Mura

For many years now flights are easy if you are at a gateway port,  If not it can be difficult,  We fly out of NYC to Europe and so we haven't had these problems but if you live in the midwest or west coast it can be a problem.  And if you are not in the U.S., that can be a further problem!

10 hours ago, anonymousegirl said:

Unfortunately, it is so late that any private touring is full.

That's a pity -- we particularly enjoyed our time out in the countryside.  The same was true of Reykjavik. We didn't use guides in either place since we were renting cars. And I consulted with a Danish friend about her suggestions as to where to go, etc.

Lori, I feel for you!  O should be able to make accommodations but whether they will or not is a big question. I wouldn't count on it either.  It was much easier to refund your $$$ and not tell you why they had done so.

We were there (at the Faroe Islands and Rejavik) a number of years ago -- I think it was 2006 but it may have been a little later.  But we were a group of 8 which allowed us to rent cars and go on our own both places.  You CAN do it independently BUT ... obviously it was cheaper for our group since we were 8.

Perhaps you can find others on your cruise (I know it is late) who would want to share with you? That is one use for the roll call ...

Good luck!

Mura

My recollection is that there are a number of different types of pillows available.  Bear in mind that we were in a suite which might have more options than lower level cabins, OTOH I'm sure they would want to accommodate you if they can, whatever your cabin level is.

We haven't cruised since before Covid erupted so things may have changed ...

Mura

And then there are the two of us who prefer the Deck 11 suites.  These are our favorites on Marina/Riviera (never having been on the owner's suites but we have been in a couple of Vistas).

We never found that much noise so maybe we were just lucky.  On our first cruise in 11080 back when Marina was very new in service, we did hear a lot of noise when the engines geared up.  But we didn't notice that noise on later cruises ... either they changed policies or we just learned to ignore the noise ....

Mura

On 5/24/2023 at 5:03 AM, Hambagahle said:

We have been in both.  We had the Oceania suite on our first Riviera cruise and were very very impressed.  We then had the Owners Suite (opposite end of the ship) and while we liked it OK we found the balcony (like the Oceania Suite) a bit narrow.  The last cruise we were in a Vista suite with a much larger balcony and we loved that (and have booked a similar one on Vista for next year).  We are golfers (which means here in Europe we walk a lot) so the distances don't bother us.  I called the walk from the Vista Suite to the Terrace Café a "par 4"...  I suppose it took us all of 5 minutes.  Oceania Suite could take a bit longer IF you want to walk indoors instead of out on the deck.  Plus it is good to walk when you are cruising!

 

The reason that we prefer the aft Oceania Suites is the very large veranda.  Yes, you lose some room in the main cabin but not enough to matter to us!  The deck 12 OCs (I believe) have two full baths, whereas the second bathroom on the aft suites is a powder room --- no shower.  But we love the veranda.  I remember visiting someone's deck 12 OC and being very disappointed with it...

Like many of others here, we've boarded several cruises in Lisbon in the past (not recently however) and never had a problem with "sharing" with other ships.  And we do tend to come in early or late ... especially tend to board late in Lisbon since it's one of our favorite European cities.

Mura

On 2/4/2020 at 10:30 AM, ORV said:

I’ll have to disagree Mura. In our experience there are no long hikes on Oceania ships. I could probably walk from the Oceania suites hallway glass door to the Terrace in less than 3 minutes, and I’m no athlete. 

I agree, "long" is relative!  It's a long hike for an O ship ... not on a behemoth ship! When you are used to smaller ships, those walks to the restaurant can become long when they really are not!

But Flatbush -- I'm very late to the party here, but perhaps a new poster wasn't aware of the need to use the search function as you suggest? From what the poster said, when they signed up for the cruise in February they received an email about the wine bottle program.  Perhaps O screwed up here ...

Thanks, Lyn.  I was about to post something to the same effect!  If you are on a ship's tour, or it's a tender port, yep, it's a bit more complicated.  When that's the case, we usually wait until a bit later to leave. But if you are on your own and it's not a tender port, there's generally not a problem in just waling off. Besides, if you have booked a private tour your guide will be waiting for you.

