pinotlover

I actually believe this issue is a case of a new grossly undertrained wine steward and that Oceania, upon ready this thread, will quickly alleviate the problem/issue. All if you cheap jerks, wanting to haul personal wine in without corkage, don’t get your hopes up.

Lyn’s advice is best. You’re ten months out from your cruise and very few book ship tours that far in advance. This is partially due to the requirement to fully pay for the tour when booking. Also, I’ve learned that two conditions apply: not all tours are posted this far in advance; and some early listed tours sometimes get cancelled about 6 months out. Also, to be thrown into the mix is the massive number of people that cancel booking at or before final payment. Not only does this open up cabin availability on almost every cruise, but it also opens up ship excursion opportunities. Long story short, if you find an acceptable cabin for the cruise, you currently will have no problem booking shore tours you want.

I rarely carry ours aboard. Send it in with and/or in the luggage.

Two points: 1. At Happy Hour, a double can be substituted for two drinks. For example , I’ll order a double Knob Creek Old Fashioned. One drink with two shots and that counts as my 2 for 1. 2. My lovely wife and I have plenty of time to sit alone together and enjoy various adult beverages. Aboard ship we would rather be in the bars meeting fellow passengers, or maybe that bartender, than just sitting in our cabin or veranda. So except for a possible nightcap cognac, we don’t haul aboard hard liquor. Each to their own.

An important part to this. We often purposely book at least one later dinner reservation on a sea day for the sole purpose of having the opportunity to enjoy Afternoon Tea. If the ship is in port, we’re ashore, so sea days are the only options we have. If I’m having all the goodies at Tea at 4ish to 5, then no way do I want dinner at 6:30-7:00. Having Tea either means that becomes our dinner ( which it is for a significant percentage) or chilling out and dining later. An advantage of dining later, for those of us that enjoy sharing, is we often to to meet, and enjoy the company of, an entirely different crowd of fellow cruisers than the early diners.

Wise move! 🥂

It’s a numbers game. Go on enough private tours and you’ll eventually end up with No Shows. Sometimes it affects the per person price of the tours, other times not. It’s a two way street. If someone is a jerk, they can be voted out ( kicked off) any future tours. Sometimes paying extra is worth the cost of not dealing with certain people. All in all, private tours still wins hands down over Oceania tours.

Good question!! Another comment he made saying they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I’m sure this issue would be ten times worse on Oceania. The restaurants were shut down and the kitchen supporting room service and the staff were in survival mode. The RS menu was the only thing available. After the emergency had passed, all the complaining from people over the kitchen not being able to meet their culinary disabilities during the storm. They couldn’t eat anything on the menu! 🙄!! Complain, Complain.

Geezer; He told me it lasted about 18 hours for them. They got terribly sea sick. Said everything on the ship was shut down. They didn’t eat a thing for about 24 hours. However, room service had to continue. There were people with diabetes and other problems that had to get food regularly on a schedule.

Calm day in the Drake Passage. My brother did that in 30 ft seas and 50-60 knot winds. Great for weight loss! 🥺 Those few that could or did eat did it room service. Brother said People too scared to even attempt to walk the hallways.

I always took the table sharing requests by some to be gimmicks. Only time we ever heard any requests/demands were from a couple that had a reservation in the PG for sharing, and quite loudly told the Maitre de they refuse to sit with anyone drinking alcohol. I held up our bottle of wine and said” that won’t be us”! The couple behind us said “ Us Either”! I didn’t believe they kept a table for the Baptist, so they got a two top. Believe that was the gimmick from the start. They couldn’t book a two top on the reservation system, so they played a game.

Robjames; I believe quite a few of us would not rate St. Germain Champagne as “ very good “. I don’t even consider it good. Drinkable, not bad, but not really even good. Oceania’s wine by the glass list sometimes has a few decent picks. Most of the selections do hover around the plonk level.

Things have changed. Board the ship expecting new and different experiences, and don’t get hung up on decade old memories. You’ll be cruising the NEW Oceania, not the last decade Oceania. Keep and open mind and evaluate your experiences as if you’re on a new cruise line.

True. However, as is, my primary concern becomes that it becomes an easy cancellation from 500 nautical miles away. Oh! the weather and seas are projected to be bad so we’ll just float /dink around here and add two sea days conserving fuel. A new pier would take that away. Case in effect, on the Sirena Day 2, we missed Biarritz on a beautiful day. Captain said he cancelled due to high winds. People calling their scheduled guides were all told how calm it was and that the ship had cancelled the port the day before. The ship dinked going in circles around on a sea day going less than 100 km to Gijon for Day 3. See how easy that was?

Total population of the Falklands is just under 3700 people. Cost to build a pier would be in the $millions of which many would not benefit. Don’t see it happening.

Canceled ports and port times are important items for us. As far as other ships, I have friends that rave about Tauck. Some of their itineraries are probably better than Oceania’s. AZ is again another consideration. Looking for more responses from very recent cruisers and if they long term are going to play the port cutting game. We’ve never done Seaborne and will have to look at them. If we depart from Oceania, we will not put money in FDR’s other pocket (Regent). We have two Oceania cruises booked we will do. Marina in Feb-Mar and Vista in June. We have two other booking dependent upon O’s performance on those two cruises. We have already received port time slashes for one of those future cruises along with our upcoming cruise. Not positive.

Condolences! 😢 We are scheduled for the Falklands in early March and have Volunteer Point booked with a group of others. Praying we make it. Never been there. If we miss again, there won’t be another attempt. Is Oceania giving you an extra day in Ushuaia or puerto Arenas, or just floating around with another sea day?

Excellent News!! Sorry for those having cruises cancelled, but in the BIG picture, Excellent News!

The Marina ran aground either entering or somewhere going up the Amazon in December. Perhaps someone aboard can give more information. I don’t believe extensive damage was reported, however…..

His numbers, and he captained the ship since O bought it. I’m guessing, on smaller ships, that hotel operations/dining/etc operations eat up a far higher percentage of total fuel than does a 6000 passenger behemoth.

If one continues to watch and manage the waitlist, your odds are fairly good. You’re 21 months from cruising and a long time from final payment. Some people talk about the rush to cruise again, but other than the rush to use up expiring FCC, that isn’t really showing up. Still lots of availability on multiple cruises, even ahead of Final Payment. Oceania isn’t having an Anniversary Sale because the cruises have sold out. Book another cabin on the cruise if the itinerary excites you. Place a deposit on the Waitlist. Watch for openings and movements regularly. Both you and your TA should be extra observant come FP if something hasn’t opened by then.

Can’t do online. Call your TA or O rep if you don’t have a TA. I let my TA do it. This is especially important if the cancellation affects your YWYW discount.

During our cruise in Oct/Nov, Oceania was offering a $300 OBC amount for any book cruise or FCC booked abroad. I don’t know when they reverted back to $100.

A bit hasty there LHT28. Neither the shops nor the casino can be open while the ship is in port. It is my understanding that rents paid by those vendors are determined by, or correlate with, the number of hours they are open. Shorter port times equals more hours of operation for those vendors. Just consider how much more Oceania can charge/earn for retail space versus AZ with all its overnights and late departures.

Captain Max told our ship that 70% of fuel consumption ( that was on the Nautica) went to hotel and dining operations. Only 30% went to propulsion. Therefore, any savings via reduced speed would only affect the 30% number not total consumption. Any savings in fuel consumption, plus the larger savings from reduced port docking fees is a significant number and a company with a mountain of debt ( NCLH) will want to capture any of that possible.