ORV

Just one small observation. Even on the days that the GDR is open for lunch it is not at all busy. I say this as one that always eats there on sea days, and I have a little bit of experience with those. I guess a lot of people just want to grab something at Terrace and get back to whatever they're doing.

We were on the Riviera and all of our stuff was Blvgari. It seems like I always have a spare bar or two.

There are two different types of bar soap in the sampler packs they sent out to what appears to be Platinum and up cruisers. There was a thread about it here. I haven't tried the hand soap yet.

I do not have any inside information on this, but if I had to take a guess, I would say that the reason La Reserve is being phased out is because of the Partnership with Wine Spectator, and the cost associated with that. Interesting also that the number of spots available are being cut in half when and if they have them in Privee as opposed to the La Reserve space. Perhaps the demand simply isn't there. It is a lot of money, especially for the Dom Perignon pairing.

I've tried the bar soaps back to back. I used the new Aquamar soap in the shower one day, and then the next day used Blvgari. To my preferences there is no comparison. The Blvgari as a shower soap is much superior to the Aquamar. That's simply my opinion, others may vary. I'm not a shower gel person, so that might color my opinion. The top thing I look for is how much it will lather up.

It still leaves much open to interpretation. People will get to debate what is dressy jeans as opposed to casual jeans. And the sneaker thing. Smart sneakers allowed but no athletic sneakers. I wish the writer of this release would expound on a smart sneaker. Is it like a Skecher? Boat Shoe? I wear Hokas, but would not ever wear them to dinner. They're expensive but I don't know about smart. They can definitely be an athletic shoe. Thanks for posting this.

Final payment on Oceania is 150 days out. It’s about 150 days until the end of November. So perhaps your final was due.

Wait a minute, La Reserve is still on Rivera, but as has been mentioned they will probably go ahead and make it Aquamar.

What country are you in?

For me it's simply that I've enjoyed the cruises I've been on Marina more than Riviera. I'm also more partial to Marina, but I did like the upgrades on Riviera.

There are multiple threads discussing this here with all the information you need. Some within the last week or so. Have you tried searching? You could start here.

They've been around for a while in one form or another. I haven't got one recently.

I think you misunderstood how it works. If you are Silver or above you get the gratuities paid, PLUS an additional $250 OBC. This confusion has also been an issue on the ship's accounting for us once, but it got straightened out.

Yes, you're both right. Who gets to be arbiter of what casual vs not casual is? I guess perhaps the Maitre D or host or hostess in the respective restaurants. I don't worry about it by not wearing jeans to dinner. I just wear my flannel pajama bottoms. They're good enough to wear to Walmart.

It's been that way for years, yet many people can't seem to read that. So many people want to interpret the dress code to be what they think it should be, not what it is.

How long is your cruise? There is a vast gulf between a PH and an Oceania Suite.

I guess no one will really know what the experience is like until they actually sail.

This is over my head but on a recent cruise our TV went completely out. They sent a tech to repair it and he accessed a lot of interesting screens while rebooting it. He also had a little remote and a notepad full of notes. He talked to himself and seemed to be complaining about the system the whole time he was there. But he got it fixed.

It depends on the source of the OBC. If it's a pass through by the TA it generally will be non refundable and on your invoice and available to use pre-cruise. If it's a gift from your TA it will probably be refundable, and you can get it back in cash at the end of the cruise if you don't spend it. So basically it's the same, just pay for it upfront and then you get reimbursed. You just have to wait a little longer to get the money.

That very nice of you to go to that effort. Which ship are you on?

Yes, the most important thing in the mailed package for me are the luggage tags, and they're not critical, you can always do handwritten ones at the port, or I also have a template to make my own if we know the room number. But the book is a nice thing to have for those that are new to Oceania or if it's been a while since you've cruised with them. It has a lot of important information all in one place. On the other hand your Final Documents that are emailed to you around 21 days is what has all the important information in it. This has the port information for embark and debark ports with addresses and Port Agent information. It has all your Specialty restaurant reservations, the itinerary, any perks you're getting and some other things. Your Online Check in also opens at 21 days before your cruise.

I like that @ feature, it's like saying Beetlejuice, but you don't have to say it 3 times. But unlike Beetlejuice, we like it when Mike shows up. 😃

Icy Strait(Hoonah), Juneau & Ketchikan. I can help as I was there, first it doesn't say Formal Attire, it says Proper Attire, pretty big difference. I believe on the middle inserts that Iborne didn't save and scan there was a more detailed description, basically they request no shorts, no t shirts, no ball caps, more or less the same dress code as you see for the dinner venues. This is just for the Horizons area that the Captain will actually be at. It doesn't necessarily pertain to Martinis or the Grand Bar where there are also free drinks. The reservation information you see is for the first day for those that didn't do their reservations pre cruise online. The card color actually refers to your room level. If you join a team for the daytime trivia it's generally expected that you'll stay with the same team and try to show up. Things happen like long excursions, other commitments etc, but most players will let the team know when they can't be there. Sometimes people start and drop out, they find the team may not be a good fit, or they don't like the trivia style etc. The evening trivia is much more fluid as dinner times and specialty reservations can get in the way of being at 8:30 trivia.

Unfortunately way too many businesses do this. Cell phone companies, cable companies, etc always giving the really good promos to new customers, while the long time loyal customers pay full boat.

We did have an Art Scavenger hunt, and we did it, but then missed the redemption. Oh well, didn't really need the points anyway as there wasn't much new merchandise we didn't have. I think maybe the Gold Glitter Mug, we had the Silver one, so now we have a set. Interesting as the older Silver one has the "Your World Your Way" logo but the new one doesn't. I did get two pair of socks that were the old style with the logo monogrammed as opposed to the newer ones that are screen printed. The screen-printed ones flake off.