the mice

The key questions are - are you flying in a day or more ahead of your cruise in case of any delays? - what if your flight out of Miami is delayed - then what are you connecting flight options? - what is the minimum connection time in Lisbon? Short connections are always risky,.

Cruised B2B on Onward last October, and just off Oceania Marina 3 days ago. I realize that food is subjectve but we found the food on Onward mediocre, and the specialty restaurants average. White Night on our first leg was very good (2nd leg rained out so smaller buffet indoors and just average). They did a surprise wine and cheese small buffet one night by Mosaic after dinner which looked good (but we had just eaten, so can't say as to the taste) . We found the food on O to be consistently better, although we ate mostly in the specialties and our one disappointing dish was in Polo steakhouse. My DH had what he said was one of the best prime rib he had ever had in the Grand Dining Room. Wonderful fresh berries every morning. Only no Nutella on 0, so AZ gets points for that. As I said, food is subjective but we preferred the food on Oceania overall.

There are dining packages as well as other packages - check them out online before you board. We had a lot of OBC ($1700), are not drinkers at all, and don't use the spa, so we spent ours on some ship excursions, dining package, upgraded internet package for DH and shopping. We also used some for a private transfer from Monaco to Nice at the end of our cruise (see the concierge if you need to do this type of thing). If you need to spend in the shops, take note of the departure times in ports to get an idea of when the shops will be open. Do NOT leave shopping until the last day because merchandise that might interest you may be gone, and the shops could close early if the ship gets too close to the disembarking port. I suggest checking out the shops ahead of time and strategically planning when you would make your purchases (if you still have OBC to spend). On our cruise, there was a huge crowd and they quite literally descended like vultures on the shops when they opened. Not at all something we were used to on Azamara. But there were a lot of big OBC offers for the sailing, so I am sure that had something to do with it. Most importantly, enjoy your Azamara cruise.

Hope this link work (food at Aquamar and Ember further down) : https://thepointsguy.com/news/oceania-vista-cruise-ship-things-to-love/

You didn't mention if you will be paying $$ or trying to book with miles. If the latter, be aware that it may require diligence, patience and perseverance on your part. I found that many ideal flight routings did not have award seats available. I didn't pay for any tools like Expert Flyer, and I didn't use an award booking service like Points Pros, but it took me weeks to find award seats on the routing I mentioned in post #3. .

We are doing a cruise next February from Bangkok to Seoul and live on the east coast. Here's what we (well, me, since I do all the travel planning) decided: We wanted to use frequent flyer miles for our tickets in business class with only one stop en route, so that was the primary gating factor for us Plus given the uncertainties of travel these days, we wanted to book using our United or American miles which would revert back to those accounts should we need to cancel and/or change flights and/or plans. We did not want to transfer points (which we have with Chase and Amex) to an airline like Singapore where they would be "stuck" once transferred, with a 3 year expiration. We had previously booked this Asia cruise which was Covid-canceled a couple of times. Back then I easily found transpacific award flights at saver mileage levels. So I thought this would be a similar exercise. I did some reading and some people prefer flying west to avoid jet lag. Others didn't have a preference. However, given the parameters outlined above, I found transpacific awards were slim pickings, often inmixed cabins, and at exorbitant miles. And lots of flights routed through Chicago - not in February, thank you. I ended up booking the outbound flight with UA miles on Swiss and Thai with 1 stop in Zurich to Bangkok. For the return from Seoul, I managed to use AA miles to book Qatar Qsuites from Seoul via Doha back to NY. Very reasonable miles for business class. We arrive days before and leave days after our cruise so should be OK. It took some time but I am satisfied with what we have booked. Hopefully I have given you some things to consider. Have a great time planning your travel.

We don't bring lots of "stuff" and we fit OK in R ship showers, but we are spoiled by a very large 5'x3' shower with a big built in bench in our renovated bathroom at home so this looks very nice. And I am so happy to see that there is still a laundry line in the shower!

TPG is one of the travel/miles and points blogs I subscribe to so I get a daily newsletter..

She had a verandah cabin on Vista. Here's here write-up on the bathroom: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/oceania-cruise-ship-bathrooms/?

