Flatbush Flyer

No algorithm that I know of. As I remember it, Book mostly B, you get a B. In any case, one way to do it is to book a Platinum cruise early enough to get a good cabin (at your usual cabin level) and pay the deposit. Then inform the O Club folks that you want it to be the Platinum one. As it gets close to “final pay,” reconnect with O Club and they issue a new invoice while also returning your deposit. You do get O Club $ perks but no O Life or air.

Whichever ship you pick, you’ll still be eating HAL food.

Separate cruises are separate cruises. For your bookings you’d get 1 cc on #1 and 5 on #2. Had you been able to combine them as a custom cruise (one booking number), you’d get 7 cc instead of 6 plus an approx 5% fare discount. However, that longer cruise must be an “extended journey” (and/or you’re in different cabins) and you cannot combine cruises that are already discounted as multi-segment offerings.

That’s unfortunate for anyone who does multisegment cruises. For future reference, if you decide you like cruises exceeding 7-10 days, you may find yourself moving up to premium lines -some of which have a special focus on longer cruises of 3-7+ weeks. FWIW: We do those longer cruises and pack for a basic 10 day laundry cycle and will do self-serve laundry on well positioned sea days.

Depending on your ship, there may be free self-serve laundry rooms available. Our preferred line has them and even provides the all-important ocean-safe detergent. Check with your cruise line regarding its recommendations/requirements.

We just contact O (preferably a particular phone rep whose extension/email we have) and request the most current version of your cruise’s “shore excursions” PDF be emailed to you. That said, recognize that the document changes with time. It can be just the boilerplate first page info when you are more than 6 months pre-cruise. But, then, tours will be altered, changed, even eliminated, as time goes by. Nonetheless, I agree that it is a far better way to examine the possibilities than is the day-by-day navigation on the O website. Also, as regards O tours, know that what is found via the O web, PDF, and a phone call to O doesn’t always “jive.” For example, the newest info may appear first in anyone of those three resources. But, I have found the most accurate info to be the trusted O rep who sees in front of him/her what the O booking system will allow (particularly if you want to do a daytime and evening tour anywhere on the same day (I.e. can’t be done on the web) and how best to “arrange” the booking to get the lowest out-of-pocket cost. Note as well that, if you wan to cancel prepaid O tours prior to embark, you need to call O to do it and your O phone contact can “bird dog” that refund process for you. Also, when you book tours direct with the O rep (you don’t need to go through your TA for tours), s/he can send you the “pre-purchased” shore excursions PDF that shows all the math that “bottom lines” your mix of O Life, YWYW, etc tours - a very important doc to have once aboard should you want to verify itinerary changes’ tour modifications done by Destination Services. Some folks here will suggest that you let your TA handle it. However, even the most “O savvy” TA doesn’t necessarily understand the idiosyncrasies of O’s tour policies and practices. And once you are on the ship (not unlike once you are in an airport) DIY spares the added work of trying to connect with a TA. So, want O ship tours? Get/use the latest shore excursions PDF directly from O. Discuss best pricing strategy with O rep. Purchase/modify/cancel O tours from that O rep Get a copy of the “Pre-purchased shore excursions” PDF from that rep. (Note: Before purchasing, confirm that PDF will be sent to you. If a new rep says “not possible,” that’s not true. So, ask/call back for a different rep. (FWIW, we choose the O Life tours option which has the capacity to double the perk value while also getting the YWYW discount on paid tours AND we mix them with private tours we relish for their uniqueness).

Of course, those are “cabin” prices. You’d have to add things to the HAL experience to equal what is included in the O fare: internet, beverages, specialty restaurants and, if that’s the “O Life w/air” fare on Oceania, you’d then need to figure into the HAL fare air tix and amenities like booze, tours or SBC. Hopefully, OP understands that.

At the opposite end of this “spicy food” item is one of my few criticisms of O food: a lack of appropriate condiments for ethnic foods traditionally prepared with significantly “hot spices.” Several years ago, we started packing some of our own “individual serving” packaged condiments -particularly for certain ethnic foods (e.g., Cholula for Mexican). And we’re always on the lookout for these packets whenever we visit any ethnic food store.

While I understand your point of “always more to do,” the flip side is that a lot of that Caribbean time could be spent in what you (or I) would find to be far more attractive and interesting places. But, of course, where you live can be a major factor in where you “set the bar” for your expectations. For us, most of the Caribbean will remain “one and done.”

Perhaps not exactly what you are looking for but, recognize that there are several cruiselines (e.g., Oceania) who arrange a significant part of their scheduling as “segments” (i.e., consecutive single cruises that are not round trips to/from the same location). Multiple segments are marketed as as extended journey or can be assembled as a custom cruise. In essence them, you can be on the same ship for anywhere from a week to a month to multiples of that as you traverse one or more regions/continents/etc

Actually not a fable (but also not to be confused with a totally booked ship situation). Often, when O is canceling a cruise (as happened numerous times during the “pandemic era”), the first step is to “waitlist” every category, which stops the selling of cabins. That’s followed by the email to booked passengers from Carlos Ortega (or froM someone else in Miami) with apologies for the inconvenience along with news of whatever “fare paid” compensation package has been assembled.

As for which line- there’s just no contest. O has many regulars who formerly cruises on Celebrity.

With a VERY few notable exceptions, most Caribbean islands are “one and done.”

Not all of them are totally waitlisted. For example: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/grand-voyage-cruises/barcelona-to-rome-MNA221018A/

I finished the last two segments of the ATW in July. Isolation and quarantine are different things - sometime resulting in different cabins being used.

Others have posted about option for isolation of cabin mates who test negative.

