90scruzer

It appears to have the Forest mushrooms chopped via blender or other means. Sacrilege! I'm sure it's just a bad photo :P. Thanks again for all the information shared. I've put celebrity back in the mix for our future PC cruise .. now just trying to find the best one for my work itinerary (ie. in 2026 😢 )

While we on the chat may agree that 20 seems "old enough", Princess has always had the policy that someone in a cabin must be 21 at least for as long as I remember. Formerly had to do the same thing, ie. split the children (and us) between rooms, or sail in same room. It's cramped in a regular balcony, but doable (although it may be that no room capable of sleeping 4 people is available).

beautiful

Yeah, it's just a few days away from the official start of rainy season. Glad to hear you finished your tour before it struck.

thanks! I think there will be one fall 2026. The one from HAL in 2025 just doesn't work for us, but the same timeframe in fall 2026 would. And I agree that celebrity would be nice, but so far I only really see 2 options: HAL and O and only the HAL Nov 2025 sailing going the right direction. Maybe the other players will mix something up for 2026 as well and become an option. And BTW - the other issue with celebrity and PC was that at a travel expo, the rep was saying it was only 50-50 whether they would use the old locks. I cannot attest to the veracity, but that is close to 50% too low odds for my first transit. I will have to see If I can find it the next time we are in the area. Thanks for the suggestion.

Enjoy and thanks for the updates to you all! It will help when we do the PC. Unfortunately my wife has a specific itinerary in mind and it's only available date (so far) isn't workable for me. With all the interest in PC full-transit cruises, I would have thought that there would be more offerings with better (to us) itineraries. The one my DW wants is Miami->San Antonio. Hopefully one will open up in 2026. As for the coffee remark, frankly it depends upon the farm to me. Some of CR coffee is excellent, but not all. I'm sure that some columbian is good, but as I don't drink it that much - I haven't found one I liked. and Vietnam best in world? I guess I will try it when we get there, but it's not something I imagine would be that good.

your post made me go read at least part of your thread and I admit (not having sailed O since early 2023) that I'm a bit miffed about simplyMore. I had assumed it was possible to add (or remove, however you see it). We don't drink -- or more accurately, I have a very narrow pallet and it's nothing that they are going to ever have on a cruise ship. It's why we don't buy things like princess plus either. The value prop is just not there. Oh Dios mio! I suppose it won't impact our choice to sail Oceania if the itinerary and timing are there, but it may encourage us to choose another line in the (rarer for me as I'm not retired) case of overlapping itinerary options.

while everyone is different, I would tend to agree with you. We've only managed to sail on HAL and Princess (and Oceania) post Covid, so not exhaustive by any means, but I would say only the specialty dining on HAL was close to Oceania. I cannot think of anything on our princess sailing that was comparable. Just had too high expectations on our first go around.

great job! looking forward to seeing the rest of the transit.

do you know if you are doing the new or old locks? I talked to one of the celebrity reps at a travel expo and didn't like his answer regarding which locks are used : he said, "The captain calls in the morning and gets told which of the two, and the probability was 50-50 as to which the ship received." Not sure about the veracity, but this was disappointing enough that for my first time through the canal I am going to have to use one of the other cruise lines that at least seem to have better chances for old locks.

I want to second this ... just go in without the sky-high expectations and you will love the food. if you don't like the menu in MDR, even at the buffet you can have made to order seafood/steak. You won't go hungry. I was just commenting that not all of it is my cup of tea. But I never had issues finding good to excellent food.

yes. I'm an optimist. just like I keep hoping US airlines either stop with 1st class pricing or step away from RyanAir tactics. it insults me to fly these days.

we have used them often, but never in the US :P. but as always it's caveat emptor. They are just an aggregator (think Amazon here -- you get a lot of "knockoffs"/copy cats and you have to do due diligence to get the better tour) and they also can add a significant hike to the price over going direct. So it depends upon how much legwork you wish to do to find a local tour (when you can find one) and even that is not a panacea as we have had a few REALLY bad local ones (including what may be the worse tour we've ever taken - a private one at that!).

True. Last year we sailed Marina for the first time. I think we went in with higher expectations given the "best food at sea". Not that I am saying the food is bad at all. But a lot of it caters more to my sister's taste than to mine (ie. French - duck, coc au vin, pate, etc), cannot talk to R class, but at least on Marina we had plenty of specialty restaurants and we only once weren't able to get in (and that just because we don't eat as late as their seating opening). But I will say this, if it's relevant - we discussed the food with some long-time Oceania travelers. They said it was good, but not as good as pre-Covid. I fear it's going to take a few more years before any of the cruise lines feel sufficient need to return to pre-Covid levels. I hope to be proven wrong. BTW, it was better than HAL or Princess, which we have also sailed post-Covid. And I also enjoyed the Illy. But I do agree: I book a ship for the itinerary/ports and if I can get that timeframe off work. I personally would never sail Oceania for routine routes such as Alaska or Caribbean. To me it just isn't worth the extra expense. But we would (and will) sail them again in the future.

it's true, but what I found interesting was the statement that it has fluff from time-to-time (formally called hallucinations). In fact, in many cases, I've seen it have more hallucinations that reality. Still it reads well! 😛