MEFIowa

Thank God for the Extraordinary Savings Sale in early 2023. Our 10 nights on Riviera Triest to Athens 10/30-11/9/23 in an A3 was just $1899 PP and our 10 nights continuing on Riviera Athens to Barcelona 11/9-19/23 in a B3 was just $1749 PP. Sailing O by serious sales is the only way to go! (USD)

Though O already ran its New Year Sale in Jan-Feb and currently has a smaller one going on now. The current one pushing about 30 cruises. So O will have sales to fill those ships on cruises in serious need of passengers.

The only thing more fascinating is...that with all the complaints about noise from one room crossing into another on Vista recently, no mention of anyone complaining about couples getting jiggly. Reminds me of the old classic dinner theatre play, so I'll update the title, "No sex please, we're on Oceania."

Weird, a topless woman on a beach at St. Bart's doesn't cause the end of the world, but a topless woman on an O cruise ship does? Odd how a tiny bikini makes all the difference. More power to the nudists if they've got the numbers to charter the ship. The nudist colonies and resorts, like bowling alleys, have struggled in the USA. The more fascinating issue is...do they change any policies in regard to cellphones? They say the rise of cellphones that can take immediately take and store high quality photographs has hurt the nudist business.

Pretty simple, there was a GAP in the Aug 2023 published 2024 Collection of Voyages. Appears O filled part of it with your 28th September cruise. Which was NOT in that 2023 publication. Nothing still shows anywhere for anything on September 21st.

Pulled out the 2024 Collection of Voyages. From Aug 2023. For RIVIERA: Aug 25 Rome to Monte Carlo 10 days Sep 4 Monte Carlo to Barcelona 7 days Sep 11 Barcelona to Athens 10 days -------------------- GAP Oct 15 Athens to Venice 10 days Oct 25 Venice to Rome 10 days

READ your daily Currents each evening the night before to know exactly what will be taking place where and when the next day. Study it carefully each night for the next day. It is a most wonderful daily resource for all things happening during your voyage.

And that inflation includes the double whammy of a seriously declining currency. Took about 19TL to the $ in late 2022, but was at 28TL to the $ in Nov 2023 and is now over 31.50 TL to the $ today. So they raise prices due to inflation just in TL and raise them again due to a declining TL to foreign currencies. Turkey has to import so much.

Though when I compared prices in TL for the underground cistern tour and the Raki hard liquor in the Jan 2021 Rick Steves' guide to Istanbul, prices have skyrocketed: - Basilica Cistern Jan 2021: 20 TL ($1) - Basilica Cistern Nov 2023: 450 TL ($16)

As I clearly said, "For very inexpensive transportation in Istanbul". Public transportation there is quite amazing for tourists who want to use it. And Rick Steves' guide to Istanbul gives you some great walking tours on both sides of the Golden Horn. We did one each on both sides. This was in comparison to what Southern Gary said, "The Manger of the stand said the Taxi Driver would take us to the Bazar, stay with us and bring us back for $60." I spoke with someone who paid $100 for his taxi trip to the old walls. We paid TL90 or a bit over $3.00 total for the 2 of us. And we WALKED from the ship across the Golden Horn to Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Spice Market. You can walk to the Bazaar on a nice day.

I was on the same cruise as Southern Gary and did the B2B off Riviera that brought us back to Istanbul the next weekend. So 4 days and 2 nights there. For very inexpensive transportation in Istanbul, there is a metro station just outside Galata Port on the main street there running WEST (e.g., to Old Constantinople, across the Golden Horn to Hagai Sophia) and EAST (e.g., new Dolmabahçe Palace). You will find a kiosk there that lets you buy and load an Istanbul card for public transportation. Single trips on the metro were TL15 or about 55 cents. We took the metro west to the big stop on the west of the bridge crossing the Golden Horn. 15TL. Then took #38 bus (from the bus station right across the Golden Horn, north of the metro stop) to the Old Walls about 4 miles out. Again, TL15. We walked a Rick Steves old city neighborhoods route back about 2 or so miles. Then took the metro back to the port. Again, just another TL15. So that was 45 TL each for us or total of 90TL. Was 28TL=$1 then. Now around 31.60TL

Though what about your cabin? What type? Deck? Any issues? What do you love about it?

The sweet spot for most sales, especially the "big ones", tends to be the B and A cabins. The 4 category upgrade sales, for example, bring the price of the Bs and As down much closer to the G and F cabins. I use them to get out of an initially booked G or F into a C, B or A. And summer with Vista is starting off during peak time on the newer ship, which O isn't normally looking to discount, if they can help it.

And NARY a single dollar figure provided. And nothing on how much you spend thru your TA in the past 1, 3, 5 or 10 years. Funny how it is always vagueness. But it is never gauche to make all the claims about the benefits of TAs? Odd. Isn't that your point, "Look at us and what our TA does for us!" The whole POINT is to encourage people to look at and use O SALES. Each and every time a new sale happens, study it.

And... how much have you spent with your TA on all your various cruises over the past 1, 3, 5 and 10 years? That's the point! Lots of bookings.

