WildWanderers

Hi All, In the briefing by the GM and captain of the Marina earlier this week, the one on how the ship works, how many eggs are brought on board, etc., plus a Q&A, it was confirmed that the short upcoming dry dock for the Marina would include redecorating of the penthouse suites, including the replacement of the bathtub by a big shower - to which everyone cheered. The woman who asked the question about the other suites started with...don't tell me that you are doing only accommodation renovation will focus on the penthouse suites...in a not so happy tone. The answer was that for the time allotted that is all that can be done with contractors working 24x7, and that in the near future the rest of the accommodation will be similarly upgraded. In case this helps, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi All, I asked my Oceania representative this past week if he had any way of knowing if we could have the complimentary hotel stay in advance of a cruise we have booked that begins in Rio de Janeiro in 2025, given that Brazil is mentioned in the press release (about Oceania's upcoming offer effective April 1) on the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings website. He reminded me that it is not as simple as ... I'll take the free room please ... it means that I have to look at the rate for the room we have booked as it appears on April 1 to see if it has gone up - in which case my free room is not really free. At present there is no hotel on offer pre-cruise for our trip, but that does not mean that there will not be one. He and I are chatting on Monday, once the offer is published. In case this helps, Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers

Hi @Stockjock, In the past my application for the shareholder credit has gone through smoothly at times, and only after much frustrating follow-up, at times. My Oceania representative advised me once to wait until 30 days before the sail-date to apply, and since then, it goes through within a business day In case this helps, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi John, I can't imagine having to deal with COPD, not fun I am sure. Difficulties with breathing would be my nightmare. Smart to have the rescue pack. We are fortunate that one of our best friends is a doctor, only an email away, so no need for us to self-diagnose. In these days of few doctors around, and decreasing numbers of family doctors, we are so lucky. I swear the cipro prescription we had on hand in Cuba one time saved my life. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers (Big fan of Coronation Street and Heartbeat, and addicted to BritBox. Such is a good life.)

Hi @JYDCruise, Thanks for your concern. We have the take or not take decision in hand. Totally understand that this will not fly in some jurisdictions. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers

Hi All, The only excursions available in Colon were seemingly the Oceania Select called the Colon Oscopy, and the special at the Montezuma race track, called the Trots. Many people stayed onboard, however, enjoying the newly renamed Terrace Café, now the Poop Deck. Butt seriously, if you have yet to take your trip, consider asking your doctor for a just-in-case filled prescription of ciprofloxacin. We never travel without it. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers

Hi All, Upgrading, Downgrading and Bidding, o my! We started cruising with Oceania in 2014, and in the following 4-5 years used to receive offers of upgrades and downgrades, for various costs and benefits, and sometimes several offers on a given cruise. Since then, crickets. We did ask our Oceania representative before an August 2023 cruise what the cost of an upgrade from a concierge level room to a penthouse would be. The price he quoted was pretty much what was posted, but he suggested I contact him a week before sailing and he would check what kind of a deal he could get then. We did and his offer was still beyond our comfort level. When we boarded and asked the executive concierge for an upgrade on the second of our then two back-to-backs, she said she would put us on the list, and warned me that if we got an offer, it was a fixed amount, non-negotiable. The next day we got a letter from her on our door with an offer far too good to refuse. As a result, for the second of the two cruises we had a shower in which we not only fit, but could turn around. This Spring we are taking a transatlantic Oceania cruise, and eventually returning on the Queen Mary 2 - our first time trying this. We noticed that the cost was the same to do this as two business class fares, so why not. A couple of weeks ago we received an offer to bid on an upgrade. I looked online to see if there was advice on how to play the game to get what you want, and found little. We bid on what is called a Princess suite (we would dine in a different dining room - with presumably a more special menu) and are currently in a Britannia suite that looks like an Oceania concierge level suite. The bid was good for three days and at the end of the three days we heard nothing. I now know (had to contact Cunard on another matter) that they kept the bid alive and we may hear that we got the upgrade up to three days before sailing. This will complicate the printing of their luggage tags for us, but this too is solvable. In case any of this helps, Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers

The language on their Oceania club benefits website says, "10% SAVINGS ON THE PRESTIGE SELECT BEVERAGE PACKAGE", which in a SimplyMore world is just the upgrade. We have been given the 10% discount for our last two cruises, once we could prove that we had booked and paid in advance. I do not doubt you were told that it applies only if you book the full package, as I had 3 different interpretations of whether I was eligible or not from Reception / Executive Concierge staff. My feeling is that if it no longer applies in a SimplyMore world, remove it from the list of Oceania Club benefits. Clearer language would not hurt. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers

As I am sure you saw, they are selling the full drinks package, the upgrade, the buy a bunch of bottles deal, the wine tastings and the spirits tastings. We purchased a whisky tasting and a wine tasting on our last cruise from one of these booths and the young man who sold it to us was pleased as punch, as he got a commission from it.

