Tarwood3

According to cruise mapper, it was on the island of Reunion today…today was supposed to be Antsiranana Madagascar …they’re a couple days behind in the itinerary, so assuming a couple ports will be skipped (perhaps all of Madagascar will be skipped ) in order to get back on original itinerary?

Just noticed that Splendida has no cruises offered after October of this year, even though MSC has itineraries on most all the other ships through end of 2025? 

I had heard she was going to Asia…maybe re working itineraries for that time frame?

Just now, webbstuff said:

If you want to know where you are...

https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9805336

Yep, we have that and look at it daily…but it’s still nice to have all that and more on the tv at least…several people were talking about it at lunch in the galley.  In fact, one of the crew was walking by and he was so excited to see where we were when we had cruisemapper pulled up on phone….got us talking about the Bermuda Triangle…we were just south of Bermuda at lunchtime 

On 11/3/2023 at 2:30 PM, DorothysFriend said:

I am curious to hear how you are enjoying VV so far, if you have boarded already. I did the French Daze and Ibiza Night with my gay BFF (since my wife couldn't come) - we are 47 and 54. We stayed in a Brilliant Suite since that has a sofa that can be made up into a separate bed. I think going Rock Star is going to be key for quiet, early to bed types since you have access to Richard's Rooftop and a calmer vibe on top of the ship. I also loved being able to order room service without any additional charge - fresh fruit and pastries to your room in the morning may suit you better than the considerably noisy galley for breakfast. You will probably have trouble drinking all the alcohol that comes with the room, in addition to the bar tab (I know we did).

 

One of my fave things about VV was the inclusive vibe on the ship, being welcomed by the very diverse and fun "happenings" cast on embarkation and seeing them all around the ship, eating where we did, etc. The Rockstar agent was very helpful making any reservations we wanted and changing anything, etc but it was not English Butler service if that's what you are used to on other lines.

 

I will say that traveling with my BFF and a large gay group meant that I left my early to bed, early gym workout days behind me for a week and stayed up late for meals at 9am and the big parties afterward. That was fun but also wore me out and I am looking forward to a quieter cruise with my wife next year. I wanted to maybe try one of the VV Greek ones but it was sold out for the dates we wanted. Although we attended nearly all of the parties, I also met people on the ship who went for earlier meals and entertainment and seemed to really enjoy their cruise without going to the late night parties. We did some of the group workouts but I would have liked to spend more time in the gym. I am really interested in hearing about your experiences on VV, given your background with other cruise lines and smaller ships.

Hey there…thanks for asking.   Yes, we are half through the 14 day cruise across the Atlantic.   Short answer to your question is that yes, we are enjoying ourselves more than we thought we might.  Im 56 and there are a lot of people much older than us.  It’s a very mixed bag of ages.  All my concerns about cruising have been put to rest fortunately.  

Are there a few things we don’t care for or miss from other cruise lines…yes. But they don’t outweigh the positives we have experienced 

A couple of the negatives.  The veranda furniture is terrible.  2 little hard metal chairs.  We like to read or watch Netflix on sea days and those hard little chairs are good for about 10 mins on the bum, that’s it.  We are used to chairs that at least recline a bit and have some padding.  

We have a nice size room… a Brilliant suite but I don’t like that there are no drawers or cabinets in the bathroom…..so all of our toiletries just sit out on the ledge..not a big deal…but always nice to have all that stuff put away when not using. 

I get that VV doesn’t like doing announcements ….but on a 14 day cruise, not to hear from the captain daily is weird.  We are at sea, no idea what the weather will be for the day, tomorrow,   When the seas may calm down…they have been rough for days now.  We have no idea our position in the Atlantic.  There is no channel on the tv to see ship’s speed, the temperature, progress on our route….I think that could be improved.  

Wish we could use Richards Rooftop…but it’s always so windy up there , that it’s completely empty all the time.  So I guess it’s good for when you are in port, but anytime you’re sailing, it’s a no-go it seems.  

Yesterday they did the dumbest thing. Our first full sea day after leaving Funchal and they decide to re finish half the pool deck in the middle of the day when everyone wants to lay by the poool.  So yes, they closed half the pool deck for ours , during prime hours on a sunny warm day.  Why couldn’t this have been done when we were in port the day before in Funchal when no one was on board? Or early in the morning, or late afternoon?  

