brdgplay22
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Posts posted by brdgplay22
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On 10/25/2023 at 8:59 PM, brdgplay22 said:
These two ships were sailing identical itineraries from Istanbul to Dubai in late November 2023. 19 day cruise.
Due to the war in Israel, All the ports in the middle east were canceled and changed to greek islands instead then 9 sea days to Dubai. At first they were offering
free cruise credit if you booked another cruise by Nov 30th. Today they pulled the plug on that offer. Executive decision we told. Now. it is take the tour of the Greek islands in DECEMBER and then the 9 day repositioning cruise to Dubai or loose your money entirely. NCL and Regent (same company) still going at a similar time frame with original ports. Was told it was for our safety. Obviously, they are not worried about passengers on NCL or Regent or that we will still be going thru the Suez canal and Red Sea. Something is terribly wrong with this whole scenario. They company has forever lost my business. Be careful what you book.
New story from USA on our cruise from Istanbul to Dubai Nov 29, 23. We need all the publicity we can get to get Oceania to change and give us FCC or a full refund, Thanks Joe & Janet
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All of these comments are reasonable. Let me clarify a few things. We got a revised itinerary on 10/20 at approximately 3 PM EDT - deleting all Middle Eastern ports, adding two more ports in Greece. This now came to five ports in Greece and one in Cyprus, two from the original itinerary, two from the cancellation of Israel, and these two new ones. In all of this some ports were deleted, then added back in - but ending with six ports in Greece and Cyprus. Then nine consecutive sea days to Dubai, including cruising the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
When we called on Monday, 10/23, we were told that we could get FCC as long as we made a decision by our SAIL DATE, i.e., 11/30, and we could select any cruise through 2025. We would not be able to use on more than one cruise. If it cost more than the original cruise, we would owe more; it if was less, we would receive no refund. On Tuesday, 10/24, we looked at future cruise options to decide what trip we wanted to take. On Tuesday morning, a friend notified me that Oceania had pulled the FCC offer. When we called about it, they confirmed we could no longer get an FCC, that "upper management" had rescinded that offer. That is when we wrote O and received the letter posted above, advising we could go on this now Greek Isle and repositioning cruise or forfeit the money we paid for the Holy Land and Arabian Jewels cruise.
Keep in mind, the original information O provided us verbally said that we had until November 30 to make a decision about changing. They did not notify us that the date for that decision had changed.
We have been on many cruises. There have been times when ports were changed. (Unfortunately, in 2016, Celebrity had to substitute an additional day in Athens because things were so volatile in Istanbul.) We have also missed ports because of various reasons. We have never had a cruise make wholesale changes to their itinerary so that it does not vaguely resemble the tour we booked and paid for.
PLEASE do not misunderstand. I am in sympathy for the people of Israel. We have several friends with family there. I do not fault O for cancelling that port or the others. However, we do not want to go to the Greek Isles again, especially in December - and for the price we paid! To be perfectly honest I am concerned for our safety in Istanbul, after seeing the demonstrations there yesterday, and am also wary about going through the Canal and the Red Sea at this time. We would just like O to honor their original offer and give us an FCC on a future cruise.
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5 hours ago, PinonNoir said:
Can you post the initial offer they made, as well as the retraction? Curious.
They made the offer by phone last week and again on Monday the 23rd when I called and verified a couple of items. They retracted the offer totally on Oct 26th. See letter below I then receive from VP Oceania of Global services. I wrote to at least 20 excutives. this is only reply received so far.
From: Ortega, Carlos <COrtega@oceaniacruises.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 26, 2023 at 9:57 AM
Subject: RE: Oceania Riviera Holy Land and Arabian Jewels, November 29, 2023
To: Janet Sherwood <janet@soldbyjanet.net>
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Sherwood,
As all of our itinerary changes were carefully evaluated with the guest experience in mind, the revised voyages feature culturally rich and historically significant ports across Italy, Greece and Turkey, full of UNESCO World Heritage sites, unique culinary experiences and cultural treasures. We are confident these voyages will provide memorable experiences and offer you exciting opportunities to immerse yourself in the destinations.
We look forward to welcoming you aboard and delivering a memorable experience on your cruise.
