acritic

buying and selling is risky unless you know what you are doing.  i wouldn't rely on the advice of ANYONE on cc, especially a travel agent.  there are much better stocks out there when looking for ROI.  

if you buy 100 shares and it goes down a dollar, you have lost more than you will gain in obc.

On 9/8/2019 at 11:27 AM, Mrs f. said:

I guess. Personally  I love sharing with others.....except when we got stuck with a couple first night who spent the entire meal telling us how much they hate Oceania and are going back to Princess. First night! Got stuck with them again another night. Oy!

i hate getting stuck with arrogant people who think their political stance is the correct one.  and feel the need to go on about it ad nauseum.  

they are worse than the passengers who play the "oneupsmanship"game.  the ones that no matter what you have done, where you have been, they have done it more and better.

or the couple that told me (when i was wearing my $300K diamond necklace) "if you can ever afford a world cruise, you should do it.  i watched them drunkenly stagger to their inside cabin in the bowels of the ship.

Jesus--can't anyone stay on topic on this thread? 

@rinshin...it's been my experience that oceania doesn't text/email...they call. which all successful salespeople do.  

how can you tell if oceania has dropped the price of a cruise you have booked?

@pinotlover:  my sources are conversations with at least 20 Oceania wine stewards/sommeliers on all 6 ships.  

Heres some more more info for you from the same source:

They do not participate in the gratuity pool paid at the end of the cruise.  Their tips/income come from the wine they pour/sell and  the wine tastings you sign up for ( the steward that signs you up).  If they participate in wine tastings,  and  pourings at La Reserve and Privee, they are compensated.  If you have a package that includes wine, and you drink wine and leave before your card can be swiped, they don't receive a tip.  They get all of the 18% but only part of the $25 corkage fee.  

if you open a bottle of wine, the wine steward/sommelier must pour at least half the bottle to receive the tip.  if you save the wine for the next day, the steward who retrieves your bottle and then pours gets no tip.

 

yes--amazon will deliver and you can send/receive fed ex while on the cruise.  i have done both.  arrange it with reception.

we had a butler...once.  he was so overworked that i felt guilty asking him for something.  he was constantly being called to help other passengers open their soap or fluff their pillows or bag their laundry or some other inconsequential thing.   i couldn't have a 3 minute conversation with him without someone messaging him. after 2 days of this, i told my husband to give him $200 and tell him we probably wouldn't be making requests because he needed to get some sleep. (this was in addition to the gratuities oceania requires).  

i've seen how some passengers act on these cruises.  many times, i am embarrassed to be an american.  the crew is there for your safety and to provide service.  they are not your personal slaves to be subjected to whatever mood you might throw at them at any given moment.

rant over.

following

From our point of view as relatively new O cruisers, the big perk when we make Silver is the free prepaid gratuities. While we realize the OBC will drop from $400 per cabin down to $250 per cabin, the amount of refundable OBC our new TA gives us along with the OBC we get from NCL shareholder benefits, the loss of $150 OBC will not detour us from booking future O cruises.

 

However, I'm glad we're switching from our current TA to one that only issues refundable OBC or a cash rebate rather than like our current TA which gives the free PPG issued by O as part of their compensation. I've heard you don't get the equivalent in OBC once you make Silver, but I could be wrong.

 

One other cool thing you get with O is that you get the new perks when you start the cruise that moves you up a level rather than when you finish the cruise like most other cruise lines.

would you elaborate on how oceania handles the perks --moving up a level--when you begin the cruise vs. when the cruise ends?