Food has been pretty good.   We have been to all the specialty restaurants and found Gunbae our least favorite.  It was fine, but kinda boring in my opinion.  We have canceled our 2nd night there.  Someone had said that breakfast in Razzle Dazzle is best on the ship.  So we booked twice there…. Well after eating there the first time, we canceled our 2nd breakfast there.  Menu is a bit odd.   We like dinner there and are going again tonight.  

There are an enormous amount of events going on every day.  Pretty impressed with the number of musicians, entertainers etc they have brought on.  I don’t know what normal is like, but my guess is we have more than normal for the transatlantic.  

I had read on the facebook group one time, someone had complained how terrible the drinks were on Valiant lady this summer.  Said they used watered down cheap tonic, drinks were blah, no beer available etc….  We have not found this to be true at all.  All of our cocktails have been great …zero complaints.  

Anyway, I could go on and on about random things but overall we are quite happy.  Will it be our go -to cruiseline , no.   We prefer the small ships of Silversea and Oceania.  And the itineraries are so much better on the smaller ships.  We have traveled to over 100 countries, so VV doesn’t really offer anything we haven’t’ already done.  We are taking another VV cruise next summer around Greece ( our 4th time there) because we are taking our nieces for their graduation present and thats what they wanted to do.   But other than that, Im not sure when we will sail again.  But if we find an itinerary we find interesting, we wouldn’t hesitate in booking it.  

In short, I definitely don’t feel too old for Virgin! 

57 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

Greece is good....just limit to ONE excursion to visit ruins.  We did a 28 night Med cruise with some amazing excursions.  Ephesus was the best  (other things were in that day as well), but we should have stopped there.  The Acropolis and the theatre were good, Vesuvius /Pompei was good...but by the time we got to a tour guide named George on one of the Greek islands, we had hit the "if I never see another ruin" level.

Yep, I have done Greece many times and while I love it, I was hoping she would have chosen somewhere else….  We have been to 100 countries…so hard to find a place we haven’t been to yet.. ha!

7 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

Walter kinda nailed it.  Our first Celebrity cruise was pretty good.  There was one issue on it that wasn't Celebrity's fault and one that was.  This was way back when the fancy brunch was included.  My travel companion has a progressive mobility deterioration, and one of the first issues was an inability to climb stairs.  At that point, we did not need an accessible cabin or anything, but we were told that we could not be seated on the first floor for the brunch.  Essentially "no brunch for you."  So we. couldn't attend.

We loved the food, the entertainment was good, etc.  We didn't like the concept of the three classes on board.  And then we started reading about things being dropped or becoming charged items, and it rather turned us off. 

 

Trying VV was sort of a fluke--I called my agent and did some quizzing as we aren't the "20 something cruising on daddy's money" crowd.  I wasn't a bit sure it was right for us. But we loved it and got off tthe ship with 3 more booked.

We quit Celebrity and went back to Silversea and Oceania because the sky suites had gotten so expensive that they weren’t much different Silversea…so it was a no brainer to switch back.  I did like the energy on Celebrity…but always perfectly happy on SS or Oceania.   We do have another VV already booked…Summer 2024.  We take our nieces and nephews on a trip anywhere in the world they want to go for their HS graduation.  The last one graduates next year…she wants to do Greece on Virgin…so it was booked.  Hopefully we enjoy our TA so we arent dreading next years trip!

11 hours ago, warmwinds said:

To answer your questions, Tarwood3, I think mainly we had become bored with Celebrity, and had seen the quality (especially the food quality) deteriorate from the highs of Michel Roux (yes, that long ago) to what it has devolved into today.  I don't even recall the era of Boulud being that much of a bump.

 

On Celebrity we had mostly stayed in Aqua and eaten in Blu.  We did a suite one time, a nice suite, the "secret" 6134/6135's and while we liked the extra space, we did not feel the food in Luminae was any better than in Blu.  And our butler really had very little to do (he kept bringing us stuff so he felt that he was doing his job!)

 

We were stuck in a rut with Celebrity, and decided to do something completely different.

 

At the risk of repeating myself either on this thread or elsewhere, we made a conscious decision not to go "too" upscale - no Silversea or Crystal, etc.

 

Why?  Honestly I couldn't tell you (outside of knowing people who liked those lines whose personalities were not aligned with ours).  Not to say there aren't great people you can meet on any line.  

