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@Flatbush Flyer Wow and I do mean wow. Once again, this post should be at the beginning of the Oceania Cruises Blog on CruiseCritic.com. Very helpful and educational. Thank you and others that have addressed this and other issues. @Flatbush Flyer Double Dipping is a universal issue that most brands stay away from. Yet, on occasion, it can happen. Very rare but it can happen. I booked my "O" cruise on the Sept 1, 2022 labor day promotion that gave a Four-Category-Upgrade. I was thrilled. Then on this current sale, I asked my TA to check. I was blown away that my fare went down another $900.00 a person. I had to lose my American Express Platinum perk of $150 per person OBC but netted $750.00 a person. My point is, this for me was a double dip. Again, I did not think it could happen. I almost did not ask my TA even to look. This and other streams motivated me. The moral of the story is it does not cost to ask. Thank you again. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@Psoque I know I sound like a broken record, but here goes. I am a "Newbie" on Oceania but not on cruising. 44 years of cruise vacations on other brands. The issue you had with your TA for ME was not uncommon. I did trial and error on TA. I found a good one now. As my current agent told me every time I ask for a change, or inquiry; Oceania take some time on hold to handle it. She has learned to call at specific hours to get a quicker response. The issue as she describe it to me was, "Travel Agents make a commission. It is nice but not over the top. When making to many changes or inquiries, the time invested makes the commission less then great. The GREAT agents understand that and know, once they fully understand the clients needs, most of the questions or adjustment can be handled on the initial reservation. Another words, great agents play the long game." Another experience I have had is some folk love their agents and when I used them, I did not. So like Oceania Agents online, it is hit or miss on TA as well. Again, this is ONLY my perspective. My experience. Not meant to be anyone else. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@Fairwinds789 In my first dealings with Oceania, I have found the same thing. My TA was so impressed with the person from Oceania she spoke with, she asked for a direct line to her. This is not just an Oceania thing. The "Right Person" approach works for all airlines and cruise brands. Some times it is simply the luck of the draw. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@ashkay16 Allow me to share some wonderful experiences. First of all, the Haven Horizon Observation area is off the charts. Now I have been on the Joy in the Haven and non-Haven suites. Below the Horizon is the full ships Observation area with a Starbucks. The Haven Horizon had a Starbuck Machine that was also wonderful. On the 18th deck, in the front of the ship is the Haven Library. I loved this area and when I wanted privacy and quiet, I would go there. The Beatles Review from the main theatre to the cavern club were some favorites. The Chocolate Cake in Cagney's is awesome (Not have but great). The "Smoking Drink" at the Haven Bar was a show and drink all in itself. Nice experience. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@latebloomer56 You did the right thing because you got great service. If I was choosing your next trip in the Haven, it would be the NCL JOY, without question. I was in the JOY Haven and the Breakaway Haven. I like the JOY much better. Glad you had a good time. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@LHT28 I have a suggestion. The YWC Discount is one of the many things that you taught me about Oceania. That topic, with many of the other hints should be pinned on the very beginning of this Oceania Blog. Other topics could be "Oceania Air" with deviation and other fees. The drink package would be another one. I am only suggesting this because of the many questions that are asked over and over again especially right now with so many new guest booking Oceania like myself. One of the biggest complaints of Oceania is it is complicated. The normal response is it is only complicated at first. This pinned article could share some strategy on navigating when new to Oceania. Just a thought. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

