pinotlover

I truly wonder if this isn’t for certain countries like OZ and NZ??!! In Jan, we got our luggage tags for our February cruise. We’ll see what we get for our upcoming June cruise in the next month. For us the Blue Books are a waste of trees, publishing costs, and postage. My children don’t need more stuff to sort through some day. We are earnestly trying to de-stuff. The luggage tags, which we put on before departure from the hotel for the port, are a nice convenience.

We normally arrive no earlier than 2:30-3:00 and rarely encounter a check in line. Not so for those early arrivals. Also some Embarkment ports don’t have actual terminals. Places like Papeete, Langelinie in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and for us Bangkok ( on and on) only had a swiftly erected tent to welcome and check in new passengers. Oceania set the rules. In other locales, actual cruise line terminals are utilized and the terminal officials set the rules, not the cruise lines. Many operate differently. Thank you for clarifying the recent situation at Southampton.

We have the Vista booked for June. We are canceling 35 day Regatta cruise in December. That will leave the Riveria for next April. May not be the time for a lot of exposure. That Regatta cruise, all in, was going to be around $35K each. Payment due in June. After the Vista, we may be spectators for awhile to see what shakes out. If we get multiple cancelled and shortened ports on the Vista cruise, we’ll axe the Riveria cruise.

From the jibes we got aboard from crew going to work there, it will still be CC casual. However, it will be more in and out with most meals being 45 minutes to an hour. Supposedly Oceania is expecting Embers to be very popular across a wide swath of passengers. That’s why reservations will be required. Notice the seemingly high percentage of two tops? That will pull many in on its own.

Seems to be a lot of open capacity for the next year. These sales are wide spread across the various lines.

My pre Covid experiences at Southampton are probably meaningless now. I will warn you that in the Current Era some cruise terminals are not allowing people into the terminal and/or waiting area until they’re assigned boarding times. They have been forced to wait outside the complex. We have seen this twice in the past year, including just recently in February. One must show their boarding documents to get into the terminal. Let this be a guide. Not sure what Southampton is doing in this regard.

I think what’s important in this thread is that overall the pre Covid product is distinctly different from the new Oceania. In some areas, the new product has a lot of similarities, while in others it’s distinctly different. Projecting one’s past experiences onto the new product will probably lead to confusion. If you haven’t been in the water it’s tough to tell people how to swim.

On our recent Marina cruise I went to Karaoke one night after the show. This guy gets some and sings a love song for his wife that was just incredible. He had been a professional singer for around 20 years and had appeared in top venues around the country/world. Seems the travel and the fame were getting in the way of his marriage and he chose his marriage. Not even the staff wanted to follow that performance.

Oct-Nov 22 17 days-Sirena Feb-March 23, 20 days, Marina Next up, Vista June-11-25,2023 14 days. Lots of skin in the Oceania game!

We’ll be in the Vista on June 11. We’ll know early! As far as cast shows, we had the same shows on the Sirena in Oct as we did the Marina last month. Just a larger cast, particularly more dancers. Highly doubt a different set of shows on Vista, or Vista specific , but anxiously awaiting.

DoulaAnn; The issue isn’t the occasional playing of 50s and early 60s music. Absolutely most all of us can enjoy it occasionally. The issue is that is mostly all we get! Moving up a decade from Peggy Lee or Buddy Holly occasionally to even an Elton John, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Doobie Brothers , or even the Grass Roots on the softer side shouldn’t be psychologically shattering for the oldsters! How about some Rolling Stones?? Maybe those of us under 75 only represent 1/3rd of the passengers, so I’ll gladly take a third of the music selections!! ! There is a couple of decades, between current selections, they can explore before either hip hop or rap.

From one of the waiters on the Marina, going to the Vista, she said the Embers would have a full bar to fix cocktails for diners. Margaritas, mojitos, beers, whatever. More like a fancier Applebees, TGIF, or a J. Alexander’s. Completely new atmosphere for O. We’ll see fairly soon .

I’m a retiree, mostly. Never consider trying to get on the site over a weekend anymore. Frustrated enough trying on a week day. Been fortunate so far in that none of my dinner reservation days have hit over a weekend.

Oceania does NOT check for alcoholic beverages being brought aboard. The list of alcoholic beverages that can be brought aboard includes, but not limited too, beer, wines, RUM, bourbon, whiskey, scotch , vodka, gin, tequila, brandy, cognac, pisco, Jäegermeister, schnapps, amaretto, and an entire list of cordials. Easy concept, and also will include any other “ whaddabouts “ you might have come to mind.

Not enough information. Is the cruise in the heat of the summer? Will you and your SO need showers to clean up? How about hair? Getting back at 5:15 means you’re in your cabin by maybe 5:30. I drip dry quickly, not so myDW. I wouldn’t book anything earlier than 7:00!

Willing to bet your Roll Call can save you far more than the 25% discount on YWYW. Work your Roll Call.

