Snaefell3

I phrase it as "O keeps rule-enforcement in it's back pocket to corral problem pax".

Newbie here, but I saw • Top suites escorted to staterooms even at 11am boarding • Penthouses called around 12:30 • Concierge around 1:30 • "All cabins" around 2:30 We enjoyed Surf & Turf sandwiches (lobster and fillet 😋) poolside while waiting.

Welcome to O! "Terminal 'J'" means Miami, and while Oceania doesn't enforce boarding times in other ports (San Pedro), the Port of Miami runs the Terminals and is notorious for not letting folks in until boarding time. So... figure "no". The other thing to know is that Oceania ships do not always dock at Terminal 'J' -- Vista on the 28th is scheduled to dock at Terminal 'B', then return on Mar 16th to Terminal 'E', and then 'J' on Mar 27th. All subject to winds, etc. https://wwwx.miamidade.gov/Apps/Seaport/dailydock/SSRSReportDock.aspx

You'll find most of your answers in other currently active threads. As for boarding times, O isn't particularly strict about boarding times, but the Port of Miami *IS*. If you're driving to Miami for the 16th, be aware that Vista does not plan to return to the same terminal that it embarks from -- O usually runs a shuttle on disembarkation day over to where you'll have parked your car.

Folks tend to say that about any cruise, but we managed it on the old Royal Majesty on Day 1 of our first cruise in 1992 or 93. Can you spell "naïve"? 😉 We lived in Tampa and drove to Miami the day of the sailing, stopping at a Cracker Barrel for lunch, telling ourselves, "We're shifting to cruise food shortly, so eat light". Getting aboard, we discovered we were Late Seating in the MDR, groused about how we normally eat around 5pm, ... and resigned ourselves to starve until 8pm. Y'all would have enjoyed our faces when a tablemate remarked, "That prime rib up on the Lido this afternoon was superb!"

Quick and painless. Except for the annoying TV-lockout until it's shown you the muster video.

Two standards for you: A PDF from @Sthrngary And for menus and food pictures: https://www.thepreismans.com/vista23_menus.htm

So... The website gets it right 99+% of time? Not picture normally portrayed here on CC.

My 2¢: Long past time to contact Silversea directly (and not just their call center cubicle-dwellers, either) with pointed questions, then. Ditto if on the cruise after yours, too.

Nope. They'll take your reservation (with cash/OBC) as soon as they've set up the excursion, usually about a year out (or a week or two on a newly substituted port). Ditto cooking classes. FWIW: I've never been bitten by booking classes or excursions via the website. YMMV

Worth the view even when explorers went in wooden ships with no heat.

::ponders:: 2, but they need to use their other name and birthdate on the 2nd account. 😜

Or one person hogs both -- but has to impersonate the other on 2nd account. 😉

The quiet CLIA policy is "If it's the cruise line's fault, it's the cruise line's business to make good. If it's not the cruise line's fault (weather, war, civil unrest, etc) it's for the pax to have their own insurance." You'll hear the folks from the UK bemoaning the higher-than-the-rest-of-the-world prices they pay on that same exact sailing. That's because Brit fares are required to include BATA insurance to cover weather, war, etc.

If it's the cruise I'm thinking of, it's not because it's going to the Houthi-interdicted area, it's because the ship can't get to you in time without transiting Bab el Mandab.

What's presented to the MBA is "if you overbook by 'x', you'll have a 'p'% chance of no "so sorry" letters; if you overbook by 'y' then 'q'%; and if by 'z' then 'r'%. He then figures how much O (or NCLH?) values good will vs the associated extra revenue. Oh! And then Murphy's Law gets the last word. "Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you – if you don't play, you can't win." — R A Heinlein

"Risk" includes how bad an outcome is. A cancelled guarantee simply means you have to go find another voyage to spend your refund on -- not the worst of worlds.. The odds of a "so sorry" letter depends upon how hard O pushes overbooking, which probably means how revenue-hungry NCLH is. If I have a worry, it's that there's an MBA in the decision process that doesn't understand the Central Limit Theorem and that O shouldn't push overbooking to the extent NCL can.

Perhaps to pick up a tarred-and-feathered Norwegean Star captain? 🙄 https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Travel/video/angry-travelers-claim-norwegian-cruise-line-rerouted-antarctica-107220419

Call it "vanishingly rare, but possible" on any line. O has fewer bookings than Carnival or NCL, so O hasn't been jammed up (yet) by a bad cancellation prediction followed by no takers on Plans "B", "C", or "D", followed by no cabins to implement Plan "E" (giving a free upgrade to a GTY). If you wish to worry, though, O employs fallible human beings just like RCI -- apparently no one noticed ahead of time that they were overbooked and Quantum of the Seas found herself handing out 7 "so sorry" letters dockside in Brisbane last November 30th.

There's another set of power player who are quite happy with the status quo: the big container ship operators. They were looking at idle bottoms that are now earning revenue helping stuff go around Africa. I'm not sure who has more economic pull: Egypt or MSC + Maersk + CMA GGM + Hapag Lloyd + .... (and the latter have always been annoyed at the former over Suez tolls.

Guarantee bookings are bookings offered to fill holes left by cancellations. O doesn't actually have a cabin for you in that category, but they are confident that someone will cancel --they "always do"-- and you'll get their cabin. *You* book a guarantee because you really want to go on that voyage in that category and that's all that's left. When fewer folks cancel than a cruise line expects, then other folks get better and better "move up", "move over" (to another voyage), or even "move down" offers to open up a cabin for you. When that doesn't work, you get moved up for free, or if there are no "ups" available, a "so sorry" letter a couple weeks out.

Uhhh... Yeah, Egypt already wants to, but no. Not unless someone provides sealift with assault landing capability or Israel, Jordan, *and* Saud grant them land passage.

@shepherd really Looks good for Drake Lake southbound 😎 Will Marina sail by Horn Island?

Methinks the answer is similar to that of the 1980 "When will Iran release the embassy hostages?" question.

Hmmm. An *important* second thought... Start by checking the GDR 1st night menu. There is no set 1st night menu, so the normal rotation *might* have cued up someone's favorite. I know if I wasted my DW's chance for Beef Wellington on an extra specialty, I'd spend the rest of the voyage hiding out in a lifeboat. 🫣