pinotlover

We are looking for Bizz Class. May consider dropping down to PE. Their BC tickets are currently a bit steep. Might wait and watch.

Fully aware of that, thanks. If I go AA/BA, this is the only one stop available out of BNA. Everything else is a two stop still requiring LHR. Turkish Airlines is the only other 1 stop, but oh so pricey or with undoable connections.

I need a bit of crystal balling. Looking at BA flight , for next June, through LHR. Specifically BNA-LHR-IST. The advertised flight has a 2 hour 15 minute layover at LHR. If current conditions continue, will that be sufficient layover time?

Therefore, if you are participating in an organized tour, be it ship or private, you need a mobility pass. We got the pass last year. It requires full vaccination.

I’ve spoken with Patrick Watts and he’s pretty confident that the Falklands will reopen this year. Tour operators in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile are likewise fairly confident. All say you will be vaccinated and probably even tested before entry. One did say, without defining the term significant “ if a significant outbreak occurs aboard ship, expect the ship to be turned away”. Therein lies our greatest risk due to the continuing stream of variants hitting us. We’re booked for Feb into March. We’ve had cruises there cancelled two years in a row. If this year doesn’t go, we’re walking away. It’ll just be a cruise we never take. I just don’t have the energy or excitement to do all the extensive planning and prep anymore. I’ve worked with some of these tour operators for three years, it’s 2023 or never. We have a couple traveling with us in the same situation with the same frame of mind.

Without quoting all the previous posts, a couple of comments. 1. I certainly know adamant antivaxers that earlier canceled all their cruises, and that will now sign up again. 2. My greatest fear is how the entire ship may be treated just because it has unvaccinated guests aboard. Like Sunlover, we are on the October Sirena cruise scheduled for Morocco. Those countries may well say that not only can the unvaccinated not come ashore, but the ship can’t even dock!! Oceania will then claim “ it’s just a missed port”. To us, it’s much bigger than a missed port. It’s a missed port only because of the policy changes.We don’t want missed ports for the sole purpose of facilitating the unvaccinated.

Very tight schedule, probably too much so. Your larger issue is whether everything goes to schedule in the canal and locks entering Amsterdam. Being 15-30 minutes off schedule is not unusual.

One of the areas missed is South America. To enter Argentina or Chile one must be vaccinated. We’re on a B. A. -Lima cruise in February. Doesn’t sound like the unvaccinated will even be allowed on the plane to get there. Oceania’s policy means squat. Same goes for the Santiago-BA cruise preceding ours. Once Japan opens back up, does anyone here believe the unvaccinated will be let in? I’m doubtful anyone will get into Australia or NZ unvaccinated either. This new policy has put off information on all of these ports.

I love staying in the smaller Irish villages, hitting the pubs at night, eating a fun meal, drinking a fresh Guinness, and listening to the music in the pubs. So many charming places to stay and visit. I believe that cruises provide an excellent model to visit some regions. I just believe that Ireland and southern England are much better done by land tours. In that both speak English, that makes it even easier.

Disappointed! IMO there is zero reason to drop the vaccination requirements.

According to industry rags, pre Covid the industry book to sail rate was about 3 to 1. That is about for every 3 cruises booked/reserved only 1 actually paid and sailed. The others canceled along the way. Post Covid the number of cancellations are far higher but not yet stated. Viking is reported to have one of the highest book to sail rate. Mostly only those really interested in a cruise puts down their money up front. Oceania’s $750 deposit is chump change for many of its passengers. That’s why so many cruises are waitlisted early on and the waitlists clears. Different lines, different strategies.

A great tool that I regularly use. Still has an excessive amount of garbage that is constantly repeated and must be waded through. No I’m not going to collect my baggage, go from EWR-JFK, check in , clear security and make my flight with a 1 hour 45 minute connection time. Or No, I’m not scheduling an international flight with a 45 minute connection when the airline reports the first flight is late 40% of the time ! Again, it can be a great tool, but you must wade the garbage pile.

Oceania rates their tours by 1-3 walkers. One of the reasons I evade Oceania shore tours is the number of passengers taking 3 walker tours that can’t walk 100 yards without a break. The tour description regularly says they will walk up to 2 miles on uneven surfaces. They know up front they are physically incapable of the tour but expect to be accommodated. Why is reading a tour description difficult? Why do people show up at a bus for a tour with a wheelchair when the tour clearly says no wheelchairs? Dementia, laziness, or expectation of accommodations? Oceania arrives at some docks and the buses are parked at the gangplank. At other ports, especially those with a terminal, one must clear the terminal area to catch the buses. Sometimes that means walking the half length past your vessel but also the entire length of the vessel docking behind you. Oceania can neither project nor plan for that. Here’s another clue, with my stride, my wife and I can walk the exact same ground distance , but her phone will show she walked 30% farther than I. The phones are not set up for her stride nor people doing 6 inch shuffle steps.

