Firstin87

We are on the Riviera in a Penthouse Suite 3 (which looks lovely in the pictures!)

Thank you, Shepherd Really. Very helpful. I plan to do laundry when the ship is in port, so my assumption that there would be less demand those times is correct - thanks. Did you sit in the laundry room while your loads were going or return when the load was ready? We are on the Riviera and have read that there is a laundry room on each deck - that's convenient.

First time Oceania cruiser, but have been on over a dozen cruises (mostly NCL), and are booked on a 20 day trip in March. I read that we get two free bags of laundry. Am I incorrect and we get three? With the tight limit (20 items for 2 people isn't many days worth of clothes) and the long turn-around time, I expect to do laundry myself at least once. For those who have done that, is there usually a line of people doing laundry? How convenient is it really?

Thank you for your help. Good to know the process is easy and hopefully is quick. Will be tired from the red eye flight to Panama.

Well, I messed up that sentence, didn't I - lol. I meant to ask about Customs when we arrive at Tocumen airport. I do appreciate knowing that we cannot do pre-clearance from Panama, but what are the additional steps for non-stop flights into the US? Both of our flights are direct from Calif. to Tocumen.

Hi, We are on NCL's Jewel sailing from Fuente Amador to Colon Feb. 4-13, 2023. Never flown international other than to Canada and am wondering what to expect when we disembark and get to the Tocumen Airport. Dock at 7:00 a.m., NCL's transportation to the airport, flight departs at 5:50 p.m., so plenty of time, but wondering if the line for customs is typically long, etc. Have found Priority Pass lounges at the airport, which will be a big help. Any advice about the airport is much appreciated. Thanks!

We are on this cruise Feb. 4-13 and also had NCL do our flights and transportation. We got our flight info a couple weeks earlier than expected. Like you, I researched available flights on both Google Flights and Expedia (learned that more show up on Google) and assumed we'd be on the cheapest flight. Turns out that was what we ended up on, so the same may be true for you.

Thank you, thank you!!! Just signed up and will use it a lot, especially to get off the lists of the holiday catalogs that haven't been used in years and years. Getting off junk mail lists is tough. My FIL passed away in June and he was on a lot of charity email lists. Once you give to one charity, your info is hared around quite liberally, as we all know. I returned the mailers with "deceased, no longer at this address" and that worked for most of them. A couple of them started sending mailers to our home (FIL's forwarding address) in my husband's name instead and I wrote them a very hasty letter about wasting their money on fundraising attempts instead of the cause they purported to support - haven't heard from them since. The frustration of junk mail is one of the few things that everyone agrees on.

Denise, Thank you for this review. We are doing this sailing next week and were wondering if Charlottetown would be open. Now we know it is and we can continue to look forward to uor Double Decker bus excursion. Once you've sailed on NCL, you become quite a fan! It's our favorite line by far and we sail it often. I LOVE that petit filet mignon at Cagneys! If you go to La Cucina, their fillet is delicious, as well. Nice to know that Spinnakers plays music from the '80's. So glad you're enjoying your first cruise. Hope you are able to go on many more!

Thank you both very much for your help. I will probably do some laundry in the laundry room, too, which I don't mind. Want to keep the luggage to a reasonable amount. I bookmarked the Photo Review of the Marina and will look at it with my husband. Thank you for sending it.

Glad I found this thread and got some of my questions answered. Thanks Moosemarty for starting it. We're going on our first Oceania cruise in March - 20 days from Miami that hits many Caribbean islands we've never been to, as well as Charleston, SC, and Cape Canaveral. A great itinerary that isn't repeated as far as I can see on their website. We will be returning from a 9 day Panama Canal cruise on Feb. 13, so only 15 days to recover, repack, fly across the country, and get spoiled rotten again. Life is tough - lol. Because of the short turnaround time and this being our first time on Oceania, I'm anxious to understand the little details early. I know we get 3 bags of laundry done. Their website says "20 garments" in a load and I'm wondering if that is the specific number of garments you can send as a load or if it is an estimate of how much the laundry bag holds. 20 items isn't that many days worth of clothes for two people.

I got my information off of AmEx's site and I am probably reading too much into the word "gratuity". In my experience, Oceania is the only line I've cruised on that calls the daily fee a "gratuity"; NCL calls it a Daily Service Charge, Princess calls it something similar. Since no one has experienced a problem with this, I'm sure it's just me worrying about nothing.

We will be cruising for the time on Oceania in March and will have the $300 OBC from AmEx Platinum card. I read on another site that it cannot "be used for gratuities". Does that mean it cannot be applied to the $23 per person per day gratuity we are charged for our suite? Or does that refer to using it as a tip? Thanks, Cyndy

Thank you very much for your help. We've heard good things about Dora - always get the best advice on CC. We also thought the stop at the restaurant was a time waster for us, and we can't figure out why that tour is so much more expensive than all the others.

Hi, DH and I are going on a Panama Canal cruise in Feb. 2023 that stops in Cartagena, Columbia. We're researching the large variety of shore excursions that tour the walled city and are curious about one called "Exclusive Cartagena". It is $189, about 3x as much as the other tours, and we can't tell from the description why it is so much more expensive. Has anyone been on that tour and can you tell me a bit about it? Thank you, Cyndy