MarkWiltonM

Don't forget the Sunset verandas if available. They are true verandas with an aft view.

If there are no reservations in the MDR, I don't see how your cabin category could matter. If there is an empty table for 2 in the dining room it should be yours. If you see one and the hostess says there are none available, ask her about the empty one you see, and ask if it's possible for anyone to reserve such a table. Am I missing something?

Interesting. I've never been on a U.S. closed-loop cruise to the Caribbean where immigration officials were actually on the ship for disembarkation. Or if they were, it was never apparent and didn't delay disembarkation. Of course you have to go through customs/immigration in the terminal. There is usually a line for U.S. citizens (in U.S. ports) and a separate line for non-U.S. citizens, as I recall. We usually sail out of and into Port Everglades and the process is usually very fast.

You exit the ship prior to going through immigration, right? I'm just asking the typical Oceania schedule for passengers to leave the ship. Does it start at 7:30? 8:00? Assuming the ship arrives at 7:00 as scheduled. (And I'm not talking about disembarking from a transatlantic. I'll be on a closed-loop Miami-Miami Caribbean cruise.)

The 11/18 - 11/28 cruise on Sirena is scheduled to arrive in Miami on 11/28 at 7 am. What time do they usually began disembarking? We will be carrying all of our luggage off with us, which on most cruise lines is the first group allowed to disembark. (Our first Oceania cruise!)

Which staterooms are keeping tubs?

I think the staterooms and bathrooms are being completely redone.

Our check-in time on 11/18 is 11:30 am. We will be prepared for any issues that delay boarding. The boarding of the last two cruises we took, on HAL and Celebrity, were the simplest and most streamlined I've ever encountered (way better than before Covid), but those ships were not completely full (the Holland-America ship was nearly full though, last April) and they were not turnovers from TA crossings. They also both docked in Port Everglades, not Miami. If that makes a difference.

These are all '60s and '70s groups: I would think music that's 50 to 60 years old also qualifies as "old fogey" material.

It's very subjective, but we have not found the rock band or the dueling pianos or the blues band (mostly pop, not blues) to be very good on our last three HAL cruises. The Lincoln Center classical musicians are a little better, but that's also uneven depending on the cruise. We have enjoyed some of the roving singer-songwriter-type musicians on Celebrity, and a couple of Celebrity's "house" bands that perform nightly in the atrium on the S-class ships. We like HAL's Pinnacle class ships a lot, regardless. But we don't partake of much entertainment on cruises.

We did it about 10 years ago too. It was indeed strenuous, especially because the guide was about 45 minutes late and he had to make up time so he actually ran up the volcano instead of walking and we had to try to keep up with him. When you get about halfway up, they give you an option to turn back. We did the whole thing. It was great exercise but the view at the top was, meh! The most challenging part was where there are a lot of tree roots and small boulders so you have be be careful with your footing and you can't do that part fast or you can turn an ankle easily, regardless of your age/fitness. Seems to me that cruise lines used to offer more hikes than they currently do. I remember hiking in national parks in Aruba and Curacao and I never see those offered these days.

We like HAL's Pinnacle-class ships. We also sail Celebrity and Oceania but HAL is often the best value. We also really like HAL's buffet and the Crow's Nest.

The buffets on the new HAL ships are great. That's Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam, and Rotterdam. We sail on Celebrity and Oceania as well.

This is happening with Oceania now as well. We were invited to change to a different sailing in exchange for a number of perks we didn't want, including a drinks package and shore excursions, and some OBC. We declined but I know some who have taken the offer. It seems to be an issue with "guaranteed" categories and it's not just in suites on Oceania.

That's too bad. We're on Sirena next month and it will be our first Oceania cruise. We have two more booked, on Riviera and Vista. But if the food is disappointing we'll probably cancel. It's our priority on cruise ships. If you tout "finest cuisine at sea" and you under-deliver it's sure to disappoint many. Since the menus are pretty much set, I assume the problems are either in procuring good quality food products and/or poor preparation due to understaffing and/or undertraining. Any details about what the problems are?

Just curious. If you cancel this cruise do you lose $250 per person?

Me too. They say it only applies to alcoholic packages, even though it's not stated as such anywhere in the literature. I had the rep check with his supervisor as well.

We are also on Sirena 11/18 - 11/28/2022 and got this offer. We declined because (1) we don't drink alcohol and (2) we don't do many shore excursions in the Caribbean. We would have considered switching to Riviera but we're on Riviera in March so it didn't make a lot of sense in terms of timing. However, I am surprised to hear that Oceania could have "overbooked" the cruise. We got our cruise documents and luggage tags last week. I assume no one is suggesting that Oceania would have booked our cabin to two parties and sent them both cruise docs and luggage tags. Isn't that what the wait list is for?

Curious if medical offered you Paxlovid to help with your Covid? I was wondering if cruise ships are stocking this medication.

Sending prayers and good wishes for John and his family.

Where is the dinner reservations desk on Sirena and on Riviera? I don't see this on the deck plans.

I haven't gotten my 50 points for watching a webinar about Australia and New Zealand on September 15. Any idea how long it takes for these to show up, or where to inquire if I don't get credit for them?

Yay! We no longer need a Covid test to cruise to Bermuda (we are scheduled on Riviera to Bermuda departing Miami 03/12/23). https://www.gov.bm/cruise-travel-authorisation All travellers arriving October 25 2022 onwards will no longer require a pre-travel test, arrival test nor a day 4 test. Unvaccinated non-resident travellers will still be required to upload valid proof of travel health insurance to enter Bermuda. You do still need to apply for the travel authorization up to one month before and upload your vaccination records.

Not sure this is fair unless the older ship is less expensive compared to the newer ship. Plus, some people like older ships better (such as Celebrity's Millennium-class ships) and dislike new ships for various reasons (cf., Celebrity's Edge-class ships and their notorious sliding windows pretending to be verandas). We sailed on both Equinox (third time) and Rotterdam recently. We enjoyed both, but Equinox looked pretty dowdy in comparison, especially in the stateroom. Celebrity didn't give Equinox the same level of refurbishment as with some other Solstice-class ships, including Silhouette, which we sailed on prior to our last Equinox cruise and which was sparkling. As for price, our cruise on the brand-new Rotterdam was significantly less expensive than our cruise on Equinox (both were Caribbean cruises with similar itineraries and similarly sized veranda staterooms). That said, the food and service in the MDR on Equinox was better than on Rotterdam, but the buffet on Rotterdam was MUCH BETTER than on Equinox. Nami Sushi on Rotterdam was also very good while the sushi restaurant on Equinox was scary-bad (us being the only ones there should have been a clue--never again). We are currently booked for an Edge-class ship for the first time but snagged a Sunset Veranda because my spouse will not tolerate the sliding-glass window grandiosely and ambitiously referred to as an "infinite" veranda.

It doesn't look like they are moving the plumbing. Based on the photos below of old and new of veranda cabin bathrooms, it looks like the new shower replaces the tub and occupies the same space. The sink and toilet are in the same location. The old shower is gone; not sure what they are doing with that space but additional storage makes sense.