DoulaAnn

Never mind, ldtr, I miss read what you said.

We've tipped the O provided shore excursions with US and never gotten any pushback. Some of our private excursions have asked for Euros as payment, but they've let us know when we booked them that was what was required.

We rarely have issues with US dollars. Most of the tour guides we've encountered in Europe accept USD. As for merchants, we usually use a credit card and pay it off when we get home.

Same here. That's why I asked here to see if anything changed and why we've been on the phone with O. Hoping for the best.

Yes. We have checked every route possible and there is nothing. If it hasn't been posted in 2 1/2 months since the stated posting from O, I'm guessing there will be no further postings, and, as O said when we talked directly with the person in that department, it will be posted when we get onboard.

As far as the Promenade Deck, it isn't designed for seating, but for access for the crew to the lifeboats. You can get out on it through doors near the Grand Dining Room, but it's more just for looking around. The deck actually has more space on it at either end than Marina.

Checked all of the above. Have spoken with Oceania and they tell us that it will be applied after we board. Hoping that will happen, since we board overseas and cell service will be costly.

You're right. I missed only saw the part about the laundry. My bad.

We never received an invoice and it isn't on our final confirmation. We contacted O and were told it was posted Mar. 6 for a June cruise and would appear once we were onboard. Such differing communications!

As far as I remember, there is an entrance on either side, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'm reasonably certain there is an entrance on the port side.

That's what I figured but wanted to verify. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks. Did you find that much of the staff was very experienced on Oceania? I know some of the crew/staff we we were with on Marina were going to be on Vista for the first times.

For those on Vista right now, who is the CD and who is the Social Hostess and assistant CD (if there is one).

Gbitsm thanks. I'll email them and see what response I get.

Are you going to contact anyone at Oceania to get help with a location and munchies? If so, I'd like to know who to contact, as I may be organizing a M&G for our Vista cruise. Can't wait to get onboard.

O has different restaurants because people have different preferences. No one is forcing us to do anything. I would definitely suggest people try it once to see the reality. All the reviews I've seen from those onboard the first cruise have been very positive about Ember.

O definitely does solo cruiser meet-ups. We made friends with several solo travelers on our voyage on Marina in January, and they raved about the ways that they had had. Hope it's the same for you.

I'm not sure about terminology of hair dryers, but the dryer in our room on Marina had what I would call a concentrater attachment and I thought a diffuser was a circular attachment that the end away from the dryer was large and had multiple small "windows" in the end. Not a great description but the best I can do. Have never seen what I described as a diffuser on any of the ships.

Oops, you’re right. Will try to move it.

We saw some whales (some saw more than others -- I wasn't seeing what they saw). I saw that the cruise after us saw large pods of whales. 2 weeks making a difference or weather (we were cloudy and occasionally rainy, they had mostly sun) -- I'm not sure. But the penguins (naturalist told us where they were as we moved along) and birds (naturalist had given a talk on the various birds and how to identify them) were fascinating.

Martin was incredibly talented and very entertaining, as well. Great guy!

We were on Marina in January doing the Antarctic and there were several specialists onboard to tell us about what we were going to see, some of the geology, the birds, and so forth. The naturalist in the group was on the bridge doing commentary when there were things to see. All four of the specialists were seen frequently on the decks and we asked plenty of questions of them. Was a great experience, even with overcast weather the whole time. The passengers on the cruise after ours, which went from Santiago to Buenos Aires had incredibly sunny days in Antartica. And we missed the Falklands due to high winds, they got to dock there and see things. Just luck of the draw on a lot of that.

You are right. i had it backward. Yes, shore excursions make the most sense unless one plans to book many private excursions.

It might or might not be more cost effective. Sometimes the airfare is greater than the O air credit, at which point taking the airfare from O would be more cost effective. And cruise only fare is usually equivalent to O Life minus air credit and shore excursion amount. So there's really no difference other that terminology.

Our O person that we book through has told us the O Life regular (without airfare) is marked up the amount of the on-board credit, so it's really a wash. We look at the cost of the shore excursions we want to do and if the whatever $ is more than the cost of the excursions, we opt for OBC. Otherwise, we choose whatever number of free excursions. Never take the beverage package since I don't drink much and my DH prefers wines that aren't covered by the package. Just personal preference there.