Huib

6 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

 

Again and again, you miss the POINT. Which is customer misperceptions of corporate cost-cutting and revenue enhancement efforts to pay down their mountain of debt. People wrongly think they are getting some enhancement or benefit, blindly accepting ad hype and marketing efforts. Sometimes the Emperor has no clothes. Simple as that.

 

And since I've got 22 more nights on Sirena booked and paid for starting August 28, 2024, I will be sailing with O. But I keep in mind how I can adjust to their actions and minimize my costs. As an informed passenger.

 

Study EACH NEW PROGRAM and CHANGE. Then ask yourself, Is this actually really benefitting O or me? SM added $600-800 per PP per cruise and gave back pennies on the dollar. The perfect revenue enhancing scheme, where you "think" you're getting far more than you actually are. See all the issues and complaints about O excursions tied to the SM Excursion Credits, that can only be used on excursions.

I see where you are coming from. The average cost of a meal at Ember is probably lower than in Jaques. The cost of a pizza at waves is much lower for Oceania than a meal at the GDR. But that is OK. You don’t have to eat the pizza and you still have other speciality restaurants to choose from. I am not going every day to the High Tea because I paid for it. When in a speciality restaurant I am not thinking about the potential costs for Oceania. I just come to have a good time. If I want a Pizza I can. If I want to eat a little more healthy at Aquamar I can. It is all about the options that are available. 

On our last cruise we sometimes went to the main dining room just to get the soufflé there after we had eaten in the Terrace Cafe. 

We wool be on Marina next Easter, do they do something with Easter?

5 minutes ago, AveSaloon said:

 

Are you saying that no one answered the phone at AC?  I find that extremely difficult to believe, since their phone centers operate 24/7.

 

And why were you even bothering with going through your TA?  AC and UA were the people who would fix things.

Believe me. When we phoned Air Canada, all we got was an automated message which said to go to the site. This was because there were many cancelled flights that day due  of a snow storm in Toronto. Our TA has a dedicated line to Air Canada and she was even on hold for 4.5 hours!. United couldn’t do anything. They saw the reservation but said that Air Canada needed to issue the tickets. We were just stuck at the airport. 

23 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Booking your own flights gives you control.  Booking Oceania air gives you no control.  Imagine my situation.  About 8 hours before my scheduled flight, I got a text from airline that said my flight was canceled.  More information later. I called the airline and was told that they wouldn’t talk to me because the air was booked by Oceania.  I called Oceania 24/7 emergency number. I got a recorded message that said call back during regular business hours. I waited until 9 am and called again. The rep said that I should call the airline.  I told her what the airline said.  Her response was that they don’t do anything to help if your plane is less than 24 hours away.  I told her about the recording on the 24/7 emergency number. She laughed and said that she’s heard it before. Sorry, we cannot help.  Everyone is passing the buck. Meanwhile I got another text from airline that they had booked us on another flight.  Flight time was same. Plane was smaller than the original. We were among the lucky ones who got seats on the replacement plane.   We were flying to Europe arriving one day before embarkation.  We later met people who rerouted and had another cancellation. They caught up with the cruise on the 2nd day.  
After that experience, I will book my own air…or just stay home.

That is why you need a good Travel Agent.

Coming from our Caribbean cruise in Aruba we found out that Air Canada cancelled our flights and rebooked it for the following day on United. The following day we found out that Air Canada forgot to issue tickets for the United flight. We were stranded. 

Since Air Canada and Oceania could not be reached we contacted our TA. They were the whole day busy trying to resolve the issue. Even management of the TA contacted Management of Oceania to get us out.  We got home about four days late on a totally different flight. 

