AlexCherie

35 minutes ago, espmass said:

 

Wow, 400's is pretty low.  Well, it was the wonderful postings by you and others that convinced us to continue with the 2/7 cruise even after O FINALLY granted us approval to postpone.  We are leaving tomorrow to beat the snow storm as we had combined the cruise with a road trip to Florida.  We are more than excited about our first experience on Oceania whether we have 400, 600, or 1200 passengers.  Thank you again for all your information.

I can't imagine a better time to sail. 

Limited guests. Ports starting to re-open. And winter, you massive SOB-PITA finally peaked and declining.

Shine on you crazy diamond. Enjoy life.

Just going to share this, because it happened yesterday. I attended a funeral for a client (I'm a wealth planner), and his bride said three words that really caught me.

"We bought tickets". Swallow that.

15 minutes ago, Nymich said:

In the 400's I heard last night.  Guess the media and cdc has everyone freaked out so they took the FCC shuffle.

 

It was an honor (the last 24 days) to go against their "recommendation" to not cruise.

 

Obviously that's just for me.  To each their own as they say......

I enjoyed it as well after our first trip in January - to the point where I've already booked my 2023 trip.

Most of the people that post to CC O boards are at least Concierge level cabins (we were). That said, one of the little used paths in sailing is the interior cabin values.

It's particularly hard to get that cabin over any extended period, like NYMICH in the Western Mediterranean. I got 20 days, at $235 a day, including gratuities, port charges, taxes. (Obviously no air, but O-Life on two legs purchased). 

Every day, literally every day, in a port. Cancellations won't necessarily be devastating. You just got to buy when it doesn't feel good. That's where the opportunity lies.

 

14 hours ago, WESTEAST said:

We've been lucky to visit Venice twice and the last time was post-cruise onboard the Riviera; we stayed two nights at the Hotel Londra Palace for its location (https://www.londrapalace.com). It's a boutique hotel that faces the lagoon and easy walking distance to St. Mark's Square and Basilica, Bridge of Sighs, Doges Palace etc.  Beautiful large room and bathroom with excellent service.  We had delicious breakfasts each day and a dinner in their restaurant; their outdoor patio restaurant is a great spot to enjoy a glass of wine watching the lagoon/street traffic.  We would stroll in the evening to St. Mark's Square as there was an outdoor orchestra in front of a restaurant in St. Mark's Square each evening where you could sit and enjoy the music under the stars with your beverage choice (magical). Water taxi (Vaporetto) is at your doorstep. We arranged a water transfer to airport with Igor at Tour Leader Venice (https://www.tourleadervenice.com) - highly recommend Igor and easiest way to the airport. Enjoy!

Wow  -  what a comment. 

While the itinerary and the ship drive the choice, all of your descriptions paint a wonderful picture that contrasts terrifically with a poor reputation for a touristy city. 

Starting a trip in a dream - it's the counterpoint to finishing a wonderful dinner with the perfect cup of coffee or elegant, right sized dessert. These hotel choices set up Oceania well.

15 hours ago, Acrusa said:

If you're looking for old world charm and elegant atmosphere. It has to be the Hotel Danieli.With a room overlooking the Grand Canal 

In a movie, yes? "The Tourist", Johnny Depp and Angela Jolie. 

These are such amazing choices!!

On 1/25/2022 at 8:13 PM, ORV said:

That sounds like a fantastic itinerary. Lots to know about Venice. Spend some time at the Ports of Call section to pick up a lot of tips. We've been twice and loved it. Before you book a hotel make sure you understand the logistics of getting there from the airport and to the ship. Water buses(Vaporettos) are a great and economical way to get around, although they can be crowded. 

This is great advice - thank you ORV.

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Have you been to Venice before? Which ship is this on? 

1st time to Venice! On the bucket list, so we’re juiced. 

On the Riviera, same one we just sailed. Two, 10 day cruises that starts in Venice, moves down the Adriatic to Greece and out to Barcelona. Comes back to Rome after that, with lots of Spain and France. 

Since we’ll have to pay for … like 14 different excursions … we can’t afford an extended stay in Venice. Two days will have to do.

10 minutes ago, boerneDQ said:

We stayed in the Hotel Antiche Figueroa (so).  Right on the Grand Canal across from the train station and loved it!

These all seem like wonderful hotels. Forget the cruise, I'll stay in town! Thank you.

10 minutes ago, CintiPam said:

For 2023? Sometimes European hotels do not permit booking more than a year in advance. Any chance of that being the case?? 🙏

Yes  - it very well could be. When I failed, I tried another hotel in the same area and could not book (Hotel Al Codega), but it gave me a different error message. 

I'll look into it in April, for sure! Lovely look. 

3 minutes ago, CintiPam said:

Hotel Al Ponte Mocenigo, San Polo, a small hotel which is a short flat walk from the San Stae vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal. Also short walk to god restaurants. Great location, lovely outdoor garden for breakfast in nice weather, rooms overlooking a side canal, friendly helpful owners. Always highly ranked on sister website TripAdvisor. I have stayed here twice and prefer it to all the larger hotels we have tried. Books up fast. 