2005!!! Contentinal Airlines was still in business then!! Should I talk about Delta in the 1980s?? Being serious now in 2022. Airlines are flying jammed packed. 1. Get to the airport way ahead of flight time. 3-4 hours ahead. In AMS, it was 3.5 hours from checkin/baggage drop to the gate. That was on a Thursday. 2. Never schedule a layover less than 2 hours anywhere. Three is even better. 3. Don’t fly in on the day of Embarkment or tour start. Come early. 4. Never take a buy out on a plane that’s flying. You never know when you might actually get on that next flight. 5. Avoid airports that are disasters. Amsterdam ( AMS) is a Black Hole. It’s going to take a long time for KLM to get it straightened out. There’s a reason Delta is offering cheaper fares via there. You might go in and take days to get out! In June, we had passengers join our cruise on Day 3, without luggage, that ended up taking the train to catch the ship because of flight cancellations out of AMS. Heathrow is now recommending at least three hours time for connecting flights. We had fellow ship passengers with less than 2 hour connecting times on UA out of ORD, that never saw their baggage the entire cruise. Stuck in a warehouse in Chicago. This isn’t 2017 or 18. Planning air is a task.

I may be speaking out of order for him, but I believe the miles come from using United Travel as the Travel Agency for the cruise. Where some here only want TAs that give cash rebates, others use United Travel for more ff miles. I get the offers and brochures regularly from them because they see me making payments to Oceania, Uniworld, etc. on my Explorer card. If you don’t use O Air, United will work the air for you and give you even more ff miles.

In Tahiti, we stayed at the former Meridian. Forgot the name of the group that took over but still a really nice place to stay. Conveniently located with a good store, with great wine selection, just outside the gates. Also a very good restaurant in the same complex.

We stay in an otw at the Hilton Moorea. Great place.

Both easily done via a land tour. Multiple companies offer them and I can make recommendations. Many of the great visits are not practical from ship shorex.

If itinerary is important along with maximizing the FP experience, I recommend considering Paul Gauguin. PG makes French Polynesian feel, taste, and seem like French Polynesia. Oceania is a great product, but it comes nowhere near developing the sense of place that PG does. It depends upon what’s important to you. Are you going to FP to eat in an Americanized Italian restaurant ( which is good) and worry about sheet thread count; or are you going to more throughly experience FP?

Yeah, but you’re Speeeciall. I was talking about the rest of us . 😂🥂

Captain’s party is most often on Day 2, sea day or not. Repeater’s Party bounces around, no particular day. Important to remember that depending upon the cruise, I have seen as many as three (3) repeater parties when 75+% of the ship are repeaters. You’re only invited to one of them though. Horizons can only hold so many. 🥂

If cash rebates are the main objective with a Travel Agency, remember that the top of the heap today are the Preferred Agencies. These are top sellers NCLH wide. They all get the same commission level NCLH wide as those only concentrated on Oceania. For the DIYERS, where only cash counts, these agents/agencies may fit the bill.

And therein lies the problem. Pre-Covid, there was an industry article on UA discussing how many thousands of flyers they have with over 1 million miles in their ff miles accounts. It’s actually carried as a liability on their financial statements. All this dynamic pricing we suffer through is merely a problem to get those with the huge numbers to burn through their accounts.

Actually a relic of the past. The “ Club” has not been altered, added to or deleted from, since around 2017 and the NCL acquisition of PCH. There’s been a lot of water under that bridge since 2017. My recommendation is to talk to fellow cruisers and feel them out about their Travel Agents and the Agencies they work for. First, decide what’s important to you. We have posters here that are only interested in rebate checks and the amounts thereof. They don’t actually use their TA. Others of us like a Travel professional to take care of our needs. Personally, I don’t want a 23 step plan of addressing an issue and DIY. I call, text, or email my TA and problem solved. One step, not 23. I still receive gracious benefits, but I don’t set down and do a line item by line item review of every commissionable items post cruise. Decide what’s important to you and discuss that with your TA. An example is in 2019, we were traveling with friends that used our TA. She comped our four Dom Perignon La Reserve dinners. She knew we all love Dom and La Reserve. A wonderful evening and we toasted her at the dinner. Other cruisers requested her contact information. To us much more special than a cash rebate of equal costs. To others here, even drinkers, they only want CASH. Comping that meal meant they lost credit card miles they would have received paying for themselves. Cash only please! Decide what’s important to you and communicate that with your potential TA.

Hank; NCLH is NCL, Oceania, & Regent cruise lines. When NCL took over PCH one of the listed advantages was a consolidated Air Department. Regent flies a large percentage of its customers business class. The company already has in place all the tools it needs to offer business class air to Oceania cruisers. Each of NCLH’s three lines have their own niches, markets, and profit centers. On Oceania, the Air Department is one of its profit centers, just like its shorex group and their ridiculous prices. I don’t believe Oceania sees a need to exert energy to trim a profit center at this time. It’s not a matter of having the current capacity to do so, it’s strategic branding. NCLH has a brand offering Biz Class Air, it’s called Regent. It’s why Regent doesn’t compete in “ best cuisine at sea”! That’s a different brand. Don’t smear the lines. 🥂