rbtan

On 5/5/2024 at 11:39 AM, Mary loves to travel said:

We're looking at a Princess land first then cruise Alaska tour.   In reading the luggage details, each person is allowed ONE handheld item onto the tour bus with them.    Is the CPAP machine that one item?

What have other CPAP users done?

 

Thanks,

Mary

CPAP is considered medical equipment & not included in the hand held item category. Hopefully you have a battery back up not all transports have sockets.

The cuts of meat are USDA "standard" grade in the MDR. USDA Select(no longer choice)in the specialties. Only the Chef's table has USDA Choice/Prime. If you want better try Oceania. They have USDA Prime. Princess will tell you they have "Premium"(there is no such grade) My husband is the food buyer for his company. When you shell out millions each year, you get a pretty good idea what purveyors have to offer.

  I do recommend the Chilean Seabass. Do make SURE it is actually that. Most lines use Sea Bass. Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian Toothfish) is actually not in the Bass family. It's like calling Founder "Pacific Dover Sole". This fish does NOT exist. It is a fake name spawned by fish vendors.There actually is NO type of Sole in the Americas. You need to go to Europe to find Sole.

Ground up chair hogs😝

37 minutes ago, true45 said:

Terrible chair hog issues on Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity (our most recent sailing a few months ago) — seems to have gotten worse recently.

 

The cruise lines seem unwilling to enforce policies.  They could put down timestamped cards and collect them along with belongings (I’ve seen apples, flip flops, books, etc) after reasonable Timelapse, perhaps 45 minutes.  The belongings to be deposited on a vicinity table.

 

As long as the cruise lines ignore this, the passengers will suffer — just not right.  It is not quite as much fun if we need to be circling the outside lounges like trying to find parking at the mall during the holidays— oh, and am paying thousands for the privilege onboard.  

As we've said many times. If you walk around a bit.. Look to see how many are in the pool. Are the drink glasses full of water & no ice. At that point we just move in. My spouse just takes the belongings( mostly books/Mags & tosses them on the towel locker.As I said no issues on our Jan. Vista cruise. The captain & most especially the cruise director spoke often about it. Princess/Celebrity were terrible & my spouse got into a few times, telling one guy if he'd like to see the water close up, my spouse would oblige him.Most cases a call to security moves the hogs away quickly.

My spouse asked a crew member on our Jan. cruise (Vista)about the chair hogs.The policy was changed due to really snotty pax getting in the pool butlers faces.You'll see cards scattered about & the cruise director was really insistent on his morning announcements that hogging was not to be tolerated Same in the theater.We saw staff enforce this in the theater.Once on Celebrity this occurred... A woman saved a dozen seats & we just walked right past her & sat. She got snotty & my husband told her to P/O.It worked. Others came to sit in the are as well & it wasn't her group of friends,ether. Someone always has to make the first move..

On 5/1/2024 at 8:04 AM, Redtravel said:

On my first cruise many years ago in 1988, you had an assigned teak deck chair.  Your name was on it.  You picked your chair location as you checked in.  Every afternoon, they served tea on the deck. We dressed up every night. In the dining room, we were assigned to a table. You could eat all 3 meals at your table. You could also come for the midnight buffet in the dining room.  Your waiter knew what drinks you liked and had them on the table when you arrived. It was very elegant. Those were the good old days. 

Sounds a lot like Cunard. Even there the chair hogs abound. That's when we started doing the Grills. You had a restricted area for Grills pax only. Never a chair hog issue there.

10 hours ago, CO 2000 said:

I will indeed follow your advice. Thanks for the reply

You're welcome. Sorry I messed up saying "site" I meant to say suite.

We cancelled our Reserve Cabana mini for next Jan.We rebooked the Vista on Oceania this time doing a PH.We did book a reserve mini on the Majestic for 2026. It has one of the rather odd but larger balconies.Any comments on this type of cabin would be appreciated.

16 minutes ago, vlthom said:

I'm not a fan of the Bulgari products due to their strong scents.  My husband enjoys showering in the spa and loves that they have L'Occitane products there.  He usually brings some back to our cabin.  I suspect that if we requested them from our cabin attendant, they'd be provided.  But if not, they are available in the spa area.

Then make the request. Are you in a site? If not they may or may not provide them. As you said they are available in the spa area.We've been happy except I don't care for the shampoo. My spouse is fine with all of it. He especially likes the soap that is provided for the sink area. We both hate bath gels.

