sunlover12

If you’re having a hard time with it, I wouldn’t worry. Even if you get the photo uploaded they will still take your photo at the terminal check-in. I think they use the uploaded photo for the crew to get to know you. This has been my experience. YMMV

French Polynesia (Tahiti) does not require a visa for US citizens. I was there last year and didn't need a visa. Enjoy your cruise!

To clear up any confusion, this is from the US Department of State website: You can renew online if: Your most recent passport is/was valid for 10 years, and you are age 25 or older. Your recent passport was issued over 9 years (in 2014) but less than 15 years (in 2008) from the date you plan to submit your application. Your passport can be expired. If you do not qualify to renew online, you may be able to renew by mail or in-person. Go to our Renew page to learn more. You cannot renew online if your passport was issued less than 9 years ago. I hope this is helpful information for anyone looking to renew. Helping each other out is what these message boards are all about.

Wow that's harsh. These boards are filled with opinions which I welcome but I'm not allowed to express mine? I've never been on any cruise or land tour traveling through many countries and I have never come close to using 3 pages on my passport. That includes any visas that may have been required. Everyone is free to do whatever they feel is necessary but if it were me I wouldn't bother to get a new passport until I return home from this cruise. That Is Just My Opinion. Take it or leave it however you want to, just as I do other opinions expressed here. I really don't care.

I believe there is a difference between renewing a passport and issuing a new passport. Renewal means your passport is about to expire. If you have run out of pages, it sounds like the new procedure now is to have a new passport issued with the same expiration date. I have lived in foreign countries and have run out of pages. We would have to go to the embassy and have them add new pages. (Residence Visas and Travel Visas use a lot of pages). That was a simpler process than what they’re doing now by having to have a brand new passport issued. Like I said, my advice to the OP is call the passport office. My opinion is 3 blank pages for his upcoming cruise is adequate.

3 pages is most likely enough for your upcoming cruise so I wouldn't worry about it yet. However you should get a new passport when you return home. It shouldn't matter if they're not consecutive blank pages. If the current expiration date is more than a year away, you cannot renew. I am fairly certain of that. The expiration date has to be within a year in order to renew. Depending on when your passport expires, the passport office would issue a new passport with the same expiration date. I would contact the passport office for a clear explanation rather than relying on what your TA or Oceania says.

Interesting.... That wasn't my experience when I was on Sirena in October. I did not hear Dottie promoting or trying to sell spa treatments, wine tasting, or excursions. She did make announcements over the PA but I never got the impression she was trying to sell anything. We did go to the wine tasting. We learned about it by reading it in Currents, not by anything that Dottie or anyone else said. We were on a 10-day cruise and had one wine tasting. I believe it was $70/person. Interesting that your cruise had one nearly every day. Something worth mentioning about the spa is that they have become much more low-key about selling their products. They don't push product-selling at all. Seems to have changed since Aquamar took over. Just my observation.

One of the things I like most about Oceania is that it is not all inclusive. I am a moderate drinker and would not get my money's worth if alcohol was included in the fare. I do not want to subsidize other passengers alcoholic beverages so I believe that pay-as-you go or purchasing a beverage package is the most fair for everyone. Keep in mind that Oceania does not bill themselves as a "luxury cruise line" unlike the others that you mentioned. Interesting about what you said about being "nickel and dimed at every turn". I was on Sirena for 10 days in October/November with Dottie as the CD and I didn't have that feeling at all from any staff member. I did go to the Spa, although not for a massage, and did not pay more than the quoted price nor was I asked to pay for add-ons. We had mostly good meals in the GDR but agree that it can be hit-or-miss. Thank you for posting your review.

PH is 50% larger than veranda staterooms on R ships. (322 sq ft vs 216 sq ft). It's a noticeable difference that I value but I understand it's not important to everyone. I doubt you'd see an upgrade to a PH for $500 because they are in high demand on R ships. I was using Oceania's PH as a comparison to Silversea's smallest cabin because it's approximately the same size.

I preface this to say that we like Oceania and have never been on Silversea. I was curious by what the OP said so I looked at Silversea's website. They advertise as a luxury cruise line. I'm booked on a Mediterranean cruise on the Nautica this summer in a PH1. I compared this to a similar itinerary on Silversea. I was surprised to see that Silversea's fare was a better deal. For the sake of comparison on my Mediterranean cruise on the Nautica, the price with airfare (no OLife) is $850/person/day. On Silversea's veranda suite (slightly larger than O's PH) the price is $890/person/day. This includes airfare, alcohol, shore excursions, and gratuities. I don't know if their alcohol is meal-times only or anytime. You're getting more for your money on Silversea. I noticed that on my Nautica cruise, Oceania raised the fare recently and the cruise still shows a lot of availability. Now I'm wondering if their fares are inflated ahead of the upcoming President's Day Sale. I'm wondering what's going on? Just my observation.

I haven't been on Royal in several years and am wondering if Windjammer is still self-serve or do the staff put the food on your plate for you? I will be on Wonder in a couple of weeks. Thank you in advance.

