pinotlover

I was being a bit facetious 🙃, but even Egypt, a mostly Islamic country, isn’t going to bleed revenue indefinitely. I expect something to happen there.

As of January 2023, Egypt made $743 million per month on the Suez Canal. For Egypt that was a helpful chunk of change. Now, not only have they lost a major portion of that, but tourism is now way off. Won’t take long before Egypt decides to invade Yemen and straighten things out. I will highly recommend Uniworld River Cruises for a trip on the Nile and Cairo. They take security seriously, conduct great tours, and the food is overall better than on Oceania. They also have a pre/post cruise extension to Petra.

The short moral of the story: No one can tell you what either the weather or the Internet service will be on your cruise. It’s highly obvious, from multiple posts that both change regularly. Additionally, what is “ good or acceptable “ internet service is far more subjective than any food discussions. Good Luck!

We took one of our few O tours there. Went up into Patagonia, had the barbecue mutton, local wine, etc, . interesting landscape and fun to get away from the coast. Some had never seen a sheep sheared. Lots of interesting local history along the way.

There has also been a construction delay announced since that 9/23 booklet. Lots of time for changes.

So now you are a well informed future passenger. Being so informed means that all these matters, that may occur, are of your choosing and choice. Good Luck and Happy cruising. ps there’s a reason we do our own air.

They are relocating and apparently downsizing the library to make room for the crepe and ice cream venues.

A few small facts about veal. In the US, and much of the world, veal comes from male diary calves for which there is little other need or use., or occasionally young beef calves injured in transport or handling. As the consumption of milk has declined significantly in the States, the resulting decrease in diary herds has occurred. This has made veal more difficult to find and far more expensive. It has practically disappeared from many grocery stores and likewise even up scale restaurants. To be classified as veal a calf can be no more than 20 weeks nor weight more than 450 lbs on the hoof. So a tidbit, if you believe a 45 Oz tomahawk steak can come from a calf weighing up to 450 lbs on the hoof, I have a bridge to sell you! 😂😂. It may be a delicious 45 Oz tomahawk steak, but from a veal calf it’s not. Another example of using a term inappropriately to describe a dish.

We overall had a great cruise from Buenos Aires to Lima last year, but there were definitely hiccups. The larger question is does the whining have merit? We had three skipped ports, one announced when we got on the ship. Set a tone for the cruise, especially with the late port arrivals and consequently shortened port stays. Made some grumpy, while others could care less. Outside of that, I have found that most of the dissatisfaction with Oceania comes from over hyped expectations. As a veteran O cruiser, I try to minimize those expectations and take positive actions. A few examples: 1. I book my own air, for the itinerary I want. Some use O Air and get good connections, others have horror stories of 3 connections and long layovers, thus exhausting them before they even arrive. 2. My experiences have taught me that I’ll have some excellent meals, some mediocre, and on a rare occasion a poor one. Others read CC posts where all the meals are outstanding, every bite succulent, and the restaurants Michelin star quality. Some Newbies have paid monies outside their comfort zone to learn for themselves the hard truth. Same goes with wine. Being a drinkable or even good wine doesn’t make it an outstanding or premium wine. Words have meanings. 3. This cruise in question is on an O ship, but some new Oceania cruisers , after paying the big bucks, aren’t prepared for the R ship OV bathrooms. My experience is those that are the most unpleased are those that came with oversized expectations. The Cheerleaders and Oceania Influencers here in created a lot of those expectations unnecessarily.

Let me rephrase for Clo: Vegas is wide open with expansive entertainment and other activities all night long. There are numerous tremendous shows and nightly entertainment to see. Vegas has a wealth of fabulous restaurants where one will never get anything but an exceptional meal. Now, if you prefer to be in bed by 9:00, aren’t interested in any type shows ( especially if they keep you up past 21:00), and are OK with meals that may be very good or not, then Vegas isn’t the place for you and stick to certain cruise lines. So to the OP, sometimes people want a ship that approximates their sedate lives. Some people want a ship that is more Vegas or Manhattanish. For us, sometimes we go to the country, sometimes we go to the big city. People do the same with cruise lines. A mega ship this cruise, a 100 passenger sailing vessel the next. Lots to choose from.

I believe you misread what I said.

Different airports, different parts of the world are hit with specific security alerts on a regular basis. Airlines and/or airports implement differing precautions and procedures without unduly alerting or alarming passengers. Differing precautions used this week may not be in effect next week..

I wrote this back several years ago on the cruise air forum, but here goes again. One of the Lufthansa owned airlines, and Star Alliance partners is Brussels Airlines. We flew them Prague to Brussels, then UA back to the States. That Brussels Air flight was one of the best and easiest boarding experiences we’ve ever experienced. One carry on ( excluding a purse) per person. Max carryon weight was 8 kilos. Every bag and carry on was weighed at the checkin counter and checked for appropriate size. One’s single carryon was given a color coded tag attached by the attendant. When you boarded, one was only allowed that single carryon. If you tried to slip something else through at the gate, it was gate checked to final destination at 100 Euros per bag. Airport purchased items were exempt. Boarding went fast and smoothly. No searching for overhead space, no one trying to cram in carryons. Imo oversized suitcases being dragged down the aisle. I wish every airline did this. p.s. All those people playing the “ live out of the carryon “ game will need a different airline.

