TFree

I voted "yes" because we are currently taking more cruises on Oceania than on Celebrity. But we just booked an Asia cruise on Celebrity for December, so "leaving" does not capture us correctly. Tom & Judy

Just to add an additional thought on this, another reason why flying FBC to Hong Kong, and then finding my way to and from Phuket on our own, was not attractive to me was that FBC was only giving us flight pricing to Hong Kong and home from Singapore was as high or higher than what I could book for myself. So then what was the point in trying to work around their limitations? My past experience has been that maybe 50% of the time, FBC was only quoting prices in business class that were the same as what I could get myself, while the other 50% of the time they could find contract pricing way better than what I could get myself. Maybe that no longer happens? Or maybe we booked this cruise, and thus were looking for flights, too late to find great pricing (booked cruise less than 6 months before the cruise). We have not done a Celebrity cruise in over 2 years, so it has been a while since exploring this. Tom & Judy

Hi Jim - we have always enjoyed following your travels. I still hope to bump into you someday, maybe either on Celebrity or on Oceania. Tom & Judy

The prices seem to us, too, to have gone up beyond the pace of inflation. I think our last 6 Celebrity cruises have been in a Sky Suite, but in the last couple of years, we have felt priced out of the market. Which is not to say that you can't occasionally find a deal. We just canceled a cruise for November, but Judy was able to find a real deal on a Sky Suite on one particular Asia sailing. This is a bucket list cruise for her, so we grabbed it. Every other sailing of the same or reverse cruise for a couple of months was either sold out in the Retreat, or double to triple the price. Tom & Judy

I called Flights by Celebrity. They no longer allow the kind of deviation I wanted to do (to fly to Phuket 9 days prior to the cruise, rather than directly to Hong Kong). The response from @NutsAboutGolf suggests that some "nearby" airports might be allowed. But Phuket (1425 air miles away) is not within that category. Because they could not route me to Phuket at all, I didn't ask the question about how many days prior to cruise I would be permitted to fly. I could have flown directly to Hong Kong via FBC, if they allow a very early arrival, and then found my own way to Phuket and back. But that seemed like too many moving pieces to make sense to me. This (apparently) new limitation is just stupid from my perspective. I say "apparently" because I am just about certain that, on other cruises in the past, we have booked flights with FBC where we flew to a different place before the cruise, and then took a short hop to meet the cruise a few days later. Tom & Judy

I will call Flights by Celebrity to confirm this, but someone has mentioned to me that with FBC, you can now only fly to the port of departure, and only fly from the port of disembarkation. So to illustrate, if the cruise starts in Hong Kong, I can't book tickets with FBC to arrive a few days early in Phuket instead of Hong Kong. Is this correct? I know that was not true in the past. Tom & Judy

Terry: we were also frequent celebrity cruisers, and we will be taking our third Oceania cruise in September, on Marina. The concierge lounge on Vista certainly had an espresso machine, and I believe the Marina did as well, but we were in Marina in 2021. Different people will have different tastes, but for what it is worth, we both felt that the flavor of the espresso drinks on Celebrity is better than the espresso drinks on Oceania. I assume it is due to the brand of the coffee. Tom & Judy

We are experienced American cruisers, but have never cruised into or out of Southampton. I will supply details below, to the extent helpful in responding, but our questions are: (1) what time should be able to walk off the ship with luggage; and (2) what time should be book a private car transfer pick-up to head to St. Pancras station to catch the Eurostar to Paris. We are 4 travelers, all Americans, disembarking Oceania Marina in Southampton on Sunday, September 22, 2024. Our booking shows arrival at Southampton at 6:00 am, and on the Oceania website, if you were booking another cabin, it says "Disembark 8 am." There are 3 other ships in port that day, including one doing an overnight and departing the next day (Queen Anne, Seven Seas Splendor and Sun Princess, the one departing the next day). We are booking a private car transfer to St. Pancras station and then taking the Eurostar to Paris, where we will continue our adventure for a few more days. Our plan is to disembark, carrying our own luggage, as early as possible, 8 am if that is the first opportunity, or earlier if the ship has been cleared. Never having been to Southampton, we don't know what to expect by way of customs. We are inclined to schedule a car transfer pickup at 8:30 am, but I don't know if that is realistic. Any help would be appreciated. Tom & Judy

So did we. Tom & Judy

The search function could be your friend here. This has been discussed in multiple threads. The quick summary: many people have been unhappy about the switch. Others (probably a minority) like Ember. Tom & Judy

The window has always been 30 days. There was a report that it is being shortened to 14 days, but I have not seen proof of this. We booked a cruise onboard the Vista on November 17. I don't see anything on the invoice issued onboard that states what the deadline is. However, on November 26, we received an email confirming the payment of the deposit. The text of the email includes this wording: "Attached please find your deposit confirmation for the future sailing you have selected onboard. You have made this new booking direct with Oceania Cruises. Please note that you have 30 days from the end of this current cruise to assign your new reservation to your preferred travel agent or agency." We have already transferred our booking to a TA, so regardless whether the deadline has been shortened, we are covered. If somebody has seen written documentation that the transfer period has been shortened to 14 days, I think we would all benefit from seeing that. Tom & Judy

