shorton
-
Posts
358 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Store
Blogs
Downloads
Events
Gallery
Posts posted by shorton
-
-
My wife and I are on the September Stockholm to Amsterdam cruise on Sirena. We dock in Rouen, France, at 6 a.m. Oct. 14. The ship leaves Rouen at 5 p.m. If we figure to be back on board at 4 p.m., is it still feasible to take the train to Paris and back? Doesn't seem worth it if we only have a couple hours. Thoughts?
-
We have a Sirena cruise scheduled for September. We signed on before Simply More, and stuck with O Life. Wondering if we will have two internet connections per cabin.
-
Mauibabes, will be interesting to chat with you at the Meet and Greet about Ponant. We join a Seychelles cruise next month.
-
Just to make sure I understand…As a PH passenger, sounds like you don’t want to send just a few items to the laundry because that would only partially fill a bag, and you lose that bag when you send it away. Is my thinking correct?
-
Regarding the three-bag limit on free laundry for PH passengers. Not sure what that means. Three bags total for the length of the cruise? Per day? (Unlikely). We usually send a few things to the
laundry every few days, but not sure how that computes with three bags.
-
We recently returned from our first Viking cruise. Viking ships are gorgeous. Staterooms are great. But we didn't like the vibe. Too sterile. Too staid. And the food was mediocre.
As a previous poster noted, Viking has a lot of ships, but the itineraries are the same year after year. No Africa. No South America. We like a cruise line that offers us a chance to see the world. Oceania does that.
-
5
-
-
Does the Restaurant open at 6:30 p.m.?
-
I just contacted Viking via chat to see if we could get an egg crate topper for our Rome to Istanbul cruise next week on Venus. I was told the ship does not have egg crate toppers, but that each bed has a mattress topper already (and no plastic sheets. Not sure why that was mentioned).
-
1
-
-
Thanks, MikeyB. E-visas were indeed easy to obtain. Looking forward to a wonderful Med cruise, our first with Viking.
-
I read that an e-visa for Turkey is not required if you're entering the country by sea. But I assume it's needed if you're doing a post-cruise stay or departing Turkey by air. Am I correct?
-
I know the main dining room opens for dinner at 7:30 p.m. What time does the informal buffet open? Thanks!
-
Loved all the great info and pics. We are on the Rome to Istanbul cruise on Venus in October. Your post is perfect reading for us.
-
We completed our ETIS form, clicking LAX as your airport for flying to French Polynesia. I'm thinking FP officials are only concerned with which airport you flew out of to get directly to the islands. We got our checkmark back promptly.
-
Another factor is the mad scramble between cruise lines to get new ports in place. Only so much docking space in what was likely to be a very busy Baltics season. We are assuming that since our September cruise is a carry-over from 2021 and we are fully paid, we are stuck. It will be interesting to see what Viking decides to do.
-
We just received the e-mail. Not unexpected. We don't want the Russian government to profit whatsoever from our cruise. We applaud Viking for quickly reacting.
-
3
-
-
Here is a story from The Points Guy:
https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-lines-russia-calls-ukraine/
-
2
-
-
We are on the September Homelands cruise from Stockholm to Bergen. I cannot find Venus listed in the Viking Ocean roll calls. Does anyone know why?
-
Basor, my fellow Oregonian, I so agree. We love to travel, and will do our best to be safe and secure.
-
1
-
-
I hope you get a chance to see it some day. So fascinating.
-
This was our fourth voyage with Oceania. The stops in Cuba were 10 out of 10. Oceania gets an 8 out of 10. This was our first experience with a sold-out ship. The wait staff seemed overwhelmed at times. It was especially hard to find places to sit at breakfast and lunch. It would have been great to have someone greet you as you walked in and help you find a place to sit. The four of us were really annoyed with our dinner at Toscana. Because of the packed room and people waiting, we were rushed through our meal. You barely put down your fork and the waiter whisks away your plate and puts another in front of you. On past Oceania cruises, it was never this way. Sad. Also, the bathrooms on the R ships are especially tiny. We've never gotten used to that. On the plus side, we loved afternoon trivia (and bathrobe trivia when it moved to 11 a.m.), and the food was excellent all week.
Now on to the off-the-ship stuff. We did a 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. private tour of Havana through Cuban Trips Compass. It was fabulous!!!! 45 CUCs apiece (roughly $45 each) for the four of us, riding in a 1957 Chevy and walking through various sites. Heidi was our very knowledgeable guide (helping us buy cigars, rum and chocolate!). She spoke great English, along with Spanish and German. Havana really came alive with this tour. A beautiful city.
We did Cienfuegos and Santiago on our own. And it worked out just fine. Cienfuegos has a beautiful old theater and Santiago boasts the oldest home in Cuba. Both worth seeing. Note: reaching downtown Santiago requires a very steep climb for a few blocks. Coming back to the ship we moved over a couple of streets and the slope was much easier to negotiate. Cuba was just amazing. We so glad we took this cruise.
We used Oceania's air because we needed this to be a quick trip and we didn't want to pay the $175 deviation fee each. The trip home was through Newark to Portland, Oregon, and made for a very long day. Luckily we just managed to avoid a winter storm.
-
Good story from AP on the situation. We are on the Oceania Dec. 1 cruise. No qualms.
https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/travel///249687/travel_industry_sticking_with_trips_from_us_to_cuba
-
Spotted this item in a blog from my travel agency:
Tahiti Tourism is embarking on an $8 million international cruise terminal project due for completion in 2020. The terminal will be located in the center of Papeete and will accommodate up to three ships simultaneously and 2,000 turnaround passengers. The North Pier will measure 300 meters in length; the South Pier 350 meters.
There are no cabotage rules governing Tahiti so cruise ships can sail a more varied itinerary among Tahiti’s 118 islands. Planned amenities include an aerial walk, luggage room, check-in counters, waiting room, duty free, snack bar/café and reservations facilities. Concurrently, Papeete is planning a $12 million upgrade of its airport which is 3 km from the cruise port. Upon completion of the upgrade the airport will be able to accommodate three departures (up to 950 passengers) at the same time.
-
Great info, slw. Much appreciated. A reminder to everyone from U.S. headed to Cuba: If you exchange Euros or Canadian dollars for CUCs, there is no 10 percent fee. Visit a currency exchange shop before leaving home.
-
Paris from the coast.
in Oceania Cruises
Posted
Looks like there’s plenty to see in Rouen without any risk. We will be there on my wife’s birthday. Your lunch recommendation looks terrific.