JYDCruise

I hope that they keep this up! At the very least until the ship docks in Rio . . . 😁

The way I play poker, it'd be a nice way to spend . . . 10 minutes or so. 😀 My son and I played in a tournament on an NCL cruise a couple of years ago, must have been 40 players and lots of rebuys/add-ons. IIRC they paid 3 spots, and my son and I went out 4th and 6th. 😒

Lounge access is a secondary benefit from those cards. The Chase Sapphire Reserve's $550 annual fee comes with a $300 travel credit, so the net out of pocket cost for the card is $250. The incremental "rebate" if I use this card vs my double cash card for my upcoming cruise + flight is ~$400 so any lounge access is just tasty icing on the cake. BTW (and most importantly), thanks very much for this thread! We're going to be on the Marina in just a few weeks (!) for our first Oceania cruise, and your posts have given us a great deal of insight.

Well, as a fellow Sunnyvaler, I can personally assure you that you don't need to drive up to SF to try Humphry Slocombe, just need to hit the nearest Whole Foods (in "downtown" Sunnyvale) or even any Safeway. Neither has more than a handful of the flavors but you can find the classics such as the Blue Bottle* Vietnamese Coffee.

Just curious, what did you do in port? We're going to be there in just over a month and I still haven't figured out what we'll do that day.

AND BACON?!?!? Be still, my beating heart! Well, that saying could become literal with enough ice cream . . .

A few posters in this thread have unfortunately confused "I personally don't like the flavor" with "not high quality". Sure, some of their flavors may be a bit out there (nowhere near Salt and Straw, though) and not for everyone, but as for someone attempting to make an objective argument that HS isn't a quality product - best o'luck to that! Despite living in the Bay Area with good access to HS ice cream, I've never heard of Elvis the Fat Years. Is this a peanut butter/banana flavor?

Logged in at D-45 at 9PM PST (a perk of being on the West Coast) and didn't see anything before 6:30 whether a shared table or 2-top. It's possible that earlier times were snapped up by the Suite/Concierge passengers, though. For a non-shared table, we were only able to book a 6:30 for Red Ginger with the others at 8 or 8:30 (which are fine with us).

RCL denies boarding to guarantee passengers The initial compensation offer was, not surprisingly, an insult (refund + a 25% FCC), though it (also not surprisingly) got better once the situation became public knowledge.

Seriously? I can't imagine what the compensation offer would be for this - 100% refund (obviously), 100% refund of all otherwise non-refundable costs (airfare, hotels), return airfare to origin, and free future cruise of at least equal value as a starting point. ETA: I have a B4 GTY on Oceania in March but it's showing availability from A3-B3 so there won't be a similar issue. Rest of the ship is waitlisted, so no upgrade to an Owner's Suite for me, sadly. 😀

I don't know about the policy, but I was able to upgrade from SM to the "Prestige Select Beverage Package". Again, this was done by calling Oceania, and I did this >2 months before sailing. Just confirmed that by looking at my booking online, and it was correctly charged to my credit card. It also correctly shows that my son has not upgraded.

I was able to upgrade my SM drink package before sailing (which still is over a month out) by calling Oceania directly. It only took a few minutes.

I was just blocking out time today to submit the applications, and saw the announcement - great news!

Not so much Buenos Aires itself, but we're on the same trip (until Rio) and also arriving on the 1st. We're sacrificing some time in the city in order to go to Iguazu Falls for a couple of days. Although that only leaves us with ~ 1 1/2 days in BA, the falls look to be a "can't miss" destination, and only a short flight away.

We're taking our first Oceania cruise in March, on the Marina, so just prior to the refurb. I can spill red wine on the carpeting with no remorse whatsoever!

A Margarita pizza shouldn't have tomato sauce at all, but rather lime sauce with salt on the rim of the crust. 😄 Tomato sauce on a Margherita pizza, on the other hand, is absolutely essential and I think in Italy leaving it off is a crime punishable by 10 years in prison, eating nothing but McDonald's.

I'm more than a little surprised that Laura Krejci is still there. Perhaps the buck stopped on Carol Cabezas' desk, but it sure spent a lot of time loitering on Ms. Krejci's desk as CIO.

Indeed. I'd go one step further - build good wages for the crew into the fare, and say that nothing further was required, expected or will be accepted. Japan-style - try tipping there and see what happens. Points to Azamara (probably the closest comp to Oceania) for including gratuities in the fare.

And sometimes sticker price isn't what you'll actually pay. IIRC the Oceania website "Promotional Fare W/O Airfare" SM price for our 2024 10 nights on Nautica (B4 veranda) was ~$3600+; we paid $2300.

Do they have musical theater trivia? I don't care about "Big O" points, or whatever they use to keep track, but it's been fun doing this on previous cruises on other lines. I'm not bad, but when my daughter is along (won't be on this trip), we wouldn't need an electronic device 😁.

No doubt, but equally no doubt that this should have been wrapped up many months ago. It should never have been a problem visible to the customers at all. This has been a case study in how not to handle a data migration. And the essentially non-existent communication from the CEO's office (when was the last update? May? June?) should be an embarrassment.

The time between the OP and yours was ~12 hours. Perhaps he/she has had other things to do during that relatively brief period and didn't spend the time frantically hitting F5. OT: yes, when looking at the fares during an "up to 4 category upgrade" it's clear that the upgrade is built into the price - it's a price reduction for a given cabin, not really an upgrade. Like the OP, I had hoped it meant that I could get book a B4 (for example) at the listed price and get assigned an A4, but no - it means that the listed price for an A4 is what the B4 used to be (maybe . . .). One way to tell is that the pricing for the lowest 4 categories is likely the same.

I'm a great believer that "without coffee, life itself would be impossible" and enjoy well-made coffee in any and all forms. You should try a properly brewed cup, or pour over - it might change your opinion.

We're looking at booking the Buenos Aires - Rio cruise on the Marina this March. However, one of our party needs to get home that same day, which would require catching an 11AM flight. The ship is scheduled to dock at 7AM; I'm assuming it's at Pier Maua, so 20-30 minutes from the airport. If we could be the first off the ship, we could probably get a (prearranged) ride to the airport at . . . 7:15? 7:30? and get to the airport by 8-8:15AM or so, which should be plenty of time to make the flight. There are a lot of moving parts involved, though - the ship has to dock on time, port personnel (customs/immigration? We'll have already been to several ports in Brazil) need to be there and working, no delays departing the ship, no huge traffic issues, airline can't mis-connect (~90 minutes in Panama), etc. Any thoughts? Would Oceania allow us to be among the first off the ship? We'll be in a Veranda (possibly Concierge) if that matters.

Does Oceania require that everyone in a cabin sign up for the Prestige package, or can this be done individually (a nice feature on Azamara)? I'm looking at traveling with my adult son, who likely wouldn't have more than 1-2 cocktails on the entire cruise. I'm likely on the value borderline and would probably sign up just to avoid any payment hassles, but not if I have to buy the package for him as well.