LabMom57

I have two HAL sailings -- a 7-day to Alaska in 2 weeks and a 14-day around Japan next April. In looking at my account, it looks like the Japan sailing had the OBC increased from $350 to $400 for the 2 of use but nothing was added for Alaska. Is anyone seeing an increase that indicates stacking of original OBC (not military or teacher) with the AARP? It looks to me like I got the higher of the two options in each case. Thanks.

Thank you so much for your detailed review and pictures. I really appreciate all of the great information. We are on this same itinerary in August!

We are considering adding CO for our Alaskan cruise on Eurodam in August. For me, the tipping point would be the expanded room service menu for breakfast. Can you provide any information on the difference between the regular room service menu and the expanded CO one? Thanks!

We were on the Regatta in April and both came home sick with COVID. No one masked on that French Polynesia cruise.

@MisterMatthew To answer your question, no I have not yet been to Alaska. We retired last year and are just starting our travels. We have 3 cruises booked this year and 4 cruises booked for next year to celebrate retirement. Thank you for your pictures and descriptions. We enjoyed your report very much.

Honestly, this thread is making me look forward to our August cruise even more! @MisterMatthew you clearly have a way with people and a very engaging personality. I, too, love your writing style -- informative and entertaining.

We have a Labrador Retriever who is 11. (We had two but lost our older one last year.) I'm looking forward to the details. I've read a couple of reports of HAL having serious supply chain issues on other cruises this year. I won't stress about the Alaska cruise as we don't have far to go, living just outside of Seattle. However, we are booked on a HAL Japan itinerary next April. If things don't go as well as I'd like for the August cruise, we may cancel Japan. Too far to go to have issues!

I am looking forward to the rest of your report! We are on this same itinerary/ship in August.

Thank you for this post! We just booked a trip on the Xpedition (Northern loop) for 2025. I'm already so excited and now relieved that it seems it will be exactly what I hoped for when I decided on the Xpedition rather than the Flora.

Thanks for the clarity. It looks like some of the trips are indeed better than others. The one I'm interested in just isn't one of the really good deals, unfortunately! I appreciate the information though. 🙂

Hi Hank, Your posts from your Japan cruise gave me pause about our HAL Japan cruise next year. We went on the Regatta in April (South Pacific). We have previously cruised O on the Sirena. I noted they ran out of the Chardonnay by the glass we had been enjoying, which was shocking to me for Oceania. The food was mostly very good with a couple of not great entrees in the main dining room. One thing I noticed was the service in the bars wasn't great. I spoke to the bar manager about it (after lodging a complaint) and he said they have a lot of new staff, which is unusual for O. I think much of the industry has been having issues. We are booked on O again for December and will see if things have improved. As far as Marina, I'd say it is likely dated due to the delayed upgrade. The ships that have been upgraded are very nice. However, if one were judging an Oceania ship against a Celebrity Edge class, they all look dated due to the difference in style. Just my thoughts there. We personally are moving our new bookings to Celebrity for a bit, also to try something new!

I find this sale just as confusing this year as I did last year. When I go in to do a mock booking, the prices seem no different for most of the sailings. I saw a couple where all the cabins in a particular class were the same (A1-A4, for example). Is this just another marketing ploy like 2 for 1 pricing?

Well, yikes. This section is kind of buried on the boards. We are also considering the Galapagos expedition for 2024. Given the level 4 risk in Guayaquil, that gives us major concerns. Looking forward to any replies you receive. Please share back any information you find from elsewhere!

My pleasure.

For that, we use a tote. We have a number we choose from for cruises. A backpack also works great. If you are worried about the change of clothes getting wet, you can use a small dry bag. We carry this when we kayak: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071941ZFG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1 You can find others without the items you already have by searching Amazon for waterproof dry bag.

DH and I kayak and snorkel and we use both a phone pouch and a waist pouch depending on what we need to carry with us. Both are waterproof and have had no issues.

Hi there! hr We are on the same cruise with you. We are flying in a few days early and looking at staying in a beachfront resort pre cruise. Our TA had 2 hotels that O has listed for precruise stays. I'm debating whether to use those or something on our own. Either way, there are a lot of places to stay both on the South shore and the West shore of the island. See you onboard!

Hopefully your worries have been put to rest but I'll put in a few thoughts just in case. We just got back from a cruise on the Insignia sister ship, the Regatta. We previously sailed on the Sirena in 2018 and loved the experience. We found a few things that were not as expected post pandemic but nothing as bad as what I'm reading happening on other cruise lines! We have cruises booked on Holland America and Celebrity in 2024 and I am worried about those! Minor issues from our recent cruise have not changed our mind about sailing on the Insignia in December. There was lobster available in multiple venues on our cruise. The specialty restaurants were just as good as expected. The buffet and Waves Grill were both excellent every day. The MDR was the only place I felt the quality had slipped and it was hit and miss. I had a spectacular tuna there one day and plenty of lobster was available. Given the fact that many people who left the cruise industry during COVID, I think there are a lot of new employees on every line. That can lead to some bumps. Oceania is doing better than most premium lines right now based what I'm reading and what I experienced. As I said, we are on the Insignia in December and looking forward to it!

We always do room service for early port days. Makes it easier to get the first tender out.

I am 62 and my DH is 68. We have cruised twice on Oceania and not felt too young but we don't go to the shows or anything. We go to be early and get up early for port excursions so have yet to go to a show as they are past our bedtime! Having said that, we befriended a couple on our first O cruise in 2018 who are in their 80s. We are still friends. We have also done excursions with a LOT of other folks our own age on our most recent Tahiti cruise. Have fun on your cruise! We are doing the Eastern Caribbean in December.

