pinotlover

Oceania decided how much of a price increase they needed/wanted. If they gave people spendable OBC, outside of the tours, that would act to lessen the price increase. Not what the line intends to do.

SM is merely a price increase. That’s all. People need to get past the other fantasies. Whether you drink or not, the price went up. Whether you desire to, or not, to take a ship shore excursions it doesn’t matter, the price went up. SM was a price increase and not a particularly well disguised one.

To be a bit more specific on the issue. The train station sets in the bottom of the hill serving Liborne and the village of St. Emilion. . The primary village of St Emilion sets high up on the hilltop. So the issue becomes: how mobile are your guests? If climbing a steep hill, with occasional steps, isn’t a problem, then go for it. Even the tour of the historic church will involve challenging steps for the impaired. What may be thirty minutes walking for me, might be 90 minutes for others. Choose wisely.

So not in the monsoon season like January is, and of which the OP asked specifically about. Yes, there is a seasonal difference in weather patterns in October as compared to January.

The dessert wines, included in the “ wine by the glass “ menu changes throughout the year. It is not always a fortified wine such as a port or sherry. Sometimes it’s a Trockenbeeren Auslese ( TbA), Vin Santo, or Sauternes ( or Barsacs), or other dessert wine. The selection varies amongst a group of perfectly delightful wines. Don’t get hung up on the thought they will always be fortified wines.

You do realize that January is the middle of the rainy season when the Amazon swells the most. Poor timing.

There is typically ( not always) a port on the “ wine by the glass “ menu, therefore covered by the SM program. Cognac is not a beer or wine, so not on the package. However, if you upgrade to the Premium Package some cognacs are included in the package. Others are not and come with a hefty price tag. Always, Always ask before you order if a beer or wine is included, especially in the Specialties.

There is a substantial cost involved in developing and maintaining a credible wine list for any venue. Those costs are compounded by the venue’s addition of proper stemware ( with higher breakage rates) and properly trained staff. The $25 corkage fee, which is not exorbitant by any means, is to partially compensate the venue for the lost sales and facility fees associated with their wine program. I am pleased that Oceania allows this perk at a reasonable cost. I highly doubt the corkage fee will go away anytime in the foreseeable future. Very few of the patrons are buying inexpensive supermarket wines and paying corkage. Most of the wines are locally sourced, of very good quality, and mid to upper range in cost.

I believe the OP’s question directly concerned the SM benefits not being listed on the ONLiNE account page, not elsewhere. ORV properly addressed the issue as questioned. There are pages of information on the invoice not included on one’s online account page. But that wasn’t the question.

SM was a merely price hike during today’s inflationary times. I thought we got past that. Kroger still has sales, but doesn’t mean the sales price is lower than the 2020 price for the same item. SM was a price increase. Let’s move on!

There is no clear cut rule on when one is cut off from the basic package. It’s like the dress code: on receptionist may allow the obvious casual jeans, while the next one bars you from entry. Same with the basic drinks package; one waiter may allow someone to pound wine until closing and say nothing. Another waiter may take you off the package and present you a bill. The staff makes multiple decisions as they execute their duties. If you want hard fast rules, join the Navy, Oceania isn’t for you. There is the third option in this matter. The waitstaff will stop showing up at your table for refills. They can simply tell management they felt the passenger was getting too inebriated if questioned later.

We still had the Germain in June. If, and that seems to be an if, Oceania transitions over to a different label, it will be a slow process as they pour out supplies in all of their different distribution centers. Quite possible to be having one bubbly on the ship, from the Embarkment port, and then get resupplied with Germain at the next Center. This is the reason some of the wines hang around for years. Oceania bought them by the container load, few like the wine, and it takes years to pour ( serve) out.

Since we rarely board by 2:30, typically 3:30 or so, I’d say anytime by 3:30 is timely. 😎 I can walk out the door and eat typical American food off a buffet line or fast food joint anytime. Our next cruise embarks in Tokyo. Can’t understand why anyone would pass up the great local cuisine and all the sights to just sit on a ship and eat Americanized ship food! 🤔 If that’s all you really want to do, why put your body through the time changes and grueling flights? Just fly to Miami, as Oceania serves the exact same food in Miami as they do in Tokyo, Sidney, Istanbul, Athens, NYC, etc. Each to their own.