A couple of things; If you have a TA, they also got the email on the cancellation. The credit card use to book the tour will shortly be refunded. Your TA is probably waiting for O to decide what they’re doing in the new port before reacting. I’m surprised the email on the cancellation didn’t come via your TA. Lazy work on their part. Good Luck!

Yep, Vegas isn’t a place for wanting to go to bed by nine, not interested in great production shows, or interested in possible iffy food.

FT; Oceania bought two separate round trip tickets for us. One for each carrier., with their own distinct codes. UA had no knowledge, in their system, of the SAS ticket. When we checked in at BNA, we had to show our SAS tickets to get the flights put together for baggage purposes. What we didn’t catch was our Oceania UA ticket allowance was two checked bags each, while our SAS ticket only allowed for one. On our return flight we had to pay charges on the one additional bag we had. Had we booked this flight ourselves, it would have all been with the marketing carrier ( UA) for the entire itinerary as you suggested.

I’ll add another scenario one must understand and get specific information on. On which airline (s) will you be ticketed? Point in fact; I paid a deviation to be booked on a specific itinerary on United Airlines from BNA-Copenhagen then Stockholm-BNA. All fine a good until seat selection.Oceania, using its contracts, booked me on the UA leg round trip to EWR, but booked the two international legs on SAS. United had no knowledge of my SAS connections, and I could only book the UA seats for their legs. SAS had its own rules on seat selection, and that was a far harder and different scenario. Oceania had indeed booked and ticketed my flights, but not in a method that was originally apparent. This led to some original confusion on both my TA and my part.

Which ship are you either currently on or have recently departed that was serving Montaudon as the Champagne selection? To my experience it hasn’t been served since perhaps pre Covid when O brought back the horrendously poor German. The current champagne is fine( Heidseck blue top) but it’s not Mountadon. Has Oceania recently changed champagne?

Answer depends totally upon the airport in question. As pointed out above, in some airports one will be meet at baggage claim and assisted. In other airports outside personnel are not allowed into the baggage claim area and people are meet after they pass through customs and enter the main terminal. Best to query the individual airport for accurate information .

The crux of the matter is corporate cash flow. Oceania doesn’t want to expend the cash until absolutely necessary, and the airlines don’t recognize the ticket and allow seat selection until they have cash in hand. The cruise and other travel industry’s use of bulk rate discount flight fares is rather complicated and as pointed out above it rarely includes a block of seats on any flight. That’s a different scenario that is only rarely used.

100 % true. This gets repeated over, and over, and over again. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to grasp. Regular opening hours for the Specialties and other dining venues is 6:30. On 7 day cruises, where everyone is guaranteed a reservation in each Specialty, if the ship is full, they often do 6:00 reservations so to accommodate all the guarantees. Not a difficult concept. However, if one is on a 17 day Grand Voyage ( called B2B by some) consisting of ( for example) a 7 day segment and a 10 day segment , they may see different opening hours during their GV, but consistent for each segment. What part of this needs further explanation? If on a 10 or 10+ day voyage or segment, opening hours are 6:30.

I share the OP’s sentiments, however I recognize the vast number of passengers ( even on O) that could care less about the ports or where the ship goes. They cruise for the ship. The giant water slides, the climbing walls, the multiple pools, the entertainment, great bars, and 15 + restaurants to choose from. Just like Oceania passengers, they only rarely get off the ship, and it’s not to take an afternoon nap. Some people go to NYC, London, or Paris on vacation; while others go to the country. Even though I most often go to more remote locations for holiday, we still take eating trips to NYC, Charleston, New Orleans, and Vegas with plenty of crowds. Trust me, Vegas is no less exorbitant than any mega cruise ship, and you never worry about cut port time.

There is definitely a consistency to all of this. Oceania releases cruise schedules on a regular basis. Some of those cruises mostly get snapped up the first week after release and are never on sale. Some cruises languish and are very slow to fill. Oceania runs sale after sale trying to lure people to those cruises. If still unsuccessful near cruise dates, they do silent sales. Some of the cruises are highly competitive. Only so many places ships can sail during our winter months. The Carribe gets slammed with ships of all sizes and costs vying for our business. Even many regular O cruisers see no point in paying O prices for a 7-10 float around the Carribe to beat the cold. It takes sales every year to fill the R ships, the O ships, along with the new A ships. Even with all the sales they are rarely full because everyone is running sales. We see sales because of excess capacity. In April we’ll see a new release of cruises that will down the road require sales to fill. So my guess is we’ll have a big President’s Day Sale in another attempt to fill all those cruises released two years that still not enough people have signed up for. A lot of debt to be serviced. Cash flow is King!

One issue with this scenario. Did the Captain wake up on Embarkment Day and make the itinerary change? Did corporate make it on Embarkment Day? If not, when was the decision for the change in itinerary made? Why was it not communicated then to the passengers? Why wait until boarding to announce itinerary changes? Was NCL ever intending to do the published itinerary? Bad corporate communications breeds mistrust. NCLH excels at bad corporate communications.

Typically twelve months in advance for the tours arranged. I have seen them add new tours up until six months in advance.