babysteps

If you would, which lines are you travelling on now? Appreciate your perspective!

Added detail in this quote of my old post to clarify old O-Life beverage package and add the bottle-follows-you detail.

@clo responded so quickly she didn't see my edit that included your post @cruisemom42 - so that one's on me lol!

Basic SM has to be with a meal, so yes you are correct no SM basic by-the-glass is included bars. If you upgrade then this restriction doesn't apply. See comment by @cruisemom42, if you order a meal from room service you can get an included glass with it, as long as a bar is open (so not at 3am)

Dress Code Seems to come up over and over again lol Related, Laundry prices and included laundry concierge and up Dress basics: casual but not sloppy is the overall vibe. Smart casual (aka country club casual) for the specialties or GDR. If you want to be dressier, go for it but you may not have a lot of company. Laundry basics: free laundry machines for all guests on all ships (but much more limited on R class), detergent is provided free. Paid or included laundry service also available. +no shorts for specialties, GDR or Captain's party - at least not in the venue where the captain is +"no sandals" for GDR/specialties means no grungy flip-flops or teva's. Dressy sandals are fine for ladies +jackets and ties are never required for men, you will see a fair number of jackets in specialties but also lots of golf-shirts-and-chinos +Many folks say "think Chicos" for ladies. I think this makes sense, but neither me nor my spouse has yet set foot in Chicos... My opinion: many many people have strong views on what 'appropriate' dress is for a given venue. Often these views have little to do with the stated requirements. I love you all and will decline to participate in most of the spirited discussion! Also however much you over- or under-pack is fine by me, as long as I am not required to follow your exact rules or carry your luggage.

Excursions the best practice Basics: all newly sold fares are on "Simply More" aka SM basis, meaning you get use-it-or-lose-it credit to use for O excursions only. +Excursions are usually loaded 365 days prior to the cruise. You can look up ports on the O website to see descriptions (even if your cruise's excursions aren't yet loaded). Your TA will send you a pdf of excursions when available, either one year out or when you make your deposit +OS = Oceania Select - in theory a more 'special' tour typically including cultural connections that are more interesting; usually a smaller group say 15-25 but might still be on a big bus (with plenty of empty seats) +OE = Oceania Exclusive - same description as a "regular" tour but a smaller group, 10 - 16 people +many ports also offer a "private car" option, spendier than DIY but if you need to use up some SM credits might be helpful +SM credits are per person and cannot be pooled. Don't say I told you, but they rarely check names on the excursion tickets so if Mr. Babysteps' credits pay for an excursion and Mrs. Babysteps shows up with the ticket I'm not sure anything terrible would happen. I've never actually done this though... +if an excursion bought with SM credits is cancelled, you can only use the refunded credits on another excursion that same cruise. SM is relatively new so we're all learning - best advice is to frontload the SM-paid excursion so if there are any glitches you have as many days as possible to not 'lose' the credits.

Onboard booking and pre-trip / welcome home vouchers Booking direct vs using a TA Sales Basics: there is a discount to booking onboard, and deposit amounts are typically lower +at the moment, you may get a "30 day prior same as onboard" booking letter, and usually if you do not book onboard you will get a "welcome home" voucher letter for same as onboard +Unless you ask, your new booking gets assigned to the TA of your in-progress cruise. You can assign the new booking to a different TA, or leave it "open" (you have 14 days after disembarking to assign it to a TA) +you don't have to use any TA, in which case O is your TA ("direct") +opinions vary if TA or direct is better, TA proponents like the personal service and/or discounts/rebates, "direct" like control and no one stuck in the middle +sales may or may not stack with onboard savings, your TA or the Oceania Onboard Ambassador (is that OA or OOA lol) should be able to tell you +don't wait until the last full day of the cruise to book, or if you do expect a long line if you have any questions My opinion: if you're going to cruise O again, booking onboard makes sense

Standard Gratuities Gratuities practice - room service Basics: gratuities are not included in your fare and are automatically added to your account. Higher pp/pd for PH and above Practice/opinion varies widely as to whether tips in addition to standard gratuities are expected...

O does website maintenance on weekends - don't panic if x or y is missing or you can't log in O wifi not yet all Starlink O does *not* have an app (yet? ever?) Basics: O is steam-age for much IT +Your double occupancy fare comes with free 2 logins, one device live at a time per login, multiple devices can register +'Streaming' upcharge ($10 per login per day) does not get you more bandwidth, just unlocks streaming content +Early am or while everyone is ashore are your best wifi performance windows

Alcohol policy thread 2023/2024 including good stuff from @Flatbush Flyer and others Included Drinks thread 2024 (a related topic) Basics: O is passenger and drinker friendly. +Fares include wine-by-the-glass and beer-by-the-glass with meals (including room service) when bars are open. Includes sparkling-by-the-glass, often a port-by-the-glass, and non-alcoholic-wine/beer-by-the-glass - well, definitely the beer, not sure if 0%wine is always available? +You can pay $30pp pd more to include anytime by-the-glass and anytime spirits and cocktails (no change to level of included wines/beers). Some highest-end spirits and single-venue choices (for example, sake in Red Ginger) are excluded, there is no $-based rule (sake may be less expensive than some included spirits for example) +You can bring on alcohol (wine, beer, spirits) for your own consumption, no effective limit. Paying a corkage fee for a bottle of wine in a restaurant is the ONLY allowable way to drink your own alcohol outside your cabin. You can order empty glasses from/with room service! +Paid beverage packages get you discount on by-the-bottle purchases and some wine events My opinion/experience-wine geeks love O but also bring some of their own wine. FYI it's not a party-hardy environment