We just returned from an O cruise in French Polynesia. For men, collared shirts and pants (not jeans) in all venues except Terrace and Waves. For specialty restaurants, most men had jackets and slacks with dress shirts. I don't think I saw any ties. My DH and BIL wore jackets and slacks in specialty restaurants and dropped the jacket in the MDR. Everyone was dressed nicely in all those venues and mostly dressed well in the buffet seating. I doubt anyone would be denied admittance at the MDR with nice dress jeans but I did not see any on our cruise. FWIW, dress shorts on men were not see in any venue. Someone asked before our cruise, so I kept my eyes open!

I booked all of our excursions as independent excursions. The only one I couldn't get one I liked was Rangiroa. For Raiatea, try L'excursion Bleue. The man who runs it is named Bruno. https://www.tahaa.net/en/home/ For Fakarava, I used Fakarava Excursions. https://www.fakaravaexcursions.com/ We did the morning snorkel. There are restaurants and food trucks around. I'm not sure what would be in walking distance though. Taxis are your best bet or ask at the front desk for recommendations. We dined on site but don't recommend it!

I did get some cash from an ATM at the airport in order to have Polynesian francs. I have an ATM card from my bank that does not charge me to do that. I tipped for excursions in local currency but they were very happy to take US dollars as well.

You will love it. They were the best snorkel excursion we have ever had. Absolutely wonderful. Enjoy!

When I was planning for our recent cruise to French Polynesia, I did a lot of research here on Cruise Critic. There was a lot of stuff from pre COVID but not a lot of information from 2022 and later. I want to give back to the forum with information from our experience in April 2023. Papeete Airport Information: - No air conditioning. Long times on arrival. Be prepared! It was very hot and humid the evening we arrived and the wait was long. - There are limited services at the airport. Don't plan to arrive hours early on disembarkation day. We disembarked at 8:30 am and had a 9:10 pm flight (which left late). Plan something for the day if you have a wait. Best idea is a hotel if you can get one. Trust me, you will appreciate the air conditioning. - Be aware that most everything is closed on Sundays. The market is open very early then closes. - Taxis DO take US dollars. Don't stress about getting Polynesian Francs. If you want to get some, don't go to the exchange. There is an ATM at the airport. You'll need to seek it out as it isn't easily found. Not everyone understood what I was asking. Hilton Resort Tahiti: We were able to get a decent price for this hotel (comparatively speaking) and stayed 2 nights pre cruise. Be forewarned -- the food is overpriced and not great. Buffet breakfast was expensive and some items poorly cooked (bacon and sausage were very undercooked). Coffee cups are small and waitstaff are overwhelmed. I recommend going out for dinner. Food was overpriced and overcooked. The fish we had was not good. Rooms were fine and pool is good. Excursions: - Moorea: We used Moorea Miti Tours for a full day snorkel with motu lunch. The tour was very good. We enjoyed the swimming with black tipped reef sharks and sting rays the most. Our guide was entertaining and informative. - Nuku Hiva: Got stood up by our tour operator, Jocelyne Mamatui. She refused to wait for the second tender even though the others we booked with asked her to wait. We had been confirmed and reconfirmed. It sounds from her reply (her English isn't that good) as though she picked up 2 people from the pier to replace us and left without us. From what I heard, the tour was not optimal. - Fakarava: We used Fakarava Excursions for a morning Blue Lagoon snorkel. This was a very good experience. I was really impressed by the skills of the boat captain. We had some really choppy water to navigate around on the way back. He did an outstanding job. The snorkeling was lots of fun on this tour. - Bora Bora: This one was the highlight of our trip. We used H2O Bora Bora for our snorkel excursion. It was phenomenal. We did a guided coral garden snorkel, an aquarium snorkel where was saw a huge moray eel, a manta ray cleaning station where we snorkeled with a huge manta ray, and a group of 9 eagle rays swimming in a beautiful ballet. We loved this one the most. There were only 6 people booked on this excursion, which is their norm. - Raiatea: We used L'excursion Bleue for our snorkel and motu lunch tour. It was another all day excursion. The crew was very funny and skilled. The captain's sense of humor got a little old as the day worn on but he was fun. We had an early snorkel that included a huge number of black tipped reef sharks, which was an incredible experience. We also did a drift snorkel which was pretty awesome. In between we visited a Pearl Farm, Vanilla Farm, and Rum distillery for Rum tasting. A few things to be aware of: - Everything I read said tipping is not expected but is appreciated. We did tip on all of our excursions. - Prices for the booths of handicrafts may be negotiable. I purchase multiple items from 2 vendors and requested a price break. One gave me 30% off for my purchase. The other one was more like 10% off. No one seemed offended but I was buying a large number of items. - Not all excursions have the same equipment. Make sure you ask ahead of time if you want to use their snorkel gear or have a floatation device available. - These islands are very small. There are limited numbers of seats available for excursions when a ship is in port. Book early to avoid disappointment. - We only had rain on one excursion but there were days when it rained outside of our excursion time. It is a tropical area and rain can happen any time. Be prepared. Rain is most likely on higher islands like Nuku Hiva and Bora Bora which have peaks to "catch" the clouds. - One of our excursions was paid on the boat. They accepted US dollars but verify in advance. Everywhere we went seemed perfectly happy to accept US dollars. - Use a credit card that does not charge an international transaction fee. - If you buy pearls or other expensive items you will need to stop at Customs Services at Papeete airport to submit VAT paperwork. If you do not do this or do not depart from there, you will owe the taxes. They will be charged to your credit card after departure. This was only an issue for those on our cruise who were continuing on without disembarking at Papeete. NOTE: You must have your boarding pass in hand BEFORE you go to the Custom Services window at the airport. Do everyone a favor and keep all of your documents in order and have everything ready before you go to the window. This makes it work quickly for everyone.