Andee

I wish Oceania was adding ships between the R ships and the O ships in size, perhaps around 900 passengers.

We started sailing Oceania in 2004, when the entire fleet was 2 R ships.

Our last cruise was on Riviera Jan 14-31, 2023.

Our next Oceania cruise is Dec 12, 2024 Dubai to Singapore for 30 days.
As much as we fell in love with Oceania during our first cruise with them in 2004, we also love other kinds of travel.

In 3 weeks, we leave for a 6 week trip to Scotland, postponed from 2020.

In August, we'll spend several days in Amsterdam, take a Rhine River cruise to Basel, travel around Switzerland for 2-3 weeks.
Over the winter, we plan to spend a week in Mexico City with Road Scholar, will add on a week in Merida and a week in Oaxaca.
I'm sure there will be another couple of trips during 2024, but I have no idea where yet.

Our cruise was last month. We paid $35 to $55 for our excursions with local tour operators.

We prefer the larger cabins on the O ships, but prefer the public spaces (shops, location of Baristas, layout of library, on the R ships. 

We would love that. The one time we booked a PH, our butler quickly taught us not to ask him to do anything.

Although we haven't yet gone on our cruise with a stop at Harvest Caye, from what I've read, there seems to be good snorkeling at Laughing Bird Caye National Park.

I like whatsinport.com

I like whatsinport.com

We have done cruise line excursions in ports where the main sight (such as a historic city) was 1.5 hours away from the port, but it's a rarity for us.
Commonly, we book a 4-5 hour excursion from a local vendor that starts in the morning, allowing us plenty of leeway to get back to the ship. In the Caribbean, that usually costs $45-$55. I read reviews from multiple sources before selecting a vendor.
Sometimes, we've rented a motor scooter, quad, or car to tour the island on our own.

We booked our own air and elected to fly into FLL to cruise out of Miami. The times were better and we prefer FLL to MIA. From the Uber website and staff at our FLL hotel, it looks like Uber will be about $35.

We only had a butler once and he trained us well not to ask for anything.

We asked him to turn in my husband's menus; he refused.

We asked us to show us a standard veranda cabin; he showed us a handicapped accessible one, which is different.

We're in the disappointed camp because we worry that this will lead to more cases on board and put passengers at risk.

I have found that the reps I've called at insuremytrip have been very knowledgeable and helpful.

We're booked on a Miami to Miami cruise leaving Nov 27 that includes the Amazon.

It seems unlikely that it will happen, so I haven't booked air or researched the ports.

Although the larger cabins in every category on the O ships are nice, we very much prefer the public areas on the R ships, as well as the smaller size of the ships.

We booked 2 days with Red October in St P.

They were wonderful at tailoring their standard 2 day itinerary to our interests. One person in our group of 4 had recently recovered from pneumonia and the driver was fantastic at helping her in and out of the van, chatting with her when she decided to skip a palace.

The guide was amazing, interesting, personable.

We love the cooking demonstrations; the pairs of chefs could be comedy teams.

Usually, we find the lecturers quite good.

On Canal transit day, get to Horizons early for a window seat; the person doing the narration was very interesting on our cruise.

I like to play mah jongg on sea days; it was easy to get a game together.

Reading (and dozing) in a shady area of the pool deck really makes me feel like I'm on vacation.

It never dawned on me to bribe the maitre d'.

There was no one else waiting for a cancellation or no show. Seems like a good way to make a passenger happy.

One time, when we decided last minute that we wanted to eat in a specialty, we spoke to the host when it opened, waited 15 minutes and were seated when people without reservations didn't show up.

No, DH doesn't eat pork and all the hot dogs at the famous place in Reykjavik were pork. We were disappointed.

I agree that a land trip us better than a cruise for Iceland.

We did not find it terribly expensive.

We stayed in apartments or cottages for reasonable rates; for example, our beautiful, well located apartment in Reykjavik was $108 per night. We ate breakfast in and often picnicked for lunch.

We bought alcohol in the duty free shop when we landed and drank at home, rather than in restaurants.

I researched restaurants and found lots of good ones that were reasonably priced. Given that tax is included and there's no tipping, a $30 meal in Iceland is equivalent to a $23 meal in NYC.

So much if what we did was free or inexpensive that we spent very little on activities.

We spent 24 days in Iceland and wish we had planned for a couple more. The beauty and variety of landscape was incredible.

susiesan, you are much braver than I am.

The thought of being with a large group of unmasked people in confined spaces is very scary to me.

My concern would be potential noise from having public areas, rather than cabins, above you.

We've decided to take the 125% credit because we're reasonably sure we'd be willing to take a cruise before 2023.

I don't think there's a right or wrong, just what you're comfortable with.