Vallesan

@pinotlover @MEFIowa Food for thought! We are travelling on the first Marina cruise after her refurbishment so obviously the entire cruise contingent will be embarking on the same day. The cruise is ‘waitlisted’ so that will be 1200+! Given that the ship isn’t debarking any passengers I wonder if the cabins will be available earlier than normal? You’ve certainly given me food for thought about boarding times.

I only filled in my ‘check-in’ form last week which is how I can remember the procedure!

They sent out an email around 4 weeks before the cruise advising that you will get a ‘check-in’ email shortly. When you get the email to ‘check-in’ for the cruise which is roughly 21days prior you will get to pick your boarding time from a list during the check-in process.

Oh yes! They got gifts too but knowing they had provided lunch for a few homeless people just didn’t hit home. Probably, thank goodness, they’ve never been homeless or hungry and we’re probably too young to understand.

We have done that especially giving to a homeless charity that provides Christmas lunch and health checks etc for the homeless. Unfortunately our grandchildren were too young to understand so it turned out to be a ‘donation’ to make us feel ‘rightgeous’ but they were still too young see it!

Mine do constantly! But I love to give them gifts … difficult when they, fortunately, have all they need … and probably want.

Nothing much nicer in life than ‘treating’ your grown up children!

@pinotlover I don’t think Gary was saying ‘either/or’ I think he was just saying ‘for him’ cruising is his preferred form of travel. Fortunately we live in a world with choices. I for one wouldn’t want to live a ‘Stepford’ life!

@Sthrngary ‘Ahhh, the joys of ageing!’ I love your analogy of ‘appetisers and mains’. I think that sums up really well the difference between cruising and land based trips. So pleased you enjoyed such a special time with your daughter….. can’t put a price on such times! BTW I agree Hop-on/ offs are a blessing!

We are sailing on the first post refit sailing and are just hoping the ‘new’ smell isn’t too overpowering!

Yet here we go with ‘tastes’! I hate the ‘miso glazed sea bass’ because for me it’s far too sweet! They will however do sea bass without the glaze. Watermelon and duck salad is great 9 times out of 10.

I have to agree with you! The prices just seem to have gone through the roof. I just wonder if we’ll see ‘sales’ later in the year! If not I can’t justify the new pricing either so looks like my first Silversea cruise last summer will be my last!

I really don’t know. Here in the UK we pay an optional extra cover of £40 per year to cover both of us, to insure for missed ports. Cover is a one off payment, no matter how many cruises we take during the year and the compensation is £150 pp for each missed port. I don’t know about insurance in the US but it’s worth checking! Here it’s a no brainer really!

Do you have, or can you add, ‘missed port’ insurance. If so that might mitigate some of the cost of trips you might not be able to take.

Unlike Christmas Day, Mothers Day falls on different dates in different countries. So my guess, and it is only a guess, is probably not!

That’s a bit miserable. When we’ve had shipboard credit it’s always assigned to the ‘cabin’ even though it’s listed per person on the invoice. Hopefully Oceania will start doing the same with excursion credits in the near future.

A rose by any other name!

I think that’s the secret …. you… “quite liked it”. Surely at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if a dish is ‘authentic’ as long as the ‘consumer’ enjoy it!

@Hlitner thanks for your posts and travel safely.

Hank I just wonder if you had taken just a 14 day cruise , would your critic have been different?

You’re 100% right. At the end of the day ‘business is business’ and profit is king and as Harters said …. We do have choices at the end of the day!

Totally!

Well! As they say “you learn something everyday”!

WOW! Just don’t know how they can justify those prices. I received my final documents for our upcoming May cruise today. There are no private cars available at all. After checking the prices generally, I feel very much that SimplyMore tours are the least attractive of those on offer, and it does beg the question “Are the included tours really a ‘perk’ or just a hidden price increase?”

That’s crazy! Must admit I’ve only looked at tours from Riviera and Marina ships. Maybe prices vary dramatically via port/ship/ time of year. Certainly £714 per car is just madness. Looks like Oceania really don’t want to offer private cars as a service! Sad really because, I for one, can’t access a coach/bus so have very, very, limited options for using the ‘tour credit’!