 

I wanted to rock the boat, so chose VV.  Sounds crazy, but was expecting not to like it.  But...4 nights out of our lives wasn't going to kill us.

 

We are also early to bed so didn't get to see any shows or do anything except, literally, eat/drink/sleep/swim/repeat.  This was fine with us.  Next time we'll participate more.  But it was such a beautiful ship, kind and friendly workers, nice  people to talk to next to us at almost every restaurant...and that was fun, not Blu or Luminae every night, a different experience every night.

 

As the cruise got nearer, I got more and more nervous...so much so that I just shut down and didn't read one more word about VV until we sailed.

 

I don't want to wax poetic anymore, and as you can see from my original review on this thread, there were things we weren't crazy about (music not our style), but the ship, the people, the food were all a very pleasant surprise to us.

 

I hope you enjoy it as much.

Thanks so much for your detailed reply..,I do feel better now.  Truth be told, no matter what ship we are on, we always have a good time…always find people we enjoy hanging out with. And you’re probably right…I should stay off the facebook page for our cruise….

12 hours ago, cantgetin said:

I'm 69 and somewhat conservative.  We liked VV overall better than Celebrity, but there are things we liked about Celebrity as well.  It is definitely NOT a glorified Carnival or ROyal.  You can party and jump into the pool if you want, but we found plenty to do at our age without being party animals.  I've done both TAs that VV has had so far and am cruising later this month with you as well.  We got off our first VV cruise with 3 more booked, for what that tells you.

 

Food great, friendliest crew at sea, love the "almost all inclusive concept...,and if you aren't already signed up for the status match loyalty program, do it now.  You'll love the complimentary HUGE bag of laundry that is part of the loyalty perks.

Thank you so much! Appreciate taking the time to reply!   Feeling better already…

On 9/13/2023 at 1:20 PM, warmwinds said:

And kicking ourselves for not booking on board.  We weren't "sure", there were things we didn't like as well as many, many that we did.  And now 3 days later we've booked another with half the on-board credit. 

 

I'll be telling things and asking things, too.  For our background we started cruising in 1976 (we met on a cruise, NCL) 😍and in the ensuing years tried Sitmar, Princess, Royal, HAL, and finally settled on Celebrity where we have been for literally the last 20 years.  Loved Celebrity, but they started to downgrade and downgrade and quite frankly, we were getting bored with the same old same old - so decided to shake it up.  Decided NOT to go high end (Crystal, Seabourn, etc) but to really shake it up - So Virgin was the choice.  Great choice.

 

We lucked into one of the angled balcony "secret" cabins from the other thread - 11102Z.  Just booked and that's gone, only 02 on either side is 9102Z - we could look down on the lifeboats from 11, will they be in our faces, blocking the rear view from deck 9?

 

We thought the ship was gorgeous, loved all the different areas, so many nooks and crannies.  Loved the food - from the lowliest burger to the most gourmet.  Ate at the Wake, Extra Virgin, Test Kitchen, Razzle Dazzle, as well as many of the more casual venues (Dock or Dockside mezze were fabulous).  Sleeper breakfast?  The heart attack on a plate French Toast Breakfast Burger.  We got pizza only once because we like different types, so 2 whole ones was too much, wish they had slices.  Had drinks in many different bars.  Service throughout was outstanding.

 

Loved the pool, it was bigger than what I was expecting based on reviews, but very difficult for seniors to get up that 2 foot wall around it - we're not disabled, just in our 70's and not 22 and athletic anymore.  They really need one step on one side somewhere to facilitate that.

 

We are not late night people so missed much of the entertainment, etc., but that's ok, it was a short 4 day cruise and we were happy just to get to know the ship.  I can honestly say we did not care for much of the music we did hear, but that's our age and our taste.  You can't please everyone, and there were pockets of "oldies" music that we appreciated when we came across it.

 

Loved the super simple embarkation and disembarkation.  Got used to the wrist band quickly.  

 

Just booked a 6 nighter and will delve more into the entertainment.  Really just an unexpectedly positive experience - I knew it would be "different" for us, and it was, but in a good way.

