Flatbush Flyer

Of course, what you haven’t mentioned is the surprise all those who move away from California face when they’ve had enough of Texas or Florida and want to go back to California where they are now priced out of the housing market. Gotta ask what you think “California has become.”

Remember that San Diego is also a county and areas outside the City of San Diego have pockets of relative affordability for housing. Smart buyers looking at coastal California locations learn quickly how to pick areas on the cusp of gentrification or at the junction of suburban and rural communities near major cities like Los Angeles or San Francisco. As for “expensive,” not really -when you compare “apples to apples” like LA or SF to NYC or Boston. Perhaps a more accurate comment would be that water adjacent properties in the Southern US (whether on the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico side are relatively inexpensive (though it does come at the cost of humidity, hurricanes et al. .

And this points to a major factor in why many retirees head to Florida despite its stifling summer humidity (and all the other shortcomings): $$$ (or lack of it). There are far better places to “hang you hat” Want the year round Med climate, beaches, geography and little humidity? Go to San Diego. Of course, the cost of housing there eliminates that choice for many whose Florida decision is based primarily on budget.

Though we’d never leave the perfection of NorCal, add me to the pro-Sydney folks.

Wouldn’t move just to cruise (though we can see the occasional cruise ship from our deck facing south across SF Bay). But, living next to the Pacific Ocean is a must for us. That said, SF (and SFO) is ideal for cruising embarkation to spots throughout the Pacific Rim. I know some folks think the world of South Florida. But, it does zip for us. The weather (particularly in summer), the geography, the dominant politics, the list goes on... Might I suggest an alternative (on the US east coast if you don’t want to move west)? NYC!!! Anything you could ever want/need in culture/arts/etc and a great base for cruising the Atlantic et al. (Even if you have to occasionally do the short hop to/from MIA)

Since it appears that you’re looking for an “upscale” experience, why not book the real thing with a premium or luxury line? FWIW: a lot of folks make the rookie error of comparing only cabin prices rather than the “net daily rate” of all required/optionally desired cruise vacation expenses. The inclusions alone on premium/luxury lines (e.g., air tix or air credit) contribute to a bottom line that may pleasantly surprise you when you compare them to the attempts of mass market lines to have a “ship within a ship.”

For the most part (over the years), I have worked hard to center my health care at the University of California San Francisco. UCSF uses MyChart for patient medical records. It is the most widely used medical records system in the US and is accessible to any bona fide health care provider at your choice (and via your online action) anywhere in the world with internet connectivity. You can even have old records (or those from other providers who use a different system) scanned into MyChart at UCSF. In fact, if I encounter a need for a non-UCSF provider/facility, one of the first questions I ask (beyond Medicare assignment) is whether they use MyChart. Nonetheless, I have also, for many years, maintained an abbreviated personal medical summary (incl Hx, Dx, Rx) which I carry on a USB thumb drive and as a hard copy when traveling.

They still make Pepsi?😳

Let me add another SNAFU factor to the discussion: You DIY a flight that arrives “same day” as embark. You arrive on time and get a ground transport to the pier (prearranged or not). When you arrive at your embark time (or even before it), there is no ship.👀😳. Yes folks- it happens. A Port Authority may change locations and you’re the last to know (if anyone bothers to notify you anyway. It’s happened to us (though, of course, we fly in days early and pre-arrange embark transfers with plenty of buffer time built in for traffic, wine shopping enroute and, yes, even the “missing ship” possibility). In fact, it happened to us yesterday in Stockholm Sweden which (as you might expect) has a huge port complex. We arrived at the published pier complex about an hour before our assigned time and saw a handful of cruise ships but no Oceania Insignia anywhere in sight! Fortunately, our local/Swedish driver had also been our guy for prior tour/transfer services and spoke impeccable English. He quickly checked at the nearest gate/terminal and we headed to the correct location about a convoluted mile away (but not visible from the initial wrong location). All ended okay but not without some initial worry. Can you imagine if your DIY air was a same day arrival and you had not pre-arranged a private transfer - thus having to rely on hailed taxis or ubers or (worst still) public transit to get you to your ship (add a non-English speaking driver just for added effect)? That was the situation for a very few of our fellow embarkers who (somewhat fortunately) arrived with only minutes to spare - just enough for them to avoid becoming “pier runners” on day 1.

