We just completed 24 days, b-2-b on Regatta. Yes, we signed the chits.

We signed 42 chits, total of $1166, as follows:
15 for wine, 15 for lounges, 10 for sodas(2/1 at happy hour) at $2.95 per, and, two others.

I have my two single malts in the cabin, my cost, my wife is a nominal imbiber,just a little wine at dinner, so, minimal activity in the lounges.

To conclude, our daily "chit" cost is $48.58 per day.

That equates to 1.75 chit signings per day, or, 7 in 4 days. We returned home 6 days ago; and, we've signed 14 chits, 2.333 per day....gas, groceries, pharmacy, barber, hair dresser!

So, for less than $50 per day for two, give me O over R!!

I've yet to try O and will maybe one day when I find the right itinerary but I do agree with you that signing chits is no big sacrifice and even more so if you are saving a signifigant amount of money. Good for you!
Pat

Dooley,

Someone told me that O is not charging more for a glass of wine than they were the last time we were on, we paid $7 a glass, can you tell me what they are now charging?

Thanks

Yall,

They charge $8 for your selection, or, $5.95 for the house reds and whites.

They also have a good selection of "l'ordinaire" reds and whites at $29. I favored a Shiraz and a Rioja at $29. They're held over for your next usage.

I too hope to take the charging for drinks in context when we book an O cruise (when, not if.) But in another thread, on CC, based on what posters were saying, I calculated it would probably cost the two of us about $125 per day for drinks, wine for dinner, or beer for David sometimes. Cocktails, beer during the day, water, soft drinks. We probably would also drink less on O than on R, which would probably be a good thing.

They have two for one happy hour in Martini's Lounge.

If you go to the Wine Tasting, (not free but worthwhile) they will have a package of really nice wines to buy at more reasonable than restaurant prices. There was a large variety of select wines. You could buy a minimum of three. Maybe twice the liquor store price were restaurants mark up 3 or 4 times cost. We a bought a Nickle and Nickle Red which is a Far Niente Vineyard for $50 a bottle and we had to buy a minimum of 3. That was very reasonable for that wine. They brought us our wine in whatever venue we ate in, if we did not finish they saved it for us and it was like a Regent experience - no signing.

Right, I remember you telling me that before, Kathy. You can tell us about your upcoming experience as well (you must be getting excited.)

So you had to do a paid wine-tasting to take advantage of this. Not so bad I guess. And $50 a bottle is about what I would expect to pay--although knowing that you can get a "vin ordinaire" in the $30 range is also good to know.

We paid $15. for the wine tasting class each. What we did not do is buy enough wine at the class so we went back to the regular menu.

St. Francis Cabernet - here about $10 a glass at our local restaurant was $42 a bottle there and $14. at Costco.

We will buy more wine this time if it's offered but we budget about $120 a day for beverages which includes a bottle with dinner of a premium wine, maybe a before dinner and after dinner drink and water. That's on the high side for us because we're not big drinkers and the upcoming cruise is very port intensive so we're early to bed and early to rise.

I'm not much of a wine drinker.
Can someone give me an idea what a
regular cocktail runs aboard the ship?
Lets say like a Crown and water, or Candaian Club and water??
What were the beer prices?

Cosmo's were $7.00 but not for Grey Goose. Those were more - $9.00 I think. Double pour at Happy Hour in Martini's on well brands.

On our Oceania cruise last January, my memory is that all martinis, regardless of brand of vodka or gin, were $9.00. I believe most other mixed drinks were in the $7.00 to $10.00 range. Most mixed drinks, some classic martinis and the Big O martini (basically a Cosmo with OJ) were available on a two-for-one basis during the daily happy hour.

I'm not sure you have to buy the wine tasting to get access to the wine packages. When we made our specialty restaurant reservations, there was a sheet of paper available showing various wine packages that could be purchased. I don't know if these were the same wine packages available to Chatkat at the wine tasting.

For those who drink a fair amount of bottled water, I suggest buying them during the daily happy hour. We could buy two, one liter bottles of Evian or San Pellegrino for $3.54, including the gratuity.

Thank you Kathy and Dave.

It is just so tough trying to make
O and R apples to apples or oranges to oranges.

Jim,

I did a review last year comparing the two in the Oceania forum.

It is Link to the thread

On our last Regatta cruise, the crossing, they had a wine bazaar open for two hours several days where they offered many wines low in stock and therefore not available on the wine list, 'cause of only one/two bottles available, at great prices. Many premium red cabernets and pinot noirs were offered at $40-50. I took advantage of a few!

I seem to remember that when we were on O last year they added an 18% service charge on top of your bill. So a $50 bottle of wine on the winelist was actually $59, if my maths is correct.

Boy now that really irks me. :mad:
Do they charge you tip for every bar "chit"
you sign?
I know on NCL a $5.50 drink was really something like $6.04. Now that was real irritating. :mad:

Why Jim? Those people work for tips. Tips aren't included in the fare. As I say to Frank, when we travel now one bag is included and the second has a charge - it's just part of the cost of travel.

