Croooser

Excellent review. Appreciate the time, effort and expertise tha you have put into it. May you have many more great cruises.

Excellent thread. I appreciate the time and effort very much.

OP: Kudos for accepting and acknowledging accountability for what happened to you. One of the drawbacks of CC (for me) is the tendency of all too many to go into self absorbed victim mode. I see it as a function of what I refer to as the "Me First Syndrome". Nothing is their fault and all companies involved must make them whole or compensate them even if the company is not responsible for the issue when something goes wrong. It's really, really refreshing to hear someone say, in effect, "I made a mistake - hope that you can learn from my experience". Your post has facilitated a lot of good info - particularly the significant difference in T&Cs between Amex and Chase card policies. Well Done. Sorry for the health issue and the canceled trip. Hope that the recovery is rapid and complete and that you are soon back to your travels.

Excellent report. Thanks for taking the time and effort required. Appreciate it.

Sthrngary, I tend to agree with almost everything that you have posted on this thread. However, I think that you may not completely understand the Chase Sapphire insurance. I would encourage you to check it out before dismissing it out of hand. It is comparable to other travel insurance policies in terms of coverage and limits. However, it is not CFAR. It does provide coverage for cancellation due to illness, death in the immediate family, etc. We use it for all of our trips for cancellation insurance along with an annual Geo Blue policy for medical and evac. Fortunately, have not had to make any claims. We fully recognize that if we choose to cancel a trip for a reason not covered by the Chase Sapphire insurance that we will take the financial hit. Have had to do that a few times for forfeited deposits and flights. IMO, the real insurance issue for the OP was not having CFAR insurance, especially when planning a trip to such a volatile region.

We have never sailed Seabourn - about to go on O for #6. We recently cancelled a Vista 2024 cruise and replaced it with a Seabourn Encore cruise. Seabourn had a better (for us) itinerary. With respect to Seabourn, one thing we learned so far. Seabourn has a much better flight program than O. You do need to have a booking # to access flight options and pricing, but I was told by Seabourn that they will give you a 3 day grace period before requiring deposit which will generate a booking number. Once you have a Seabourn booking #, you can access flight schedules and pricing online, far in advance, without dealing with a call center or going through your TA. Flight availability and pricing appears to be dynamic and changes from day to day. No deviation fees that I am aware of. We have flights booked already for April 2024. Biz class pricing was very good - much better than we could do directly with the airlines. Point is that in our case, the gap in pricing between O and Seabourn was decreased considerably by the savings on flight costs. That might not be relevant for some people but it is for us. Also, with the recent changes to O's cancellation policies, Seabourn's policies are much more liberal - later trigger dates for penalties and lower % for comparable timing of cancellations. Not a factor if you have cancel for any reason insurance, but otherwise a consideration. YMMV

Anyone who plans travel anywhere that has a recent history of unrest - like anywhere in the Middle East - should be well aware of the possibility of disruptions and the potential disruption to itineraries. There is sometimes a point of view expressed on these boards that the cruise lines must go out of pocket for any and all deviations to a cruise schedule - regardless of whether or not the cruise line is responsible. Fact is, that unless the cruise line is responsible for the cause of the deviation - e.g. mechanical issues, deviations are a shared risk between the cruise line and it's guests. Choosing to not acknowledge that does not change anything. See my TJ sig line.

If you don't need a suite, the B3 extended balconies are well liked by many ...7000 - 7009, 7108-7131. Also the sites PH1s 7130/7135 .. although they are likely booked very early on. HTH

We have one of these booked before SM. It has had a $200 price increase. We can rebook for $200+ and get $800 extra OBC on top of SM. We would be subject to the revised cancelation policies going forward, if we rebook, but no penalty to rebook to get this offer. We already have PPG via TA/Virtuoso. So, do we want a ne $600+ for shorex? Question: Does anyone know if you can use Oceania OBC for/towards an on board booking for a future cruise?