My wife and I are available. LOL Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@SATaxman It is my first trip on Oceania as well. This sale for me came out of the blue and I learned about the sale and how to access it here on this blog on CruiseCritic.com. Seems to be unusual. For me, I booked using a promotion in September 2022. The four category upgrade promotion. I had no idea we could also use this sale. I simply called my TA and it was done. The key for anytime you are cruising on a new brand is the CruiseCritic.com blog for that brand. Ask any questions here as I have been. It all becomes clear after a while. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@TimCruise23 You have been heard. Thank you. This is a thread on the secrets of the Haven. Thank you for participating. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@DCGuy64 I know how you feel and have gotten frustrated in the past. The nature of Social Media is often about helpful education on topics the poster feels they have a wealth of knowledge about. Sometimes a line in a post catches a response and a small interaction happens. As frustrating as it might seem, it always comes back to the topic the Author wrote about. I too hope this topic comes back because it is important to me. It is also important to all the first time "O" guests. The more feed back on "First Impressions on Oceania", the more we newbies and adjust and control our realistic expectations. I do hope we get lost more feed back on First Impressions. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@TimCruise23 Welcome to CruiseCritic.com. I see you just joined about one hour ago. You must have had a less than positive time on the Gem from your posting. Many of the issues you bring on, on your first and only post, could have been in some ways less of an issue if you would have reviewed some aspects of this thread. Which ships have the best Haven, best times to go, how to communicate with your butler. I am not saying your cruise would have be all you hoped, it was obviously disappointing. I am saying, it might have been a much better experience. Hope your next cruises on which ever cruise line you choose meets and exceeds your expectation. There are brands, itineraries, price points and ship to excite everyone. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@DCGuy64 Again, I understand what you are saying. This is why, spending some time on a specific brands blog allows all of us to establish realistic expectations. For me, I read about the food on "O" in blogs. I note what I hear that I like and what to avoid. I know I must have a piece of Pizza, crazy named ice cream and great coffee every morning. I learned careful what temp you order your steak at the Polo. The king cut of prime rib is like Flintstone's cut. A good call, have the sea bass in the fusion restaurant. So many other hints i have on a separate document. It has been a gas to learn from everyone. Allows you to know things that you would never had known without reading others comments. My only problem is my cruise is in November 2023. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@Sailing12Away This is a great idea. Please tell me how the beef ribs were if you tasted them. I am a fan of those from a restaurant in my past called Darrell's. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

I never claim to be an expert on "O". However I am very familiar with NCL, and the NCL Haven. I can fully understand the Author's point of view. If what you are used too is a NCL ship and cruise, you kind of look for the the same thing. Very few people really drill down deeply at what makes one brand different from another. If you are new to "O" and want to learn the difference, you come to this blog. No one is shy, everyone has different likes and dislikes. The author was transparent. Some likes and some dislikes. They compared it to the brand they knew best, NCL. A very normal thing to do. They noticed things they had not seen before and were disappointed. It happens. Cruise by nature are always a little bit different even sometimes on the same ship, heck, even on back-to-back cruises on the same ship. When I reads a review, I log in my head what the person says. You read enough reviews, you get a general consensus. Different opinions allow for much more realistic expectations. If the review was everything was perfect, or nothing was right; they are not really internalized. It is the other 80% where you learn the real deal. So thank you to the author. You encouraged me to do write a very transparent review when it is my turn. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@Psoque The long waits are a real thing. That said, sometimes the selection of a Travel Agent is as important as the brand, ship and stateroom. If your situation happened to me, it would sell me on the fact that when booking Oceania in the future, I will do it direct. In the past it was about being cancelled because of covid. Now it is about gaining a better deal on selected sales. It is really about having options and being able to communicate to change what we want. I do hope it all works out for you. All TA are not made the same. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@bookbabe as I have said so many time, you and @CDR Benson are going to have a fantastic time. Allow me to give a reason. For a moment, thing about the NCL Haven. Now make the entire ship the NCL Haven. The food and service are truly an enhancement. Still, if I were both of you, I would read the Regent Blog for hints. Still strategy like the Haven. I am jealous of the memory you both will have. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

Yes, call “O”. Not ever cruise has this sale. Mine did. Large savings.

@Bakingnana I am no expert however here is what I would do. As long as your final payment has not come due. If that happened, it is more complicated. I would call the Oceania directly. I would gain a full price for the category/stateroom just the way your agent did for you. If the fare is less, you have two choices: Cancel the trip with your agent for a full and complete refund. OR, tell your agent what you found and have them cancel the trip and rebook you at the new fare. As long as you booked with a normal agent that used fully refundable deposit, both should be under consideration. Sometimes it is something simple in these situation which is my hope for you. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

