Special occasions on Oceania

[travellerin1984]

Hi!

 

We are so excited! We have finally booked our first Oceania cruise for next summer. 7 days, inside guarantee (you can always hope for an upgrade!) and honeymoon.. We are so happy to have possibility to be onboard! We have cruised with Celebrity a lot and will become Elite after our January cruise but are really looking forward to nicer food and smaller ship for our honeymoon on Riviera.

 

You Oceania experts, I have one question... Do you know if Oceania recognises special occasions?

[pacheco18]

Hi!

 

We are so excited! We have finally booked our first Oceania cruise for next summer. 7 days, inside guarantee (you can always hope for an upgrade!) and honeymoon.. We are so happy to have possibility to be onboard! We have cruised with Celebrity a lot and will become Elite after our January cruise but are really looking forward to nicer food and smaller ship for our honeymoon on Riviera.

 

You Oceania experts, I have one question... Do you know if Oceania recognises special occasions?

 

You get a cake in the dining venue you are in for your birthday. They take half of it away before you can get a second slice. Not impressive. Don't expect much. Have a great honeymoon -- make your own magic.

[LHT28]

We got a card in cabin for our anniversary

 

Get your TA to put a note in your file ...maybe you will get something

Edited September 8, 2014 by LHT28

[pacheco18]

I think the OP might be "expecting" something special as this is done on other lines. Oceania does not do anything special for celebrations. It is very low key in all respects.

 

There is a chance that you will be the ONLY honeymoon couple on board (I am assuming you are younger than the average demographic for Oceania). If that's the case, maybe you will get invited to dinner with an officer.

 

Best thing is to have no or low expectations.

[Mura]

Contrary to Laraine's experience, we shared a birthday cake one dinner with two other couples -- it was the birthday of one of the others, not either of us. It was a small cake and I think six generous slices probably finished it off.

 

But it was delicious!

 

Mura

[pacheco18]

Contrary to Laraine's experience, we shared a birthday cake one dinner with two other couples -- it was the birthday of one of the others, not either of us. It was a small cake and I think six generous slices probably finished it off.

 

But it was delicious!

 

Mura

 

Totally consistent with my experience. Our cake would have had six slices. Once we each had one, they took the cake away. No chance for seconds or to share with someone else in the dining venue. I thought it was tacky.

[tanny18]

We never celebrated a birthday or anniversary (but I will be celebrating a birthday on next cruise) but there was a couple celebrating a big anniversary a few years ago. We made arrangements for a large table (10 I believe) and for an anniversary cake. If I remember, we all had a nice size piece and that finished it. Just enjoy the experience of the ship and it will be celebration enough. Have a great honeymoon. Arlene

[vlthom]

Our last anniversary was onboard the Marina. We received a greeting card inside our stateroom. Period. It didn't bother us as being onboard was celebration enough, but the OP would be better off keeping expectations low.

 

 

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[roothy123]

We just got back 2 weeks ago. In Polo, my husband got a chocolate cake, with "Happy Birthday Howard" and a candle and raspberries on it, and about 6 people sang happy birthday to him. Yes, it was kind of low key, but fine for him. The other 2 people at our table and us got pieces of cake, and then I don't remember what happened to the rest! I suppose it was taken away, but hey, there's plenty of food on Oceania, so we didn't care!

 

There is a place on your passenger information form to mention if you'll be celebrating any special occasions onboard. Be sure to fill that part in! I didn't, as my husband's birthday was really 5 days after the cruise, and I thought it was tacky to "cheat." However, he was disappointed with me, and the next thing I knew, a cake appeared when our visit to Polo rolled around. My husband was thrilled.

 

Good luck with the upgrade or upsell. On this past cruise, we had a guarantee on a G cabin. A few days before we flew to Europe, they assigned us to an F. Then they called a day later with an upsell to an oceanview (verandas and above were completely booked up). Make sure your travel agent (if you used one) knows whether you're willing to pay a little extra for an upsell cabin, and that he/she can contact you the same day if an offer is made. The offers usually aren't made until late in the game, however, so you need to be patient! We've had good luck with both upgrades and upsells after booking a lowly F or G; here's hoping you have the same.