For suite passengers regarding the in-suite liquor supply: we normally wait until we board to make our selections.  There is a list on the table in the cabin that shows what is available.  Do you want 6 reds?  Fine.  6 Whites?  Also fine.  A combination, perhaps a bottle of spirits?  Also fine.

In our case since my husband only drinks an occasional glass of wine, I get to make the choices ...

We have taken a bottle of wine from our in-suite selections to dinner and there was never a corkage fee.  Never tried taking spirits, however.  I doubt  I'd try that anyway ... much easier just to buy a cocktail at the bar before dinner if that's my preference.

Mura 

In London we have always done our own transfers from the airport to the hotel (or hotel to seaport or airport).  We have used various car services.  Just google them and compare prices. We've never had a bad trip.  And usually you can book a car that will carry 4-6 people if that's what you want.

Mura

Personally, if possible I would prefer to go into a local wine shop and pick out the bottles I want.  You can easily bring them on board for consumption in your room.  If you want to take the bottle(s) to the dining room, must pay the corkage fee.  That's still a lot less than you would pay to buy off the wine list at O's inflated prices. 

Numbers of passengers (I'm not one of them) have said they have had no problem bringing on a case or two of wine. For me, I have been known to pack a few bottles of wine (no more than 4) and some vodka in my suitcase -- with proper protection, of course.  There's no rule that says you have to buy enough alcohol for the entire cruise before boarding ...

But if you are true oenophiles, you probably want to choose your wines ...

Mura

On 4/22/2023 at 3:52 PM, jazznruby said:

 

Rather than all this speculation, wouldn't it make more sense to just wait until the first (or second, or third) reviews are in, which will be soon, to form opinions about Vista? Sometimes change is actually a good thing. Having two Vista cruises booked for next year, I'm anxiously waiting... with an open mind.

If we were still on the cruise I'd be among those to "wait and see".  But since we're not ... I'm not regretting our decision.

Will check 2024 itineraries to see if something appeals.'

Mura

I'm beginning to be happier about having had to cancel our Vista cruise in late August ...

Well, maybe not "happier" ... but at least more content. These changes do not strike me as being "improvements".

Back to the original question, we like both pretty much equally ... but if I have to choose one over the other, it would be Polo.  And just FYI we don't care that much for Red Ginger although Jan did set up a wonderful dinner for us a few years ago there.  We just aren't into fusion so much as Szechuan ,,, but Jan's choices were perfection.

Mura

1 minute ago, ChadnKate said:

The foremost question is whether you get there before the cruise departure. Secondary is how you feel that first day. 
what we do (we’re retired). Book cruise very early up to 2 years in advance. Figure out what flies you there best. Then we accumulate points/miles and grab our reward flights when they first are available, usually 11 months early. If you can do that and require (very bad back) lie flat seats, avoiding the cost of the flights may approach the cost of the cruise. 

I do agree.  I was speaking about a 1999 cruise when the newcomers were clearly flying in on the day the cruise left.  In fact, we never EVER have flown in on the day of departure.

Partly that was because when we got that first "invitation" from Ren we already had plans to fly to Milan about the same time as the cruise was to leave from Lisbon, so we switched.  The only problem we encountered was that the airline had no problem switching Howard's flight (we were told just show up at the airport and it will be taken care of) BUT they couldn't switch MY flight.  And by the time they did we didn't have time to get to the plane which was already shut down for departure (the staff there acted like it was OUR fault which it was not).  Plus the helpful desk clerk taking our luggage told us that our bags would be in Paris for our arrival ... but of course we were NOT going to Paris!

In the end it worked out okay.  We came back to the airport the next day and our bags were waiting at our hotel when we arrived a day later ...

But back to the beginning ... we do tend to book a year ahead and we do our own flights.  There are also plenty of discount biz and 1st seats available ...

