pinotlover

For bookings on opening day, I give my TA a list of cabins I’ll accept. When she does the pre booking with her O rep all that information goes in. The algorithms then take over. It’s what pre booking is all about. If one needs, or requires, a HC cabin then their TA can feed that information in during pre booking likewise. I’ll bet they’ll normally get that HC cabin. For those adamant about DIY, and refuse to use a professional TA, then they’re playing against a stacked deck. That’s a cost associated with DIY. FWIW, the number of cruises selling out upon opening has been slim of late. That’s why Oceania has resorted to a number of special sales to book cabins and reduce inventory. If one truly has special needs and requires that HC cabin, then I believe they should book it early ( upon opening). I don’t believe Oceania should just keep cabin availability open for certain classes of people just in case they might want to book it 18 months from now.

Jon; By your own admission, you got the very last cabin in that category and was assigned the cabin as such. To me, perhaps I’m missing something, all of those people booking cabins before you, that may have needed a HC cabin, had the opportunity to book it before you. All those others obviously didn’t feel a need for an HC cabin and left it open. In regular veranda cabins, all the cabins are the same size as are the HC cabins. If one needs an HC cabin, they have the ability to book one over multiple categories. Even if someone normally prefers an A cabin, if they required an HC, they could have booked down to meet their needs. You got that cabin because no one else wanted or needed it.

The even numbered cabins are on the port side. The port side cabins are generally quite. The odd numbered cabin are starboard. As noted above, the furthest aft PH3 cabins are usually quiet. However, as one moves forward from those two cabins they will encounter noise from above. From the Terrace comes noises from rolling carts across the floor at various hours which can/will wake one in the middle of the night. Also , those cabins under Waves often hear the dragging of chairs starting at very early hours. Those early risers seem incapable of picking a chair up and moving it back to sit down in. They pull/drag the chair back making a loud squeaking noise overhead for those in the cabin below.

When they did this on our October Sirena cruise, the GDR lunch menu was the GDR dinner menu from the night before.

I’m not sure there are any set parameters. Upon boarding the Marina, in Feb, we were notified that Pincha/Natza Line port stop had been cancelled. When the sea day came, we were told we’d be having a Brunch in the GDR that day. It was a very nice treat, though not quite as elaborate as some I’ve had in the past. It was day 17 or18 of a 20 day cruise.

What would you propose be the policy? Who is going to be the administrator judging whether someone is worthy of a HC cabin? Same criteria as all those getting HC placards for their cars so to park in HC spots? I wouldn’t doubt that a third of Oceania cruisers don’t already have one of those! How long should Oceania hold the cabin open? Permanently, if not specifically requested or needed? The devil is always in the details. If you don’t want that cabin then cancel the cruise, or upgrade.

Did they actually have Blantons? On our Marina cruise, ending 3/19, they had neither Blantons, Knobb Creek, nor any higher end bourbon at any price in any venue. Maybe they restocked in Miami??

Any such postings would approximate communications . FDR and Oceania find most all types of corporate communications to be abhorrent. Cruise Critic and most other social media venues believe such notices constitute good customer relations. Oceania obviously believes it’s frivolous activity.

It’s a weekend. Please read the countless posts on Oceania doing maintenance on its website over the weekend. Countless. No one will be able to actually book your cabin while the system is down for maintenance.

What latitude 22 demonstrated is that she certainly needs an experienced Oceania TA. Since she doesn’t seem to understand the pre booking options the professional TAs have, regardless of her Marriott experience, she is undoubtedly missing opportunities.

Ah! A DIYer! Buy’m books, and buy’m books! 😂 Good Luck. 🍷

The Jazz man, our friendly moderator, refuses to make this a sticky! 😂 Oceania’s website goes down nearly every weekend. Wait until Monday and things will be fine.

As a consideration, if one is disabled perhaps they would do better to book cruises upon release letting their professional TA clearly understand the extent of their disabilities. I believe Oceania will attempt to facilitate them in obtaining an HC cabin. I don’t believe it’s logical to expect Oceania to keep any cabins unbooked indefinitely and open just in case someone needs that class of cabin. This is particularly the case now with the cruise lines wallowing in debt. When one understands the “ pre-booking “ drill of the TAs, prior to cruise release, they’ll understand the opportunities for customers needs to be addressed.

Two years is a long time. Lots of opportunities to change cabins, within your cabin category, will occur between now and particularly shortly after the final payment due date. Have patience. Your need to do anything now is ZERO!

The discussion is about on the day of the special Brunch which was a sea day. The GDR didn’t open for breakfast that day, or at least until 9:00 when the Brunch began. All other days it opened for Breakfast. As is typical, the GDR openings for breakfast rarely facilitated early port calls and shorexs. That’s a different story.