@njsmom Thanks for this additional info. We have some time to figure out what we want to do other than the Petersen. So long as we do that, my DH won't care much about anything else! I will look at the Getty Center and Getty Villa websites and decide if one or the other, or neither, is what we want to do. Walking and wandering may be just the ticket (or actually, lack thereof!) Seems like everything now requires timed ticket reservations. We are fortunate that we did a lot of traveling in the '90s and 2000's before that became a thing. As organized as I am, I still find it more than a little annoying to have to "timestamp" my vacation.

Thanks all. I will leave plans for 3 nights in Santa Monica.

For the first night, we will need sleep more than inspiration 😁 so a fancy hotel isn't a necessity. My DH isn't keen on the idea of dealing with getting the rental car and all that late at night (ala NY time) which is why I posed the question. But if I really insist, he'll do it, even though he'd rather not. Does LA have a morning "rush hour" or is it always jammed on the freeways? Being retired, we don't have rigid timetables anymore, and for these 2 days in LA, we don't have the need to race around. So we don't need to be at the Petersen when it opens. If we see the Petersen one day and just walk to Venice the other, that's fine with us. Seeing one of the Getty museums would just be a bonus if we can comfortably fit it in.

I think what they are looking for is a list of tips for first timers on Oceania. There is a very active thread for this type of info on the Azamara forum where cruisers post things they find useful and one person actively updates a Google doc. However, I have not seen anything like it on the Oceania forum. Lots of good info and advice posted here and answers to a lot of questions, but not organized in one thread or document. (and sorry, I'm not volunteering 😁).

I might suggest Kind bars. I get a box of the low sugar mini Kind bars at our local warehouse club (BJs) and they are packaged in a plastic wrap that is partially clear. So that makes them easy to travel with since the contents are visible and they don't set off security scanners. One time I took another kind of protein/granola bar that was in a solid wrapper through TSA airport security and got pulled aside for screening - turns out the foil lined wrapper set off alarms.

I checked Le Merigot again. Note on website says "Transformation underway through December 2023 with work confined to specific floors. All amenities remain open. Daily destination fee USD 45 plus tax will be added to room rate." And housekeeping is every third day for that fee! Well, renovations should be about over by the time we are in Santa Monica, but this is not exactly enticing for more points than staying at the Proper. Walking a few extra blocks isn't an issue. NYers are used to walking (I regularly do 3-4 miles carrying 3 lb. weights in each hand). We might even walk down to Venice Beach from Santa Monica. Based on this, I had another thought: Our flight arrives in LAX on 10/31 around 7:30 and not sure if we will be able to do carry on only since we are cruising for a couple of weeks. Arrival will be like 10:30 ET. So, I was wondering if we should just stay in a hotel around LAX and then pick up our rental car the next morning and drive to the Petersen museum. Then head to Santa Monica that night for 2 nights. Have to return the car Friday morning in San Pedro which still might be over the 2 day rental period time (not sure how my corporate retiree rate charges). But we'd avoid having to deal with picking up the rental car and driving to Santa Monica after night time arrival. DH thinks this sounds better to him but he's willing to go either way. OK idea or bad idea?

@Bruin Steve You have given me more to think about. I am trying to use points since we have enough of them (and DH is getting new sports car in July - $$$ - in addition to big trip to Asia shortly after this one). So I will look again. Understand that parking will be an issue wherever. IF I were to look in Marina Del Rey do you have any suggestions? As for the hotels in Santa Monica by the metro, are you referring to the Hampton Inn and the Courtyard? I read about homeless sleeping around there? Is it an issue / safe? Main requirement is clean, comfortable, does not need to be 5 star, can be mid-range. We have stayed in our share of Courtyards, etc. We are not high maintenance. TIA.

Thanks for this info. I have booked the Proper but will take another look since we don't expect to be in the room much. And I will check out the Zimmerman although DH has probably seen his fair share of antique autos (several big shows in our area). He's more into performance cars now. Years ago we toured the Porsche factory in Germany and one day we will get to the Ferrari museums (trade offs for all the churches we visit in Europe 😄).

Thanks for the quick reply. The Petersen - DH is a car guy so this was his one request when he knew we'd be sailing out of LA. He's wanted to visit for years If there's a car museum where we travel, we try to include it. Best one so far was the Louwman in The Hague, Netherlands. Beaulieu near Southampton up there, too. Simeone Foundation in Philly was very good, too. Prince's Collection in Monaco a bit disappointing. I'm sure there were others, but I don't recall as I'm not the car nut in this duo. Thanks for the hotel info. While I'm a member of ALL Accor, I don't have any points nor do I have any with Capital One, so no transfer there. Only AMEX and Chase - use those for flights. So I think I will just book the Proper to lock something in. (trying to manage details for 3 upcoming trips so going a bit crazy.....) Thanks again.

