pinotlover

The OP only asked the first part of of a big question for future O cruises: 1. Where is Allura going? 2. which ship will do the 2026 ATW? 3. Which R ships, and at what schedule, will start leaving the fleet? 4. where do the O ships go? the next 60 days will unveil a very interesting picture. Grab your popcorn!

Turkish Airlines is outstanding. We booked our flights ourselves on Turkish for our recent Vista cruise. Easy to book, easy to get seat assignments if Business Class. Turkish is not your problem, and probably neither is your TA. I learned years ago to do my own flights. Having to ask help for Jancruz should be an embarrassment for O Air, if embarrassment was possible for them. A lesson for the future. Oceania Air is a profit center. If their customer service is poor, don’t use them and pay for crappy service. We booked Turkish Airlines Business Class round trip ourselves and had a wonderful experience and flights.

If O has paid for the tickets, you can call Turkish Airlines yourself, at their U.S. offices, and get your seat assignments. The first seven words above is the ringer. Getting O to pay for the ticket.

😂. I in now way related the two meats. Dog is far leaner, closer to venison. What I did relate was that the kennels the dogs were raised in were much like a small hog operations. Nothing like the big time hog farm barns, but the small time operators.

They claim “best cuisine at sea” not best corporate communications! 😂 Not an O strong suit. I believe the complexities are there and it’s just difficult to maintain any one size fits all strategy. You just have to ask. On this topic, I would like to give a huge heads up to all for a wonderful new venue on Vista. That is Founders Bar adjacent to the Casino. The bartender is a great Mixologist offering a wide selection of new cocktails for your delight. Most of those cocktails are not included in the Premium Package. Ask first, but be sure to drop by, get out of the rut, enjoy something new! 🥃🥂

A lot better than anything we’ve ever had before! It can still slow down quite a bit during times of heavy useage. The next test comes in October when everyone can be on at once.

The best solution, probably the only solution, is to just ask your waiter or bartender when ordering. Sometimes a specific cocktail will be on the 2fer list , and package list, in Martinis, but not in Horizons. In the Terrace, O will often run special beers or wines of the day. Warning, they are often not on the different drinks package. Always ask first! Your Cognac example is a good one. Remy Martin XO might be in the package, but a similar priced Cognac may not be. Ask first! I was on a cruise in Oct and the Remy XO was on the package. In March, on a different cruise it wasn’t. My reward for assuming, and not asking first, was a bill far stiffer than the drink! Ask your waiter or bartender before ordering. Don’t depend upon some list someone pulls out from months or years ago.

😂. No, not until we were about halfway through the meal and our host told us. It was in cut strips and we cooked them on a hibachi grill set up in front of us in the restaurant. Lean meat, tasty with the dipping sauces. We were later shown where the dogs, mostly Great Danes, were housed and raised for the meat industry. Rather similar to a very small scale hog operation here in the States.

We did not find the food on Vista, including the GDR, salty at all. In a few cases I even added salt which I almost never do.

Have they fixed the forward elevators yet? At the end of our cruise, two were non functional, and one had balance and weight issues.

This discussion reminds me of an older “ Anthony Bourdain No Reservations “ segment. Anthony was in Philly or NYC talking to some hot shot chef at a self advertised Italian restaurant. Anthony said to the Chef “ This food and this menu certainly isn’t what people think of when you say Italian “. Chef replied “ Italian is whatever you want it to be. Create a dish, it’s Italian. Make what ever you want, with the ingredients you have, that’s Italian!” Such is life in American restaurants serving Americanized food. Traveling extensively throughout China, Japan, SK, and SE Asia I can’t remember ever seeing lamb on any menu. I’ve had dog in SK, and yak in Tibet, but never seen lamb. Oceania has an Americanized Asian restaurant with it. Americanized food is much like all the “ Real Genuine Fake Watches “ sold throughout Turkey in June. It’s whatever they want to call it. Much like veal picatta Marsala, Or Margherita Pizza with no mozzarella or basil, or olive oil served with bread. It’s all Italian!

On Marina in March, they ran out of romaine but continued making Ceasar salad with kale in its place. They didn’t tell you about the substitute, it just came that way. Must be doing it on other ships likewise.

Everyone on that segment is guaranteed one reservation in each of the restaurants. Two tops are at a premium. I’d recommend sharing. You’ll probably meet some enjoyable fellow passengers.

