flyer79

I booked 5 excursions on an SM booking. I did 3 a week or so ago and the final 2 today. The pricing did not adjust after I added the 4th and 5th excursions and I paid the full price less my credits. I did a quick call to Oceania and they adjusted it right away to the discounted excursions prices. Asked if I wanted a refund or just credit the overpay to my account. No explanation of why it didn't[ happen automatically but everything was handled quickly and easily.

Thanks! 1) We did have the tub and small shower. For the next cruise we are in 7112. Is there any way to tell which type bathroom we have? 2) Will do! Not sure how we missed the fresh grill.

First time Oceania cruiser recently off the Riviera. We have done multiple HAL and Viking voyages and enjoy them both but wanted to spread our wings a bit. We really enjoyed O and will add it to our options going forward. We also benefited from this forum so I thank you all for that. The Riviera was a fine ship for us. The flow was great, never felt crowded but did feel alive. We did the art scavenger hunt which was fun and helped us learn our way around. We did miss having a full promenade for walking but there is a 1/10th mile lap on the very top. We were in an A class cabin. On our next O cruise we are going to drop down to B. The extras just didn’t add up for us. I think we went into the lounge twice and nothing about it grabbed us. Never even met the concierge. Nothing like the Neptune lounge on HAL though you need a higher level suite on HAL to get access. The laundry was nice but not really essential for a 12 day voyage. Might regret not getting earlier access to specialty dining but we are pretty flexible about when we eat. I will miss the therapy pool on the reserved spa deck. Cabin attendant was excellent, friendly and efficient. Our room was comfortable with sufficient storage. 2 minor complaints - the table on the balcony was just big enough for a drink or 2. On Viking and HAL we could breakfast on the balcony. Our bathroom had the ridiculous tiny shower. Viking bathroom was far superior and even included a heated floor. Having 4 different specialty dining options was great. The best meal I had was a lamb dish at Jacques. We liked them all but I will say that we prefer Pinnacle Grill on HAL to Polo and Manfredi’s on Viking to Toscanos. No complaints about the main dining room - plenty of variety and reasonably high quality. If it used to better I’m sorry I missed that because I enjoyed just about everything I ate. Considering they are feeding 1000 people I think all 3 lines do an admirable job. We generally avoid the buffet so no help comparing there. Tried Waves for lunch a couple times. Better than Viking’s version but we preferred HAL’s fries and taco bar. Room service breakfast was similar to HAL and both better than Viking. Wine offerings that are part of the package at meals were all drinkable but none memorable. Next time we will follow many of your suggestions any bring our own and pay the corkage fee at least a couple of nights. Beer offering are pretty lame on all 3 lines if you are a craft beer fan. If entertainment is your thing I’m not sure any of these 3 lines should be your go to. Had a funny comedian/magician for 2 nights who we liked. House band and singers were about what you would expect and very similar to Viking. We were disappointed in the trivia. On HAL it is our go to happy hour activity. On O they have it in the afternoon when we weren’t even back on the ship or at 8:30 while we are eating. Fitness rooms are about the same on all 3 but Viking does put theirs down low instead of having great views from a top deck like O and HAL. Viking does have the Nordic spa (Ice cave!) that beats anything HAL or O offer. Good itinerary which is usually how we pick a cruise. Like other’s mention I did think they cut a couple ports shorter than needed but I know nothing about the operational considerations so who knows. When we booked the itinerary included Gdansk, Poland but that was swapped for Berlin. We did the 3 hour bus in, 5 hours in port, and 3 hours back and I don’t regret it but not my favorite type of port call. Met some fascinating folks in Estonia and Lithuania who discussed the impact of Putin’s adventures on their countries. Both counties have significant Russian populations and the older generations harbor some fondness for the Mother Russia concept. While on board we booked a second O cruise on the Marina. For booking on board we got a $400 discount on the room and $300 worth of OBC. Transferred the booking to my TA right then and got the gratuities from her. I will say the Simply More offering fits us very well. We usually book about half our shore excursions from the cruise line and maybe half independent. We like wine and beer at meals but don’t drink much otherwise. We use wifi to check up on things at home but don’t stream or try to do work. And I always decline the air as I live in a hub city with very good non-stops almost anywhere which the bulk contracts rarely include. The on board guy was really busy and a bit stressed. Based on what I read here, I asked for the extended balcony cabin in the B class. Not sure if I worded it right or what but he looked puzzled and searched a bit and then told me all 4 of them were already taken. I knew from the deck plan there are way more than that but just let it go. As soon as I got back to my room I emailed my TA and had her find me one which she did no problem. One port issue came up almost immediately. Here is itinerary from the email I got the day of the booking: Cruise Itinerary Date Port Description. Arrive. Depart Sep 24 Bordeaux, France. 8:00 AM Sep 25 Bordeaux, France. 5:00 PM Very nice almost 2 day overnight. And here is from an email I got the very next day: Due to tide restrictions, please note the revised arrival and departure times below: Date Port Description. Arrive. Depart Sep 24 Bordeaux, France. 1:00 PM Sep 25 Bordeaux, France. 1:30 PM Still a nice port stop but lost 8.5 hours and did they really just learn about the tide restriction the day after I booked? I’ll end on a high note. We were traveling with 2 other couples and there is a lovely corner 6 top in Polo grill right by the back corner. The night we ate there the ship was leaving Stockholm which has to be one of the most beautiful 3 hour sail ways anywhere in the world. We timed it perfectly with the sun setting during the meal and these gorgeous views to our side and out the back up on deck 14. Just a fantastic experience. If you are ever doing the Baltic try and get Polo on your Stockholm day! Thanks for everything!

