pinotlover

We are neither senile, mobility limited, nor tied to only Mommy Oceania’s offerings. We are seriously looking at : 1. A combo Via- Rocky Mountaneer journey from Quebec to Vancouver. 2. An Amtrak ride to Flagstaff, followed by a tour to the various canyon lands national parks in Utah including the Grand Canyon. A couple days finale in Vegas before flying home. 3. I ‘ve been contracted to host/guide a two week tour of Tuscany next year, with possible pre and post tour additions .Those on the tour will find far better cuisine than any thing offered at sea. It won’t be Merican or Americanized food! 🙄. Numerous excited “ travelers “ have already fully booked this trip. It will require quite the weather event to alter any schedules. Ships are only needed by cruisers to have an enjoyable time. They are optional for travelers. Perhaps by late 2025 or 2026 the surviving cruise lines will decide and demonstrate what they want to be. Currently, it seems hazy with some.

For the OP - “ It’s like a box of chocolates, you’ll never know what you’re getting until you open the box!” Some will report very good results with O Air, while others can report poor too bad. In today’s market, unless you are willing to most often pay a premium for a better routing, your chances of satisfaction are diminished. Waiting until 45-90 days preflight to book a routing to a popular international destination is like looking for good used car in a junk yard. It may be there, but good luck.

Blind tastings from opaque colored glasses of unknown liquids. Predominantly smelling and tasting. Some get them, others don’t. Everyone that misses them act shocked, believing they would easily get them right. Like entering a room and being completely oblivious to what’s around you, many people are completely oblivious to what they eat or drink. How much credibility do you give them when they say something is good. It’s why food & wine pairings don’t work for many. If your taste buds are so diminished that distinguishing flavors is impossible, it really doesn’t matter what you drink.

The Marina had neither Blantons, Woodford Reserve, or Knob Creek aboard. A little Buffalo Trace and Jack Daniels were left. They were waiting until Miami to see what was restocked. If one is considering upgrading, I would recommend going to both Martinis and Horizons and inquiring about what is actually in stock on your cruise. For favorites also perhaps how much is present. Oceania doesn’t change alcohol lists often. For example, several of the wines on the “ Bin End” list had been sold out for quite some time even upon boarding. The wine by the glass menu might sound impressive, but in several instances it wasn’t what they were pouring and hadn’t been for quite some time according to the wine stewards. Buyer Beware. Get a feel for what’s actually available, not what some possibly outdated list says.

I believe buried in all of that was a question. En-suite dining, from a Specialty Restaurant can only be done during the regular hours the restaurant is open. Logically the kitchen must be open to prepare the meal. The same goes for the GDR. Room Service, from the room service menu, is available 24/7. This may be delivered to you by your butler, if on duty at the time, or the on duty butler. It may also come via the room service staff.

Oceania will put you on a wait list up to a certain number, then stop. Check in a couple days before either to see if you’ve cleared, then check again the day of the event. One of the cooking classes was sold out, but only 5 people actually showed up. The chef was signing people up at the door.

All of the above especially getting extra Specialty dinner reservations. Add en suite dining from the Specialties. If you have sailed Oceania before, there are no secrets. It’s all in the computer. The Butler knows beforehand that for entertainment I typically do the onboard wine tastings. He’ll ensure I have all the necessary information on those tastings when I board and quickly get me signed up for what I want. No flagging down a wine steward necessary. I have organized M&G before. As stated earlier this must go through the Concierge if a designated space or supply is required.

😂 I agree totally. I’ve posted that biological fact in the past, and was fully flamed! 😂

Thank you Jayne, you grasp what many of the Cheerleaders can’t. We would have been disappointed in missing the Falklands in any case, the the true discontent comes from the Great Lie! The ship had cancelled Port Stanley several days in advance of our scheduled arrival. We Passengers were getting emails and texts from our tour operators telling us our tours were cancelled because the ship wasn’t coming. People would go to DS with the information and DS would look them in the eye and LIE saying we were still going to the Falklands. Even after it became apparent to all due to distance and cruising speed we weren’t going, no one on Oceania’s staff would admit to it. Finally, a day out, the Captain made the announcement. Why didn’t he/they make the announcement when the port was notified? Same with Chacabucco above. OK, the decision was made to cancel the port at around 02:00, make the announcement instead of having everyone trudge and sit in the Lounge! Why is communicating so hard for Oceania. Missing the ports isn’t nearly as bad as being constantly lied to about the facts. Not grasped by the Cheerleaders.

I was in a PH so had the Executive Lounge on the Marina. However, it is a duty of the attendant in the Concierge Lounge to book and schedule all Meet & Greets in Horizons or elsewhere. They are the actual go to person to get it done and to actually reserve space. We were on a 20 day cruise with multiple sea days. It was enjoyable, for me, to go to the Lounge and read the WSJ or NYT to occasionally catch up on what was going on in the world. The mindless chatter on the ship provided tv stations were best avoided. Since the internet was always slow, the Lounge was a nice escape.

