Listen up - There going to be some changes around here…

[cruisr]

1 hour ago, quesam said:

Which cruise?  I’ve just started searching for a solo cruise and I’m wondering which cruises have the lowest solo charge and more importantly is Explora a good experience for solos. I love Oceania for the amount of solos on board and the activities for meeting others but always paying double gets old. 

 

 

Its the 6 night cruise in January from Miami to Cartegena.  

[TER777]

1 hour ago, quesam said:

Which cruise?  I’ve just started searching for a solo cruise and I’m wondering which cruises have the lowest solo charge and more importantly is Explora a good experience for solos. I love Oceania for the amount of solos on board and the activities for meeting others but always paying double gets old. 

 

 

My TA got me a list of all the cruises with the single supplement rates. 

[florisdekort]

2 hours ago, quesam said:

Which cruise?  I’ve just started searching for a solo cruise and I’m wondering which cruises have the lowest solo charge and more importantly is Explora a good experience for solos. I love Oceania for the amount of solos on board and the activities for meeting others but always paying double gets old. 

 

 

Explora hosted a solo travellers meeting on the first full day of our cruise.

 

 

 

[tryber]

On 10/22/2023 at 9:22 AM, florisdekort said:

It was a constant fight on our recent 166 night world cruise on Seabourn Sojourn, esp. to get bottled water in our suite. But I’ve read some things have improved since the new President took over, so I hope it’s now an issue of the past. 
 

It was a constant struggle to get real sparkling water in the dining venues on my first (and probably last) Seabourne cruise last year.  I wouldn't even have had a problem drinking the homemade sparkling water if it were any good.  I've had no problem drinking the homemade stuff at many restaurants.  But the Seabourne sparkling water was flat, and that's worse than just drinking regular water.  

[saminina]

On 10/22/2023 at 3:41 PM, cruisr said:

Its the 6 night cruise in January from Miami to Cartegena.  

Lower per diem if you add next segment.

[uktog]

One thing that does not appear to have changed, Guest Support are only doing one reservation for you in each restaurant even though your reservation is a back to back.  I accept we can sort it out onboard but its a pain when you want two special dates one on each cruise.  I also know that for now the ship is below capacity

I think the problem is the software in that the two cruises are combined into one reservation number and so everything that drives off it beyond that point is taken as it being one cruise

[Critically Cruising]

8 hours ago, uktog said:

I think the problem is the software in that the two cruises are combined into one reservation number and so everything that drives off it beyond that point is taken as it being one cruise

 

Be careful that any OBC given for the first segment is not lost if you don't use it up by the end of that part of your B2B.  Don't know if that is the case here, but I've been on another cruiseline that did that - and you had to complain vigorously for them to manually reset the numbers.

 

 

[PaulMCO]

1 hour ago, Critically Cruising said:

 

Be careful that any OBC given for the first segment is not lost if you don't use it up by the end of that part of your B2B.  Don't know if that is the case here, but I've been on another cruiseline that did that - and you had to complain vigorously for them to manually reset the numbers.

 

 

excellent point and some cruise lines also post the OBC on a segment basis.

[gymfreak]

On 10/19/2023 at 12:28 AM, PrivateIdaho said:

Now if we can just get them to get rid of the smoking area outside of Crema Cafe. We had to change suites due to second hand smoke wafting through our veranda door. For the upcoming cruise, we book on the other side of the ship. Plus, that area will be nice for outside cafe seating during nice weather. 

Hi

please could you tell me which suite you were in when you had the issue with smoke emanating from the Crema cafe. We shall be in 6026 directly above this area I believe, and someone else has also reported this problem 

Many thanks

[Henk123]

I hope we will see more positive changes now Heike is on board.

[Waltershipman]

19 hours ago, gymfreak said:

Hi

please could you tell me which suite you were in when you had the issue with smoke emanating from the Crema cafe. We shall be in 6026 directly above this area I believe, and someone else has also reported this problem 

Many thanks

We were 7 cabins  or so away from 6026 and no issues

[PrivateIdaho]

7 hours ago, Waltershipman said:

please could you tell me which suite you were in when you had the issue with smoke emanating from the Crema cafe.

We were in 6018. As long as we had the door closed, it wasn’t an issue. At times we wanted to enjoy our balcony and this was impossible once we got to warmer weather. Staff was kind enough to move us. 

[Hlitner]

Lets talk about the smoke issue.  When you look at a deck plan, on Deck 5 you will see that the Crema Cafe is located amidships on the Starboard (right) side.  Outside the Crema Cafe, there is a promanade area (also near the usual gangway when in port) which is lined with small tables and chairs.  This area is a smoking area and all those small tables  (and there are quite a few) have ashtrays to make this clear.  Folks can sit there to smoke, enjoy coffee/treats from the Crema Cafe, etc.  During our 18 day voyage (NYC to NYC) this smoking area was not overly popular, but you should consider we had fewer than 300 passengers and had days where the weather was not conducive to using this area.  In a warm climate with a larger passenger load, one might suspect that this area will be popular with smokers (especially during the opening hours of the Crema Cafe which is 7am to about 7pm).  

 

Smoke from those smokers will impact quite a few suites (above) depending on the wind conditions.  Personally, we would avoid any Starboard suite located above or quite a few feet to the rear of the Crema Cafe.  That being said, these are desirable suites because many folks want amidships.  Our suite was pretty far aft (Deck 8 ) which we found a terrific location.  No smoke, very little noise, and relatively close to the aft elevator bank (these elevators only go down as far as Deck 5).  

