•New for 2013! - Exclusive discounts on internet usage plans

[BeginTheBeguine]

I was just looking at the official Oceania Cruises site, clicked on explore ships, then I clicked on Suites and Staterooms. There are two new perks listed for suites above and including Concierge Level Veranda A4.

 

•New for 2013! - Exclusive discounts on internet usage plans

New for 2013! - Complimentary iPad® available for your enjoyment onboard+ (+Certain limitations apply)

 

Does anyone know what the discount is, and are there different discounts for each level above Concierge Level Veranda A4? :)

[ChatKat in Ca.]

As someone who would sail on O more, i wish they'd honor my frequent cruiser status on Regent and offer the same benefits. I am Gold for the Seven Sears Society which give me free internet.

[BeginTheBeguine]

I agree--we are Platinum on Regent, but this is still good news ! I would still like to know how much the discount is, because the internet charges on Oceania are a bit high.

[PaReader]

O has the same internet provider as Regent (and that same provider services

many other cruise lines). Why there are different charges most likely has to do with

the profit margin each cruise line wishes to achieve. in any event, I'll look forward

to seeing what the discount will be. If anyone has advance information about it, I'd

love to hear it.

[PaReader]

Just a thought....Hondorner or Stan & Jim ought to be able to find out what's being planned.

How about it, guys ?

[Carnevale]

I am disapppointed to hear they are waiting for 2013 to introduce this perk. The rates I've seen for OCL are VERY high indeed so a perk in this area would be most welcome!

[hondorner]

O has the same internet provider as Regent (and that same provider services

many other cruise lines). Why there are different charges most likely has to do with

the profit margin each cruise line wishes to achieve. in any event, I'll look forward

to seeing what the discount will be. If anyone has advance information about it, I'd

love to hear it.

I can say this for sure. According to very recent reports from Regent Navigator in Alaska, Regent has raised the internet rates for newcomers to the exact same rates as Oceania. Of course, on Regent, once you have reached the 21 day milestone and are Silver, you will receive free internet. In fact, you will be declared Silver at the beginning of any cruise where you pass the 21 day milestone. I'm Bronze on Regent with 17 days, and under the current rules, will receive free internet on my next Regent cruise.

 

I have no idea what is involved with the new Oceania announcement, except it appears to follow in the footsteps of other recent changes that have packaged many of the Regent inclusive amenities into a specifically priced ala carte offering. For example, Regent offers what is essentially an open bar policy included in the fare; it's now possible to buy a similar package on Oceania for $50 per day per person. Regent offers what are essentially "free" excursions; it's now possible to buy a similar package on Oceania for a specific ala carte price. Regent offers "free" internet; it makes sense to offer the same thing on Oceania for a package price.

 

In other words, it's getting easier to compare the costs of a Regent cruise with an Oceania cruise. Take the Oceania price, add the premium drink package, the Unlimited Passport package for excursions and the new internet package, and you will have come very close to emulating a Regent voyage on an Oceania ship. Things like food (improved on Regent since becoming Oceania's sister line), ambiance (the art is similar on both cruise lines, having been personally selected by FDR), service (staff is now routinely rotated between Oceania and Regent) are essentially the same on both. Some things differ; ther Regent ships have more space per passenger, both in basic cabins and to some extent, in public space (there are fewer passengers per ton of ship capacity). On the other hand, Marina and Riviera are newer and have many more amenities than any Regent ship (there are strong rumors that Regent will soon be announcing a new ship).

 

Some people wonder if the two cruise lines will merge; official policy (right from the top) is that this will not happen. There is a difference; under Regent policies, you will always pay for all the amenities and space in the fare; on Oceania you have a choice (do or don't buy the packages; choose a smaller or larger cabin) and can control your budget and destiny. Some are more comfortable with one choice or the other. Personally, this is one of the reasons why I prefer Oceania; I have two future cruise booked; a Caribbean cruise at an Inside Cabin price where I plan to take no excursions, spend most of my time on the pool deck and purchase the premium drink package, and a transAtlantic in a penthouse where I will spend many of the sea days relaxing in the luxury cabin napping or watching movies. I have those choices on Oceania; they would be limited on Regent.

 

After all that long-winded opinion, I have to add that I have no more idea of what the new package will be like than anyone else, and will wait like everyone else for more details. I'll probably hear about it first from my travel agency; they are probably closer to Oceania than anyone, as all of you who use the same agency know!

