Carnevale

I'm the OP and I would like to thank all who posted here - you have provided very rich and useful information. I didn't realize SM is now the norm and thought it was something that was part of the offer when we booked. I'm sorry if my question about the limit to the number of drinks made me sound like a heavy drinker. If I have more than 2 glasses of wine in a day that's a lot :-). But I like to know all the rules before I sail so I don't accidentally get out of bounds (I'm a pretty typical Canadian rule follower - a stereotype for sure but fitting for me). Other lines that we often sail have limits per day so I thought perhaps O would as well. I'm impressed with the wine list and see a lot of nice options (as posted on another recent CC thread about the champagne onboard). I was surprised to see some after dinner drinks on the list. They give rise to another question: I'm assuming (but could be wrong) that the listed ports and cognacs are included. If one of these is ordered at the end of a meal do we have to stay in the venue to drink it? I'm thinking of evenings when there is something going on that we want to get to and might want to take a port with us. Or would that be out of bounds?

We haven’t sailed O for some time and are looking forward to being on Vista in April. We purchased with the Simply More offer and see our SM excursion credits in our online booking but we don’t see any reference to the SM beverage pkg. Should it be listed somewhere? Am I just not looking in the right part of our online booking? Also, I am hoping someone can tell me how the SM Bev pkg works. What drinks are we entitled to (e.g., is it all the listed wines by the glass)? When are they available and are they just in food venues or also in other bars? Is there a limit to the number of drinks? Thanks for any info you can share with us!

I always pack a diffuser sock and it works well. It’s a foamy sock that fits onto every hair dryer I have tried and is almost as good as the proper diffuser I have at home. But it’s so easily packed and weighs next to nothing. Look for “Hot Sock diffuser” on Amazon.

Many thanks for all who posted here - this is great info and is exactly what I hoped to learn. I really appreciate CC and those who so thoughtfully share their insights.

We have sailed on Oceania once but it a long time ago and I can’t remember how a couple things work so if anyone here can help me I will greatly appreciate it: 1. How do specialty dining reservations work? We will be sailing on Vista and the online info for our sailing said we get “free gourmet specialty dining” with our booking confirmation giving a date when reservations can be made. How many can we book? Is there a place online to make reservations? Will everyone be booking them the same day or does it go by stateroom type from highest down? If we can’t get the dates/times we want can we ask to be on a wait list once we’re on board? 2. A combo shore excursion about local food and a hands on cooking class on the ship was a real highlight for us. I think Vista has a culinary centre but I don’t see where I can find out what will be offered and I don’t know how reservations for classes are made. Can anyone fill me in on this? Many thanks in advance for info on these questions!

What are they charging for corkage these days on QM2?

Awesome! Exactly what I was looking for. Somehow my searches failed to hit on this site and it's a perfect resource for what we are looking for. Many thanks!

We are spending a few days in BA prior to our cruise in early February and, as love to do the tango, we would like to go to a milonga. Last time we were in BA we danced at an afternoon milonga at the Confitería Ideal however it isn't clear if that is still offering dance time (the changes to the venue through a recent restoration seems to have removed the dance floor). We aren't night people so the standard milongas that start at 10:30 or 11pm don't work for us. If anyone knows of any afternoon milongas we'd really appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!

Since the app says no pkg I went to the personalizer as was suggested here and it said I had purchased Plus and can upgrade to Premier however, I already have Premier. But the app does show four devices when I click on MedallionNet which is consistent with the Premier pkg. What a mess.

We have the same issue - the app says no packages but our summary online correctly shows the Premium pkg. it’s odd as the app used to show our pkg and then suddenly stopped. I wish they would release the new app as I am hoping it will be better (probably dreaming here but I like to hope…).

Is that $110 pp or total? Is there an extra 18% automatically added on?

