1985rz1

Me, too. ☺️

Sorry, it was meant to be a bit of a joke. Your frustration is real, but what I was suggesting is that whenever Regent decides to release it's reservation, there is some time zone that suffers an inconvenience. For example, 8 pm ET is in the middle of the workday for folks in Hawaii (2 pm) so they can't go on line to beat the rush.

When dealt lemons.... 🍋 = 🧋 Good story.

Ah, there is no substitute for poor manners.

Good point. Yes, you can change to a different OLife choice after final payment, you just can't get a refund for the OLife.

If final payment has not been made, the OP can remove OLife from the booking. It looks like it's past final payment so the OP is stuck with it. Either way, it doesn’t change the comparison of costs which others can use to see if the package(s) are (or in the OP's case, was) worthwhile based on their own consumption profile.

But no one is forced to book with the basic package, so one needs to consider the over all cost of the basic package in the booking plus the upgrade and compare that to what one would pay without the two packages, based on one's level of consumption. Maybe in some cases, it would better to have not booked with the basic package to begin with. If one has already booked with the basic package and hasn't made final payment, one can drop the package from the booking. If one doesn’t drink enough with meals to justify the basic package, it's a waste of money. It just depends on one's personal drinking habits.

It is only with meals, as you say.

Sounds like you contacted a bum TA. We live in Flagstaff and there are NO leisure cruise specialists in the area. But I found one in another State that works for us by talking with other passengers on a small cruise line and asking who they used. My specialist is not with a large travel agency, but is part of a small family run business, but is known as a dedicated Ocean specialist, a member of the Oceania Cruise Connoisseur's Club in the top X% . I think many others on this board also use her or other in the agency. Why I use her is not only the perks in OBC, rebate and/or gratuities, but also because she looks out for me, clues me into upcoming sales in advance, researches questions I ask, takes care of problems I experience, and gets back to me with in a day if not within hours of my contacting her. And if I find a cruise I want in advance of sales or new offerings being open, she gets in line for me and pre-reserves the cruise so when it open, we're among the first in line. So yes, you can take advantage of any O sale yourself, but so can a good (magical ? 😉) TA, and also provide service and perks. So on your next cruise on a premium cruise line, ask around, see who other folks use and recommend and what advantages they see to using TA. Give it a try.

No time zone is safe 🙃.

Yes, we think trying something at least once is better than going on any pre-conceived notions. Sometimes there are good surprises in store for the adventuresome.

It's not quite as dire as you envision. We use an experienced Oceania TA and often recommend someone to use her. She's not a large volume agency rep, so her perks are modest, but significant. She gives them the same discount whether it's a one shot deal or a super expensive cruise. What's the commercial tag line? Try it, you will like it. 😉

Yes, one needs to add the 20% gratuity into calculation that the package includes. And yes, two cocktails outside of Happy Hours is more than $20. But for us the calculation is looking at more than just the $20. For example, if one has 2 gin doubles each evening during Happy Hour that would be $24 pp (The normal gin price of $10 plus 20% gratuity per single, but at 2 for 1, it's $10 plus 20% for a double) And if one drinks 2 glasses of wine at lunch and dinner...that's 4 glasses per day of $10 per glass wine...that would add up to an additional $48 per day. So one's total cost per day would be $72 per day. Since the cost of the OLife drink package is roughly $25 per day (It varies slightly with each cruise, but you can calculate it from the OLife cost.) and the upgrade is $20 per day, the package plus upgrade route would be a good deal at a total cost of $45 per day. But if one doesn't normally have wine or beer with meals, and uses Happy Hour religiously, the daily cost would be only $24 per day, compared the the package plus upgrade amount of $45 per day. That would not be a good deal, even if one has the occasional wine or beer with a meal. Most folks are in between these two options. Then there's the additional complication of 2 night per cruise where there are free drinks: the Captain's Welcome reception and the return passengers party. What I'm trying to say is that to figure out whether it's a good deal for you, you need to take into account your drinking style and the cost of the OLife package with the upgrade, not just focus on the $20 per day upgrade charge. The upgrade route will be good for some, but not others. There's no simple rule of thumb.

The reservation is is limited to the Vista. All 4 specialties on the Riviera and the Marina are available for pre booking. Some time back, folks in the know said that O's management has not decided about advance reservations on the Vista for Red Ginger or the Embers. It's not a computer glitch as the invoices also say the only Toscana and the Polo Grill will be open for pre-booking.

You need to remember that you're paying about $40 pp (actually a bit less, if you price it out on a daily basis) for the basic package as an OLife perk. So if you drink enough wine and beer at meals to use the perk fully, the $20 pp upgrade is a good deal if you drink enough outside of meals to exceed $20 pd. But if you don’t drink much wine or beer at meals, then you need to factor the OLife cost in to estimate the true cost per day for the spirits upgrade.

I never found a way to see the second listing on line. If someone has, I'd like to know the trick, too.

If you have the drinks package that is included with OLife, then it only includes wine and beer in the restaurants at meals. It does not include any spirits or any alcohol at bars or wth meals in restaurants. To get the spirits and alcohol at bars or with meals, you will need to upgrade to the premium package at US$20 per day per person.

You need to search for it on Facebook. CC doesn't allow Facebook links. It's an easy search.

Anyone know the exact location of the Western Shore?

Good choice🛳️

Just remember that if you took the $400 OBC, you paid $400 for it. So that should be included in your calculation the total cost.

I don't agree, especially since it's pretty clear in the T&Cs. But to each his own. BTW, I think Viking does the same.

We were on that cruise, too, and were disappointed that expedition toys were only briefly available and only to show them off. Like you, we feel the expedition nature was oversold. Once they get all the permissions in place to use the toys, I think the cruise would be as advertised. However, we thought that in general the cruise was excellent and enjoyed most if not all of the tours We also thought that the Octantis was beautiful and extremely well designed, and the crew and staff were excellent. The food was generally very good and the service excellent. We were also on the National Park tour you accurately described, although our bus did not have to wait for 30 minutes to pick up the sack lunches. But we thoroughly enjoyed the experience in the Park on our own. I guess we wouldn't agree that Saguenay and Cap aux Meules could have been skipped. We had a very good tour on Saguenay which included very interesting wine-tasting and gin-tasting stops. Our tour in Cap aux Meules included an excellent beer tasting along with several very scenic stops. In both cases we enjoyed seeing the local village culture. So overall, with the caveat of being prepared with the proper permissions for the use of the toys, we would recommend the Canadian Discovery cruise.

O bundles the port fees into it cruise pricing, so they aren't broken out like on some other lines. Since you aren't being charged port fees as line items, there are no port fees to refund. That's been O's policy.

O bundles the port fees into it cruise pricing, so they aren't broken out like on some other lines. Since your aren't being charged port fees as line items, there are no port fees to refund. That's been O's policy.