New To Oceania With Questions

[ORV]

12 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

If one sails an O Class ship and stays in a Concierge or higher cabins, there are the Concierge and Executive Lounges provided where one can read a host of newspapers. These Lounges don’t exist on R Class ships. I believe one can pay a subscription fee, once aboard, and receive a couple of the papers delivered to their rooms.

 

The above is past practices. There has been some talk that the common used papers in the Lounges will be discontinued along with the food items. It appears that Oceania may well follow Celebrity and those items will be in line only. In the evening, after the show or dinner, we have enjoyed returning to our cabin to read the daily Currents, an O product laying out upcoming activities and management announcements, along with a separate world news brief paper. Those may become online only now. 😢

I could see the papers in the lounges going away, for now, but not the Currents. Also if you are in a Oceania Suite or higher you get your choice of newspaper from a list. 

[terrydtx]

On 9/2/2020 at 12:01 AM, Flatbush Flyer said:

It's a good bet that, in the "new normal," there won't be many "private" tours for cruise passengers. 

Celebrity is considering this for next year according to a webinar attended by my TA for 2021. Only option to leave the ship will be tours sponsored by Celebrity because of Covid restrictions, this could also include not being able to leave the ship at a port and just exploring on our own.

[pinotlover]

8 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Celebrity is considering this for next year according to a webinar attended by my TA for 2021. Only option to leave the ship will be tours sponsored by Celebrity because of Covid restrictions, this could also include not being able to leave the ship at a port and just exploring on our own.

If they are considering doing it for any of 2022 they should let their passengers know. We’re on the Marina in early Feb 2022 ,in the Falklands, as the same time as a Celebrity ship ~ 2300 passengers. Those Celebrity folks have already booked up nearly all the private tours on the island. I got the last four spots with Patrick Watts, everyone else is all Celebrity.

[Tranquility Base]

10 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Celebrity is considering this for next year according to a webinar attended by my TA for 2021. Only option to leave the ship will be tours sponsored by Celebrity because of Covid restrictions, this could also include not being able to leave the ship at a port and just exploring on our own.

 

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

If they are considering doing it for any of 2022 they should let their passengers know. 

The cruise lines won't know for definite for a while yet.

They will do whatever the local authorities tell them, or they will simply not cruise to the port / country.

 

I am of the opinion that this decision will be made for them "in due course"

 

Some countries which have the virus well managed and under control will simply say, .........if the risk is such that "ship tour bubbles" are necessary, then the risk is too high.  

Their ban on cruise ships with overseas passengers will remain.

[Daniel A]

3 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

Some countries which have the virus well managed and under control will simply say, .........if the risk is such that "ship tour bubbles" are necessary, then the risk is too high.  

Their ban on cruise ships with overseas passengers will remain.

I think the 'bubble tours' is intended to protect the PAX from catching something from the locals, not the other way around.  At this point the 'bubble tours' is one of the requirements to get a Conditional Sailing Order from the CDC Framework.

[LHT28]

38 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I think the 'bubble tours' is intended to protect the PAX from catching something from the locals, not the other way around.  At this point the 'bubble tours' is one of the requirements to get a Conditional Sailing Order from the CDC Framework.

Probably a bit of both

At the rate things are going   there will be limited ships sailing  in the near future

[Tranquility Base]

14 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

At the rate things are going   there will be limited ships sailing  in the near future

I agree with you there.

 

Royal Caribbean could possibly expand their Singapore sailing into Vietnam.

Vietnam has been a real success story re Covid.

 

Princess are planning to start domestically in Taiwan in April.

 

It would be interesting to see if any cruise line is allowed to start domestically in Australia  in the first half of next year.

[Paulchili]

2 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

It would be interesting to see if any cruise line is allowed to start domestically in Australia  in the first half of next year.

Melbourne has had ZERO new cases for a month now.

I would think long and hard before I would tinker with that.

Can you imagine living in a major city that has had zero new cases for a month?

[Beagle5]

4 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Melbourne has had ZERO new cases for a month now.

I would think long and hard before I would tinker with that.

Can you imagine living in a major city that has had zero new cases for a month?