Highlights for me are: IC for great coffee and wonderful breakfast pastries The way the medallion made so many things simpler The reasonable amount of ballroom dance times (especially when there’s a Wheelhouse as the Piazza is not a good floor for dancing) The great beds and pillows on Regal - like a big cosy marshmallow resulting in some of the best sleep I’ve had in years (too bad Discovery didn’t have this kind of bed when we sailed in October) Choice of ships and itineraries Convenience of the Plus pkg and the range of drinks it offers

We cruised around about 75% of Iceland this past July and loved it. It’s so interesting in terms of the land (the contrast of fire and ice and the implications of both) and experiencing the midnight sun. We found the people very friendly and really enjoyed the hot springs. It’s a very expensive place so we were happy to be on a ship where the daily cost for accommodation and meals was so much more affordable than on land. We had to miss a couple of ports in the north due to high winds so we’re disappointed that we couldn’t do the excursion to see the puffins but even with the missed ports it’s a country we really enjoyed. We have not yet been to Greenland so I can’t comment on that.

What is a CVP?

Many thanks for all of these replies. It will be fun to try the different MDR options including the Santa Fe. For those who have been on Sapphire recently, which did you like best and why?

We will be on the Sapphire and in setting up our dinner reservations I was able to book in the Santa Fe MDR even though we are booked in a regular balcony stateroom. I was surprised that I make this reservation as I thought this MDR was just for CC, mini suite and suite passengers. Has this changed so that all guests can use this MDR now? Or is the app doing something it shouldn't? The latter would not be a surprise as it hasn't been working well today (I'm wondering if there's so much activity due to Black Friday sales that the system is having trouble handling it). Has anyone else who isn't a CC or above passenger been able to book and eat in the Santa Fe MDR on Sapphire?

Almond croissants at the IC

Not all of us find ear protection comfortable and those using hearing aids can’t be expected to use ear protection. I do not think it is in any way unreasonable to expect Princess to maintain a more moderate sound level especially in venues close to eateries and bars when conversations are a normal occurrence.

Yes, some of us are. It’s simple to download a dB meter on an iPhone. Over 90 dB on deck 7 when the World Orchestra sound check was underway in the Piazza on deck 5 was just one example of excessive sound levels that the app on my phone registered.

The veggie burger at lunch in the Discovery MDR recently was inedible - mushy to the point of being almost slimy and tasteless. Beyond Meat and other similar products are not terribly expensive and are widely available so it is hard to understand why they are not provided in venues beyond the Salty Dog.

We were on Discovery last week and didn’t like the bed as it was hard even with a mattress topper. And the pillows were hard and too thick with crunchy pillow protectors. We loved the bed and pillows last year on Regal so, by comparison, what we had on Discovery was a disappointment.

On Discovery last week the volume was a significant problem in and around the Piazza. We tried different things to get it corrected and it was turned down but only by a small amount and not for all events/performances. We also left almost all of the performances in the theatre very early due to excessive volume. GS ignored our first complaint. We tried again. The 2nd agent was much better and put in a report to the entertainment area but they ignored it. To her credit, the 2nd GS agent phoned to see if the entertainment staff had contacted us. We also asked a bar mgr to get it turned down and he tried but came back to tell us that the sound tech said it couldn’t be lowered which of course is not true. GS even tried to tell us they get complaints about it not being loud enough which is hard to believe. We also reported this issue on the survey as we have done in the past but Princess never seems to listen to its customers (has the excessive volume impacted their ability to listen?). It’s our biggest concern with Princess and, after last week’s sailing, I am not sure we would continue to sail on Princess except that we already have paid for our February cruise. If that one has the same problem then we likely will be done with Princess.

Did you happen to find out the total number onboard for this sailing? Any info about what countries the guests represented? We always enjoy these kinds of fun facts but haven’t seen it on this sailing. we get off tomorrow and are envious of your extra time onboard!

We checked in at LA for Discovery and were blue lane as shipping to Canada wasn’t available until after I had placed my order and I didn’t bother to change it. We got to the port around 11am and the blue line looked long but it moved quickly so we were on faster than expected.

We are also currently on Discovery. In our stateroom our download speed is 2.72 and upload is 0.93. Compared to other sailings we are happy with this and are lucky that we aren’t having any issues with it.