 

I've only been on Celebrity twice (Summit) but in my mind, there's no comparison between Celebrity and Oceania - although I suppose some people are bored with the older crowd and less peppy entertainment compared to Celebrity!

[roothy123]

We just got back 2 weeks ago. In Polo, my husband got a chocolate cake, with "Happy Birthday Howard" and a candle and raspberries on it, and about 4 or 5 people sang happy birthday. The cake was taken away, slices were delivered to the table, and we ate them. If there was any left, I don't know - but we were too stuffed to care, even if there were!

 

There is a place on your passenger information form to mention if you'll be celebrating any special occasions onboard. Be sure to fill that part in! I didn't, as my husband's birthday was really 5 days after the cruise, and I thought it was tacky to "cheat." However, he was disappointed with me, and the next thing I knew, a cake appeared when our visit to Polo rolled around. My husband was thrilled.

 

Good luck with the upgrade or upsell. On this past cruise, we had a guarantee on a G cabin. A few days before we flew to Europe, they assigned us to an F. Then they called a day later with an upsell to an oceanview (verandas and above were completely booked up). Make sure your travel agent (if you used one) knows whether you're willing to pay a little extra for an upsell cabin, and that he/she can contact you the same day if an offer is made. The offers usually aren't made until late in the game, however, so you need to be patient! We've had good luck with both upgrades and upsells after booking a lowly F or G; here's hoping you have the same.

 

I've only been on Celebrity twice (Summit) but in my mind, there's no comparison between Celebrity and Oceania - although I suppose some people are bored with the older crowd and less peppy entertainment compared to Celebrity!

Edited September 9, 2014 by roothy123

[travellerin1984]

Thank you for the answers!

 

We don't have any high expectations when it comes to celebrating our honemoon onboard. I just wanted to know if they do something special like some other cruise lines but it is fine if they don't. We are happy to have a possibility to be onboard and enjoy the food (that's why we wanted to splurge for our honeymoon) and no problem if we wont get the cake... We are low key people!

[SellaVee]

We were on Riviera last month celebrating our 40th Anniversary. I'd mentioned this in advance. There was a card waiting in our room when we arrived, a few days in advance of our anniversary and that was it.

 

On the first evening the social hostess announced that there were several couples on board who were celebrating anniversaries and if anyone wanted to organise a vow renewal they should see her. We chose not to.

 

I'd booked a speciality restaurant for the anniversary evening as soon as bookings opened and once on board I asked our room steward for an ice bucket and two flutes to be in our room so we could have the champagne we'd brought on board on the balcony before we went to dinner.

 

Interestingly two years before that we were on Regatta at the same time of year. I hadn't booked a speciality so I asked for an extra booking on the morning of our anniversary and mentioned to the Maître D' that it was a special occasion. They were fully booked but we did get a table and at the end of the meal a cake appeared, beautifully decorated. It tasted great, but we only had room for a small slice. I was quite surprised when it appeared as it wasn't a special anniversary but nonetheless I was impressed both by the quality and personalisation of the cake and by the gesture at such short notice.

 

I wasn't too disappointed that we didn't get a cake this time as we ate way too much anyway. I think if we'd been on board with friends and wanted to organise a small celebration the social hostess would have helped us.

 

It did slightly surprise me that having asked in advance for details of special celebrations so little was done but for us the whole cruise was our celebration and we had a great time.

[mom2travel]

Was on board recently for our anniversary...we were given a cake and they sang for us in Polo. Cake was very good but we realized later we never got to see the dessert menu in Polo...I'm sure we missed out on something delicious but we left stuffed with no extra room for more dessert:(

 

 

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[Toranut97]

Our last anniversary was onboard the Marina. We received a greeting card inside our stateroom. Period. It didn't bother us as being onboard was celebration enough, but the OP would be better off keeping expectations low.

 

 

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I will just say ditto, on Riviera last year. Just being there made me so happy, tho....!