pinotlover

Here’s a humorous ( somewhat) Embers story I forgot to tell. By the checkin desk, there is a table with a wine display of various new wines specially for Embers. After being seated, we get our menu and asked if I like to see the wine list. “ Absolutely “ I replied. I wanted to check out prices on those displayed wines. Well, I look and look at the wine list for those displayed wines, whilst the wine steward keeps asking me what I like. For those that haven’t been, Embers is extremely noisy, I’m a bit frustrated, and just order a glass off our package list. While I’m waiting, I continue to look for the wines and give up. After the meal, I scolded ( for a better term) the wine steward about those displayed wines. She tells me I have to ask for the “ special Embers wine list “ to see those wines. I tell her “ I’m in Embers and I asked for the wine list. How am I supposed to know I have to ask for a “ specccial” list? The Maitre de sees me having words with the wine steward and asks me what the problem is. I explained it to him while we stand next to the display table. His reply “ What, these wines aren’t on our wine list!” He looks and says “ This is really stupid!” I agreed with him! 😂 So anyone going to Embers in the near future, don’t forget to ask for the secret, possibly password controlled, Embers Wine List! There are a couple of very interesting wines ( maybe) available at some unknown price to me! 🥂

A little fact on butlers I learned several years ago. Butlers work on a seniority basis. That means the senior butler gets to pick the duty assignment of his choice, and the system then continues on down the line. This also applies when a new senior butler comes aboard mid segment . He gets his choice of area assignments, and things then shift.

A couple thoughts on the differences: 1. We had two large groups on our Vista cruise, both having several exclusive group only tours offered. 2. If it’s a longer cruise with a high geriatric count, the RC will be dead. Many only go where Momma Oceania leads them. 3. When I put forth the effort, organize a tour, put it out on the RC, I have always been able to fill the tours. Oftentimes having to turn people away. Sometimes a little initiative is all it takes to get things going. 4. After #3, I have then been invited to participate in other private tours not advertised on the RC.

Let’s all take a deep breath here for a minute. All the cruises currently out there for sale are so because they haven’t already been sold. The last cruise release was about nine (9) months ago. Oceania has had multiple sales trying to clear all that inventory, but options remain. Why in the world do you believe Oceania would jerk up prices on slower moving cruises? Let me see, I’ve had that bottle of wine on the sale rack, for all to see, at $10. I really want to get rid of it, maybe jacking the price up to $14 will help! 🙄 Come back in September/October when Oceania does its new cruise release for the remainder of 25 and early 26 and we can compare prices to similar earlier cruises.

I agree. Anyone that continually, over and over again, posts how every meal he ate on other lines was horrible or inedible, and every meal he had on Oceania was fabulous quickly loses credibility. Something a true Influencer knows they can’t do. 🥂

We were on that road last week. Still one way traffic. We made the coast drive from Salerno to Naples. Came back the fast way.

Probably, but they can’t admit to it. Spent an interesting hour on a recent cruise talking to a gentleman saying this was his last O cruise for awhile. Telling how his wife had just been hired by Viking to do the work there, thus needing to start sailing there. Talked about the pay and the benefits. It’s a couple year gig and they rotate around. She’d finished with O pre Covid. Nothing to be surprised about. Cruising is big business and this Forum gets a lot of Lurkers.

Nope, I mean Influencers paid for posting. It’s a business.

In nine months the ship may have had a near 100% turnover of staff. Also be informed that the particular chefs aboard matters a LOT!

I posted a lengthy review of my Vista cruise. It was mostly all positive, with only a few hiccups that I believe will be fixed. The food is the food. Cruise Critic is an excellent platform for people to get timely information about various cruise topics and experiences.It is also a huge marketing arm for the cruise lines. Besides the Cheerleaders, remember there are paid Influencers on these Forums trying to steer or redirect conversation. On another website Forum I participate in one must declare if they are itb and/or being compensated for posting. Not the case here unfortunately! 🥹 As to many of the challenged posts. If I’m posting on a thread about skiing in Aspen, and talk about how wonderful it is but we’re having 2 days of blizzard , and someone pops up and says “ Well, six months ago we had beautiful weather on the beach in OZ”! What in the world does that mean? How does it matter? Don’t we often see that here? For example, a Thread and discussion about being on the Regatta right now, and what is occurring right now; and someone instantly challenged them talking about a cruise 9 months ago, on a different ship, in a totally different part of the world!!! What does that mean? How does it matter?

Do you typically go to Red Ginger and try to order off the Toscana menu? I suppose some do. Of course, after all these years on Oceania, I’m still often amazed at how often we are the only people at the table in a Specialty ordering off the menu. So perhaps anything goes.

Wise Move. Notwithstanding certain posters pushing O shore excursions, I have been preaching this for awhile. There are wine/alcohol deserts out there, along with extreme high tax areas, where picking up wine along the way isn’t practical. The beverage package provides the better option in those locations. I suppose with the new Simply More program all this will be moot.

