MEFIowa

Given what we've actually paid for 10-night cruises on Riviera and Sirena, cruise only, even that $3849 price is academic. Add in airfare and you're pushing $5000 PP. Riviera 12/2021 A4: $2099 PP Sirena 11/2022 B2: $2249 PP Riviera 10/2023 A3: $1899 PP Riviera 11/2023 B3: $1749 PP

Did pull up Marina's July 16-26 Baltic cruise. Only G, C and B4 are wait listed. F and A1-B3 are available. The least expensive B3 is $4749 without airfare. https://www.oceaniacruises.com/baltic-cruises/london-to-copenhagen-MNA240716/?sr=%2Fcruise-finder%23time_frame%3D2024-7%26marketing_region%3Dbalticandscandinavia%26ship%3DMNA%26sort%3Dfeatured%3Adesc%26page%3D1%26pageSize%3D10

So, pretty much unobtainium for the masses. And that is telling. I suspect TAs have loss leaders, too. To get eyeballs and ears. And this--"Today there is a Marina veranda, July 10 night in the Baltics for $1600."--seems weird since July is a way off and the Baltic is popular. O hasn't had to rely much on sales for Baltic cruises, and I've been watching like a hawk since booking our 2024 Sept Baltic cruise in May 2022. There was a small sale in Oct 2022 that I used to rebook from a G to one of the rare "big" Cs. But since then no sales for either of the 2 cruises we've got as a B2B in the Baltic.

Sailed on Sirena 10 nights 11/2022 in the E. Caribbean. And 30 nights on Riviera, ten in 12/2021 and 20 in 10-11/2023. "My questions are: 1. Will there be other solos on Oceania my age? Age 45-55? THERE ARE ONLY A HANDFUL OF SOLO CABINS. THE MAJORITY OF CRUISERS WERE SEEN HAVE BEEN IN THEIR 70s. WE ARE IN OUR LATE 50s AND FELT YOUNG BUT IN A DECENT WAY. MET LOTS OF NICE PEOPLE BUT THEY MOSTLY ARE OLDER. 2. I like to dance & listen to Latin music, go to shows, comedy at night onboard and stay entertained until about midnight including hot tubs at night. Will Sirena hold my interest? DOUBTFUL. MUSIC SKEWS TO THINGS LIKE POP AND SHOWTUNES. HAVE ENJOYED THE COMICS BUT YOU'D LIKELY GET 2-3 PERFORMANCES IN 12 NIGHTS. THINGS GO REAL QUITE REAL FAST AFTER ABOUT 10:30 PM. POOL IS VERY SMALL AND MAINLY FOR WALKING, NOT SWIMMING. HOT TUBS CLOSE LONG BEFORE MIDNIGHT. 3. Would the transition from sailing on ships of 2,800+ capacity to one of 700 capacity be a hard transition? I SUSPECT IT WOULD.

Too bad, we're on Sirena from 28 Aug-19 Sept 2024 in the Baltic. I enjoyed Tom's comedy and Dottie's assistance during our 2022 cruise on Sirena.

Did a 20-night B2B on Riviera 10-11/2023. First 10 nights in a concierge A3 and the 2nd 10 nights in a non-concierge B3. We were able to get far better dining times for our A3 nights than with our B3 nights. With the later, we ended up with 8:30 and 9 pm times. So few dined at those times. O even moved the 9 pm back to 8:30, I suspect because no one else was showing up that late. I suspect many G-B passengers just don't dine at all at 8:30 or 9. With the A3 we were able to get 6:30 times, which we preferred. We did enjoy the large therapy pool on Riviera (which is different & larger than on Marina or on the R-class ships). Riviera has the concierge lounge, which does provide a good selection of American, Canadian and British newspapers. I do love to read a good newspaper daily. Whether it is worth it for you may depend upon the price. It cost us $150 more for the A3 than the B3, but both were booked off the Extraordinary Savings Sale in 2023. Looking back, I think I WOULD pay the $150 for the A3, but that's pushing my limit. It wasn't as if the benefits were so dramatic that I'd pay a lot more than that.

Not really, see the loss of Jacques, replaced by Ember. And IIRC the menu at Waves is different on Vista now than when I was on Riviera 11/2023. Loved the Mahi Mahi on Riviera. Not in a burrito. Etc.

