the mice

19 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

Received new SM brochure yesterday, has free Angkor Wat land tours for 28 JAN, and 12 FEB 2024.  Suggest asking if your date is also included.

We are on the Feb 12 cruise, booked under O Life.  At the time the free land tour was a tour of Bangkok.  IIRC, the tour to Angkor Wat was $1999 pp.  I have booked a private tour (driving in a/c vehicle so we can nap on the way w/o the schlepping through airports) for much, much less.  And we will be taken to the port instead of returning to our Bangkok hotel.  So there are other options.

How does each handle flight delays/cancellations (I assume you have seen what has been happening this week)?

Just back from cruise on Marina that ended about 10 days ago,  Roll call wasn’t very active despite large number of repeat cruisers.  But also a large number of 1st timers.  

Of the few posters, most were asking to hear if anyone had planned private excursions and were looking for others to join, but no one seemed to want to plan any themselves,  It can be a lot of work and/or responsibility for the planner, so personally, having done it on more active roll calls, I am disinclined to do it again unless it is a very active roll call with engaged participants.  

For this particular itinerary, it was easy to DIY.  And while we didn't do it on this cruise, we are also willing to pay for private tours for just the 2 of us ŵhen there is something we want to do on on our own timetable.

I should add that low participation was also evident on our Azamara B2B in October,  Usually AZ cruisers are active on roll calls, but this may have been a factor of AZ having promos with lots of OBC.

The Simply More changes kick in on July 1.  Perhaps people have booked O excursions and may drop them once the new program details are out.

Did it on Onward in November by having the concierge book it.

My DH has preferences, too, like being spoiled by award flights in business.  But for daytime flights home from Europe,  sorry hubby, but we are only using miles for economy 🤣.   He survived just fine with a few whimpers just for effect ( but not on me 😉 ).

Anyway, there will be service on this short flight so it won't be quiet like a long flight.  Seatbacks up for takeoff and descent, not a lot of pitch, so how much sleep will he really get on such a short flight?  You have a long TA flight ( probably 8-9 hours as our flight from Munich ) so plenty of time to sleep.  

Save your miles (especially since UA has devalued again) .  i am sure you will both manage with this compromise.  Enjoy your trip.

When there is 3-3 seating single aisle ( or 3-4-3 double aisle ) flights, I book aisle seats across from each other for the two of us.  We just did that on a Lufthansa flight from Hamburg to Munich last week. Then 2 seats together on the 2-4-2 flight onward. This was an award ticket using UA miles.

The key questions are

- are you flying in a day or more ahead of your cruise in case of any delays?

- what if your flight out of Miami is delayed - then what are you connecting flight options?

- what is the minimum connection time in Lisbon?

Short connections are always risky,.

Cruised B2B on Onward last October, and just off Oceania Marina 3 days ago.  I realize that food is subjectve but we found the food on Onward mediocre, and the specialty restaurants average.  White Night on our first leg was very good (2nd leg rained out so smaller buffet indoors and just average). They did a  surprise wine and cheese small buffet one night by Mosaic after dinner which looked good (but we had just eaten, so can't say as to the taste) . 

We found the food on O to be consistently better, although we ate mostly in the specialties and our one disappointing dish was in Polo steakhouse. My DH had what he said was one of the best prime rib he had ever had in the Grand Dining Room.  Wonderful fresh berries every morning. Only no Nutella on 0, so AZ gets points for that. 

As I said, food is subjective but we preferred the food on Oceania overall. 

There are dining packages as well as other packages - check them out online before you board. 

We had a lot of OBC ($1700), are not drinkers at all, and don't use the spa, so we spent ours on some ship excursions, dining package, upgraded internet package for DH and shopping.  We also used some for a private transfer from Monaco to Nice at the end of our cruise (see the concierge if you need to do this type of thing). 

If you need to spend in the shops, take note of the departure times in ports to get an idea of when the shops will be open.  Do NOT leave shopping until the last day because merchandise that might interest you may be gone, and the shops could close early if the ship gets too close to the disembarking port.  I suggest checking out the shops ahead of time and strategically planning when you would make your purchases (if you still have OBC to spend).  On our cruise, there was a huge crowd and they quite literally descended like vultures on the shops when they opened.  Not at all something we were used to on Azamara.  But there were a lot of big OBC offers for the sailing, so I am sure that had something to do with it.  

Most importantly, enjoy your Azamara cruise.  

5 hours ago, jonthomas said:

Looking forward to hearing about the food. We will be on Jan 9.

Hope this link work (food at Aquamar and Ember further down) :

https://thepointsguy.com/news/oceania-vista-cruise-ship-things-to-love/

6 hours ago, DCThunder said:

Thanks.  My airline status is with American and to a lesser extent United, and I usually fly out of Charlotte.  

You didn't mention if you will be paying $$ or trying to book with miles.  If the latter, be aware that it may require diligence, patience and perseverance on your part.  I found that many ideal flight routings did not have award seats available.  I didn't pay for any tools like Expert Flyer, and I didn't use an award booking service like Points Pros, but it took me weeks to find award seats on the routing I mentioned in post #3.  .  