We really liked the ship but found it overcrowded - gave up on the shows - what a goat rodeo trying to get a seat. We did eat in Eden for dinner twice and it's the best that we have ever had at sea. Warning: Entertainment and activities are not the strong suit of O IMO. However, it is way less crowded and we think the food is overall quite a bit better. We are heading on our 6th O cruise with a 7th scheduled next year after becoming somewhat of X refugees. However, the airfare program is nowhere near what Celebrity offers and the SM program is a negative for us. Trying Seabourn for the first time next year. Cruise line of choice is definitely a first world problem.

Regarding the surf and turf sandwich...I have been able to request either double surf/no turf or double turf/no surf.

Gracie 115, As another elite + X "alumni", I would encourage you to give the Terrace a close look - especially for dinner. IMO it is excellent in all respects unless one strongly prefers to avoid self serve. We were on the Apex spring TA this year and the buffet was marginal at lunch almost every day and poor at a couple of dinners for us. When we are not in a specialty on O, we are in the Terrace. We find it that good. We find the O specialties to be as good or better than X with the possible exception of Murano and the definite exception of Eden. On balance we prefer the food on O. HTH

Correction: The Flight Ease flights on Seabourn are the route over a 17hr TPA-EWR-CPH-ATH on UAL/SAS. The return is an excellent UAL with a good connection in IAD. Not ideal but doable. And a big $ savings while still in BIZ. Hoping we like Seabourn.

Here's my story FWIW: We were booked on Vista ATH-VCE next June with PE at $1598/pp through O as a fail safe against the rapidly increasing air fares. But that PE would have been only over the water and we would have other flights both in the USA and Europe that would be coach. Also would not have any idea of carriers/flights/connections/layovers until much closer to cruise. And then a deviation fee/pp to go early for a couple of extra days. And ,aybe an upcharge for acceptable flight schedules. So after looking for a while, I was able to get refundable UAL BIZ from/to TPA for $5722/pp. But the route over was a 17hr TPA-EWR-CPH-ATH on UAL/SAS. The return was an excellent UAL with a good connection in IAD. Not ideal but doable. Then O changed to Trieste which is much harder to arrange decent flights from because we did not need/want to spend extra days in Venice. Then O said that to change to SM we would need to refare at the current SM price despite the fact that we had booked last November well before two price increases not related to SM. So I looked at options after reading some of the comments on the SM threads on here. Found a somewhat similar itinerary on Seabourn with RT TPA-ATH BIZ flights on Flight Ease at $3938/pp. We cancelled Vista and are booked on Seabourn for the first time at not much more than Vista after adjusting for drinks and flights. We really like Oceania. The onboard product suits us perfectly. But the flight program is lousy and SM has hurt the value proposition for us. We would much rather be on O than Princess or Celebrity. But our experience is that their prices for BIZ flight to/from Europe are hard to beat unless we have miles or Chase points. Maybe Seabourn with the CCL based Flight Ease is the answer for us. YMMV

Excellent, well balanced review. Thanks very much for the time and effort. We are booked on that same Marina sailing next September and are in #7008 which is an extended B3 with a partially open side facing aft. Nice itinerary at a nice time of year we think. Let's hope that the drydock for marina is performed well and on time.

Victoria 51. We had a 17 day Vista cruise booked prior to SM for next June. We had our TA enquire twice for a price to go to SM. O's response was that we would be repriced to the current SM price for that cruise. We did not think that was reasonable since there have been at least two price increases not related to SM. We sorted all of the confusion out by setting up a spreadsheet to compare prices, increases and inclusions. We understand that O sets the price and that they should do what works best for them. However, we decided to look at options. We cancelled and are now booked on Seabourn for a little bit more pp/day for an itinerary that we like a little bit better. We recognize that any individual booking is insignificant to the cruise line. And we don't resent their pricing decision. Probably worked out well for us since it nudged us to consider alternatives and now we will try a new, to us, cruise line - Seabourn. We are on a Vista TA without SM in November and on Marina next fall with SM and plan on keeping those. Will be interesting to see how we feel Seabourn compares.

