vlthom

Happy to say that they finally managed to post our OBC associated with our gold status as of this afternoon, which is day 7 of 10, for this segment. It did seem to finally happen after I talked to the Ambassador, contacted my TA who said that he spoke to O in Miami (on day 3), I contacted reception who said that they’d speak with the pursers office (day 6), and I explained the situation on the mid-cruise comments (day 6). We finally received certificates for the spa treatments that also come with being gold level, too, as of this afternoon. We were able to get spa appointments on the last day of the cruise, fortunately, as it was the only time that we could fit them into our schedule at this stage. I wish that we hadn’t had to spend so much time chasing this down.

Yes…still onboard until Tuesday

I agree. It was done very swiftly each time I’ve made a request for the shareholder benefit. I was impressed with their efficiency in this case.

Dinner was in Red Ginger tonight. I must say, everything was delicious BUT…….there was no Miso Glazed Sea Bass on the menu! Instead, it was Miso Glazed Black Cod. I’ve never been a fan of cod so I didn’t order it. But I’ve now googled it and it may be a decent fish. I was just shocked that they messed with such a popular dish. Tonight the swag for our “gold” level appeared on the bed - hats, pins and tote bags. We don’t really care about that stuff but would like to have the extra OBC that is due, yet it still hasn’t appeared. Maybe tomorrow?

Our first O cruise was on Marina during her inaugural season. This particular cruise had Jacques Pepin onboard, too. I spotted FDR onboard as well, so everything was running about as well as can be. We were completely enthralled. Kathryn Kelly was teaching the culinary classes then, too. On this occasion, we were in one of her classes. At that time, wines were also poured in copious amounts to pair with the items being prepared in class. Ms. Kelly said that she spied Jacques Pepin returning to his suite from the spa and she thought that she’d surprise him and have him come in to say hello to our class. Indeed, he was quite surprised to be dragged into our class while in his bathrobe. My husband snapped a photo of him entering the room and I still laugh when I see the photo of the expression on his face.

In our case, we enjoy taking longer trips, but it means that we need to stay in touch with things at home and DH must do some work occasionally. This requires some decent internet usage, plain and simple. Our friends admire the fact that we may vacation 6 weeks or more at a time, but we only do so with some tradeoffs where internet is needed. There are often sea days or other downtimes when we do this. Having 2 log-ins would be useful - perhaps not imperative but we could make better use of our time when we need to be connected if we had the 2 log-ins. Having sailed on both Viking and Regent where every passenger has wifi usage, I can say that the additional load on their bandwidth didn’t seem to make any difference. The wifi seemed about the same as what we get on O with only one login per cabin.

I’d like to point out that during our first segment of this trip, we were in a different cabin (same level, just on the opposite side of the ship). In that cabin, there were no issues whatsoever. The HVAC worked great. The closet doors stayed closed and the lights inside did not flicker during the night. The bathroom door did not need to be slammed in order to close. That’s not true in our latest cabin; however, we removed the lightbulb from the closet. It’s unnecessary anyway. And we wedge a pair of the provided slippers in between the closet doors at night and they don’t move. Those “fixes” are not a huge effort and we go on to enjoy our cruise. We’re having a fine time. Now if they can only straighten out issues with our account, we’ll be set. They can’t seem to provide the correct SBC or loyalty status despite this being the 5th day of the cruise.

Dinner in Polo tonight. Huge line-up at the entrance prior to opening. I haven’t seen that since our earliest sailings on O. We had an excellent meal. Everything was hot and nicely prepared. We ate too much but were pleased with everything. Skipped dessert, as we often do at Polo. I meant to comment yesterday about our dinner in the GDR last night. During the prior segment, we were seated on the port side of the GDR every single time that we ate there and we found the service to be slower and less attentive than we were accustomed to during past sailings. But last night we were on the opposite side with obviously experienced wait-staff. It was a totally different experience. Quick service….everything accurate and seamless. We’re hoping that the less experienced staff manage to get trained up to this level.

