Flatbush Flyer

Amen to that! If you’ve got it in writing, it’s really not YOUR problem. It’s “their” problem and you can tell “them” that, if needed, perhaps the GM can help “them” figure out how to honor your reservation.

We spend a lot of time on O ships (about 100 nights annually). Even before the Pandemic, it was nice to see our normally “retired” demographic shifting in a younger direction (particularly with the short cruises of 7-10 days). And many of those folks with whom I chatted gave as their reasons for choosing O: value laden quality, the food reputation, and the itineraries. IMO, it’s no coincidence that so many short summer European and Alaska O cruises are even seeing more multi-generational families. BTW, for many years, Azamara and O (both with some of the identical former Renaissance ships) were considered competitors - each with their own following. However, Azamara suffered through the Pandemic ending up sold by its parent company to the well known “takeover” outfit- Sycamore Partners (zero experience in the cruise industry). Last I heard, the jury is still out on how Azamara has ended up in the deal. Can’t comment on Seaborne.

NEVER use the web cart to buy O tours. Call O or have your TA do it (though I recommend DIY). The O website for tours has long been glitchy- particularly as regards tour availability and the cart itself (e.g., wrong prices display). Another issue is that what you see regarding tours in the shore ex pdf and on the O web may not be the same. Likewise, what the O phone rep sees may be different than what the other sources have. This is because different departments deal with different tour sources AND there can even be differences in what availability a single segment cruisers sees on the web compared to what a multi-segment cruise sees. They can be vastly different (in part because tour adds/changes that are done for a segment cruise may not be done at the same time for multisegment cruises that include that segment. We recently ran into this problem recently when culinary classes were available for each segment of our upcoming cruise but showed full in our multi-segment booking! Quick call to our long-serving O rep and he got it fixed while we were on the phone. And, since the O phone rep has real time access to the tour bookings, s/he has the useable interface that is as close to the real situation as one can get and can alert other departments when you’ve experienced a disagreement among the sources or have other problems with availability/selection/etc. Another issue is that the O website will not let you book two tours on a single day (e.g., AM & PM) even if there is the acceptable 90 minute buffer between tours). And, of course, if you want to cancel a booked tour, you’ve got to call an O rep anyway. Finally, even if you have a TA, the O rep can sell you all optional purchases and send you a copy of the all-important “pre-purchased shore ex” PDF which has all the computational math that comes in handy if there’s tour cancels/changes/etc once you’re onboard. So, what you’re seeing/not seeing on the O tours web/cart may have nothing to do with reality.

I don’t see why not since, if you booked within the 30 day precruise window, you could always ask the O Club Ambassador to adjust your booking once onboard.

If you book within thirty days prior to embark, O will extend to you the BoB price.

Just to be clear, OCAPP and O Club $ perks are different things. OCAPP $ are “pass through” funds from O to a TA and/or it’s consortium (on select cruise segments) who then provides the credit to passengers - primarily as gratuities coverage on one or more cruise segments. O Club $ perks include gratuities coverage for members who are “silver” and above. When a segment of yours gets OCAPP $ and you are silver O Club or higher, the O Club perk becomes $250/cabin “in lieu” SBC. (Many years ago, the “in lieu” was the amount of the actual gratuities. That’s now gone except for some folks who were grandfathered in due to their O Club status at the time the policy changed. OCAPP vs O Club has one major issue though. If you’re silver/above O Club doing a multisegment cruise and only one segment gets TA OCAPP, you should get OCAPP for that segment and O Club gratuities for the other segment (in addition to O Club “in lieu” $250 for the OCAPP segment). However, an O software glitch that never seems to get fixed is that your O invoice will show the OCAPP $ for its segment and will also show the expected O Club “in lieu” $250 for that segment. BUT, the “in lieu” replaces the O Club gratuities for the second segment. NOT NICE! However, O is aware of the glitch (now years old) and they are supposed to correct it for your shipboard account close to embark day. It’s happened to us on several occasions. But, at the bottom line, we’ve always gotten full gratuities coverage and, except for one occasion where I had to push the $250 O Club “in lieu” for the OCAPP gratuities issue, your onboard account will show things correctly. BTW, I like everything in writing. Why? Even if your initial O booking invoice shows all OCAPP AND O Club perks correctly, the booking software glitch will introduce the error on subsequent invoices (e.g., generated by tour purchases). So, since I always initially book onboard or with a long serving O phone rep and then transfer the cruise to my TA (for their perks), I have the initial O rep add a booking notice that states we will receive full gratuities coverage. I also have our TA get a note from her O rep that all will be fixed before embarkation. A bit of extra effort that you probably don’t need? Perhaps (until you do need it someday). Finally, if you’re a newbie reading this, let me alert you to one very important fact. As you’ll read here on CC, there’s quite a number of O policies and procedures that are interpreted/applied differently by different O personnel (particularly when comparing Miami Office to the Ship. If you (or the right TA) know your O stuff inside out, the FUBARS will get corrected. That said, however, when it comes to O policies/procedures, remember the learned words of Captain Jack Sparrow when he explains that the Pirate Code is more realistically a Set of Guidelines. (Aarrghh!🏴‍☠️)

See my post #26.

Of course, my advice assumes one is on a ship that uses local time. FWIW, I’ve never been on a cruise ship that didn’t use local time. Must be a mass market thing for Caribbean cruises (?).

