pinotlover

I believe we’ll have to wait and see. On my Viking cruise, we had ship tours provided at every port. Many didn’t interest us, so we took private tours. Most all of them were filled by like souls via our Roll Call. Some people, even with the free provided tours, opted to stay aboard ship and relax. I believe both of these scenarios will continue on Oceania at about the same rate as current regardless of SM. We are NOT going to fly halfway around the world, to visit a possible bucket list port/site, and then take a ship tour we have no interest in! Those that just want to primarily cruise will continue to do so, tour credits or not. Likewise, we may have had the drinks package and still either bought a bottle of wine ,or pay corkage on a bottle . We don’t feel obliged to only drink what the package offers. We have the option of converting our next cruise to SM. Oceania doesn’t offer enough tours we’re interested in to eat up the credits or cover the added costs. We’ll stay OLife for that cruise. For future booking, where SM is the only option, SM merely reflects a portion of the total cost of the cruise. The question becomes:Is Oceania offering the best itinerary and offerings with that cruise. Just because SM is our only choice on O, we don’t feel obligated to take any tours with them or to drink their wine on any given night.

You must have their booking #.

Redtravel; It doesn’t surprise me at all concerning the availability of PE upgrades. For those airlines actually offering PE services it has become a very popular class of service. What your TA is really saying is the airlines aren’t releasing PE seats for discounted fares, thus Oceania has none to offer. I’d consider paying the airline offered insurance and booking my own flights where PE is still available . I don’t fit well into an economy seat for 8-9+ hours.

On the rare occasions I book an Oceania shore excursion, I always have my TA do it. This is especially the case when booking 3 or more!! Unlike those above that obviously enjoy spending an hour or more on the phone with dial a Clerk, I refuse to do so. She always comes back with the correct pricing and the numbers correct. I never begrudge her commissions either. There are options to all this frustration.

I personally dislike the entire communistic concept of pooled tips. The wait team across the restaurant did absolutely nothing for me. Why should any part of my tip to my waiter go to them? Some waiters will only work in venues where tips are pooled and shared. Others will only work in venues where they get what they earn. When I walk into a new restaurant, I grade them on food and service quality. I don’t obsess over tipping policy, or ask how it’s administered there.

First come first service. I did not see any one Bogarting them like happens with the loungers on the pool deck.

Having sailed on Vista, and eaten in Embers, this is my perspective. A high percentage on every Oceania cruise is Americans. Embers is a replica of the multiple upscale chain restaurants Americans eat in daily. Embers serves the non descript food many Americans want, at a faster pace than the other restaurants . We had quite a few passengers on our cruise that enjoyed Embers. You can read hundreds of posts here where many just want simple bland food. Embers delivers for them. We found the food mediocre, along with the service, and the noise deafening. We were at a two top and could barely hear one another. Jacques is gone on the new A Class ships. People need to get over it! A bit of creative marketing actually. As the R ships are rotated out of service, the O Class ships without all the A Class improvements, then approaching 15+ years old becomes the older ships. For all those Jacques fans, the restaurant becomes a draw for the “ older” ships. Smart, I say. If everything else was the same, people would generally take newer.

This has been stated on multiple times and here goes again. Additional Specialty reservations can be made on the day of the planned meal. Go to the Dining Reservation Desk, typically located on deck 5, and talk the the reservation clerk there. Best to go early in the morning, additional reservations are first come first served with some cabin status preferences.

You forget one important detail. The Air department is a profit center for O. What they pay for air has little to do with the air credits. The air credit should merely be viewed as what they charge YOU for the ticket. Not what they pay for the ticket.

Good luck with this plan!! 😂 On Vista, quite a number would be dropping Embers for a different reservation! Except on long cruises, it’s hard to get a second reservation in Jacques even with a butler. The quoted plan will have very little success today. Since it’s the OPs first time abroad, I’d recommend trying each of the venues to determine how they match up with your tastes. Experience them, before you judge them.

Oceania shore excursions are added to the listings all the time. Some may not appear until 4-6 months out. Some are also cancelled even after originally being offered. It wasn’t that long ago they didn’t appear for booking until around 9 months out. From the multiple complaints on my latest three cruises, in the past nine months, concerning tour descriptions not matching up with the actual tours, I’d be inclined to not book shorexs too early.

With the potential doubling of people trying to surf, stream, etc, will the system handle it? I’m not sure this is a plus or a negative. Starlink was very nice on the Vista, but there were still times service was slow to non existent. Now a doubling of potential users! 🙄

For all of us, in the end it’s itinerary and total cost. Fairly simple. We did a Viking cruise. Wine and beer is included for all. There were Teatotallers amongst us. Why were they there? Itinerary and total cost. We primarily did private tours, as we always do, even though ship tours were included. We did the cruise because of the great itinerary and the cost was competitive. I believe going forward this concept will continue. Is it possible that the implementation of SM will make some of its cruises not competitive for some cruisers? Absolutely. I also believe, that in the long run , Oceania will price its products to compete. Or, quite possibly they believe this new strategy will help bring in a new demographic that doesn’t take cruises to primarily sit on the ship watching the waves go by. Oceania has a mountain of debt to service. I’m guessing they don’t believe same ole, same ole, was going to get it paid. 🙄 We get a new program, designed to bring in new cruisers, to help pay the bills. Marketing obviously believes it will increase revenues while realizing some customers will be lost. Having owned, built, and sold successful businesses in the past, one learns they must often dump marginally profitable customers at times to concentrate on newer more profitable ones.