Well, you get a larger cabin. You have a Reserve class only rest. (at least on the new Sun)

7 hours ago, ORV said:

I've heard them, right out in front of the bar on one of the R ships. Fellow seemed to think everyone needed to hear his playlist. Unfortunately, most of it was rap & hip-hop. Obviously he really wasn't Oceania material on more than one front. 

 

No one said anything to him. 

My spouse certainly would have, if it was loud.

3 hours ago, PoppyVelvet said:

I was reading earlier in the thread about people playing their bluetooth speakers in public places.

 

I'm a little late to this party... but we've just booked our first cruise so I'm avidly reading all the boards here at CC...

 

I'm autistic and can't stand music in certain situations. My DH has been known to (very politely) ask people to turn off the sound or use headphones and they have always complied. I find it strange that no one would do this in these circumstances?

I have to say that we've not heard speakers being used on board.

3 hours ago, goletans said:

My spouse has tossed "clips" of some of these pax.

 

Is this like a carefully aimed rubberband at the concert-goer who blocks your view at a concert - especially aimed at that the person in the front row that stands for the whole show?? Haven't resorted to this yet, but do think about it.

 Not at the pax. Just tosses them in the trash. Though, Keith says he likes your thinking😆 For those who claim how rude to toss someone's belongings, we're talking about  less than 50 cents here.

 My spouse says he remembers this line from somewhere: The beatings will continue until the morale improves.

My spouse has tossed "clips" of some of these pax. If he sees them reserve them while he is on the deck & they are gone for an hour or more the clips get tossed & the belongings get dropped on top of the pool towel boxes. If we want a lounger, we'll not waste too much time.We'll usually have a few drinks a few dips in the pool & then vacate.

2 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

We also moved stuff used to save the chairs....

 

When the woman returned in the aft, after being gone all morning, she was livid that we had done that.  She proceeded to gather all kinds of people known to her and began shouting all kinds of insults at us. She did this the whole time we were there, about an hour and a half, till we finally left to do other things. We left by saying, it is all yours now.

For the rest of the cruise, on the Vista, she pointed us out to others, as the low class people that took her chairs.

Who needs this kind of behavior on a cruise.

Wish O could do something.

You could have stood up for yourselves & told them to !@# off.We had that happen once & my spouse told the party(perhaps same ones you encountered?) One more remark & we'll call security & have you  thrown off the ship. Shuts them up real quick. Never suffer a ..wipes. Throw the insults back.Start with I don't see your names stencilled on the loungers & you have NO RIGHT to reserve & hog chairs.If they continue kick it up a notch.Low class pax don't expect good come back insults.

On 4/5/2024 at 6:28 AM, Muffinz said:

We booked our cruise in February 2024 for December 2024, as part of their 'love boat sale' with $99 deposits

Now we've received an e-mail from Princess about a '7 day sale'... and you guessed it, our cruise is now cheaper than what we paid for it (we booked directly with Princess) - it's about $300 cheaper overall

 

When we first looked at the cruise it was quite cheap, but had gone up a little bit by the time we booked it.... the person on the phone at Princess said as the ship starts to fill up the price also goes up accordingly.... but now it's on 'sale'.

 

Is there anything we can do (contact Princess) to get the cruise at the cheaper price - or do we just have to suck it up?

 

Call Princess & ask for the lower price in OBC. They should grant it. Next time use a T/A & save the trouble.

7 hours ago, Womble99 said:

Wonder what they use on the popcorn?

Coconut/Palm oil with artificial butter flavor. I never buy popcorn with that garbage on it.

On 3/29/2024 at 8:57 AM, 20165 said:

Does anyone have recommendations or history tipping the concierge on a per request bases and how much per request?  We are sailing next month on Enchanted and will most likely use them quite a bit given we are having a hard time getting dinner reservation, the spa times we want,  and we are going to ask them if they can get us a cabana which i know is a tall order but if they are successful, how much would you tip for that kind of request?

I read online that the recommendation for a regular concierge at a hotel is $5-20 depending on complexity of the request so would that apply here?

And before we go down a rabbit hole, i know some people dont use or tip the concierge, we are going to and would like to try per request this time vs. the end of the cruise tip like we usually do.

thanks

 

We usually tip $25. Your choice however. We're in the hospitality field so we tip over and above the usual.