Paxlovid can help but, recent indications are that some patients will experience Covid “bounce back.” NOT good!

Silver Fleet. We use them for transfers from London to Southampton. If they can’t do what you need, I trust that they will refer you to a trusted provider. As a last resort, you can use the airport transfer search engine Mozio.com

+1

What you describe is exactly the way folks should be checking their bookings. There are many excellent TAs (and quite a few poor ones as well). But, even the best TAs are not necessarily familiar with O’s many idiosyncrasies. Some posters on the O forum swear that their TA is so wonderful that there is no need no need to ever review their work and compare it to the Oceania policies and practices. But, that is a poor consumer practice.

OnPoint Testing (Google it) provides 24/7 CLIA certified telemedicine proctoring of unopened home tests (with QR code and unexpired date on the boxes) that you provide. This includes the free ones you can get from the US Govt. You do need to make an appointment and the cost is about $25 per person for the proctoring. OR, if you’re flying, most major airports have onsite CLIA labs with, at least rapid antigen and often rapid PCR tests. Check if appointment is needed/advised. Depending on the cruise line, they may have pier-side testing available for a fee. And, of, course check out major pharmacy chains like Walgreens and CVS.

For the same price (or perhaps even less if you know how best to do the booking), you could cruise on an actual premium/luxury line rather than the imitation “ship within a ship” pretenders.

Colonnade? What Colonnade? Which Oceania ship are you talking about?

Most recent O cruise was this past January (2022). Food was as great as usual except for my beloved multi-grain rolls, which suffered slightly from not enough poppy seeds (due to a worldwide supply chain issue). Pictured is the traditional one.

You’re a touch late to be buying a popular O excursion for August. Usually it means “sold out.” You can call O and be put on a waiting list. BTW, I haven’t heard of issues with that nearby port (though tour outfits could also cause a tour to be cancelled (but, unless the O destination services folks have not yet gotten to it, cancelled tours usually disappear from the website and you eventually get $ credit for it.

So, two different “booking” numbers (Upper left corner of page 1 of the Oceania invoiceS (one invoice for each cruise). Correct? By any chance does the cruise ID # upper right side of page 1 on either or both cruises have a single number with an “A” at the end? If “A” (or even another different letter is there), even if only for one of the bookings, is there OR if either invoice has the aforementioned two cruise ID numbers separated by a “/“, that would explain why you had to have two different bookings. And any “discount you were told you were receiving would be built into the fare of whichever cruise(s) were booked as a bona fide multisegment cruise. Why? You can’t put already discounted multi-segment cruises together as a “custom cruise” made up of two other “custom cruises” or two “extended journey” cruises (or one of each). That would be a “double dip” which is not allowed by the O “revenue” folks. If what I have just described is the case (we have this situation this coming autumn - two adjacent individually discounted “extended journeys” booked separately because they can’t be combined as a “custom cruise” (re: double dip) for you, your account at the end of each cruise will be settled to $O of any $ due from you or returned to you from refundable sources. Any non-refundable SBC (e.g., O Club SBC) you received for each individual cruise cannot be carried over to another cruise even if it’s the next segment. After all, it’s “non-refundable.”

