pinotlover

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.

Entire thread on the subject already. They are held in Privee. Can only be booked once aboard. You must speak with the person at the Dining Reservation Desk on Deck 5 to find out which nights they are offered. Schedules are not published. Price on Vista for La Reserve dinners are the same as the other two ships.

They likewise had to Saran Wrap everything in the Terrace and Waves on our Marina cruise. I wish they’d leave it that way all the time. It remains amazing to me the number of English speakers that can’t say “May I have some bacon please!” , but insists upon sticking their arm under the shields, almost into the food, whke pointing and making guttural noises! 🤬🤬 Keep your arms and hands away from other people’s food!!! 🙏

This is the key to it all for us! +1000! 🥂 For some of us, there are extraordinary places and times where the experiences provided by the WS and Paul G are so authentic and special they far outweigh faux claims of food and sheet thread count. That not to say I’d rather be on one of their ships going to Iceland, Greenland, the Baltics, or the Southern tip of S.A. This is by no means a universally held position, but for us, there is a time and place for Oceania, and likewise for other specialty lines. For us, it’s not One size fits All!

So properly prepared for those here that like bland! 🥹 Thanks for the update. It appears that only the Vista has removed the prime rib from the PG menu for the time being.

I was just on the website. It’s not functional. It’s Saturday. Come back Monday. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it thirty times: THIS SHOULD BE A STICKY!!! 🤬

Currently no price limitation per tour.

A bit late in reply to this. I feel that it is mostly correct with one exception. Afternoon Tea. Afternoon Tea creates an issue of competing use of space. Currently, Tea is scheduled from 4:00-5:00, in Horizons, and then Happy Hour from 5:00-6:00. First, Happy Hour is a money maker for Oceania while Tea is purely a cost. Oceania wants adult beverage drinkers in at 5:00 filling the seats, not tea sippers taking up the space. I’ve witnessed many a cruiser come in at 4:45 or 4:50 expecting to do the leisurely Tea. The String Quartet leaves at 4:50ish to make room for the band at 5:00. Tea is over. Pick up, clean up, push on! Time to hustle booze. When the Vista was first announced, the information given was that Afternoon Tea was going to be moved to the new spacious Barrista. That would have eliminated the space conflict and people could sip as long as they liked. That unfortunately, imo, didn’t happen. I suppose the moral is, those wanting a leisurely Tea needs to show up close to 4:00.

That is the same list they have had for nearly a year. Whether they actually have current on board inventory is a different matter. Oceania kept the exact same menu for its La Reserve dinners for years. The advertised wines had often long been poured out and replaced. Take the wine and bar lists as a sampling .

Define prevalent. Been on five (5) separate cruises since July 21, so past two years. Significant number of cases on two of them. We, along with our entire group, got Covid on one of them. The other three cruises only had a low case count. It’s still out there, and isn’t leaving.

There are certain days when a Bloody Mary bar is set up in the Terrace at breakfast. There were none on our recent Vista cruise. We have asked for a Bloody Mary before at breakfast in the GDR and been told it wasn’t available that day. Perhaps other days it is. I’ve seen people order a mimosa at breakfast, in the Terrace, but be gone long before it’s delivered. If you have lots of time, and a bit lucky, you might get either. If one hits after rush hour, their luck may improve.

Actually NO. To utilize the package the bars must be open. Therefore, in the morning, until Waves Bar opens at around 11:00, there’s really no place to get mixed drinks. During inclement weather, Waves Bar may not open at all, so that is an additional limitation in the afternoon. Horizons and the Casino bar, or the new Founders Bar on Vista, stay open reasonably late but not 24/7.

Not going to happen. That decision was made 5 years ago. Time for people to move on. This doesn’t mean I’m a fan of Embers, but time marches on. Some seem to really like it.