1985rz1

Very interested in your assessment of this tour. We have it booked for our upcoming cruise on the Polaris.

It was the New England one that stuck out, but I see you did specify the Nautica, which is smaller than either the Riveria or the Vista...and older, as you say. Personally, I like the O, A, and VO ships better for stateromm and ship sizw, but the R ship itineraries are frequently more interesting to me. So, I suffer the PH on them 😔.

Great comparison, but in the pricing aren't you mixing Oceania's R ship and its O and A ships when you you list the stateroom sizes? It would be helpful if you stated the ship sizes you are comparing.

Are your documents not from Oceania? Our TA provides us with an Oceania's Guest statement and the cruise itinerary shows anchor symbols for those ports that are scheduled for tendering. Nothing is shown for ports that are docking If your does not show any anchors, then, I would assume they are scheduled for docking, although last minute changes can occur. Which specific cruise are you on?

@OneSixtyToOne: Like @ewenwash, we're on the Oct 28, sailing of Polaris doing the same itinerary, so we are grateful you are posting an advance picture of what we can expect. Thanks.

Hmmm...I haven't seen that competition. The only area that seems to have folks getting on as early as possible is for dining reservations. You can select a boarding time when you check in, but I don't think it's that competitive...or that the times are actually followed.

Unfortunately, you can only opt out of the air. The options are Simply More with Air and Simply More without Air.

I think it's called running a business so it earns a profit for it shareholders/owners and doesn't go bankrupt.

My experience is that no one is specifically told they could join a tender excursion at the check in spot. We simply went to the staff giving out boarding tickets, said we were independents, and they would give us a colored ticket for the next tender that had availability. When they called our color, we joined the excursion group boarding. My vague recollection this procedure was noted in Currents, but I could be wrong.

I'm surprised since in all our tender experiences, the staff effectively took a head count of tour guests and supplemented with other to fill what was allowed by the port or O's own guidelines. Do you know what the maximum number allowed is on each tender and that O's staff refused to allow non-shorex folks to fill out the limit. Or are you speculating because you see empty seats and assume they are available?

I think Lyn implied no coverup, simply the swim suit. A coverup is required if you are wearing a swim suit, which is why she was asked to leave.

I really sympathize with your situation and understand the pure frustration you are feeling. I do hope that you can work something out that is satisfactory. However, as far as pre-sailing changes go, we have an October 2024 cruise that was booked as Venice to Istanbul, and it was changed a few months ago to Rome to Istanbul. So we lost Venice and the Croatian ports and got Rome, Sicily, and Amalfi instead. That was a significant change to the first half of our cruise. So things happen out of O's control...in this case Venice's ban on ships caused our change. I don't know why they adjusted to the cruise this way, but port scheduling is complicated, so I have to trust their judgement. We are all in the dark on what factors go into such changes. Fortunately, we are not in a penalty period, so we can still cancel if we want, but O did offer us $250 OBC because of the itinerary change. We decided to stick with the cruise, at least for now, and hope that the conflict doesn't boil over into Turkey. So good luck and, as you indicated, keep you expectations low.

I'm not so sure they aren't. The financial stresses really starting taking a toll towards the end when cruise lines began to start up again. I don't have the dark interpretations that some folks on this board have. Oceania has to face its investors and have to make financial decisions that are best for them, not for the clients, although the two are intertwined. Having no experience in managing a multi-billion dollar hospitality company, I don't feel qualified to second guess them.

Unfortunately, cruise lines are much more financially stressed than they were a few years ago. Not many can afford to be a generous as in previous times.

Lyn. So sorry that this happened. We wish you a fast recovery.

Your face probably flushed when you realized what it means on the Viking.

I remembered that after I posted, so thanks for the correction. Your description of where the Grill 🍔 and Sushi/Cold seafood 🦀🦐 stations are clearer than mine. I tried to suppress the dessert 🍦🍰 🧁and bakery 🍩🍪stations 😁.

From the Points Guy: Most cruise ships require all passengers to be on board no fewer than one to two hours before the scheduled departure time, which is almost always in the late afternoon or evening.

Well, the Grill is on the other side (starboard side, I think) of the ship from the main buffet with the carving station (port side), so if you don't walk around both sides of the WC, you won't see it 😉. Same, if you don’t walk to the port side aft of the ship, you'll miss the cold crab legs, shrimp, and other crustacean delicacies, as well as the Sushi Bar 😋. At least that was our experience on the Octantis on the Canadian Discovery cruise.

Could it be that it was treated as 2 separate cruises, LA to Vancouver then Vancouver to LA, rather than a single extended cruise, which is an internal booking decision. I know Viking ran into problems with this interpretation for its Great Lakes and Canada cruises and has to cancel some bookings. Maybe the US doesn’t use the same interpretation as Canada did.

How about the Seattle to Seattle Alaska cruise which stops in Victoria? Guess it's the same. I understand your question, now.

I think you are mistaken. For example, the LA to LA cruise stops in Ensenada, Mexico. The Seattle to Seattle Alaska cruise stops in Victoria, Canada.

I think Vancouver counts as the needed foreign port, even though it's not that distant...like Ensenada in Mexico works for California coastal cruises.

I want to reinforce @FlyerTalker's comments. Check the overall wattage and the individual wattages. Many of the 4+ usb port devices don’t support fast charging, even if they use the word fast. If you don't mind slow charging they may be your solution, but if you expect fast charging, be aware. The onlt multiport fast charger I have found is the 39 or 45 Watt Samsung dual charger...but I amg a Samsung Anfdroid guy, so iv you're an Apply enthusiast, check carefully.

It's more than throttling. The streaming ports are blocked. The streaming package unlocks the streaming ports. The question is does the internet have enough ship-wide bandwidth to make streaming worthwhile, as the streaming package does not provide any additional bandwidth or speed. Looking forward to your speed test. Have a great excursion.