Flatbush Flyer

Per Medicare: When does Medicare cover health care services in a foreign hospital? There are 3 situations when Medicare may pay for certain types of health care services you get in a foreign hospital (a hospital outside the U.S.): • You’re in the U.S. when you have a medical emergency, and the foreign hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat you. • You’re traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another state when a medical emergency occurs, and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat you. Medicare determines on a case-by-case basis what qualifies as “without unreasonable delay.” • You live in the U.S. and the foreign hospital is closer to your home than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat you, regardless of whether you have a medical emergency. Remember, in these situations, Medicare will pay only for the Medicare-covered services you get in a foreign hospital. We have a Medicare supplement that converts to basic coverage for emergencies outside of the U.S.. Nonetheless, we still get travel insurance to cover Trip Cancel/Delay and inpatient medical. And we have an annual MedEvac policy.

And I’m almost 80. Yet some of our cruises will have both snorkeling and a need for cold weather hiking gear. While we’re at it: For folks who annually travel by air a lot and have a preferred airline/air consortium, it may be worthwhile to get one of your preferred carrier’s credit cards. We use United primarily and when we don’t fly bizclass we still get 70 lb checked baggage limits plus some United Club passes. As long as we buy the United or Star Alliance consortium tix from United, our CC gets the 70 lb allowance on all flights.

I need to look at it (now with simply more). Unlimited used to be the “passport collection” where you paid a set fee upfront (dependent on itinerary) and all O Life qualified tours (e.g., <$200) were included and non-O Life got 40% discount instead of YWYW 25% off the paid ones.

Sort of agree unless you’re an active outdoors person on a cruise where your tours may included snorkeling, hiking, etc on an itinerary that crosses climates. The snorkel gear alone can take up a lot of space.

Most importantly, NEVER use the O web cart to buy your tours. The site is very glitchy including sometimes telling you tours are not available (that actually are available). ALWAYS cross reference the most current shore excursions PDF (they update occasionally) with the current web listings and make a list of what you want. Add the math that figures in the tour SBC and the 25% YWYW discount if you meet your cruise’s minimum tours purchase number. Then call O (best to identify a good O rep beforehand) and let the rep put together your purchase since his/her accounting system will have what is closest to the most accurate info. The problem with the inconsistency is lack of communication between the involved O departments. And it particularly plagues multi-segment cruises where someone “turns on” the booking mechanism for segment 1 or segment 2 but then forgets to do it for segment 1 and/or segment 2 of multisegment bookings. Also, always get an emailed copy of the full math document that is generated by the sale (prepurchased shore excursions PDF - not the “preselected PDF). It’s important to have if there are any FUBAR situations once you are onboard. Now, someone else will post that they’ve never had a problem with the O Cart. That may be true if you only do single segments once every few years. But, trust me: we often buy as many as 75+\- O tours annually (mostly on multi-segment cruises) and the glitch is for real!!! Also, others will post to let your TA do it. Sadly, they may experience the same glitch and trust that there is no availability. And while the TA tries to straighten the problem out (if they even realize “no availability” might be incorrect), that O phone rep can contact the right colleague to turn on the “availability” while you’re still on the phone. FWIW- just experienced this on a multisegment booking CPT-BCN next May. No availability for many desired tours on both segments. Called our trusted O rep and he messaged someone. Ten minutes later, availability turned on when we logged back in.

Really depends on the bag itself: dimensions, weight, # wheels, quality construction….. You’ve heard here about two great brands Briggs & Riley and Travel Pro. What brand do you have? How has it behaved in the past?

It certainly is “not enough time.” Did you book your air through O? If they refuse to change your flight to at least a 3 hour layover on any intercontinental routing AND O didn’t sell you a “bulk ticket,” you may be able to change the flight with the airline directly.

I agree to check with the airline since the max size may be a linear measurement (W+H+W). What I can tell you for sure is that 31” bags push the limit on trunk size for some private transfer sedans AND some 31” bags’ depth may challenge underbed storage in the cabin (even with lid kept open). FWIW, take a look at Briggs & Riley compressible hard side luggage. We’re currently using medium size ones which are about 28” but fit almost as much as our Travel Pro 31” ones!

If, despite your probably quite limited Oceania experience, you honestly think that O’s food is not far superior to HAL in every conceivable way, you definitely should stick with HAL (even though you may erroneously believe that HAL is “less”(?) expensive than O.* *if you’re comparing cruise cost, don’t just look at cabin fares. Instead, consider the “net daily rate” which considers ALL required and optionally desired expenditures (e.g., air fare/air credit, beverages, certain booze and tours, specialty restaurants, internet, etc) divided by the number of trip days. You may be very surprised by THAT comparison which is just one of the reasons why so many former HAL cruisers now call Oceania home.

