pinotlover

Unfortunately true! First time in a long time! 🥹.

No. We flew in on our own air a day early before the pre cruise tour with Oceania began.Therefore, Oceania wouldn’t provide the airport to hotel transportation. I booked with Blacklane which did an excellent job. Oceania is providing the hotel to ship transfer today as part of the pre cruise tour package. We will take private transportation from the ship to the Yokohama train station at cruise end.

Post cruise, we are taking the train from Yokohama to Kyoto for three days and then to Kanazawa for another three. Then back to Tokyo and Haneda for the trip home. A few things to add. The Hilton runs a regular shuttle to Shinjuku Station where there are lots of stores and restaurants. Those malls includes a very decent wine shop where I bought wine for the ship/cruise. The station also includes an office for the railway system where I received excellent help in booking our rail tickets on the various bullet trains. The Hilton restaurants are fairly good, but very overpriced for the quality. Across the street, in the Sumitomo Building, is an incredible authentic Japanese restaurant called Minokichi. Highly recommended with fabulous food and services at a lower cost than the hotel restaurants. On the fwiw section, we are indeed blessed. A horrible cold spell hit Japan in mid March. The effect of that bad weather is that the cherry blossoms have been delayed about two weeks. Our cruise, along with our post cruise excursions will put us in the heart and peak of the cherry blossom bloom.

I promised to comment on this post based on current situations. This will not be a day to day posting telling people what I ate every meal, or how the entertainment is, but general conversation on an Oceania Japanese cruise. For our pre cruise Oceania tour package, we are staying in the Hilton Tokyo. Nice hotel, no complaints. We are here with a separate Regent cruise that seems to have our exact itinerary or nearly so. Concierge Desk for Oceania people 9-1, same desk same people for Regent people 2-6. All tours, airport pickups and deliveries, etc for here and all of Japan are ran by Asian Adventures on contract to Oceania. No Oceania people involved. The Hilton is located in the South East of Tokyo. We arranged our own air and conveniently arrived at Haneda Airport which is also in the SE of Tokyo. We arranged pickup by Blacklane. They met us as we left customs and entered the main hall. Forty minutes to the hotel. The following comments will be mostly ignored, but here goes. Between fellow Oceania guests and RSSC guests there has been a large cry over horrible flight arrangements and required connections made by O/RSSC ( all the same) Air. Some have been breathtaking bad. I just tell people that what they choose when they decided to leave it to the cruise line, it was all of their choosing. Additionally, even if on your own Air, don’t fly into Narita. It’s 2.5-3 hours from the hotel in good traffic. It will be over 3-4 hours from the cruise ship on departure. Here is one example of an O Air patron . They had two connections in the US, then flown to Taiwan with a 4 hour layover, then to Narita. At Narita, they were met by the Asian Adventurers (AA) rep and had to wait with the bus over an hour while other guests were collected. Then a 2.5 hour bus ride from Narita to the Hilton. Mother Oceania at her finest, but that is what the guests wanted obviously. Other similar horrid connection stories have likewise been told like Kansas City- DFW-DET-NRT. Yesterday the AA rep gave us a welcoming talk. Things in Japan are still chaotic and in flux. They are having severe labor shortages. Many hotels are only at 50-60% capacity because that’s all the staff they have to manage the hotels. He commented on the number of ship tours on waitlist or recently cancelled ( I have one of each). Reason: they don’t have the staff to run them all. He said some of the tour excursions staff we’ll see multiple times because they’re transporting them from one port to another to have the help. This situation will not resolve itself anytime soon. We leave for the ship tomorrow at around 11. Four buses of us, a bit over 220. RSSC has seven bus loads of folks. I’ll try to answer questions or other wise will report back after Embarkment on the transport and the ship.

Almost always lectures on sea days, while rarely having them in port days, unless it’s a half day port day. The lecturers are required to have additional lectures “ in the can” in case of cancelled ports. Never seen lectures on port days as the lecturers are typically out exploring getting information for future cruise presentations.

No hate at all. Selected O life tours have no specific value. You get X free tours up to typically $199, sometimes a bit more. If one of those tours is cancelled, you can select another tour up to that amount. If no tour is available, you get a $100 onboard non refundable credit. You don’t lose the $99, since you never had it. You had a tour credit only. Some people chose to select 3 hour $90 tours, while others chose $199 tours. It was all the same, one used a tour credit.With SM, it $ credits that can only be used for yours. Have a tour cancelled, good luck.

Part One - Not sure anyone other than O Brass “ Knows “ Part 2 - There were Focus Group discussions, that included TA, back when the SM program was being brainstormed. Change to the Loyalty Program was likewise discussed. How much O Brass listened to the Focus Group takes you back to One above.

You will find that this is likewise a big deal for a subset of cruisers. This goes back to an older story told by a Social Director aboard ship. She was asked by one of us what was the biggest request /comment they get on the Comments Forms. She said across all ships it was to start dinner at 5:00 or 5:30. When asked why they didn’t she replied “ Management is concerned that would turn the ships into Ghost Ships by 7:30 or so, which would be a huge turnoff for other passengers. People don’t want to eat in large near empty venues.”