Hi All, Be careful about planning to book onboard an upgrade or full drinks package if you are at the Oceania credit silver level or higher. I raise this only in light of the preceding discussion in which it is suggested to book the upgrade to the drinks package onboard rather than in advance. On our last three cruises we were told (onboard at Reception) that we were not eligible for the 10% discount (available to silver + folk) as we had not booked and paid in advance. We were able to prove in all three cases that we had paid in advance. Unfortunately on the first of the three, the book and pay in advance was on an immediately preceding of a back-to-back combo, and this was deemed to be enough to make us not eligible. We were told at reception that we had to be on land when we booked the upgrade. (Which sounded at the time as arbitrary as saying that we had to be wearing a red shirt when we booked.) I haven't found this rule written (book-in-advance rule, not wear-red-shirt rule), and would not be surprised to hear that others had different experiences. Nonetheless, just to be safe, if you are silver or higher, or becoming silver, I would recommend booking and paying in advance for the drinks package upgrade (or the full drinks package if you have a legacy OLife booking in which you did not OLife-choose the basic drinks package), just to ensure that you get the 10% discount. When you do book in advance the key card is already set up to recognize the upgrade on embarkation day, which saves you a step (no need to get a new card at Reception) on day one. Hope this is useful, Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi @MEFIowa and @Vallesan, I guess we had better be prepared to pay more than I thought; thanks for this! Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi @MEFIowa, Thanks for the reminder about the transit system. Very useful. I may still have our transit cards from our stay in Istanbul in 2019. We will stay in Beyoglu after our cruise for a couple of weeks, and can walk down a very steep hill to get to the trams. We take the transit system to higher up on the hill when we go back to the hotel so that we can walk downhill both coming and going. Our hotel is on a street with restaurants, and antique and other shops. In 2019 we were shocked at how inexpensive everything was except for fish and wine. The exchange rate for buying Turkish lira with Canadian dollars is even more shockingly favourable now that it was in 2019. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers.

Hi back to Gary, I am glad that you had a good experience with an Istanbul taxi driver. We visited Istanbul for a couple of weeks in the spring of 2019, and found the taxi drivers booked for us by our hotel to be great, but every time we tried to hire a cab to get back to the hotel, the cab driver angrily waved us off, often the distance was not enough to be worth his while. OK the distance was not always huge, but it was quite uphill. I would have offered him more to make it worth his while but we really couldn't communicate, and it would have been hard to calm him down with my lack of Turkish. When you can find a driver for the day, they are gold. Cheers, Greg

Hello All, When I booked a PH1 on Turkish Ovation (on the Vista, departing July 23, 2024) on June 26, 2023 the gross amount was $16,288 for the two of us. I asked for subsequently announced sales prices to be taken into account, and at one point migrated to SimplyMore as a result. I also bought a culinary experience ($240) for the two of us and the upgrade to the drinks package for two ($718), and bought shore excursions exceeding my SimplyMore allotment by $1054.50. So notionally you can add all of these expenses to the $16,288. After all of this the gross amount on the latest invoice is down to $11,041.50 for the two of us, even including those additional expenses. All of this is in Canadian funds, but the latest gross amount is substantially less than the original, even with culinary, drinks and excursions added in. In roll calls there has been a lot of speculation about whether the Turkish ports will be cancelled as they were on other 2024 cruises, but this has not as yet happened. Not sure that it would make sense to still call it Turkish Ovation if you stuff the Turkey portion, so to speak. Is this one now a bargain? Yours to discover. I remember our Oceania representative saying that he didn't think the application of the last sale to this booking would make a difference, and when he tried it out, he said...OMG...look at this. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi @Sthrngary, Before I answer your question about favourite things on (in our case only Oceania) cruises, let me just say that I am so pleased that you overcame your stroke to become a person who enjoys life, shares your wisdom, calms the rough waters and brings logic to every debate. These are a few of my favourite things. (Do you hear music?) I enjoy reading the GDR and Terrace Café menus each day for lunch and dinner to figure out where to go when There is a lot in common between the two menus for each meal, but sometimes it is the difference between the two that informs the decision of where to go, sometimes it is whether we want to be served or not, and sometimes it is that we want to eat outdoors. My better half prefers to be surprised by what is on the menus. Sometimes it takes a while before the menus on posted on the in-room system. I get teased about…*you’re not looking at menus again are you?* We enjoy at-sea days as we get to read and relax, with where to eat being the biggest decision of the day. It’s not all about food. I enjoy not having to do grocery shopping and cooking and dishwashing. A lot. Soon after embarkation and our visit to our muster station: - we used to go to the Library to find books by our favourite authors before the big arriving crowds (whom we never saw by the way) took them. Things change. We prefer reading books on our Kindles, and a book has to be compelling for us to read paper now. - we used to go straight to Reception to buy the upgrade to the drinks package, but now that we are silver level on Oceania points, we have to buy the upgrade before embarkation to be eligible for the 10% discount. - we still go straight to the Terrace Café for bubbly, sometimes a couple of types of bubblies and a taste-test, and lunch. We enjoy a pot of afternoon tea at tea-time, to accompany a game of Skipbo. And maybe a scone with clotted cream, as it’s been already a couple of hours without eating at that point. We enjoy keeping an eye out for crew we have met and / or befriended on previous cruises. We revel in the luxury of our penthouse room, having found the smaller rooms too small. Imagine my avatar trying to shower in a less-than-penthouse sized shower. We enjoy the welcome, willingness to assist and attentiveness of our butler, actually of the team of butlers as they all pinch hit for one another. I enjoy becoming familiar with the wines, while I enjoy matching them to the food myself, it is also fun to figure out which of the sommeliers know their stuff, and make good and at times unusual pairing suggestions. I enjoy choosing a glass of wine for the appetizer or starter (that we call entrée), and a different one for the main course (that Oceania calls entrée). Did I mention that it is not all about food? We enjoy ports where we can wander around on our own either near the port or after an Oceania-provided shuttle to the city centre. We enjoy. Not sure if there is much here to provide inspiration, but we board our 12th Oceania cruise in four weeks from today, and can hardly wait. I am recovering from an operation to remove a nickel-sized and deep cancer toward the tip of my nose, with a hunk of tissue from next to my ear stitched in to fill the hole. Although I now have ear tissue on the tip of my nose, I don’t hear any better. I had hoped for a Sean Connery look, but alas, am converging to W.C. Fields. I will have to figure out how to add a “greater than” sign to mimic my scar on the nose of my avatar. We will enjoy. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers

Hi @rheasue38, We recently booked a Southampton to London transfer with Empire UK Chauffeur. I was impressed at how quickly they got back to me and how thorough they were in gathering the info they needed to make sure we could be in contact at the time of the pick-up. Hoping that the rest of their service is as good. I had tried a different firm first but found their quote to be exorbitant. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi @thebsinmiss, Thanks for this. I was hoping - that the actual language would be a clue as to why Oceania left Turkey ports in some of the itineraries, including Turkish Ovation, the one we are on; and - that I would be more confident that Turkey will not be dropped from our cruise as well. Oceania didn't do themselves any favours by implying that Turkey ports are part of - the "safety and security" considerations, and - the "Holy Land" region when there are still cruises with Turkey ports included. Is it possible that Turkey ports were dropped from cruises only when there were planned ports / stops in Israel? And even if that were the case, the text in your letter does not help to clarify why we still have Turkey in our itinerary. I'm confused too. Cheers from Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi All, Does anyone have the actual language used by Oceania to suggest that Turkish ports specifically, including Istanbul, were cancelled because of security concerns? The only thing I seem to recall at the time, was language around reconfiguring their Mediterranean offerings. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers.

Hi @thebsinmiss, It is not so much that Istanbul is "back on" Oceania's itineraries, as much as several cruises were left with Istanbul included. We are on one such cruise that ends in Istanbul with an overnight there, before also ending there. We were worried at the time that our itinerary would lose Istanbul, as were others on our roll call, but Istanbul survived on our cruise, when several other Mediterranean cruises were rejigged. We also wondered at the time if they would change the name of the cruise from Turkish Ovation, if the Turkey portion was cut. It is possible that Oceania said at the time that "Oceania canceled the two ports in Turkey citing passenger safety as the primary reason," but I don't recall that kind of clarity. Maybe more changes to come? Only time will tell. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers

Hi All, A scalable self-guided tour in a Barcelona neighbourhood. Taxi from the ship, perhaps. If you are looking for something to do one noontime / afternoon in Barcelona consider visiting the trendy El Born area, which is characterized by narrow medieval streets offering designer boutiques and cafes by day, and cocktail bars and Catalan restaurants by night. The following are in the same little neighbourhood, so not much walking to see it all. The Santa Maria del Mar Basilica…read up on how it was constructed…there are books about it…some are excellent historical fiction. Great stained glass. The wine bar right across the walkway from the entrance to the Basilica: La Vinya del Senyor. It has amazing wines by the glass (please don’t ask if they are included in SimplyMore) that you can combine with their various platters of nibblies to make a meal. The chairs are not comfortable but there is no better people-watching to be had. As you sit facing the Baslica, on the street on the right hand side of the Basilica, a couple of stores down, there is a deli called La Botifarreria de Santa Maria. It is worth looking inside, buying something to taste or enough for a picnic. It is a must-go shop if you ever stay in a room with a kitchen. (We rented a Vacation Rental by Owner (VRBO) once on the top two floors above this deli.) You can find wine for your picnic at the Vila Vinateca, a must-see for its variety of wines, on the Carrer dels Agullers, a whole minute away. And on the way to the wine store you can stop off to buy designer macarons at Bubó Barcelona, a dessert shop just around the corner from la Vinya del Senyor. Or you can have a meal and / nibblies at the Euskal Etxea Taberna, at Placeta de Montcada, just behind the Basilica, where they have many trays of pintxos. Once you order your wine, they give you a plate and you can take as many of the pintxos as you want. They count your toothpicks (that were embedded in the pintxos) to know how much to charge you. And for those people for whom there is more to life than eating and drinking there is the Picasso Museum, just down from the Euskal Etxea Taberna, a further 2 minute walk. There are lots of souvenir shops. At some if you are the first customer of the day, you get a major discount to give good luck to the shop owner. There are also shops with colourful, unique local crafts, more expensive than the stock souvenirs you see everywhere. You'll recognize me at the Vinya del Senyor, as I look like my avatar. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers.