Great recommendation - but booked already I'm afraid.

Beautiful place though.

4 hours ago, CptBoatface said:

Well, I'm from a low density MOS that has a a decent likelihood of forced recall if this stumbles on, even though Im 54.  This time I won't be handing out teddy bears. Pretty sure it would be the worst shore excursion EVER.  Flights would be paid though, "meals" provided. 

<shudder>

So many worldly travelers here, and a good select group to ask for recommendations.

We are sailing out of Venice Italy on April 14th, 2023 for B2B roundtrip that ends in Rome and I'm going to start looking at lodgings. Probably two nights stay before the ship sails. 

Love ABNB, love places of character, want to start this European exploration on the right foot. Where have you stayed and can't wait to return?

(can't believe the deal on an interior room. Including all fees and gratuities, $9500 for both of us for 20 days at sea on O-life. Feel like I'm stealing!)

 

My gig is personal finance, and one of my best friends and clients remarked to me how frequently I use the phrase "rounding error". As in, "I realize you lost $3,000 but that isn't even a rounding error in your net worth. You'll make that up in dividends alone next month."

Not sure what the penalty is for cancelling a trip like that, and to me? Doesn't matter. I'd drop that trip like a hot potato and not think again about it. 
 

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Sperry boats shoes are fine. I never wear sneakers or open toe sandals to the GDR at dinner or to the Specialties. I pack a pair of versatile dress shoes for those occasions.

My wife fretted the open toe sandals in the Specialties. For the first 15 minutes it might have even impacted how she enjoyed the night. 

But I have to say I don't think I saw a lady without them - albeit with wonderful sun dresses and relaxed evening wear. And as you can see, she relaxed immediately. 

I found for myself a single pair of tasseled loafers went fine with everything in the evening, the entire cruise.

15 hours ago, susiesan said:

I wonder if the bigwigs at Oceania read these boards and realize the bad reputation they are getting with current customers who may become former? I agree with pinotlover, Oceania used to be very customer oriented but not so much anymore. Is it really a smart business decision to alienate a customer ready to spend $5k plus over a $500 credit?

Your posts reek of entitlement. Oceania made a gift to you of the $500 credit, and the gift had parameters. 

Use it; don’t use it. They didn’t need to make the gift and they have every right to enforce the requirements when it was made. 

LMAO. To think that they need to considerate of where and with whom you have traveled this year. 

JHFC. Wake up.

16 hours ago, Hokapontas said:

 

AlexCherie, I loved this post. You are a convert. I was lucky to have started (and continued) cruising life with O, and now know I should not feel the need to stray...thanks.

 

Anita

Thank you so much Anita - I appreciate that comment!!

Cheers,AnC

12 hours ago, HiFi43 said:

Gerry, it is a “must do” trip. We did it a number of years ago “. Jordan is special from Wadi Rum made famous in “Lawrence of Arabia” to Petra featured in “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade”. If you overnight in the port of Aruba I recommend you do what we did and that is hire a private guide to drive you to Petra visiting Wadi Rum on the way. Book a hotel in Petra and at dusk walk through the canyon into the Treasury for the very special candlelight show they do. Next day spend the day in ancient Petra before driving back to the ship. In Eqypt the Valley of the Kings and Luxor are special. One of Oceania’s best cruises.
 

Spend a few days before the trip in Istanbul, one of our favorite cities, and at the end stay a few days in Dubai…Bruce

Interesting to hear that you love Istanbul so much.

We are a little reticent to go there - fears of Anti-Americanism - so we've been mostly looking at Western European stops. Will reconsider. Thanks.

57 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Beg to differ - big operation needs to fill more berths PLUS (even in the best of times), many countries are starting to lock them out.

 

We shall see.... 

well, yes. That is the whole point of operating at scale, right? 

And a great many small ports have locked out any ship at all (leaving only the less desirable larger ports), because they do not have the infrastructure to manage the illness. Which of course takes away a great deal of the allure to an Oceania. 

It certainly impacted my trip on 1/4. 

AAR, there is nothing to be gained by wishing ill will to any part of an organization. 

On 1/17/2022 at 8:21 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Oh no!! the sky is falling!!

NOT.

If anything, it is the smaller premium/luxury brands that will survive - perhaps spun off or regrouped in new consortia or whatever, the fact remains that mass market megaships are a growing liability -operationally, environmentally et al. 
 

I doubt this - certainly to this scale as we see it now.

Not 100% sure about the cruising, but for most industries the cash cows are broad based operations that generate the umbrella for glory wings. Small operations more often than not fail to have the scale required to compete. 

Beyond this within a restructuring and this particular macro environment it will be increasingly difficult for a firm like Oceania (operated as an independent) to retain the sort of specialized talent they need. 