Oceania Air policies and best practice booking O Air after final payment Basics: O fares are available in the US with air or without ("cruise only" but this still includes the Simply More excursion credits). +You can choose no air, air just to embarkation, air just from disembarkation, or air on both ends Air (on embarkation or disembarkation day) now includes bus transfers from the airport to the ship or vice versa +Arriving early or staying later up to 3 days is now allowed without extra deviation fee (but will not include transfers) +If you want a specific routing or carrier, or an earlier/later arrival than included, or business class you will be paying a deviation fee - per person, per cruise start/end point. Deviations your TA will get options (you can request specific) and pricing BEFORE the fee is due. Fare charges if any are in addition to the deviation fee My opinion/experience: O doesn't really *want* to book your air but sometimes it can make sense. Always do the math even for economy, and business class is rarely a deal. One-way TATL or TPAC may be the exception if you are happy in coach or if the PE upcharge is a deal (only upgrades your seat on the long over-water segment). Don't blame me if you fly in day-of-embarcation and there's a hassle or disaster Believe what @FlyerTalker says

A few others to bookmark- not the 'best' threads, just some recent helpful ones Everyone else feel free to chime in! Oceania's FAQs the US version (not always the latest info...) I'll do each topic as a separate post, that way replies might not get as messy?? I'd also like to nominate @Flatbush Flyer, @ORV, @Sthrngary as current fonts of very detailed information, with a special mention to @mauibabes

Agree with other posters, most likely you'll be able to enter terminal J at Miami and board the ship without waiting for your specific boarding time. There may well be a line at 11am, much less likely as you move later in the day. In (the somewhat unlikely) case that terminal J doesn't let you in , you could still check your bags with the porters and either explore Miami or hang out in the parking garage at J (no rain, no sun, decent cell service lol).

If you are seeking nuts, just ask. Once I ordered yogurt on the breakfast 'card' and requested nuts to mix in - "requested"= hand wrote on the card. Got a lovely ramekin of nuts along with the bowl of yogurt. This was in a B category cabin on an O class ship - it was perhaps 10 yrs ago but worth an ask! If you need to avoid nuts, make sure your TA notes that. As a gluten free person (medical, not choice), O does a pretty good job of managing restricted diets. No direct knowledge of no-nut diets...

I'm hoping that if some non-mathy (or overly mathy?) MBA changes O's guarantee policy, that we'll hear about it first here on CC.

Thanks for the clarification. Theoretically possible but hasn't yet happened. Agree O overall is about as fallible as other lines but they all have their weaknesses (and strengths). Imo O structures guarantees differently than many other lines. Based on my limited experience O air services customers worse than industry while O guarantee risk seems lower...

Has this happened to anyone on O? If so I'd feel less sanguine about booking a guarantee...

Deck 5 starboard, top of the 'grand' stairs just forward of the aft elevators. One level up from reception. On same level as shops/GDR etc

Tell him "hi" for all of us on this thread lol

In 2021 there was a shuttle that made 2 stops - iirc the Marina and old town (park/overlook not far from the sea organ).

We haven't used O's air very often. One time it still wasn't ticketed a couple weeks before the flight and our TA reached out to O to get it ticketed. I gather it's usually earlier than that, not sure what happened but once ticketed we could choose seats etc. as per terms of ticket. So you may wish to be *slightly* more active than 'just wait for the ticket' lol

FYI the "themed" evening menus in Terrace typically run 2 days in a row, so if you have a Specialty reservation one night you don't miss out. They don't usually announce day 2 until day 2 lol, so it's hard to know for certain.

FYI on Nautica in Feb 2023 we were scheduled to tender (not dock) at Nha Trang. Weather meant we missed the port (aside: BIG storm, not just worried head office lol), so I can't promise that reality would match our scheduled itinerary. Just saying it's possible that a small ship in Nha Trang may not guarantee docked - but it might at least make it a possibility!

Don't worry, you'll get onboard with a Guarantee! I guess it was how it was presented to us, we didn't really expect a specific cabin assignment until boarding so we weren't concerned. This isn't the airlines where 'no seat assignment' can sometimes mean you are about to get bumped. At least it hasn't been like that in the past! Guarantee on O is not 'standby', it just means you can't choose your exact cabin. Typically Oceania will offer move-overs to folks with confirmed reservations to make space (if needed) for guarantees. In the past, they have always converted enough move-overs or move-ups to make space for all guarantees. Or if any guarantee ever was denied boarding, no one on CC has heard about it... Reminder - O uses "guarantee" a bit different than some other lines. You can't choose it yourself, and it's not a discount. It's offered by O after they sell through enough cabins as "available" that they won't guarantee your cabin choice. Once enough guarantees are sold, the category switches to 'wait list'. Guarantees DO get onboard, Wait List may end up not getting a confirmed reservation at all. So don't worry, you'll get onboard with a guarantee on O! Or have a first-ever-on-CC story - bragging rights?? And if you are the worrying type, that's ok too. Travel will always bring opportunity to worry...

I think in 12 O cruises and 2 future bookings we've had a guarantee 2x, maybe 3? At least once we didn't get our assignment until check-in at the pier. Don't worry, so far no one has reported O denying boarding to guarantees. Sure it might happen someday, but remember as Ian Fleming said 'worry is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due'