sunlover12

35 minutes ago, jazznruby said:

Agreed, as I've pointed out many times. Yes, you're paying in advance, but if you know you'll be using the non-refundable OBC, it eliminates any costly surprises when you get that final bill. And, of course, OBC can be used for lots of things, in addition to your bar bill...gratuities, shorex, La Reserve, etc. We've always taken OBC and been happy to do so.

Question - If you purchase the OLife OBC, can you use that to book your shore excursions in advance or would they have to purchased once you are onboard only? If it's the latter, I don't want to take the chance of the shore excursion I want to be on being sold out. 

The OLife OBC would not be a good choice for me personally. I have found the OLife basic beverage package to be a very good value for me.  We will book shore excursions in advance and take advantage of the 25% YWC discount. I very rarely purchase a drink outside of meal times.  So then I'd have to use the OBC for gratuities which wouldn't be enough for what I've already paid.  I'd be one of those people running to the shop on the last day of the cruise trying to find something to buy. 

Everyone should do the math to determine what works best for you.

Something I'd add to the list is don't overlook the value of booking onboard or purchasing a Future Cruise Certificate.  

The benefits are a)lower deposit  b)OBC on your current cruise  c)savings off the list price on your future cruise if purchasing a Future Cruise Certificate.  

1 hour ago, shepherd really said:

My country club allows them, thus country club casual. QED

The local club that I am a member at is very casual. They do not bill themselves as a “country club”.  They say “This is not your father’s country club”. There are few rules but one of them is no jeans in the dining room. 

 Wine that is included in both the basic and Prestige packages are wines that are sold by the glass on the wine list. If you want to purchase a bottle of wine and have the Prestige package, there is a discount off of the list price. I don't recall how much the discount is but someone else here can elaborate on that.

I had the basic package on my last cruise and ordered room service for dinner one night and they brought 2 glasses of wine that I ordered.  I'm not sure about bar service at any other time as we haven't tried that. 

We bring a couple bottles of wine onboard and will have a glass in our cabin before dinner.

1 hour ago, ssawjo said:

Just off the Insignia after 46 days.  Toscana was excellent the several nights we were there.  Polo was hit or miss, usually overcooked steaks, especially the prime rib, cool potatoes.  Had to send meals back twice.  Appetizers were good and the clam chowder was very good, IMO, in Polo.  The GDR was uninspiring, but the service was very good.  The menu repeated itself too often.  The Terrace was good and relaxing.  They had the Red Ginger menu a few times and it was good.  No Sea Bass however, they used other fish.  The hamburgers at lunch seemed "different".  Not as good as before.  However, my biggest gripe was that the pizza is terrible, and the coffee tastes like last night's dish water.  Worst coffee and pizza on the high seas.

 

Food is very subjective and I am not a foodie in any sense.  I didn't starve that's for sure.  

I agree that the GDR menu is lackluster. There have been numerous times where nothing on the menu seemed appealing. I'm not a picky eater either. I usually end up getting the Jacques Pepin roasted chicken which I've found to be very good.   I also agree about the pizza in Terrace.  I've never tried it but it looks like something to be avoided. 

I'll be on Sirena next month and looking forward to dining in Red Ginger. My favorite restaurant on Oceania.  Hopefully the GDR will have come up with some better dishes. 

I'm on a January cruise that disembarks on a Sunday in Florida.  Airfares from Florida are substantially higher on Sundays because of 5000 passenger mega ships disembarking.  We looked at both Sunday and Monday and opted to wait a day and fly out on Monday.  The cost of the hotel room was less than the additional airfare we would be paying if we flew out of Florida on Sunday.

It's something to consider for those who don't mind waiting a day to leave. 

13 hours ago, ChadnKate said:

Would if we could but usually, because we are doing biz-class reward flights, we grab them within 24 hours of them be available online. So the flight over is gotten weeks before the flight back.

