babysteps

if you do not go to muster station to let them know, you get a letter on your door to report to registration True. We always report right away. But if you haven't watched the video prior to boarding I'm not sure it makes any difference. We do watch it at least once but get 3 or 4 reminders pre-boarding to watch. O doesn't seem to actually track who has or hasn't watched the video pre boarding I think you can't get to the last step to print your boarding pass if you don't Iirc you are correct. But you still get several reminders to watch the video.. many ports your pre board confirmation email works as well as the boarding pass This might be analogous to the pre-flight safety demonstration on an aircraft. You are meant to pay attention but if you don't there's little consequence unless there is an emergency. We're part of the 5% or so who actually pay attention...

Our experience when asking O the status of the wait list and where we placed was that they could not tell us. Called a few times and received the same response. Once onboard, we went to Destination Services and was informed that the wait list had cleared due to late cancellations. Once we had a "waitlisted" excursion. Once onboard we checked with destination services and it had been removed / cancelled. Other times O has added additional times for popular excursions. So if your desired excursion is 'waitlisted' a plan B is definitely worth setting up imo!

True that You do have to view the safety video onboard before seeing anything else on your in-cabin TV We do each watch it pre-boarding but that doesn't stop the reminders!

Ymmv We booked our first SM cruise onboard Insignia in Dec 2023 for June 2024. After we got home, we booked 2 excursions each (for days 3 and 4 of the itinerary) to use up our SM excursion credit. Plenty of availability, perhaps because the itinerary is in all the sales and starts in Istanbul which risk-averse folks might be avoiding for the time being. This is Vista June 19 2024 from Istanbul to Trieste. We also have a cruise-only 2025 TA booked on Vista...

Yup. It's a nice idea to view before boarding, but (as far as I can tell) there's no consequence if you do not.

Lol not all of us. But as a kid many decades ago "guys" was a gender neutral term on the left coast

Most ports don't enforce the chosen boarding time. Perhaps because of this, the early times don't disappear that quickly ime.

Agree with @pmatawan. We used our SM in full and about $32 each of SBC. Assume credit card charge would be next - but we're not going to get there lol. On same track as you @Tranquility Base- our 2025 O cruise is not SM but 2024 is. Our ship's excursions are day 3 and 4 if embarkation is day 1.

The taxi line moved well on Sunday Dec 17 2023 - until it didn't move for 10 minutes lol. But that was an "interesting" day, we didn't dock until 1:30pm due to weather. It took us about 20 minutes in the taxi line. If you are cutting it close a car service might be worth it - pre-arranged. At least this last time Uber and Lyft waits were as long as for the taxi.

@Jim_Iainwelcome to the O board, I have enjoyed your live-from threads very much! Based in what you have shared, I would echo the suggestions for an Oceania Suite. If you'd rather watch pennies on your first toe-in-water on O, go for a PH. Vista suite is lovely but underway the balcony goes away. Well it's still there, just not available! Full disclosure, we have always been in Veranda or Ocean View, but have spent lovely time with friends in PH, Vista and Oceania suites. We're doing Istanbul to Trieste on Vista this June, a long-postponed first visit to Istanbul. I think I'll be busy catching up on history and culture readings until then!

In the locks I loved being at the window of reception level on O class ships. The stone walls are right there! On R class I imagine the reception level outside deck would be great for a moment! Agree with @Tranquility Base, moving around is the ticket. Horizons, upper most deck, walking track above pool deck, your veranda (if you have one), and reception level (especially in-lock) all offer great views

Typically a bit older on a TA, but nothing that affected our enjoyment of 2 TAs on O. More detail in separate thread

Related question - usually when embarking on a cruise with a starting overnight in port, we get on about 3pm. June 19th we'll board Vista in Istanbul and won't leave the dock until the next day. Any downside (or best tips) to checking in on the early side, reporting to our Muster station and then heading back ashore? Basically using the ship as a left luggage service?

Cheap low memory Samsung Galaxy A03s. In the Caribbean last month no restarts needed. But have done in Canada, France, Japan and Thailand.

We asked to borrow a wine-by-the-bottle list when we boarded. Mostly fully (restaurant) priced but there are a few bargains, we even found one wine that we knew we enjoyed that was less than retail! Not going to name it in case O decides to correct that...

There have been a few comments here lately about the average age of O passengers, most assuming that Caribbean cruises skew older. I heard the same thing from first timers on Insignia in Dec 2023. After 12 cruises on O this hasn't been my experience. Caribbean cruises I've been on actually skew average or younger-than-average for O. I've seen oldest average age on TAs and youngest on shorter summer Med itineraries. I'm 50-something and the average age of other passengers hasn't had a big impact on my cruise experience. But if you think the O Caribbean crowd is too old for you, choose your next itinerary carefully lol. What have others seen for younger vs older by itinerary type on O?