Sincerely,Carlos E. Ortega | Vice President, Global Guest Services
cortega@oceaniacruises.com | www.oceaniacruises.comOceania Cruises
7665 Corporate Center Drive | Miami FL 33126
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These two ships were sailing identical itineraries from Istanbul to Dubai in late November 2023. 19 day cruise.
Due to the war in Israel, All the ports in the middle east were canceled and changed to greek islands instead then 9 sea days to Dubai. At first they were offering
free cruise credit if you booked another cruise by Nov 30th. Today they pulled the plug on that offer. Executive decision we told. Now. it is take the tour of the Greek islands in DECEMBER and then the 9 day repositioning cruise to Dubai or loose your money entirely. NCL and Regent (same company) still going at a similar time frame with original ports. Was told it was for our safety. Obviously, they are not worried about passengers on NCL or Regent or that we will still be going thru the Suez canal and Red Sea. Something is terribly wrong with this whole scenario. They company has forever lost my business. Be careful what you book.
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We are going on the Beyla in August. Waiting to hear your impression of the two new ships.
Gone2c, we are also going to do the Elegant Elbe on the Beyla in August -- Prague to Berlin, sailing August 8.
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We traveled from Shanghai to Beijing with Viking. Wifi and phones.
The Emerald has 8 computers that are very slow at best when they have a signal. No Google or social media available. Wifi works fine at the hotels,
Ritz-Carton Shanghai & Beijing, and Sheraton in Xian. Wifi available at most restaurants. I personally was able to text, get gmail. and unlimited internet including social media sites with a global T mobile plan. check it out.
Hotels were all first class, only complaint was the restaurant for breakfast at the Sheraton in Xian. Most food was cold. Other hotels breakfast was great with good selection. You will get tired of Chinese food on this tour. To many lazy susans with great variety but not very tasty. There Chinese food is not like US Chinese food.
I advise any body not in shape to start walking 3 miles a day several days a week a couple months before departure. We did and it truly made a difference. Walked 7 miles day of Great wall tour and again the next day at forbidden city.
Viking guides and crew on ship were excellent and always were there to help with problems. They took care of checked luggage from start to finish, no worries. Our guide for the 12 days was Iowa. I can't say enough about him. He was a great communicator and problem solver. I also got to know others on the ship and they were also excellent. Food on the ship was very good. Chinese selection every day, but plenty of western food available. If Candy, Jolly and Andrew are available, sit at their station. They took exceptional care of everyone. It is open seating, but their tables were full first.
We felt there was to much down time on the ship itself. The tours from the ship were excellent, they just did not take up much time. They took up 2 or 3 hours and the rest of the time you were on ship sailing.
Tours on land were excellent and well coordinated. You will be tired at the end of the day and go to bed early. Tours on land all started before 8am. We were up most days by 545am or before.
We took $200 in ones for tips to drivers, local guides and bellman. We used about $120. We converted $200 to Chinese RMB at Ritz (good conversion rate) only spent $100. Gave the other $100 to our guide as part of his tip. We did not buy many souvenirs. All vendors, and many stores would except US money and gladly took it.
Our group was mostly Americans and 20% maybe from Britain.
Any questions I will try to answer.
Joe
OCEANIA CRUISES HAS DONE THE PASSENGERS OF RIVIERA AND NAUTICA VERY TERRIBLE IN CHANGING CRUISES FOR iSTANBUL TO DABAI
in Oceania Cruises
Posted
We, Janet and Joe received a full refund for our cruise of Istanbul to Dubai Nov29 thru Dec. 19. Friday the day the USAToday article was posted Friday Nov 3rd, one of the managers of customers customer service, called and asked if we would like a full refund. I told him yes of course. I said great. I asked if other customers were going to get a full refund also. He stated it was not that easy. They were doing it on a case by case basis. He assured me that we were not getting a refund because we were the ones responsible for the article in USA. I was waiting for the credit to my credit card to clear before I posted anything else. I do not know if doing the charge back with American expressed helped are not. He did not want to talk about the reasons. I was happy with the full refund and decided not to push the issue. I just hope everyone else does not quit trying. Who knows you can get a refund also. Good luck to everyone.
Joe & Janet Sherwood.