Although this works fine for us, our hats are off to the Oceania travel department. Can't imagine trying to coordinate so many passengers needs and adjusting to the airlines' flight schedule changes.

We also book our flights business class using rewards miles if possible. On UA the round-trip reservation cannot be made until 10.5 months before the return flight home which makes the outgoing flight booking sooner than 10.5 months.  Maybe other airlines have fewer restrictions on that. I suppose it could be done if you purchase 2 one-way tickets when you say "the flight over is gotten weeks before the flight back".   Just wondering.....

Thanks.

I would choose to go through Frankfurt. It's big but it's efficient. We've flown through there a number of times, the most recent was May of this year,  and have not had any problems or delays.  I would avoid Heathrow at all costs.  If by chance your flight into Frankfurt is delayed, there will be many options to get to Barcelona from there. 

13 minutes ago, Robjame said:

I hope someone answers this question as we want to know as well - are the Christmas dinners served in the specialty restaurants? Or does everyone flood the MDR?

For us on our cruise, Christmas ( a Sunday this year) is a sea day - sea day & Sunday = brunch.

This is slightly off topic but I was on an O cruise a few years ago on Mother's Day.  It's a Sunday and it was a sea day. There was no special dinner or buffet. Oceania didn't do anything to celebrate. Considering that many restaurants on land have a lavish brunch buffet or special menu on Mother's Day, it was a disappointment. 

I haven't been on a cruise on Thanksgiving or Christmas but it's encouraging to hear that a special menu is provided.

43 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Perhaps that's the way it is in Canada, but not for me in the USA.

 

My bank does not charge a FTF  to using an ATM outside the country.

My bank does not charge me the "currency charge", which is a transaction fee levied by the ATM owner regardless of the currencies involved.  It is rebated back to my account, with the bank picking up that cost.

I get a 1% forex spread, regardless of the size of the transaction.  This is on both ATM and credit card transactions.

 

One thing to remember....currency exchanges are FAR more common to find in Canadian metro areas than they are in the USA.  Seemed like there was one on every other corner in Vancouver and Toronto.  Much much more retail forex in the Great White North.

 

 

 

 

I agree with you.  My bank in the U.S. does not charge any transaction fees, currency charges, etc. when I use an ATM outside of the U.S.   Plus they give me a very good exchange rate.  It cannot be beat. 
 

Agree also about extremely limited currency exchange places here in the US.  The only places that I’ve seen them at are major airports. 

11 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Given (1)-(6), what will a TA do for us, even the very "best" O TA?

I've done it both ways.  I've booked directly with O and I've booked through a TA. We didn't get a lower price with the TA but we did get an OBC that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.  The TA also did a great job of monitoring a cruise that we were waitlisted on and let us know as soon as it opened up for a confirmed booking. 

The O Life beverage package is House Select where beer and wine by the glass in included at lunch and dinner only.  You would have to upgrade to the Prestige package to get anything else. 

With House Select, you can order beer or wine by the glass if you have dinner in your cabin. Probably lunch too but I know dinner for sure because I did it.  

There are a few top shelf liquors not included in the Prestige package. Someone else here can elaborate on that. 

20 hours ago, Robjame said:

Denie - I presume you got your upgrade done at Customer Service. This can sometimes be very busy on embarkation day. I read on the new bar menus that this upgrade in beverage package can be done at any bar or by any sommelier. I will try this to see if it is true.

I wish we could upgrade before getting on the ship - it would solve one problem.

We went to a sommelier on embarkation day who was posted in the Upper Hall on Deck 5.  DH wanted to  upgrade to Premium beverage package. The only thing the sommelier can do is make a notation on a piece of paper which we had to take to Customer Service. They have to issue a new card which can be quick and easy depending on the experience level of the staff. The desk is always busy on embarkation day so be patient and they'll get it done. Maybe someday Oceania will let us upgrade online or via phone before we board. 

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

yes only on 60 cruises  as noted  on the sale page

There are 60 cruises included in the sale but they don't all get a 4-category upgrade, especially on the R ships.  The point is to check the fares, pre-sale to today's fares, to see what you're actually saving.  

