Croooser

Terrific thread! Thanks for the time and effort that it takes.

You said that the production show appeared to be about 40% full. Was that the 7:30 or the 9:30? Any idea which is more crowded? Trying to plan strategy.

Scheduled on Apex 1/22. No excursions for us. Will walk around on our own - but not willing to get on a tender unless mostly empty.

One consideration. Suites and AQ seem to be selling mostly full especially with move up program. So, Luminae and Blue may be more crowded. Will undoubtedly vary by sailing but worth checking out if that matters.

Good story. Looks like you chose to go into solution mode instead of playing the victim. Kudos from a WNY refugee.☺️

Quarantined,

Kudos for your positive attitude. Somehow you have failed to succumb to the "Me First" syndrome and spend your time playing the victim and the blame game. 

Really, really sorry that this happened to you. Really, really impressed with how you are handling it.

IMHO. Definitely had a negative bias.

Examples:

• Emphasizing that those on board were surprised that there were some positive virus tests. This should not surprise anyone and the Times should not support that notion.

• Supported the notion that the ship needs to publish daily tallies of cases. Why? What would it change? Precautions are already in place. Note that the article glossed over the actual % of positive tests to the total onboard population. Saying that it is <1%  would not fit the agenda of the article. Imagine a headline that says "Despite the ongoing pandemic, Cruise Ships are sailing almost 99% infection free." 
• Gave only passing mention of the fact that hardly anyone, who has recently tested positive, has become seriously ill.
• Failed to provide a balanced view by interviewing someone who enjoyed their cruise.
• Or someone who feels that despite being required to quarantine, the cruise line handled the situation equitably - e.g. issuing FCC for period quarantined.

One could easily author an article with the opposite bias emphasizing how the cruise industry has risen from the ashes by instituting precautions and policies that have all but eliminated serious illness despite a very small % of positive tests.

But then..that would not fit the "attack and cast blame" model of journalism and media. The comments seem to confirm that they are playing to their loyal audience.

We have been on SV on all of the Solstice class. While it is true that they are largely uncovered and can get very hot when in direct sun, at times they are in the shade of the ship, depending on which way the ship is facing/traveling. 

It is also less breezy back there. That can be a + or a -, depending on your point of view.

We are aft junkies. "Once you go aft, you always go back." 😎

We are in Central FL. Infection rate is very high. But our recent anecdotal experience is that at least half of the local population is not masking or distancing. One family member contracted a breakthrough case a couple of weeks ago. She had the cold like symptoms. Not too bad, but it would keep you off the ship. She contracted it by eating out with a few other people - one of whom was +.

We echo the advice from others:

• self test after your flight to give you a heads up if not taking the proctored test a short time after arriving.  
• Avoid contact with others as much as possible because it IS spreading here. Think room service instead of restaurant, and staying outside or in your room. 

In summary, we have not seen evidence that the risks of serious effects are very high for vaccinated. But, if infected, it will keep you off the ship.

We are on the Apex on 1/22 and we are voluntarily quarantining at home until then.

Good Luck - hope you avoid infection and have a great cruise.

Just bit the bullet and ordered the  Optum at home for Celebrity test. Ordered the 3 for $99 to have spare in case of difficulty.

Hate to pay for it when free tests may be available. But right now they are not.

Small price when taken in the context of the price of the cruise.

YMMV

We consider ourselves "Celebrity refugees". We are Elite on Celebrity but 4 of our next 6 bookings are on O. We are scheduled on a quick 7 days on Apex in January just to see what that class ship is like. And we have a Princess trip to use up FCC for a bargain TA that did not work out due to pandemic issues. Otherwise we are committed to O, at least for now. 

We concur with all of the pros cited here.

However, if entertainment and activities are part of the appeal, be careful. O is very laid back. Maybe try a short cruise to get a feel for the different demographic and ambience?

Our biggest complaint about O is that their air program is poor, compared to either Celebrity or Princess, both of which we have used and been happy with. In our experience, O air is more expensive and less flexible. But O is otherwise right up our alley, so we deal with making our air arrangements on our own.

Final comment. It is not readily apparent but there are a number of ways to book O with corresponding pricing. Not all of these options appear on the website, but they are all available:

• With O Life and O air
• With O Life but no O air
• With O air but no O Life
• No O Life and no O air
• One way air can be booked in any of these scenarios and a credit will be applied vs RT air

HTH

Our recent experience is worse - Instead of answering two very specific questions that we sent via email, they did a cut and paste that did not answer our questions.

IMHO, the there has been more than enough time for all businesses to restore customer service levels to prepandemic standards. Any pent up demand and FCC booking surge should be largely addressed by now. The long wait times, lack of response at all in many cases and incorrect info in others are unacceptable. 

FWIW, we have contacted Oceania directly and have had far better response times and correct info.

Some further checking seems to indicate that Norton's VPN is not as fast as others - i.e. NORDVPN, which is very highly rated. I need to do my homework a little more. 