If I pay a bit less on the whole cruise and then I can decide if my $10.00 drink is really going to be $11.80 - I can decide not to order the drink and the cost of the cruise is less. If you go to a bar to have a drink, do you tip only on the first round of drinks or on the entire check? They just add it for you when you have your drink!

So this tip to bar staff for drinks is separate from the daily tip that you can choose to pay upfront as part of your cruise? (Or is sometimes paid for by your TA?)

Wendy,

The 18% tip to bar staff is separate and is added automatically to your drink chit. The daily tip for room and dining room staff is added to your account on the last full day of the cruise. At least for U.S. passengers, I don't believe you can pay the gratuities upfront as part of your cruise fare. I've only taken one Oceania cruise, so I could be mistaken. Of course, as you mention, sometimes prepaid gratuities are offered by a TA.

That is also my point Wendy.
Why do you pay something like $10 to $11 per day per person for tips then they still charge you a tip for beverages.
I am still from the old school where you earn the tip. It should not be automatic.
It really bothered me when the bartender was standing there staring at me, I asked for a beer, he reached down into a cooler, got the beer, opened it, and handed it to me. Oh my gosh. He did have to walk over and run my card thru the machine, walk back and have me sign it with the tip already on it.
Wrong wrong wrong.

All cruise lines add tips for drinks "auto-pay", almost all at 15%: for whatever reason, "O" chose to add an extra 3 %, to 18%. All cruise lines add a $15 corkage charge for BYO; "O" chose to charge $20. Perhaps it has something to do with the contracts for bar staff.

So, does it really matter much if your cocktail cost $10 plus $1.50, or, $1.80? I think most of us regularly adhere to tipping in the 15% n'b'hood.....so, no "biggie" in my opinion.

One positive aspect of sailing on "O" is that you don't have to "smuggle" your own bottles aboard, as you must do on most other non-premium cruiselines. So, no worry about bringing aboard your single malts, Grey Goose, Sambucca, or brandies for in-cabin consumption and parties!

Oh I understand. I am just venting.
It really won't change anything.
I still am interested in trying O some day.
Just the way things are done today.

Jim, I'm with you on this. But all of this aside, I'm bound to try Oceania sooner rather than later.

Wendy, if you have a great itinerary, I think you should! Surely the prices with all the extra charges will not come up to what Regent is charging now, and if you have a comparable cabin that will make you happy, I say go for it!

Drinks, with or without an 18% tip, are a small part of the total cost of a cruise.

Agreed, but it will be a while, probably 2010. I'm retiring this summer, at least temporarily, so we'll be scaling back on luxury travel. 2010 is our 30th anniversary, so we'll try to do something then, although a land trip is still a possibility.

and then try Azamara.. you guys know I love the O ships ( actually the R ships) but we took Azamara and Ron and I loved the service.. it was amazing!!

I'm sure O is great, but all this talk about 2 for 1 happy hour doesn't really sound like luxury to me. And having to buy water 2 for 1 at happy hour? I know I sign chits at the country club and elsewhere, but that is one of the things I really like about Regent, Silversea and Seabourn. Haven't been on Seabourn in 7 years but theya re what hooked me on luxury cruising. I know the drinks may not add up to equal the fare on one of the luxury ships, but it's just a feeling of being a guest I guess.

The Two for One issue comes up partly because there are people who book the entry level cabins and not at Concierge who need to stretch every dollar to travel at that level. Some people watch every penny closely - even if they can afford $100,000 fares. It's not all about signing - for some people they are just mindful of their money. Ted Turner can drive any car he wants and he drives a 10 year old Ford Taurus. There are a lot of people like that. Warren Buffet as well. Do you buy two pair of shoes when you see a good sale?

Depends on the shoes. And the sale. However I don't feel like a guest when trying on shoes -though a nice pair of Cole Haans comes close. ;)

I'm not knocking O - just stating an opinion. I've only sailed on 3 cruiselines so my experience is limited.

Kathy...you're spot on. There are plenty of people in this world that can afford whatever they choose and don't necessarly want or need to have the most expensive items. It's really a matter of what is important to ones self. Different people have different priorities.

Nancy

Absolutely, CK!!! Different colors if the same shoe! But I'm bad that way...

I think I would go back to signing for drinks if Regent would come back to their old pricing!

Robert, I hope you bought several colors of that cashmere sweater you wore for Mimosa if it was on sale!

Kathy is right, people who can afford anything they want often don't want, let alone need it all. Often, they are where they are because they watched the pennies, and the dollars took care of themselves.

Yep, me too Olivia - We just priced Australia/NZ on a few other lines. We're booked on R but will probably swap it out for a Caribbean cruise to use our deposits and online booking discount.

It's very hard for me to justify $11,000 pp for two weeks on Regent when I can get a comparable suite for $5000 on another line for signing drinks and a few other things. But that said, we will probably go elsewhere and do a land trip since we aren't big on the other cruise line. Oceania doesn't offer it when we can go.

Carla and I are looking at Australia/New Zealand on O for Jan 09, as I stated before I really dont mind signing for my drinks, and saving thousands.
It just makes sense for us because with the difference we save we could also add a nice little land trip as well, and I agree with you Kathy that $11k per person is very hard to justify.

FV