pinotlover

Linked to a statement made by Pinion Noir, I once asked a wine steward if I could trade in the red Cyclops wine Oceania gives us and get a free corkage on a bottle of my wine in its place. She laughed and said “ No!”. That wine has no redeeming values. Our room attendant said they can’t take, if left it just goes to the next cruiser. The wine steward said very few people actually bring it to dinner to drink. After the first bottle, people just leave it in the cabin.

Everything won’t change after 10/1. There will still be corkage for bottles of wine brought into the venues that are not from the ship.

Oceania does not enforce the six bottle limit. They allow you to bring whatever you choose aboard. This applies to wine, beer, and liquor. Please, no what outs ! 🙄 If it contains alcohol, it’s included in the above.🥂

I wasn’t offended and hope you weren’t. My response is merely to point out that a percentage of Oceania cruisers either don’t or can’t do shore tours. This credit isn’t going to prompt people to do otherwise. For many, it’s merely a price hike. They’ll have to decide whether the new product, at the new price, is something they want. The second paragraph merely lays out why Oceania has to do things differently. 1. Cruise Only obviously isn’t generating the needed revenue. 2. Oceania continually needs to run endless “ sales” to fill its ships. They only do that because the current programs aren’t meeting a wide enough audience’s wants. Something different is required. Whether SM is the answer, only time will tell.

Thank you to the OP for a thoughtful, informative, and insightful review of the Owners Suite. I believe it’s been years since we’ve seen one. 🍷

Not in many of O cruiser’s case. Vineyard View ignores all the cruisers that cruise for the ship only. He ignored all those that rarely, if ever, even get off the ship in ports. Most importantly he ignored all those that aren’t so senile to understand they’re not in any physical condition to get off the ship for tours. If they do start doing tours, we want to ensure they all go on the ship tours with Vineyards View! 😇 For many, Simply More is merely a fare increase. Probably a fare increase Oceania needs, but a fare increase regardless. In these days of staggering debt, if you don’t take Oceania Air ( a profit center); if you don’t take Oceania shore tours ( a big profit center); and you never buy Oceania’s booze ( a profit center), then Oceania is probably either going to be charging you more upfront, looking to replace you with a different customer base , or both. Life goes on.

Yes

Also, when in rough seas and the water is sloshing vigorously, the pool will be drained and not refilled until calmer waters. It will be cleaned thoroughly before refilling.

Your primary question has been well answered. I will add a second point which for some reason catches some unprepared. Ensuite dining, from the Specialty restaurants or the GDR, from your butler is available: During the regular hours of that venue. I have heard quite a number of past cruisers in despair because they couldn’t order in that Polo Grill meal at 4:30 in the afternoon. The restaurants don’t open until 6:30, so you can’t order until then.

I believe we’ll have to wait and see. On my Viking cruise, we had ship tours provided at every port. Many didn’t interest us, so we took private tours. Most all of them were filled by like souls via our Roll Call. Some people, even with the free provided tours, opted to stay aboard ship and relax. I believe both of these scenarios will continue on Oceania at about the same rate as current regardless of SM. We are NOT going to fly halfway around the world, to visit a possible bucket list port/site, and then take a ship tour we have no interest in! Those that just want to primarily cruise will continue to do so, tour credits or not. Likewise, we may have had the drinks package and still either bought a bottle of wine ,or pay corkage on a bottle . We don’t feel obliged to only drink what the package offers. We have the option of converting our next cruise to SM. Oceania doesn’t offer enough tours we’re interested in to eat up the credits or cover the added costs. We’ll stay OLife for that cruise. For future booking, where SM is the only option, SM merely reflects a portion of the total cost of the cruise. The question becomes:Is Oceania offering the best itinerary and offerings with that cruise. Just because SM is our only choice on O, we don’t feel obligated to take any tours with them or to drink their wine on any given night.

You must have their booking #.

Redtravel; It doesn’t surprise me at all concerning the availability of PE upgrades. For those airlines actually offering PE services it has become a very popular class of service. What your TA is really saying is the airlines aren’t releasing PE seats for discounted fares, thus Oceania has none to offer. I’d consider paying the airline offered insurance and booking my own flights where PE is still available . I don’t fit well into an economy seat for 8-9+ hours.

On the rare occasions I book an Oceania shore excursion, I always have my TA do it. This is especially the case when booking 3 or more!! Unlike those above that obviously enjoy spending an hour or more on the phone with dial a Clerk, I refuse to do so. She always comes back with the correct pricing and the numbers correct. I never begrudge her commissions either. There are options to all this frustration.