As I think about it, the time when we saw the shell-shocked passengers arriving in Dover was our SECOND Renaissance cruise.  But we had remembered the comments we heard on the first Lisbon-Barcelona cruise ... and concluded that we would never take a Ren "free" flight.  Much later on we did take an upgrade on a Ren flight for premium economy seats, which did work out fine.  But for the most part Ren biz fares are outrageous (even if flying from NYC to Europe) but those PE flights were very satisfactory.  I think that particular flight was to Copenhagen but don't quote me on that ...

Mura

4 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

And I have to mention the bathroom/shower size (because a woman on our last cruise was complaining and I couldn't believe she didn't know)...they are tiny in non-suite cabins (A-G). I don't care but some people do. Go on Youtube and search "Oceania" "Regatta" "tour" (and other ship names) and limit it to the last year or so in order to get current videos (post-rehab).

When we first started with the "R" ships it was with Renaissance, and our first cruise was on the R2 -- now Regatta.  (When we had a bridge tour some years later on Oceania, we were thrilled to see that the schematic of the ship on the Bridge still called it the R2).

On those first cruises we were in Deck 7 verandas; later on we upgraded ourselves to the Penthouse cabins.  BUT the small bathroom -- especially the showers -- did bother me a lot.  Probably not my husband who is smaller than I am!

Go ahead a number of years to 2017 when we took  a downsell from a PH to a B1 on one of the R ships and that tiny shower no longer bothered me even though I was somewhat larger than I had been in 1999 ...

Go figure. But if you know those cabins have small bathrooms you can adjust.  If someone is more than 6 feet tall, it might be different ...

Mura

On 3/28/2023 at 2:59 PM, shepherd really said:

The poop deck

Snert.  I've never seen an animal on an "O" ship but the QE2 did have kennels for dogs and cats ... probably not tortoises!

And while we would love to bring our cats along, I do understand worries that people with allergies have.  I do think that any cruise line that would permit pets on the cruise would need to have the kind of set-up that the QE2 had -- which is separate quarters for the pets, outside of the owners' rooms..

Mura

On 3/28/2023 at 11:05 AM, ChadnKate said:

It matters not which airport you are or are not going through. ALWAYS arrive at least a day early. Even if the departure port isn't the best, there is probably a better city nearby worth a visit. If in Europe, fly into a major airport like Milan or Frankfurt; stay a day or two; then take the train to your embarkation port. Weather and flights aren't reliable. Or predictable. 

Or tale Oceania's air (more on that in many other forums) and leave the burden up to them.

Sounds like what we do!  We learned early on NOT to try to fly in  on the day of the cruise.  Most people arrive zombied out.

I think it was our second Renaissance cruise.  We flew in to LHR and took the train to Dover, spent 3 days there.  The morning that the cruise was to board, we were having breakfast at the hotel when the new arrivals came in ... they were totally exhausted. This was probably around 10am.

And then on board we heard terrible stories from other passengers about the "free" flight arrangements ... the worst stories were from people who didn't fly direct from NY or NJ, of course.  But coming from  the far west or mid west ... it was terrible. As far as I recall, mostly due to connections flying from one airport to the next and then finally getting a flight to Europe.  This was more than 20 years ago, so perhaps not so bad these days.

From then on we did our own air!  And later on we decided we needed biz air rather than coach ... which clearly is better if you book your own anyway.

Mura

I only read the first few posts on this topic, and from what I see of these last ones perhaps you are feeling more secure.

So I will just say this:  do you want to risk missing the ship because the flight mlight be late?

On our first Renaissance cruise (back in 1999) we had switched our air from going to Milan (on a private trip) to flying into Lisbon for the cruise.  We were told that everything was ok but when we got to the airport, there was no problem switching my husband's flight but the supervisor chose to make an instruction lesson regarding MY reservation, which ended up in total disaster. When they finally got everything straightened out the clerk happily announced that our bags were going to Paris, at which I point I said "But we are going to Lisbon". And then it was too late to grab the bags off the cart.

In the meantime we had to run to our flight, the doors were closed and the attendants wouldn't let us on.  As if it was OUR fault!

So we arranged to go home, they flew us to Lisbon the next day and our bags were indeed waiting for us at our Lisbon hotel.

This all did work out well for us ...but do you want to risk that???