Thank you to everyone on this board and the author of this thread. I reached out to my TA early this week and asked to have my reservation looked at as it relates to the Extraordinary Savings Sale. I expected nothing because I booked my cruise with a four category upgrade sale on September 1. 2022. Here is what happened. We have a PH3 Guarantee, we got a $900.00 per person reduction. To receive this deduction, we had to lose a American Express Perk of $150.00 OBC. Our net was $750.00 per person or $1,500.00 per couple. That is a LOT of money. I also booked our Pre-Cruise Hotel directly with the same hotel that Oceania was offering and saved $400.00 per couple. I am thrilled with the progress and look forward to this cruise. I would have never even considered having my TA call "O" until I read this thread. Thank you to all. Now let's make sure they sell some cabins and don't cancel this trip. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@rizello I understand however as I am also newbie to Oceania, happy to help you on the research I have done to choose my cruise. What you have to do is separate different brands. What I am about to say is only my opinion. The more we discuss issue on CruiseCritic.com, the more folks challenge opinions which is just fine. It helps us all understand better. Oceania was attempting to find a place for their small brand. It wanted to offer luxury features for folks that did not want to pay the same as a new SUV. To do so, they made things much less "All Inclusive". They created an unofficial category called Premium-Plus. To me, this means a cut above Mainstream Cruise Brands/experiences; smaller ships that can go into more ports; more refined ports of call; better food/dining experience. Yet not include gratuities, give a choice of perks, don't pay for all excursions and transfers (unless you take O Air and O pre/post-cruise hotel). The drink package is beer/wine at lunch and dinner unless you pay a bit more for the Prestige Package. Another words, lots of "Pay for" options if you want or need them for your experience. By pulling out some items, it lowers the over all costs, making the fair somewhat more reasonable. This is Premium-Plus for Oceania and Viking that includes a lot of what Oceania does not is a Luxury category. Try looking at it like that. The good news is if you do the math, Oceania is still a value. I hope that makes sense. Remember, that was my take, someone that has not take Oceania yet but will in November 2023. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@Jcon3228 Boy is your question one that gets debated over and over again. Yet I do have a perspective on it. I am going on a 10-day Mediterranean Cruise on one of NCL sister brands, Oceania. My cruise leaves from Athens, Greece on November 9, 2023. It returns from Barcelona, Spain on November 19, 2023. Like with NCL, you can save on your fare if you book your airfare directly. My benefit was $1,000 per passenger. The key issue is "Control". NCL or in my case Oceania controlled the air reservation. Cruise lines have negotiated blocks of airline seats. In my research which unfortunately is not easy information to come up with, I found for me at least, booking through the airlines direct was much better. Here is the catch, you have to book as early as you can to catch the good fares. The longer you wait until the cruise, the more expensive the airline tickets get. Most airlines allow you to book 330 days in advance which is what I did. I also booked "Fully Refundable" fares which cost me a little more than the air allowance my cruise was giving me. I could have gotten a airfare several hundred dollars less if I wanted a non-cancelable fare. This worked great for me because I could choose my seat, it included one 50lbs checked bag which sometimes is not included when using the cruise line and I got to keep my airline points. However none of this works if you are to close to the departure date of your cruise. As a general rule, we always and I do mean always book our flights at least one day prior to the cruise line leaving. Some cruise brands are not offering this with a Pre-Cruise Hotel through them or as a complementary benefit. Some do not. It all comes back to control of your day, times, brands and seating choices. Funny story, two years ago my friends and I were booked for this cruise. I booked my air the day before the cruise as is my norm. He REFUSED to do it because he told me the Cruise Ship would wait for him if his flight was late. This is not the case as a norm. Have cruise ships waited for large groups of passengers to get to the port, on rare occasions. If the cruise brand in this case NCL books your air, they will get you to the next port. That means your "Once in a lifetime cruise" has a day or two less. This trip, the same friend has no choice, we are both going in a day early getting to Athens, Greece at 08:30 AM. This gives us the full day in Athens. Now this topic will be debated, it always is. All I did was give you my perspective. Take everything that every says with a grain of salt. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

