cruiser on the Regatta, I am now actually looking forward to the challenge of the ship’s bathrooms. It will be a badge of honor “I survived the Regatta showers!” Haha! (Not very high on my priority list😉)  

I use Chrome and couldn’t access the boards yesterday until midnight or so. Fine now. 

Wow. I’d be terrified if any alarms went off while we were sleeping! Sounds like the situation will be resolved. Extra time in beautiful Dubrovnik will be lovely but I’m sorry you are missing Kotor. 

*sighs. Thanks for the honest review but man o man am I bummed. Have booked our first Oceania cruise on the Regatta for October (25 days). Sounds like it will be a floating nursing home with poor food. I convinced my husband to try this line since we’ve become disillusioned with Celebrity. Full of regret now. 😟

The pace of meal courses aside…I am becoming more and more worried about the observation that Oceania ships become ghost towns shortly after 10pm! I think I’ve made a horrible mistake. What exactly is the demographic on these ships? Some “go to bed at 8:30pm” 😳

2 hours ago, davencl said:

 

I should clarify I've found booking directly is much less expensive than booking thru Oceania.  So Oceania would have charged $2080 for the night in Tokyo per your example. However I wouldn't book at either of those prices...

My apologies - I DID misread your post. I was shocked at the rate Oceania gave me and it’s coloured my opinion on their hotel packages! Haha! 👍🏻

2 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

Its the opposite. They could pay half of those quoted rates if booking directly.

Enjoy your cruise!

Ah! Yes I misread that post. 😬 

40 minutes ago, davencl said:

I had checked one cruise friday for a PH1 that was included in this promotion.  It did not change today.  It was Singapore to Auckland leaving Nov. 14,2024.   Were there any other promotions ending March 31 that could affect pricing?  FWIW I have always found booking the same hotel as Oceania offered was roughly half the price if I booked on my own.  Since Oceania is a business I wonder if Oceania can offset with air savings.  Just speculating...

Interesting. I was quoted a price of $898 for a pre-cruise hotel night in Los Angeles and $1,040 for the night after our cruise in Tokyo. I declined 😳 If those rates are half of what you would normally pay - my hats off to you, I’m not paying that for one night. 

I am interested in this also. We really enjoy lectures (not a fan of bingo or trivia). First time Oceania cruisers and hoping interesting lectures are part of every cruise. Yes?…No? …You better buy some bingo cards? 😬

Yes I don’t understand the 1 connection per stateroom. I think that issue is resolved with Simply More. 

42 minutes ago, no fuss travel said:

You have 30 days I believe from the time you book them to transfer to your TA

No I believe it has been reduced to 14 days. (I transferred mine over - I didn’t like my Oceania rep either)

I must say that now I’m a tad apprehensive about our first Oceania cruise. We have booked an excursion package which used all of our shorex credit and an additional $1000 or so on our CC. Most of our tours are scheduled for the last week of our cruise (Japan) because we’ve done most things “Alaska”. 
 

If rumblings are correct it is likely (or at least a good chance) we will have ports/tours cancelled near the end of the cruise with no opportunity to use the shorex credit. This is a worry - one I hadn’t really considered. 😕

1 hour ago, shepherd really said:

But then the rest of your cruise you are stuck on Celebrity, so no thanks.

Haha! Point taken. We are trying Oceania because we have become disillusioned with Celebrity, but I have always enjoyed the warm welcome, and yes, the proffered glass of bubbly…whatever it is! 🙃

Geeez Celebrity even greets you with sparkling wine. It’s a nice touch. 

3 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Though I think the reality for so many G-B cabin cruisers is that many don't even eat in the specialty restaurants if they want a 2-top before 8 pm. O makes it impossible to set up the reservations in advance. Saw this on our 20-night B2B in Oct-Nov on Riviera. First 10 nights in an A3. No problem getting "decent time" for 2 top. BUT when we tried for our B3, all we could get were mainly 8:30 or 9 pm times. Weirdly, they asked us to change the 9 pm time to 8:30. I quickly saw why, just at the 8:30 time. We and about 2 other couples were the only people who showed up at 8:30 or after. We rushed our dinner to get out by 9:30 since it was emptying fast between 8:30 and 9 and mostly empty after 9 pm. We learned to tell the server upfront: "We're ready to order, we do NOT want any bread and NO dessert." We'd sailed on Riviera 12/2021 (A4) and Sirena 11/2022 (B2) so we "knew" the menus and what we wanted.