We don't take the OLife OBC but I agree with you that it is not hard to spend it. It wouldn't for me, anyway. We are not yet at the level where we get complimentary PPG. On a 10-day cruise in a PH, the gratuities for 2 people will be $460. (This was our situation on our last 2 O cruises). OLife on a 10-day cruise for 2 people is $600. We would only have to spend another $140. Spa, shop, wine tasting. That $140 can be spent in a flash. It'll be a different story when we get to the complimentary PPG level of course.

That's correct. The $23/day is for the PH. It has nothing to do with gratuities for drinks. There seemed to be some confusion about it. The web page is very confusing and it would be best if O would fix it.

My booking shows $23/person/day which is what the gratuities are for a PH. It's definitely a programming error or a poorly designed web page. I'd have to drink $110 worth of alcohol per day if this is PPG for booze. I'd be passed out on the floor before that could happen!

It depends on what cruise you are interested in. Not all cruises are included in these sales. Also worth mentioning is that when they advertise "up to a 4-cabin category upgrade", that might mean you can only upgrade to an A1 at the highest. When I inquired during a President's Day Sale a few years ago, I was told I couldn't upgrade to a PH. That was for the specific cruise that I was calling about. When the President's Day Sale is advertised on the website, check the details and the list of cruises eligible and you will know more then. At this point it's hard to say how that would compare to, for example, the Labor Day sale.

I used a 10-day cruise as an example because that's what my last couple of cruises have been. There are 12-day cruises with a $300 O Life which calculates to $25/day. 14-day cruises for $400 which is less than $30/day. Purchasing OLife beverage package is a good value if you drink wine or beer with lunch and dinner, IMO. It's certainly a much better value than purchasing the House Select beverage package separately. I don't upgrade to the Prestige package. Do the math for your particular cruise to see what works best for you.

The $30/day is the price if you choose the OLife beverage package. For example, on a 10-day cruise, OLife is $300. Don't confuse that with purchasing it separately (outside of OLife) where House Select will cost you $39.95.

I wouldn't pay $39.95 for it, however, if you purchase the O Life beverage package it calculates to $30/day and includes gratuities. For me, that is a good value. I drink wine with meals. I don't go to happy hours, to the bar after dinner, before dinner, etc. I'll have one glass of wine at lunch and 2 at dinner when I'm on a cruise. For $30/day, I'm getting my money's worth. Everyone has to do their own math on it.

We like eating in Terrace Cafe. It wasn't crowded at 1:00 on embarkation day. It was quite pleasant.

We'll leave a tip for the room steward and butler. We leave it in an envelope on the morning of disembarkation. I have given an additional small tip to the manicurist in the spa which is in addition to the 18% automatic gratuity. I have found all the staff in the spas to be very good. I agree with LHT28. We don't leave additional tips to restaurant or bar staff. I order a glass of wine, they bring it, and honestly I do not feel like I should be tipping extra for that. Unless one feels that they have received restaurant service that went above and beyond expectations, an additional tip is not necessary. JMO

Unfortunately Oceania does not carry ESPN on the cabin TVs. It's mainly cable news stations. The wi-fi is probably going to be spotty so streaming it will be extremely difficult. I think they've set up Super Bowl parties in Horizons in the past but don't know if they would do it for the college football championship. I wouldn't count on it. Congratulation Georgia Bulldogs. Very exciting come-from-behind win last night!

@Jtm1979When you do the online check-in which is available starting 21 days prior to your cruise, it will ask you to upload a photo.

Something to add to this for the OP - you're in a Concierge Veranda so my advice would be to take advantage of the 3 bags of complimentary laundry. The self-service laundry rooms can be very crowded. It might not be too bad on Riviera but it's terrible on the smaller ships. I've given up on doing my own laundry so on my last cruise I took full advantage of the free laundry. It's so much less stressful.

Sorry to hear of the difficulties on your shore excursions. On the flip side and in defense of O, I've done many ship excursions and haven't experienced these problems. I haven't done an O cruise to those ports you mentioned so maybe it just depends. If the description of the excursion doesn't match what you actually did, then it obviously needs to be addressed and changed. I'd be upset too. I would comment in detail on the end-of-cruise and/or mid-cruise survey. I've been on 2 Oceania cruises this year and took a number of O excursions on each. What we did on all of those excursions matched exactly to the description. However there was one port where the weather wasn't great, with a lot of fog at the top of the mountain. The tour guide suggested that we skip that because we wouldn't be able to see anything so she offered an alternative where we would have a better view. Before she made that decision she asked for a show of hands and we all agreed to take the alternative. It has been my experience that the tour guides know exactly what has been described to the passengers and they do not deviate from that. JMO

I haven't sailed Royal Caribbean in 4 years so I'm not familiar with current check-in procedures. We are sailing on Wonder from Port Canaveral at the end of January in a SkyLoft Suite. Today when I checked in online, the earliest boarding time was 12:30. I was a little surprised that I couldn't get an earlier time. Anyone who could give me insight on how this works would be appreciated. Thanks.