deercottage

What are the gratuities right now?

Received 2 brochures from Oceania yesterday and one thing I found missing was gratuities included in the price. In the past it was always offered as included. Do I miss something? We had it always included on our cruises.

Any thoughts?

Thank you for all your responses and explaining the law. Our friends knew in advance that this was happening. According to them there are 200 passengers leaving the ship in Victoria. Celebrity disembarks 30 passengers at the time, so it will be a long process. So far I understand Celebrity will pay for their transport to Seattle. Our friends will stay with us in Victoria for a few days. I know this law is different from the Jones Act, but we have 260+ cruise ships visiting Victoria this year just to add a foreign port to avoid the Act before returning to the US. Maybe the Cabotage law has to be updated.

Yes they are doing a back to back. What is the cabotage law?

We have friends on board who were told to disembark in Victoria BC.

200 passengers are disembarking from the Stolstice in Victoria on May 12th. Anybody knows why? The ship leaves the same day for Seattle what is the end of the Alaska cruise.

We had the same issue, could not exchange a bottle of champagne for wine. We were booked in a PH, the head butler came to us to explain the change of policy. The cost to Oceania is the same, so why take this away? We were also on the Regatta October 17th. Last year we were on the Marina and we did noticed some changes on the Regatta. The choice of menu items was less and quality was sometimes not as good. Polo luck warm food and Toscana not what you expect from the best cuisine at sea. Terraces and the Main Dining room in general very good. We ordered tea in our suite one afternoon and it was served very plain with no cookies etc. For a PH suite you should expect better. No fresh fruit or flowers in the suite, not a big issue but when you pay top dollar you expect more. The crew was fantastic! Can say enough about them. CD Julie James the best! Very personable and loving person. The Regatta is a very elegant ship, well maintained and spotless.

On the same cruise. The Regatta docks at pier 88. Have no idea how close it is to the aquarium, but it is located on the water front close to the docks. Check their web site for a map. Hope this helps.

Chris.

We are planning to do a Montreal to Miami cruise in Oct ‘16 on the Regatta (our first ‘R” ship) and we’re now thinking we could do B2B and include a Miami to Miami Caribbean cruise from the 5th of November. The Caribbean has never been a consideration until now. Because of the various things we have heard and read, we have had this mental image of cruise ship traffic jams and the ports full, shoulder to shoulder with tourists queuing in the hot sticky heat. We come from Western Australia so “hot” is not a problem, “sticky” is not ideal - but it is a good opportunity to see as much as we can of that part of the world.

 

We really would appreciate some feedback from fellow Oceania cruisers.

 

Our posts of call will be:

San Juan, Puerto Rico

St John’s, Antigua

Fort de France, Martinique

Bridgetown, Barbados

St Georges, Grenada

Castries, Saint Lucia

Gustavia, St Barts

 

Thanks

Bev & Greg

Hi jakes 74,

Check out http://www.cruisett.com for all ships in port on any giving day.

The Canadian dollar being so low right now versus the US dollar, does that change your cruising plans with Oceania? We are booked for October on the Regatta and thinking about the added cost.

deercottage, happy to hear how much you enjoyed your rather lengthy crossing on Marina. We did a T/A on Riviera in April and loved it. I wasn't able to get in much swimming at all because of wind and coolish temperatures. Now we are booked Papeete to Lima next April and I'm wondering if that leg offered some nice warm weather and the possibility of swimming in the pool. Also, were there some interesting lectures on the South Pacific islands? We are also PH and it's a really great suite. Thanks for your input.

The weather was great all the way to Lima. The rainy season had ended in Tahiti. We had a couple of short showers. Very hot temperatures and yes the pool was used everyday. There were several lectures on the first leg with the Pacific Islands being the topic. The most interesting one I thought was the lecture on Pit Cairn Island. A local lecturer came on board to tell us about living on Pit Cairn Island.

Returned home from our 33 day cruise on the Marina. We started in Papeete and ended in New York. First time on Oceania. Previous cruised on other lines. Stayed at the Intercontinental Resort in Papeete for 2 nights before boarding the Marina. The resort was excellent, room, food, location and the staff. I would highly recommend the Intercontinental. On Friday night they have a seafood buffet and the Tahitian Show, not to be missed. From Papeete to Lima we stayed in a PH1, from Lima to New York we moved to a Concierge A1. The PH1 wins hands down. The extra space is very nice to have, my wife really enjoyed the walk in closet. The Butler is wonderful, he can make your vacation very enjoyable. Our next cruise is a PH1. (booked) Oceania cruises what a good product they present. We were blown away by the service,food and attention to detail. The food is very consistent and well presented. The choices are yours to make. All restaurants have there own ambiance and the service to go with it.

The ship was spotless, the crew are cleaning all the time. My wife enjoyed her art classes on board, one of the many things to do. Minimal announcements

on the PA system. You are allowed to bring your own wine and beer onboard.

All the crew from the Captain to the servers just wonderful!

If you have any questions, please ask.

We are booked on the Marina April 19th 2014. Booked air through O, no problem

flying from Victoria BC. Air Nui from LAX leaving 11.59 pm. Arrived in Papeete at

5.30am. About Air Nui good service, 2 meals, but very hard seats. But we have nice cruise ahead of us, that makes up for it. Stayed in Intercontinental in Papeete for 2 days. I booked a room for the previous night, so when we arrived our room was ready. Extra cost but well worth it! Check in time is 2pm, most people had to wait for 5 till 6 hours before their rooms were ready. The temperature was 28C with a humidity of 88%. It was sure nice to step into refreshing shower after a long flight. We booked the rest of our stay though O.

The Hotel, what can I say in one word fabulous! We had a Lagoon view room,

very spacious and clean. The grounds are very well kept and just lovely. Food

very good. The Breakfast buffet is something else, I thought for $38US there was good value. Last night we had the Polynesian seafood buffet + a Show.

Cost $115US per person again very good value. The Buffet was out of this world

with very exquisite food. Make a reservation before you leave, fills up quickly.

It is every Friday night. The staff at Hotel go out of their way to help you, very

friendly. Our O package also included a tour of Papeete, four and a halve hours

very good. Just waiting now to be transferred to the Marina. At will be our home for 33 days. ( Papeete/ New York ) looking forward to our first O experience!

Chris