 

 

Happy to see your post.  We have had the 14 day Transatlantic booked from Barcelona to Miami for quite some time.  Now that the cruise is only 3 weeks away, I have begun to get nervous that VV isn’t for us.  We travel primarily on Silversea, Seabourn, Oceania and Celebrity.     We have done one RCCL and hated it…too many drunks, belly flop contests, just seemed like a trashy booze cruise.  Plus we don’t like big cruise ships…we like Celebrity even though the ship is larger, but we stay in the Retreat…so it’s a smaller more intimate luxury experience.    Now that our cruise has gotten close, I worry that it’s just a glorified Carnival or Royal type of cruise.  We aren’t into dressing up in costumes and silly theme nights..so not sure if we will feel odd by not participating in these events?  We are a gay couple…56 and 50.  We enjoy a good time but definitely prefer the finer things in life.  And are looking forward to all the restaurants!   We booked a Brilliant Suite, hoping that might mimic more what we are used to in cruising.  We have done 30 cruises and book based on itinerary, not so much the ship itself as the destination which is what we are doing on this VV cruise as we have been to all the ports before…so we are hoping that we are pleasantly surprised! We are early risers, early to bed kind of folk….we like to drink…but only a cocktail or 2 a day due to medication reasons….  So my question is..what did you like on VV much better than Celebrity? And I would also be interested if anyone on here has experience on luxury lines…we have been on them all…and their thoughts as well! Thanks so much! 

3 hours ago, A Tucson Guy said:

We are on the Nova 8-21-23 and had booked La Dame for two nights prior to the price increase. I wonder if they will honor the old price since that is what it was when I booked it. I have emailed somebody at SS that Barbara put me in touch with. I will report back when I hear.

We booked at the lower price as well…but now shows the higher price…

6 hours ago, Belgian fry said:

We booked in March 2022, in an inside, and are still confirmed 

Not all cabin categories were affected.  

We have had a bit of a different cruise history than most.  We only did land tours until about 2014.  We had traveled to around 70 countries by that time (over 100 now).  My partner always wanted to do a cruise but the big ship cruising I saw advertised on tv didn’t appeal to me… too many people and kids.  But one day, while reading a travel magazine, I saw an ad for Silversea…it seemed to tick all the boxes so I took a leap of faith and booked a 7 day.  We were hooked!  I really loved waking up somewhere new every morning, loved unpacking once and not having to schlep luggage all over Europe, Asia Africa etc.  in multiple hotels, trains planes and automobiles ! 

Our first 3 cruises were all on Silversea when I decided I wanted to see what other lines might feel like. Our next one was RC…never again…family reunions, bachelor parties, tons of kids, awkward conversations at huge shared table dinner etc…it all felt trashy to us.  Then we found Celebrity which we really loved…we are Elite Plus on them…but now that the Suites have gotten the same price as luxury lines…no way.  After a couple cruises on X where it took over an hour to get off the ship at a port…the line literally wrapped around teh whole ship…I just couldn’t do it again.  

We have since been on Holland America, Seabourn, Regent , Azamara, Oceania, Paul Gauguin, Crystal. 

As others have said, we book based on who has the best itinerary for us, for the destination we are interested in and time of year. Then based on ship…we love all the new bells and whistles.  We had Vista booked but were canceled when they pushed the inaugural back a month.   

We booked Oceania because we heard the food was amazing… and we liked the size of the ships and that it was a bit more casual than SS ..we got tired of packing so many dinner jackets.  

Our last O cruise was on Sirena and the average age was probably the oldest we have ever had on our 30 or so cruises…. We are in our 50s and while we don’t normally get hung up on the age thing…most seemed older than our parents …it was a very dull 14 day cruise and the entertainment was geared to stuff even my mom would find boring.  

While we do like the product O offers…we do need a bit more liveliness…but we will continue to book O ( have 2 more booked)    Our next cruise is on HAL…very much looking forward to it…have another Neptune Suite booked (very large aft suite) and our last HAL cruise had amazing food and was a nice sized ship with more things to do.  

BTW…our most fav ship:  Seabourn Venture. (Expedition ship we did to Antarctica) Gorgeous!

7 minutes ago, abra* said:

We booked July 15th, 2022 in a Concierge balcony stateroom on the Sept 15, 2023 sailing. As of yet, we have not been cancelled. Tarwood, I think Celebrity has misinformed you.

