osandomir

We like cruising and have several cruises planned looking forward. That’s why I’m always interested to read what most people are posting on this boards. But some times I find it very difficult to understand something that doesn’t make any sense. Especially, when it comes from the posters who have no plans to cruise with Oceania in the future.

Well, I feel that I just need to leave it as is. I probably shouldn’t mention anything to you at the first place.

I’ve noticed that you told us that already multiple times. Do you realize that it’s an Oceania cruise line board after all? Most people aren’t looking for the repeated information about the other lines. Also majority probably are Americans so I’m not sure why you would need to emphasise that you were the only Americans somewhere.

We sailed to Southampton in May. There was O transfer to Gatwick if I remember correctly.

I think it’s also two categories of cruisers over here. One category cruise for the experience on the ships with large bathrooms and spacious cabins. The other while also appreciate luxury features that small cruise ships can offer put the cruise destinations and ability to visit some interesting ports and faraway places first. Everything else including bathrooms is the second.

That seems strange to me because I have done it many times before. No need to wait for TA. Maybe you can try different representative one more time.

We’ve been in Japan twice on the cruise and had an amazing time there. When we sailed from Tokyo we spent several days in the city prior to embarkation. It wasn’t difficult to plan and manage our stay there. We have another cruise in February next year that will start in Tokyo. This time we plan to fly into Osaka instead spend some time there using trains for day trips to surrounding cities. Even we went on the O excursion to Kyoto before we’d like to spend couple of days there again and then use Shinkansen train from Kyoto to Tokyo later. My advice is if you are able to extend your stay in Tokyo just do it. You will not regret it because one day excursion will not be enough for such a big and interesting city. And then you’ll probably be able to use train to transfer to the port of Yokohama.

Even if you booked through the TA you can call Oceania yourself and they will email you a current shore excursions PDF for your cruise.

We did our own things in Tokyo and Japan and often used trains for transportation. It’s actually not that difficult to figure it out how to use them. So maybe someone gives you more exact answers but I’m pretty sure that O excursions use buses as a form of transportation between Yokohama and Tokyo. They most likely will include a panoramic bus tour throughout the city as well.

Not that we have ever felt like we’d need to use this benefit while checking in for an excursion in the lounge. Everyone gets into the same bus anyway. We value some other loyalty benefits that’s much more useful.

We visited this museum when we were on the road trip in Italy. My husband enjoyed it greatly. I agree that it’s a must for the car enthusiasts.

Sometimes people just choose to eat what they like and aren’t trying to squeeze the last bit of everything that’s available for the money they have spent.

It’s hard for me to understand how any human being who is fortunate to be able to cruise in the middle of the sea would prefer those PEOPLE to be left behind so they wouldn’t affect the enjoyment of someone’s vacation.

@Vineyard View I have also seen these ridiculous prices a lot lately. But in my experience if I'm persistent and have some patience and luck it’s still possible to find BIZ saver awards using major airlines currencies. And if one is willing to pay high taxes some airlines release more reasonable award spaces to Europe which is still much better deal than revenue tickets. I just noticed that airlines not necessarily open these awards when the schedule is opened but more likely within several coming weeks or even months.

No assumptions here. But we need to keep in mind that just because their air program didn’t work for you or myself it was acceptable for many other people who for different reasons didn’t want to make their own flights arrangements. That’s why many will be very interested in the new program and in the improvements it may bring.

Also, probably there are more newcomers on this board than “regulars” who are interested in all different details on the O website and here on CC before making their reservations.

That’s true, the airfare is much less predictable now than it used to be. Both for revenue and award tickets reservations. But anyway I don’t think that Oceania base their airfare on the prices available for the general public. Rather they base it in relation to the contracts with several particular airlines they use in their air program.

I agree with you that it looks very confusing at this point. I just don’t think one can find the best international air prices when airlines open their schedules if looking for the revenue air tickets, especially in BizClass. In our experience the best fares can be found somewhere between 8 to 6 months prior to flying. That’s more aligned with the Oceania custom air reservation window. That said, we’re yet to see how their new air program will play out.

…and you just did that comparison yourself in your post #73. But by the way your calculations are quite correct.

I don’t think it’s much of a secret to many of FF points users. There are also some other loyalty programs that require less amount of miles for the comparable flights. The only consideration is if you need to cancel a redeposit fee will apply in most of the cases and your points will stay within the airline you choose to transfer your points to. So one needs to have a reasonable confidence that their miles will be useful for the future flights with the particular airline. In any case that greatly reduce the flexibility of the points.

Yes, you can definitely transfer your points and miles at a rate 1:1 between many credit cards, hotels and airlines. But it’s nowhere in US the cost of one point is $1 so you can use one point against one dollar of the cost of your air ticket or hotel room. And this is how per Tranquility Base it works with Air New Zealand loyalty program.

Thank you. I wasn’t familiar with the details of the Air New Zealand loyalty program. It looks similar how our credit card travel portal works except our points worth 50% more when booking through the CC portal. At the end it all depends on the way how you acquire those points and miles.

No I didn’t mean that but sometimes a win for one person means a loss by many others.

As I stated your cruises are an example of the “exceptions” and probably the ships were full because of the endless Oceania sales that you like to take an advantage of.

Well, it could be some exceptions but on an average… there’s a reason why cruises so late in the season cost less and not selling very well either. If it’s your first cruise in the area and on Oceania ships it might be a path to disappointment.