Help! Confused about booking restaurants and shore excursions on O site

[Leejnd4]

Hi Lyn,

 

You're reading my mind! That's what we were just talking about. Rather than try to get us all on the phone, we'll just have each of us select what we want for ourselves, then pay for it...then the next one can make her selections and pay for it etc.

 

Thanks for the well-wishes! My recovery has been waaaaay slower than I expected, but I've since learned that this is par for the course for this kind of surgery. It's going to be a challenge being completely where I need to be for diving, but I've communicated with all of the dive ops and they are willing to give me any extra assistance I need (such as putting my gear on in the water instead of in the boat, which would take the pressure off my shoulder). So I'm booking those dives and doing my PT religiously. :)

[omahacruisercm]

When you are each using your own credit card to pre book items, you will need to call and someone will take care of the billing from each person, once you are on board and have your own accounts it won't be a problem.

[LHT28]

Thanks for the well-wishes! My recovery has been waaaaay slower than I expected, but I've since learned that this is par for the course for this kind of surgery. It's going to be a challenge being completely where I need to be for diving, but I've communicated with all of the dive ops and they are willing to give me any extra assistance I need (such as putting my gear on in the water instead of in the boat, which would take the pressure off my shoulder). So I'm booking those dives and doing my PT religiously. :)

Good luck with the PT

the older we get it seems to take longer to recover from injuries ;)

Let someone else do any winching if you are sailing ;)

 

Fair winds

 

Lyn

[sunlover12]

Ohhh...right, I totally forgot about the 45-day window for the regular specialty restaurants. DOH! I'm not in the window for that yet. :o It's all coming back to me now. I'll be patient. :)

 

Regarding La Reserve...yes I'm aware what it is, and I can't wait! I did a similar dining/wine pairing experience on Crystal called the Vintage Room, and it was one of the best nights on the cruise. After reading the three available La Reserve menus on our cruise we want to splurge and do the Connoisseur menu, which has some incredible wines on the list that I am dying to try. Just knowing the cost of a few of those wines by the bottle, it sounds like a great value!

 

Anyway, I'm disappointed that we have to pay upfront, but I suppose that's how they ensure that people don't cancel at the last minute, given that they have to pre-plan for the food/wine needs. So I'm okay with it. I'll go ahead and book and pay for myself and Sandy, and she can pay me back.

 

As for shore excursions...that one still has me baffled. I've never been on any cruise line that expects you to pre-pay shore excursions...I've always paid for them through my shipboard account at the end of the cruise. If that's what we have to do, then I may need to have a pow-wow with my friends to figure out how to do this. Ugh. Does anyone else find this pre-paying for shore excursions to be annoying?

 

I've been on Royal Caribbean and they also require a pre-payment for shore excursions. I'd be interested in knowing which cruise lines don't require this. You may be okay just booking onboard but if it's an excursion you really want to do and not miss out, I'd just go ahead and book it in advance.

 

Have a great cruise with your friends. You will love Oceania.

[Paulchili]

. I'd be interested in knowing which cruise lines don't require this.

 

Princess does not require pre payment of shorex's - a nice feature but not reason enough by itself to cruise with them :D

[Leejnd4]

I've been on Royal Caribbean and they also require a pre-payment for shore excursions. I'd be interested in knowing which cruise lines don't require this. You may be okay just booking onboard but if it's an excursion you really want to do and not miss out, I'd just go ahead and book it in advance.

 

It's been many years since I did a Royal Caribbean cruise (since my kids were small, and they're in their mid-twenties now) so I can't speak to their policies -- but the last few cruises I did were on Paul Gauguin, Crystal and Windstar, and none of them required pre-payment of shore excursions. I know this because I booked several tours in advance on all of my most recent cruises, and paid for them out of our shipboard account when we left the ship, allowing us to use our OBC.

 

On Crystal we also didn't have to pay for the Vintage Room (equivalent to La Reserve) in advance. We'd received quite a bit of OBC on that cruise, and so the cost of our Vintage Room dinners, as well as a couple of our excursions, were completely covered by our OBC. I did that cruise with my mother, and we were careful to ensure we had separate shipboard accounts with our own billing info, and that the OBC was split between us. We did a number of excursions separately, and I distinctly recall on the last day we had to carefully go through the final bill to make sure each of us was charged for the right excursions. So nothing was pre-paid...it all was paid for on our shipboard accounts at the end of the cruise.