P.S.  Once we were on the ship we heard lost of complaints from other passengers about the cruise line's air arrangements.  Remember, this was O's predecessor (Renaisance). And yes, most of these people had flights from non-international airports.  But we learned then to plan ahead! And I am NOT saying that we have had similar problems on Oceania ... Even so, ever since we prefer to book our own air ... Since we fly to Europe from NYC we have an advantage over passengers who fly from the west coast or the mdwest since usually we can fly direct, or perhaps with only one stop..

Mura

Like others here, this isn't easy to answer.  First, we need to know which port ... if you only want to stay overnight before boarding, that isn't so difficult. But it's quite different if you are staying in central London or in Barcelona, much nearer to the port.  If you are only coming into a city like London or Paris, I would assume you are just spending the night and then trying to get to the port.

We usually arrive 3 days before departure, which is a different kettle of ... whatever.

We've never used a ride shore to get to the port but we have used car services.  Often, when we consulted with other passengers on our roll call -- generally when going into a city, not leaving -- we find others to share with us.

Sometimes we've just hired a private cab/car service.

Many years ago we flew into Heathrow and transferred to Dover (for our ship) by train and bus.  It took a while but it was really cheap!  Again, we were coming in several days before the cruise.

Some hotels will provide transfers, usually at a fee.  Again, it depends on where you will be spending the night and which port you are going to.

We are planning on arriving in London in late August for a cruise.  Are we going to spend a few days in London as we usually do or save some money and just fly into LRH and find a Southampton hotel for the night before the cruise?  We haven't decided that part yet.

Mura

I always preferred the bathtub and was unhappy when they were removed.  Not sure what I think of the new carpet ...

On 3/13/2023 at 6:25 PM, Sujormik said:

New to O too, have enjoyed my reading on this site.  Been hearing the O ships average age is 80s, hoping ours might skew a little younger in June. Is that mean? Not my intention, just don’t have grandkids to talk about yet!

I guess this means that I have finally graduated to the average age on O ... I used to be one of the younger ones.  Oh well ... time flies when you're having fun!

On 3/2/2023 at 9:52 AM, ak1004 said:

First, let me say that I'm not a cheerleaders or Advocate. We sailed on 11 different lines and not loyal to any specific line. We book mostly based on itinerary and pricing. Currently booked on 2 O, 2 SS and 1 SB for the next 2 years.

 

We sailed on O 3 times: one per Covid and twice post Covid. Maybe it's a limited sample, but personally I didn't see much difference. The food was consistently excellent, the staff very friendly and the service very good.

 

Our last cruise was on the Regatta last year and it was a great experience. A few weeks later someone posted a 1 star review about the same cruise. The reason? It wasn't food or service. It was because we missed 2 ports. Which is true - we missed Mexico because of a Hurricane. Did he really expect the captain to take the ship into the Hurricane? And no, it's not always possible to find an alternative port last minute.. Missing ports is one the risks of cruising - don't cruise if you are not willing to take that risk.

 

Such reviews probably tell you more about the reviewer than the ship (I would use some strong words, but don't want the post to be deleted).

 

A similar thing happened after our SS cruise last December.

 

There is a current tendency to be very negative - you will see those silly negative reviews across most cruise lines, including SS, SB and Regent.

 

And this is what I meant by "take the reviews with a grain of salt". I think even the most loyal O customers will never claim it's perfect. No line is, including much more expensive lines. But to me, O offers an excellent value for money by allowing me to pay only for things that I need and not to pay for things I don't (like alcohol).

 

I don't expect great entertainment and/or activities from O. I don't expect big cabins if I sail on R ships. I do expect great food and service, no crowds, no lines etc. Everyone should be doing their homework and know what to expect from each line.

Agreed.  We love Oceania and pretty much have sailed it exclusively in recent years but we know it isn't perfect.  No line is.  When I read reviews that are over the top or under the bottom (as I've said  before), I discount much of what has been said. Not everything, because they can be good comments to be discerned even then.

Criticizing a line because a port was missed because of a hurricane is beyond ridiculous!  We've missed a few ports on O for similar reasons, and we just went with the flow.

Mura