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Things like food (improved on Regent since becoming Oceania's sister line), ambiance (the art is similar on both cruise lines, having been personally selected by FDR), service (staff is now routinely rotated between Oceania and Regent) are essentially the same on both.

Some people wonder if the two cruise lines will merge; official policy (right from the top) is that this will not happen.

 

The food on Regent is much much better than Oceania - you can order anything they have onboard ship on Regent and most food is completely cooked to order. That is not true of Oceania. And actually, Regent - on my last cruise - was pulling back it's specialty order ability on my last cruise. I have always had Crab Benedict in the MDR/Compass Rose on a Regent ship and the last cruise I was on they told me they could not make it - even though they had all the ingredients.

 

And while they say they aren't merging and have been saying that since PCH took over Regent, more and more, I believe it will happen at some point.

[LaCroisiereS'amuse]

Why would PCH want to merge 2 totally different products????

 

It makes no commercial sense....they would be alienating two separate (& loyal) customer bases. They are simply exploring synergies as do the Carnival group, the RCI group etc etc......

 

As to the food on Oceania, I was always under the impression that all MDR & speciality restaurants food was all prepared "a la minute". In any case the cuisine is certainly better than some of the luxury lines, particularly Silversea.

[Benita]

I hope they stay separate. Regent is way out of our traveling budget. We do not drink and like to book own excursions, so if Oceania becomes a line where we are forced to subsidize the bar and shore excursion bills of all cruisers, we will have to go back to the more mainstream lines. That said, I am looking forward to using the internet if the rumors that it has become faster are correct. When we sail on our usual lines, internet packages are available for a reasonable price and they tend to be pretty good connections.

[BeginTheBeguine]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess we will just have to wait and see what the discount will be. As for Regent and Oceania...they are both great cruise lines.

[pacheco18]

New for 2013! - Complimentary iPad® available for your enjoyment onboard+ (+Certain limitations apply)

 

:)

 

 

Whoever came up with this idea never owned an Ipad. An Ipad is a personal item -- has all your "stuff" on it -- music, apps, books etc. It's not even something you can share. I don't get it.

[Ms Understood]

Whoever came up with this idea never owned an Ipad. An Ipad is a personal item -- has all your "stuff" on it -- music, apps, books etc. It's not even something you can share. I don't get it.

You can use it to check and send email and play games. My car dealer even loans them out to people waiting for their cars to be serviced ;)

----------------------

Helen

[pacheco18]

You can use it to check and send email and play games. My car dealer even loans them out to people waiting for their cars to be serviced ;)

----------------------

Helen

 

Clever car dealer. I guess I never thought about the Ipad in such a limited capacity because it does so much more and is such a personalized piece of technology but that would work -- just email and games. I suppose Apple would love the idea as it gives non Ipad owners a chance to try one and get addicted (as I am).

[orchestrapal]

Whoever came up with this idea never owned an Ipad. An Ipad is a personal item -- has all your "stuff" on it -- music, apps, books etc. It's not even something you can share. I don't get it.

 

Got one on our last cruise and it was empty with exception of one solitaire (super easy one deck). Basically of no use.;)

[pacheco18]

Got one on our last cruise and it was empty with exception of one solitaire (super easy one deck). Basically of no use.;)

 

 

Very sad use of the IPAD. They should at least load it with tons of free apps, free ebooks and maybe a free TV show or movie so cruisers can really enjoy it. They could put the free Kindle App on and those who use Kindles could load their own libraries on -- of course someone would have to "clean them off" between cruises and I bet that's a time-consuming task they do not want to handle.

[Paulchili]

The food on Regent is much much better than Oceania

 

I hope that you will agree that this is a strictly subjective observation and not an absolute truth.

IMO, food on Oceania, particularly on O ships, is best at sea (including Regent, Seabourn and Silversea).

JMO :D

[hondorner]

I hope that you will agree that this is a strictly subjective observation and not an absolute truth.

IMO, food on Oceania, particularly on O ships, is best at sea (including Regent, Seabourn and Silversea).

JMO :D

It ias subjective, of course, and when it comes to food preferences, no one is wrong. But, as to whether the overall food experience is better on Oceania or Regent, the majority who have tried both agrees with you.