We were on Insignia Dec 5-17 and had booked under O life (not SM). We were able to create and use 2 separate WiFi logins.

Oceania doesn't delay folks embarking ime. Port Authorities maybe, but haven't seen O do so.

In practice in Miami, show up when you wish. Earlier or later than your boarding pass time. Best wishes for weather, we didn't disembark until 3pm on Sunday Dec 17th - but that was very unusual!

Hopefully someone who's used O air for Trieste (Venice) will chime in soon! Trieste is smaller but has plenty of service to (some) European gateways - most itineraries to the US will be 2-stops but there are 1-stop options. Looking at a random date (15 Jul 2024) to New York area airports, Venice has nonstop options and way more non- and 1-stop choices than the total of 1- or 2-stop options from Trieste. If you need a specific routing then DIY or deviation is the way to go imo. If you DIY air, here's another vote for allowing plenty of time no matter the port - we were disembarking Insignia a week ago (Sunday Dec 17) and weather meant every ship at Miami was late. All 8 or 9 of them (!) Folks started getting off Insignia at 2pm ish and we were some of the last ones off, a little after 3pm. That's about 6 hours later than normal! Anyone who didn't have a same-day flight (including us) felt way less stressed than those that did. From what we heard & saw, O did a good job rescheduling all the included air folks. People with air through online travel agencies (Expedia and so on) were the most stressed. Disclosure: in 12 cruises we've only used O air on 3 total chances out of 24 so far...

I was on this same cruise, we had a great time but it was our least favorite so far of 12 on O (not their fault, mostly weather). @schmidlapp I can understand your not wanting to cruise on O again! Toscana and shoe issue, that sounds terrible. One thought is to check with dining services when you board and explain the situation. Or find/create a pair of sequined tennis shoes - no you shouldn't have to do this. The pool deck work was definitely disruptive, but I wonder if the weather had been nice if the work would have bugged me even *more*. It rained some every day and all day on some days. Some days the noisy part of the work was more limited, not sure if that made it less bad. Which is worse, buzz-buzz-buzz or quiet-BUZZ-quiet? We were pleasantly surprised by the $400 pp future cruise credit, but if you aren't cruising O again that doesn't help. Our thermostat worked in our room, we did adjust it many times and it responded each time. But we were in 4054, so a smaller cabin on a lower deck. Not sure if the HVAC issue was specific to your room or general to your deck area, we wouldn't have been happy either. I saw that the door from the elevator lobby out to Waves did not auto-close well or quickly, lots of AC was pouring outside - I closed it whenever I passed through but I'm sure that didn't make much of a difference. Insignia staff are indeed wonderful! If you want interaction with officers, sadly O is not a good fit. Any non-hospitality crew/officers tend to ignore or interact extremely briefly with passengers. The ship is generally maintained quite well but does show small signs of age if you are looking. In our cabin there was a small bubble in the wallpaper, I saw some discoloration/rust at varous windows throughout the ship, and our cabin bath doorknob's escutcheon was slightly bent. Nothing that was obvious, nothing that affected our enjoyment, but if you want "new" this is not the ship for you. We like O's pricing compared to other lines because you don't have to get a larger cabin or all-inclusive fare just to get on the ship. If you do like larger cabins and more inclusive fares, O may be just as/more expensive vs SS or SB - especially if you are paying for business class air through the cruiseline. I am not a fan of the new SM pricing, but O is still best price/value for us - ymmv!! We were on this cruise because it was hard to resist on the extreme sale that ended June 2023.

@edgeeis correct. We just got off Insignia last Sunday, had booked under old system and got 2 WiFi log ins for no additional charge.

For our June 2024 Vista itinerary most ports offer half and full day private car and private mini-bus options (4 total choices). May vary a lot by region...

Our recent eastern Caribbean cruise on Insignia had limited excursions marked as wheelchair accessible. I don't remember more than 1 or 2 max at a given port, some stops had zero. The excursions that were marked ok for wheelchairs tended to be "OS" versions of non-wheelchair excursions - basically more $ for a small-group version of a standard excursion. Reaching out to local private tour guides may in some cases get more options for wheelchair-friendly or at least wheelchair-possible excursions?

We did a 2021 Venice to Miami that became Trieste to Miami (b2b with Barcelona in the middle). O provided bus service from the Venice airport to Trieste port. It had a few hiccups but worked and no additional cost to us.