 

Barbara

I was on the April 9th 2024 circumnavigation of Japan…nowhere near your sail date…not talking about your transatlantic…

9 minutes ago, pukekolive said:

By your logic we should have been cancelled but have not to date; we lifted and shifted 2020 to 2021, then 2021 to 2022, finally in April 2022 l&s to October 2023. The deposit is only an FCC of the original extra 25% for the first cancelled cruise. It is a V1 with confirmed cabin number. At no time was it a guarantee cabin.

 

From this thread, the last known directly booked cabin was cancelled by Celebrity on 29 April 2023, although some TAs may have been late advising their clients but the TAs themselves would have been notified before 29 April. What cabins have you seen cancelled after this date thanks?

You misunderstood my post..,not talking about L&S…talking about new bookings after October 2021…Don’t shoot the messenger….just what I was told when we called in about our cancellation and thought I should report what I was told….whether they lied to us or not is a different story…so …believe what you want…just reporting what I was told….

1 minute ago, pmarrsouth said:

I really doubt that this is the case tbh. Celebrity only cancelled the Fall/Winter 2022 Japanese season (inc the TP from Vanc) in mid April 2022. A lot of people who L&S to 2023/2024 would have done so during those 2ish weeks in May 2022

 

I was one of those, my booking is still intact, and presuming it stays that way (directly booked with X, so I don’t have to fade a non-proactive TA issue)

Not talking about L&S…meaning those who booked for the first time after October 2021.  It came straight from the lady in charge of the concierge team handling these cancelations …

22 hours ago, Judy Arthur said:

Not really.   I booked in January 2023 with a TA and we’re seemingly okay so far...🤞.    There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason as to how Celebrity did their dastardly cuts.   I feel badly for all who were adversely affected affected.    How on earth does this happen in this day and age of advanced technology??

Out of curiosity…what class of cabin are you booked?  We were told by Celebrity that anyone booked after October 2021 wiould be canceled…mostly veranda cabins but there have been a few from other categories.   They have been doing the cancelations in waves…ours was one of the first over 2 weeks ago…people are still getting canceled. 

23 hours ago, iBeatle71 said:

I read a rumor on other social platform said: the bookings with TA been canceled, bookings directly with CL not affected or very few. Celebrity wants to keep TA's commission to them self.

Yep, incorrect,   Im the OP of this very very long thread….I booked directly with Celebrity…doesn’t matter how you booked….it’s WHEN you booked…

8 hours ago, Judy Arthur said:

 

A couple of separate parties on FB claim to have been told that cancellations were being determined by price paid for the cruise.

Think that was just speculation.  We have spoken to X directly twice now…but who knows…anything is possible when the whole process seems to be a disaster 

Now that I have an explanation, I will consider this thread closed…and will be unfollowing it…case closed…thanks for everyone’s input!

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

 

I did ask you  if the prices  changed  since you booked  in the other thread

That would have solved your  issue days ago

 

Post #42

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2931773-olife-ulimate-worth-it/page/2/#comments

 

First of all….I booked a veranda a long time ago.  I have no idea what the prices were for a PH back then.  I decided to upgrade 3 weeks ago.  The price I saw on line was not matching the invoice they sent me the very next day…that was my issue.  It was not matching what was online just the day before.  It really had nothing to do with teh price increase…had more to do with they weren’t going to honor a previous discount.   So no, it woudn’t have solved my issue days ago.  If my agent couldn’t figure it out either,  then you certainly don’t have all the answers. 

7 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Perhaps. But I always chuckle when I hear that someone’s TA is the “top.” If that was the case, you’d not be waiting this long for an answer.

In any case, I wish you a good outcome.

So, right after I posted a reply to you above, I went to my email and voila…finally an explanation from Oceania…it’s rather simple , and it’s basically what I thought was the issue…just don’t understand why they couldnt provide the explanation to me 3 weeks ago when I was on my transatlantic and saved everyone a lot of frustration/aggravation. Here’s the explanation.    And perhaps you might know this…do you know how I can turn off further posts on here now that I have an explanation ?

“ …As you know, we had a price change in January and again in April which is why the brochure fare has changed. The bonus savings they received expired so new bookings no longer receive that. The category is not available to book so I can create a mock booking to show the breakdown but at the end of the day, he is paying the lower fare. I can offer $300 SBC to help smooth things over.”

7 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Perhaps. But I always chuckle when I hear that someone’s TA is the “top.” If that was the case, you’d not be waiting this long for an answer.