Bottom line - you might want to reserve your sneering at those big sisters and hope NCL manages to get those 13 out of 17 ships operating again.

First cruise line down. Crystal suspends operations across the board.

On 1/14/2022 at 11:58 AM, HiFi43 said:

Frank Del Rio, Oceania’s Founded and Chairman of NCL, yesterday in a new conference talked about cruise lines taking an unfair amount of criticism from the press and the future opening for cruising all their brands including Oceania. Here is the link to that discussion…

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/Frank-Del-Rio-says-media-unfair-to-cruise-industry

 

 

I have said this elsewhere and will repeat here: at some point, the CDC needs to look at what is happening at Oceania and say THIS IS THE WAY TO DO IT. Not to cruising, to America.

They distribute, for free and regularly, N95 face masks. They are incredibly vigilant when it comes to washing your hands and wearing that mask. And of course, everyone in the environment is vaxxed.

The result has been ridiculously low infection rates and conversely, a leg of the industry that stays open for business. I honestly cannot believe it's taken until January, 2022, to get to this point in our country. 

The same clowns woke up to the idea that 5G would have an impact on altimeters on airplanes, five years after the rollout. Honestly, *****. 


 

19 hours ago, gardenbunny said:

Testing is a seriously high anxiety moment waiting for that result 😬

It is such a precise alignment of so many factors out of your control for that single moment when you swab your nose…Covid roulette 😁

Curious to know how many people have taken the test feeling 100% normal to find out positive??

Or how many test negative only to get symptoms after they board??

The original Covid and its previous variants were very harmful to vulnerable people because it attacked the lungs.

But for all the data thus far Omicron is primarily like a cold staying in the upper tract and in large part you feel better after a few days.

I truly hope we are close to the point where this  virus is running its course.

 

If in fact it becomes dominant, Omicrom stands the possibility of crowding out other variants and helping us past this. 

To those questioning masks in general one thing that gets little upshot here is that Oceania provides you with a free supply of N95 masks. One will appear in your statement, every few days. 

On some level the CDC needs to take heed of what is happening at Oceania and point to them as "THIS IS THEY WAY YOU DO IT." Not to the cruise industry; to America.
 

21 hours ago, floridatravelersforlife said:

AlexCherie, you mentioned being harassed at the ports over masks'.  Were you referring to  crew members or dockside port workers?  

 

Also what was the mask compliance on board?

Totally being misunderstood - sorry, I thought the weight of my total comments made the impression.

No. They were absolutely, 100% vigilant in making sure everyone wore a mask, and washed their hands. 

Mask compliance was near total. You'd see people here and there laughing at themselves as they returned to their cabin or chair to do the right thing. TBH, more than once that was me.

6 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Most mentions of traveling companions (re: Covid) in the SailSafe FAQs et al. is “one size fits all” when it comes to boarding denials/quarantine.

makes sense.

To assume the opposite is true would be positioning the cruise line to exposing guests unnecessarily to risk. Not to mention, taking the least acceptable position to the infected cabin. After all, who among us want to be separated from our loved ones when they are ill?

 

2 hours ago, ToxM said:

I can understand your grief regarding the seeded buns. I do need someone to take one for the team and report back on the hot sticky buns at breakfast please. 

 

I know it will be torturous, but please consider it a sacrifice for those who come after. 

I'll comment on the hot sticky buns, based on Jan 4 sailing.

Not impressed. Loved a lot of things onboard, but not those - to me, a lot like eating a hot dog at Waves. 

:)

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

On the testing aspects, I'd still like to be totally clear on how Oceania handles testing and quarantine if necessary on the day you embark.   If you test positive on the pier side testing (which I assume is antigen, also known as lateral?) does Oceania do another antigen test, or a PCR test?  And if antigen, are there any scientifically proven statistics to show how often the results are different?   And what if your traveling partner(s) tests positive while you test negative?   Is only the positive person denied embarkation and sent ashore to quarantine, or do both people go, with or without separate rooms?  Or does it depend upon the rules of the country where you embark?

I can say this much: you clearly need to put those questions to Miami. LOL.

Beyond that, I know for a fact that another test is given if you test positive at the pier. They said that on January 4. Given the situation there, I don't believe they have the capacity to give any other type of test. I don't know that without a doubt, but that's my considered opinion.

I was told by my TA that if either of us tested positive at home before we were to fly out, we had due cause for neither of us to fly. There's no separate rooms situation. Both, or neither.

However I do know that after sailing, if only one party of a room has tested positive (the other negative) some cruise lines have only quarantined the positive case. Pretty sure that was NCL. No personal knowledge from our cruise on O - but trusting what I saw and heard, the thoroughness of the staff indicates to me they'd keep all the stateroom members separate. 

And as always, the rules of the country take precedence. That kind of language is all over your documentation. 

There are others hereabouts - @Flatbush Flyer, @PhD-iva - that know this stuff pretty cold. Ask them.