Not true

On a “slow” night for any particular specialty restaurant, there will be a maitre d’ at the GDR entrance asking if anyone wants to eat “right now” at whichever specialty has space. Not a regular occurrence but it does happen.

Yes- do a mock booking. Check the O Life price on top page. On next page, check “w/o air.” On the following page you’ll see a new price. The difference between them is the “air credit.” No transfers w/o air (unless you do their way overpriced “per person” [rather than per room] hotel too). Not that big a deal to. DIY.

Actually, the going rate for a premium sedan/SUV (Mercedes/AUDI/et al.) from the Gothic Quarter or Cruise port location to BCN is about $150+\-. Taxi will be considerably less. FWIW: a good way to check the going rate for private airport transfers worldwide is mozio.com. You still may want more choices than what you see. But, at least, you’ll get a picture of the average charges in any specific location.

NOAA

First things first…. “Learned” from who? Do you see that on an actual Oceania invoice in the Amenities section? Look again at that invoice. Some items like “O life” choices or “O Club gratuities” will show “Guests 1 & 2” (under each person’s name while others like “Platinum SBC” or “spa credits” will not. Perhaps both occupants get only some (if any) items regardless of which person has higher O Club status. I’d be interested in hearing back from you about what further verification you get.

O has a long history of “slow to change” from a formula that has worked well in filling their ships (at least in non-pandemic times). Not that it justifies the current advertising language but, remember that O’s original fare structure (in the beginning) included air in the published price and you paid that whether you used it or not. Still, it would always have been more truthful to say “included air” rather than “free air.” As for getting rid of the ridiculous “2 for 1” fare numbers, it’s just another artifact that O will probably never change since they have no problem selling seats with the current model.

You may want to revisit that thread… As always: The devil is in the details…

While I understand your upset, do know that you were certainly not “screwed.” The base value of each O Life allowable excursion is $100 (equivalent of the SBC had your chosen that perk instead). In part, why folks select the “excursions” O Life options is that you can easily double the value of the perk by selecting those allowable tours which interest you and which are retail priced closer to the $199 cap. In essence, for each extra $100 you paid in the O Life fare, you get a “wash” on the SBC option (dollar for dollar), up to “double your money” (or more) value with the excursions option or a varying value with the booze perk (depending on your consumption, knowledge of craft cocktails and tolerance for mediocre wines-by-the-glass). When O is “responsible” for one of its tours not happening, you have the option of taking your $100 base O Life value back (as refundable SBC) or booking a replacement from among the allowable tours at the same or different port - again up to the $199 max value. You have not lost a dollar. And, you are spared the extra work of dealing with/replacing private tour and/or their refunds. And don’t forget that those O Life tours count toward the minimum required on your cruise to get the 25% discount on any purchased excursions. Done right, a good mix of O Life/YWYW tours need not be that much more expensive then “private only” tours in money and, equally important, far less expensive in logistical time and effort. As for O’s tours specifically: At first glance, the math for ship tour changes can appear daunting (if you only DIY by looking at your ShipBoard account and personal notes). However, there’s a much easier way to balance the bottom line: Destination Services can print you an easy-to-read (and regularly updated) spreadsheet with the details of your original bookings plus the net effect of each and every change made before and during the cruise. And, if you or your TA, requested copies of the “pre-purchased shore excursions” PDF when you made your original O tour buy, reconciling the two documents can be done in a few minutes. Then just go to Destination Services and show them any discrepancy. It will get fixed before you leave the ship. Now some shortsighted folks will pan ALL ship tours for ALL passengers and, of course, that’s ridiculous. Different people assign different value to different parts of the excursions experience. And, for some of those people, the convenience of 1) review the descriptions 2) pick your choices and 3) make your purchase (plus not have to lift a “refund finger” if O or the tour operator cancels) is priceless - particularly when you’re looking at long cruises with as many as 3 dozen or more port days in each cruise in a year’s time. Like many savvy O cruisers who do multiple long cruises each year (e.g., in 2022, we’ll do a total of just under 100 days across 7 segments on 3 trips), we mix ship and private tours in a way that is most efficacious given our priorities. Clearly, some unique/unparalleled private tours are worth the time to correspond, manage the logistics, etc (some of my favorites include Maohi Nui [“Patrick”] at Bora Bora, Sicily with Mario, Little Gem Tours [home based in Dublin], the list goes on….). But, as long as you avoid the panoramic bus tours and recognize that, in some of the most remote locations (e.g., Easter Island, along the Amazon….), O has already contracted with the best of the few tour outfits that are still in business, there is something to be said for the right choices from among ship’s tours. And it’s not just “convenience.” A case in point: We’ll be doing a partial TransPacific in February. Since Vanuatu is on the agenda, I consulted my Rolodex (yes, I’m that old) of professional et al. mariners (yachties) there and in NZ/OZ about sail/snorkel opportunities only to learn that most of the commercial outfits at Vanuatu (as well as many in parts of Fiji and New Caledonia) did not survive the pandemic’s devastating affect on tourism. And some responses included those dreaded yachtie words “waitin’ for parts.” In fact, as it turns out, it looks like Oceania (and any other cruise ships in the neighborhood) already scooped up what may be the last fully operational big cat/snorkel operation(s) at Vanuatu doable in a single day visit. And, yes, the O ship tour has been sold out for a very long time. Don’t despair though. I’m in correspondence with a guy who owns a banana boat that could handle 6 passengers….. (sound familiar to all you private tour afficiaonados?) In any case, I reiterate: There’s no one size fits all whether it’s which (if any) O Life option to pick or whether only private tours are worthwhile, etc. Different strokes for different folks…