ORV

Is that Ray's brother? Like the Kinks?

From their website, yes shipping is expensive, but so is a new bag. You are responsible for the cost of shipping your bag to us, however, we will return the favor and ship your bag back to you free of charge. You also have the option to take the repair into your own hands. Take advantage of our self-repair kits. You can send or bring your bag to a local Authorized Repair Center. They are located throughout the world. No repair number is needed. We recommend calling your local repair center before bringing or shipping your bag to discuss the details of your repair.

Yes, I think I've read that post Covid they didn't have the Meet the Captain, but I think the free drinks were still there. Personally I never went to Horizons on the Welcome night. More fun in Martinis or Casino bar. I'm sure many things have been done differently post covid, my experiences are all pre covid. But we're fixing that in a couple of months.

I'm sorry, but no, the Captain's Welcome is for everyone. You might have it confused with the repeaters party. Or something else. No invitation necessary.

Here's what I do. I don't mess around with cheap luggage. I buy Briggs & Riley. They have a no questions asked Lifetime guarantee for repair or replacement. It doesn't matter how old it is or who damaged it .No need for a receipt. Built like a tank, I haven't had to take them up on it yet.

Usually the second night of every cruise has the Captain's Welcome where there are free drinks for 3 hours. Sometimes when there have been issues they will have an open bar to soothe things over. Missed ports etc.

If you're on the package it really doesn't matter. Just get another one. 🙃 In answer to your original question. I have never seen a discount on the package on any of my cruises since they started having it. I have seen discounts multiple times on Celebrity, but that wasn't the question.

I guess since you didn't say more it's hard to tell, but how did you decide on this TA? Was it a recommendation from a friend? Another chatroom? Ignoring an email, or a request would indicate to me that they weren't interested in my business, was either too busy, or too lazy to do it, or had some type of emergency where they couldn't respond. From my experience I get a confirmation as soon as I say let's do it, and generally a hold is placed while I'm thinking about it. Once money is actually on the table I get another confirmation showing that. Anytime there is any type of change at all I get a new invoice showing that. It's not uncommon, depending on how long in advance I make a booking, to have between 3-8 invoices during the life of a booking.

I didn’t realize that until you mentioned it. Very interesting.

Sodas, club soda, no alcohol. They’ll put in whatever you request that is available. If you have a special request have your TA request that in advance.

I was agreeing with you. I was just adding to what you said. You're probably right about the cost when you take it with Olife, it's always cheaper than buying it outright. I don't remember ever figuring the per day cost with it. I usually take either the drink package or excursions, or nothing with the Olife, depending on the itinerary.

Not to be argumentative, but no, it's been $20 a person, per day for years. Here you go, https://www.oceaniacruises.com/value#value-packages

And I'm pretty sure that the basic package starts at 39.99. But to address the OP. I don't buy the premise that they are ridiculously overpriced. Look at the current price of Celebrity's drink price for comparison.

Hopefully your sons are self entertaining. Not many others in their age group will be onboard. Not a lot of activity on Oceania at night. Great food though.

We have a group lunch for Dim Sum on the first day, but we're there two days. Thanks for the recommendation, we'll look in to it.

Seeing how FDR was one of the most adamant on 100% vax I doubt it.

My cruise is a California Coastal, certainly not as many tour options as Caribbean. I would think there would be a formula, but there doesn't seem to be one in this case.

On our May Millennium cruise here are the things I asked for and wasn't able to find at any bar. Flor De Cana rum, Ron Zacapa Rum, best available was the Bacardi 8 Anos. Frangelica, The McCallan, they had the Quest and the other duty free/cruise ship MacCallan, but neither are as good as The McCallan. Who knows what else they didn't have as I'm a rum and scotch drinker. As far as wine goes I like the Cherry Pie, and had that with dinner most nights, so wasn't disappointed there. If it wasn't for preferring a Single Malt I probably won't upgrade in the future. They generally had Glenlivet, which I find preferable to either of the McCallans available. And I'm sure I could go 10 or 15 days without scotch, so will probably stick with the basic in the future. Seems to me they picked a really bad time to increase the price of the packages if they are aware of their supply issues. Just my take, as I've seen posted by others that they are ok with not getting what you paid extra for. I wouldn't go so far as to call it bait and switch, but it's close.

Are you in contact with your TA on this? Are they responding? I think I'd be checking every couple of days. Actually, no I wouldn't have to, my TA would be all over it.

Yeah, I'm not sure who doesn't get that. That's not what's trying to be figured out. Can you explain why BBqoug's cruise requires less to purchase than mine, although their cruise is longer with more port days? My cruise is 8 days with 5 ports, theirs is 11 days with 8 ports. Logically my cruise should require less excursions purchased than theirs to get the discount. Do you see that? Better yet do you understand it? Only thing that I can think of is that I booked under the Ultimate and that is being factored in.

Let me ask a stupid question. That would include the ones you get for Olife? Or is that in addition to the Olife ones. For mine we get 2 Olife excursions per person, then I would have to purchase 3 more per person to get the 25%. I see your cruise has 3 olife excursions per person. So are you saying if you take the Olife then you only have to book 1 more per person to get the 25% discount? Or if you didn't take the Olife then if you book 4 excursions you would get it? Or is it a total of 7 per person if you add in the Olife?

That's interesting, I'm on a 8 day cruise and it requires 5 to get the 25% discount. How many ports on yours? Mine has 5 port days.

How long is your cruise?

Yeah, I was referring to what has happened historically, especially pre covid, but who knows in the future.

In my experience, no. I rarely see a slot pull discussed on an Oceania RC, same for a cabin crawl/poker run. Although there is a bit of overlap on the two lines(I'm one of them myself) there is usually a completely different flavor to an Oceania Roll Call than there is to a Celebrity one. You do see Meet & Greet discussion, tour sharing, and of course the current weather in Paducah on both.