Snaefell3

There are pre-announced emergency drills and there are (more rarely) come-as-you-are emergency drills, and the former don't always flush out all the problems. Yeah, you weren't drilling, but how to tell you without telling your cabin steward and thence the whole crew?

Perhaps there's a sign that reads "improve Ember's rep" as they leave the kitchen? Good news in any event (looking forward to trying that bite-sized lobster roll).

Not new. The better the deal, the more strings, err.. "combinability restrictions" attached. If it's any consolation, Shareholder Benefit usually only disappears on the truly great deals.

I like your interpretation of Article 22, Paragraph 15 (https://pancanal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/N07-2021.pdf, pg 8-9) better than mine, but not enough to put deposit money on it.

Alas, make that "had". When the PCA declared "Transit Condition 3", the 8 slots in the original locks for "under 91' beam" vessels like the Insignia dropped to only 4. I have no idea how they choose which 4.

Uhh... No. "Commercial passenger vessels" get to bid on a reservation slot "[f]rom 730 to 366 days prior to the requested transit date". Cargo is first-come-first-serve starting day 365.

You may wish to monitor Sal Mercogliano's "What's going on with Shipping?" on YouTube for info on what the Canal Authority is doing about the drought.

If anyone does come up with a schedule, remember the 1st law of project management: • The first half of any project consumes 90% of the available time and other resources. • The second half consumes the other 90%!

Indeed! "Belt and suspenders": Airplane Mode plus WiFi Preferred. 😉

"Connection preference" is another option Apple thinks it knows better than its customers do? Yeah, that could get costly afloat. Android offers a "WiFi Preferred / Cellular Preferred" setting for when both WiFi and Cellular connectivity is available when roaming. On my phone it shows up as Settings→Connections→WiFi Calling→Roaming Network Preference.

Yay and verily! Two sides of the same coin: Text via WiFi calling is so similar to regular texting that you need to double-check that you aren't regular texting via Cellular At Sea's piratical rates.

WhatsApp belongs to Facebook, so you know you and your messages are the goods being sold.

Oh! As for Apple Messenger, remember: If it's on the internet and it's free, you aren't the customer, you are the goods.

1) If you cannot connect both phones to ship's WiFi at the same time, no joy. 😞 Stop here. 2) All(?) smartphones sold in the last 5 years support "WiFi calling", and all(?) US cellphone providers support it. Log both cellphones onto the ship's WiFi, switch to "WiFi calling" and text away -- well, assuming the ship's satellite relay is healthy because it's shoreside equipment that does the magic. Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 Android: https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/2811843?hl=en

Good point. I was over-generalizing: (MIA)→Ponta Delgata→Roterdam→... wasn't going to fall afoul of the PVSA, but you are quite correct. I was fixated on "join the ship on Day 6".

Haven't checked O specifically (never was tempted based upon comments we heard), but on that TA where we were 15 hours late, <mumble> also "guaranteed to get us on the ship". Had we been arriving on debarkation day, "to the ship" would have been at the first port of call on Day 6.

Dunno 'bout O, but Papeete was a special case when RSSC had Paul Gauguin. After a morning debarkation, we were put up in a hotel until late afternoon and an included evening flight out. Lots of SCUBA excursions on the day before plus dive-to-fly recommended surface interval. (Let's not drag the PADI vs DAN vs USAF vs USN argument in here 😉 )

Uhh... 6+ hour delays are getting too common. Have a plan if along the way they tell you that you are now expected to arrive at LGA at 3:30pm instead of 9:30am. ::hands you some Malox:: Our last trans-Atlantic, we arrived in Miami at 1:30am instead of 10:15am (15h15 late -- fog plus mechanical plus re-ticket). Fortunately we'd planned to arrive the day before embarkation. First port of call was Day 6 in the Azores. 😳

Hope these URLs help: Marina: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/marina/life-on-board?exp=the-culinary-center Riviera: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/riviera/life-on-board?exp=the-culinary-center Vista: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/sites/default/files/2023-05/new-vista-cooking-classes.pdf

Nope. The R-Class (Sirena) ships don't have the classroom kitchens.

At a guess, Oceania, Port of Charleston, and some other cruise line (remember: "berthing conflict") have been negotiating for some time. If so, O likely figured "we're not going to do this in '24" long before they gave up on an overnight in '23. ...and unless we get another "itinerary change" email with word that the first stop in "Nassau" is changed to "GSC", we'll keep expecting to dock in Nassau on Day 2 😞

🤔 How would you prefer to phrase "one device at a time"? Or "A [free] logon is provided for the first two devices per suite or stateroom". (Check post #2 for where I got O's phrasing.)

Got a better word for laptop/tablet/cellphone than "device"? 😉

I saw an unusual sample then: no one from line #2 (PH) served until last person in line #1 (top suites) served. As I said, *that* system worked well for an R-class ship. No muss, no fuss, done and dusted quickly.

Pier 92, LA had 4 lines: Top suites, PH, Concierge, and "the hoi polloi".