pinotlover

I’m an old fart. Cheating on tests, or plagiarism on papers, resulted in a trip to the Dean of Men. If the first trip didn’t yield an exit from the school, the second absolutely did. Memorizing questions and answers from past tests isn’t cheating. Downloading all of them on your cell phone and calling them up during the test is, at least to old farts like myself. Perhaps at your “ institution of higher education “ is was totally acceptable. Different era.

I’ll never forget our favorite CD Barr kicking an entire team out of Trivia for blatant cheating. Prohibited them from participating in any other Trivia events for the rest of the cruise! Other CDs just allow people to Google answers without impediment. Took the fun of the competition for us, so we rarely participate. It’s amazing, to us, that some keep questions and answers from multiple past cruises on their phones so to get answers and gain more points. O points can’t be that precious, so trying to combat short term memory loss is the obvious issue.

An Oceania app. What a great plan! 🥴. Put more pressure on the ship’s WiFi that already runs at a snail’s pace! 🙄 I don’t need to read Currents, I’ve got an app! Let me check the app for what’s for dinner. Yep, just what the system needs! 😂😂. All those cruisers, not able to sleep, can be glued to their smartphones at 03:00 to see how long the ball spins so to check their app!

Yep! I have the pictures pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents . They’re special to me. Today, people take digital photos and send them to the “ Cloud”. They die and no one has the passwords to retrieve them. The Cloud eats them.

😂😂 The 2021 Champagne crop was about 30% of normal. Worldwide shortage of Champagne at most any price. Shipping issue, empty bottle supply issues, on and on. O won’t be serving up Tatt anytime soon.

Oceania has never provided only Champagne as its sparkling wine. It has actually featured a couple good American bubblies over the years. Since Chandon is the subject, they make sparkling wine in Champagne, California, and in Australia. If you similarly find the U. S. version lacking, then forget the version from Oz!! 🤮

On the R ships, even in a PH, I take my showers in the Spa. Typically, but not always, the same on the O ships. What these upgrades means for me is that I’ll be taking less trips to the Spa on the O ships.

Doing a lot of looking. Our problem is I performed a horrible self inflicted wound and bought Biz Class tickets for our cruise. They are cancellable , but at a sizable cost. Therefore, I’ll allow the events to play out. What we certainly won’t do, for months to come, is front Oceania any other money for tours or any on board activities. NaDa! That basket will stay empty! 🥸

My comment is that Oceania’s cost per bottle is in the $5-$6 range. May be less on a large marketing arrangement with Chandon. Quality of the provided Sparling wine has varied tremendously over the years.

Disappointing if true, however not much quality change from the St. Germain they had earlier. Typically retails at less than $20/ bottle, closer to $16 in some areas. Oceania price is around $6/ btl. Enjoy!

Hopefully we’ll get a reply to this from someone that has cruised since at least July. What happen on the Mayflower crossing or during the heights of Covid are old history. What’s happening today??

We found, on the Marina, they would open them daily upon request. Nightly, they were closed and relocked. So when you want them opened, you daily had to find a steward to get it done.

We are doing Buenos Aires to Lima this coming season. Lots of excellent private tours , for most of the ports, are available for sign up on our Roll Call. Absolutely no reason to pay Oceania’s exorbitant prices for most of the shore tours. If you are new here on the Board, look at the top of the Oceania page and clink on Oceania Roll Calls. Then follow the prompts for ship and month and find your specific Roll Call. You have options. Pick and choose your excursions as they interest you. Often private tours, identical to those offered by Oceania, are offered at half to a third as to that charged by Oceania. Enjoy your cruise!!

Not blaming Jancruz the least. She’s been great on this Board. I worked in corporate America for years. Even to people like Jancruz, they’ll lie through their teeth to maintain the Company story. The O VP knew he was lying when he talked to her, the Company just wasn’t ready to release the real facts. They’ll lie to her just like they will to any of us. Not Jancruz’s fault. I realized I was taking a risk in booking flights, even with her assurances. We are flying Biz Air, plus wanted to avoid the 2-3 stop routes getting to our destination might incure. One stop is enough. I rolled the dice and only time will tell if we came up with craps. If we get cancelled, since we Embark in Istanbul, we may just do a Turkey land tour and see if we can just do round trip out of IST. That would make three cruises out of Istanbul for us cancelled by O. It would be time to blow them off for that part of the world.

Also, some of the Groups negotiate corkage fee rates ( or lack thereof) for their Group members. Be careful trying to expect uniform “ one size fits all “ policies across a wide spectrum of passengers.

Will 330 passengers even pay for the fuel burned?

We’re on it also. I screwed up and just last weekend bought air based on Jancruz’s comments! Significant cancellation charges. Wait and See, but don’t have much hope. Just thinking about the humor if the Swingers on the July charter end up having the “ maiden “ voyage! 🥴😂! I’m sure FDR would be thrilled to be on that cruise! 😎

I have warned fellow cruisers of this issue repeatedly. The industry is struggling with both manpower and supply chain issues. Multiple ships are being delayed.

While I certainly agree with Kate’s approach, perhaps she should likewise tell us at what capacity the ship was sailing. I’ve had groups of merely 10-12 on a full Marina and had to wait an hour + to be allowed on a tender. This can be an iffy situation. Your 8 hour shore tour might be cut by an hour because Oceania gives priority to its 3-5 hour tours.

I’ll give one example of something they could easily do on a sudden developed sea day. Have a Wine Tasting/Class in their hip pocket. The R ships don’t have real Sommeliers, but Miami could have it all pre staged. Do a special tasting not in the normal repetitive rotation . Miss a port, advertise the Wine Class. Chances are high they sell out. Win-Win. Oceania makes money while entertaining their guests. I could pull it all together in less than 30 minutes cold Turkey. Sell out the tasting before lunch. This isn’t rocket science, it’s merely overcoming inertia. Win-Win and making money should appeal to Oceania. Shoot, I’d do it for them for the price of free admission for my DW and have fun doing so!

Tahiti was particularly bizarre. People came to the pier at 07:00 thinking they could get on board, have breakfast, and lay by the pool! 😂 We left the ship at 08:45 and caught a taxi to our hotel. 200+ people lined up down the street waiting to board and the charter flight hadn’t landed yet., which would bring more people in. It’s overwhelmingly obvious some people love waiting in long lines . 😳

It is a long established fact that many of Oceania’s passengers totally ignore their assigned boarding times and show up early at the port. By facilitating those passenger practices, the issues are magnified during times such as now. Our next cruise embarks in Bilboa. The ship is currently waitlisted full. We will enjoy the multiple sights of the city and show up at the latest possible scheduled boarding time. We feel fighting the early onslaught is foolish. The ship’s food may be good, but it’s not that good! Certainly not good enough to stand in long lines for.

There are very few Oceania cruises listed as Back to Back. A few exceptions exist . Typically most of the longer voyages are listed as separate individual cruises . Review the cruise definition carefully.

Perhaps, but you also have the issue with all the PHers and Concierge Class passengers that , in the past, had higher boarding priority. They can’t all have secretly reserved 11:00 slots. 🥴

They aren’t far apart at all, with Portsmouth being a bit further out. My larger question would be the reason of the switch. Berthing rights are normally established on seniority basis with the lines. Oceania is still a relatively young cruise line, and I’ve been on cruises where this has happened before. The question becomes then, which and more importantly what size ships are you being bounced for? If a few behemoths are coming in with 000s each, you had better work out transportation early. A check of the Southampton port schedule should give you the information.