Just back from Nautica June 25-July 15, 2016 "Fjords and Fortresses Cruise"

A truly wonderful experience. Nautica was in great condition (although the Bali beds by the pool are somewhat frayed and need to be replaced). Staff, great. Crew, great. Service, great. Food, pretty damn good. Cruise Director Julie James, excellent. Enrichment Lecturer Steven Rivellino was absolutely brilliant and totally engaging... we couldn't wait for his next presentation. Destination Team (Shore Excursions) needs a bit more experience and training. From top down, they are not very pleasant to deal with, and their passenger service is extremely lacking. For example... our local bus broke down in Archangel Russia, and our tour office representative was no where to be found... as he was too busy taking personal photos. We were left to fend for ourselves with the local Russian guide. When the Tour Office does add an "escort" from the ship (other than themselves), the escort (usually a crew member) seems to be simply going along for the ride, and doesn't do anything to help, assist passengers, count people on the bus, etc. Perhaps most of all... the Tour Office staff need to smile more and welcome us... their overall tone and attitude seems as if they're running their own operation, so far from the friendliness and welcoming nature of Oceania. Not sure we'll be doing any Oceania tours again. But we'll definitely be sticking with Oceania. We absolutely love these ships and the Oceania operation. So all in all, an excellent cruise... looking forward to the next one.

Thanks for your review. Glad to hear Nautica is still looking good!

Good to hear. Thank you.

Glad you enjoyed the cruise

Shore Excursions desk has always been a bone of contention here ;)

Rarely do we do the ship's tours

Glad you enjoyed the cruise

 

Shore Excursions desk has always been a bone of contention here ;)

 

Rarely do we do the ship's tours

IMHO -- But the group on Nautica is totally incompetent.

We did several accompanied land tours (not excursions) -- and yes except for one of their staff -- the rest seem in their own world and could not care how the tour was being run or cared about any criticism. Had someone fall sick on a excursion (faint in the heat) and they were useless -- my DW who is a nurse had to intervene to get them back to the ship.

And to top it off O's excursions are prohibitively expensive. Talk about paying more and getting less!

We are doing this cruise next summer where it is being called Northern Explorer, but exact same schedule as this cruise. Would love to hear a lot of details of your experiences.

Don't normally do O tours, but was considering them for the Russian ports. Will probably reconsider and set up private tours now. Adding bad attitudes to poor service and expensive pricing is not a winning combo!

No question that O excursions are costly. But we found that in some ports particularly in Asia they have proved a good choice for us. Ease of booking (and cancellation) are a real plus.

We also were on this cruise but not back home until tomorrow. At this moment we are sitting in a Heathrow hotel.

We had 5 oLife tours available which we used, and did one extra ship's tour at the last minute. Had no complaints about any of them. (No doubt we wouldn't have been happy if we'd been paying full price, especially for one of the Russian tours.) We didn't have large groups and with one exception the guides were superior. Other than these ship's tours we did our "own thing" in ports.

Enjoyed ourselves very much on this one, and we also agree about the enrichment lectures. Agree about Revellino but we also enjoyed very much the Vancouver professor who came on for the last portion of the cruise (forgetting his name at the moment). We weren't as happy about the lady who gave the Viking lectures on the first half of the cruise -- her material was good but she was a reader, not a talker the way the gentlemen were.

Also had a wonderful talk from the Greek classical pianist on board for a few days who has become very active in bringing classical music to third world countries.

We could have done without the Russian ports but they didn't ruin the cruise!

Mura

Mura

We are doing this cruise next summer where it is being called Northern Explorer, but exact same schedule as this cruise. Would love to hear a lot of details of your experiences.

 

Don't normally do O tours, but was considering them for the Russian ports. Will probably reconsider and set up private tours now. Adding bad attitudes to poor service and expensive pricing is not a winning combo!

Keep in mind that if you do either O or private tours, there is a great deal of strenuous uphill walking in Solovetsky, Russia. You should know which we were not advised of, the ride to Sekirnaja Mountain is a very rough ride. If you have back issues, this is not for you. Also. There are no porta potties. The forest is your restroom. Bring bug repellent. There is a Outdoor toilet at the Botanical Gardens which is a hole in the ground. At least here you have privacy. Bring toilet paper. Also. If your cruise to Solovetsky happens to fall on a Sunday, be sure to visit the large monastery where there are church services for the local residents. Something we missed because our tour was changed without our knowledge.