+1 based on our February trip.

If the itinerary has more than one or two sea days, then we would strongly prefer O class for the larger ship as common areas tend to be downsized on the R class. Also, two specialties vs four is a factor for us. Having said that, for a desirable itinerary with ports on most days, we would be quite satisfied with R class. If both classes of ship sail similar itineraries, then we would opt for O class every time.

This is a good example of how it is important to carefully consider that others points of view may be strikingly different when having similar experiences. We too, enjoyed Belfast very much. However, when in Liverpool we took a private cab Beatles tour and had a terrific time. If you don't care at all for the Beatles, then it would not be a great time. As is often remarked, YMMV

Interesting. Did a quick look and it seems that Azamara, Seabourn and SS are all somewhat more lenient in that they charge a lower % by date than O's revised policy. Do I have that correct? Also seems that some will allow a credit to rebook rather than a forfeiture. However, O obviously knows this and thinks that it will not make a meaningful difference to them. We all know that the cruise lines are dealing with a huge financial burden from the loans of the shut down. It was widely anticipated that there would be measures taken to deal with that, once things returned to some semblance of normal. Fare increases, mandatory inclusions, onboard cost reductions in food quality and entertainment and staffing, etc. Seems like establishing a more aggressive cancellation policy is one more of those measures. Is it safe to assume that the present level of demand has resulted in an environment that is permitting the cruise lines to do this? Methinks so. As for us, we recognize that the cruise line has to do what it thinks best to run it's business. Wish it was not so, but will continue to evaluate and book when it works for us.

OK. Looking for recommendations here. Arriving Trieste at 8:00 AM 6/29/24 on Vista Booked on UAL out of Marco Polo at 6:40 AM on 6/30/24 - best available option - not likely to change Thinking Oceania shuttle to Marco Polo will be best price and will run 6/29 AM - good idea? Thinking then - Airport Bus to Piazza Roma and a hotel an easy walk form there - we have no mobility issues so can walk a few blocks with the luggage that we will have. This will give us an afternoon and evening in Venice. Thinking then an early land taxi (first airport bus of the day is at 4:20 AM) from Piazza Roma - say 3:30 AM - airport says arrive 3 hours before flight but it looks like airport does not open until 4:00 AM OR should we book one of the hotels within a few km of the airport and rely on a shuttle or taxi. Looks like a hotel shuttle early is a little iffy and it appears that the streets between the hotels and the airport are not walkable? Also would mean getting a shuttle to the hotel, then a bus into Venice (or sit in the hotel all day and skip the day in Venice) and another bus back from Venice and another hotel shuttle just to be closer to the airport? Sounds like a much worse option, but am I missing something? Any and all thoughts from those of yoou who have any recent experience is grealy appreciated - especially with similar early flights. Thanks

Deleted

Deleted - wrong thread

Thanks for the review. It takes a LOT of time and effort. And it was well organized. Have been waiting for some impressions of Vista and there has not been much since the first few from the launch which was probably not typical of what one can expect on an ongoing basis. We were on Riviera in February and would have to concur with the overall sentiments that you expressed. If I can paraphrase - Oceania is still quite a bit better than the mainstream lines, but not up to it's own pre Covid standards. In reviewing the Seabourn section of CC, it appears that their regular clientele also feel this way about Seabourn. I think that it is a function of the damage done during the pandemic. The staffing issues should be about sorted out by now. But the debt load will likely force the cruise lines to raise prices while cutting back here and there. We have two upcoming cruises booked on Vista and one on the post drydock Marina. If we experience something similar to what we had on Riviera, we will be satisfied - expectations tempered and met, but not exceeded. We would still rather be on an O ship than any alternative. Thanks again for the review.

We have a similar plan for next June. Which hotel did you choose? How did you determine that their shuttle will run early enough (4:30 AM?) to get you to the airport for a 6:30 AM flight? Thanks