 

Hank

[Waltershipman]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Lets talk about the smoke issue.  When you look at a deck plan, on Deck 5 you will see that the Crema Cafe is located amidships on the Starboard (right) side.  Outside the Crema Cafe, there is a promanade area (also near the usual gangway when in port) which is lined with small tables and chairs.  This area is a smoking area and all those small tables  (and there are quite a few) have ashtrays to make this clear.  Folks can sit there to smoke, enjoy coffee/treats from the Crema Cafe, etc.  During our 18 day voyage (NYC to NYC) this smoking area was not overly popular, but you should consider we had fewer than 300 passengers and had days where the weather was not conducive to using this area.  In a warm climate with a larger passenger load, one might suspect that this area will be popular with smokers (especially during the opening hours of the Crema Cafe which is 7am to about 7pm).  

 

Smoke from those smokers will impact quite a few suites (above) depending on the wind conditions.  Personally, we would avoid any Starboard suite located above or quite a few feet to the rear of the Crema Cafe.  That being said, these are desirable suites because many folks want amidships.  Our suite was pretty far aft (Deck 8 ) which we found a terrific location.  No smoke, very little noise, and relatively close to the aft elevator bank (these elevators only go down as far as Deck 5).  

 

Hank

We were in 6040 with no issues.  

[Arizonasunshine]

On 10/27/2023 at 6:49 AM, uktog said:

One thing that does not appear to have changed, Guest Support are only doing one reservation for you in each restaurant even though your reservation is a back to back.  I accept we can sort it out onboard but its a pain when you want two special dates one on each cruise.  I also know that for now the ship is below capacity

I think the problem is the software in that the two cruises are combined into one reservation number and so everything that drives off it beyond that point is taken as it being one cruise

We just got off in Miami and had no problems getting reservations in any specialty restaurant at any time we wanted. With only 180 passengers, all the restaurants were pretty empty. To us, the capacity of the specialty restaurants looked larger than we expected, so maybe this will prove to be not so much an issue. We never tried to book multiple reservations in the same restaurant ( there was just no reason to ) but did book extra visits to Sakura and Marble on different dates together. 

 

We did smell cigar smoke near the Cigar Bar and at other areas of the ship. This is something that they need to correct.

 

[uktog]

I think we will be on with c600 on one leg. It’s wrong that two cruises are viewed as one to suit their system but the guest is at risk of not getting 4 reservations across the 2 venues. Fingers crossed that it does shape out ok. 

[Dr. Cocktail]

14 minutes ago, uktog said:

I think we will be on with c600 on one leg. It’s wrong that two cruises are viewed as one to suit their system but the guest is at risk of not getting 4 reservations across the 2 venues. Fingers crossed that it does shape out ok. 

If you’re on for November 27, the count is currently 500…..

[travelwide]

On 11/4/2023 at 3:20 PM, Dr. Cocktail said:

If you’re on for November 27, the count is currently 500…..

 

Any numbers available for the December 13th RT Miami cruise?

[Dr. Cocktail]

1 hour ago, travelwide said:

 

Any numbers available for the December 13th RT Miami cruise?

I don’t think 🤔 I’m allowed to provide global general info. There’s no special skills involved - just check different travel agents online….

[JTor]

On 10/19/2023 at 12:14 PM, uktog said:

Having spent more time again today my biggest beef is they need to sort out shoreside especially the pre cruise experience.  I know Seaware from other cruise line and how it works and Explora cant have configured it right as the error messages when trying to service an existing booking or complete on line check in when you have been invited to are beyond a joke.  The staff you engage with are all very nice but sorry they are absolutely clueless, they are all "escalating the issue" but never able to come back with solutions.

 

However today I thought I might have made progress, I see an email in from their IT Team entitled (again, I have had four now) It is now time to check in for your Ocean Journey.  Great I think we have lift off , the issue did get escalated.  My joy is short lived when I open it, I get a sense of doom when I read 

Dear Mrs zcq Margaret jgtwwt.     

 

Now when I went to the font zcq was not what I believe I was called and when I married DH and took his surname I do not think it was jgtwwt 🙂 

 

Oh and i followed the link to do the check in and yet again we get the "sorry there is a problem please try later....."

 

Words fail me!

It’s December and they have not fixed it.  We’ve had no communication from them at all.  We sail in just over 2 weeks, have no documents, and cannot link to our booking from their website at all.  So we can’t get documents, book excursions or dining, etc.  Attempts by our agent to escalate have so far been totally ineffective.  I am heartened by the fact that others on this forum have SOMEHOW been allowed on board but it’s still very stressful.

[safarigal]

On 11/5/2023 at 7:37 PM, travelwide said:

 

Any numbers available for the December 13th RT Miami cruise?

Captain Diego said there are just over 400 guests on board at the moment, just under half capacity.

[crvng4mr]

13 hours ago, JTor said:

It’s December and they have not fixed it.  We’ve had no communication from them at all.  We sail in just over 2 weeks, have no documents, and cannot link to our booking from their website at all.  So we can’t get documents, book excursions or dining, etc.  Attempts by our agent to escalate have so far been totally ineffective.  I am heartened by the fact that others on this forum have SOMEHOW been allowed on board but it’s still very stressful.

I had a check-in problem as well. I was told it would be no problem. It in fact was No Problem. We showed up with our passports and they printed the luggage tags. Super easy. Then inside they took photos of our passports and we signed the health waiver, they gave us our suite cards and we were on board within 15 minutes from tagging luggage to lunch.

[travelwide]

We boarded 12/13 with no documents. No problem whatsoever. Don't worry so much. 

[lelak]

try clicking on the "filters" button at the top of the webpage.  I found that was the only way to find my booking.

[travelwide]

Regarding smoking,  we are in 6020 with no smoke smell issues.