Ours on the Marina, in March 2023, was 9-1. The GDR did not open for breakfast ( who needed breakfast), but opened at 9:00 for the 4 hour Brunch. Waves and the Terrace were opened regular hours for both meals.

If it’s not a sea day I wouldn’t expect one. When they have them, it’s normally 9:00-1:00. Starts out more breakfast, then gradually changes over to mostly lunch.

2 recent Post Covid ( New Oceania) cruises, one 17 days, the other 20 days: The GDR was only open for lunch on sea days. Also lunch for b2b on change over days.

This issue can be one of many of why the Terrace is for Teatotallers! When the one assigned wine steward, to your area, disappears for 15+ minutes to retrieve a wine bottle from storage, everyone else suffers. When that bottle got left in Jacques, instead of being returned to the normal storage, and the wine steward has to spend extra time finding it, many of us in the Terrace have finished our meal before the steward reappears to take our orders! 🤬

SothrnGary’s point is right on. One’s experiences are often shaded by their expectations, and sometimes greatly exaggerated expectations at that. Oceania overall does a very good job in the food area with some inconsistency. It is definitely not Michelin Star quality and when posters start making claims otherwise those claims need to be called out otherwise expectations can/will become distorted. This then shades experiences. I generally find on these boards when customers board Oceania, with reasonable expectations, they are most often rewarded with an enjoyable experience. However, similar to life, things happen on occasion. To us, Oceania’s greatest area of needed improvement is not the shipboard experience; food, service, etc, but management communications both aboard ship and from Miami. Part of that begins with their woeful website.

1. Could be airfare difference. 2. Could be directed marketing. Appeal to Euro passengers. They have done this pre Covid with success . Maybe they’re trying again. With all the various sales going on who knows what the real price is.

Itinerary, itinerary, itinerary! We travel on a cruise ship for the itinerary. Oceania often has very good itineraries that meet our wishes. They don’t always have the better itinerary for certain areas. When they don’t, we travel on different lines We have cruised on Viking. I agree the food overall wasn’t as good as we typically get on Oceania. It was OK and still edible. The itinerary on that cruise far surpassed anything Oceania chooses to do. We certainly didn’t starve on that cruise, plus as is similar to Oceania, we ate many fabulous lunches ashore of fresh local authentic cuisine. Dinner became a tapas ( small plate) after thought. There are times and occasions when we enjoy vibe and energetic surroundings. As a fellow passenger commented on our recent Marina cruise “ There is a totally different definition of 80s music on Celebrity or Princess compared to Oceania!” After certain of the geriatric cruises on Oceania, we’ve needed a more vibrant atmosphere to regenerate. Oceania is definitely a very good cruise line, however we never expect ourselves to be tied to it solely.

A lot there rolled into one question! 😂 We are currently booked for the Riveria 4/1/24 cruise in Japan. This cruise has a decent itinerary and you get to see many of the main sights. One can typically find tours, meetings their physical criteria, with a combo of private tours via the Roll Call or Oceania ship offerings. Oceania cruises are commonly comfortable, enjoyable, and they offer good food. Other cruise lines offer more variety in itineraries, such as a Japanese circumnavigational, along with more immersion into the food and culture of the country visited. Riveria, sailing in Japan, will offer the exact same foods as the other O ships sailing in the Caribbean or doing a TA to Europe. Any local offerings, typically in the buffet, will be highly Americanized to suit the palates of most O travelers. This is the reason we always do large regional on shore lunches when we cruise Oceania. To get the flavors and the variety of the visited countries. The best meals we have on a cruise is rarely aboard ship. This isn’t to downplay play Oceania’s food, but we don’t pay to fly to Japan , or elsewhere, to eat Americanized French, Italian, or other dishes. But that’s just us. Our cruise is 14 days. We will fly in 3-4 days early to do some sightseeing and tackle jet lag. Highly recommended to all. We will then stay 3-4 days post cruise to travel and visit some sites/cities our cruise omits. With flight times and time zone changes, one should reasonably expect this trip to be 23-24 days minimum.

Funny, I have never eaten in any of the dining venues that were in the 90s! 😳 I bet that was really uncomfortable. Now dining in one of the restaurants where it was outwardly cold, that’s another issue.

I always bring a sports jacket. My wife always brings a sweater and/or Shaw which we wear to the Specialties. If the venue is warm, I slip it off. However, there have been numerous times I was extremely happy to have it. Sometimes the restaurants are like a meat locker and it is extremely cool/cold. My DW has left with her toes nearly blue and me glad I had on socks and regular shoes. Taking a sports jacket is very inexpensive insurance for what may be a very uncomfortable environment. Fwiw, we dined twice in March in La Reserve on Marina. 100% of the men wore sports jackets at both dinners.