54 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! After doing some more research, implementing a VPN has some possibilities. But does the VPN help with the bandwidth differential where in many cases the streaming bandwidth is about 2-3 times faster than the surf package? For example on the Edge back in August, the basic surf package had an average download speed of 0.67 mbps whereas after I upgraded to streaming I was averaging around 2 mbps.

+1 This??

Would also like to understand this. Don't use a VPN now but there are some Xmas promos...Norton 360 Deluxe is $19.99 for the first year for up to 5 devices and includes "Secure VPN". Would be happy to try that if it would improve the ability to download web pages. Don't have to have ability to stream any video. 

On 12/8/2021 at 10:24 AM, Croooser said:

Our recent experience:

• Checks cashed 11/2
• Signed up for email notifications - none received
• Routine Service, both showed status approved on 11/30 with an expected receipt date of 12/6
• One received on 11/30 ????
• One still showing approved with an expected receipt date of on or around 12/6 🙄

Anyone have any experience with one of two MIA over a week after one received?

 

Anyone try calling to check status? Can they tell if they have already mailed it? 

 

 

 

For the benefit of those looking for added data.. our second showed up on 12/9. It had some serious skid marks from, what we think, was a USPS sorting machine. There is some slight damage to the cover of the passport but it looks like if the photo page is not damaged, it will be acceptable. USPS did not acknowledge damage.

Status on website still says "Approved". So, that info is not kept up to date.

If ever there was a couple pf examples of government agencies that are not able to maintain reasonable standards of performance, this is it. 

HTH...Good luck to all navigating this process.

Once you go aft, you always go back.

Cancelled on 9/22/21 with a little over half to be FCC and a little under half to be cash refund.

Received cash on 09/26/21.

No word yet on FCC. It is not showing on our account.

1 hour ago, marci22 said:

Mailed (husband's and mine) via priority mail 11/12. Passport office received 11/17. Status: both 'shipped' on Dec 7. Did not pay for expedited service. 

Does status show 'shipped' or 'approved'? Curious because ours shows 'approved' even after one was received?

Our recent experience:

• Checks cashed 11/2
• Signed up for email notifications - none received
• Routine Service, both showed status approved on 11/30 with an expected receipt date of 12/6
• One received on 11/30 ????
• One still showing approved with an expected receipt date of on or around 12/6 🙄

Anyone have any experience with one of two MIA over a week after one received?

Anyone try calling to check status? Can they tell if they have already mailed it? 

12 hours ago, Nva said:

I did a lot of research before we moved from an IV to a SV and found a few threads where that’s covered…some good info here:

 

Thanks for  pointing that out. Looks like 12 is noisy but 7 is not. Hoping I might get a few more opinions here.

Looking at SV but only deck 7 and deck 12 are available. Interested in hearing from past passengers on these deck SVs.

How noisy - Eden noise on deck 7? 

How noisy - OBC on deck 12?

Thanks

42 minutes ago, tjm0701 said:

Aren’t the key words “ online only”? I have a Celebrity offer of spend $500 get $150 back, but it says you have to book online. I booked through a travel agent and pay with my Amex Platinum Card through them. When I make my final payments and my travel agent pays Celebrity , will this qualify as an online payment? 

 

 

 

Yes. As long as the card is billed directly to AMEX, you should be OK. We paid part of our final Payment to Oceania via our TA and received the AMEX benefit.

I echo Hank's comments on Carnival in RIO. It is one of our top travel highlights of all of our travels. We booked a private tour with do Brazil Right except our tour was 3 days:

https://www.dobrazilright.com/product/2022-rio-carnival-2-day-private-tour-bbq-lunch-oceania-marina-passengers/

 We also made arrangements with them for the best night of the Parade - similar to this (although the music, costumes and floats are all changed each year):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNoHinDidU

Warnings: The parade is VERY crowded. There was a special section reserved for tourists which was not recommended to us since it lacks some of the crowd enthusiasm. However, if we have the opportunity to go again, we will opt for that. The music is VERY loud and there is some nudity.

We also toured Buenos Aires with a private one day city tour and then 2 days on our own. We enjoyed it very much and did not feel any different in terms of safety than we do in European cities. 

HTH

Thanks to Wheelhouse for posting this. The timing was perfect for us. We had a final payment due on the spring TA on Riviera and a Princess FCC that we needed to apply to a booking. So, we used our Amex Blue Preferred and received $250 on the Oceania final payment and $150 on the Princess down payment.

FWIW, our goto travel card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the insurance benefits. Interesting side note - the Chase insurance permits partial payments for a trip on the Chase card. This allows you to take advantage of other CC offers like the Amex offers.

"The Cardholder and Immediate Family Members are covered when the Cardholder’s name is embossed on an eligible Card issued in the United States, and the Cardholder charges all or a portion of a Trip to his or her Credit Card Account and/or Rewards programs associated with the Account."

Thanks. I appreciate you both taking the time to respond.

We cancelled the Sky Princess TA about 30 days ago. We received approximately half our $ in the form of refund in about a week. Fair enough.

But there is no sign of the approximately half due as FCC. My TA says that Princess is taking about 60 days to issue FCC. Anyone have recent relevant experience?