 

Perhaps this is a new thing? I haven't been cruising as frequently as I used to, since we bought our own boat...my last cruise was two years ago on Paul Gauguin, but I'm quite sure we didn't pre-pay for our tours on that one either.

 

Have a great cruise with your friends. You will love Oceania.

 

Thanks! I'm sure I will. Certainly the people on this board are warm and helpful, so I'm looking forward to meeting more Oceania lovers onboard. :) Can't believe it's coming up so soon... :D

[Leejnd4]

Good luck with the PT

the older we get it seems to take longer to recover from injuries ;)

Let someone else do any winching if you are sailing ;)

 

Fair winds

 

Lyn

 

Thanks Lyn! Yes, ain't that the truth? This all came about because some guy ran his cart into my ankles at Home Depot causing me to trip and fall, and I landed hard on my shoulder. I didn't think it was any big deal...I just let out a little embarrassed laugh, picked myself up and dusted myself off and left. But it just kept getting worse and worse...turned out I had a full-thickness tear in my rotator cuff! WHA?? :confused: Since when does taking a little spill result in months and months of pain, trauma, and major surgery? Oh...right...since I became a bona-fide Senior Citizen! (I'm only 55, but AARP seems determined to get me in their clutches...) :p

 

Funny you should mention the winching...I don't know if that was just an off-the-cuff remark, or if you have an amazing memory of some comment I might have made in here at some point months ago that my husband and I are sailboat owners! But yeah...that's been the biggest problem with this whole surgery is that I CAN'T winch a sail, so I've been land-locked for months now, and our boat has been sitting unused. Yet another reason I can't wait for this cruise!

 

Princess does not require pre payment of shorex's - a nice feature but not reason enough by itself to cruise with them :D

 

LOL! Agree! ;) I'll deal with the pre-pay issue. I've been religiously reading Oceania reviews just to keep my anticipation levels up...and it's up! It's up! Hurry up...can't wait to get on that ship!

[LHT28]

 

Funny you should mention the winching...I don't know if that was just an off-the-cuff remark, or if you have an amazing memory of some comment I might have made in here at some point months ago that my husband and I are sailboat owners! But yeah...that's been the biggest problem with this whole surgery is that I CAN'T winch a sail, so I've been land-locked for months now, and our boat has been sitting unused. Yet another reason I can't wait for this cruise!

 

I did not tear my rotator cuff but close enough to feel the pain, all I did was reach into the back seat for something but so thankful I did not need surgery

 

About the boat yes I recall your dream to sail for 5 yrs ..our friend had a similar dream but suffice to say he never made it due to his errors

We sailed for a few years on the lake here ..I am a fair weather sailor :D

 

Enjoy the cruise

Lyn

[Winner]

You may be able to book--and prepay--your excursions, etc. beforehand and, once onboard, cancel your credit card payment and rebook them using your OBC. This is common practice on several cruise lines.

 

Whatever you and your two friends do, make sure your accounts are on individual accounts or the friendship may not survive the cruise!!

 

Fingers crossed for a modest $$ upgrade1

[Leejnd4]

About the boat yes I recall your dream to sail for 5 yrs ..our friend had a similar dream but suffice to say he never made it due to his errors

We sailed for a few years on the lake here ..I am a fair weather sailor :D

 

Amazing memory, Lyn! :)

 

You may be able to book--and prepay--your excursions, etc. beforehand and, once onboard, cancel your credit card payment and rebook them using your OBC. This is common practice on several cruise lines.

 

Whatever you and your two friends do, make sure your accounts are on individual accounts or the friendship may not survive the cruise!!

 

Fingers crossed for a modest $$ upgrade1

 

Oh...yes...DOH! What a great idea, why didn't I think of that? LOL! I was just so surprised by having to pre-pay, and trying to figure out how to make this work for us. That's a fabulous idea! :D

 

Yes, we definitely will be sure to have our accounts separated. I'm quite sure that one of us will be drinking a lot more than another one of us. :p