ORV

Just as a data point here we have been on Marina and Regatta this year for 35 days. We had no cancelled ports. We did have an itinerary adjustment in South America, but we still saw everything that was originally planned. My opinion on the thread from last year is that a few people on a couple of cruises that had issues were doing a lot of posting. Then others see it and comment about all those people talking about Oceania cancelling ports. These things have a way of ballooning out of reality. My bottom line is if I didn't trust the judgement of the Captains that Oceania hires then I wouldn't cruise with them. One thing I've seen no shortage of in the 20 years I've been reading cruise critic are those that think they're smarter than the Captain or General Manager. I truly don't need or expect them to consult with me before they make decisions about our overall safety and their policies and procedures. Once again if it bothered me enough, I'd make other vacation arrangements and not waste time complaining about it on CC. Not cheerleading, just my personal reality.

Is your alcohol intake on your land portion as much as it was on the ship?

My wife has 2 Amexes and I have 3. We both get offers that are frequently the same.

First, don't confuse Waitlist with Guarantee. If a person is on a waitlist and nothing opens up in the category they have waitlisted they won't get anything, at least in that category. Some people might be booked in a lower category and will have a higher category waitlisted, so they will cruise regardless. Of course a Guarantee means you'll be in that category or higher. The truth is it's a mystery and no one really knows except the Revenue dept of Oceania. BUT, I think you have an assigned room, so unless there is an offer from O to move up for more money, you will be in the room you have. If you had a guarantee for a PH3 and there were none available but the PH2 or PH1 were, then the person holding the guarantee would probably be moved up. You can have your TA contact them and offer less than the going rate for one of them, but unless you REALLY want to change location there is not much difference room wise from them. I'm one of those people that's ok anywhere on the ship, so I probably wouldn't spend the money to move up a number in the same category.

Over the years I have had multiple Oceania offers on the no annual fee Everyday card. The most current one about 2 months ago. Although we have no Platinum card the other 4 Amex cards we have frequently have good offers. For example, my Dell laptop that I got $200 back on when spending $800 or more. I did notice they currently have one for Dell & Microsoft. Free money is good, I'm amazed at the people that don't take advantage of it. It's there for the taking.

What you paid months ago does not count. There is no need to call that number. As long as your payments through your TA show Oceania Cruises as the Payee then it will work. BUT< What you need to do first is log on to your online account for your card, look at the offers you have and see if this one is available for your card. If it is then you need to add it to your card. After that have your TA pay up to $4000 on your cruise to take advantage of this offer. Pay attention to the date you need to use the offer by. My no annual fee Amex Everyday card didn't have this offer, but it does have one for Norwegian to spend $1000 get $200 back. Last week there was an offer for Regent for up to 50k membership points. I check it everyday, maybe I'll get lucky with an Oceania offer. What I do notice is that some of these offers disappear quickly. So, if you see one that you think you might even remotely use go ahead and add it to your card. Once it's on your card you have until the deadline to use it.

Unless I'm completely missing it that link has nothing to do with what you mentioned.

I'm seeing a review on another popular site for the current Regatta cruise that was right after this one. It shows Carson being the CD. I guess Robin was only a part time CD until Carson came on the ship. He did a good job for being thrown in to it. Carson is another CD I've never run across.

It depends .

I don't know about being any master of figuring it out, but, it all comes down to how popular an itinerary is. If a cruise is selling well then, it's not going to be on sale. Also as you noted, the previous price was better. It's a pretty common marketing tactic, increase the price, then put it on sale, but in many cases the sale price is higher than it was 6 months ago. We tend to book in two scenarios, A. bucket list places that work into our schedule, generally you have to just bite the bullet and pay the going rate, B. bargain and sale cruises that also appeal to us. Just keep watching for sales and checking prices. Every once and awhile a truly good deal comes along like the Extraordinary Savings sale last year.

Wouldn't it be easier to just find a new TA? If you are going to need to input your info on a website there are multiple companies that will give you extras for doing it yourself, more or less.

DING DING DING.

Pretty sure the answer is no. The free gratuity that you are seeing is for wait staff and room stewards and behind the scenes staff.

The internet is not Starlink, I’m not sure when it’s supposed to be updated. I did not look at the inputs on the TV, sorry. I think they were Insignia or maybe Hisense brand. Sorry I’m not more help on this.

Thanks for the offer on the bag, but I have plenty of others. Good to hear first hand reports on them. Obviously something has been wrong with Regatta as you as a very experienced Oceania cruiser rated it poor. I felt they were getting more on track as the cruise went along. All in all, we had a great time on the Mexican Riviera cruise and really saw nothing that would make us rethink booking future cruises with Oceania. Well, I might lean toward the bigger ships for future cruises, as that bathroom is sure small and I'm not getting any smaller.