Those of us Silver and above receive free PPG as a perk. Others get the perk from their Travel Agency Consortium via the OCCAP program. I’m not sure what percentage of cruisers are actually paying grats, it varies obviously. Would diminishing O Club perks = less cruiser loyalty? Don’t know. Build grats into the advertised fares, then give silver and above a corresponding rate discount?

Just like the Internet, the ship has control over who has access to its intranet at all times. Ships ran for centuries without computer based communication. I was watching on a recent show were the communications between the bridge and engineering was all done via walkie talkie because of issues. I believe Oceania is fully equipped to function without intranet over a several day interval. Do you believe otherwise?

I understand that. If the system is down, it’s down! Watching a ball spin around for hours means nothing is coming up! Even the Oceania InTRA Net has service constraints on many cruises.

Only in your world! Last October on Sirena, the Internet was down for multiple days. It became the ship’s joke, CD Lottie was telling everyone to fill out the survey knowing the computer system was totally down. That was in Lisbon. We disembarked in Barcelona, and surprise, the last 24+ hours we had no internet. Conveniently planned during the time the supposed survey was open. The entire time approaching and in Lisbon, passengers had no internet! It was exactly the same on Marina in Lima. Hopefully, Starlink corrects this issue, but your influencer nonsense on people being able to complete the survey, if they choose, is a joke. On the Sirena we had more days of zero connectivity than days with. The OCAs couldn’t book future cruises because they had no internet service to Miami!

The restaurant venues were very comfortable on the Vista. Totally unlike the Marina where some of the venues were like iceboxes on our March cruise.The new ship has well designed, and properly working, heating &AC.

On our Sirena cruise last Fall, we were sailing towards Madeira on a beautiful evening. Wife and I took a pleasant walk on the upper deck, and by the outside smoking area, where the caught the distinct whiff of, umm, whiff of …. Quite possible someone might have had the munchies that evening and created competition for that piece of cake!! 😂

We flew Turkish Airlines round trip in BC in June for our cruise. We booked ourselves. Great airline with terrific service. Food the best I’ve had on any airline. I booked seats by calling the airline.

I have seen butlers make deliveries to other than personal suites, but not room service. Consider the practicality of a room service attendant roaming around Horizons, on a busy karaoke night, looking for some unknown guest that ordered a piece of cake! 🥴. Does he take the mic and ask the unidentified guest to come forward? 😂

It is not uncommon to see people going to the Terrace and getting a dessert to take back to their cabin for “ later”. One may do this even if dining in the GDR or a Specialty . This is similar to the people that carry out large second or third breakfasts ( if hobbits 😂) or food for lunch ashore.

I wish Sella Vee had been a bit more exacting and told which restaurant that occurred in. In the US, the practice is called “ Clear that table”. It is unfortunately practiced by primarily metropolitan restaurants, with high rent overheads , that are forced to do 2-3 full seatings each night. Their singular goal is to get people in, feed, out, and set up for the next seating. Some US restaurants book tables in 50-60 minutes intervals! 🥹 IMO, it is a horrendous practice, but I don’t have to pay their rents, salaries, and overhead. Another sad point is that it has trained/conditioned an entire generation of Americans into gobbling down a full three (3) course meal in 40-45 minutes . Minimum conversation, minimum actual taking the time to fully enjoy the food and wine, just shovel and go. Patron: “ It’s 7:10, the Symphony starts at 8:00, can you have us out before then?” Waiter with a smile: “Of course Sir!” The result of all that conditioning is these threads are full of posts with cruisers complaining about it taking 1.5 hours plus to eat in the GDR or one of the Specialties. If the waiters can flip a table in NYC in 42.5 minutes at a fine restaurant, why don’t they do it abroad ship? We have entire recent threads of fellow cruisers complaining about the horror of a table maté ordering 3 or 4 courses, and they having to sit at the table for more than an hour. We enjoy a nice leisurely dinner at a Southern European pace. Fortunately, for us, the only O restaurant we have encountered the push to flip is on Vista in Embers where a quick turnaround seems to be a goal of the new restaurant.

Not only do butlers rotate on and off the ship suitors contract lengths, but they may also rotate duties due to seniority. The senior butler aboard gets first choice of assignment area. Then on down to the least senior. A new senior butler coming aboard can totally change which butler is serving which part of the ship. This means that even though your fav butler may be on the ship, he might not be baton your area of the ship.

Who sent you home? How was that decision made instead of having you later meet up with the ship? I’ve seen people show up on day 2 or 3, because of flight issues, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone return home except on maybe a short Carribean cruise.