Of course, the worst thing you can wear on a slippery deck is a flip flop. Alternatively, there are many different deck shoe styles available from Sebago and Sperry. But, if your heart is set on flip flops, your best bet is OluKai. Google for the web address.

Quite expensive to do pre-cruise through O. Their hotel charge is per person- not per room!!! That said, in the past we’ve used the Table Bay Hotel (O has used it too). Walk to the ship at Victoria & Alfred Harbor. However, Table Bay will be closed for major renovation through most of 2025. We’re doing an O cruise from CPT in May/June and I can tell you that hotel costs there have skyrocketed! We’ve booked the Cape Grace (a Fairmont) for a pretty penny! But, it’s a great hotel and also walkable to the ship and restaurants/wine shop/etc.

FWIW: O does not use the term OBC. If you look at your O invoice, you may see SBC (shipboard credit) for things like O Club amenities. The “S” vs “O” distinction is somewhat important because, as a general rule. O’s SBC is not refundable while TA provided OBC is refundable. However, remember that, if you are given an adjustment in non-refundable SBC $, they will be debited on your onboard account before any other $ you’ve already got in the mix. Thus, that SBC paying down your end-of-cruise balance due may set you up for a refund of some of the cash you originally had paid for the cruise or tours or whatever.

What might be more ridiculous is a $5 bottle of wine.😳 That said, there are cruise lines that don’t restrict passengers’ bringing personal booze (any amount) onboard. They include most premium and luxury lines. Of course, the booze is meant for in-cabin consumption, though bringing wine to dinner is usually allowed for a “corkage” fee (e.g., $25 on Oceania).

The “prepurchased shore excursions” PDF shows far better math details than anything online. You can get it directly from the O rep who does your tours transactions over the phone. No matter what anyone else says here, using the web cart to purchase your tours is inviting a snafu. As has been mentioned, the shore ex pdf and the website don’t always agree on tour availability and the problems are worse for multi-segment cruises.

Let’s hope it stays that way.

Those are brought to your cabin.

What levels get pins specifically at the event depends on how many are in the various categories. In the many events I have attended, I’ve seen Platinum and up as the most widely recognized.

FWIW: This Flash Sale has some very popular long itineraries (e.g., our 4 week CPT-BCN).

Captain’s Welcome event is usually the first sea day early on in a segment or, if none the first port day with early departure. There is a Captain’s Welcome for each segment and all are welcome. The O Club Party is usually later in the segment and, depending on passenger load, may be split into two events. Over the past few years, an O Club “first time O cruisers” party has been added. (They’re not invited to the regular O Club Party.

IMO, a day earlier (than embark) arrival is not enough of a potential problem buffer for intercontinental air with a connection. The two looming challenges remain misplaced checked luggage and missed connections/delayed arrival. With that in mind, our mantra is “minimum of two days arrival at embark port and no less than 3.5 hour layovers at major hubs for our preferred airline consortium (United and Star Alliance whenever possible.”

I owe you an “adult beverage.” I had looked at the “summer sale” but hadn’t yet seen the “flash sale.” Thanks for the “heads up.” Did the math on my existing CPT-BCN O Life booking (May-June 2025) and got a price match that lowered the my fare+excursions cost by $5000 and added the SM basic booze.

I assume you’re talking about an Oceania phone rep. I’ve never heard them referred to as a concierge(?). That said, you are correct that you need to call Oceania to cancel pre-booked tours before the deadline. Call O back at +1.855.623.2642 and select #2. Then select #2 (for booked through Oceania cruises) and talk to whoever you get. Tell them you need to cancel pre-purchased tours. Any phone rep can cancel your tours. If the say “no,” explain that your rep is non-responsive. If the new person gives you a hard time, ask to speak to a supervisor. Be nice! But always get the name and extension of whoever you talk with.

Sorry - fat fingers on the previous attempt at this post: Example of DIY protecting luggage: For an O cruise leaving from CPT, we should’ve flown first to J-Burg for our pre-cruise Safari trip. However, we flew instead to CPT, stayed a couple of days and left our cruise luggage at the hotel while we flew off to the lodge. Post Safari, we flew direct back to CPT (and to our cruise luggage) with two more nights there pre-embark. For the added cost of one additional domestic flight leg (about $150 pp), we had our regular cruise luggage buffer time intact at CPT plus time to do a 4 day safari sandwiched into our originally desired four total CPT nights. AND that $150 pp flight was less expensive than Luggage Forward direct from SFO to CPT.

Example: for an O cruise leaving from CPT, we had arranged a precruise land stay that included a safari requiring a flight to J-Burg. We could’ve flown first to J-Burg, stored cruise luggage somewhere

FWIW: O is not in a “partnership.” Luggage Forward is a contractor and O’s T&Cs clearly state that O bears no responsibility for performance of their contractors, which includes airlines, tour companies….. I’m not defending O. I’m just stating what those who choose to use Luggage Forward agreed to in the fine print.