I still don’t know if you have one or two invoices. If the Ambassador said “we’re putting them together to get approx 5% discount,” and you agreed, you have a “custom [aka “combination”] cruise” (NOT called “B to B,”which is a “different animal” in terms of fare, perks, etc). So, do you have a single booking number (upper left hand corner of the O invoice) and on the right upper side of the O invoice do you see two cruise ID #s separated by a “/“? If YES, any of O’s non-refundable SBC is available to use for booze, gratuities, added excursions, etc until the end of your whole multi-segment itinerary. For the sake of newbies reading this, please confirm whether this is a single booking number on a single O invoice. Also, though you don’t mention it, from where is the $1000 coming? Is it O Life, O Club, TA...? Again I mention this because most TA SBC is refundable and most O SBC is not. Also, as a reminder for other readers here: O SBC (O Life and/or O Club) can be spent pre-cruise for O excursions and other onboard options. BTW:, since you said you “booked onboard,” I hope you transferred the booking to a TA during the 30-day post cruise transfer window. NOTE to newbies: If your current cruise was handled by a TA, onboard bookings will be auto-assigned to your TA for the current cruise unless you specify that you want it self-assigned which allows you time to change TAs if you so desire. As for buying wine with SBC: If your O provided SBC (O Life and/or O Club) was not used pre-cruise for pre-purchased excursions et al., get the wine “bin end list” once onboard at embarkation and pre-buy any discounted items that interest you. They will then be available to you as needed during the cruise. There’s also the “7 bottle plan” which is another list of mostly mediocre (though an occasional “loss leader” is in the mix) from which you pre-select 7 bottles at about $45 each (we’ve sometimes done this on a long cruise with 7 bottles of the same better wine).

Let’s first clarify the meaning of the terms you’re using. On O, a “cruise credit” is what you “earn” when you take a cruise. The number of credits depends on the length of the cruise. Earn a set number of cruise credits and you move up the perks ladder in the O Club. The term “B to B” (back to back) is too generic for O cruises. In fact, if you’re talking about two adjacent segments booked separately (each with its own booking number), it’s rarely done that way (unless you are changing cabins) since the total of the two fares will always be more than if the segments are booked as a published “extended journey” or as an unpublished “custom” cruise (each having a single booking number and discounted fare as well as perks that may vary dependent on which type of multi-segment cruise you are on). What and how many O perks (O Club SBC, gratuities, cruise credits, et al.) accompany each type of booking can get a bit confusing. But, if you Search here on CC, you’ll find some detailed explanations that I and others have posted. That said, I’m guessing that what you are asking is whether any non-refundable SBC (shipboard credit [$$]) you have received from O is useable across an entire multi-segment cruise. If you are talking about a cruise with a single booking number (i.e., “extended journey” or “custom cruise” or the recently reintroduced “grand journey” of 3+ segments totaling 2+ months), the answer is YES. However, if you somehow managed to book two adjacent cruises separately (i.e., each with its own booking number), the answer is NO. Of course, if the SBC you’re talking about was a perk added by your TA, it may be refundable and you would get any left over back at the completion of the itinerary associated with a specific booking number.

Agreed that the Insurance PEC is not the same as the healthcare PEC and the lookback period is a key factor in the mix. Also agree that many comprehensive travel policies are woefully inadequate for med coverage. We are so very fortunate that our retirement health benefits are provided by CalPERS (California Public Employees Retirement System). Our Medicare supplements convert to excellent Blue Cross coverage (including Geo Blue coordination) as soon as we’re outside of the US. We add a MedJet annual policy for evac (though we’re currently looking at the Emergency Assistance+ deal from United Airline’s FF program). But, of course, none of that addresses trip cancel/interrupt and try and find a policy just for that with limits that cover “expensive” cruises. So, we hunt down inexpensive comp policies that covers the trip costs adequately ( the rest of the policy is of less interest to us save med copay help if needed.

And many credit cards exclude PECs as claimable for trip cancel/interrupt coverage. Add to that the meager total claim allowance $ of the CC coverage as well as the total limit amounts of annual comprehensive travel policies and one cruise alone could easily wipe out your protection.

You do not need to keep most medicines in their original container. Anyone can put anything in those containers. Get the pharmacy’s app (like CVS) which has list, description and pics of your meds along with name of prescribing MD. Alternatively, you can get a printed “back panel” from the pharmacist. You’ll have to contact each foreign country visited if you have narcotics and some other Rx meds. They will need to be in the original containers (which of course is ridiculous).

Mariner is a Regent ship- not Oceania.O’s regular Alaska ship is Regatta.