Torquer

That is correct that the Pinnacle Grill breakfast is only for NS and PS suites; you cannot go there if you have just purchased Club Orange. However, I'm not sure what several people have said about capacity is true. Without actually counting tables, it does seem that the Pinnacle Grill on non-Pinnacle-Class ships has at least as many tables as the Club Orange dining room on Pinnacle-Class ships. So I'm not sure why HAL doesn't allow purchasers of Club Orange to use the PG for breakfast. I'm not complaining since we always have a suite, but it is only ever a few tables being used and very quiet in there for breakfast. I suspect a lot of suite guests don't know about this perk.

We have never been invited to or heard of any of these special events either. We always stay in a suite, so we get the CO benefits, rather than paying an add-on fee for them. Has anyone heard of these events? Do you perhaps have to pay for CO, rather than being in a suite to get invited?

What is wrong with that? Seems like a good thing to block the sun and gives a bit more privacy from people above looking down on part of your balcony. We will be, for the first time, on deck 11 on Marina in an Oceania Suite for our next cruse; we noticed the large overhang in a video review and viewed that as a good thing. Let me know if I am missing something.

I have never heard of one after you board ship. HAL offers them in some ports as part of a transfer. Of course, you can always use a private tour company, before you board, or perhaps even after in the early afternoon.

That is simply not true, and if you saw it posted before, it was also wrong there. A very few cruise lines, in particular all or most MSC cruises, have made arrangements to use ports within the Venice lagoon, namely Marghera or Fusina. Most other cruise lines do not stop within the Venice lagoon, and use other ports, in particular Trieste and Ravena is common, even if the cruise is embarking or disembarking from "Venice". Some very small ships, smaller than R-class, can also use ports within the lagoon. This is true for all O cruises that I am aware of starting in 2022, and our other favorite cruise line Holland America.

Trieste itself is well worth spending a day to explore. Of course, it is not Venice. If you have never been to Venice you really want to spend a couple nights on the island and experience the real Venice when the tourist mobs leave in the late afternoon. It is an entirely different experience. Fortunately, you can do this pre- or post-cruse from Trieste also since you will almost certainly be flying from the Marco Polo airport in Venice.

Agreed. Rudi's dessert souffle for two is really excellent. On our last cruise, Rudi was onboard, and he gave a cooking demonstration in the theater of how to make the souffle. Unfortunately, his demo one didn't turn out very well...it was under-cooked. But the one we had in his restaurant later in the cruise was amazing.

On a recent cruise to Iceland, my black sneakers got all muddy on a rainy day visit to the mud pots scenic area. When I got back to the ship, I asked our cabin steward if they had a brush I could use to try to clean them. He gave me a brush, and after 15 minutes of work, they looked better but far from perfect. I never thought about giving them to the shoe polishing people, and the steward never volunteered we could do that. Has anybody else given sneakers for shoe polishing and if so, how did it turn out?

@PointsNerdGreat article. There are a few things you are missing which may affect how it works for other people. First, CEC is the technical name for the interface of how HDMI devices can control the TV via their remote control, or vice-versa. Although, CEC is the real name for it, TV vendors call it different things: Samsung calls it AnyNet, LG calls it SimpLink, etc. The key point is that the protocol has to be enabled in the TV's menu for it to work and automatically connect to the HDMI device (Chromecast in this case). I guess it was in your case, or you didn't mention the details. There are a couple problems with this part. First, all HAL ships have different model TVs, depending when the cabin was last renovated. In the last year, we have seen both LG and Samsung TVs on ship. Second and most importantly, on some ships/cabins, the remote control they give you is a minimal one and does not have all the functionality as the original TV remote. For example, it may not have a source/input selection button and it might not have a button to take you into the TV setup menu where you can change things. To get around this problem, we carry a small multi-function remote control that can control any modern TV. We have used it on ships and hotels to watch movies from our laptop, which is a similar problem to Chromecast. The final problem you might encounter, is the TV is setup in "hotel mode" and even if you have a real remote control, it will not let you change settings, like its inputs. There are "secret codes" you can find on the internet if you search, that you can push on your remote control to take the TV out of hotel mode and put it back into it. So although this worked for you, it is not necessarily an easy problem for a non-technical person to solve, particularly if they don't have the TV's original full-function remote control available.

I have no specific information on how O handles this. But as a comparison point, I do know how it works on our other favorite cruise line, Holland America. Here is the text that someone posted a few years ago directly from their HAL employee handbook: Tipping not required policy All ships have the Rewards for Excellence (RfE) Plan which consists of Hotel Service Charges and Beverage Service Charges. If a guest chooses to adjust out of the RfE Plan and instead provide cash tips to an employee, the employee is required to turn in this cash to their Department Head so the money can be added to the RfE plan. Any "tips" received above and beyond the guests standard amount may be kept by the crewmember. This comes from post #50 on this thread on the HAL board: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2597164-tipping/?do=findComment&comment=56025003

On a cruise this past summer on Nieuw Statendam, we had a credit for dinner and on our booking confirmation it said Pinnacle Grill or Canaletto. I'm not quite sure how we got the credit; I am thinking it was from our travel agent since we did not have HIA. When we asked the Neptune Lounge concierge to make a reservation for us, she said we could go to any restaurant, including Rudi's. So we picked Rudi's and had a wonderful meal, with Rudi himself dining at the table next to us.