Well all of this is clear as mud to someone just now considering Oceania Cruises for the first time. If is a first time for me as well however I studied O a few years ago, booked it and it got cancelled due to Covid. I am back booked for November 2023. When I tell everyone on this blog that O is kind of confusing to new folks like myself, I am really not kidding. Yet it would be of great value to new bookings and new O guests to read and learn as much as possible on the different plans. I am by no means an expert on O. I do like to know what I am buying and if their is a way to make the entire situation less of an investment without taking away value. OLife: This was my first lesson. Choose one of three perks. Were every other cruise brand I have used provided a full adult drink package, O was beer/wine at lunch/dinner. Some of the blogs on this were pro/con like everything else on a cruise. The debate of which perk was the best value were all fun to read. My decision was $600.00 of onboard credit which I used pre-cruise to purchase the full Adult Drink package called the Prestige Drink Package which was $600 per guest, spirits, wine and beer when ever a bar/restaurant was open. It also gave discounts on some of the unique dinning opportunities. I paid another $600 for the second guest. Was this a deal or a value, not really. About a wash. OLife Ultimate: I was literally upset when I say this on my cruise, until I went back to the fare I got originally and realized my initial fare was fair less. In doing a math competition, it seems adding the other two perks, raised the fare about what you would expect. All that went through my mind was, the Marketing Department strikes again. O Air: Oh boy was this one debated on this and other social media site. There are advocates to both. There are some contributors on this blog for O that are literal experts. I am not. I am just old and set in my ways. I thought I knew lots about airfare until I met the experts. What I did know was to do my best to book my flights directly with the air brand, fully refundable if possible, as early as possible to get the best itinerary and price. If the fare went down, cancel and rebook since it was fully refundable. Kind of like with fully refundable cares fare deposits. For me, not everyone, my strategy worked very well. By booking directly with the Air Brand, my Cruise Fare was $1,000.00 less per guest which was very close to what I paid. Cruise Only: Oh boy was this confusing at first. In my past, cruise only simply meant no air. With Oceania it meant no OLife and no Air. I figured it out simply by doing the math. One perk was worth about $600. The air credit was $1000. Take those off and my fare was that much less. Many say this is the way to go for them. That is cool. However just knowing how it seems to work is enough for most of us newbies to make a decent business decision. Extraordinary Saving Sale: I again did the math however it seems that the PH3 I choose really was not an Extraordinary Saving for my situation. The lower categories seems to be a very good deal for some. O marketing needed to sell more cabins and did so by making the lower categories very attractive. Since everyone when they leave their stateroom are treated the same on an O voyage, if I was booking again, I would definitely consider this. Four Category Upgrades: The labor day sale was a four category upgrade. That is when I booked. Since then all kinds of marketing and promotion has happened including price increases. When I do the math, I look at my category of PH3 and see where we would be for each promotion. Your situation may differ. Now this is my experience currently. As I stated, it was a bit confusing at first. I kept asking the previous O guest questions to get to this point. I hope my experience thought this learning curve helps some. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

I authored this threat with only the most positive intentions. I am not expert on the internal workings of Airfare. All I was really really happy about was having a strategy that I could move some of my flights around to better connections, times and less time in airports if the airlines change my itinerary in a semi-significate way. When it happened and the result I was looking for was achieved, I shared it. I have come to find out much more than I ever have known about why things happen on airfare. 45 years I have been flying, booking my own flights and learning along the way. Nothing could have prepared me for all the detail present by posters on this stream. Education just does not happen in school. It can happen in our lives if we are all open minded to it. Thank you to all folks that added to the quality of this subject. Now that I have my airfare as good as it can be for my upcoming Oceania Cruise. Now it is time to drill down deep on the Pre/Post hotel stays. I dare say my research seems to be a bit easier here however who know how much we will all learn by the time it is down. Cruise well and enjoy ever moment.

@Mugennosora I totally enjoyed my daily Starbucks coffee early morning in the NCL Joy Observation Lounge. We traveling in the Haven, I was giddy getting our French Press made with Starbucks Beans. In my business, I traveled to Europe quite often. I LOVE the coffee in Europe. As a matter of fact, I will be take a 10-Meditaranian Cruise in November 2023 the highlight of our trip will be all the coffee will will be able to enjoy including Turkish Coffee done in sand. A first for me. I think the hate for Starbucks is less about the company, beans or quality of the coffee. More about it has yet another extra cost if Not in the Haven or for guest that don't have the Premium PLUS Beverage Package. Side note, We have a Miele High End Automatic Coffee/Espresso maker at home. My daily coffee is a strong setting cup with a shot of Espresso. I thought you might appreciate that. Thanks for the post. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

@honmani2 Hello, I am the author of this thread. You just made the point that I was trying to make on my original post. I just did not start with your brilliant opening and wished I did. Yet, I learned so much about how airfare price and what could make a difference. I had no idea so many people were that deeply knowledgeable about air travel. When push comes to shove, as you outline, I was thrilled that I could make some changes without charge that make my vacation air travel better. Thank you for sharing. Cruise well and enjoy every moment.