Silver Sweethearts

You are right, of course. Our mind is stuck on Hawaii time, which is five hours difference. Even with only three hours difference, that puts arrival at the hotel at perhaps 5 a.m. internal body clock time. Everyone is different, and to each his own, but through experience we have found it preferable to wind down, take a nap and shower and start anew so that you are refreshed when you board your ship.

Nothing at all against the Intercontinental, but do note that since it appears you will be flying in from the west coast your internal body clock will think your 6:30 a.m. arrival time in Miami is really 1:30 a.m. with the time difference between coasts. After you get your luggage and go to the Intercontinental for breakfast and/or lounging by the pool your body will feel like it is around 3 a.m.. If you are young, fine. If you are a bit older though, you may find breakfast or pool lounging is not to your body's liking at what it thinks is that hour (spoken from experience).

When we flew from Hawaii to Fort Lauderdale to board the Seabourn Sojourn, we knew we would be tired and wanting a nap and shower before boarding the ship. We reserved a room at a decent but not fancy hotel there for the night before - noting that we would not be arriving until the next morning. Since it was paid for, the room was held for us. We also requested a late check out. We just took a cab from Fort Lauderdale Airport to the hotel, took a nap, showered and took their van to the ship. We had a chance to use the iron in-room to spruce up our clothes so that we would look fresher that way too. This "Day room" idea worked for us.

You have been told both yes and no by Oceania's staff. Hopefully you have the name of the representative who told you yes. Track him/her down and see if they will say yes again. If so, ask them to fax a copy of their rules that allow commission. If that fails, ask the staff to fax you a copy of the rules that disallow it. Since they don't all have the same answers, it is at least worth a shot to see if they can show official printed proof that your TA can or can't get commission. If you don't check on this, you'll always wonder about it.

To me this is a kind of false economy. Yes, free internet would be a great perk. But what would I spend $1K in OBC's on? The spa? The one that I hardly ever go to because it's too expensive? Stuff in the shops that I wouldn't normally buy? Wine and liquor, yes, but not a thousand dollars.

Do note the offer also includes pre-paid gratuities which, on the Hong Kong-Beijing cruise, would be $480 per stateroom or $704 for a suite. Nice perk. The internet package appears to be worth $352 for that cruise ("Always Connected Unlimited Cruise Package @ $21.99 x 16 days). Also nice perk. Add to that the $1,000 shipboard credit (How about one or two of your ship's best overpriced tours? A bottle of the best wine/champagne that maybe in the back of your mind you have always wanted to try but felt was too expensive? Try the spa too since you can use SBC for services you wouldn't treat yourself to otherwise. The fun, to us, of having shipboard credit is knowing we can try any and all of these things if we want to. You don't have to use it, but we wouldn't turn it down if offered. Whatever is left over you donate to the crew fund, which is always nice). It just makes an enjoyable time even more enjoyable.

I've not cruised with Oceania before but looking to this year. Generally speaking, and I'm aware there are no hard and fast rules on this subject, but do Oceania discount cruises nearer the sailing time, or do they just simply sell out?? I don't want to miss the boat, so to speak, but I'm really flexible on time, destination and ship - I just want to try it at a reasonable price..

Below is what is stated on Oceania's website at the moment. If you look at their May, 2013 catalog, which was valid through August, 2013, you will NOT find the underlined perks (so if you can be very flexible and patient you may find some better offers such as this even this close in):

HONG KONG TO BEIJING | Pearls of the Orient

16 days onboard Nautica | Sail Date: February 22, 2014 | Fares from $5,999

Early Booking Savings of $3,000 plus $1,000 Shipboard Credit per stateroom, FREE Pre-Paid Gratuities & FREE Unlimited Internet Package

There is nothing wrong with what you want to do, but one thing that would bother us would be the time taken away from enjoying the amenities of the Regatta and the cruise itself and wasting a portion of the cruise fare. Why not devote yourself fully to the cruise now and fly east at a later date, rent a car and do a driving tour at your leisure then?

We are in the process of booking and read that the Silver Suites can range in size from 700+ to 900+ sg. ft. Does anyone know which are the larger suites? Thanks.

According to the current brochure and our experience, all Silver Suites on the Spirit are 742 square feet (including the balcony). The Shadow and Whisper do have some Silver Suites that are larger than others though.

I get frustrated with all the nay say and dooms day folks....

 

Only thing in my infomercials I am not selling anything but knowledge....:o

So you aren't really Kingfish...

The common refrain I hear is " well if it was that easy why doesn't everybody do it" I hear the same about the stock market too..

 

Fact of the matter less than 17% of Americans are in mileage programs and or investors . THe vast majority 83% to be exact sit on the fence and think that they would never be able to do this or that. Oh I do not travel that much, or I don't spend that much... or its too difficult.

 

They create" what if's "and doom scenarios daily... You know, it is too good to be true it isn't. Or just wait something bad will happen. And you know if you wait long enough the chances are good maybe something will. I have been doing this for over 20 years... and nothing has yet to surface.

