Flatbush Flyer

This may be true for the cruise lines you mention. But, this is not the case with all cruise lines. In particular, Oceania (known for its culinary quality and flexibility) has the same high quality ingredients and healthful preparations in every dining venue onboard from the GDR and specialty restaurants to poolside Waves and the casual Terrace Café. Those with dietary restrictions have far more options available than would usually be found on a cruise ship.

Your “understanding” is not necessarily correct. They need to read their T&Cs and Ticket Contract. In most cases, cruise line air depts. act solely as would any TA: They sell/adjust air tickets/ground transfers and have no liability for third party performance. The cruise line may assist in locating/securing alternate arrangements as needed. But, there are, most often, no “guarantees” that “ships will wait for you” or “get you to the next port” at no cost to you (which could be several sea days away and incur numerous additional expenses which you or travel insurance would have to cover).

Though we always have used a TA (in the U.S.), I agree that Covid has turned things “topsy-turvy” for them as regards the cruise industry. This is particularly true when it comes to the added burden of far more numerous itinerary changes/cancelations, use/exemptions related to refunds/FCCs/transfers/policy exceptions). And some TAs (quite a number of agencies having lost/still losing personnel), find themselves overwhelmed - if for no other reason than the time spend on multiple “phone holds” with cruise lines whose own personnel ranks are depleted. As I have mentioned in other posts, our current strategy involves having started to do more direct bookings with our preferred cruise line (either book onboard or with a trusted long serving phone rep) and transferring to preferred TA within the 30 day transfer window (for the added perks/commission sharing). In this way, I still have a direct cruise line contact to handle initial issue (e.g., FCC exceptions), certain ongoing items (e.g., tour purchases/changes) and I have a TA who needs only to handle the finances related to cruise fare modifications and be on hand for advanced problem solving. One lesson learned/reinforced in the Covid era is that, if you have a preferred cruise line (ours is Oceania), you want a Travel Agency in general and Agent specifically who knows your line’s policies/practices “inside out” and does a ton of bookings with that line. And, because of the constantly changing industry landscape, I also strongly advise to have several trusted TAs in your arsenal. For all sorts of reasons, there’s now a lot of “here today/gone tomorrow.”

We use CVS and the pharmacist contacts our insurance for approval of a vacation allocation of any meds that would run out.

Counter the offer with similar cruise (length and cabin) to your original with dates that work for you. Negotiate any price increase to be no more than the 10% FCC. O is pretty good about considering reasonable solutions

mozio.com

Bottom of the O web home page: click on Guest Services and select “update marketing preferences.” Easy! And you can stop ads without blocking important communications.

Actually, it’s $25 for wine brought to any public space. Still, there are cheapskates who will fill a glass in the cabin and cart it around in an attempt to avoid the corkage. Shame on them.

Mauibabes: you’re the main “babe” and not just because you live up in Lincoln (or is it Rocklin?). Folks B&M about O here on CC while erroneously thinking that Maitre’ds can read their mind. I’m always reminded of the signs all over NYC public transport stations that state “See something? Say something!”

The one that end up next to the pier😉 Now, if it was not-quite-a-zillion years ago, and the vessel had a “steering board” (hint here - think about it), you wouldn’t have much of a choice because you wouldn’t want to crush the “steering board” (repeat it fast several times) by tying up against the “port” (the other hint).

And so, your last question and my first statement said exactly the same thing. And both your and my responses helped to educate a newbie. Isn’t it wonderful when a query gets an answer that anticipates and addresses one of the next questions that will follow?

That would depend on which cruise line and which ship. Even then, there are inside cabin experiences and inside cabin experiences - mostly dependent on what happens outside the cabin (e.g. food quality, inclusions with your basic fare, etc). Hopefully, this “test cruise” will give you some ideas about what you like and don’t like. Fortunately, this is an industry with what can be vastly different levels of quality and true value. Note that it may take time to find your niche. It took us years to find a preferred cruise line. One bit of advice: Some folks here on CC will tell you that “the ship doesn’t matter.” Of course, that’s a ridiculous statement made by some folks who have never experienced different quality levels of hospitality. Roman Antiquities and Polynesian beaches don’t change. But, your “home away from home” certainly can be vastly different (starting with the difference between food you’d expect from Golden Corral vs a Michelin starred restaurant). And, whatever you do, don’t name the rookie mistake of only looking a cabin cost. Understand that the “higher” price of a “premium/luxury” line may include everything you’ll pay extra for on a mass market line (e.g., intercontinental air fare). I wish you “fair winds and calm seas.”

As Micheal Scott often replies: “That’s what she said.”😎

This is true. My asking about the 5% in this case is primarily aimed at a continuing attempt to better codify O’s occasional outlier behaviors. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a long-serving O Rep disaggregate for me some of the complexities of O’s booking/refund/FCC/optional purchase rules (along with the idiosyncrasies of the O web “cart”). And that has helped quickly clarify all sorts of stuff early on that later saves a trip to Guest Services and/or email/call to my TA after embarkation. Nonetheless, the bottom line for Oceania rule/policy behaviors continues to remind me of Capt. Jack Sparrow’s explanation of the Pirate Code: “It’s more a set of guidelines.”

Very unusual. Did you get a 5% fare discount on each cruise? I ask because that is what would happen if you booked it as a “custom cruise” with a single booking number.

Agreed. Our situation is, perhaps, unusual. Big cruises - want rebate. Small cruises - not a deal breaker.