Manuel Montt has a fascinating history in Chile in the 19th century. Hope someone mentions who he was: "Manuel Francisco Antonio Julián Montt Torres (Latin American Spanish; September 4, 1809 – September 21, 1880) was a Chilean statesman and scholar. He was twice elected President of Chile between 1851 and 1861. ... On giving up the presidency in 1861, Montt became President of the Supreme Court of Chile, a position which he held up to his death in September 1880. Manuel Montt's nephew Jorge (born 1846) served as president of Chile in 1891–1896, as did Manuel Montt's son, Pedro (died 1910), between 1906 and 1910."

For those cruises booked under Simply More, you can get wine and beer at lunch and dinner in their restaurants. You only can only get what they have and offer. BUT... You can bring all the alcohol you want on board at embarkation and in ports, including beer, hard liquor and wine. Drink the beer & hard liquor in your cabin. Pay a corkage fee to drink your wine in their restaurants. Or pay to upgrade to their drinks package (to drink from what they have and offer from it).

A weird strategy for O, pay more & get less with Vista. So glad we were on Riviera in the Med 10/30-11/19/2023.

You certainly have your strong subjective opinions on both of them. BUT they must be doing something right, since (1) they keep coming back on board O ships and (2) Tom keeps performing in them. Though who knows about "a bit racist"? The devil is in the details. And in your perception. Tom admitted in his special "educational" set that he can tweak jokes to an audience and that minor changes in tone and a single word make all the difference. He could take a very clean joke and make it harsher or vice versa, depending upon the crowd. One involving a photograph, a pharmacist and murder still sticks in my mind. But "racist"? I didn't hear that in 3 sets. He did have fun changing an infamous mean joke to either a RC Monseigneur or a rabbi, for example. Tom seems to know his audience, esp. on cruise ships.

Sometimes it can be rather hard to discern if something is actually a sale. An O "2024 EUROPEAN symphony" brochure came in the mail. Opened it up and it mentions the "Celebrate the New Year with up to 50% off on select cruises", but in the fine print on p. 35 you read: "Offer and fares are subject to change on 4/1/24. The New Year Sale offer expires on 2/29/24 and is available on select categories and select sailings, and is capacity controlled."

For dinner at least, arriving around 6:20 pm for a 6:30 "start" would seemingly always get you a decent table. For lunch, however, it could crowd badly, esp. on days excursions came back together around 1 pm or so. One day they kept the lunch operation going until after 3 pm. And there is WAVES in the afternoon, which has some great food, too.

Always fascinating to see how people differ in their opinions. But it does sound like you're OK with Tom, since your issues are seemingly with Dottie. Loved Tom's two regular comic shows on Sirena 11/2022 as well as a special afternoon one that was added where he discussed the idea of "comedy" and the "joke". He dissected some of his work. He could show how a subtle change in tone or a word could completely change the intensity or direction of a joke. He was easy to approach on the ship and a joy to talk to. As for Dottie, on Sirena I appreciated that she hosted the ecumenical Christian prayer services we had. AND I asked her early in the cruise if there was going to be a Veterans' meet & greet. She said she was not planning on having one, so I asked to host one on a sea day in Martinis. She did the PR for it. The announcements she made led to about 25 people being at it. (Off our B2B on Riviera, where little PR happened to the scheduled Veterans' meetings, we only had about 6 both times, though we had twice the number of passengers.) Ran into her in Old San Juan at a local grocery store, as I was looking for inexpensive Puerto Rican rum and beer. Had a nice chat with her. She was always friendly and approachable.

Wife and I have spent 30 nights on Riviera since 12/2021, including a 20-night B2B 10-11/2023, and 10 nights on Sirena 11/2022. We have never eaten in the GDR/MDR. We much prefer the TC. Love eating under the stars. The food diversity quite good. A nice balance between staples and new or changing items. Some people live by the grilling station (lobster tail, lamb, steaks, and shrimp). We did NOT get bored with the food in the TC on our B2B. (There was one night heavy on Italian seafood dishes and I'm not huge on some seafood, so that was a bit of a miss but also thinking there was a themed night about olives and cheese that I did enjoy.) I will say that a seagull ate an item off my plate at lunch in the Med last year. Far aft table alone side. I got up to get something and walked a few steps then saw people pointing and laughing so I turned around to see two birds on my table and one eating my entre. But I prefer to eat outside in the TC when I can.