😳 We have always chosen the “late dining” option on other lines. 8:30pm is perfect for us. This situation sounds horrible….

14 hours ago, mauibabes said:

I request a PDF for every cruise we take on O and I get it thru an O Rep as I have not seen it available on their website. In addition I book out tours, usually a combination of O and Private as early as I can based on availability. We are doing our first cruise under SM in November and I have already booked out tours for a sailing on Riviera. I also used my SM Excursion Credits to book a more expensive and highly desireable tour early in the cruise. If there are cancellations of tours, we should be in a position to rebook, accept refunds and then shift to private tour providers. One thing we have seen on our cruises since Covid, the local tour companies have lost staff and eliminated tours and Oceania has not been able to rehire tour companies to provide the breadth of tours. At least that is what I have heard from O staff. 
My two cents, Do Not wait to book tours, especially not waiting until on board. Make sure you have your SM credits spent. 
Enjoy,

Mauibabes
 

Agree with booking excursions as early as possible, but could someone clarify the refund situation?

I’m reading NO refunds for missed or ship cancelled Simply More excursions, so expecting a refund and the ability to use it for another booking doesn’t seem to apply….interested because we’ve used our Simply More Shorex credit and have paid for the remaining balance on our CC. To muddy the waters - I would expect to have our CC refunded for any cancelled tour but I what if we hadn’t paid extra? No refund at all?  (I find this issue really confusing 😵‍💫)

We are first time Oceania “bookers” also. I just wanted to agree with your trepidation after reading the reviews on Cruise Critic. We won’t be on the Sirena but its sister ship the Regatta and I’m honestly baffled by the amount of negatively in stark contrast to word of mouth. Much more than any of the other lines we’ve sailed. Is this unique to Oceania, because it’s very odd?……and small bathrooms aren’t a deal breaker for me but wow on the general negative “reviews”. 🤔

6 hours ago, pinotlover said:

I do paired multi course wine dinners for a couple of establishments on occasion. It’s happened too many times so My only condition is NO Bread! The Dinners normally start 6-6:30 so the working stiffs can come. That happens to be later than many of the retirees seem to eat. Give that little old lady a bread basket in an early course, and they will pound the bread. Then by the third of four courses, they’re just to full to eat , or drink, anything. Some will even want a doggie bag for the remaining courses and leave before the dinner is over.

Rule #1- No Bread!

 

Oceania always delivers a big basket of delicious breads to your table at every venue. Saves them from serving desserts!” Oh! I’m just so full I can’t eat another bite!” 😂😂. They made that decision when they hit the bread basket! 😂

Haha! I’m all about the bread on vacation - dessert doesn’t interest me, so bring on that basket! 👏🏻👍🏻🍞🥖

I follow Jacques on Facebook. He prepares his recipes and posts the videos on a regular basis. Still going strong. (Wonderful artist also). 

Oh dear. Stay well, hopefully it will “run its course” 😬 soon. Glad they haven’t cancelled shore excursions. 

Whatever floats your boat…err ship.  My only concern following said cruise would be unclothed skin on furniture - cuz “eww”!. Surely they must sit in towels?? 😬

18 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

But this type of advertising could come in handy for some.  I was chatting with a man in the neighborhood several months back and he knows we are cruisers. He told me they are finally going on a cruise because his wife had found this great 2 for 1 deal!!! I was like, uhh……well…maybe….so I just kept quiet and thought good for you Linda!!! 

Reminds me of booking our first cruise back in the day. I thought I was getting a steal because it was advertised as 60 - 70% off or something - and my brother, an experienced cruiser, said “look at the book price - that’s what they are going by - NOBODY pays those prices!” Haha! I was so deflated….but here I am 40 years later with a bit of knowledge under my hat….but agree - those percentage off prices are totally misleading.