Snaefell3

Oh, my! IMO 9156474 was... Launched as R Two, Arrested in Gibraltar Bought by Cruisinvest Chartered by Oceania and renamed as Insignia Huh!?! Sub-chartered by TMR and sailed as Vaisseau Renaissance, still registered as Insignia (meanwhile, Oceania bought R One, and renamed *it* as Insignia) Returned to Oceania and renamed from Insignia to Regatta. I'm not smart enough to know which "Insignia" was O's first R-class ship, but it wasn't named Regatta when it was.

The case I was thinking of was from 2013 when the locals canceled DST on 2(?) days' notice and the ship didn't get the memo. ...neither did Apple, Windows, or even Unix, but the local cellphone folks did. If there had been Apple Watches back then, the "GPS" version would have incorrectly gone onto DST; the "GPS+Cellular" version would have correctly stayed on standard time. Getting back aboard on time is kinda non-trivial.

I'm sure you're at least 99% correct. I'll still double-check "what time does that '3pm' actually mean?" as I get off at a port of call because it's happened once, and "Making predictions is hard, especially about the future". 🙄

Uhh.,.. No. Ship time is set by the ship's Master. It may or may not agree with "real" time -- I've seen ship time disagreeing with the local time at the foot of the gangway. And it's ship time that will keep you from being a pier runner, right? And that's over and above whether you have a "GPS" Apple watch or a "GPS+Cellular" one, which will time-sync differently.

Oceania is part of the quite viable NCLH (32 ships if I counted correctly), but an Oceania with 7 ships is better than with only 3 (not counting unhatched chickens), so the 'R's are likely to be around for a while. BTW, Regatta was launched as M/V R Two, the second ship in the 'R' (for Renaissance Cruise Line) class.

Back in May (of '23), Deck 11 was in normal operation, so refrigerated containers up there does sound like make-do for ongoing refrigeration problems. 😞 The fact that the AstroTurf is rolled up rather than having the containers simply installed over it gives hope that O expects to eventually de-install the containers and re-install the AstroTurf

H/T: https://www.thepreismans.com/

Conventional wisdom is "Don't bother reserving, pre-cruise, a specialty dinner on the first night. Just ask for such as an extra as soon as you board". There is a "Dining Reservations" desk somewhere near Reception -- or ask your butler if you have one. Oceania doesn't charge for "specialty" dining, even extras. There are a few meals ("Privée", etc) they do charge for (typically with eye-watering prices0 but those are the exceptions. I've found the advice to be well-founded, but... YMMV.

No scandal, just more folks asking "Who's Jacques?"

My 2¢: • Oceania probably thinks that M. Pépin's current reputation no longer justifies his royalties. • M. Pépin's lawyers would ...react were Oceania to sail a French restaurant under another name.

BTW, AirTags give me a rash: Their actual range is only 30 feet or so. They phone home by --ahem-- borrowing internet connectivity from random passerby's iPhones and iPads.

I suspect AirTags in shipped luggage is like the 7th bottle of wine brought aboard Oceania. Translation: Specifically against the published rules, but perfectly fine unless....

My 2¢: • Expect to get noticed (so don't do it if you're shy 😉 ). • Expect to get asked if it's a special occasion, and get well wishes if you say "Yes". • Expect blowback if you are perceived as snooty (which is what being shy can come across as 😞 ).

That's the FAA. The different luggage shippers have their own rules over and above the FAA's. Buried in Luggage Free's rules, for example, along with medicines, aerosols, and alcohol there is this specific prohibition: • Consumer electronic devices containing lithium or lithium-ion cells or batteries (e.g., calculators, cell phones, laptop computers, etc.) Best to check directly with whichever luggage shipper you end up choosing, rather than us random folks on the internet. 🙄

The information I had was within 30 days before or after your cruise, but recently saw a post saying that will change to 14 days as of Dec 1, '23. As usual, the proper answer is "call Oceania three times and average the answers -- especially on yes/no questions." 🙄

When you have that chat, do it early in the voyage rather than later when they get busier and busier.

True, except that Mediterranean Shipping Company isn't a cruise-ship corporation, and it shows 😉 (The 23 MSC cruise ships are just an afterthought to the 720 container ship corporation)

Oceania's NCLH (and all the other cruise corporations) borrowed heavily to remain --ahem-- afloat during the COVID shutdown. Now, where do you suppose the money to repay those loans is going to come from? 😞 And since everybody else has a mountain of debt to pay off, too, there is not going to be that much price competition to hold down the cost of a cruise on O. C'est la vie. To rephrase the old advice: If Windstar --or even Carnival brand-- gives *you* more smiles per buck at the current prices, by all means go help them pay of their loans. 😉

The general rule is "30 days". ACK! Just noticed the "Sept 9". Sympathies. Beyond that, "details" matter. • What from-date does the 30 days your particular booking cite (wait-list date or booking date)? • Where you live (US vs, for example, UK)? Best advice I have is reach out to one or more "good" travel agents and ask *them* if they can pick your booking up. (These boards forbid TA recommendations) And, yes, negative-option sales are a thing to be avoided. 😞

Oceania newbie here, but having seen a port-of-call change for our second cruise, one thing stood out as being just like all the other lines. The switch comes, then excursions trickle in at the new port-of-call *later*.

Emphatically agree!!! Any vaccine has negative side-effects that must be balanced against any good it will do against the risks *you* face in the environment *you* will be in. Even your own physician will be well-informed about only some parts of that balancing. Us folks? "Surely you jest" 😉

So... the known-to-be-funky CC search function funks even when CC itself tries to use it? 😉 BTW, thanks. It never occurred to me that the "Vista Roll Calls" heading on the Roll Calls page was a hyperlink.

Once upon a time, there was a multi-page Roll Call for Vista's 16 Mar '24 sailing ("Colonial American and Bermuda"). Or am I botching the search?

::scratches head:: I believe I said "generally" and "[i]f you have lousy cellphone coverage ... it makes sense". Do not 90% of folks have to put up without the benefits of rural life (but with good cellphone coverage 😉 )? Thanks for the word from Apple-land. I thought so, but wasn't sure.

Sure, but generally it is a case of "Why bother?" If you have lousy cellphone coverage plus good WiFi coverage within your home it makes sense, but otherwise routing via WiFi ticks against your home internet data cap, while via cellphone towers doesn't. I don't claim to be Apple-literate, but on Android you can set up to allow both towers and WiFi, and give preference to one or the other if both are available.