Humane

Hi - I am a vegan and Oceania has wonderful options.  If you put it on your profile that you are vegan, they will request a meeting with you the first day and go over your options.  They put a menu from the Grand Dining Room under your door every night so if you want to eat there, you chose what you want and they will make it vegan.  Aquamar Spa has plenty of options and the buffet does also.  The Steakhouse does not, so I always ask for an extra day at Red Ginger or Toscana since there is nothing to eat there so no reason to go.  The first day, I also aways arrange for Impossible burgers to be available at the Grill.  You will have no problems at all! Have a wonderful time. 

6 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

As you know it is quite expensive.  We have only done it once and that was because the tours we wanted were not available and this was in Istanbul. I will add now before the SM choir chimes in that this was pre SM so that had nothing to do with the availability.  Upon boarding we were advised to meet with Destination Services and provide them with a priority list of places to see, which we did.  They advised they would send this list to the tour operator to get sign off on our list. We waited about 7 days with no word. Spoke to them on day before our tour and they advised they would reach out once again. Later that day they called and advised the tour operator advised it was fine.  Day of tour we met our guide and her first comment to us was…..so, what would you like to see today?!?!! 🤷🏻‍♂️. The tour ended up being ok…and we did end up seeing all but one place. Some of this was due to the chaotic day it turned out to be in Istanbul as they ended up having their presidential runoff election on this day which made it an unexpected holiday so downtown was full of tourist and locals who then had the day off also.  Again, tour was ok but process was very frustrating. Also, keep in mind if more than 2 in your party you have to do the van version instead of car version at a higher cost. So….just keep in mind above. Also, this is just an example of ONE experience, I’m sure there is a good chance others have had a completely different experience. 

Very comprehensive - thank you so much.  It may be better for something like Ephesus where there is a more specific set of expectations.  

I would appreciate feedback on booking a Private Car or Private Van through Oceania's excursions and how it compares to booking private excursions, which I have done in the past and had fantastic experiences and great guides.  How does it compare by booking through Oceania.  Now that we have Simply More Credits rather that OBC - it may be a good option?

3 minutes ago, clo said:

I guess you don't sail to chillier places 🙂

I do, but it has been a while - since her cruise is in June - I figured that would work! 🙂

I live in short and long sundresses the whole cruise - saving the nicest ones for parties and dinner in specialty restaurants!  It is so easy. 

Just FYI There is also a roll call for Turkish Ovation with a B2B on it.

I too am on the Turkish Ovation and following this topic closely. 

On 1/24/2024 at 8:02 PM, Sthrngary said:

I had no intention of booking a cruise while onboard, NONE.  However, my friends, wife and I had such a good time, we did book another 10-Day Mediterranean Cruise on the Vista for October 2025.  The port we missed was Florence so our next cruise will go there.  Also we will go back to Rome which is great because we never got to go to the fountains. The rest of the new itinerary will be new. 

 

Before I do anything, I study the rules and love the process of due diligence.  I went to future booking desk a few day before the end of the cruise.  I had a list of very specific question which I asked in front of my friend so he would clearly see where I was going with those questions. Here are some things I learned and I hope it will be helpful to so.  I am not selling to book on a cruise but this was a first for me so I figured it might be a first for some reading this. 

 

1. My Travel Agent Got the Booking Automatically:  Even though I booked on the ship (Riviera), my travel agent got the booking.  Since my agents, agency had a promotion to pay for my gratuities, the computer on board recognized it and provided it in the booking.  I thought that was cool. 
2. Benefits of Booking On the Ship: Unless I really wanted to book another cruise, the benefits were just ok in my opinion.  For a concierge level stateroom, the benefit was $400.00 off the stateroom with $250.00 of On-Board Credit for the stateroom.  You could take the OBC on the cruise you were currently on or save it for the cruise you are booking.  The issue is, if you take it now, and cancel the booking they charge you for the $250 so I save it for the next cruise. 
3. Making Changes and Staying on the Same Cruise Booked:  I initially booked the Concierge Stateroom one for me and one for my friends.  I did it because of their budge.  Yesterday, I upgraded my wife and I to a PH2 with a specific cabin number.  My benefit went from $400 to $600 for the stateroom, same On-Board-Credit, the agency now is paying a higher gratuities fee, when I booked originally, the SimplyMore Excursion Credit was $800.00. It has since gone down but I was grandfathered in for the $800.00.  Also, when I booked, there was a 5% discount for booking so early.  It applied to my new booking.  So it was as if I booked the Penthouse while onboard. 
4. Upgrade to the Prestige Drink Program: While my agent was moving me to the PH category, I asked her to do the upgrade for the Prestige package.  In the past before the SimplyMore(tm) program, you could only do this onboard. I wanted to do it now if it was possible because if the price went up, I would be locked into the lower price. It was $30.00 per per day per person. 
5. Change Cruise Once with No Fee:  So if we wanted another cruise instead of what we booked, we could do it once with no fee or penalty. 
6. New $150.00 Admin Fee: The agent must have told me five times about the new admin fee of $150.00.  No issue for me but my friend was with me and I wanted him to understand also. 
7. American Express Platinum Perks:  The AMX perks were not possible with the Travel Agencies payment of my gratuities.  No issue, the gratuities were more then the AMX perk.
8. Booking Excursions:  It was made clear to me to let my Agent book my excursions using the SimplyMore(tm) $800.00 credit.  The reason was, if I did it from my computer, Oceania's system would take my $250.00 On-Board-Credit first instead of starting with the excursion credit.  As we all know, all you can use the Excursion Credit for is excursions.  However the On-Board-Credit which came from booking the the ship could be used for anything. 
9. Lower Deposit:  Not that is matters but the deposit given was a reduced amount. 
10. Documents Provides: First, you could not use your stateroom account for the deposit.  You had to give them your credit card. The documents give were clean and easy to understand. 

 

I should have gone to the Oceania Ambassadors desk and ask if there were any other special benefits.  I don't know if that would have benefited me but someone made that comment online.  Next time I will try that. I hope my explanations help someone.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

Thanks for the tip.  Feedback on excursion credit: I just called Oceania to double check that my excursion credits were used first for excursions, and they said that for booking excursions - the excursion credits are always used first.  I had no problem booking online and they were credited properly.  

Has anyone on this list been to St. Tropez?  I am curious about the Ferry schedule to Port Grimaud