Snaefell3

As @Dwtlion said, use WiFi Calling when aboard ship. It's been available since iPhone5 (2013). Instead of connecting to your provider through the ship's cellphone "tower" with it's piratical rates, it connects to your provider via the internet at no extra charge. You need a WiFi connection (aboard O, that's included) and a cellphone provider who accepts calls via the internet (AFAIK, all US providers do). iPhone: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/make-calls-using-wi-fi-iph78f4697ca/ios (Just so us Android folks don't feel excluded: https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/2811843?hl=en) Two caveats: 1) Your ship has to have enough available bandwidth on its satellite relay for an audio connection. 2) Keep checking that your phone is still in Airplane Mode (turning Airplane Mode ON will turn WiFi OFF, but turning WiFi back ON won't turn Airplane Mode OFF). Calling, receiving calls, and texting work exactly the same when WiFi Calling, so you won't know the price without looking.

That explanation strikes me as more likely facile than accurate. ...which would cause *me* to consider looking for a new TA.

Uhhh... Perhaps the chance of an 'E'-ticket roller coaster ride across the Drake Passage? 😉

@PhD-iva pretty much covered it. I'll only add that butlers, if you have one, can serve meals from a single specialty kitchen (Red Ginger/Jacques, Polo/Toscana on Marina), course-by-course, in your cabin during dinner hours. Not sure how far you can push it towards "all nights" 🙄

See also https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2971740-luggage-forward

::whispers:: It's not the tall folks that have the worst issues in those showers.

Uhh... We were talking about that if (and eventually when) the outside tag goes missing, it's best to have one inside, too. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

"Embrace the power of 'and' " (Don't we both wish 😉 )

Just since the topic came up. Back in 2014(?) TSA published a picture of the full set of TSA keys, and hackers made working copies from the images. Today you can buy TSA master keys on Amazon for $5.99.

Psst! Which tells ...folks that there's likely nobody home.

Yep. BUT, that's exactly what the lost luggage department in question is going to do, no?

Will O deal directly with a passenger who has a TA, or would you need to go through the TA?

Apologies to anyone who says "D'oh! Everybody knows that!", but to all who commented about "if the tag gets ripped off"... Yes, attach a ship's luggage tag on the outside once you get to the pier, but attach one on the *inside* before leaving home. Attach it so that it is immediately visible to anyone who opens the luggage trying to figure out what to do with a tagless bag. Homeward bound, the inside tag has my phone number and home city but not my street address.

The first thing to know is that O says their included internet does not include "streaming". I suspect O blocks FaceTime connections unless you upgrade to O's premium internet service, but I'll let others say for sure. Secondly, being able to "stream" video does no good if there isn't enough spare bandwidth on the ship's satellite relay. If she'll be on a ship that has installed Starlink satellite relay, you'll *probably* have enough bandwidth to easily support a video chat. Otherwise, it will depend upon her ship's latitude (when a ship is close to the equator, satellite relay is cheaper and ships buy more bandwidth), or you may have to plan on chatting at 3am ship's time when the rest of the passengers are asleep and not competing for bandwidth on the satellite.

Seating in the GDR is open seating. Oceania has overlapping cruises. Someone's first day may be someone else's twelfth day. The ships run a (last I heard) 14-day menu rotation, irrespective of "cruises". If the Day #6 menu was offered last night before some/most folks got off today, whoever is aboard today will get offered Day #7 menu, nevermind that it is embarkation day for some/most of them.

You are guaranteed a meal in each of the ('R'-class: two, 'O'- and 'A'- class: four) specialty restaurants. Those may be made online or once aboard. Above that, each day aboard you or your butler can ask for any seats available that *that* evening. (Some mix of first-come-first-serve, cabin/suite category, and butler-requests-first get the seats). I have heard tales of crew circulating the first night with unsolicited offers of specialty seating to thin the crowds in Terrace Cafe or GDR.

Glad you were reunited. You'd think folks would be *real* careful about going through customs with someone else's bags. 😳

Florida-speak: "West Coast" = Tampa "Left Coast" = San Francisco (etc)

If that is the case, they won't likely know until they get home, so I'd be working on Plan 'A': buy replacements to get you through the rest of your trip. As Plan 'B', in case your bag got left on the ship or misplaced on the dock, it's Oceania's "Port Agent" you need to track down. Yeah, every time you step off a cruise ship you need to have the "Port Agent"s name and phone number (check Currents) for just this sort of thing or if you're too late back at a port of call. One more thought (not that it will help you today). Do *not* pack "his" and "her" suitcases. Split your stuff between two suitcases so that if at least one suitcase shows up you can cope.

Remember, your are guaranteed a night in each of Vista's four specialty restaurants, so you won't miss your favorite on any of those menus. Lobster? You can even get that at the pool grill. The more usual questions are: • "How can I get a table for two at 6:30pm?" Go online at 12:01am ET on the day reservations open for your cabin-class. (That's real time, so 9:01pm PT on the day before) • "How can I get extra specialty visits?" Tell your butler (if you have one) or haunt the dining reservations desk each day. Remember: O doesn't charge for Polo, Toscana, Red Ginger, or Ember. Oh! And like @tigerfan75 said, don't bother reserving embarkation day. Demand is typically light that day -- I've even heard of maître d's walking around offering specialty seating on embarkation night. Last thought. If you have a butler, you can request specialty meals be served in your cabin over and above your guaranteed visits to the actual restaurant.

Off topic, but I can't resist quoting the other fundamental project mgt truth: The first half of any project consumes 90% of the allocated time and resources. The second half consumes the other 90%.

Oceania's silent sale offer for my cabin did not show on their website. I don't know whether TAs see all, some, or none of these silent sales, or even if just some TAs. But when my "Oceania partner" TA went to repair the damage, she could not find a fare quotation anywhere close to the fare I had booked the day before. And AFAIK, only NCL brands play the "not combinable" layer of obfuscation. Princess tried that recently with "you can have Military or Shareholder OBC, but not both", but went back to having them combinable within 6(?) weeks?

Alas. It's *not* a case of "That's it". Yes, O did simplify published their options with SimplyMORE. What I and others are calling "opaque" are the unpublished ("silent") sales with "combinablity restrictions". And there are *lots* of silent sales. I'll give you an example from booking my first O cruise. Being a new cruise line to me, I called O directly, intending to switch the booking to my then regular TA. I booked a silent sale offer with a very spiffy price. My non-Oceania-savy TA said, "Oh! As 'Oceania partners' we can give you pre-paid gratuities under the Oceania Cruises Amenity Program on top of that". Adding the OCAAP perk failed with a "not combinable" error message. The TA then forced the PPG, which cancelled the silent sale offer, raising the fare by 60%. That's "opaque".

Oceania plays hardball with pricing. Starting with a base price that is always carries a 2-for-1 offer, then different prices for the same cabin on the same cruise with different "combinablity" restrictions (OCAPP perks/no OCAPP perks, AmEx perks/no AmEx perks, loyalty perks/only some loyalty perks, etc), then quiet sales, plus the stuff I hadn't figured out yet. Then they "moved my cheese" with SimplyMORE. 😖 Truly opaque.

As long as they didn't say "only", it was true, no? 0:^)