Robjame

After many flights from TO we realized it is about seven hours to Europe - Paris, Barcelona, Heathrow, and about 1.5 hours to our destination in France. So it is wherever you find the best connections, cheapest flight, best carrier. We always stay with same carrier for both legs.

Presuming you are flying back directly from the cruise to Canada - we are flying out of FLL - YYZ - - - Uber from cruise port to FLL about $80 ………. Cruise port to MIA about $30 ( I think) That is per car not per person

YUL 3rd best airport in Canada after Halifax and vancouver

If you want to avoid yyz you really need to choose an alternative like Montreal Ottawa is no better than Toronto if it is to avoid Air Canada choose Lufthansa, Swiss, KLM

Air Transat Montreal to Paris ( I think you can choose Orly rather than CDG) - lots of options from there to Barcelona

It is seasonal - I wasn’t aware of dates If you have the time I would want to be in Europe and then I could easily drive, train, or fly depending on availability - make a bit of a holiday Fly into Toulouse France or Bordeaux with Air Transat or even Germany with Lufthansa tho it is an air Canada codeshare less problems out of Montreal

Air Transat direct from Montreal - take VIA rail from TO to Montreal - business class on Air Transat (which is really premium economy on Air Transat) we have done this and worked out fine or If you insist on TO - Air France to Paris - Paris to Barcelona

Discount? Don’t you mean you don’t’ pay for the air?

I hope someone answers this question as we want to know as well - are the Christmas dinners served in the specialty restaurants? Or does everyone flood the MDR? For us on our cruise, Christmas ( a Sunday this year) is a sea day - sea day & Sunday = brunch.

I think I read that you can actually take unopened bottles with you when you disembark.

I think it was a lemoncello in Toscana - the usual one yes but not the specialty Toscana one….. similar to sake in Red Ginger

Makes sense what you say about La Reserve vs MDR - you are right. ‘We brought a couple of special bottles that we had brought on board. No special deal on the corkage fee. Your idea of each bringing a bottle sounds like fun.

The new Oceania NEXT program already on Marina and Riviera offers wine paring meals in the MDR as well as in Privee. I was hoping he (or someone) had experience with the MDR pairings

Bingo! people tend to be obsessed with the Foreign Transaction fee charged by one’s own bank or card when it is likely the least of the charges. 1. The Foreign Transaction Fee is charged because you are in a foreign country, whether you withdraw US dollars or a foreign currency. (This is what your card or bank will waive) 2. The ATM owner adds a foreign currency charge because you are buying in a currency different than what you are withdrawing. (Typically 1%) No card covers this. 3. The forex spread is the amount added to the forex rate which is the interbank rate. .8% is the lowest rate spread offered to big currency traders. Banks/ATM are up to 6% spread. No one gets zero. One per cent would be fantastic. Cards and banks are typically 2.5%. Your bank is the cheapest place to buy foreign currency but you do run the risk of theft and/or loss. Convenience of using a card or ATM often out weighs cost.

Denie - I am assuming these wines were outside your Beverage Package offerings. Do you recall the price for these wine pairings (one of our favourite things). Did you purchase the 7 bottle collection of packaged wines or stick to what was offered by the glass? I see there is a Cellar Master’s selection as well as the 7 bottle package. I don’t recall the 2 different packages.

Yes - I wasn’t clear - OLife for House select and then upgrading on board to get Prestige so I will have Prestige.

We did. The person who organized it collected $ for the room rental and gratuity and rounded it up to the nearest $5 as a tip. So if it is now $300 rental they would collect $40 pp,

First time using beverage package as OLife…… 1) can you order alcoholic drinks by room service? Chargeable to Prestige Beverage Package? 2) can you get a mimosa, Bloody Mary, drink with breakfast? Only MDR or Terrace as well? 3) are there any cocktails NOT included in Prestige? Daily special cocktails? 4) Oceania NEXT talks about wine tasting events at La Reserve and Baristas on certain days. Cost? I presume these are different from the formal region wine tasting presentations that Oceania used to have? All these questions makes it sound like I am an alcoholic but I am sure I could stop drinking if I wanted to……🤪

Specialty Dining reservations are allocated per stateroom not per passenger…. 1 stateroom, seven days = 1 per restaurant

Currency conversion involves transaction fee and exchange rate. When you use a card from a foreign bank you are subject to both. Forex is the rate banks trade at My experience is mainly in France, but I have found the exchange rate at ATM (2.5%) to be more than what banks in Canada charge - base rate plus 1- 2.5 %, depending on your relationship with the bank. Some banks (Chase) will waive the exchange rate for best customers. Credit cards are typically 2.5%. Transaction fees are waived at ATM if your bank belongs to PLUS, etc. ‘These bank ATMS use the forex which is the official bank rate without surcharges added.” ‘’I have never heard of an ATM that coverts currency at the forex rate always rate plus. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/money-transfer/money-transfer-where-to-exchange-currency/ .

This is a great idea. An attentive sommelier can make a huge difference at dinner. We book the wine tastings through our favourite sommelier. We also ask the sommelier to taste our wines that we bring onboard and they seem to love that. How many sommeliers on Riviera/Marina? They seem to rotate through the dining venues so that does cause difficulties. We are travelling over Christmas so are thinking of some little gifts… or is this tacky?

You will do best for rate to do this at your own bank before you leave home.

It could possibly be the result, but it is not what I board early for. I board early because I am so excited to start my cruise that I would rather be on board standing in line than anywhere else (in Miami). I think it is old hat to you with your extensive experience. For me, it is still like Christmas.

Good to know. We will go to customer service to get this done. Thanks.