excited cruise traveler

Thank you for the the "and so it begins" blog of this cruise. We have looked at this cruise repeatedly but are leary of the long flight from Atlanta to Sydney, having done Auckland to Atlanta before, so your blog will make a big difference yea or nay to us. I will follow you faithfully during your trip. We happened to be on a long leg of your ATW of 2016 from Shanghai to Sydney, but never met during that cruise.

Julie, the CD is a really really nice person, we had a wonderful time with her and please tell her hello from Julio and Carol, maybe she remembers us, kind of hard with as many people as she comes in contact with. Anyhow, enjoy the cruise and I will follow with interest. Carol C. (excited cruise traveler)

Hi, looking for anyone interested in a flight out of Pisco on the 16-17 January

over the Nazca lines. With more people, the price is reduced. It is a lot less that the

ship.

rely if interested

We have taken the Nazca Lines small aircraft flight on a landtour to Peru and while it is interesting it does not at all compare to Machu Picchu . The lines are every hard to see on several of them and even in the small aircraft it was very fast to catch and see them clearly. Also keep in mind, it is very windy in that area and if anyone is prone to air sickness, this is not a good excursion. We bounced around quite a bit. excited cruise traveler.

I am amazed about the comments in ref. to crew and staff - we have been on all Oceania' ships many times and I have yet to experience an unfriendly or non-cooperating service staff. We believe in courtesy and friendliness and the old rule of "how you shout into the woods and what echo comes back" applies all the time. In ref. to all inclusive: There are lines that offer all sorts of amneties and the choice is yours. There are may choices in the cruise industry!

We are leaving on Oct. 30 for another cruise on the Insignia and I have no doubt I will have a positive experience. It is sad to have so many negative comments on so little substance, and they are simply not correct. We enjoy their ships, crew and staff - excited cruise traveler

I have an entirely different question, but would love to get a response from anyone presently on "Marina". Is the ship presently healthy? No Noro virus or other health issues? We are on a transatlantic on 4/10/2017 from Miami to Lisbon, so curiosity is killing me, Carol C.

I would NOT recommend their Windstar "yachts". We took one this year through the Pan. Canal and it was awful, Quality of everything , as cabins, food, and ship itself was way below par.

Their sailing ships are fine, we have done serveral with them, but will not return to the line because of the lack of quality.

Hi, newbie here. We are considering Riviera, deck 7 Veranda cabin 7086. If I knew how I would attach the deck plan for you! This is the most midship they have available. Our last and only cruise my DH got sick the first night during extremely rough seas, but was fine the remainder of the 10 day cruise. Is this location Ok? our options are very limited at this point so if it's a bad location we won't go at all...

 

Thank you!

The lower levels of any ship have less movement and mid-ships is the best location.

We started out on deck 3 on Nautica and never felt movement at all. I can't recall deckplan of Riviera, higher deck levels are more expensive and definetely have more movement. Go with what logic tells you and possible sea sickness

I'll be taking my first Oceania cruise in April. I have a Concierge class room and have made my allotted one reservation per speciality restaurant. Am I able to make additional restaurant reservations when I board the ship?

Terrace cafe has a podium where you can inquire every morning for possible spaces to the specialty restaurant - we have done this multiple times and it helps being really nice at that time, it works:)

We are so happy Ray C. will be the cruise director for our segment and then onwards. He is a super guy, we have traveled with him twice and thoroughly enjoyed him. Also, he will have no problems w. the trivia crowd, he keeps perfect control of the players. I hope his assignment will not change before we get on in Shanghai and we are really looking forward to seeing him again.

Ask him about his nickname "Banana Man", in ref. to the announcements in the ports in Australia, and Julio and Carol Campos will be happy so see him again.

We are on schedule f. a 32 day cruise on 4/3/2016 and there were offers from Oceania for us in the form of an upgrade and shipboard credt of a large amount. Hope to spend it all and our TA did help.

We have taken both options, but one word of caution: We stay away from all-day excursions just in case something goes wrong and you do not get back in time f. the sailing. Shorter tours are o.k. We have seen the ship sail w/o guests, they can only wait so long.

I am enjoying your postings and will go back to them for info and inspiration after we return from our segment (4/3/16 to 5/9/16), to use when we will cruise from Dubai to Capetown in Nov. 2016. I also hope to meet you on the ship during our cruise from Shanghai to Sydney in April.

Thanks also f. the cute jokes. Carol C.

We just changed a cruise to the "Great Northern Lights", departing Copenhagen July 19,2015 and so far I have not been able to find the roll call for this cruise . The ship is the "Nautica" and we would love to start a thread and find other passengers. Anyone out there????