Wow MS Norway - that was the ship that had the boiler room accident many years ago at Miami when it was drydocked.
I forgot Oceania price includes airfare. Therefore one should be able to get some credit if one does own air. That is good to know because the free air is coach only. It would be better to use business class award. I wonder how much air credit one might get back, probably not a lot as the cruise lines get very good "consolidator" pricing from the airlines.
TK is nice even though they are behind the retrofit of new business class seats but the old 777-200 seats are lie flat, very roomy without any restriction at the foot area. Foods onboard are good, services are attentive, and the lounge at IST is great. Though they are still in the midst of moving the operations from the old airport to the new airport as of now, already several delays. So if you are flying TK, you may want to keep any eye on this ongoing saga.
The Cape Town to Rio repositioning is very good. Cape Town is very beautiful. We have done 3 land trips in South Africa. 2015/16/17, with the last 2 trips including Kruger NP for self-drive safari.
By the way, for Cape Town, I would highly recommend Radisson Blu Waterfront, over any Marriott propterties - from the Marriott which is North of the Cape Town city - we stayed one night there in 2017 because we wanted to go to West Cape NP for the wild flowers, the NP is much further north) to the Westin near the Convention Center and various Protea (incl the upmarket brands) - they all have certain drawbacks.
Radisson Blu Waterfront is very close to V&A waterfront shopping and entertainment area (can even walk there) on one direction and the other direction is the seaside park.
Anything you want to know more about Cape Town you can PM me. We are so familiar with the town by the 3rd time we went, we did not need GPS to drive around...
Istanbul also is a very interesting city - though the current political situation makes it a tough place to visit. Our first visit was a Post Cruise after disembarkation at Rome and 3 days there we flew to Istanbul, spent 8 days in the region. It was during the Icelandic volcano eruption and the volcanic ash had caused major air traffic disruption.
The volcano erupted when we were still on the last few days of our TATL cruise. Holland America was very accommodating - opening up free internet for people to rearrange their travel plans - ship was fully booked on the next sailing so many had no options but to disembark. We had 3 days in Rome planned so we lucked out. Each day when we were at Rome, the planes roaring above our head were the best music in our ears. lol.
We have returned to Turkey both with a 10 days driving trip and as a debarkation port after an overnight (in the same year too!) . The driving trip started from Adana to Cappodocia and then back down to the Med coast, up the Aegean coast and ended at Bodrum. Adana is no longer safe to go.
This fall we would again pass thru IST on a RTW award booked with Aeroplan miles. Just hope the new airport would be in operation - it has been put thru multiple delays already. I hope it would not become the new Berlin airport that 5 or 6 years after the new airport was finished, it was still not being certified!!!
You know the UA charts have some interesting "excursion" segments you can build into a R/T booking - that takes some "playing with the scenario" approach, but I was astonished by some outcomes - with your bank of UA miles this might be an interesting experiment!
Interesting info on The Online Vacation Center ONVC - thinly trade stocks scare me...
RCL and NCL do not give shareholder benefits for some deeply discounted cruises / cruise package such as the Oceania one you mentioned.
CCL would give to any fare, Princess brand even gives the same benefits to both active and honorable discharged military / National Guards with document proof. A very genrous program for thouse who can use it.
Shareholder Benefit - Carnival Corporation
PDF link on the site. Note the benefits are the same for the low end Carnival to the high end Seabourn with all other brands in between.
The way it works, it shows up as an OBC in your shipboard account without any distinction and directly offset any charges incl the daily gratuity (on the mass market lines). I guess for Seaboun it would be premium drinks ordered, or ship excursions booked as the gratuity / standard drinks are incl.
My husband wants to do a Suez canal crossing. If we dont do it very soon, then would be in Nov or even Dec. Given we return home from the RTW on Oct 23, I dont feel like to go to Europe in first week of Nov! So he may need to wait till 2020.
Enough for the OT. Very nice convo with you. If we want to discuss more things on cruising, we probably need to switch to PM.
Enjoy your trip(s)!