Rumor is O’s time frame will be between 24-36 months to maintain benefits. We’ll know within a month.

I have both bought and sold them from/ to fellow passengers. Just get the word out.

Two points: 1. Some of us aren’t as enamored with O shorex as you apparently are, so we’ll only book up to our credit amount if that. 2. That cancellation may be late in the cruise and no replacement is possible.

I believe the most apparent change is you’ll have to cruise within a set timeframe to maintain your status. Distinct possibilities that other changes will soon follow , but expect this change to be implemented soon.

Remember with OLife, if a shorex gets cancelled you get a $100 credit to your ship account that can be used for anything aboard ship. If that SM tour gets cancelled and you can’t find a replacement, you get zippo! Read carefully all those recent and current passengers getting zippo. Does this play into your calculations? If not, why not?

I believe we will see changes to the current loyalty program be rolled out prior to next month’s general release of new itineraries for 25-26. Time will tell.

No. The payment for the excursions will remain on your credit cards. If the tour is cancelled on board, it will be credited to your onboard account. Your TA should be providing refundable OBC. Any such funds remaining in your account at cruise end, will be returned to you, typically in cash (US$).

I think it’s classy to replace him now, so that all can pay homage to his talents. Additionally, these positions shouldn’t be “ until death do we depart “ type arrangements. The world moves on.

I would think the larger question for Oceania is how many of those 25 &26 ATWer are going to look at this and bail?

That’s what I was saying: it’s all personal choice. Prefer the bread, then pound it because you’d rather have it than dessert and/or the main course. I’m not 16 anymore. I’m not working manual labor on the farm or factory floor. There’s only so much I can eat. I have to make decisions, we all do. I just think the sad part is when people eat the salad, pound the bread, then out comes the steak and they take one or two bites and send the rest to the garbage. They know when they ordered the steak they’d never eat it. They choose to eat lettuce and bread. That’s OK! I guess they have the right to order 3 mains and 4 desserts and throw them all in the garbage. It’s the same concept. It’s just a personal decision YWYW.

I do paired multi course wine dinners for a couple of establishments on occasion. It’s happened too many times so My only condition is NO Bread! The Dinners normally start 6-6:30 so the working stiffs can come. That happens to be later than many of the retirees seem to eat. Give that little old lady a bread basket in an early course, and they will pound the bread. Then by the third of four courses, they’re just to full to eat , or drink, anything. Some will even want a doggie bag for the remaining courses and leave before the dinner is over. Rule #1- No Bread! Oceania always delivers a big basket of delicious breads to your table at every venue. Saves them from serving desserts!” Oh! I’m just so full I can’t eat another bite!” 😂😂. They made that decision when they hit the bread basket! 😂

A bit of the story behind the beef imports from Mexico. The quality of beef produced in the US has improved dramatically over the past few decades. As that quality and flavor has increased so has the marbling and excess fat increased. What to do with all that fat. Answer: import lean beef from Mexico and blend it with the fat to make the different ground beef selections. This helps keep the beef prices up in the States while providing for an excellent export market for Mexico. Most U.S. produced beef is overall to high quality ( except for some limited cuts) and to expensive for hamburger meat.

We typically stroll aboard some time between 2:30 and 3:30, having already had a relaxing lunch ashore. Unless there have been issues, Boardamania is past and we have no lines.Upon boarding, our first stop is at our muster station to check in. The muster station is almost always on the deck on which we board so it is effortlessly to hit it immediately. Then we head off to our cabin which by then is ready for occupancy. As with most of our cruises, we typically primarily do private tours, and for convenience of schedule do a Meet & Greet that first night. It’s a great opportunity to meet your fellow tour group members and do any necessary coordination. The M&G is also attended by others on our Roll Call not necessarily doing private tours. So having had a typically delightful lunch ashore, we never want to fill time constrained to make an early dinner that first night. Our upcoming 4/1 cruise is likewise having a M&G on Embarkment Day.

British Airlines allows you to pay for an early seat selection. Even BC passengers have to pay if they want to pre choose their seats.

For us, part of the traveling experience is trying and exploring the vast array of authentic local cuisine, along with the wines or beers, we find along the way. Heavy emphasis on authentic. 🙄Along with the people that rarely get off the ship, the number of people that will only eat ship food never ceases to amaze me. Vastly different strokes for different folks.

Let me add that I haven’t spoken with my TA on this issue, but some years Oceania first does a release of Grand Voyages and other Extended Journeys prior to releasing the shorter (7-24 day) segments. Therefore, I can’t really comment on exactly what will be included on that mid April release. A 52 day Grand Voyage would, in fact, be a “Segment “ of the ATW, but not necessarily the type of segment you’re looking for.

One would hope that at a minimum all the service counters are fully wrapped in cellophane to keep all those hands and arms out from under the glass. I’ve never understood why some insist upon sticking their arms or hands under the glass shields!! 🤬