There are some murmurs about domestic cruises starting next year:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/dec/06/australias-cruise-ship-ban-is-set-to-expire-but-it-wont-all-be-smooth-sailing

But you are right, after all the effort and sacrifice we went through to get to zero here in Melbourne, there would be a lot of push back on allowing cruising to start again pre vaccine.  I think we will keep our bubble pretty tight for a while yet.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

Melbourne has had ZERO new cases for a month now.

I would think long and hard before I would tinker with that.

Can you imagine living in a major city that has had zero new cases for a month?

I wish people here were  as controlled

Number are over 1500 per day for Ontario for the past month

 we now have 15 cases in our small town 😷

[clo]

8 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I wish people here were  as controlled

Number are over 1500 per day for Ontario for the past month

 we now have 15 cases in our small town 😷

Well, compared to the US y'all are to be admired.

[badtwin]

Possibly slightly off topic and or answered above.  But I can't figure how to search on these boards effectively.

 

We are considering our first Oceania cruise in part because of a generous on board credit offer.  Are there any limitations on the use of such credit?  I believe it is part of an o life promotion with "free" airfare and a choice of one of the other benefits.  I have seen some lines that don't let you use some types of on board credit for gratuities for example. 

 

Thank you

[calicakes]

I transferred  my reservation to my current TA.  They gave me 300 OBC. 

[ORV]

2 hours ago, badtwin said:

Possibly slightly off topic and or answered above.  But I can't figure how to search on these boards effectively.

 

We are considering our first Oceania cruise in part because of a generous on board credit offer.  Are there any limitations on the use of such credit?  I believe it is part of an o life promotion with "free" airfare and a choice of one of the other benefits.  I have seen some lines that don't let you use some types of on board credit for gratuities for example. 

 

Thank you

Go to the search box up in the top right corner, click on the left side and then change the box from "everywhere" to "This Forum". Then it will give you what you need, and not everything from cruise critic. 

 

As far as the OBC goes with O life. You are paying dollar for dollar for it with the Olife promotion and is considered by most frequent Oceania cruisers as the worst option to chose. It's a zero sum choice. 

 

The best choice depends on your drinking consumption and excursion preferences. As far as the air, it's not free, but included in the price. You can take your own air and get a credit for it. There are a lot of factors to take in to account. Without knowing which cruise you're taking and more about your situation it's hard to advise the best way for you to go. 

[Daniel A]

18 minutes ago, ORV said:

Go to the search box up in the top right corner, click on the left side and then change the box from "everywhere" to "This Forum". Then it will give you what you need, and not everything from cruise critic. 

 

As far as the OBC goes with O life. You are paying dollar for dollar for it with the Olife promotion and is considered by most frequent Oceania cruisers as the worst option to chose. It's a zero sum choice. 

 

The best choice depends on your drinking consumption and excursion preferences. As far as the air, it's not free, but included in the price. You can take your own air and get a credit for it. There are a lot of factors to take in to account. Without knowing which cruise you're taking and more about your situation it's hard to advise the best way for you to go. 

Maybe a more experienced Oceania passenger can verify this, but if you select the Olife OBC, it looks to me that you won't be able to apply a Shareholder Benefit OBC.  It looks as if you need to choose one or the other.  I don't think OBC from your TA factors into this.

 

Am I correct?

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, badtwin said:

Possibly slightly off topic and or answered above.  But I can't figure how to search on these boards effectively.

 

We are considering our first Oceania cruise in part because of a generous on board credit offer.  Are there any limitations on the use of such credit?  I believe it is part of an o life promotion with "free" airfare and a choice of one of the other benefits.  I have seen some lines that don't let you use some types of on board credit for gratuities for example. 

 

Thank you

You can use the OBC for anything you put on your shipboard account

 

You cannot buy FCC or deposit a future cruise with the non refundable  OBC   

 As ORV said  you may be paying your own OBC

 Do the math to see if it works for you

Compare  prices for cruise only & doing your own air  

 

 

[Tranquility Base]

51 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Maybe a more experienced Oceania passenger can verify this, but if you select the Olife OBC, it looks to me that you won't be able to apply a Shareholder Benefit OBC.  It looks as if you need to choose one or the other. 

Last year O life OBC and Shareholder OBC were combinable.

[clo]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Go to the search box up in the top right corner, click on the left side and then change the box from "everywhere" to "This Forum". Then it will give you what you need, and not everything from cruise critic. 