And IMO, herein lies the crux of the issue. Shorter or less expensive cruise? As I mentioned previously, I wouldn’t even ask for a rebate. Longer or more expensive cruise (particularly if client is doing most of the work)? No problem with wanting to share commissions. After all, there are some TAs who won’t book certain cruises on certain lines because they would make so little for what can often be so much work. Nonetheless, I could certainly understand the reluctance of any TA to share too much with a new customer whose service expectations/needs may be unknown/untested. On the other hand, if there’s been a long and consistent relationship of substantial bookings between client and TA, you’d think the TA would want to keep that connection strong.

Per “person” is vastly different than per “booking” (your earlier post). In any case, still a different ball game than our usual booking, which (while B cabins) would add that extra zero because of cruise length.

A $3000 booking? I think you’ve erroneously left out a “0.” 👀 As I have posted previously, we’ll occasionally do a shortie CA coast cruise with one of our favorite TAs who is not a big fan of rebates. Her OCAPP coverage of gratuities gets us $250 “in lieu” from O (for not using the O Club grats perk). Add Platinum SBC $ and the TA’s onboard events and we’re fine with the deal. But, a $30k cruise is a different animal altogether. Blah Blah Blah.

Google is your friend.

Interesting that some folks ask why O should use TAs and have to pay them a commission. When one considers the time, energy and cost of manpower to deal with many many “window shoppers” as well as booked clients needing significant handholding AND the cost of advertising/marketing beyond O’s print and e-brochures (plus the occasional O ads you’ll see in lux oriented publications) AND, of course, the salary, benefits and facilities expenses necessary to maintain the sales force that would be necessary to replace the TAs, it’s a “no brainer” that paying TA commissions saves O a significant amount of expense.

There’s less expensive alternatives than a Mercedes E class. In any case, there’s also bus service, shuttles, etc. check out the Rome2Rio app for ideas. Dealing with rental cars is just so inconvenient.

Officially, there is no such thing as a back-to-back (B2B) cruise on Oceania. It’s too confusing a term since how multi-segment cruises SHOULD be booked affects the associated perks. For the zillionth time: There are published “extended journeys” with 2-3 segments, a distinct name and a single booking number. The fare is discounted significantly vs the total of the individual cruises. The O ID number has an “A” at the end. With the exception of restaurant reservations allotted based on each segment and the ability to buy booze packages per segment, all O Club perks (including cruise credits) are based on a single (total) days cruise. There are recently reintroduced “grand journeys” - also published with a distinct name - usually 3+ segments exceeding 2 months. They are significantly discounted like the “extended journeys” with O Club perks/credits/etc treated the same way. The “grand journeys” get extra perks like laundry, et al. Then there are “custom cruises” which are not published as a multi-segment cruise and, once booked, have a single booking number but 2 Oceania cruise ID #s. The “custom cruise” gets an approx. 5% fare discount off the total fare of both segments. With the exception that cruise credits are based on the TOTAL days (just like “extended journeys” and “grand journeys”), other O Club perks are awarded per segment. Depending on your O Club status, “Custom” could be a better bottom line deal. You have to do the math but, the only choice you have is to do itinerary A (published extended) vs a similar itinerary B (unpublished custom). Again, “officially,” there is no “choice” of which way to book. It is based on published vs non-published. That said, some TAs don’t have a clue about these distinctions and initially book the cruise(s) incorrectly. If O is not “asleep at the wheel,” they (or the system software) will/should catch that erroneous booking and correct it to align with the rules. There are other TAs who do understand the policies and, yet, will try to make an “extended journey” into a “custom cruise” to maximize the O Club perks for those who might benefit from it (e.g., Platinum level). And, if they are top O bookers? Well, we already know that O considers exceptions on a variety of issues on a case-by-case basis. So, if you are suggesting that you have two distinct Oceania invoices, each with its own booking number (upper left hand corner) and different Oceania cruise number (right upper side of the O invoice) for adjacent 7 day segments, someone screwed up. In any case, theoretically, each 7 day cruise would get 1 cruise credit and associated O Club perks. But, again (theoretically), you also should not get an approx. 5% fare discount for a “custom cruise.” For the sake of the thread, please confirm, with significantly more detail, what you’ve got and who/how it was booked.

Process for quarantine is all spelled out in the Oceania Covid FAQs. I suggest that OP carefully read the most recent versions of the FAQs, T&Cs and Ticket Contract. Though some folks may consider it overkill, know that (prior to embarkation) we contact preferred hotels in the disembark port and set up a reservation if they accept quarantines post cruise. In that way, we’ll have negotiating cards in the choice of hotels).

Every cruise line has some sort of specialized “destination services” department. More importantly, your inquirer ultimately will need to contact each line for which s/he desires a contract. No one is going to make a living out of servicing only one cruise line - particularly a small one like Azamara. There are third party tour organizers like Viator who have their own port tours’ contractors aimed at servicing ships. But, endorsed and publicized by the cruiseline itself is a vastly different thing. As others have mentioned here, this is a sizable undertaking and investment on the part of the prospective cruise line contractor, not the least of which is significant liability insurance, business licensing and some sort of track record. Quite frankly: inserting yourself (along with second/third hand info) into the process is a bit of a disservice. Your best bet is to have a chat with the Destination Services Manager on Insignia to get a basic overview of the common elements in contracting tours (across multiple lines). You can forward that info to your contact. But, they’ve still got a ton of homework to do.