2 hours ago, WildWanderers said:

 

Hi again @Huib, 

 

We fly out of Ottawa, then like you, via Montreal.  We land in Sao Paolo at its GRU airport at 8:30 a.m., then take a LATAM flight (booked separately on their website) from GRU at 12:25 p.m. to SDU, the Rio de Janeiro domestic airport that is closest to the downtown.  Flights that went all the way to Rio would have had us in Sao Paolo for an ugly amount of time.  We looked into staying a bit in Sao Paolo but got scared off at the online warnings about areas of the city that were too dangerous to walk around in, let alone stay in.

 

In 2005, we were surprised at how it took as long to get back on track after the long flight, as it would have had we been on a transatlantic flight, which has the jet-lag to boot.

 

We have never left it to Oceania to book our flights.

 

In Montreal, if you go all the way downtown for your hotel (there are hotels near the hotel in Dorval, however), a place to consider staying is the Auberge du Carré St Louis, with dinner at one of Café Cherrier (a Montreal institution with French and French Canadian offerings - one small block north of the ITHQ), or the ITHQ Restaurant (ITHQ is a well-known hotel and culinary training institute - kitty corner to the hotel) or the Rendez-Vous Bistro (nontraditional Indian food - across the street from the hotel).  There is a taxi stand in front of the ITHQ. 

 

Accommodation and food for thought.

 

Cheers,

Greg from the WildWanderers

Hello again @WildWanderers

I looked at the website of Air Canada about the huge layover. I saw that if you type in Montreal to Rio de Janeiro all airports you only have to wait three hours and they get you on the same Latam flight to the other airport next to the Sugar Loaf. See scrrenshot

1 hour ago, WildWanderers said:

 

Hi again @Huib, 

 

We fly out of Ottawa, then like you, via Montreal.  We land in Sao Paolo at its GRU airport at 8:30 a.m., then take a LATAM flight (booked separately on their website) from GRU at 12:25 p.m. to SDU, the Rio de Janeiro domestic airport that is closest to the downtown.  Flights that went all the way to Rio would have had us in Sao Paolo for an ugly amount of time.  We looked into staying a bit in Sao Paolo but got scared off at the online warnings about areas of the city that were too dangerous to walk around in, let alone stay in.

 

In 2005, we were surprised at how it took as long to get back on track after the long flight, as it would have had we been on a transatlantic flight, which has the jet-lag to boot.

 

We have never left it to Oceania to book our flights.

 

In Montreal, if you go all the way downtown for your hotel (there are hotels near the hotel in Dorval, however), a place to consider staying is the Auberge du Carré St Louis, with dinner at one of Café Cherrier (a Montreal institution with French and French Canadian offerings - one small block north of the ITHQ), or the ITHQ Restaurant (ITHQ is a well-known hotel and culinary training institute - kitty corner to the hotel) or the Rendez-Vous Bistro (nontraditional Indian food - across the street from the hotel).  There is a taxi stand in front of the ITHQ. 

 

Accommodation and food for thought.

 

Cheers,

Greg from the WildWanderers

That is some great information! Thanks a lot. We’ve never been in Montreal. Might as well take advantage of this opportunity. 
 

We are very excited. Despite a horrid flight experience we had a great time on the cruise. We are very excited. Pity it takes a while still. Great to have you around with these valuable tips. Thanks again!

2 minutes ago, WildWanderers said:

 

Hi @Huib, 

 

The short answer is ... no we did not opt for the free hotel night.  

 

When we split our Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon trip into two component parts, I did enquire about the complimentary hotel that was promised on some promotion, but not as yet visible on the website, and our Oceania rep mentioned that it might be necessary to reprice the trip when the hotel was (finally) listed on the website.  

 

We will be in Rio for several nights, so found a cost-effective hotel in Leblon not far from  the Metro station:  the Leblon Ritz...which we will book when they are open for bookings.