Let me tell you about Puerto Chacabucco and that missed port. The ship was scheduled to arrive at 07:00 and commence tendering operations shortly thereafter. We had a ship shorex booked for 7:15. Others started at 7:30. Passengers up early , stuff down breakfast, then start piling into the Lounge for the tender tickets. The ship is still moving, but Destination Service tells us we should be cleared soon. We sit and sit, the Lounge fills . At about 8:45, one of the other passengers stands up, with iPad in hand, and announces we have sailed nearly 60 miles past Chacabucco and at the current ship’s speed we passed it about 02:00 in the morning! People started checking their phones and sure enough the port was long in our rear view mirror. Destination Service did a disappearing act. At 08:00, the Captain came on and said he just cancelled the port! “ Just”, really! Then absurd fake weather report followed that was easily checked on line. Mutiny on the Marina was close. We were told: 1. The CD doesn’t like making early morning announcements over the system because some like to sleep late and it wouldn’t be fair to them. 2. Only the Captain can announce a port is being missed. No one else is authorized to tell all we passengers sitting in the Lounge for an extended period that the port was being skipped. Ak1004 is obviously correct. This is what we now need to expect on Oceania.

Still have the Vista booked in June and paid for. 13 port days on a 14 day cruise. One sea day. How they perform on that cruise will determine if we keep our cruise next April. Several lines go to Japan.

Always the issue. Those that cruise for the ship versus those cruising for the ports. Looks like the cruisers are winning out. After our recent Marina experience and having spoken with several on the recently completed OZ circumnavigation quite a few of us are cancelling our Dec 23-Jan24 35 day OZ cruise. We’ll make both Oceania and the cruisers, not concerned about missing ports, happy by freeing up space for them. Not willing to spend $35K each, including BZ class air, to float around missing ports or watching the hull be cleaned for the following cruise. They’ll just be more delightful sea days for the cruisers, Oceania’s customers of choice.

A shame indeed. I conducted a six week wine seminar starting in January ending before my Marina cruise. First night out, everyone blind tasted a pour of apple juice, pineapple juice, coconut juice, and grape juice in an attempt to hone their concentration and distinguish flavors. Amazing the number of older participants that hadn’t a clue on what they were sampling. The younger students nailed everything. A lot of discussion here on food quality and tastes by those that would probably fail my simple blind tasting.

There are a very few low capacity tours one might need to sign up for early. Very few. My recommendation is to watch your Roll Call for better options and not worry about actually signing up for ship tours until after final payment. So many cruise cancellations occur before then, plus a lot of people just wait to closer until cruise time to make a decision on tours. Remember, if you book an Oceania shorex, you have to pay for it when booking. Why be in a rush to give Oceania more money sooner?

My outward guess is the Embers is primarily listed as a “ Specialty “ so to impose the standard dress code therein. Oceania may have decided it didn’t want the full line of casual wear it can get in the Terrace in this sit down restaurant. Maybe they are trying to keep gym shorts and muscle shirts ( wifebeaters) isolated to the buffet line.

Thank you Coleen for your very accurate post. We likewise experienced the cluster xx in Lima. I had opted to not mention the incident because the cheerleaders here would accuse me of negatively even though I gave Oceania high marks in some areas. If I had dare mentioned the very disgruntled cruisers that booed the Captain at the Repeater Party, the cheerleaders would have gone bonkers. The fiasco and arrogance surrounding missing Puerto Chacabucco has yet to be discussed.

Excellent question. They seemed to have purchased cell phone data plans that gave them connectivity in many areas. Not everywhere, of course, but even at sea and on land, they had very good wifi while we had little to none. We went to Villard in the Casablanca Valley. Outstanding winery, bringing a Chardonnay and Syrah home. The wine paired lunch at the winery was amazing. As I always say, “ the best meal on the cruise is rarely ever on the ship”. This cruise my best ship meal would have come in #4. Everyone on the tour raved about Villard. I think everyone took wine away! Plan on visiting them your next trip down. Also TWE set us up with three excellent wineries over two days in Uruguay along with great wine paired lunches.

I believe the fear of “ Covid Jail” or quarantine keeps people from being tested, not the costs for the test. To be honest, if everyone on that ship with Covid was quarantined, I don’t think room service, or the system, could have handled it.

Another deceptive term we learned on our cruise: Cruising the Chilean Fjords. It would be the same as saying “ sailing the puget sound fjords “ or sailing the French Polynesia fjords. You sail, for a period, between the islands and never enter a fjord, while spending most of the time at sea. Those islands were not glacierly carved either.

In some instances PCR tests were required. Cost - $250. In other instances only the antigen test was required. Cost - $100. I person I knew aboard, without his vaccination card , had to be tested before boarding, before Puerto Areas, before Puerto Montt, and finally before San Antonio all to meet ship and Chilean requirements. $400 . Those that showed up at Medical with possible Covid symptoms were required to take the PCR tests.

You will need to talk to, and arrange with, Destination Services on the day ( morning) of your cruise. We can’t answer that. Be aware that what a DS rep says at 9:00 may be ignored by a different rep at 13:00.

Temperatures swing dramatically on the ships. On some days the restaurants can be pleasant, while on other days it’s cool even wearing a tshirt, long sleeveless, and a sports jacket. My DW always carries a sweater to dinner. Her exposed toes have come out of venues nearly blue ! 🥺 Unless you’re from Minnesota and like trampling around the woods in January in shorts and a T-shirt, I recommend you take either the jacket or a nice sweater for comfort sake.

On our 2/27 Marina cruise we were only required to turn the tv on. Whether people watched it or not was optional. Shortly after boarding we supposed to check in at our muster station, at our convenience, to indicate we knew where it was. No mustering for us.

We essentially had a full ship. 1125, I believe, so with the singles the ship was near capacity. I believe the stated number of repeaters was 63%, a bit lower than most O cruises we’ve been on. A lot of newbies did make for an interesting crowd. Again, as earlier stated in a different thread, Oceania ran an apparently successful “silent sale”, in the month or so pre cruise to fill the ship.