On 2/3/2024 at 8:46 AM, edgee said:

 

Perhaps legal advice to O was better to not touch stuff and just remind guests of policy not to hog loungers for long periods of unoccupied time. This is my 9th Oceania cruise and the first time I have heard a "no hogging chairs" message included in twice daily announcements by cruise director.

I know this is late. We heard announcements about chair hogging on our Vista Jan. trip.We've also seen signs absolving Oceania against lost/stolen items around the pool deck(cabin theft issues might constitute potential legal issues.)When we wanted a lounger look for the following "Warm" drink glasses/Towels dry etc, We move right in & take our seats. Stuff left there gets moved, period! Did NOT have a single issue. We did see this woman(one time) try to save all the loungers around us.(about 6)She then left for a while & my spouse took all the towels & such & removed them.This allowed other pax to sit there. She returned about 30 min. later with her entourage & was p/o'd that the seats were now taken except one. When she complained I said sorry, you can't save chairs.

On 5/25/2023 at 9:07 AM, shepherd really said:

Do they make a Ho Chi Mint?

EWWWWW!

On 3/14/2024 at 11:15 AM, WildWanderers said:

Hi All,

 

Upgrading, Downgrading and Bidding, o my!

 

We started cruising with Oceania in 2014, and in the following 4-5 years used to receive offers of upgrades and downgrades, for various costs and benefits, and sometimes several offers on a given cruise.  Since then, crickets.

 

We did ask our Oceania representative before an August 2023 cruise what the cost of an upgrade from a concierge level room to a penthouse would be.  The price he quoted was pretty much what was posted, but he suggested I contact him a week before sailing and he would check what kind of a deal he could get then.  We did and his offer was still beyond our comfort level.  

 

When we boarded and asked the executive concierge for an upgrade on the second of our then two back-to-backs, she said she would put us on the list, and warned me that if we got an offer, it was a fixed amount, non-negotiable.  The next day we got a letter from her on our door with an offer far too good to refuse.

 

As a result, for the second of the two cruises we had a shower in which we not only fit, but could turn around.

 

This Spring we are taking a transatlantic Oceania cruise, and eventually returning on the Queen Mary 2 - our first time trying this.  We noticed that the cost was the same to do this as two business class fares, so why not.  A couple of weeks ago we received an offer to bid on an upgrade.  I looked online to see if there was advice on how to play the game to get what you want, and found little.  

 

We bid on what is called a Princess suite (we would dine in a different dining room - with presumably a more special menu) and are currently in a Britannia suite that looks like an Oceania concierge level suite.  The bid was good for three days and at the end of the three days we heard nothing.  

 

I now know (had to contact Cunard on another matter) that they kept the bid alive and we may hear that we got the upgrade up to three days before sailing.  This will complicate the printing of their luggage tags for us, but this too is solvable.  

 

In case any of this helps,

 

Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers

 

 

 

There is NO Britannia suite.It is a stateroom with considerably less room than any standard Oceania cabin(Exception the smaller O ships)Their Britannia club is simply a cabin located in a better part of the ship with upgraded food amenities. You need to be in Princess or Queens Grill suites to really get the better amenities.

13 hours ago, cruisingxpert said:

That's good to hear because they didn't have the loungers in any extended Concierge balconies last May.  The extended ph balconies on Deck 7 have had 2 loungers from the start.

Yes. We chose the PH-2 directly below us for next Jan.

On 3/15/2024 at 12:09 AM, Sharkray said:

We are currently in a concierge balcony cabin #7007 on Vista and have the extended balcony with two loungers, two chairs and a table.  We love this cabin and have been using the loungers every day. Having the extra long balcony is awesome and we would definitely book this cabin again. 

We had the extended Concierge balcony, which certainly could hold loungers, but did not have them.We saw a couple loungers being carried down the hall from us. I think if you somehow can convince your attendant, I think you may be able to get them. If you do you had better tip them well for providing what is normally not available.

Basically, there is no bidding system.They may offer an upgrade. This is usually for those in lesser accommodations & they want to totally fill the ship.The upgrade will not be free, but will be a decent price. Another item is to immediately visit guest services upon boarding & let them know you're interested in any upgrades that might be available. If the ship is full you'll be staying where you booked.