pinotlover

Chances are very highly likely that your B2B is also listed as a Grand Voyage and the FCC will be applied to the GV. While a few B2B still exist, they are a rarity now.

Any other ports you’re willing to sacrifice? Just imagine all the FCC you might get if they cancel the next 3-4 ports? Personally, we prefer going to the ports as advertised. Never been to Saguenay. Can one fly or drive there from the Midwest for $500 to see the missed port?

Only rarely in the GDR. Racks are available in PG and RG.

Back early Covid, beef prices crashed. They went down and stayed down while feed prices ( corn and soybeans) rose dramatically due to repeated poor harvests in South America. Farmers sold off their herds because they were losing money. After the sell off, with inventory reduced, prices went back up but still not enough to compensate for high grain and hay prices. There has been no desire or effort to rebuild the herd sizes. I don’t see those economics changing anytime soon. At this point, it would take at least two to three years to rebuild herd sizes, so nothing will change rapidly in the marketplace. What the market now has is higher beef prices but still a shortage of particularly good quality beef. The upper end steak houses are willing to pay to get the quality their customers demand ( and are willing to pay for). The cruise lines can’t afford to venture there. Of course none of this affects delivery of a steak medium well that was ordered medium rare! Except for the longer you cook it, the tougher it can become.

That second evening may well be the Captain’s Reception. I always try to have ours on the first evening in Horizons. We meet on the starboard side mid room.

How about “Their Ship, Their Way? Perhaps Oceania looks at multiple deciding factors before making a decision on this issue. Perhaps there is no iron fist rule on any of the decisions to be open or closed. What is this obsession with iron class rules or procedures? How about this: You’re on vacation, go with the flow! Then make a monumental move for many and….. Read the Currents! If my plans includes a terrific lunch ashore, I could care less if the GDR is open for lunch. So my question is “ Does having the GDR open for lunch affect others shore excursion plans? “ If so, how many of those are there?

I have a highly professional Travel Agent and know how to use her. It’s Monday afternoon, I’d already have an official response for this question, via that highly professional Travel Agent, from Oceania. No guess work required.

Three different dinners, three different prices. Your number is on the low end.

Hopefully the OP will realize that some variation occurs on the different voyages. There is no one answer to the question. Moral to story: Read your Currents daily for information on your cruise. The CD normally announces it also a couple times per day.

Oceania has a few very popular itineraries they only run once per year. They can book up almost immediately with just pre bookings. If it is a long cruise and you particularly want a particular cabin for one of those cruises, book a Grand Voyage ( B2B ) with the added cruise before. The algorithms fills all the prebooked GVs before the single segments. I know people wanting the top suites that use this technique regularly to get the cabin they want. Combinations, Permutations, and Probabilities. Use the math to increase your odds.

Oceania has dropped its deviation fee for flying in a few days early or after disembarking. So currently no fee. At 270 days pre cruise, you can request your air arrangements from Oceania. I believe it is best to have an itinerary picked out and have your TA submit it to Oceania Air. Oceania Air will then come back and either accept your itinerary or tell you how much extra it will cost. Then the negotiating begins.

New policy is not unreasonable. People need to commit. People walking at 90 days leaving a quarter empty ship, that was unreasonable! That left Oceania only 90 days to fill a ship, while ex passengers tied up cabins.

Seems to vary. Some started at 9:15 and over by 10:00 on our Vista cruise.

What does your personal contract say! Everything else doesn’t matter. I book a cruise, via my TA, and get a contract back nearly a week before the deposit is due. That contract, which I endorsed by making the deposit, spells out further payments. Period. End of discussion.. What does your contract say? Ambiguous statements on Oceania’s website have nothing to do with the contract YOU agreed to when making deposit on that contract. Is that had to understand?

I believe they stopped doing lunch in the GDR on port days in 2015 or 16. Not enough demand to make it worth while to staff the kitchen or dining area. There may well be quite a few that never, or rarely, get off the ships, but not enough to warrant keeping the GDR open at lunchtime.

On multi segment cruises we typically only go to Horizons/Lounge for our first Captain’s Reception. After that we do the following in Martinis where service is typically far better , along with drink selection. We always go to the Repeater Parties. The better OCA always gives out a lot of interesting statistics on the passengers and their make up. We always try to get seats close to where they speak. Quite a number of very rude uninterested guests seem to try to drown them out with their own conversations.

Actual dates of cruise matters a lot also. You can stay and ski in Vail in April or January for a lot less than in February .

Vista was a new class of ship. Allura is the sister ship of one already sailing. The same level of exuberance shouldn’t be expected. jennybenny; you have to make the deposit for your cruise to show on the system. Your TA should soon be sending you an email of the contract with all the information.

Pre Dinner, if you don’t have a Butler, expect an hour wait for that drink.

Yes. It’s install and done automatically as you pass through the security portal. They record your temp along with your photo for facial recognition. On an earlier cruise they moved the machine around on sea days for monitoring, so it might not be limited to only at boarding.

Personally, I’m not sure what the initial pricing means anymore. We were on the Vista in June and the ship wasn’t full, plus the cruise had been included in various sales. We’re looking at a GV (B2B) on Allura. The cruise is two years out and one segment is a Trans A. We’re not one of those that absolutely have to have a particular cabin, so with Oceania’s practice of constantly running sales, I see zero reason to book right now. Perhaps a four (4) Category upgrade sale will come along, or maybe something more interesting will appear next month when the remaining 2025 cruises are released. I clearly see the current pricing as a first offer for a cruise on a new ship. Historically, the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th offer has been a better deal. Therefore I’m mostly ignoring prices on the 1st offer and examining itineraries.

That’s debatable! Posted signs ( for the non oblivious) clearly state your temperature is being taken upon boarding. On an earlier cruise, the staff was reporting passengers with troubling coughs and appearing blush. I talked with fellow passengers that had been directed to medical for testing. Security escorted some to medical in that cruise that didn’t go voluntarily as directed. It’s not necessarily all voluntary.

They were still doing quarantine on the Vista in June, if that’s what you mean by “ isolation “.

Although I have sympathy for your cause, I wouldn’t make comments or speculate on prices until Oceania releases the remains new 2025-26 Simply More cruises and prices next month. My guess is the price differential will be nil.

Some passengers are physically unable to get their luggage off the ship alone. Depending upon the port, you may not have a terminal but would have to navigate the stairway offloading. See first sentence. Disembarkment can be chaos. People ignoring ( a popular Oceania passenger action verb) their assigned de boarding colors and pushing, shoving, and otherwise rude behavior. Hauling your own luggage off adds to that. As bad as boardamania can be, at some ports, disembarkment can make it look pleasant. We always disembark it the latter groups to let the hordes go first.