We book PH on the R ships so the sale isn't going to help us, unfortunately.

The cruise I've been looking at on a R ship next summer is only a 2 category upgrade and it is only up to A1. So what was A3 before the sale is now the A1 price. PH3 and above is the same price. All cabin categories below PH1 are available.  The 4-category upgrades are probably on a limited number of cruises. 

JMO

I'm not as attached to my smart phone like some but there is no way I would travel without one.  It was absolutely essential to have when the U.S. was still requiring a negative Covid test to enter.  We traveled twice during that time and got our Covid tests at the airport. The results were emailed to us which allowed us to download them to present at the airline check-in counter so that we could go home.  The results were not printed so I have no idea how this would have been done without a smart phone.  When we're in a port, we always take ours with us because you never know when you'll need it. 

It's also very useful to have your airline's app on your smart phone to check on flight status among other things.  I've used it often when traveling.

An Oceania app would be a nice thing to have but not essential for me. I can get along without it when I'm on the ship. 

18 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Not sure how APPS work on the ship  but  in July  our major phone/cable supplier  went down for several days in some areas

No cell/tv/internet service   people who had booked concert tickets on the app could not show them at the gate  ..it was a mess all around

Sometime the old ways  are better

JMO

Tickets can be downloaded and stored to a file on a smart phone well in advance of the concert or game .  On the iPhone, it's Apple Wallet. There is most likely something similar on other phones. If you do this, you don't have to depend on the internet or wifi working at the venue.  I've done this a number of times now with tickets and it works great.

I agree with F.F. that on a smaller ship it's really not necessary.  Not like the mega ships.

On the other hand, apps are becoming more a part of our daily life.  Tickets to concerts and sporting events are almost all on apps now.  One would have to go out of their way to get the tickets by any other means.

With that said, I don't want to be on a cruise vacation and have to use an app. All the information I need is in Currents and if we want to look at our bill, it's on the TV. 

16 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

just  a guess 

but a lot of pax  will book PH on the R ships  so maybe no availability on the cruises in the sale

There is one cruise in the sale that we're considering.  It's on an R ship and the website shows that there is availability in PH.  In the brochure, it shows there are 30+ cruises in the sale on R ships and concierge veranda is the highest level you can upgrade to on these.  Interesting....

I have the brochure too and one thing I noticed is that the upgrade to PH is only available on Riviera and Marina. On the "R" class ships the 4 category upgrade looks like it only goes up to Concierge Veranda. 

I learned awhile back to never book the first 2 or 3 cruises on a new ship.  It happened to me in 2012 when Riviera's first 2 cruises were cancelled. I recall it was because of a strike at the shipyard.  Things happen. 

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

The tours /transfer to the airport do NOT show online 

They will be on the Disembarkation sheet  as noted above

Yes, possibly so.  Since this will be our first time in Barcelona and probably the only time, we want to book a tour well in advance instead of relying on a cruise port to airport/hotel excursion that we wouldn't be told about until 3 days before disembarkation. There is too much to see in Barcelona to take that chance. We're in the process now of looking at tours and will be booking it soon for November. 

I'm booked on a Sirena cruise that also disembarks in Barcelona. When I log in and look at excursions offered it says that for Barcelona it can only be booked for passengers who are on a B2B.  Maybe Marina is different. 

I think you'll have more options if you look at a private tour. If you Google it, you will find many good Barcelona tour operators. Some of them will customize your tour as you wish and pick you up and drop you off where you specify.  That's what we are doing. Your travel agent can also help with this.  

I was in a PH on Regatta in March. There wasn't one in the closet like usual but didn't ask about it. 

I recall just one cruise I've been on where everyone's passports were collected, including US citizens. It was on Oceania Regatta, Miami to San Francisco. We got them back the day before we arrived in San Francisco. We sailed through many countries and I don't know which of those was requiring it.