Croooser

It is posted on the menus on the TV in your room on the day. That does not help with advance planning, but does allow one to change plans if a theme night is either desirable or undesirable.

Tom & Judy, We are on the 11/3 Panama Canal on Vista in a category A1. Our copy of the Oceania invoice shows - US$256 Travel Leaders OCAPP Pre-Paid Gratuities (Guests 1 VIS231103 * for each of us a total of $512. We use two different TAs, both of whom have given us OCAPP gratuities in the past on some (not all) O bookings. Both are with large on line agencies. One of the agents shows up on the Virtuoso search, but the one we are booked with on this cruise, does not. Both TAs also provide us additional incentives on all bookings. HTH

Thanks for the responses. So then, no way for me to check online myself before making a booking. Understand that I can call my TA or maybe Seabourn but I was looking to check on my own prior to booking when comparing options with other cruise lines. Apparently that is not possible.

We are exploring the possibility of booking on Seabourn. Is there any way to check Flight Ease pricing for flights prior to booking and having a booking number? I have tried the booking process but have not come across a flight option prior to making a deposit. Have also tried going directly to Flight Ease web page but when I sign in using a Seabourn ID, it says (correctly) that I have no bookings. Thanks

I believe that there is some confusion here. O does not have the same policies as the mainstream lines with respect to alcohol brought onboard. Unless something has changed, that is still the case For the sake of those without O experience: O has always allowed passengers to bring spirits onboard to be consumed in cabin only with no fee or quantity restriction other than where consumed. We have done so as recently as February. It is not a violation of policy or T&Cs. The T&Cs do place a limit on wine brought onboard but it has never been reported here that any limit was enforced. Some of the regulars here will frequently board with wine by the case on longer voyages without any questions. O also permits wine or spirits or beer to be brought onboard from ports of call. It is not held by the cruise line. There is a corkage fee for wine brought onboard and consumed outside the cabin. We have sometimes had this fee waived at the discretion of the sommelier. YMMV We are also on the Nov 3 Vista Panama Canal cruise. We plan to pick up a few bottles of wine and a bottle of spirits in San Pedro the night before we sail. Then maybe a few more bottles of wine in San Diego or other ports.

Hate to hear this, as it is bad news for those who do not wish to pay for the wine and beer and shore excursions that they don't want. IMHO, it appears to be a calculated business decision: The cruise lines are all in a big financial bind with the debt accumulated during the shut down Many different cruise execs have commented over the years that much of the cruise line profits are derived from the add on spending that occurs O changing to a compulsory fare that includes selected add ons will be, in theory, more profitable - especially since they know that some people will not use the drinks or excursions that are going to be embedded in the new fare structure If the ships continue to sail mostly full, then it is a good business decision. However, if O experiences what happened at Celebrity, then maybe not. One has to believe that they have considered this. From a consumer perspective we think it is a pretty significant negative. It is being positioned as a classic case of win/lose despite the marketing speak of simplification. Could have been a win/win if they had simply eliminated the O Life marketing and adopted a basic fare with a list of options each priced separately or packaged at a discount. But, if the current reports are true that will not be the case.

Cruisingexpert: Thanks for the review and impressions . Good to hear some 1st hand experience. With respect to - "For those people booked in an extended Concierge veranda, they are not allowing you to have a lounger- I know 2 cabins that asked and were refused. It may be that they don't have enough loungers- just a guess." Did your 7124/7127 have 2 lounge chairs on the veranda similar to the arrangement on Riviera?

Ed, It is confusing and the line between marketing hype and deliberately misleading is for each of us to determine for ourselves. My personal opinion is that the language used is intended to sell what really are add ons. Or maybe, just to create the illusion of added value at no extra cost - "free". I think it is compounded by the fact that many of us have experienced the pricing model of other cruise lines which is what we are used to - and that is not what O does. Some good info shared here. Once you take the time to understand, it is easy enough to calculate the various options. Once onboard, most are happy with the cruise experience. Hope that you enjoy it.

