ChadnKate

If you book the Owners Suite you can book upon paying in full. Alas, not us. We are at 75 days. Other categories at 60 and 45 days. Just a little OCD here. Like to plan.

Wish they’d hurry up and decide. We booked Vista’s 4th voyage which is now the maiden voyage! Venice/Trieste to Athens. We’ve booked our 12 reservations for our upcoming Marina cruise. Miami to Buenos Aires. With 10 at sea/river days we’re going to get a lot of Big O points. Do a lot of exercising to work off all that wonderful food. Yum.

Thanks. My TA has asked but told it's probably a computer glitch. Don't think that's it. We'll be on the Marina in 55 days for a month and hope to find out then.

Would like to know about the apparent limitations on booking specialty restaurants on the Vista. For the Marina and Riviera you are allowed advance online bookings of all four restaurants. We have four bookings on the Vista. All of them show the number and date of bookings, but only for Toscana and Polo. Red Ginger (our favorite) and the new Ember are not included. Does anyone have info about this?

Would like to know about the apparent limitations on booking specialty restaurants on the Vista. For the Marina and Riviera you are allowed advance online bookings of all four restaurants. We have four bookings on the Vista. All of them show the number and date of bookings, but only for Toscana and Polo. Red Ginger (our favorite) and the new Ember are not included. Does anyone have info about this?

Thank you. It’s the second location closer by road to Venice or further away??

We have a TA next year on the Vista _ it's and our first. Hope for reasonable weather for our early September crossing. If not, the Oceania beds are very comfortable and their TV's now have lots of movies!

We embarked the Sirena at the new Istanbul facility in May. If we weren't the very first ship to use the facility we were close to it. Physically its a magnificent facility, in a good location. But the process was a clusterf! I had looked at YouTubes and their website and understood how it was supposed to work. Our longtime Istanbul guide drove us there but couldn't figure out how to get to the internal drop-off point as we are a bit too old and had far too much luggage for our 6 week vacation to haul it from the street. I had to cajole him to drive into the ground level where no-one knew anything about anything. Finally got to where we should be then watched a couple of dog handlers line up several hundred suitcases and do a 20 minute walk around before clearing the bags to proceed. Remember we were all leaving Turkey, not arriving. In modern terms, the hardware was great but the software had bugs!

Does anyone have the address for the cruise port in Trieste. We have booked private transport from Venice to there on May 20th next year, but the service's computerized booking would like a more precise address. When we booked it was Venice, but with the change Oceania allowed a $250 OBC. That was nice of them, Nicer for us is that our cruise on the Vista is now the maiden voyage! More free champagne.

I think it’s Dec 18th not 17th? We go Miami to Buenos Aires. Christmas on the Amazon. See you then.

Yes. We do them separately. Never seen much if any savings doing round trip. Usually reward flights available 330 days in advance.

We always arrive a few days early and stay a few days after so If we used O Air we would have that fee.

Would if we could but usually, because we are doing biz-class reward flights, we grab them within 24 hours of them be available online. So the flight over is gotten weeks before the flight back. Although this works fine for us, our hats are off to the Oceania travel department. Can't imagine trying to coordinate so many passengers needs and adjusting to the airlines' flight schedule changes.

I still want the OLife package, just not the Air. So what you say is true but on the Oceania pricing chart there isn't a 4th column for that. So I was describing the way that we book. We do get lower pricing without the air, true, but on the Oceania booking accounting it is listed as a credit. Same bottom line but I'm used to their accounting. Over our @ 15 cruises with them it is a considerable difference. Plus we get, to reprise the Oceania byline, Our Air Our Way.

The 10% is supposed to apply to full purchase of upgrade but when I requested it at the concierge desk they did give us the discount. We always get the upgrade. Not sure it’s a savings but it is a convenience. No surprises at checkout.

Yes. If you opt for OLife but not the air you get a credit. Amount depends on the cruise. For our Vista cruise next Spring we each got 750 off for not taking their economy air to Venice and back from Athens. In that we will get to Venice and stay in Athens for 3 days we also avoid the Air Deviation fees, I think totaling 700. We use miles and points to fly lie-flat to/from on all ocean-crossing flights. Kate’s bad back precludes anything less. Naturally I don’t object to the additional comfort.

I always do the pre-planning and organize for my TA what we want. We always book at least a year in advance so I can use our Points & Miles for reward flights. We take the discount from Oceania for using our own air. Then our TA's company gives us at least a 5% rebate for travel expenses. As we are now Oceania Club gold we get free gratuities, etc. The air discount and 5% rebate total many thousands of dollars, at least totaling a cruise or two. But the TA does more than simply get us rebates. Cabin placement, problem solving, etc are also sometimes priceless. The cruise lines never give you extra benefits for NOT using a TA.

Thank you. Really like not having to go far for my early morning first cup of Jo! Maybe read the paper.

The Vista and Riviera/Marina ships are bigger than the R Class, but so much smaller than many of the other cruise lines going to Alaska. I Understand that there are some limitations on ships based upon environmental certifications, which the older R Class ships may not fully reach. Expect the new Allura Class ships (Vista, etc.) should certainly pass and be able to do Alaska.

You can now find it online. In Dec 24-Feb 25. Included Business Class Air to Sydney, then from Sydney to Ushuaia, then Santiago to home. Your choice of either mid-cruise 6 day overland program.Considerably more expensive than usual, but you get 3 expensive flights, a double length land program, and about 7 cruise credits. Wish the granddaughters weren't so darned cute and we could go away for that long.

Gee & Gee: We will be in 11028 for a month this Dec-Jan. Is the suite door exactly opposite the door into the Executive Lounge or is there some spacing. In other words, was there any noise or issue with the 11028 position? Thank you

We're doing La Reserve on Christmas Eve on the Marina this year. Will miss it on our booked Vista cruises. What is interesting is the new emphasis on 'catering' to groups. The new Culinary Center dining room. The new meeting-board room. The Lynq Computer Center's group classes on applications like video editing. Converting the La Reserve space used only on some evenings into the Aquamar breakfast and lunch dining center also gives more opportunities and will further reduce the limited crowding sometimes experienced at the other restaurants. I guess this is what Oceania means by "Reimagining" their already wonderful cruise experience

thank you. In the bathroom she needs the plug for the electric toothbrush/flosser. Hope the mirror in the vanity in the cabin lights up. We've found that isn't always there or functional. Assume those will be gone in the Vista. Wonder about the Riviera and Marina after cabin redos.

Chris - am wondering if Oceania addressed the precruise book ability of the specialty restaurants. Right now for all 4 of our Vista bookings the Manage Booking section states they will be availability for Polo and Toscana but no mention of Red Ginger or Ember. Thanks

We were on the Sirena for 28 days from May to June. Its Red Ginger substituted cod for sea bass for the first 14 days, then got the sea bass, which we always love. Was told it was a supply-chain issue.