 

In the Fall of 2005 we stayed for a while in Leblon, and for a while in Copacabana.  Copacabana was full of aggressive scammers, and Leblon was safe and comfortable.  At a restaurant in Copacabana we insisted on the advertised special, and the waiter insisted on just let me bring you food, you won't be disappointed.  We agreed to stay only if we had the special.  We could not tell if the food he brought was the special or not, and the bill certainly was not.  We insisted on paying the price of the special, which he said is not what we ate.  We said that he could either accept the price of the special, or we would involve the police who were standing not far away.  We left the price of the special on the table and left.  Not comfortable.  On another night at a restaurant, we were hustled, unsuccessfully, we think for sexual favours.  Naïve us.  Not comfortable.

 

Leblon is not at all as touristy.  Very trendy though.  Interesting shops and restaurants.  Everything is walking distance to the beach.

 

I am not sure how you plan to fly to Rio, but we are flying to Sao Paolo, then getting our luggage, going through security again, and taking a local flight, to avoid a huge layover that we would otherwise have on the Air Canada offerings.

 

Hopefully this is useful.

 

Cheers,

Greg from the WildWanderers.

 

Oh wow, thanks for the information I was just looking at the fine print and saw that not all promotions are combinable. I think we will look at your suggestion.
 

On our first cruise we let Oceania do all the flights, it was horrible. We still have a promo code for Air Canada so we can use that one. We briefly looked at the site of Air Canada and saw flights going through Montreal. We even might check-in a hotel there as we fly from Vancouver. With the promo code we can fly with a premium economy for less than the credit Oceania is giving us for doing the flights ourselves. 

On 5/24/2024 at 4:37 AM, WildWanderers said:

Hi All,

 

We had booked a cruise (Icons of Brazil and Iberia on the Marina departing on April 5, 2025) that could have been booked as two cruises.  When the two component cruises showed up in the 4-level upgrade options, we asked our Oceania rep to break the cruise into its two component parts and charge us the lower fares for the same room.  In addition to the 4-level savings, we then got the 5% back-to-back savings.

 

The first of the two cruises appeared in the up-to-30% discount flash sale this week, so we asked for repricing (again), and although we lost the 4-level upgrade and the back-to-back savings on this component (some things are not combinable), the cost of this first cruise still went from 14,347 down to 12,419 CAD.

 

I joked with our Oceania rep that if they keep discounting our fares, they will owe us money.

 

In case this helps,

Greg of the WildWanderers.

We were always looking at this cruise. We jumped on the first part yesterday as this was a huge deal. We will book the latter part later. The saving in booking it as two back-to-back cruises is huge in stead of booking it in one go. 

Our TA told us that the pre-cruise hotel was not included in this deal. However, it does say on the website. Is it included with your cruise? I emailed the TA but he did not get back to me probably because it is weekend. 
 

Very excited as it will be our second Oceania cruise. 

Best is to take train. 

We got the same email, but then from concierge veranda stateroom to ocean view. As we are three in a room they even offered two ocean view rooms next to each other. They oversold this cruise according to my advisor. 

It only says 6 bottles. How many cans of beer does that equate that too?

Great thread! We are going on our first cruise on February 19 with Sirena to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We took a deep dive going with Oceania as we never sailed with them before — in fact this will be our first cruise ever! Our travel agent pointed us to Oceania after an interview with us and said that this line would be the best fit. We went with his recommendation. 

We have two reservation for each of the two specialty restaurants. Do I understand correctly that you can go more often if there is space available?

We have concierge service included. What can we expect from it? How can we use it to our best advantage?

We did the O-life package. We opted for the on board credits. We don’t know what to expect of these various Caribbean islands and the excursions were not very appealing. We are not heavy drinkers so we thought this was our best bed. Perhaps there is something to do and see on these islands. We will see when we get there. 
 

What we did not like so far was the whole flight schedule. We fly in from Vancouver and t will take all night together to Miami with a stop in Toronto. The return flight is even worse with three stops long the way. We asked for arriving a day early and leaving a day later but Oceania was charging more than $1200 extra for that arrangement. 
 

As it is getting close now we are really getting excited. We are also looking forward in meeting other people there.