Well... this is all subjective and some of the comments here reflect that. We have no experience on HAL. We spent 10 days on Sky Princess (one of several sailings we have done on that class of ship) in December and we are pretty much done with Princess. It was that bad. We just returned from a 15 day TA on Celebrity Apex (maybe our 15th Celebrity cruise) and it was better food and service than Sky Princess but overcrowded in all of the public spaces. We are probably Celebrity refugees at this point. We would be remiss if we did not mention that the Eden restaurant is the best food that we have ever had at sea - even better than the specialties on O which we generally think are great. In early February we spent 10 days on Riviera (our 3rd cruise on her). We thought hat the service was outstanding with the exception of Polo which was, IMO, very poorly managed. We thought that the food in the rest of the venues was OK to excellent, if not quite up to prepandemic standards, and far better than Sky Princess and somewhat better than Apex. If you take a look at the archives of this board, you will find many comparisons of O vs Celebrity and some of O vs Princess. It seems to us that the broad consensus is that Food and service on O is better, that activities and entertainment are better on the mainstream lines and that O is much more laid back and less crowded. That is our take anyway, and our recent experience. If my assessment is accurate, some people will prefer O and some Princess, HAL or Celebrity. Time to read those tea leaves and decide.

Thread has been sidetracked.

Captain's video explaining the plan to deal with the storm is outstanding. On our previous TAs when facing stormy weather we would hear something like "don't worry, we know what we are doing and the ship can handle it." He walked past us in OVC yesterday at noon and with a big smile on his face said "So far, so good".

Cautionary note. We are in an SV on this TA and the lounge chairs have been removed from the balconies even the corner AQ suite next to us. Reason given is "safety". Not sure if this is specific to Apex or not. Ability to negotiate an exception is questionable.

Thanks, I plan to be out there before dawn on Sunday AM.🤞

Is the walking track on Apex very windy when the ship is moving?

Joe, Thanks very much for the template. Much appreciated.

Your positive vibes throughout are commendable. Seems like you missed the highly contagious "Me First" syndrome which is becoming more and more pervasive these days. Kudos for an outstanding review and an excellent demeanor.

Once you go aft, you always go back.

We are card carrying baby boomers. Sounds promising to us.

Very nice review. It was much appreciated.

Very nicely done. Thanks for the time and effort that it takes.

We were on that sailing as well. Our assessment is that there are now some misses here and there, but overall still very good. We have learned what we like and what we don't on the various menus and that helps to avoid disappointments. A couple of examples: We learned the hard way about the theme nights in the Terrace on a TA last year. Solution: So we checked the menu on the TV before heading to the Terrace and skipped the Caribbean night this year and went to the MDR. Don't usually care for MDR vs Terrace but that's a real first world problem once or twice a cruise. Example - I think that years ago the Cuban in Waves was made with roast pork. Now it's made with something that looks like Oscar Meyer. Not what we expect or want. Solution: Ordered the Surf and Turf with double turf/no surf aka a filet mignon sandwich. Enjoyed it. Red Ginger - excellent food and service Toscana - ordered a few rounds of starters including an entrée sized portion of Eggplant Parmegan. excellent food and service Polo - a disappointment. How can a steakhouse be "out of" Filet. The replacement rib eye was reminiscent of Ponderosa. Waiter was great but the management was the worst that we have experienced on O. Service was slow because of two 4 tops of high maintenance folks with nonstop additional requests, a brand new inexperienced, but eager, assistant waiter and then compounded by seating a latecomer with no booking in our waiter's section when he was already running behind. One maître D was oblivious and stared at the computer on the podium the whole time. The other was walking around greeting the diners, but never realized that our section was going down in flames. Having said all of that, the lobster and starters were excellent. Passed on Jacques. Terrace - overall vey good selection, quality and service. Noticed a few things missing, but still met our expectations. Service was good to excellent. We tried the pizza and thought it was improved and good, if not great. Housekeepers were inexperienced but could not do enough for us and did a great job. The Net of it for us is that we are booked twice on Vista and looking forward to it. If our experience on Vista is much like this sailing (or maybe even better), we will be happy. HTH YMMV

mauibabes, So, for which restaurants are they offering reservations?

We had an O cruise depart from J and return at another terminal a few years ago. They did have a free shuttle but it was a goat rodeo because everyone who drove needed to use the shuttle unless they wanted to have the driver walk a pretty far distance across the port to retrieve the car and then return for luggage and companions. Not fun, but more of an inconvenience than a real issue.

Off topic. But love your signature quote. If only...😫

For those considering O: while there are many X refugees now choosing O (including us), the one area that O does not measure up is activities and entertainment. O features smaller, less crowded ships with more inclusions and better food, but the entertainment is not equivalent to X or Princess IOO. Lots of threads comparing X to O on the CC O board. HTH