We are doing a cruise next February from Bangkok to Seoul and live on the east coast.  Here's what we (well, me, since I do all the travel planning) decided:

We wanted to use frequent flyer miles for our tickets in business class with only one stop en  route, so that was the primary gating factor for us   Plus given the uncertainties of travel these days, we wanted to book using our United or American miles which would revert back to those accounts should we need to cancel and/or change flights and/or plans.   We did not want to transfer points (which we have with Chase and Amex) to an airline like Singapore where they would be "stuck" once transferred, with a 3 year expiration.    We had previously booked this Asia cruise which was Covid-canceled a couple of times.   Back then I easily found transpacific award flights at saver mileage levels.   So I thought this would be a similar exercise.

I did some reading and some people prefer flying west to avoid jet lag.  Others didn't have a preference.  However, given the parameters outlined above, I found transpacific awards were slim pickings, often inmixed cabins, and at exorbitant miles.  And lots of flights routed through Chicago - not in February, thank you.

I ended up booking the outbound flight with UA miles on Swiss and Thai with 1 stop in Zurich to Bangkok.   For the return from Seoul, I managed to use AA miles to book Qatar Qsuites from Seoul via Doha back to NY.   Very reasonable miles for business class.   We arrive days before and leave days after our cruise so should be OK.  It took some time but I am satisfied with what we have booked.

Hopefully I have given you some things to consider.   Have a great time planning your travel.

7 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I am not  a "stuff " person so even the R ships w/c  worked for us

But the new one look nice 

We don't bring lots of "stuff" and we fit OK in R ship showers, but we are spoiled by a very large 5'x3' shower with a big built in bench in our renovated bathroom at home so this looks very nice. 

And I am so happy to see that there is still a laundry line in the shower!   

6 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

Thanks for link.

 

I have points guy website open, and looked for story. Searched alot, but Couldn't find that story.  How did you get to it?

TPG is one of the travel/miles and points blogs I subscribe to so I get a daily newsletter..

She had a verandah cabin on Vista.  Here's here write-up on the bathroom:

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/oceania-cruise-ship-bathrooms/?  

@njsmom  Thanks for this additional info.   We have some time to figure out what we want to do other than the Petersen.  So long as we do that, my DH won't care much about anything else!  I will look at the Getty Center and Getty Villa websites and decide if one or the other, or neither, is what we want to do.  Walking and wandering may be just the ticket (or actually, lack thereof!)

Seems like everything now requires timed ticket reservations.  We are fortunate that we did a lot of traveling in the '90s and 2000's before that became a thing.  As organized as I am, I still find it more than a little annoying to have to "timestamp" my vacation.  

Thanks all.  I will leave plans for 3 nights in Santa Monica. 

1 minute ago, princeton123211 said:

Personally I'm a big fan of not moving around a bunch if I can avoid it. Yeah, the night of arrival will be a PITA but you wake up where you'll be home based for 3 days instead of running around. Plus you hit the first morning running with your car already in hand vs going through that process and wasting time when you can be at places like the Petersen. Plus LAX airport hotels are fairly uninspiring. 

For the first night, we will need sleep more than inspiration 😁 so a fancy hotel isn't a necessity.  My DH isn't keen on the idea of dealing with getting the rental car and all that late at night (ala NY time) which is why I posed the question.  But if I really insist, he'll do it, even though he'd rather not.  Does LA have a morning "rush hour" or is it always jammed on the freeways?  Being retired, we don't have rigid timetables anymore, and for these 2 days in LA, we don't have the need to race around. So we don't need to be at the Petersen when it opens.  If we see the Petersen one day and just walk to Venice the other, that's fine with us.  Seeing one of the Getty museums would just be a bonus if we can comfortably fit it in.  

I think what they are looking for is a list of tips for first timers on Oceania.   There is a very active thread for this type of info on the Azamara forum where cruisers post things they find useful and one person actively updates a Google doc.  However, I have not seen anything like it on the Oceania forum.  Lots of good info and advice posted here and answers to a lot of questions, but not organized in one thread or document. 

(and sorry, I'm not volunteering 😁). 

I might suggest Kind bars.  I get a box of the low sugar mini Kind bars at our local warehouse club (BJs) and they are packaged in a plastic wrap that is partially clear.  So that makes them easy to travel with since the contents are visible and they don't set off security scanners.  One time I took another kind of protein/granola bar that was in a solid wrapper through TSA airport security and got pulled aside for screening - turns out the foil lined wrapper set off alarms. 

I checked Le Merigot again.  Note on website says "Transformation underway through December 2023 with work confined to specific floors. All amenities remain open. Daily destination fee USD 45 plus tax will be added to room rate." And housekeeping is every third day for that fee!  Well, renovations should be about over by the time we are in Santa Monica, but this is not exactly enticing for more points than staying at the Proper.  Walking a few extra blocks isn't an issue.  NYers are used to walking (I regularly do 3-4 miles carrying 3 lb. weights in each hand).  We might even walk down to Venice Beach from Santa Monica.  

