pinotlover

What does your personal contract say! Everything else doesn’t matter. I book a cruise, via my TA, and get a contract back nearly a week before the deposit is due. That contract, which I endorsed by making the deposit, spells out further payments. Period. End of discussion.. What does your contract say? Ambiguous statements on Oceania’s website have nothing to do with the contract YOU agreed to when making deposit on that contract. Is that had to understand?

I believe they stopped doing lunch in the GDR on port days in 2015 or 16. Not enough demand to make it worth while to staff the kitchen or dining area. There may well be quite a few that never, or rarely, get off the ships, but not enough to warrant keeping the GDR open at lunchtime.

On multi segment cruises we typically only go to Horizons/Lounge for our first Captain’s Reception. After that we do the following in Martinis where service is typically far better , along with drink selection. We always go to the Repeater Parties. The better OCA always gives out a lot of interesting statistics on the passengers and their make up. We always try to get seats close to where they speak. Quite a number of very rude uninterested guests seem to try to drown them out with their own conversations.

Actual dates of cruise matters a lot also. You can stay and ski in Vail in April or January for a lot less than in February .

Vista was a new class of ship. Allura is the sister ship of one already sailing. The same level of exuberance shouldn’t be expected. jennybenny; you have to make the deposit for your cruise to show on the system. Your TA should soon be sending you an email of the contract with all the information.

Pre Dinner, if you don’t have a Butler, expect an hour wait for that drink.

Yes. It’s install and done automatically as you pass through the security portal. They record your temp along with your photo for facial recognition. On an earlier cruise they moved the machine around on sea days for monitoring, so it might not be limited to only at boarding.

Personally, I’m not sure what the initial pricing means anymore. We were on the Vista in June and the ship wasn’t full, plus the cruise had been included in various sales. We’re looking at a GV (B2B) on Allura. The cruise is two years out and one segment is a Trans A. We’re not one of those that absolutely have to have a particular cabin, so with Oceania’s practice of constantly running sales, I see zero reason to book right now. Perhaps a four (4) Category upgrade sale will come along, or maybe something more interesting will appear next month when the remaining 2025 cruises are released. I clearly see the current pricing as a first offer for a cruise on a new ship. Historically, the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th offer has been a better deal. Therefore I’m mostly ignoring prices on the 1st offer and examining itineraries.

That’s debatable! Posted signs ( for the non oblivious) clearly state your temperature is being taken upon boarding. On an earlier cruise, the staff was reporting passengers with troubling coughs and appearing blush. I talked with fellow passengers that had been directed to medical for testing. Security escorted some to medical in that cruise that didn’t go voluntarily as directed. It’s not necessarily all voluntary.

They were still doing quarantine on the Vista in June, if that’s what you mean by “ isolation “.

Although I have sympathy for your cause, I wouldn’t make comments or speculate on prices until Oceania releases the remains new 2025-26 Simply More cruises and prices next month. My guess is the price differential will be nil.

Some passengers are physically unable to get their luggage off the ship alone. Depending upon the port, you may not have a terminal but would have to navigate the stairway offloading. See first sentence. Disembarkment can be chaos. People ignoring ( a popular Oceania passenger action verb) their assigned de boarding colors and pushing, shoving, and otherwise rude behavior. Hauling your own luggage off adds to that. As bad as boardamania can be, at some ports, disembarkment can make it look pleasant. We always disembark it the latter groups to let the hordes go first.

Remember that in some waters, such as within Italian waters, the Casino can’t be open. Location counts.

Just as a reminder for you, with the new A Class ships there is no more “ dining under the stars”. The patio is now completely covered. As much as I really enjoyed the new vista design, this is one change I didn’t like. On pleasant evenings, I loved sitting outside looking at the stars while enjoying our meal. No longer possible. The restaurant manager told me this change was done because passengers wanting to eat lunch aboard, typically while docked in port, complained so much about the noon time heat and sun, so the entire area was covered. 😩

Yes! Must do so 24 hours before said your.

My pure speculation, because something similar happened on Nautica in 2019, is that something broke down and they didn’t have a replacement aboard ship. Miami had to order the parts and have those parts meet the ship at a major port with a significant airport to get the parts there.

Nothing unusual about your food descriptions. Our experience is some meals are excellent, some good, many mediocre, and a few occasionally poor. The issue of bland food will not be overcome. Many O passengers, including posters on this Forum, only want bland. Since bland is less expensive than enthralling seasoned, the bland crowd unfortunately will win.

We usually don’t go to bed until 11 or after, so night time is rarely a problem. Biggest problem is from those in bed pre 9:00 and up 5ish and immediately turn on tv. Worst scenario is when one’s bed backs the other cabin’s tv. Don’t dismiss the clowns that bring their own speakers to amplify the tv! Pretty crazy when people fly half way around the world hauling their own speaker system and complain about the space a sports jacket takes up! 🙄

Nothing, in those regards, has changed post Covid.

Not necessarily accurate. Check the port authorities. I’ve been on cruises where once newly checked in, we couldn’t leave the ship. B2Bers were in a different situation. If you don’t want to necessarily be stuck on a ship, don’t check in. Why risk it? My hotels have always held my luggage until I came to get it.

They still had them occasionally in March on the Marina. It was never advertised in Currents or part of the CD’s announcement. Some days they had it, others not. One physically had to walk by to see if it was open on any given evening. Nice event when it’s held. A bit pricey on the wines, but a wonderful change up food wise with the tapas selections.

Depends upon how you spend your money. One Adriatic cruise: Athens - Venice. Along the way: Argostoli, Corfu, Kotor, Koper, Ravenna, Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar. Maybe not in order, but all on one cruise with a couple sea days thrown in. One cruise, one cost. On Oceania it would take at least 2 separate cruises, if not three, to see all those ports. That single Viking cruise cost us a lot less than multiples on Oceania.

For those of us cruising primarily for the itinerary, there are certain times where Viking has a vastly superior itineraries. People may well opt to pay that year in advance for that particular itinerary not available on O or SB. For all those cruisers, cruising primarily for the ship, this isn’t a consideration. Apples and Oranges.

Not necessarily an age. Mostly a mental and/or physical condition imo. As the saying goes for a young teen “ 13 going on 20”, you have the same at the other end. It may well be 65 going on 90!

I never said I speak for “ all” Oceania passengers. Far from it. Many doesn’t equal all. I can say that the push for simple and bland on Oceania is bigger than on other lines. This issue isn’t limited to Oceania. One of my largest clients had a huge Cajun night last Friday. Two different sittings of outrageous great Cajun food. What part of Cajun brings to mind simple and bland? Quite a few guests ( mostly geriatric) left complaining the food was too spicy. He options weren’t really hot and spicy but very favorable. Go elsewhere on Cajun night, but don’t demand the chef make bland dishes.