Another thing to consider is that the mid-ship elevators directly look out on the balconies of the adjacent cabins on Vista-class ships. Whenever we take those elevators we comment on how bad those cabins must be since you have no privacy on your balcony.

Interesting...we have never seen a "let us choose your room" for the Pinnacle suites and that is what we always book. Of course, there are very few times when both PS suites are available for a given cruise, so that you would have a choice. Was the price the same between the two options? If so I'm not sure why HAL would even offer it. Perhaps you might have the following scenario: both PS rooms are available, the first person to book doesn't care if port or starboard so he picks a guarantee, the second person to book gets his preference of side of the ship, and the first person gets whatever PS wasn't chosen. That is the only scenario I can see of what the purpose of a guarantee for the PS would benefit anyone.

Make sure you save your copy, and when it comes back, check to make sure all items are returned correctly. About every other HAL cruise we take with unlimited laundry, an item doesn't come back, or someone else's garment comes back instead. This has always been corrected within hours as soon as we tell our room steward. The laundry crew really does do a fantastic job, considering how much laundry they have to handle every day.

Now that Simply More has started, I was wondering at lunch/dinner how the waiters know you have it or don't have it. Do they still ask everyone for their key cards for alcoholic drinks? Or does the dining room host note it when you tell them your room number? Or is it the honor system where you just tell them you have SM or not? We have a cruise in February and have booked it as cruise-only; we did not want to "upgrade" to SM. So I'm wondering how this will work. And it will be even worse a year from now when almost everyone will have SM, and cruise-only will be a rarity when someone booked a long time ago before SM started.

I know what you are asking about now and have seen it myself a couple times and wondered about it. I'm not sure why someone would pay $20 more for what sounds like the same thing (except the sides are different), without a clearer explanation on the Menu about what is better on the $20 upcharge steak. Here is a snippet from Rogerjett that shows an example:

Although I have never flown on FlyBondi and would never consider flying on any ultra-budget airline like that, I suspect the combo is one that they show on this page: https://flybondi.com/ar/menu-a-bordo

Also remember in the Pinnacle Grill, you get a choice of 3 different cuts of steak: Filet Mignon, New York Strip, and Boneless rib eye. So when comparing steaks in the MDR to the Pinnacle Grill, you may be comparing two different types of steak.

A few years ago we rented from Avis at the FLL airport when we arrived the day before our cruise. We did some sightseeing, and the next day we returned it to an Avis location at a hotel near the cruise port. They then had a free Avis shuttle to take us to the cruise terminal. BTW, we weren't even staying at that hotel where the Avis was. There was no one-way drop charge for the rental so was extremely efficient and cheap since there was no need for a taxi. I don't know if there are any hotels near the cruise port where you can return a rental car today, but it is something worth exploring.

Since your question is not specific to Oceania, you can probably get better help by posting your question here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/148-british-isleswestern-europe/

And of course you do not have to sit with strangers if you don't want to. Many (perhaps most) people only sit with their traveling group, so for you that would a table for just the 4 of you. If you are in a Neptune Suite or have Club Orange, I would recommend anytime dining; there will be a separate line for you and the wait for a table will be minimal. Or as suggested, you can ask the Neptune Lounge concierge to make a reservation for you.

We have found excellent prices on FlightEase for international business-class tickets. For other types of tickets we could do as good or better elsewhere. So that is why we use FlightEase, plus being able to cancel or change the flight, with no penalty, up until final payment is due for the flights.

We always use an independent insurance company. We never buy cancel for any reason insurance, so we find we can get a much better price for more coverage elsewhere. If you do want a cancel for any reason policy, buying through HAL may be a good option, although it is available elsewhere. We have always used Square Mouth which allows you to chose from many different insurance companies, and have been happy with them. You can get lots more information on travel insurance here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

Question on Advantage Fare We are trying to book a cruise for 2025 that is in the Black Friday sale (although the price is unchanged from before the sale). The HAL website shows two fares available: Cruise-only but includes crew-appreciation. It says: "50% reduced deposit (non-refundable)" Have It All - Early Booking Bonus with lots of stuff included. It says: "...in one refundable cruise package". We do not want HIA. We called HAL to see if there is an Advantage Fare with a refundable deposit available, which we have heard about on CC but never used before ourselves. They said there are just two fares available for this cruise: Cruise-only with crew-appreciation. The deposit is fully refundable up until final payment and the price is the same as the website has for their non-refundable fare. Basically, it sounds like we are getting a refundable fare at the same price as the non-refundable fare on the website. Why doesn't the website say this? HIA at a price and features the same as on the website They said there is no Advantage Fare available, although it sounds like the cruise-only but just not calling it Advantage. Does this all sound correct to those that have used an Advantage Fare before? We definitely need to get the part about the refundable deposit in writing, since it contradicts the website. We want to understand all our options before contacting our TA to book it.

I agree with what @terrydtxsaid. There is also a button on FlightEase you can click to have the tickets issued. Definitely do this as soon as you have paid for the flight. Once issued, your seats will not change unless the airline changes the flight or the type of plane used for your flight. We have never had our seats change with FlightEase after the tickets were issued.