I believe ALL of your posts are what happened 4 years ago, pre Covid. Some things have obviously changed.

I don’t know what the magical number is. I’ve been on segments with 1,2, and even 3 repeater parties. There is a cut off number for nightly invites, just don’t know what it is. Plus, as mentioned there are the uninvited. Also remember that not all the uninvited are Newbies. Only Platinum and above gets invited to all the Parties. I’ve meet far more 2-<20 cruisers show up for free drinks every night.

This conjures up visions of horror! 😳 People bringing laptops and watching movies, with full sound, in the restaurants! 🤮 Are you a single or dislike normal dinner conversation with table mates?

True! If I can find an O excursion that interests me, we can use the credit. If not, we’ll let it go unused. No different than coming back to the ship for a free lunch or not. Use it or lose it. Depends upon the offering. My only remark is renting a car and driver costs Oceania money. (A). Will that remain a tour option; (B) Will the new tour price become something huge like $1.5K each which is above most credits?

Speaking of which. I don’t nearly mind Newbies showing up at the Repeaters Party near as much as I do the regulars that come and won’t shut up while the OCA , or other staff, are talking! I actually enjoy listening to, and getting the multiple statistics the OCAs dole out along with other helpful information. Getting people to pipe down can sometimes almost lead to fisticuffs! The new Vista arrangement amplified to problem. With the stage now shifted to the starboard side of Horizons, it’s difficult to hear anything on the port side. Making the matters worse are some Platinums and above that may have already heard it all, and only came to yap and drink.

The conversation is about Embers, not the GDR or PG. Different restaurants have different offerings.

Here’s my view of Simply More. It’s simply a potential price increase. That’s it, get over it. I have always been straight forward on the subject and realize our priorities are 180 degrees different from many here. It’s itinerary, itinerary, itinerary. We book what we believe is the best itinerary. Sometimes Oceania has it, other times they don’t and we book on the line that does. You’ll never hear us say “Oh, I saved $500 by booking this itinerary we didn’t really like.” We cruised Viking because they had a far superior itinerary for that specific region than O ever has. Viking has included tours which we almost never take. Just like on Oceania, I go to the Roll Call and arrange and/or participate on private tours that better suit our desires for that specific port. It’s all about seeing and doing what we want in a port, not whether we will save a few bucks taking an included tour. This is actually just like our shore tour groups having spectacular lunches ashore. Yes, we can rush back to the ship to eat, as many do, but those wonderful meals of local cuisine, far surpassing anything aboard, is part of the reason we travel. So we’re getting a price increase. I don’t see much changing for us. We’ll still cruise for the itinerary. We’ll take primarily private tours, even though we may have a tour credit. We will eat great lunches ashore, even though we can eat and drink aboard for free. Life goes on. Maybe the price increases over ten (10) years means we can afford 1 or 2 less cruises? Since we have no interest for “ the ship being the destination “, maybe in 8-10 years we’ll be so old it doesn’t matter. Life goes on.

Vithom; Also not sure about actual staffing levels as opposed to advertised ones. One of the things I noticed on our recent Vista cruise was how slow the F&B management was in reallocating staff. We ate in the Terrace a few nights, albeit a bit later (7:30) and the place was near empty . All the services staff was just standing around. Meanwhile, the GDR was still being slammed, with a line to get in. There didn’t appear to be any one saying “ Send me three or four waiters down from the TC”! The same situation appeared to be the case in the new restaurant Aquamar. For breakfast it was typically near empty, but always maintained its full complement of staff. Meanwhile, across the hall, the TC was being slammed by those wanting a fast breakfast and they were shorthanded. I can say that on different cruises I have noticed substantial differences in which venue people choose to dine. The F&B Mgr should be responding to that IMO. However, I don’t report to Miami and have no idea what their directives are on this issue.

This is correct! One of the current great unknowns is whether the credit can be used for ANY shore excursions, or any shore excursion from a short list as is the current OLife program. Only 3 more days! 😂

I believe this is essentially true. After 7/1, we will ( might) know more specifics. My TA says that not only do her fellow OCCC members not know many of the specifics, neither do their Oceania Agent reps. Meanwhile speculation is rampant.

Trivia might be fun if they block out all internet services in the Lounge and disallow the use of all portable electronic equipment. We stopped playing years ago, because we were playing for fun. We could never compete with those blatantly cheating for big O points!

Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of threads written on the ease of getting shared tables versus two tops. Even though we enjoy sharing, preferences are preferences. However, at this point no one should be surprised or upset about the availability of or not being able to get extra two top restaurant reservations. I will say that in the new Embers I believe there are more two tops than 4-8 tops. Doesn’t really matter though. The place is so loud you can barely hear the person across from you talking.

Best bet is to just have a few cocktails and wait until 7/1 to find out. No one here actually knows all the details. Only 4 more days