I don't think so. I looked at one itinerary that interested me and the current website fare corresponds to the 'was' fare in the brochure. I only asked my TA about a sailing that did not appear in the brochure.

Just got a brochure today with the Upgrade Sale. Lots of intriguing itineraries but alas not the specific one we are interested in. I had my TA get a quote and she came back with exactly the website fare but did include OCAPP pre-paid gratuities. Next week we are on board and I am planning to visit the cruise desk and get a quote. Any ideas on what I should expect? Does there tend to be any advantage to book while on board? Thanks as always!

Good advice. Appreciate all the info!

Thx! So is A a category or is A1-A4 considered 4 different categories?

Sorry if this a newbie question everyone else already knows. What does 4 category upgrade mean? Secondly, I will be onboard on Labor Day. Will the onboard guy have all the current deals compared to my TA?

Just got my assignment this morning for a sailing that departs on Saturday. Fine cabin, no upgrade. Looking forward to our first O cruise after many with Hal and Viking.

Same here. Sailing a week from today. I presume we will get assigned at the port. We are in an A4 Guarantee and all the A4s look acceptable to me so not worried about it. The ship being fully waitlisted I certainly don't expect anything better.

Just got off the Sea and the NA beer was a decent Carlsberg

I am currently a bit diet restricted and have to avoid both alcohol and carbonated beverages. I'm fine with iced tea and juices but was curious if Viking has much of a mocktail selection or any of the newer non-alcoholic beers. Just got off a Holland cruise where they carried Heineken 0 which is just OK. They also had a couple of decent mocktails. Any experiences? Thanks!

Just got off the Zaandam. Food was very good (MDM, Pinnacle, and Canneletto. Didn’t eat in the Lido). service was super friendly if not always fast. Getting on and off was a breeze. Only tender port was Bar Harbor which was a cluster due to fog. They were working on Starlink during the cruise. Roped off a section near the pool multiple days. I did not hear when it will be available. Wifi was tolerable for checking emails and browsing the news but Starlink should be a welcome addition.

Thanks! We have an anniversary I’d like to get. Not sure I’ll be getting up at 3:00 AM but somewhere close 😀

Our specialty dining reservations start on May 20. How early can I log in and start checking? Thanks!

Totally agree. I wish they would never bundle free air in a promo. Toss me some OBC or upgrade the drinks or whatever. Let me do my own flights.

