AMHuntFerry

Sometimes. See the following: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/special-offers/bridge-cruises

If you have the basic package "House", you can have wine and beer with lunch and dinner. If you have the upgrade "Prestige", then you can have wine, beer, and other alcohol drinks from the bar menus. The menus with the drink package drinks are in the first few posts in the following topic:

Yes, one way flights internationally are not cost effective. The open-jaw should be similar to the average of the round trip to either city (generalizing...always exceptions). One thing I sometimes do, when flights are absurdly high, is find the major airport with the best deal round trip (as in half the price of other cities); this year it is Heathrow from where I live. Then since I am a 6-10+ hour drive from major cities, I fly to a major city then fly non-stop to Heathrow. I stay at Heathrow overnight in both directions. Then the next (or previous on return) day I fly a regional flight or take the train (booked separately) to wherever I need to go. It takes longer but reduces stress a ton while costing less (including the hotel and regional flights).

Get your friends' booking number and you can book their specialty reservations along with yours (1 of your 2 in each restaurant). It's one of the perks of having friends in high places.

I grew up in the west, have lived in western NY (mix of east and midwest) and in Colorado (mix of west and midwest). My initial assessment of O food was that it is geared toward the eastern US pallet more than the western US (which makes sense given the Miami base). Indian/pakistani food is extremely popular in the west, especially anywhere there is tech-business.

1. As was suggested, the executive lounge (for PH and up) is open all day and night. The coffee machine does espresso, but the americano from the machine is better than the regular coffee. 2. Normally the dinner venues open at 6:30. However, on some recent (full?) cruises the GDR and specialties have been opening at 6 although the 6 pm seatings were not available for specialty reservations before embarkation. So the answer is "maybe, but don't count on it". If needed, there are sandwiches at tea and various snacks at Baristas, plus room service to tide you over. 3. Fitness center hours have been 6 am to 10 pm in the past.

I have seen people order Perrier. The Vero water is either still or sparkling in large glass bottles which is then poured into drinking glasses poured into glasses. The default Vero water in the cabin is still (same large glass bottles), but we ask our cabin steward to fill with sparkling instead and there is always fresh sparkling water when they service the room.

I have seen that wording too, but wonder if it is leftover from pre-Covid (O's process and document control is not great...conflicting info is common so if it's not in the T&C or other overriding doc, I am skeptical...OK, I'm always skeptical, but more than normal here?). So here's an example of the "120-day online booking window" not being current procedure: I have a September cruise that I recently (~2 weeks ago?) booked. Last week I booked some O shorex. I most definitely do not have priority over anyone else, but we are not even close to the 120-day mark. I vaguely remember booking shorex 6 or 7 months out for a December 2021 cruise (the last time I used O shorex). Anyhoo, I'm pretty sure you can just book as soon as it shows up online; and maybe earlier if you (or your TA) call since the website does not always get updated quickly.

This was a poor choice of "sample menu" for O to post by the drink packages...very misleading (notice its title includes "premier", not "prestige"); these would be more likely available for a whiskey or scotch tasting event (for a fee). A better link for the drink package would be https://www.oceaniacruises.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/Oceania-Grand-Bar-Menu.pdf for hard liquor examples.

Here you go (post #5): I searched the forum using "extended" then scrolled until I saw images on the second page of hits. You can probably find more with the same search if you like.

10 pm means you'll need to be back on the ship by 9:30 pm (or earlier...whatever the Currents daily says) which is usually when the show starts. There isn't a lot of time after dinner (say, 6:30 to 8:30) to do anything unless there is something (cafe, pub, etc.) right at/near the pier (e.g., SFO yes, Ketchikan no).

Which menu are you looking at? The menus with the drink package drinks are in the first few posts in the following topic: ORV and others sacrificed themselves and tested the Oban and Macalen offerings 😉

The extra days are a very recent development. O can take a little too long to update the FAQs, so they are a good starting point, but the older their "updated" date is, the info becomes iffy.

Since you have a butler for most on-ship things (except M&Gs or similar as mentioned), the concierge can be helpful for off-ship plans (dining/events, contacting air/ground transport, etc.). Your butler can assist with specialty reservations (changing/adding...not always possible if the ship is packed to the gills). However, as you suspect, you can have any specialty dinner served in your room while they are open. Please give your butler advance notice for the best experience.

Here is the US site since I know this is an amazing acheivement (sarcasm font 😉 )

I really wish O would make the FAQs easier to find. They are way at the bottom of the website in small print. Anywhoo...here is a link to the "planning" FAQs shich includes "Air" info to get you started: https://oceaniacruises.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000484693-Planning-My-Cruise I don't usually use TAs but for cruises with O, it's a good idea (search Oceania "Connoisseur Club" to find one that understands the O-craziness). However, you can book directly with O and transfer the rez to a TA within 30(? check this) days. Note that the quarterly increases are possible but don't occur for all cruises. From my semi-random checks, cruises that are underfilled do not increase in price (some never increase), while popular cruises tend to go up slightly (I haven't seen huge jumps but I only track a small percentage of offerings). Since the deposit is easily refundable up until the deadline, it doesn't hurt to book as long as you're OK with the money being locked up. I also like to know what is going on, so spent literally months browsing the O site and this site. There is a lot of good info here, but some is hidden deep in unrelated topics (we tend to wander sometimes 🙂 ). Enjoy learning about O!

Yes. My husband can have a little caffeine (~1 shot of espresso), so he almost always orders decaf. Baristas does a really nice decaf of everything on the regular menu. We practically live there.

Vanilla, or pistachio, or chocolate 🙂

There are different answers for different situations. Do you have O-Life shorex that you need to book? If so, I would book as soon as you can so you get your first choice. You can always switch later if there is still availability (call your TA or O to switch) up until the O-Life deadline in your documents. If there are ports with limited tourist services and you are not a full-out DIYer (i.e., no local guide needed), you might want to prioritize those since O may have booked all available resources. No O-Life shorex but you want to book some shorex via O? If you have OBC, use that to book your first choice or likely to sell out shorex as soon as possible. If you need to use a CC, use pinotlover's advice and decide between O shorex and other options; if there is an O shorex that is an absolute MUST for you, go ahead and lend them the money via your credit card, otherwise do the risk-reward balance to decide what's right for you. You can cancel/switch up to the deadlines in your docs and get refunds of the OBC or credit card charges.

duplicate

If you have a Megadeth T (or similar), wear it next time. Those really quiet staffers who usually float in the background will all of a sudden smile and start talking to you and nickname you "Megadeth". \m/

Thankfully there are those evil little cakes (look like a tall, skinny bundt) and biscotti. The biscotti come from a bag but I can nibble them all day!

We were in 6030 on Regatta when couples could still book. We thought it was fine, but we are low-maintenance. Read the thoughts from the various perspectives to decide if it is right for you.

There are a bunch of CC topics about these cabins. Here are some of the most recent: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2904927-experience-in-the-solo-obstructed-view-cabins-on-regatta-and-insignia/ https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2886140-new-solo-cabins-on-oceania-r-class-ships/

I had to resort to Google to find this CC link. Videos are the best!