Based on this, I had another thought:

Our flight arrives in LAX on 10/31 around 7:30 and not sure if we will be able to do carry on only since we are cruising for a couple of weeks. Arrival will be like 10:30 ET.  So, I was wondering if we should just stay in a hotel around LAX and then pick up our rental car the next morning and drive to the Petersen museum. Then head to Santa Monica that night for 2 nights.   Have to return the car Friday morning in San Pedro which still might be over the 2 day rental period time (not sure how my corporate retiree rate charges).  But we'd avoid having to deal with picking up the rental car and driving to Santa Monica after night time arrival.  

DH thinks this sounds better to him but he's willing to go either way. OK idea or bad idea?  

@Bruin Steve You have given me more to think about.  I am trying to use points since we have enough of them (and DH is getting new sports car in July - $$$ - in addition to big trip to Asia shortly after this one). 

So I will look again.  Understand that parking will be an issue wherever.  IF I were to look in Marina Del Rey do you have any suggestions? 

As for the hotels in Santa Monica by the metro, are you referring to the Hampton Inn and the Courtyard?  I read about homeless sleeping around there?  Is it an issue / safe? 

Main requirement is clean, comfortable, does not need to be 5 star, can be mid-range.  We have stayed in our share of Courtyards, etc. We are not high maintenance. 

TIA. 

36 minutes ago, ruready said:

Since you will have a car, staying in the Marina is fine.  You can also rent bikes in the Marina and bike down to Venice Beach or Santa Monica.  We have done this with visitors.  

Thanks for this info.  I have  booked the Proper but will take another look since we don't expect to be in the room much. 

And I will check out the Zimmerman although DH has probably seen his fair share of antique autos (several big shows in our area).  He's more into performance cars now.  Years ago we toured the Porsche factory in Germany and one day we will get to the Ferrari museums (trade offs for all the churches we visit in Europe 😄). 

2 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

Sounds like a fun first day-- the Petersen is fantastic.

 

Santa Monica has A LOT more going on than Marina del Rey. More restaurants, shops, bars, hotels, etc. 

 

Honestly the only reason I would opt for Marina del Rey with Marriott Bonvoy was if I got a good deal with $$ or points and was going to stay at the Ritz Carlton, which is nice, but still a bit dated. Otherwise it would be Santa Monica without even hesitating. 

 

The Proper, while I've never stayed there, is in a decent location, gets great reviews, and is walkable down Wilshire to the beach and promenade. Occasionally you can find a decent deal at the Fairmont Miramar which is along the same street as the Proper but in a better location-- that's always been a favorite. You can transfer points from Capital One into Accor to book free nights at the Fairmont or through a bunch of airlines. 

 

Hilton doesn't have super exciting options in my opinion in Santa Monica and IGH + Hyatt have hardly anything at all. 

 

Santa Monica has some fun independent hotels like Shutters on the Beach, Casa Del Mar, and The Georgian-- all of which tend to be very pricey except for The Georgian which is a bit more moderate. Shutters and the Fairmont Miramar are my favorite hotels in town if money were no object and you can also book them on points through Amex. 

 

I think if The Proper was what you were thinking your head is in the right place but you now at least have a little bit of a lay of the land. Definitely really consider staying in Santa Monica over Marina del Rey though. 

Thanks for the quick reply.  

The Petersen - DH is a car guy so this was his one request when he knew we'd be sailing out of LA.  He's wanted to visit for years  If there's a car museum where we travel, we try to include it.  Best one so far was the Louwman in The Hague, Netherlands.   Beaulieu near Southampton up there, too.  Simeone Foundation in Philly was very good, too.  Prince's Collection in Monaco a bit disappointing.  I'm sure there were others, but I don't recall as I'm not the car nut in this duo.  

Thanks for the hotel info.   While I'm a member of ALL Accor, I don't have any points nor do I have any with Capital One, so no transfer there.   Only AMEX and Chase - use those for flights.  So I think I will just book the Proper to lock something in.   (trying to manage details for 3 upcoming trips so going a bit crazy.....)  

Thanks again.  

Flying into LAX on the night of Oct. 31, cruising out on Nov.3, so a 2 day/3 night stay.  Plan to pick up rental from Hertz, go to the Petersen Automotive Museum and the Getty on one day, no definite plans for the other full day.  We aren't beach people (as in swimming) but enjoy walks along any shoreside promenades.  

Would like to use points for our stay (have Marriott, Hilton, IHG, as well as Radisson). Thought we would stay in Santa Monica, but noticed that hotels in Marina del Rey require a lot fewer points and/or $$.     

If we stayed in Santa Monica, I'm leaning toward the Santa Monica Proper, a Design Hotel, as my best Marriott option.  The Delfina is not available for our dates/

Would appreciate any local advice on one location over the other.  ..