Vallesan

We are sailing on the first post refit sailing and are just hoping the ‘new’ smell isn’t too overpowering!

Yet here we go with ‘tastes’! I hate the ‘miso glazed sea bass’ because for me it’s far too sweet! They will however do sea bass without the glaze. Watermelon and duck salad is great 9 times out of 10.

I have to agree with you! The prices just seem to have gone through the roof. I just wonder if we’ll see ‘sales’ later in the year! If not I can’t justify the new pricing either so looks like my first Silversea cruise last summer will be my last!

I really don’t know. Here in the UK we pay an optional extra cover of £40 per year to cover both of us, to insure for missed ports. Cover is a one off payment, no matter how many cruises we take during the year and the compensation is £150 pp for each missed port. I don’t know about insurance in the US but it’s worth checking! Here it’s a no brainer really!

Do you have, or can you add, ‘missed port’ insurance. If so that might mitigate some of the cost of trips you might not be able to take.

Unlike Christmas Day, Mothers Day falls on different dates in different countries. So my guess, and it is only a guess, is probably not!

That’s a bit miserable. When we’ve had shipboard credit it’s always assigned to the ‘cabin’ even though it’s listed per person on the invoice. Hopefully Oceania will start doing the same with excursion credits in the near future.

A rose by any other name!

I think that’s the secret …. you… “quite liked it”. Surely at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if a dish is ‘authentic’ as long as the ‘consumer’ enjoy it!

@Hlitner thanks for your posts and travel safely.

Hank I just wonder if you had taken just a 14 day cruise , would your critic have been different?

You’re 100% right. At the end of the day ‘business is business’ and profit is king and as Harters said …. We do have choices at the end of the day!

Totally!

Well! As they say “you learn something everyday”!

WOW! Just don’t know how they can justify those prices. I received my final documents for our upcoming May cruise today. There are no private cars available at all. After checking the prices generally, I feel very much that SimplyMore tours are the least attractive of those on offer, and it does beg the question “Are the included tours really a ‘perk’ or just a hidden price increase?”

That’s crazy! Must admit I’ve only looked at tours from Riviera and Marina ships. Maybe prices vary dramatically via port/ship/ time of year. Certainly £714 per car is just madness. Looks like Oceania really don’t want to offer private cars as a service! Sad really because, I for one, can’t access a coach/bus so have very, very, limited options for using the ‘tour credit’!

The ones we have checked out are between £350 and £45O PER CAR depending on location. Have a look at the tours available in each of your ports but if you can’t find any, scroll down to the end of all the tour listings for the cruise. Sometimes they are listed separately at the end rather than in with the other tours. Private cars aren’t offered in every port.

Yes! Think you’re right.

@jazznruby I agree we also appreciate the larger space. So we travel PH on the smaller ships and Concierge on the larger ships, which we find adequate, but it might not be for everyone! Have to be honest in that we have never seen, or felt, a snobish attitude on any of our Oceania cruises or even on Seabourn and Silversea. Could be we’re ‘class’ blind ’ but I don’t think so!

I would guess you don’t get ‘concierge’ benefits. But if, when you get on board, you do then ‘grab it with both hands and say ‘thank you’ !’

I guess at the end of the day we are reading the ‘opinions’ of a tiny number, not even a handful, of people who were actually on the cruise. If there were maybe 10 who agreed with the OP there were still maybe 600+ who haven’t expressed an opinion here. My advice to anybody yet to take their first cruise with Oceania, or any other line for that matter, who has been put off by these posts, is to go with an open mind. If you go with the mindset that a, b or c are going to be really bad then … self fulfilling prophecy … they will be!!!

Never done a World Cruise but I do understand the need for more space. I just can’t imagine hanging clothes on doors or from ceilings! I wouldn’t do that at home and as they say “ why would you take a holiday in a bedroom that was worse than your bedroom at home”?

Actually I’ve never found even a ‘1 walker’ tour suitable! Now we have SM we choose a ‘private 1/2 day’ if available. If not we just think of it as ‘part of the price’ and just don’t fret about it.

@lorimay take a look at the ‘Live from Vista’ thread. Hank is in Santorini today. This might be the most useful answer for you!

Do you really think people feel that ‘entitled’ that they think everything should be dumbed down to the lowest level? I can’t believe that people would be that selfish. I have mobility issues and apart from not inconveniencing others, I wouldn’t dream of putting myself in danger by taking a 3 walker trip or even some of the 1 walker stuff, which isn’t really suitable for the less than able bodied! It just wouldn’t occur to me to take these trips. Maybe people don’t read the tour descriptions or possibly they think they are fitter than they really are. Or maybe, as you say, some people do just feel ‘entitled’. Sad really.