When we were on board Vista two weeks ago, we booked a new cruise departing September 10, 2024. The final payment date shown on the invoice is April 13, 2024, which is 150 days before the departure of the cruise. Tom & Judy

Correct in all respects. I inquired of an agent we had used last year (although we ultimately had to cancel that cruise). He came very highly recommended from a very frequent Celebrity cruiser. I am sure that this is not the kind of travel agent who will spend hours on the phone with you going over cruises and options. But if you come to him with an already booked cruise (as here) or when you are ready to book a cruise, he offers benefits that will be hard to beat. So I am almost positive we will go with him again, and thus render moot the 30 days vs. 14 days issue (we booked on November 17, so we are good either way. Tom & Judy

@EJL2023: just to give more context, we booked not only for ourselves, but for two other couples who are friends of ours, all of us going on the cruise. While we had a TA on the cruise that ended last week, we left her off this reservation, and we are not likely to use her again, since her agency apparently will not, as a matter of policy, add any meaningful benefits for a booking. So we are exploring a couple of agents we know of, and the other couples are also exploring. We will share what we learn, and see what we all want to do. This is one of those situations where the prohibition on naming TAs on Cruise Critic is irritating, even if it is understandable. Tom & Judy

@schmerl: I have. (1) we were told onboard when we booked that we have 30 days; and (2) I was told on the phone today that we have 30 days. It is just unsettling when I can't find a written answer to this pretty basic question is the booking invoice, in the passenger contract, in the Terms & Conditions, or anywhere else on the website, in a time of rapidly changing rules. Tom & Judy

"Oceania" is not really helpful as a source of this information. Does that mean a phone conversation? If so, apply however many grains of salt you wish. Is it in some official announcement document we can verify? I booked a cruise onboard on November 17. So presumably we have 30 days to transfer to a TA. Unless Oceania really has changed the policy effective December 1, and it intends to apply this change retroactively. So, I would be interested in tracking down the actual source of this information. Tom & Judy

We were told onboard Vista that they are combinable. Tom & Judy

I looked at six or eight cruises yesterday online, and then I looked at the same cruises again today. I see either no difference or a negligible difference on those cruises. Most of them are on the sale. My only conclusion is that either they posted the sale prices yesterday without announcing them, or this sale is a big nothing burger. I am going to ask at the future cruise desk on Vista. Tom & Judy

It does. Currently on Vista with the basic (non-upgraded) Star Link WiFi. We have also made WiFi voice calls on board (using WhatsApp or FaceTime voice calls for people who have those features, and at least one plain old WiFi call on a Samsung phone). And we tested a Zoom video call the other day. It worked pretty well, with just a little glitchiness at times. Tom & Judy

I agree that you should price it out and decide. We had the same issue with our Panama Canal cruise leaving next week. Initially, it looked like about a wash to us. The up charge was $798, but we figured (A) we would get free wine and beer; & (B) we would get a second Wi-Fi login to use as part of simplyMORE. Then, when Oceania decided to start extending the second Wi-Fi login to all cabins, whether booked through OLife or through simplyMORE, the deal no longer looked attractive to us, so we stayed with all OLife. Tom & Judy

Did you use a travel agent? I discovered a few years back that some travel agents do not participate in the move up program. I did not understand it at the time, and I don’t understand it now. But if you have a travel agent, you might check with them. Tom & Judy

We tried an Oceania cruise (on Marina) in October, 2021 and liked it quite a bit (with a hiccup or two, this was early post-pandemic). We take our second Oceania cruise in a couple of weeks (on Vista, Panama Canal). We thought the specialty restaurants were outstanding (you get one "free" reservation in each included with the cruise). We were less impressed with the main dining room, but in fairness our recent Celebrity cruises were in the Retreat, so maybe comparing the main dining room to Luminae is not a fair comparison. A lot of Oceania cruisers are unhappy with the switch to SimplyMore (more inclusive with no cruise-only option). Tom & Judy

Just as a point of information, we are on the following Panama Canal cruise (November 3-19). Seeing your post caused me to take a look at the booklet. Ours says (p. 19): ". . . suggested gratuity of $18.00 per guest, per day" will be added. There is a footnote, but it refers to NZ and AU bookings. So whatever is different for your Panama Canal cruise, it is for your cruise only. If you find the answer please report back. Tom & Judy

Jim: How interesting. My parents met while both were working at Gimbel's in Milwaukee. This would have been in the 1930's. Everybody from that generation is gone, but I assume this must have been where it was, and Google suggests that it is. I will have to check it out next time I am in Milwaukee. Tom & Judy

Jim – sorry, I was actually referring to the “not your bag“ handle wrap. I am just going to order some brightly colored ones if I can’t find that specific one. Tom & Judy