However, in the meantime they could have made a fortune in free travel and had experiences of a lifetime.... this is not chump change . In the last decade I have received well over $100,000 in flights rooms and cruises all through my normal, routine, average household spending...and I am not rich just average middle income!! If I can you can too...

Dave, Larine,Paul and I and our partners have been enjoying the pleasures of free travel for many many years.... Isn't it time you did too?

You sound like an infomercial.

(Quote): Another for example, my wife ordered a mudslide. The only deviation she asked for was to have it served in a short glass instead of one of the large smoothie glasses as she preferred a high octane low volume drink. The bartender rudly (sic) made clear that this request was not possible. When she said "other bartenders on the ship have made it for me this way" his answer was "I'm not other bartenders do you want it my way or not at all". (Unquote)

We can't believe the last sentence came out of the mouth of anyone who wants to stay with Seabourn. The way it was written though indicates the remark was a direct quote. If true, we certainly would have had a little chat with his superiors.

As to the 0500 departure time, that is what is stated on Oceania's website.

Marina Day is "...complimentary kayaking, pedal boats and board sailing from a marina at the ship's stern or from a beach."

beejay 21 -

The price given to you is NOT per night as far as we can read. It is for the whole package as below.

This is a quote from the PG website:

"Pre- and post-cruise programs include: 3-nights accommodations on pre cruise and 2-nights accommodations on post cruise, daily breakfast, and airport/hotel transfers."

I have recently joined and this is my 1st post so please bear with me if I seem a bit confused. Having just booked the Aug 30th 12 days cruise from Fiji we needed over night accommodation in Papeete, so booked at Intercontinental through PG. They have charged $325 per night per person, ie $650 per night per room. The hotel web site is quoting cpf 27242 which is approx.$309 per night per room. I understand that the PG prices includes transfers but that makes very expensive transfers! I thought I would get a better deal booking through PG! Can any one explain the huge difference in rates?

We believe the amount quoted for the hotel by PG is for more than one night (or at least that is how it appears in the PG website in reference to extended stays pre- or post-cruise). Please check if the figure may be for two or three nights instead of one.

I hate to bring the discussion back to the original topic, but reading some of the early comments on this thread threw me a little. There are people complaining about men who don't "tuck their shirts in". There are many shirts made that are meant to be worn out (i.e. Tommy Bahama shirts). These shirts, worn over a nice pair of pants, are very definitely considered "country club casual" and my husband wore them on our last Oceania cruise without so much as a pained look from anyone. In fact, many men wore them (on a Caribbean cruise) and no one's head spun around in horror at the sight of them ... even though, to be honest, our Butler told us he should tuck it in. I assumed he didn't understand the fashion..."

 

Your butler had the nerve to tell you how to dress? Is this normal on Oceania?

It's called nostalgia.

We took the Hawaiian HNL-PPT-HNL flights when we sailed on the Paul Gauguin and they were fine (at least in Business Class). As far as we know, the PG will hold the ship if they know you are coming on the Hawaiian flight, but do double check if that is the policy today. It has probably been noted before that Hawaii and Tahiti are in the same time zone, so no jet lag.

Kuikahi -

If it would fit your schedule, you might consider a UA flight to and from Honolulu and then the weekly Hawaiian flight from there to Tahiti and back again. This is very iffy, we know, but had to mention it.

Just to note - Keith mentions Luggage Free and gives a link to their website. We're sure there are several dependable companies out there, but we chose Luggage Forward because Seabourn recommended them.

Luggage Forward has a calculator on its home page that will figure just how much the charges will be given what you need to send and where you need to send it. We could tell you what we spent, but our case involved shipping from Hawaii to a foreign country and to a cruise ship instead of a hotel, so charges were a bit more in our case.

We are currently using Luggage Forward for our Seabourn Sojourn cruise out of Montreal this coming Friday as we, too, are flying American Airlines and it's that much less to fret about given that we have to connect twice. The arrangements went smoothly and quickly by phone, and our luggage was picked up by FedEx (their representative here) this past Wednesday. We could have tracked it but did not need to, as Luggage Forward called yesterday to say our bags are in secured storage in Montreal already and will be delivered to the ship (and signed for by Seabourn) when it docks. We sent two standard rolling suitcases that weighed just under fifty pounds apiece.

pakitin:

In your last post, you say:

"On the present Quest cruise of the Panama Canal the first nights the line to go in the MDR was 15/30 minutes long".

The Quest is not even near the Panama Canal and never has been, so we wonder if you do mean the Quest? We were on its December 9th sailing and, personally, never encountered any lines. Perhaps it was because we enjoyed dining right after they opened.

Yes but I would book the first cruise on a single and apply the referral credit to that booking and add him after final payment to the booking and put both of us together on the second booking together and apply his referral coupon to him since he is a first time cruiser on Seabourn.

The referral coupon states "This program is not applicable to employees of Seabourn, Travel Agents. guests traveling on a trade discount or first time guests sharing a suite with a Seabourn Club member." You will both actually be Club members after the first cruise, but even if they accept the first booking the way you want, your partner will be sailing with a Club member on the second booking.