CAG

Due to the continued situation in the Red Sea, Oceania notified the 2024 Around the World cruisers tonight of our revised itinerary. We will depart from Dubai on May 14 and head around Africa reaching the Canary Islands on June 21. So far we are confirmed until June 26 in LaCoruna, Spain. They are still working on confirming a preferred itinerary that will continue to take us to Greenland and some Canadian ports. Definitely lots of changes, but absolutely necessary for our safety.

They had Splenda on Vista in August and September.

Easy to get a taxi and there is a flat rate to Miami International Airport.

I believe you do receive your O Club benefits.

If they include excursions, good luck getting them. All of the non more expensive excursions on Vista's August 18 and August 30 sailings are already sold out and most are indicated as "closed" meaning not even a waitlist.

If you think the cookies now are horrible, you should have tried them 16 to 18 years ago. They were absolutely terrible. Frank A. Del Rio even complained about them. We were told that the French chefs do not use much sugar in their baking. I will admit that I did have an excellent cranberry cookie at tea last month on board Insignia, so they can make good cookies some of the time.

The free cruise does not include air or O Life benefits.

The T pool has not changed on Riviera. It is the same as when the ship first sailed.

The key words are in the last sentence: "may be held". It doesn't say will be held and from experience it doesn't happen. They are just covering themselves by saying it may be held.

On the R class ships you have a greater tendency to see the people you meet more often. On the O class ships, you may meet someone on embarkation day and not see them again.

Unfortunately, not any more. When the cabins were refreshed, the wall coverings reduced/eliminated the usefulness of the magnets. On my last cruise on Riviera in January, I used my magnets on the back of the door. I was on Nautica last September, right after her refresh, and the magnets did not work. I did not try using them on the back of the door.

I vaguely remember that there was an item on the GDR lunch menu that came with Shoestring potatoes. Like Jan, I have more than 500 days so I can't tell you what the time was or how long ago it was. I do remember that my late husband loved the shoestring potatoes and tried to get them at dinner in the GDR but to no avail.

I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe that the gratuity is added to bottles purchased on board, but not added to the corkage fee if you bring your own bottle on board.

Someone told me that there is a difference between eating and dining. Dining is when you eat, drink, talk and laugh.

We were scheduled to do this on the January 14 Riviera sailing, but the swells were too much for the Catamaran to dock to pick us up. After standing around on the pier for about an hour, our excursion was eventually cancelled and our money was refunded. Sorry I can't help.