osandomir

I’d say it’ll be more Elegant than Casual in specialities and GDR. You can wear black dresses if it’s what you prefer but you’ll definitely see much more of the colors around.

It looks like you are right. We’re going to pay for ship tours whether we take them or not. It’ll be less costly if you’re booking some ship tours anyway. At least it won’t be for one tour in each port we’ll visit. Those who don’t drink will sacrifice even more. But at the end all that matters will be the total price of the cruise. Obviously, the price will be higher, but we’re yet to see by how much compared to ala carte prices we’re paying now.

Well, there’re plenty of cruise lines that don’t serve lobster everyday 😀

For this year cruise Oceania dropped the Myanmar way after the final payment day. The state department is still advising against any travel there. It’s a political unrest and a military operation that is going on in Myanmar right now, so there’s no place for reasonable expectations that it’ll be possible to travel there in the nearest future. We missed our chance to visit Myanmar when our cruise was canceled due to COVID and now I have no idea when we’re able to go there. If you don’t want to take your chances (very low) it’s better to cancel your cruise before the final payment date. Also remember that there’s a non refundable administrative fee applied one month prior to final payment.

If all was that bad it makes me wonder how you managed your 50+ cruises with Celebrity before you “converted” to Oceania. While we mostly cruise with Oceania we sailed with Celebrity just once for itinerary. The line wasn’t our favorite but we didn’t find everything that bad as you described.

Would you please advise what is the best form of transportation train or taxi from the Rosyth cruise port to the city of Edinburgh. How far is the train station from the dock? Thank you in advance.

That’s correct, but it also indicates that it’s very little insensitive to wait for any sale. The best strategy is to book as soon as one decides on the cruise that they want. That was always our experience.

Maybe we were lucky but for all of our cruises we never had to go through embarkation in the same line with the passengers of the big cruise liners. That being said, we also normally embark later in the day. It was one time I remember we were in the same terminal with the cruisers of 3,000+ NCL ship but the embarkations were separated. They had very long line and we were able to walk in with no waiting time. That was another benefit for sailing on the smaller ship. Besides, I just don’t understand how it was even possible like OP described to proceed with embarkation in the same line for two separate sailings. I believed that each line had its own embarkation protocol and it would be very difficult to mix all the passengers together.

You always should be able to request Oceania guest copy invoice from your TA.

The “Always available” items stay the same. Occasionally, some offerings from the Jacques menu appear in the GDR on the R-ships.

Not always the deals are offering on the best products that you can have. More often… “you get what you paid for”. Hopefully you’ll get acceptable flights but there’s no guarantee.

It all depends on your itinerary. Some itineraries result in better routings than others. Oceania goes with what is available on their contracts with the airlines. It helps if you’re supposed to fly between the major hubs.

Agree completely - we always book cruise or buy FCC while onboard to get lower deposit and other benefits. We never book a cruise based on the sale price. Actually, almost never the cruises that we choose go on sale anyway and many categories are often sold out before any sale comes up. So booking onboard works for us as generally it provides the biggest benefits that we can get.

I really like the salad selections. Completely different from the other restaurants offerings. Since we don’t have plans to sail on the Vista (Itineraries???) I hope Oceania will introduce these selections on the other ships as well.

Just of the Sirena and there were some excellent managers and staff with no plans to be transferred to the Vista. We’re not in a rush to book the Vista because of the itineraries that aren’t very interesting to us.

If you care about handicapped people and don’t want to take this cabin from them it would be better not to book it at the first place. Do you believe Oceania will take this cabin from you now and give you a free upgrade if no other cabin in this category is available?

Would you please tell us what do you want to hear, so no one will be wasting your time trying to help you.

If you enjoy sailing with NCL it’ll be a no-brainer to stick with them. Definitely will be cheaper even if they charge you for drinks at the bar. People often paying a lot more than $5,000 to sail on Oceania and still have to pay for their drinks. It’s something else about Oceania cruises that keeps us to sail with them again and again.

Great that you’ve found the way to cruise that suit you best. For me “dining under the stars” reminds the time we went camping when we were obviously younger. We don’t enjoy serving the food for ourselves on vacation anymore. One of the reasons we choose to cruise on the Oceania ships. And we also prefer to be active and like to explore the ports. So we can enjoy both the ship and the land.

On Sirena now. GDR menu and food quality is much better than the specialty restaurants. Tuscan Steak is the major disappointment. Over 14 cruises we’ve tried them all. First time breakfast in the GDR almost every morning too. Food in the buffet is definitely good…but for each is their own.

Again, you may be a bit confused. I’m not talking about refundable OBC from a TA, etc… but about Nonrefundable NCL stock holder’s OBC. It applied to the account about six weeks prior to the sailing. We were able to switch our prepaid excursions at this point before boarding the ship by calling O customer service.

You may not believe it but that was our experience. I have done it for multiple cruises. OP was asking about nonrefundable shareholder’s OBC they will not be able to get back in cash otherwise.

You will have to call O to have it done. They will reprocess your tours applying additional OBC and you will get refund on your CC.

There’s an advantage to booking O air sometimes, especially if you need one way tickets to far away destinations or a premium economy upgrade. The price may be cheaper when booking through O compare to DIY.

It’s not about T&Cs. I’m pretty sure Ponant has something similar in their Ticket Contract. But we don’t have to assume that Oceania is the same as Ponant or any other cruise line. Dropping the most interesting ports without any compensation definitely leads to passengers disappointment. But booking with Oceania means to be in agreement with their business model. Otherwise, we all have choices.