babysteps

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.

Was it Regatta that was recently delayed departing Vancouver for refrigeration issues? If so that could explain the cargo containers on deck 11.

NY residents can't get CFAAR but we can get what I call CFAAR - cancel for *almost* any reason. We got such a policy when we were concerned about my MIL's health. Any turn for the worse and we could have cancelled and been covered. My bigger complaint is NYS residents can't get the annual travel health policies...

OP, if you don't receive the response you want to your post-cruise written complaint, you may wish to bring in a consumer advocate like Elliott.org or Consumer Rescue Both sites offer services for free. They also warn that threatening to never use a product again can backfire - many travel providers are more willing to issue future credits than refunds. Not saying you have put it in these terms in your complaint to O, but just in case

Yes there are spa showers you can use on R ships. You can also choose to use your cabin shower with the door open (instead of closed) if you wish - the bathroom is a 'wet' room with a drain in the room's floor as well as in the shower. If you're used to sailboats, the R ship shower is fine. If you are used to a 5-piece bath you may find it...confining

Things may have changed, but last I knew, any 'venue specific' drinks were not available as 2-for-1 at happy hour. Like others, we have ordered 2 of the same drink, brought at the same time, and were charged for 1 drink during happy hour.

We used Budget once on a cruise that ended at MCT and yes the walk was fine - I stayed with the luggage and spouse walked, picked up car, and returned to MCT to pick me up. Same might work for you when arriving - drop luggage and 3 of you at MCT, driver returns car and walks back to MCT and all can board together?

We used the MRT and buses a lot. Citymapper app was amazing for planning trips (even reminds you when your stop is approaching). We had read about ezlink and did get a 2-day one but when it expired we just did pay-as-you-go and for us the cost difference was small vs a bit inconvenient to get ezlink (only some stations sell or accept turn in for deposit back). If your credit card works in Singapore you can tap-and-go at subways and buses with automatic transfers For getting to the port with luggage, if you want a cab I highly recommend having hotel arrange ahead or that you use the Grab app or similar. There is a shortage of cabs in Singapore. We were in a short but barely moving cab line Mar 2023 when we disembarked - ordered a grab and moments later we were walking to a different door to meet our car. Probably saved us half an hour. Would have saved 45+ minutes if we had just used the app at the beginning and never tried the taxi line...

This may not be everyone's idea of a good place but we loved it in March 2023 after our cruise ended in Singapore. We stayed at the Indigo in Katong on a breakfast-included rate. Very 'modern' and artsy interior, the bathrooms are on the outside window wall, you're on the edge of a historic neighborhood, the subway and bus lines are all right there and there's a mall next door. Slightly more adventurous than Raffles or Fullerton - and a lot less expensive We did visit Raffles, the dining is open to anyone who wants to make a reservation and we very much enjoyed BBR in its prior incarnation Osteria. Yes we had a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar, had to do it once lol!

I was just checking this out for our Dec 2023 Insignia cruise. We are on cruisemapper's schedule for Amber Cove. So is Vista a few days before us. Not really 100% sure as many online schedules just say "Puerto Plata" or don't have Taino Bay listed ...

We might be saying the same thing? Iirc OLife could be applied to new bookings initiated through June 30 2023 or so. If that's the right date, starting July 1st all new bookings made were SM. Except SM only applied to cruises starting Oct 1 2023 or later.

When they switched from OLife to Simply More, iirc the furthest out you could book OLife was spring 2025 with actual dates going a bit further out on Vista than the other ships. Someone else may have specific dates. Until then there will be a mix of packages - some on SM, some on OLife, some on nothing. I wonder if destination services will have the bigger challenge than wine servers applying different policies to different people?