pinotlover

I agree. Our issue ( if it’s an issue) is we often book cruises that only occurs once per year and are very popular. Take a look at the Dec 2023 circumnavigation of OZ. Been completely waitlisted since about Day 3. Large portions were waitlisted by the pre bookings. Our upcoming Sirena cruise was waitlisted from the get go. I could list several others. These cruises are never included in the Sales. I do agree that if we wanted to take a random Carribean or Med cruise, I’d probably wait for a Sale. To date, we’ve only did that once ( a Med cruise).

Watching the Sales are always a smart move. Oceania makes it a poker move however , depending upon your personal finances. The Labor Day Sale typically pre dates the Fall Cruise release by 3 weeks or so. Same for the President’s Day Sale and the Spring release. So the complexing issue becomes “ Do I jump on the Sale, or wait to see what’s on the new release I might like better?” Chances are, I would have booked the sale cruises already if they had appealed to me.

Unless one just personally enjoys long lines and mayhem, don’t arrive at the port before at least 2:00. Some of those on low capacity cruises may not have noticed this. Just wait until the ships are sailing full.

Seen them both places in the R ships. Last Nautica cruise it was in Horizons, time before that the Lounge. In fact, on that last cruise I think three were required since almost 75% were repeaters. I think different nights, different locations. I attended the first one that was in Horizons.

It doesn’t appear as if this is selling well. Except for top suites and ph3 it’s wide open. The Grand Voyages are wide open top to bottom! interesting. Thoughts??

+1 to this. Seems to me, there is either a 21 or 30 day window, on both sides of cruise, one can deviate with the flights.This is dependent upon were you’re trying to fly from. I remember a few years back a cruiser was wanting to do a post cruise river boat cruise BudaPest to Bucharest. Oceania Air couldn’t work them a deal out of Bucharest and O prices were way high. The issue wasn’t the timing, it was the airport. Rome should be no problem.

Likewise, don’t bet on being invited to multiple OClub receptions. Example being aboard a cruise with an extremely large percentage of repeat passengers so that it takes 3 days to get all of those passengers invited to one such event. Then have a seven (7) day leg attached with a corresponding high repeater count. Only the newbies and very high count repeaters may be invited to the short leg affair. They don’t shut down Horizons for three days on a 7 day leg/cruise to reinvite everyone again.

OBC can be use to pay Anything and Everything aboard ship.

I always bring a pair of dress shoes. Typically very nice loafers to wear to dinner.

This must be new. Consumption , with corkage fees, in dining venues, yes! Never seen it applied to the various bars. This program has been logistically problematic in just the restaurants. Never seen the bars included in the program.

Well, it’ll probably take an hour to get luggage, clear immigration and customs. So that gets you to 9:00. Thirty (30) minutes FCO to port. My guess is that you’ll be put on a bus at the airport while waiting for other arrivals. You’ll set there until around 10:30 when the bus departs full, so to arrive at the pier close to your probable assigned 11:00 boarding time. Problem solved.

Most people truly don’t understand the nature of discounted bulk rate airline tickets.

Our October cruise has been “ waitlisted “ in every category for over a year. Waitlisted right through final payment date. I’m now waiting to see what waitlisted means. Will we have a full 680 passengers, 600, or 400? To what capacity is Oceania booking the ships? Time will tell.

I forgot to add this. On our last boarding at Civitavecchia, no one was allowed into the port area before there assigned boarding times. Guards checked paperwork at the gate. No more massive crowds in the cruise terminal pre boarding. Those with early arriving flights had to find some place else to go and wait. You had better check to see if those Covid prevention policies are still in effect.

Yes, Absolutely! However, in most ports you have to wait until after 9:00-9:30 to do so. They won’t check your bags in while everything is going full bore trying to get all the baggage off the ship. We always come in a day or so early and find it much easier to just leave the baggage with the hotel concierge.

As I have posted previously, I’m waiting for our Oct Sirena cruise to form any opinion on these matters. What will the new Oceania look like? Covid, and the effects thereof, are not past us. It still affects everything, whether some want to admit it or not. At this point, I believe trying to make comparisons of the pre Covid Oceania and the post Covid Oceania is as silly as comparing 1960 NY Yankees to the 2010 Yankees. An exercise with no meaning or importance. History is history. There’s a new mountain of debt that separates the past from the future. Only question is does the New Oceania meet my wants, needs, and expectations at a price I’m willing to spend going forward. What the old Oceania did is no longer in the picture or part of the evaluation. Stop living in the past.

My only comment is about the surety you express on getting onto that flight two hours later. Flights have been flying totally full over there ( much like here in the US). We had friends this summer that would had to wait three days to get on another flight. They took a long train ride to make it to the ship. Had I been concerned about a close connection, in today’s world, I would have just booked the later flight for safety sake.

+10,000. Your TA can have you pre-booked. Why would anyone want to set on the phone or computer than morning trying to be a DIYer.

Virtuoso is one of the consortium of Travel Agencies with which Oceania rotates various benefits such as PPG for their clients. Your Travel Agency is obviously a Virtuoso member.

IMO, it would be foolish to gamble an entire Alaska cruise season on the timely delivery of a new A Class ship. When is the Vista going to come on line for sure? Nobody knows! I believe that the Alaskan cruises are well enough subscribed that an existing ship will be assigned to ensure those sailing are completed. Maybe a newer A ship on year 2, not upon a hopeful completion.

I always support using a Travel Agent and their Agency. Here is my sole issue. Some people here, perhaps like sirtom in post #34, read TA and believe it is solely the Travel Agent. They then read that someone’s Agent gave a rebate of X, so then they expect that from their Agent. For the sake of honesty, posters should say, just as you did, the Agency for which my Agent works, gave me a rebate of X. There are definitely times where perks come from the Agent and not the Agency. But not when rebate checks are 8.8-10 %!!

Posters here insist upon using “ TA” for both the Agent and the Agency. They are vastly different. The last time a poster was bragging about such kickbacks they finally admitted the check was from the AGENCY not the Agent. Be careful of what you read in the internet.

That is the only cruise they don’t give detailed prices on. Only info is: Veranda-$47,499 Concierge-$49,899 Penthouse-$63,899 74 day cruise. Another interesting fact is that the opening date for sales for either the ATW or the GVs is never mentioned anywhere in either brochure. Only told to call Oceania or your TA.

Got another fancy and pretty package in the mail today. One for the 2025 ATW along with the 2025 Grand Voyages. One of the most unusual GVs is a combo of doing the annual Circumnavigation of Australia on the Regatta, then putting one a plane to S.A. to join up with the Marina for one of its cruises there. Lots of pretty pictures with some aggressive pricing.

Yes