 

ChatKat is correct that Regent will accommodate special requests for off-menu items more willingly than Oceania, but that doesn't make the quality, preparation or taste of the food any better. However, she is injcorrect in stating that food is not cooked to order on Oceania.

 

As to whether they will ever merge, I once reported on the Regent forum that Frank Del Rio had told me personally they will never merge. When there were some doubters at that time, FDR himself posted that I was correct. Can't get any higher than that...

[Paulchili]

 

As to whether they will ever merge, I once reported on the Regent forum that Frank Del Rio had told me personally they will never merge. When there were some doubters at that time, FDR himself posted that I was correct. Can't get any higher than that...

 

Personally I do not see a point or a good reason for merging.

As mentioned by others, there are large numbers of loyal followers for each line as is. They are similar enough but with enough differences to keep more people happy this way. Specifically, why pay for alcohol (or excursions) up front if you will not take advantage of it.

[wripro]

Wow, this thread has gone from internet package discounts on O to a comparison of the quality of food on O and R to whether the two will merge. How long before it compares dress codes, smoking and kids on board the two???

[Wendy The Wanderer]

As for the ipad, I wonder if they'll charge you internet connect-time to play a game? :eek:

[ruppert18]

Actually, thre are threads for each of thos issues as well!!

[pacheco18]

As for the ipad, I wonder if they'll charge you internet connect-time to play a game? :eek:

 

 

Many of the game apps do not require internet connection. You can play Scrabble and lots of card games without a connection. YOu can even do NY Times crossword puzzles without a connection. You can certainly play Angry Birds lolol

 

I suspect they will not put much on the IPAD. They have enough to do on turnaround day without purging stuff on Ipads. I guess theythink it's an attraction to have expensive internet access right in your cabin. lol

 

I encourage you all to do what I do. Get a TMobile Blackberry, activate international data roaming for $20 a month (prorated) and receive and send all your email whenever you want and from wherever you want. Unlimited email for a two week cruise will cost you $10. For those of us who travel a lot, it is the best solution out there to stay connected.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Many of the game apps do not require internet connection. You can play Scrabble and lots of card games without a connection. YOu can even do NY Times crossword puzzles without a connection. You can certainly play Angry Birds lolol

 

I suspect they will not put much on the IPAD. They have enough to do on turnaround day without purging stuff on Ipads. I guess theythink it's an attraction to have expensive internet access right in your cabin. lol

 

I encourage you all to do what I do. Get a TMobile Blackberry, activate international data roaming for $20 a month (prorated) and receive and send all your email whenever you want and from wherever you want. Unlimited email for a two week cruise will cost you $10. For those of us who travel a lot, it is the best solution out there to stay connected.

 

I was mostly kidding, just riffing on the way that the laptops on the higher suites must be connected to the internet to operate at all.

 

As for international roaming, I doubt that works in the middle of the ocean. Just saying. I usually put an international roaming package on my phone when I travel, but I doubt if there are cell towers in the middle of the ocean.

 

I guess we'll be getting one of these ipads next year, by then I'm sure many will have reported on the situation.

[hondorner]

I've done a little more digging, and the answer I get back is "Top Secret". so, I'll definitely have to wait just like everyone else.

 

I can make a bit of a comment about iPads, however; my personal experience is that they are much faster than my laptop at hkme, but much slower than my laptop on the ship. I downloaded all my email onto my laptop in a matter of a few minutes while aboard Riviera, but when I tried to download Betsy's email onto her iPad, I spent 20 minutes and had just the subjects -- no content. I was on a limited package, so I gave up, but at a guess I'd say it would have taken at least another 20 minutes to download the messages, too.

 

There are a couple of possible reasons -- email on the iPad may work differently; Betsy's email is at Hotmail and the iPad may not cooperate with that as easily as other servers; and I may have done something wrong when I made the connection -- there is some special rule for connecting iPads, and I'm not sure I got it right. But, the bottom line is that I never used her iPad for anything on the ship again!

 

Having said all that, I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate. I have read that some cruise lines are experimenting with iPads or some other tablet to communicate within the ship -- making reservations, examining their onboard accounts, and such, even sending personal messages to other passengers, if I understood it correctly. Is Oceania doing something like that? Who knows? But, it wouldn't require an internet connection, and the necesssary apps would be on the tablets...