CorgiToo

Just returned from 11 days on the Marina in the Baltic. The food was great in all the specialty restaurants and the main dining room. We only had 320 passengers, so it was possible to eat in the specialty restaurants more than once. As a result, the main dining room was practically empty in the middle since most guests requested window seating. It was open for breakfast and dinner, with excellent service and a great variety of menu offerings, One evening we "took a break" from the specialty restaurants only to find an outstanding beef wellington on the menu that was superior to the prime rib we had at Polo, 

Looking forward to a week in the Caribbean on Celebrity after Thanksgiving, since we love Aqua Class for the opportunity to enjoy Blu for dinner every night. 

It also helps that we live an hour from O'Hare and don't have to worry about intermediate flights to get to a main hub.

I subtracted the cost of two deviation fees from O's exorbitant hotel price, and the remainder was equivalent to a search engine's booking for one night at the same hotel. And that did not include any airport/hotel/ship transfer fees.

After the cruise we booked our own "free" flights from Stockholm to Prague and Krakow to Chicago using credit card points.

We will be landing in Copenhagen one day before we embark. We booked the hotel under O's land arrangements, so we arrive a day early and all transfers are included.

We booked our upcoming Copenhagen to Stockholm trip on the Marina over a year ago using Olife air.

Since we will be traveling on our own after the cruise, our Oceania agent booked one-way Premium Economy tickets flying into Copenhagen one day before embarkation. We did not pay a deviation fee, as there are many flights from Chicago to Copenhagen and we wanted to see what O would choose for us.  

In June, we were thrilled when O booked us on a non-stop flight that is less than 9 hours long.

We booked our Baltic cruise in July 2021, choosing the free shore excursions. Early in 2022, Oceania revised our itinerary, dropping three nights in St. Petersburg. In the spring of 2022 I noticed that Oceania was running an OLife Ultimate sale that included the dates of our cruise, so I called Oceania in April and received all three promotions: $600 OBC for the two of us, 6 free shore excursions, and the classic beverage package.

Just google Oceania OLife Ultimate sale and see if there is a current offer for your cruise.

Wow! Loved the decor, color flow, and plentiful seating areas. Our Infinite Veranda 6278 with bed near closet had lots of storage behind seamless doors including cubbies and shoe bins, room beneath the bed for all luggage,  a mid room dresser with 3 drawers divided into 6 sections, and an efficient closet with lots of hangers, an upper and lower area to hang tops/jackets and a narrow section for long items. The closet safe was convenient. The bathroom had great storage but towel hanging space was lacking. The shower was ample in size with no leakage onto the floor. The veranda seating was comfortable and well constructed. There was a round white table/tray and a separate reversible stool which we didn’t use. The climate controls were efficient with “morning and evening “ settings and handy buttons at the base of each lamp. No need for a plug adapter with the “international” charger box” mid room and two additional bedside USB ports. The Oceanview    Cafe had great food and many seating choices inside and out for breakfast and lunch. We had sushi for lunch after embarkation at Raw on Five. They had no oysters so our desserts were complimentary. The main restaurants were gorgeous with good choices. We reserved the Cosmopolitan, Cyprus, and Tuscan rooms beforehand, but no restaurant was ever full and lines were minimal. Eden was so beautiful, but the evening entertainment was so creepy that we had drinks elsewhere. It was a high class Halloween party on steroids. Costumed characters appeared as we entered and invited us to sit, but we left since we don’t care for interactive entertainment. We loved the energetic Hype show at 9:15 the first night, but Jewel Box on the last night was a strange rendition of CS Lewis with characters imported from Eden.

Pool? divine, with plenty of seating in neighboring areas.

This could solve the problem of towels being used to "save" lounges. It may prevent people from taking two or more towels during the course of the day without bothering to return the first (damp) one. However, the logistics of using the pass to get that towel and return it may be tricky.

😍My cruise booklet and luggage tags finally arrived yesterday, just after I resigned myself to picking them up at the pier. We also took our photos online.Thanks to CaroleSS for the kind response! Hope to see you on Edge...

I called Captain's Club today and the supervisor said that for the December 1 sailing the luggage tags would be available at the pier.

I called Captain's Club today and they said the luggage tags are only available to pick up at the pier.

On our flight from Lima to Chicago [no deviations] Regent gave us a free "forced overnight" in Lima, business class from Lima to Houston, and first class from Houston to Chicago.

Thanks Irishwitchy!

I just signed up so it looks like we'll have a party!

You'll know when you receive your final documents. The night of the Captain's Reception is typically used as a "Formal Optional" night. The other may be the night of the Captain's Farewell or the night of the Seven Seas Society party.

On our Preliminary Vacation Summary PDF for the Jan. 5 cruise to Lima, there is a column called "Dress" that lists F (Formal Optional) for two nights.

We loved our Celebrity trip last May including a land tour and Aqua Class accommodations on Millennium. We flew into Fairbanks and toured the area before boarding a private car for breakfast on a train to Denali Park. After two nights there, we took a lunch train to a lodge in Talkeetna. We had dinner on the train to a hotel in Anchorage, and finally took a picturesque bus ride to Seward to board the ship the next afternoon. We made friends on the land tour that we met for cocktails/dinner on the ship. Blu restaurant was great for breakfast and dinner, and the shore excursions were very scenic.

We flew into Fairbanks, where it was 80 degrees in mid-May. We went on a riverboat tour and toured a wonderful museum at the university before taking a train to Denali with Celebrity tours. The two nights there were great. We saw sled dogs and took a tour into the park on a school bus during a beautiful snowfall. We spent two nights in a lodge where a moose had twin calves in a ravine behind our building. We took a hike one morning and a bear crossed the road just as we crossed the bridge to view the "Welcome to Denali" sign. In total, we took three train trips featuring a breakfast, lunch, and dinner before boarding Celebrity Millennium down the coast to Vancouver.

From our brief experience, I would say you can master Fairbanks in a day and spend more time in Denali. If you're lucky you'll see the top of Mt. McKinley, which is often covered in clouds.

My mistake. They most likely had a suite. But they preferred the Blu menu choices. The staff also brought featured items from the Main Dining Room menu if they were requested.

We enjoy Celebrity Aqua B2 class on Silhouette, Millennium, and Reflection with daily access to the Persian Garden and Relaxation Rooms. Breakfast and dinner at Blu every day is a real treat with exceptional quality and service and "everyone knows your name." We don't even consider the specialty restaurants. Our friends who upgraded to Concierge class preferred dinner in Blu to Luminae, their assigned dining room, and requested two meals with us during our Alaska voyage.

Last year we tried an aft room on Norwegian Getaway with a beautiful large balcony, since we were too late to book Aqua on Celebrity. But we missed Celebrity's food, service, and ambience. So Celebrity may be a great choice for you!