cssreggie

If you are looking to stay right in the heart of the tourist area on the Rua Augusta, then two nice but fairly reasonably priced options are the Be Poet Baixa Hotel (small rooms, nice bathrooms, very friendly staff) or the Brown's Central Hotel (maybe a bit more refined but still priced reasonable)...highly suggest using uber to get to the actual port as it was much cheaper than taxis or arranged transit. 

Basic Info on cash refund received summarized below:

Cruise: Oceania Marina on April 4th, Buenos Aires to Lisbon

Booking: Directly with Oceania 

Account: Had been paid in full but had no "optional" charges such as shore excursions etc.

Cruise was cancelled by Oceania: not sure of exact date but approx. March 15th

Oceania Offer at the time: Cash refund (up to 90 days wait) or 125% FCC

Refund Request: Requested full cash refund on March 17th (was told it could take up to 90 days)

Full cash refund received in credit card account: May 22 (three separate credits: initial deposit amount, initial payment and final payment)

Hope that helps.....looks like they are following through on their promises ... just working through a time consuming and high volume process while trying to survive.

Good news:

  Just received my full refund amount back to my credit card for the Apr 4th sailing of Marina from Buenos Aires to Lisbon....sailing was cancelled and I requested refund on March 17th...am pleased that Oceania came through...was also able to get full refund from American Airlines for flights to Buenos Aires....only TAP has refused cash refund (and provided vouchers) for return flights from Lisbon....all bookings were done directly with Oceania and airlines respectively....hope that you all see similar results

We were at Harbour Lights a few weeks ago....it is just a few hundred yards beyond the Boatyard....lots of loungers and the like for rent...they were a bit aggressive when you first walked through the restaurant to try and get you to pay for a chair and umbrella (think that it was $20 for two chairs and an umbrella)...we put them off for a few minutes to get our bearings, then we paid and went to the far end of the loungers where it was not overly crowded and had a very nice day...beach was nice, water calm and you could go for a long walk along the beach...did not use the restaurant or bar so cannot comment on that other than to say the washrooms were fine

Just back from the November 11th sailing of the Summit ...football games are shown at casino bar and on 12th floor big screen terrace (also Sunday night and Monday night football games)...also CBS and Fox feeds of a couple of games were available on your cabin tv but for some reason had no commentary (although stadium noise was audible).

We just did the Celebrity horseback excursion this past week...mainly riding along a road to the beach with some limited walking along the beach....two segments on the beach of a few 100 yards each time and then a photo opp (on bareback) in waste deep water....would have liked more time along the beach but we still enjoyed it...the people running the operation were very friendly and helpful (as most in our group had not ridden horses in over 20 years)

We stayed at the AC Marriott hotel the evening of November 10th prior to our cruise on November 11th...had two rooms booked for family members and both were available to us on our arrival