Hi @Bob from Florida, We had to disembark and embark again in the middle of our B2B in December 2023 in Miami, but in August 2023 did not have to disembark in the middle of that B2B in Reykjavik (almost as hard to spell as Civitavecchia 😉 ). In both cases, the room stewards and butler had prioritized the cleaning of the room we were moving to, and the move was completed, and we were unpacked in the new room within an hour after the previous folk had had to vacate the room. After we closed the door of room 1 for the last time, one of us went to Reception to get the new card keys, while the other went with the trolley to the then open, new room. In both cases there was no need to close out the account to the first cruise, everything rolled over, which meant that we could use the large number of shipboard credits we had on the first cruise, for spa services and a wine tasting on the second cruise. "Large" only because we had a reduction in the cost of the cruise after it was fully paid, and had to take the refund in nonrefundable shipboard credits. Hope something in the preceding is useful. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers.

Hi All, There is a difference between "online check-in" (title of this thread) and boarding at the port (most of the discussion in this thread). And it can be an important distinction. I raise this only because of an incident in Miami when folk were boarding for Gems of the Leewards on the Insignia on December 17, 2023. People did not get to board until late afternoon even if they had been waiting since early morning due to a major storm and the Insignia losing its place in the queue for docking. When we left the ship (as required as we were continuing on a back-to-back), and then went to re-board, we passed through the people waiting to embark. Many of them were angry that they could not just get onto the ship because weeks ago they had done the online check-in, and they thought that should be enough, that they should be able to "bypass all of these other people", who in fact, unbeknownst to them, had also done the online check-in. It is true that there was not very good communication that day, but the misunderstanding that online check-in meant that no boarding procedures were required was not something I would have foreseen as requiring communication. What I found unfortunate was that the Insignia never let these boarding people know that the Insignia was not allowed (via local? regulation) to provide food and water to the folk waiting to board, before they boarded, that it was the responsibility of the port authority to care for the boarding folk. Unfortunate because many of the folk who boarded that day blamed Insignia, and never got over it. The value of communicating, clearly. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers.

Hi @WESTEAST, We asked the Oceania Club Ambassador (now called Future Cruise Consultant) on an August 2023 cruise what VIP Shore Excursion Check-in meant. She said...oh, yeah, that thing. She said that Destination Services had the idea that she would go to the Lounge when people assemble for excursions and identify Silver+ members for Destination Services so that they could somehow board first. She explained to Destination Services that she had a full time job, and would be unable to do this. I then asked the Destination Services manager who was annoyed that I had any information that sounded like such a "service" existed. Where did I get this, she asked, we don't do this, it makes no sense. OK. I showed her that it was on documentation from the Oceania Club about benefits, and she said that I should not have this. Like any good Canadian, I apologized. All a bit confusing. If anyone has ever seen VIP Shore Excursion Check-in implemented, it would be interesting to hear how. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers.

Hi @AMHuntFerry, Keep up the good work on finding deals, you're doing a great job. Cheers, Greg from the WildWanderers

Hi All, We were on the same cruise as @FeliciaLee, so heard the same frequent messages about the end-of-cruise electronic survey, with many options for how to get assistance if it was difficult for any passenger to access. It was quite easy actually - easier than using CruiseCritic 😉 We had a manager call us in response to a comment we made on the paper-based surveys, and several crew were tickled pink with the comments we had made about them. I did hear a comment that the electronic survey was not already implemented on all of the ships, or that it was difficult to implement onboard for the IT folk, I didn't pay much attention at the time...but I would be careful not to jump to the conclusion that the lack of availability of the electronic survey meant that they don't really care. On eleven cruises, we have always been provided with the paper feedback surveys, but not always had the offer of the electronic surveys. Cheers from Greg of the WildWanderers