I personally dislike the entire communistic concept of pooled tips. The wait team across the restaurant did absolutely nothing for me. Why should any part of my tip to my waiter go to them? Some waiters will only work in venues where tips are pooled and shared. Others will only work in venues where they get what they earn. When I walk into a new restaurant, I grade them on food and service quality. I don’t obsess over tipping policy, or ask how it’s administered there.

First come first service. I did not see any one Bogarting them like happens with the loungers on the pool deck.

Having sailed on Vista, and eaten in Embers, this is my perspective. A high percentage on every Oceania cruise is Americans. Embers is a replica of the multiple upscale chain restaurants Americans eat in daily. Embers serves the non descript food many Americans want, at a faster pace than the other restaurants . We had quite a few passengers on our cruise that enjoyed Embers. You can read hundreds of posts here where many just want simple bland food. Embers delivers for them. We found the food mediocre, along with the service, and the noise deafening. We were at a two top and could barely hear one another. Jacques is gone on the new A Class ships. People need to get over it! A bit of creative marketing actually. As the R ships are rotated out of service, the O Class ships without all the A Class improvements, then approaching 15+ years old becomes the older ships. For all those Jacques fans, the restaurant becomes a draw for the “ older” ships. Smart, I say. If everything else was the same, people would generally take newer.

This has been stated on multiple times and here goes again. Additional Specialty reservations can be made on the day of the planned meal. Go to the Dining Reservation Desk, typically located on deck 5, and talk the the reservation clerk there. Best to go early in the morning, additional reservations are first come first served with some cabin status preferences.

You forget one important detail. The Air department is a profit center for O. What they pay for air has little to do with the air credits. The air credit should merely be viewed as what they charge YOU for the ticket. Not what they pay for the ticket.

Good luck with this plan!! 😂 On Vista, quite a number would be dropping Embers for a different reservation! Except on long cruises, it’s hard to get a second reservation in Jacques even with a butler. The quoted plan will have very little success today. Since it’s the OPs first time abroad, I’d recommend trying each of the venues to determine how they match up with your tastes. Experience them, before you judge them.

Oceania shore excursions are added to the listings all the time. Some may not appear until 4-6 months out. Some are also cancelled even after originally being offered. It wasn’t that long ago they didn’t appear for booking until around 9 months out. From the multiple complaints on my latest three cruises, in the past nine months, concerning tour descriptions not matching up with the actual tours, I’d be inclined to not book shorexs too early.

With the potential doubling of people trying to surf, stream, etc, will the system handle it? I’m not sure this is a plus or a negative. Starlink was very nice on the Vista, but there were still times service was slow to non existent. Now a doubling of potential users! 🙄

For all of us, in the end it’s itinerary and total cost. Fairly simple. We did a Viking cruise. Wine and beer is included for all. There were Teatotallers amongst us. Why were they there? Itinerary and total cost. We primarily did private tours, as we always do, even though ship tours were included. We did the cruise because of the great itinerary and the cost was competitive. I believe going forward this concept will continue. Is it possible that the implementation of SM will make some of its cruises not competitive for some cruisers? Absolutely. I also believe, that in the long run , Oceania will price its products to compete. Or, quite possibly they believe this new strategy will help bring in a new demographic that doesn’t take cruises to primarily sit on the ship watching the waves go by. Oceania has a mountain of debt to service. I’m guessing they don’t believe same ole, same ole, was going to get it paid. 🙄 We get a new program, designed to bring in new cruisers, to help pay the bills. Marketing obviously believes it will increase revenues while realizing some customers will be lost. Having owned, built, and sold successful businesses in the past, one learns they must often dump marginally profitable customers at times to concentrate on newer more profitable ones.

Those of us Silver and above receive free PPG as a perk. Others get the perk from their Travel Agency Consortium via the OCCAP program. I’m not sure what percentage of cruisers are actually paying grats, it varies obviously. Would diminishing O Club perks = less cruiser loyalty? Don’t know. Build grats into the advertised fares, then give silver and above a corresponding rate discount?

Just like the Internet, the ship has control over who has access to its intranet at all times. Ships ran for centuries without computer based communication. I was watching on a recent show were the communications between the bridge and engineering was all done via walkie talkie because of issues. I believe Oceania is fully equipped to function without intranet over a several day interval. Do you believe otherwise?

I understand that. If the system is down, it’s down! Watching a ball spin around for hours means nothing is coming up! Even the Oceania InTRA Net has service constraints on many cruises.