Flying into LAX on the night of Oct. 31, cruising out on Nov.3, so a 2 day/3 night stay. Plan to pick up rental from Hertz, go to the Petersen Automotive Museum and the Getty on one day, no definite plans for the other full day. We aren't beach people (as in swimming) but enjoy walks along any shoreside promenades. Would like to use points for our stay (have Marriott, Hilton, IHG, as well as Radisson). Thought we would stay in Santa Monica, but noticed that hotels in Marina del Rey require a lot fewer points and/or $$. If we stayed in Santa Monica, I'm leaning toward the Santa Monica Proper, a Design Hotel, as my best Marriott option. The Delfina is not available for our dates/ Would appreciate any local advice on one location over the other. ..

Yes, he would be an additional driver but he isn't the greatest with directions. Been married very long time, long enough to know what to ask him to do and not do 😉 when it comes to traveling and logistics. He's more comfortable when we stay together. Maybe we can just drop the bags off and return the car together - usually the luggage is taken before we go into the terminal for the check in process. At least in all the other places we have been. But your info is super helpful so I am sure we can come up with the plan that works best for us. Thanks again for the info.

The 15-20 minute walk is not a problem, but it will only be my DH and me. Car will be rented in my name since I'm the corporate retiree. I don't fancy dropping him off and walking back by myself. Are there taxis in the area that would do a run from Hertz to the pier? Not sure I'd want to do my first Uber alone.

@scottca075 Thank you very much. Will check on the Getty as suggested. And I assume you mean it is feasible to see both in one day so we can relax in Santa Monica on day 2. Is renting a car from Hertz and returning in San Pedro a good idea? Or should we drop the car at the Long Beach airport and take Uber or a taxi? I have never used Uber even though I set up an account years ago. At home, no need for Uber (and we don't do takeout so don't use UberEats). Usually we travel in Europe and walk miles and miles, and very rarely even grab a taxi. So never really needed to use Uber.

I am so happy that I found this thread. We are taking a Panama Canal cruise LA-Miami on Nov. 3 and I had already figured out that Santa Monica is where we should stay so @Bruin Steve I was happy to see your advice on this. Have not booked a hotel, but hope to use some hotel points. We will fly from NY on Oct. 31 arriving around 7:30 in LAX. So I do have a few questions on logistics. We've made a few trips to California over the years, but haven't been to LA in over 30 when we spent a week in the area. My DH, who is not the travel maven that I am, has only 1 request - to see the Peterson Collection. I would like to see the Getty Museum. I was thinking we would rent a car from Hertz (very good corporate retiree rates) at LAX, and I believe we could also drop the car in San Pedro (is this near the cruise terminal?) since I figure we would need our own transportation to do these things. Is this a good idea? Can we visit these 2 museums in the 2 days we have pre-cruise? Both in 1 day or not? Any hotel recommendations based on having a car and where we plan to drive? TIA.

As for Southampton, we spent a couple of days there before our Oceania British Isles cruise in June 2019. We went to Beaulieu which was a wonderful day out. There is a lovely historic home, gardens and an incredible automobile museum that even people who are not auto aficianados will most likely enjoy as there are wonderful cars, including the little caravan used by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Take the Hythe Ferry across Southampton Water to Hythe. The pier in Hythe is historic and there is a little train that runs down its length. The Beaulieu website ( https://www.beaulieu.co.uk/ ) mentions taking a bus from Hythe. Maybe that is new. We took a taxi both ways. They called a taxi for us when we were ready to leave. You get a 20% discount on admission for using public transportation for any part of your journey to get there. I highly recommend Beaulieu. I don't think most visitors to Southampton know about it.

We were on Onward in October-November.. The ship was still being worked on in a few places then and we had to dodge some workers in the halls, near elevators on upper deck (don't remember exactly where). but I would hope that work has been completed by now. We were in a standard verandah and I was somewhat dismayed to see that the desk and mirror and cabinets were not changed out. Our desk had a broken hinge on one door, but a call got it fixed right away. FYI - quite by accident, last week I found this article on our cruise with lots of photos done by an online cruise magazine: https://www.cruiseturtle.com/cruise-ships/azamara-onwa