What, none with any specificity, just as I immediately note you didn't provide any specificity. I never get numbers. I'm happy to give out numbers. Our 10-night B3 at $1749 and our 10-night A3 at $1899, both on Riviera. Airfare came in at $1000 round trip. As I said, alcohol just for the 20 nights and excluding what I took home under $60 total. AND we had $725 each in OBC! I seriously DOUBT on our recent 26-nights in Europe, 20 on Riviera, that any of them paid less than we did overall. But then we book under sales and rebook under sales and my wife loves to track airfare. I even did the currency work, buying our Euros the year before when the Euro was at about 99 cents to the dollar. We bought E500. (As of Wednesday's WSJ page, 1E=$1.0859. I'm tracking 4 currencies for our upcoming Baltic cruise.) 10-nights on Riviera 12/2021 was A4 $2099 and 10-nights on Sirena 11/2022 was B2 $2399

No, I'm not. I book under sales and rebook under sales. Did "cruise only" before SM and book our own excursions and airfare. Bring our own alcohol on board. I did contact one of those supposedly amazing TAs. They make some wonderful videos of O cabins, for example. They did NOT want my business. So, for those without a TA, try this: Call a TA up and say, "I only want to book an O cabin on a deep sale with no airfare and no alcohol upgrade package and we'll do our own excursions." Then tell us all, how did it go? What is weird is how those extolling the virtues of TAs NEVER tell us how many thousands of dollars annually and over a 5- and 10-year period they spend with their TA. TAs know their whales and they know the clients that generate them money. They don't work for free. Unlike those who talk in generalities, I provide specific details on what I spend on the cabin, airfare, and excursions. I spent about $100 for all the alcohol I bought in Europe for our 26 nights there (including 20 on Riviera), and I packed 3 bottles of hard liquor in my checked back, looking at them as I type this.

Opened technically at 0700 on Riviera (20-night B2B 10-11/2023). We did laundry on both decks 9 (had an A3) and 7 (had a B3). I think wife and I used the self-service laundries 5 times total, because we started after 3 nights in Venice and were ending with 3 more nights in Barcelona. Did last load the day before the cruise ended. Our room on deck 7 was pretty close to the laundry. I stopped by at 0645 and it was open. So I started a load. (I had a blast being "Assistant Deputy VP of Laundry Operations" for the respective decks, due to my expertise in using the detergent, washers and dryers) Having access to the newspapers in the Concierge Lounge from our A3 was nice while doing laundry.

Calendar Qtr 1 is Jan-Feb-Mar. Calendar Qtr 2 starts Apr 1. Sounds like another such increase. Often seen around Jan 1 or Jul 1, too.

Gina and I hope to get back to Destin. Did part of our 2018 honeymoon there. Starting it in Charleston, then to Savannah, and ending in Destin. The road construction going west was a bit of a pain then! If you get the chance, take the boat out to Ship Island to have it all to yourself for the day. I had proposed to Gina next to the large cannon on the upper deck of Fort Massachusetts on it: "Ship Island is the site of Fort Massachusetts (built 1859–66), as a Third System fortification. Part of the island is included in the Gulf Islands National Seashore." Ship Island (Mississippi) - Wikipedia And DO some amazing bucket list in-depth vacation. For me, that was 2 weeks in Paraguay in April-May 2022. I've studied the country since my college days in the 1980s. Hope to get to Madagascar in 2026! SEE THE AMAZING TRAVEL/HISTORY WORKS BY JOHN GIMLETTE, A BRITISH ATTORNEY.

I enjoy buying travel guides from the local Half-Priced Book store. Detailed ones. Like Rick Steves' for European cities and areas. Then I study the city tours he sets out. Walking thru the route in my mind as I follow the map and read the descriptions of what we'll see. Then I'll have the book with me when we actually get there and walk the route. Did that in Istanbul, for example, taking the #38 bus 4 miles out to the old walls of Constantinople and then walking his route back, finding everything on the route. Doing this for out upcoming 22-night Baltic cruise on Sirena. Studying London, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm and more. Of course, I salivate at the thought of going into local grocery and liquor/wine stores to see what bargains I can find on beer, hard liqour and wine. It was paradise in the Med last year. Whether Italian wine, Montenegrin beer or brandy from Greece, Serbia and Spain. With some bizarre finds like red Etna fire water and Turkish Raki.

Though not too long ago, sometime in 2022 or 2023 on my NPR station in Iowa I listened to a CBC "As It Happens" radio discussion of the famous "Canadian Spiral Tunnels". From what I remember, there were both westbound and eastbound trains in the Canadian Rockies that are amazing! https://www.clevercanadian.ca/spiral-tunnels-in-canada/#:~:text=The Spiral Tunnels are a pretty cool engineering,and are connected by a series of switchbacks.

And for me the "real world" STARTS with O's sales. That Extraordinary Savings Sale in early 2023 that was an absolute blow(!) out did NOT come from any TA. But from O. And that saved $$$$. As opposed to OBC or the like that are pennies on the dollar in many cases. My A3 on Riviera last year was $1899 PP for 10 nights and the B3 on her as the B2B was just $1749 PP for 10 nights. That's the "real world". Of sales.

YOU left out a critical component, as people can read these boards for years, as I have: "And thus we read here of people who either complain about their TA or want to find one of these mythical uber-O TAs but can't because they can't be named here. I've read repeated claims over the past few years here from O passengers whose TA wouldn't reduce a booked cruise because of a sale or who NEVER told them about the sale to begin with."

Yours to keep. We received one of the nicer more functional older tote bags on Riviera 12/2021 and then this new less functional one on Riviera 10-11/2023. I had the first one with me on that cruise, too. I use it to bring back my alcohol in ports. Very sturdy.