Poulsbo Cruisers

Also looking forward to your review. We have never sailed on Oceania, but have a cruise booked on the Vista for September 2025.

We have a veranda cabin booked on Vista for September 2025. We are considering upgrading to a concierge veranda. It appears from the deck plans that some of the forward and aft A1 category cabins have larger balconies. Is this correct and does anyone have pictures of those balconies? Thanks.

I believe more people take the time to write a negative review than a positive one regardless of cruise line. When people complain about small cabins and lack of entertainment they obviously didn’t do their homework and picked the wrong ship/cruise line. It’s like choosing RCCL and complaining there are too many kids on board. We booked our first Oceania cruise for next year on the Vista and are going in with a positive attitude. We already know what to expect from a smaller ship as we did a Viking Ocean cruise last year. It would be difficult to go back to a mega ship after that.

Everyone booking the cruise knew they weren’t landing in Antarctica. They were sailing close enough to see the continent, not some remote island as a substitute. Just as those sailing Glacier Bay in Alaska know they aren’t docking on the glacier.

Then why did both NCL and Oceania change the title of the cruises to remove Antarctica? If you are changing the descriptive title of the cruise, you are substantially changing the cruise. I’m sure anyone booking primarily for Antarctica is going to be very disappointed.

I’m curious as to why Oceania refers to this cruise stop as Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) when other cruise lines correctly call it Ho Chi Minh City, a name it has been officially known by since 1976. Why would they disrespect the official name of a city? Even Oceania’s parent company, NCL, refers to this city as Ho Chi Minh City. I’m sure that after 48 years the majority of people know this city’s official name.

This is so true. We were disappointed in our Viking Ocean cruise last year as it didn’t meet our expectations. A lot of this was due to the price we paid. We were just expecting more at that price point.

Just this past month, we also booked our first Oceania cruise on the Vista in September 2025. It’s the September 4 sailing from Bilbao. I believe it is the same cruise. We are looking forward to trying Oceania.

We did our first Viking Ocean cruise last year and have just booked our first Oceania cruise. We liked Viking, but didn’t feel, for us, the hype matched the price. We are looking forward to trying Oceania and are trying not to let overly negative or positive reviews get us too worked up.

Anyone who has cruised multiple times has probably had a cruise or two that did not meet their expectations. This appears to be the case with the OP. We had this happen to us last year with a Viking Ocean cruise. We loved a lot of things about Viking, but didn’t feel it was worth the money it cost to sail with them. One thing Viking did for us was show us how much more enjoyable it is to cruise on a smaller ship with no or few kids. We have now booked our first Oceania cruise. We are looking forward to it, but won’t let our expectations get the better of us. Just getting close to our Viking cruise experience would be a win since Oceania costs substantially less.

We are done with the mega ships. Last year we did a Viking Ocean cruise and really enjoyed the smaller ship experience. After looking at Oceania, Azamara and Viking for Europe in 2025, we decided to try our first Oceania cruise. It will be on the Vista. After a bunch of research, we determined Oceania was no more money than Azamara and they had nicer ships. And they were substantially less than Viking. They may be much pricier than in the past, but so is everyone else.

Our issue is that they just assigned a cabin without even giving us the opportunity to see which cabins were available. And I see no place on the webpage to chose a cabin.

I placed a cruise booking on hold a little while ago. I chose the category and Azamara assigned a cabin. Am I to assume the price includes the cabin upgrade? I can’t tell what the normal price is for the category. I have never sailed with Azamara and I’m trying to figure out how to select a cabin. Or do I just have to take what they assign?

We did our first Viking cruise last year and are looking to book an Azamara cruise for next year. We really enjoyed our Viking cruise especially the overall ship experience. But, the included excursions were not worth the money we didn’t pay and if going with an upgraded excursion it costs as much as those on cruise lines that do not include excursions. Our included Wifi was very slow. At the end of the day, we decided that as much as we enjoyed Viking it wasn’t worth the high cost especially when having to pay for the entire cruise upfront. Viking did spoil us for the smaller ship experience and that is why we want to try Azamara.

Several years ago, we did a back to back Mediterranean cruise. We became platinum on the second leg. Princess already knew this and our cruise cards for the second leg reflected this. We didn’t have to do anything.

The Mexican Rivera will usually feel colder even with temperatures in the 70s. The wind coming off the Pacific just makes it feel cooler.

Just pray there isn’t a government shutdown on October 1. If there is passport processing will grind to a halt. As others have stated a passport is not required for a closed loop Caribbean cruise. A certified birth certificate will suffice. However, if an emergency were to occur and you had to leave the ship in a foreign port, you will be stuck there until you can get a passport. Can’t fly into the US without one.

Everything changes with time. Technology is part of our lives and you either accept it or complain about it. When I started cruising in 1990 no one had even heard of Wifi. Airfare was included in the price of the cruise. There were no specialty restaurants and no anytime dining. On seven night cruises, there were two formal nights, two informal nights and three casual nights. Every time a change is made there will be those who complain, but will eventually accept it. It just takes some longer to get there. The medallion is not going away. Princess will not abandon it especially when so many like it. I’ve only cruised once with it and that was 18 months ago. I thought it was great and even my wife, who is at times technology challenged, like it. We’ve cruised twice since with other lines, including Viking Ocean, and missed the Princess medallion.

So a few passengers boycotting the medallion will force Princess to abandon the millions they’ve already spent on it and go back to the old way?

I hope you don’t fly to the cruise port. That new fangled technology could get you killed. 😁😁

Since nobody is forced to use the app, I’m trying to figure out what makes a cruise card easier to use than the medallion. Either is scanned to get on and off the ship, make purchases and enter your cabin. Maybe I’m missing something.

This has been an ongoing discussion on this board.

I’m not an IT expert and neither are most trying to login. I do know that they had to make a recent change that screwed up the login procedures and they should be able to figure out what that was. Otherwise, they’ll continue to have upset customers. Something I always appreciated about Princess is that their website was easier to navigate than most of the other cruise lines. I would hate to see that change. If nothing else, put a disclaimer on the login page that lets everyone know that they are experiencing difficulties with the login process and that it may take several attempts to get in.

At least now I know that I’m not the only one with this issue. It’s been happening to me for over a month. It seems Princess would have known about this problem by now. I’m surprised they haven’t fixed it yet.

We didn’t have such an opportunity, but did see a long line waiting to get in. We had been to the Anne Frank museum several years earlier. I would suggest that you make a reservation at the museum in advance and then make your own way to it.