In any case, I wish you a good outcome.

You’ll just have to trust me then….   Im sure you know who this person is…most are familiar…in any case, thanks for all your insight…. Will update if I ever hear anything back….

5 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

BINGO!

As I said, probably related to that previous upgrade and/or some other exclusion (actual or perceived by O staff).

As for the delay in O response, your choice of TA can make a hell of a difference as can your O Club status (if you’re an “elite” O regular I.e., Platinum or above using an O “preferred partner” TA), you’d usually have your answer within several hours max. Perhaps not fair in one sense of the word. But, it works for me.

We have one of O’s top agents…if not the  top…so, that has been another thing that has surprised me…

1 minute ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Not enough info. But, I’ll take a stab without it.

If what you are saying is that your currently booked cruise is advertised on the list for the Extraordinary sale AND you do not have a book onboard price drop match guarantee AND you do not have any excluded perk associated with your current booking (e.g., TA OCAPP coverage of your gratuities) AND their is cabin availability in your currently booked cabin level AND you (or your TA) contact O for the current Sale price modification on the existing booking, AND your CC post statement that the online regular price is the same now for the same cabin class you originally purchased AND the “upgrade” you mention 

didn’t require a rebooking and didn’t add an additional cost, realize that it doesn’t apply to every cruise and is subject to being excluded for certain double dips) is $1000 more than the currently advertised (find it on the web price), something is definitely wrong.

 

However, the more likely situation is that there is something going on with your original booking where the O accounting system is causing you cruise to be excluded (see the previous “ifs,” particularly as regards the “upgrade” you mentioned.

Remember that most fare adjust refusals are related to “double dipping” and, since I hear you saying that the retail price is not unchanged (hmmm? hat upgrade still peaks my interest), there may be an “exclusion” at play OR whoever did the reprice for the sale made an error (incorrect Sale code, typo adding a digit, etc.)

Final thought: Your TA could always do a mock booking and see what bottom line comes up. If  it’s significantly lower, (including any cancel penalty and no negative impact on your O Life perks or air credit, et al., there’s your solution.

 

BTW: I know something about numbers too: “buck stops here” responsibility for 9 figure university budgets. There’s always an explanation. 

 

Thanks…you definitely have some insight…and your last sentence is exactly my point…there’s always an explanation , but why after 3 weeks are they not willing to provide an explanation ?  The upgrade I alluded to just meant that I was upgrading our choice of cabin from A3 to PH2…not like a free upgrade.  So the same “discounts” were carried over to the new higher category cabin.  To me, which could be naive, I should have the price of higher category I asked for, less the same discounts…that doesn’t seem to be the case….well, the same discounts are there, but O life price is inflated.  That’s the confusion.  So hopefully TA will be able to escalate it and advise why this is happening.  Not to mention, my other booking I have is somewhat similar…not exactly what I thought it would be, but so darn close that I am not gonna worry about that one. 

If they just don’t want to offer a bit of a discount as they had before…then just tell me…but don’t create random numbers and think I won’t notice. …   That’s the frustrating thing.  An invoice should be a simple thing to understand, very straight forward…but when it’s not, it feels like they’re trying to pull a fast one….

39 minutes ago, basor said:

So the bottom line price is exactly what you were expecting and what is advertised so they are not charging you more.....

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

If you’re considering the full “brochure” fare (not the O Life or cruise only fare) as the base fare, you don’t have much company. 

No one I know has ever cared what that fare is because it’s never charged. In one sense, it’s like a new automobile’s MSRP (when there were new cars aplenty). No one in their right mind would ever pay the MSRP.

 

The only true measure of what percent savings exists is to compare the current sale price to the current non-sale published price for equivalent O Life or “cruise only” cabins. 
The “Extraordinary” brochure we recently received in the mail does just that.

 

That said, there is the possible issue that, while O’s O Life/cruise only prices do regularly increase (often the website warns you that it will soon happen), there may be an occasional price jump just prior to a holiday sale. But, any O regular who follows O trends is well aware when that happens. 

And so let me put it this way since you don’t seem to understand my point about starting price…btw..My entire career was in Finance with Mercedes Benz Financial Svcs…I know a thing or two about numbers…. ….   If online O life without air is $11,299 (when I upgraded and currently still), why am I being charged $13,699?