Here's my recent Viking Air experience. We are traveling with another couple and are both repeat Viking cruisers. We did a conference call with the Viking rep who did a great job with us booking a Mediterranean cruise- Venice to Barcelona.. The promo he had for us included air. We made it clear we wanted to travel together so he charged us $50 for flight co-ordination. We are sailing in like 90 days so we paid in full on the call. A couple days later my buddy calls as he had gotten his flights from Viking Air. As we sort of expected they weren't to our liking - for free we didn't expect much. Of course nothing is every really free and they had baked at least a part into the cruise fare but it is what it is. It was not the airline we wanted and had 2 different 4 hour layovers each way. No big deal though so he gets on MVJ and looks for the alternatives. He finds a nice one stop on the airline we both have good status with for a reasonable upcharge and makes the switch. My flights haven't come yet so I call the next day. The Air rep apologized for the delay (since we paid the air co-ordination fee) and says he will push mine thru and to check back in 24 hours or so. They actually come very quickly and are the same ones my friend originally got. I go on MVJ to make the same change but the option he got the day before is not shown. I double checked the flights on the American Airlines site and they had a fairly reasonable rate and plenty of seats. So I called Viking Air back to ask about it. They told me that if wasn't showing then it had very likely priced out of their contract range. She said she could check for me but it would cost me $100 a person non-refundable just to look. I swallowed hard and agreed to that. She came back with a deviation quote that was more than twice what my friend had paid the day before and was actually more than American was selling the flight for independently. It literally would have been cheaper to pass on the free flight and buy it on my own then pay the deviation. Now I am really not pleased. If they had gotten us our original flights at the same time we could have searched for alternatives together and either both gotten the reasonable deviation or neither taken the unreasonable one. I stayed pretty calm but was also pretty insistent that in my opinion they had caused my problem and needed to help fix it. We have an Oceania cruise also this year and had no problems with their air group coordinating decent deviations for 3 couples. I might have mentioned that to them a time or two. 90 minutes and a couple supervisors later they came back with a reasonable offer. It was only the good flight to Venice ( a 1 stop with a 2 hour layover on our preferred airline) that they didn't want to put us on. They found a different airline with only 1 stop ( but a 7 hour layover, yuck) for that flight and let us the keep the return we liked on American for no extra $. They waived the BS $100 take a look fee. And they refunded the deviation fee my friend had paid the day before. So we ended up with a little bit better inbound and fairly significantly better return home than the original 'free' flights for the same 'free' price. All for the hassle of paying for flight co-ordination that wasn't particularly well co-ordinated, and then almost paying $200 just to get a quote for a deviation that was more than the whole cost of the flight.

We were supposed to be on the same Alaska cruise as the OP. Made it to Fairbanks and Denali and got covid there. Got to do a couple days of quarantine in Denali and then they bussed us to Anchorage to finish it. Our reimbursement was not lightning fast but was within 120 days as I recall. TA did most of the communicating for us. Maybe that made a diff.

We have 3 couple traveling together. One of the couples is in a suite but not the other 2. Can the suite couple book dining for the 6 of us at their dining date? Thanks!

I did give the exact flights. I will keep trying. i will say I did price out the option I want and the option they gave me and both are significantly more expensive than the standard charge. Might just roll with that at this point.

I just put in a request for custom air. It took a week to come back and did not address the actual request I made. I asked for a non-stop to London on the airline I have status with. They came back with a connecting flight thru Kennedy on a different airline. No differential but $398 of custom fee for the 2 of us. I cant imagine the standard air is any different. I certainly hope not anyway.

And I had jumped the gun. Had looked at the Paris options and not much more. I see lots of fine options in other ports.

Thanks! I will keep looking. We are on City of Lights and Baltic Beauties departing Sep 2.

Thanks for the info. I took a quick look at our offerings and that doesn't appear to leave much besides basic city walking or bus tours. Is that people's experience or do I need to dig a bit deeper?

Greetings! Oceania newby here. Just booked our first O cruise (many on HAL, Celebrity, Princess) and got the OLife Ultimate package with 3 free shorex. What are the rules for these? Are there certain types of excursions I can and can't do? Dollar limits? Thanks for your help!