alcpa1

There is another level of TA's that get additional treatment from Oceania from time to time. They are "preferred" agents. If you find agents to contact just ask if they are Connoisseur or Preferred agents and then carry on with your questions. It's a more challenging method but workable. Also check out articles and ads in travel magazines like Travel and Leisure and Conde Nast. The ads will pop out if they specialize in anything beyond mass market. It may take a little effort but O is worth it.

One of the biggest hassles with the laundry is the 3 day turn around. Clothes come back folded but not the way my grandmother would do it!!! We have had no problem with the service. Unlike other line's laundries we have never lost an item and that's a good thing too.

It's a toss up. On our March Sirena cruise our embarkation port was changed. We lost a port for a sea day and a tender port (Barbuda) was cancelled to sea conditions. We have had changes on each of our three O cruises but continue to book aditional sailings for their itineraries. Good luck.

While our recent Sirena cruise was new to Simply More excursions were hard to come by. We booked within days of the Simply More conversion was introduced. Several in our group needed accessible tours and they were almost non-existant. Hopefully O has gotten a better handle on their offerings.

I know what the fine print says but we were able to book another sailing for friends who were not onboard with the same perks we got. Perhaps it was due to their O status. I was surprised, to say the least.

DaveyWavey70, Have you joined your Roll Call? Singles are almost always embraced and encouraged to participate in the meet and greet as well as all shipboard activities.

We've done two end of the season cruises to Alaska and did not see the Northern Lights. That early in the fall season would have been a tremendous bonus. Good luck!

Just returned from a Sirena sailing and so many were upset because there was no availibility for many of the shore excursions. In addition those who had accessibility issues had very few options. I hope that the Simply More excursion issues will be ironed out. It is a new program that had a lot of issues on our sailing. I recommend you book as early as possible.

We were on Sirena March 17 from Panama City to Miami. We were requested to board late via an email on the 16th. The ship went through a required cleaning with several venues closed for two days. We never heard of any health issues for the entirity of the cruise. If the ship left late from Miami it could have been a Coast Guard inspection. There were Coast Guard officials in the terminal when we disembarked.

Love your posts!!! Hank, keep it up and we will book Vista asap. I just finished my last load of laundry after returning from the Sirena. I missed a tissue in a pocket but no fear it came out exactly as it went in - stiff and without a loss of a single fiber.

Just off an O sailing this morning. Another option is to book a sharing table. This adds another layer of booking flexibility and O guests are generally gregarious.

Gary, When we get back from our Sirena cruise in a couple of weeks we need to meet for lunch and dream and scheme together!!!

I was on a webinar with O this afternoon where it was announced there will be a rate increase for all sailings on April 1st.

We knew this before our first O cruise and we are set to be on board again in a few short weeks. BTW we missed a port on Celebrity and the port fee was never refunded. No OBC was offered nor was there any visible weather issue nor viable explanation.

We normally use Blackberry as well but this time we have an earlier flight out of LHR and think it's best to use a local company that won't face the common traffic problems a London based company might face.