osandomir

I’d prefer my own bathroom to any public shower anyway. We managed our cabin showers on the O ships, never needed to go to the gym to have a shower.

When anyone attempts to make a booking online I believe there’s an option to put the reservation on hold. Then Oceania will send a hold email with all the details and terms and conditions. One can proceed with the deposit after reviewing the invoice.

I believe that it’s going to be a Black Friday sale starting soon. There’s a chance that your cruise will be included with some kind of discount.

You can ask Oceania or your TA to send you Oceania guest copy invoice. The 2 credits of $50 pp should be listed under amenities.

What was the refund for? Was it from the Turkish airline or from your credit card dispute?

Are you in one of the connected cabins on Vista? You may try to talk to front desk about your issue.

And I think some people have an “issue” with themselves trying to find an excuse for not willing to tip in general. As for tipping extra, nobody is forced to do it - personal choice. No need to ask “how much is enough” and it’s not necessary to blame others for something that one chooses not to do.

…or book a tour that includes driving to the rest stop at the highest view point.

The addition of these ports in Japan looks great IMO. Personally, I wouldn’t be interested to spend time in Shanghai anyway now. Did Oceania also come up with the shore excursions for new ports?

That’s just another example how confusing and inconsistent Oceania makes the booking process and communication with their customers. Our experience is that often we need to make multiple requests through different channels to make it right with Oceania. That being said, after 15+ cruises with them we’re still getting mostly very enjoyable experience onboard.

I’m truly sorry you were disappointed as your expectations were not met. Yes, it was different in the past before Oceania introduced Grand Voyages. It’s not longer possible to separate reservations for the cruises combined in the GV. On the other hand, most likely you were booked on the cruise that normally would be cheaper than the combination of two separate cruises of the same itinerary. You need to look at the numbers - possibly you weren’t missing that much in the value of that cruise. And if nothing changes you will be able to get your Silver benefits when you book your next voyage with Oceania.

Not really, any two or more individual cruises individual cruises combined in the Grand Voyage are required double amount deposit equal two individual deposits. The better indicator is if it was only one guest invoice reservation number for two cruises or there were two separate invoices with different reservation numbers. In this case the invoices will also reflect the price reduction for booking B2B cruises.

I understand from the original post that the O Club Ambassador on the ship already explained it to them. If they had a TA he/she should be able to explain that as well at the point of booking the cruise. Anyway, everything should be reflected on the Oceania guest copy invoice.

…and would you gladly pay $40,000 price for that kind of vacation?

I just said that I never witnessed it, not saying it never happens. Based on how long people are willing to discuss the tipping protocols obviously some would feel better if they could reduce the automatic gratuities as well.

If your two B2B cruises were also listed as a single Grand Voyage then you would receive the credit for the entire cruise based on the total number of days. It would also have the same one booking number for both cruises. The deposit is also double for the single cruise if it was listed as a GV.

What’s more important it also makes crew members feel good. No “greasing the palm” as we mostly tip at the end of the cruise. Some others can always find an excuse to not tipping above. At least I’ve never seen anybody trying to reduce automatic gratuities on Oceania.

Mallorca is very nice. You will enjoy it. We were on the ship tour showing us around the island. Also, I bought the best that I ever had leather sandals there.

We also booked two B2B Vista cruises for June-July 2025. I feel the prices are very reasonable especially when you consider that everything has become more expensive nowadays. I didn’t compare prices per day but they’re definitely in the same price range that we used to pay before SM. It’s surprising how people can’t stop complaining about the prices, tipping etc…For me it’s simple - if I can’t afford something I won’t buy it.

While we’re on vacation they work very hard. We always tip them extra and feel very good about it. Obviously, many people do the same.

These aren’t bad numbers for a group tour. There’s always a compromise when you choose the ship shore excursion vs your private tour. This only indicates that the ship tours are in general not for you. I believe that you knew that even before you tried.

We also were able to cancel pre-purchased shore excursions on board and keep 25% discount on the rest of the tours as long as the remaining tours qualified for YWYW package.

If you’d like to compare Oceania with Princess then I believe Princess will always win in price. We’ll never sail with Princess no matter how cheap is the price. The experience is just not for us.

Strange question. There are more and less desirable C1 locations for most people. Britfan didn’t complain, just mentioned that they wouldn’t choose the particular C1 cabin they were assigned.

That’s true. I have to agree.