There is a greatly publicized desire to return to cruising. Seems to me, if true, it wouldn’t take a never ending stream of sales to fill the ships. This is especially the case when considering the number of cruise ships that became scrap iron in 20/21. Of all my cruises in the past 18 months, only one has been full. Perhaps the demand isn’t as great as some believe. Oceania added a new ship, the Vista, last May. Is it now just mostly distributing its customer base between more ships? 1200 new cruisers is a lot to add. With the addition of the Allura next year, it’ll take the deletion of two R ships just to break even with needed headcount. That upcoming new cruise release will be an interesting one. With a growing portion of the world redlined, thus fewer places to visit, how many cruises to nowhere can they sell? Brugge with 12 cruise ships tied up in Ostende? It will take a huge sale to get most of us there for that! Alternative plans?

Yep! Anything before that 2 for 1 discount is a Sale! 😂

+1. Nothing of outstanding qualities, but a couple of each that will go adequately with a meal. That is their primary purpose with the package, to complement the meal adequately. When cruising in wine making areas, we typically pick up high quality local wines and pay the corkage. However, not all areas are wine making areas, nor are high quality wines always available onshore. Then you suck it up and lean of those identifiable wines above.

It would be an interesting experiment to determine during 2023, how many days were the cruises participating in a special “ Sale” versus regular prices. The primary issue is the old 3:1 ratios.” It’s not over till the Fat Lady sings “ as the saying goes. Oceania works hard to sale the cruise, most anyway they can, and ends up having to resell it again and again . We were on a waitlisted early Visita cruise. Come FP, and the Lookie Loues bail, and Oceania never got the ship full. Our upcoming April cruise was fully waitlisted on 12/1/23, then 1/1/24 and FP came and the LL bailed, leaving capacity nearly ship wide. Oceania will be doing sales right up until sailing trying to get a full (er) cruise.

For the OP; Remember that there is not “ a” wine list. The Polo Grill, Toscana, and Jacques all have their own exclusive wine list with wines only available in that venue. However, as FF stated, the markups can be staggering.

Purely coincidence. The system merely keeps track of how many people are eating where. In the past, they monitored how many Specialties meals the cruisers had. Not sure if that’s still part of it.

All this while the senior officers are making continuous announcements to NOT go to your cabin until your deck is called. 😒 Let me guess, you believe that (1) the cabin attendants outrank the senior officers; or (2) you don’t care what protocol is, you’ll just ignore the announcements and do as you please. #2 occurs frequently on Oceania. Ignoring officer and CD announcements.

You will need to keep your possessions with you until your cabin deck is cleared and called. If PH, 1:00-1:30. Below that, anywhere out until 3:00 or 3:30. Another reason we don’t board until 3:00 or after.

I’m on that cruise. Have patience. Have you noticed that in the last two weeks our cruise went from totally waitlisted to availability in most all categories except the top three. FP is 1/2/24. Give it a week for all those cancellations to get updated into the system and you’ll see plenty of tour availability. I haven’t a clue as to reason, but the lookie Lou’s (LL) really pounded this cruise. Now they’re bailing out. I’m expecting Oceania to soon throw this cruise on massive sale. I’ll make some here mad, but I’m glad Oceania is moving to a 150 day FP date, so to get rid of the LL early. Imo, most of those cancellations knew months ago they were bailing, but we’re too impolite ( nice word) to cancel earlier. 🤬 Good Riddance to 90 day prior FP dates! Rant over. Check the tour status again on 1/8. Guessing things will have changed dramatically. I’ll repeat myself from an earlier thread, Oceania needs to block the LL from spending their SM dollars before FP! 😤. The LL are castrating the system! 😡

+1 We avoid Boardamania like a hacking Covid patient. A leisurely lunch ashore and a 2:30-4:00 arrival works wonders for us. No crowds, no hassles, and straight to our cabin. Plenty of time for the buffet line another day. Boardamania 🤮

This has been posted multiple times, but I’ll repost. If one is embarking the ship after a high turnover cruise, and the vast majority of passengers are just embarking likewise, then the chances of getting an extra Specialty reservation is high. This occurs on cruises where the ship runs repeatedly over an itinerary. If, however, one is on a cruise with a low turnover rate and the vast majority of passengers are on B2B+, then the chances for that Embarkment day extra reservation diminishes significantly. All those onboard passengers, carrying over to the next Segment will have first shot at getting that extra reservation. In fact, for them it might not be an extra reservation, but one of their guaranteed. I have been on full Oceania cruises where only about 20% of the passengers have newly embarked. To best evaluate your odds of getting that first night Specialty without a pre booking, carefully analyze your cruise, the embarking port, and if it’s a segment of a popular longer grand cruise.

Begrudgingly agreed. People won’t read Currents. Won’t listen to CD announcements. Won’t read T& Cs. Put up a large sign, they won’t read it. Case in point is the large sign Oceania put up about facial recognition and doing temperature checks. How could people miss it. Oblivious to the Nth. There’s nothing to do with the Speeecciall guest.