I believe what was meant was go to the Restaurant Reservations Desk on Deck 5 or 6 depending upon ship and enquire there. The OP didn’t indicate which cruise they are on, and most importantly its length. Getting changes for short (7) day cruises are much harder than longer ones (14 day+).

I believe Oceania only ran the charter Air when the cruise was on an O ship. There is/was enough commercial air options for the R ships. I believe Oceania arranged a day room at the Intercontinental in PPT for those on O Air and O transfers not on the Charter. Everyone still had to be off by 9:30. We did have a chartered cruise after ours, so everyone was disembarking.

I am by no means a marketing expert, so I therefore have a question. Outside of a very small handful of cruises and those that only want a specific cabin, is Oceania self creating a condition where few sign up early for cruises but just wait for the next big sale? Oceania will be making several cruise releases over the next 60 days. Personally I struggle to come up with even one reason to book. Wait for a SALE, kinda like shopping at Macy’s. Don’t buy now, wait until Thanksgiving or better yet the President Day Sale! 🤔

Just tip freely ! I read his reply as tipping in the currency when he disembarked. He’s not going to disembark in BA and have Peruvian money for the staff if they disembark there.

I mostly disagree. We give our tips either US dollars or Euros, most typically dollars that are easy to spend and/or convert as needed. I seriously doubt the crew really prefers your left over Argentinan , Turkish, or a host of other countries currency. Look at the beating they’d take disembarking in Miami with your left over Argentinan money!

We have been told by a couple butlers and different staff that any money given directly to any employee remains with that employee. There is no pooling of tips except for standard gratuity.

My feelings exactly. We sail for the itinerary. Our cruise decision is based on the published itinerary. Rather simple for us. Sometimes O has the better itinerary, sometimes they don’t. O’s food is marginally better than Az or V, but not enough so to overcome a poorer itinerary. It is a true rarity that our best meal on a cruise is on the ship. We often have great lunches ashore therefore dinner becomes light. One of the advantages of Az is the extended port stays and dinner ashore! Dinner ashore, or any ship food? 🤔 Easy choice. So now comes our issue with the new Oceania. Itinerary. On our three post Covid Oceania cruises we have had more port cancellations and/or port times shortened than on all our previous cruises combined. They occurred on each of those cruises. We walked onto the Vista in June and were notified that three out of 12 ports stays had been shortened. This was not weather related, it was merely cut port time to save money. For us this is huge. A little gristle in the steak, we can eat around that and not be hungry. Two hours of cut port time is forever lost. This is a huge difference between the new versus old Oceania.

22 posts and exactly zero yet has asked their TA to clarify? 😂😂 Certainly not an issue they really care about! 🙄

Depending upon the terminal, not even boarding priority may exist. There may be a separate line for Suites and other cabins, which might be shorter, but both lines are operating at the same time.

Pre Covid, PH and above were given 11:00 boarding times. Concierge Class received 12:00, and everyone below received 13:00 boarding times. Since Covid, boarding times have been assigned on a first come basis during the electronic check in. As mentioned above, for some cruises everyone is just given an 11:00 check-in. Some ports do require that check in times be spaced out for terminal crowd control. Historically, a majority of O cruisers ignored their assigned time and just showed up at 11:00 or even well before. This often created Boardamania at the dock/terminal. Some ports wouldn’t allow guests into the terminal area until they’re assigned time. They were forced to wait outside the terminal area until their assigned time . We encountered this in Buenos Aires in late February. We arrived at our chosen/assigned time and waltzed , into the boarding area, past a long line waiting to get in that had arrived early. Some of European ports, such as Athens, have long followed this procedure even before Covid. Hope that explains it.

The system is now goofy, and a product of O’s poor IT department. Sometimes, only 11:00 or so is shown for Embarkment. We register, yet board when we pleased almost always later. My post above details the difference in scenarios.

Three points: 1. We have been on recent cruises where less than half of the cruisers boarded with us. Everyone else was on extended Journeys and already aboard. So boarding time doesn’t mean as much as when 90+ % of the ship is turning over. 2. Notwithstanding any marketing propaganda, Oceania has dropped all pretense of boarding priority by cabin class. 3. We still choose to board 3:00 or so. Nice leisurely lunch in town, cabin ready upon boarding and no waiting, baggage quickly delivered to cabin.