sunlover12

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.

@jazznruby +1 Very well said.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that's sarcasm. Using the word "snobs" is judgmental and uncalled for. What you call a "complete waste of money" is not for others. We've worked hard our entire lives and now wish to spend our money on things that we enjoy. Always booking a PH one of those things. We won't go back to booking a smaller cabin. Been there, done that. We book a PH because of the larger size, not for the butler whom we don't use. Some people do like to sit on their veranda. It doesn't make them a "snob". We don't own a second home, a boat, jet skis, extra cars, expensive jewelry, etc., etc. If you ever met me, you would find out right away that I'm a down-to-earth simple person. I won't apologize for always booking a PH. You spend your money as you wish and I will do the same.

Looks like spa prices have recently gone up. I got a Fire and Ice Pedicure 10/22 and it was $79. Also be aware that an 18% gratuity will automatically be added.

@ORV It's an IT glitch and a poorly designed page. I checked my future booking and saw the same thing. The $18/day has nothing to do with the beverage package. You can prepay the beverage package or the gratuities. Interesting that the gratuities are $18/day, not $16 as has been in the past. My booking is in a PH and it's showing the usual $23/day/guest. I'll keep checking that if NLCH has announced they're increasing daily gratuities. I''m not at the level where I get complimentary PPG so I pay close attention to what I'm being charged for it. JMO

My October cruise awarded $100 OBC to 2 passengers. The CD did announce the day prior that they would be awarding it on the morning of disembarkation so we did have some advance notice. I usually have no problem spending at least $100 on the ship. Even if you didn't go to the shops, buy drinks, etc, it could be applied towards your gratuities. I agree with you that the requirement to complete the survey while onboard is absurd. I did manage to get mine done even though the ship only had intermittent wi-fi. Doing the survey on my cell phone was very awkward. I understand why O doesn't want paper surveys anymore. Too cumbersome and inefficient. Letting us do the surveys online when we return home is the logical solution.

To clarify that, if you're on the waitlist and have paid a deposit, you will also pay the current price at the time you are cleared off the waitlist. As others have said the benefit of paying the deposit is that you will move up the list.

There are some 2023 cruises on Vista showing waitlist that are alumni group trips. Oceania holds large blocks of cabins for these groups but after a certain date they will release the unsold ones.

We have had very good butler service. We don't ask much of him but they have always been responsive when we call. Our Sirena cruise in October was completely full and the butlers were busy. They are eager to help - whenever we saw our butler in the hallway he would ask if there was anything he could do for us. They each get afternoon breaks so if you call during that time, another butler is always on duty. One day when we saw him in the hallway we asked him to sign us up for the wine tasting. I wondered if he'd remember to do that because I am sure he's regularly being inundated with requests of all kinds. Sure enough...later that day we got a written confirmation in our cabin of the wine tasting. Having a good memory is also part of the job. We didn't ask for extra specialty restaurant reservations but that cruise was so full I doubt there were any. In that case in-suite dining from the specialties, served by your butler, is a nice alternative.

I can also say that the hair dryers are very good. As good as the one at home. I used it every day when I was onboard.

We also got a $300 OBC on the current cruise in October. For the Future Cruise Certificate, the deposit is $250/person (not $750). The terms are you have to choose the cruise within one year of purchase.

To clarify that: We were on 2 O cruises this year. Regatta in March and Sirena in October. In March, they did use the photo from home as the cruise photo. They did not take another photo in the terminal. In October, they took another photo in the terminal. It's inconsistent. One doesn't know what to expect. Port security does not check the photo. They look at the passport and cross-check that with the name on the manifest.

I agree with jondfk. We completed all the online check-in steps including uploading photos. Check-in at the terminal was tedious and repetitive for our 2 cruises this year. I am not sure of the benefit of the online check-in if we have to go through the same questions and steps in the terminal. They also took another photo of each of us even though they already had them from online check-in. We watched the safety video in the online check-in but had to watch the same video again on the TV in the cabin. You can't do anything else on the TV until the video has been watched. More repetition. They asked for our passports at least twice but never bothered to glance at our vaccination cards. AFAIK the requirement is still either vaccination or negative test. On a positive note, we ate lunch at Terrace Cafe at 1:00 on embarkation day and did not encounter the expected crowds. It was actually quite pleasant and quiet.