ak1004

They don't have email. In any case, if you don't understand why people in 2023 expect decent internet while on a cruise ship, there is not much to discuss. Pretty amazing how people jump to judge other people without knowing them and their circumstances.

What is ridiculous is your post. I assume you are aware that they make bottles from glass too, not only plastic? We had no issues to get Perrier on our recent Uniworld cruuse so your claim is simply incorrect. But you are right. 1st world problem. As 99% of everything discussed on those forums. And no, water is not water. It's like saying that wine is wine. $10 bottle is still wine right? It's not for you to decide what other people like to drink.

Thank you. But don't those calls still require internet?

How about someone like me who posts pictures for their 90 years parents? They don't have smartphone to talk via WhatsApp, but they have ipads, and this is the only way for me to let them know that we are fine. Why to judge people?

Well, we were getting over 5Mbps on Princess in 2018, so the technology is there, even before StarLink. And Princess has 3 times more passengers compared to Riviera, not to mention SS. And I'm pretty sure Princess guests post pictures too.. It's all matter of cost, but it looks like the more expensive the cruise line is, the worse the internet is..

We were on the Dawn in December. They had Pellegrino and Perrier, but ran out of it around mid cruise. Apparently same thing happened on the previous sailing. They also ran out of all diet drinks (coke diet, coke zero etc). I'm not sure if it's cuts or just bad planning. I hope they have them on our cruise in May. Vero is definitely not the same. Those are the most basic drinks that should be available all the time.

Same here. Booked in October. No further payment beyond the deposit paid on board.

Silversea has one of the most archaic and ridiculous dress codes one can imagine. But those who defend it always repeat the same argument: once jackets are not required, men will wear T shirt, shorts and flip flops. Like there is nothing in between. What's wrong with a nice dressy shirt and elegant pants? Men dress very nicely on Oceania, even without jackets. Never could mix them with asylum seekers. But I guess some people judge others by the way they dress. Sad. Jackets equal cruising in style?? Really? This is the only criteria of style to you??

Curious why my posts have been deleted??

We sailed on SS twice with p2p. It was significantly cheaper than D2D, way less than flight plus transfers. If you are not certain, just insure the non refundable deposit. Celebrity suites cost about the same if not more as SS veranda. To me this is absurd. I would love to try it, but definitely not paying those prices.

So just to clarify using some real numbers. Lets say you have $400 SM credit per person. If you used only $400 for excursions, and one of the excursions was cancelled, you get the credit back to SM and have to use it for another excursion, otherwise it's lost. But if you booked $600 worth of excursions, they apply the $400 SM first, then charge your credit card for the $200 difference. If an excursion is cancelled, and it was say $150, you get a $150 refund, or a refundable credit that if not used is refunded back to the credit card?

But this only psychological. The luxury lines are also more expensive, and part of the reason is that some of them include excursions. And many excursions on our next SS cruise are already sold out, 3-4 months before the cruise even started.

On our last SS cruise, we had $600 OBC carried from the previous cruise. Do you realize how much effort does it take to waste a $600 OBC on an all inclusive line, with a tiny boutique store? I think it is very unethical to have an all inclusive cruise and give you a non refundable OBC (use it or lose it). We will never sail on SS again (well, after our next one in May)..

People can believe whatever they want and build all kinds of conspiracy theories. Personally I do NOT believe that any cruise line would cancel ports unless they absolutely have to. Unlike reduced times in ports, they have nothing to gain from cancelled ports. As for lost SM credits - I assume that if you booked an excursion and the port was cancelled, you have to use the credit for another excursion. No refunds. But this is no different from SS, Regent or Viking. Those lines have one included excursion in each port, and if the port is cancelled, you don't get any refunds. Technically, you paid for the excursion in that port (we know that nothing in life is free), so how this practice is different from what O does?

Not the Riviera. Riviera has very nice bathrooms in veranda cabins. The small bathrooms are on the four R class ships. Riviera and Marina are O class.

And my point is that this whole theory started long before SM when O was providing full refunds, so it doesn't hold. As an example, we sailed on Silversea that includes one excursion in each port. Many times most excursions are sold out very quickly (on our cruise in May about 60% of the excursions are already sold out). Good luck to get a refund. Same with port fees. Exactly the same practice as O. And they are ultra luxury all inclusive line.

Did you see my previous post?? Unreal..

There is a small hole with this theory. Even if what you say was true (and it's not because guests can always book another excursion), but this thread and theory started more than a year ago, while SM started in October. So before SM, people would get a full refund for the cancelled excursion = tens of thousands in lost revenues for O. Next excuse please?

How exactly they "profiteering from their customers" by cancelling ports? Don't they lose tens of thousands in revenues from cancelled excursions?

We cancelled a Vista cruise in May and replaced it with SS cruise despite the fact that SS includes drinks and excursions. Why? Because the itinerary on SS was slightly better and the price was only $30/day more, and it included everything. But we looked at 2025 sailings and it's no longer possible to get any SS cruise for such small difference. Same with SB. So I'm asking again, what's the alternative if you want to have a small ship experience and have a cruise that includes only what you use, but also provides great ship experience? The only one I can think of is Windstar, but their prices in many cases are even higher than O, without drinks, Wi-Fi and excursions credit.

Again, I don't disagree with you about O excursions. We booked private tours that were double in time and half in group size for about the same money as O excursions (sometimes even less). And I don't disagree about the drinks because we don't drink. But that's us. Please remember that some people just prefer convenience over money. This is why some people book flights and hotels with the cruise lines, while clearly paying more than doing it independently. And if you believe O doesn't provide value after SM, you need to find an alternative. What is your alternative line where you will pay only for what you use?

Again, you are still ignoring all posters here who mentioned that SM does add value to them. Saying that a cruise went up in price by $800 is meaningless without mentioning the category and the number of days. I watched few 10 night cruises on Vista and all of them went up by $550 CAD which is $400 USD - this is exactly the amount of the excursion credit. And as a previous poster mentioned, this amount can be used to book few more interesting excursions without being limited to basic ones.

Again, everyone is different. SM is not beneficial for you and me, but it is beneficial for many others. I believe O is just trying to be more comparable to some other premium lines. To say that it's just a price increase is a bit of over simplification. And as I mentioned many times, what matters is the overall value. We booked SS 3 times despite the fact that they include alcohol and excursions because the value was there.

I don't disagree with you regarding O tours (or any cruise company tours). But as you mentioned, for many cruisers it doesn't matter. They were booking O tours before SM and they will continue doing it with SM. For them it's real savings. That said, we prefer booking private tours too, but sometimes it's not possible, or we don't feel comfortable due to different reasons etc. For example, someone who is Jewish might feel uncomfortable booking private tours in Muslim/Arab countries. Sometimes private tours are fully booked because it's a small port and many ships on that day. There are dozens of reasons. So even people who prefer private tours might book 2-3 tours from the ship. Also, for people who drink, and having 1-2 glasses of wine at meals is enough, it's a real benefit. before SM they were buying drinks package, now they don't. Personally, SM doesn't work well for us, but it does work for some people. They fact is that dozens of people reported on CC that they switched the same cruise from OL to SM and it was cheaper for them.

So it's really not "just a price increase". For some people SM is a real value. And the prices increased by less than the combined value of those two benefits (plus the second Wi-Fi).