I’ve emailed or TA but he hasn’t sorted things for us in the past. We probably need a new one.

Thanks for the info…..too bad about the answer, though..

We have a breezy, drizzly day in Kristiansand today. There’s a large Princess ship here as well which means that the port is crowded, but at least we made it here today and did not have to skip another port. We just walked around the shopping area and the big church before returning to the ship as it was largely uninteresting and we didn’t book a tour. But it was good to get off the ship and stretch our legs. This voyage marks our 15th trip with O - at least by the way that they count them for loyalty purposes. I am still waiting for our onboard account to reflect this for purposes of the SBC and other perks. I even visited the “Ambassador” yesterday, who confirmed our count and then told me that it might take several days for the system to reflect our Gold status, but if it did not happen, I should return and she’d take care of it. Now why would I want to have to try to match up our schedule with that of their office hours in order to chase this down again? This seems like a process that should happen seamlessly on the first day.

Only the “Allumettes” in Polo

Also applied to any bottle of wine that’s purchased, which seems excessive given the markup, but also given that the service associated with a $150 bottle is the same as the service for a $75 bottle.

The scheduled dry dock should take care of the issues.

I removed the light bulb and we wedged a package of the provided slippers between the closet doors, That did the trick and we were able too sleep without the lights flickering on and off and the doors rattling all night. Now if we can keep the water bottles from rattling, we’ll be in great shape.

I guess that we’ll see how it plays out as it is not clear presently and may not be for awhile.

I question this as the wifi was never part of OLife, but a general amenity for all.

The captain indicated that it’s a protected port so hopefully, we’ll be able to go ashore. Fingers crossed.

What you’re showing does seem to support your assertion, though it doesn’t match what they say in the description of the plan. It also seems like “simply more” is still simply complicated.

As it turns out, our first port of call, Skagen, has been cancelled and we now have a sea day. The captain warned last evening of high winds, though we never noticed much in the way of movement on the ship last night, nor this morning. But we are not particularly disappointed about missing Skagen as we were there during the last segment and found it rather uninteresting. It would have been nice to get off the ship to stretch our legs, though. In the meantime, it seems as if the natives are restless.

This differs from what is stated on the website where it states that the shore excursion credit can be applied to “any and all tours”.

One thing that I’m unclear on with the new Simply More program is whether the additional wifi log-in per cabin is actually part of the SM program or just a policy change being enacted simultaneously. In other words, if we’re booked under the old OLife program and don’t change to SM, will we get the extra log-in or still be limited to one per cabin?

I think that I now understand some of the recent comments that I’d seen regarding the condition of Marina. During our last segment onboard, I had been wondering why there were complaints as our cabin was in fine condition….sure…not brand new but everything functioning fine. We moved to a different cabin for this segment yesterday and it’s not the same situation. The first hint was the safe not working. That was remedied right away as I was not going to deal with a flopping safe door for the duration. It seems to be fixed now, though I am not fully trusting. We also noticed something with the bathroom door. One has to slam it in order to get the door to close. This means that there’s no longer the likelihood of not waking DH if I get up to use the bathroom during the night unless we leave the door flopping. But worst is the closet door where the latches are broken and the doors not only rattle but the light flickers on and off, which it did all night long last night. DH plans on removing the light bulb today. It appears that someone has attempted a repair on these doors numerous times and likely failed. As it is not a walk-in closet, we see no need for the inside of the closet to light up. Poor design. I am hoping that this is the end of this list.

I had this same question as we will hit our 20th during a 77-day voyage. Our TA contacted O to get permission for our “free cruise” to occur subsequent to the long voyage, though we had to select the free cruise and put a deposit on it right away.

True. Oddly, when I ordered these, the waiter asked if I wanted a side and suggested other potatoes. I told him that I wanted the fries that come with it. He looked at me strangely and I pointed to the wording on the menu, though I don’t know the meaning of “allumettes” . Regardless, they are very thin and crisp fried potato strings and are delicious.