We've had 4 cruises on O since our very first cruise ever on Riviera (12/2021), two in the Caribbean and 2 in the Med. 1) We've NEVER eaten in the GDR/MDR on any of our 40 nights. We much prefer the Terrace Cafe (eating under the stars) and don't want to sit down for slow table service, other than in the specialty restaurants. 2) We also mainly do our own excursions, only having done a few O excursions on the last cruises. But we did all of our own for the first 2 cruises. And we do our own for the truly "important" ones. We did private driver/guide for Rome & Ephesus, and took public transportation (bus & metro) in Istanbul for the 4 days we were there (2 separate overnights on a B2B) to get to the old walls of Constantinople 4 miles out with a walk back to the metro for the return.

Though the current New Year Sale ENDS 2/29/24. Presidents' Day is 2/19/24. Previously the Presidents' Day Sale started on or around 1 February. Forget if they ended at the end of February or some time in March.

Unless one has the details, hard to assess subjective issues tied to food and restaurants. Our biggest complaint was being forced to eat at 8:30 PM, even though we made our reservations on the first day we could. The B3 is in the same group as the G-F-D-Cs. So that mean late dining most nights in the specialty restaurants. Arriving at 8:30 with few others and the places emptying out around 9 pm. Made us rush our meals a bit, but the food was good.

Though when we were on Riviera 10/30-11/19/2023 we had the exact opposite dining experience. We don't dine in the GDR, so can't comment on that, but the food in Jacques, Red Ginger, Polo Grill, Toscana, Waves and the Terrace Cafe was uniformly outstanding. I loved every meal. (We also had enjoyed the food on Riviera 12/13-23/2021.)

And if Dottie is there, her husband, the comic Tom Drake, likely to perform. We were blessed to have them both on the Sirena Caribbean cruise 11/2022.

Really, we're discussing prices and sales. And NOT just for experienced O cruisers or those with powerful TAs or annual whale cruise budgets. I just wish some people on the O cruises I've taken had paid attention to sales. When I've told them how little I paid, and they could've too, they all but cried. O has SO MANY different sales annually, at the very least people should know, for example, what a "cabin-upgrade sale" entails. Seen those in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Wanna bet we may see one in 2024? To paraphrase an underappreciated thinker, who made an appearance in a commercial during the Super Bowl, I pity the fool who doesn't know about O sales or use them. 😉

As you rightly surmised O has a ton of legalese boilerplate with their sales. I pulled out the large 2023 "Extraordinary Savings Sale" brochure. The legal terms, conditions, restrictions, etc. found on the bottom of p. 38. AND YES VIRGINA, it says "for new bookings only". Yet, O also had a price guarantee. So, IF you called your O rep, as I did, she changed the booking. I did the same with the 2021 Presidents' Day Sale. I remember that call well, as I said something like, "How come you didn't tell me about the sale?" And I was told, "You have to monitor that yourself." Something I took to heart. So I said, "So do I need to cancel the booking to take advantage of the sale?" And it was, "No, give me a second and I'll change it." Have always kept the same booking # no matter how many times I've modified the booking or changed cabins due to sale. With all things O, seems like there are few "set in stone rules" and there are exceptions for everything. Knowing the right person or being a big spender or having a powerful TA likely help, more so on the margins of sales, since the ones I'm discussing are public and openly available to all.

We're discussing sales in general, sales in history, and possible sales in the future. So, we can "know" about the first two, but can only be hopeful about the third. Assuming one pays attention to the future. To paraphrase a great thinker, those who don't know the past are doomed not to be primed to take advantage of the future.

Iowa has a Bangor, Birmingham, Brooklyn, Cambridge, Delhi, Lisbon, Macedonia, Madrid, Moscow, Oakland, Paris, Rome, Scranton, Ventura, Waterloo, and more. But no states that I know of. I mean, our Washington is indeterminate.

A lovely irony there: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri, U.S." I didn't know there was a Florida in Missouri.