 

As far as the OBC goes with O life. You are paying dollar for dollar for it with the Olife promotion and is considered by most frequent Oceania cruisers as the worst option to chose. It's a zero sum choice. 

 

The best choice depends on your drinking consumption and excursion preferences. As far as the air, it's not free, but included in the price. You can take your own air and get a credit for it. There are a lot of factors to take in to account. Without knowing which cruise you're taking and more about your situation it's hard to advise the best way for you to go. 

We actually carried on and bought in ports 'adult beverage' as they treat us like adults 🙂 We didn't get the O-Life and our TA gave us gratuities. CAN you use OBC for gratuities?

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

As far as the OBC goes with O life. You are paying dollar for dollar for it with the Olife promotion and is considered by most frequent Oceania cruisers as the worst option to chose. It's a zero sum choice. 

As pointed out here time and time again, taking the OBC option of O Life is the WORST choice.

If the OBC offered is $800/cabin you will be paying $400/pp more for the cruise than if you didn't take O Life. In essence you are paying yourself for the OBC well ahead of time and then you have to worry about spending all of it as it is non refundable.

If you choose to pay extra for O Life (because O Life is not free) you can get a better return on choosing excursions or drinks package (depending on how much you drink).

Don't even mention air in connection with O Life - the 2 are separate items and not connected.

[calicakes]

3 hours ago, clo said:

We actually carried on and bought in ports 'adult beverage' as they treat us like adults 🙂 We didn't get the O-Life and our TA gave us gratuities. CAN you use OBC for gratuities?

I asked and was told that I can use the OBC for tips.  That is what I plan on doing as we don't drink.  I took O life for 300.00 per person( the excursion option).  If we picked three 200.00 excursions, we've gotten more than our money's worth. 

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, calicakes said:

I asked and was told that I can use the OBC for tips.  That is what I plan on doing as we don't drink.  I took O life for 300.00 per person( the excursion option).  If we picked three 200.00 excursions, we've gotten more than our money's worth. 

Caveat - not all excursions are eligible for O Life. They are usually under $200 and cannot have any letters with them (like OE ,etc). After that all additional excursions, even the expensive ones, are at 25% discount.

[calicakes]

5 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Caveat - not all excursions are eligible for O Life. They are usually under $200 and cannot have any letters with them (like OE ,etc). After that all additional excursions, even the expensive ones, are at 25% discount.

Thanks.  I was looking at the excursions for the cruise in Feb 2021, the ones I'm interested in are all under 200.00.  Mostly snorkeling.  The cruise we booked isn't until 2022. 

[Paulchili]

3 minutes ago, calicakes said:

Thanks.  I was looking at the excursions for the cruise in Feb 2021, the ones I'm interested in are all under 200.00.  Mostly snorkeling.  The cruise we booked isn't until 2022. 

Caveat #2 - all O Life excursions must be booked (or cancelled) at latest 14 days before the cruise.

[badtwin]

Thanks for answer to the OBC and gratuities question.  Believe me, DH "does the math" when we book cruises and that is why we rarely book a cruise with "free" add-ons - they are rarely worth as much the difference for a cruise alone without the extras. 

 

For example, we are looking at a Venice to Monte Carlo cruise in September.  At the cabin levels we are considering the difference with air fare and O Life compared to the cruise alone is about $1200 pp.   From Spokane Washington, we are probably going to pay at least $900 pp (and likely more) to book our own air.  So this may be one of those rare occasions it would pencil out.  Since we tour on our own (the covid gods willing) and eat lunches in port when possible and drink a little wine at dinner, the OBC tends to be the best options for us, but agree it would not be for a lot of others. 

 

Thanks again

 

 

[LHT28]

13 minutes ago, badtwin said:

For example, we are looking at a Venice to Monte Carlo cruise in September.  At the cabin levels we are considering the difference with air fare and O Life compared to the cruise alone is about $1200 pp.   From Spokane Washington, we are probably going to pay at least $900 pp (and likely more) to book our own air. 

 

 I would ask what the air credit is 

then once the flights are out check  what it will cost to book your own air

Then compare

 Until you know the cost of booking your own air   it is a moot point

Then if you want to fly in a day or more early  there is that to consider 😉

 Also check if your airport is one of the O gateways  if not there is an extra charge

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/air