Checked the Hamilton forecast. Rainy but no gale force winds or anything near it. 20kph. Actually rather calm there now. < 2 mph. Marina saved docking fees and the cruisers had another sea day. We experienced much the same with that Captain in SA. Maybe the weather in FL is different than in Bermuda. 🙄

It would be great if Barb reported back as to whether those gale force winds ever really materialized.

If you’d merely page down you’ll find another complete thread on this topic. No need to start a new one.

Years ago, the mods had some excellent “ Stickies “ posted on this thread. They clearly answered many of the commonly asked questions. Besides being a very helpful tool for newbies, it prevented the current twice monthly “ Can I bring wine and alcohol aboard “ threads. Right there as a Sticky for all to see. I have no idea, for the life of me, why they stopped doing them.

If one has a TA, O Air will require you to go through your TA. If one doesn’t want a TA to represent on contractual matters, and prefers DIY, then don’t specify a TA. That’s easy to do, but can come with consequences. Appointing and declaring someone as your AGENT has a meaning!

The best way to kill a program is to price it beyond reason. As part of the agreement with DP on sponsoring the Event, Oceania is required to have an actual certified Sommelier on board to run the program. A certified Sommelier is entirely different from the wine stewards pouring wine and beer running around the ships. The wine stewards are easy to spot because even when Oceania has them doing paid tastings to oftentimes make blunders in the presentations. Another difference, relevant to this, is that hiring a certified Sommelier in a competitive market comes at a large multiple higher cost than someone to just pour wine trying to fake it. Having a certified Sommelier aboard the ship to run its wine program, oversee its wine pairing classes, etc., has lots of benefits for both Oceania and the guests aboard. Its major drawback for Oceania is cost. They are paying that salary not only when he does that DP dinner, for which he must be hired, but every day aboard ship. Higher cost is not something Oceania currently needs. One therefore wonders if the huge bump in dinner costs reflects a decision by O to make those participants pay the lion’s share of that Sommelier’s cost. Not selling enough tickets, thus cancelling dinners, then becomes a convenient excuse to tell DP they are cancelling the program.

Sthrngary; I agree with most all you have said. Air, hotels, excursions are all very significant profit centers for companies like Oceania. They won’t exit those markets anytime soon as long as each remains profitable for them. Especially for Oceania, and some similar lines, there is a significant percentage of customers that are no longer cognitively able to figure out flight schedules, arrangements, and costs thereof. Will they book that flight through NYC, not noticing that have to change from EWR or LGA to JFK for example? Booking a hotel, manhandling their luggage, getting a cab to said hotel is beyond some’s mental and physical limitations. For a profit, Oceania takes care of all of that for them. Mother Oceania is there for them. Others take the route for pure convenience, they don’t want to think. It’s the cruise line’s job. Even exploring often excellent shorex options on a Roll Call is more effort than they want to expend. Another option is a professional Travel Agent. Some here are horrified of the concept their TA may make a buck, but that TA may well be able to arrange and make early air and hotel bookings for less than O’s fares, even including their fees. A huge backstop to all of this is that 3 to 1 bookings to cancellation rates. Our final payment for our upcoming Vista cruise was 90 days pre trip. I was amazed at the number of cancellations and the suddenly available cabins on day 89. If people are wanting to travel to Europe during summer high tourist season and want to wait until last minute to commit to a cruise and air arrangements, Your choices are going to be reduced. I believe quite a number use O’s Air to have the flexibility of cancelling at 91 days with relatively small cancellation cost. Much lower than if they bought the airline tickets themselves. A lot of cogs in the wheel. Lots of combinations on how the dice may roll. Sometimes it’s loaded dice.

If one was on a shorter cruise and was considering the Premium Drinks package, it is easily conceivable that instead of taking the OLife upgrade that buying the package outright and getting the La Reserve discount could be attractive. Combine this with the possibility of waiting until a couple days pre DP dinner, getting the discount, and then enjoying the Premium Package the remainder of the cruise/segment. 🤗

People are not considering an important portion of the discounted bulk rate ticket system, that being demand. There are only a certain number of tickets in the pool for the markets. Therefore, if Citivecchia (Rome) has two 5000-6000 behemoths sitting there along side an I embarking on the same day, the demand for those limited discount bulk rate tickets will be entirely different than if only O is there. Moving a day earlier may make a huge difference in what’s available in the ticket pool. Some airports are severely overloaded. Amsterdam is a perfect example with government mandated flight reductions. Getting in and out are disasters. Unfortunately, cruise schedules are made 2+ years in advance, but I pity anyone having to embark or disembark there. Direct flights are the least of your issues. Even those believing they have great flights into, out of , or through some of those airports can be in for a rude awakening. People roll the dice on airlines. In today’s market, waiting until 45-90 days preflight to see what O can find available in the discounted bulk rate market may often come up shooting craps.