My understanding is that, right now and for the time being, LaReserve can only be booked onboard.

Odd that you wouldn’t know. Check-in process is on the top of your list of action items (right side of your account management page for the particular cruise).

Out on deck or in Horizons, the locks are worth seeing “up close and personal” through a couple of opening/closing activities. IMO, any more than that is like watching paint dry. Of course, that comment comes after having done the transit several times.

Seriously, with or without a veranda, the truly best view is the Bridge Cam in your cabin.

No bribes needed. Agreeable personality and genuinely respectful attitude work wonders.

That appears to be the wine-by-the-glass menu. Yet another reason to bring your own.

Long gone. Once O figured out that savvy folks were buying seven of whatever was the “loss leader” on the list, they stopped the program. For example, whenever we saw Mirabelle sparkling wine (often more than $20-25 retail back in the US), we’d grab seven bottles. Often the Mirabelle would be gone within a few days. Most of the rest of the stuff on the 7 bottle list was usually similar to the wine-by-the-glass offerings- about $10+\- retail at home (for which they were charging more than $40/bottle plus gratuity. Occasionally though they’d put one or two better quality wines in the program - usually the end of the bin stuff - to make way for new stock. Speaking of which, the “bin end list” is still alive and well with discounts of up to 30% off the ship’s price. We’ll always check that out when we board and possibly buy a few to round out our personal stock.

Yes to the Gin - they’ve now got Irish Gunpowder! As for DP, I’m not a big DP fan. I find many NotCal sparklers to be more to my liking (and st far better prices).

If anything in particular affects GDR walk-in seating offers, my guess is that elite O Club status outweighs cabin class. Staff, particularly those who are long-serving, know many of those O regulars, know they interact with the GM and know that they will be back.

The average O markup for bottled wine is about 300%+/- over US retail prices at home. IMO, bringing cheap wine onboard is a waste of time and energy. On the other hand, carrying on even a few select items that, onboard, would run several hundred dollars each (plus gratuity) makes the best sense.

Exactly.

If I was a solo cruiser, I would be just as unhappy as would be/are many others. But, industry data is data. And thus, squeezing profit from any opportunity is exactly what O is doing. So, what is “nonsense” is disputing the lost revenue motivation (numbers don’t lie) to do what is perceived by some to be unfair. O is a business and it banks on the good results of its decisions outweighing the bad. It’s worked for them for two decades. (Haven’t you noticed that O policy/practice/promotion changes are few and far between (e.g., O Life vs SM)? Of course, IMO, there is still one major unknown factor: FDR Jr is not FDR Sr. And I get an unverified sense that he may prefer heading in directions that establish his own identity rather than “staying the course.”. Yes, he grew up in the O family. But, O is not HIS “baby.” Needless to say, that could be beneficial/detrimental to customers/regulars or not. Time will tell.

Already posted about using the “world clock” on, at least, an iphone. No need to turn off automatic time zone correction. As long as your home time zone in the world clock was/is correct, each port location you add to your list will show correct local time.

Perhaps mainstream lines have more opportunity to grab your cash. But, O passengers are not immune to onboard spending. And not everyone onboard an O ship has pockets full of SBC. If you go to enough shipboard O Club events over the years, you’ll recognize that an average of about 25%+\- of passengers on each cruise are first timers and many of them booked direct with O (so no TA’s SBC). All their onboard spending is “out of pocket.” For example, let’s not forget the cost of the Prestige Package upgrade (above the new SM basic booze inclusion) at $30 pp/day (used to be $70 pp/day if you chose a different O Life perk) or the cost of a haircut ($40+tip even for a bald guy😳). And, of course, there’s the significant cost of ship’s excursions above and beyond the included O Life allowance or SM SBC provided. The list goes on …..

O’s position would be that the No Show’s $ paid covered only the published Penalty for Cancellation. That’s a separate part of the equation. There still remains, at least, the “lost” fare itself which is then accounted for by charging the remaining passenger a “single supplement.” AND, there still remains the estimated lost revenue from onboard spending (as identified in my post above as approximately an average 28% of cruise revenue). That single supplement IS meant to be what covers the lost revenue from onboard spending. In essence, how “unfair” this is perceived to be by us passengers is irrelevant. We are bound by the Ticket Contract and T&Cs. Equally irrelevant are isolated anecdotal statements regarding “We rarely spend our own money onboard.”

Anyone who thinks onboard spending is not a significant revenue generator knows very little about the cruise industry. From a 2018 study by Port Economics Management (porteconomicsmanagement.com): Revenue. The base fare paid by the average cruiser accounts for 72% of the revenue, implying that cruise lines are able to generate an additional 28% revenue tranche with onboard services, such as gambling, excursions, drinks, and personal services. Additionally, cruisers are spending on goods and services at ports of call, which are not accounted for here.

You may want to think a bit more about this! Sure, you can look at it as “O has already been paid for the empty bed.” But, a “no show” potentially (and usually) means lost O revenue from a lack of the “no show’s” onboard purchases (e.g., booze, tours, shops, future cruises….). Don’t you think O is smart enough to do whatever they deem is necessary to maximize their revenue (within the dictates of the ticket contract)? The “No Show’s” basic penalty is a loss of their share of the paid double occupancy fare. And any resulting single supplement fee you are charged is to cover the associated lost onboard purchase revenue. That said, another way to look at this is that the No Show owes you the cost of your Single Supplement add-on charge.