IWantToLiveOverTheSea

Just ignore this. I didn't mean to quote and comment on this! I'm just going to figure out what excursions I want, and then have the TA book them, using any credit we have!

Good job. I typically (pre SM) I would do a mix of O excursions, third party excursions, or DIY days. But in certain areas of the world, I would probably pick more O excursions more than usual. And while a lot of people dislike ship excursions, there are certain occasions where they offer a lot more than I could find on my own. Up in the Canadian maritimes in early September, we went to a port in which I could find absolutely nothing - no tour providers, taxis, public transportation, or anything to walk to. I was glad there were ship excursions offered. But I'm curious - is there a reason you had the TA call in your excursions? I've seen some comments about the website being a little unpredictable, and I wondered if that was true.

I found the perfect excursion, should I need a 5th: Kayak in the Lagoon Rental, $25 tour price, or $18.75 with Simply More (in this case less)!

I've left mine once in a while. Not sure if I'd do it on Carnival, though.

I just choose a table on Waves, and if someone sits down there before I get my order in, I just ask the person taking my order to pick a table for me. It has very rarely been a problem. On the Terrace, if I want a particular table (like outside, when it's a great day and there are lots of people) I put my key card down and something else (if I have something else) on the table. Or I do something with the napkin. If I don't care where I sit (which is most of the time) I just get my food and then find a table. In the rare instance that either place is totally packed, it IS OK to ask someone politely if they'd mind sharing a table with you.

Could someone please enlighten me, or point me in the direction of where I can find a rundown on how Simply More excursion credit is applied in the online booking system? I know the basics for my excursion: The two of us each has $400 excursion credit when 5 or more excursions are purchased for our 14 day trip (counting as Oceania does - embark & disembark days = 1). And although I don't know which excursions I'm going to choose, I did look a little bit online under My Account to make sure a lot of excursions aren't already full. (They aren't -- we still have around 7 months before the cruise). But I have questions: 1. Can I use my ship board credit (SBC) with the Simply More excursion credit to book excursions on the booking system under "My Account" section? So if I book $500 worth of excursions, will the system total the "tour" (full) price of the 5 excursions, delete $400, and charge the remaining $100 to my (or possibly OUR) SBC? 2. The system keeps my and my spouse's picks separate, and applies the requirement for 5 excursions separately, right? 3. Do I have to book excursions with SM before I board the ship, or can I wait....if I'm willing to wait, given that excursions seem to be quite more in demand since Oceania went to SM? 4. What happens if we miss a port where we've booked an O excursion using SM credit? Do we get credit back to use in a remaining port? If the excursion was "paid" for partly in SM credit and partly with $$, how is that handled? And what about if I want to cancel one excursion (within the usual time frame for canceling) and add another? Is that possible? Easy? 5. Is there anything else I should know?

I'd call T Mobile. Our service covers all data (texts, etc.) and phone calls are (I think) 25c a minute in most parts of the world. Maybe you can change plans for a month if that's worth doing. In Europe we've gotten by with texts and an occasional 25c/minute phone call as needed. In other places, on occasion we've used whats app.

Isn't there a way to get waitlisted for an excursion on the website? My cruise isn't for 7 or 8 months and there are only a few excursions that aren't bookable. But when I saw one, I noticed a "wait list" selection popped up, though I didn't push it to see what happened. But even if there is, I agree with the poster above. Often people change excursions, and I have to believe that even with everyone now having Simply More credit, some people will always drop out/change their excursions. If I see something wait listed that I want to book, I'll likely come back later to see if anything has changed. I recently changed room categories that way, though of course it did take some time and effort.

It depends on the requirements in that country & city. But the one time we took 2 back to back cruises, no disembarkation was needed, although we DID end up going off the ship. At least there were plenty of taxis to take us somewhere!

Le Verdon stop is just to await favorable tides. We docked in the heart of Bordeaux.

I don't know about that. We saw the river cruise ships up (or down?) the river a ways. The cruise along the river was pretty uninteresting compared to some river cruises. But the location where we docked was fabulous - tram a block away, places to walk to, etc.

Last year we (on Sirena) docked near the Bourse on the river - so much fun! One of the larger ships had docked there earlier in the year. If you're overnighting, with "Le Verdon" on your itinerary, I'm guessing you'll dock on the river. We weren't allowed off in Le Verdon unless we took an Oceania excursion to Bordeaux or arranged something private from there. But there were no taxis or buses or trains or vendors to use around the area, and we were only there a couple hours. (The stop there is to await favorable tides to get onto the river.) Just for fun, here's what the bow cam showed while we were docked.

I've only been on Riviera once, and we weren't in an inside cabin. On Marina, we were once in 8088 - a bit different from that end room you're looking at. But I don't remember any noise in 8088 (British Isles cruise in 2013) Really, though, we've cruised in a lot of the inside cabins, and I rarely hear any noise from inside the room at all. The smaller ships are really nice because they group many of the inside rooms together in the middle of the ship -- you're special little area, where it's very, very quiet!

For what it's worth, my experience: I've only paid/asked to be waitlisted (put down a deposit) once, and it was to be moved from an inside or oceanview to a higher priced room category on one of the smaller ships about 6 months pre-sail. It did not come through. I've had a guarantee on a category (but never higher than oceanview) maybe 5 or 6 times. Once or twice we were placed in a veranda category room. Room categories DO often open up over time, if you have time to look frequently (and wait). I changed from a higher category to an oceanview on our upcoming cruise by checking the website every few days. And I would have definitely checked around final payment time if I hadn't found something sooner. Once I found an open slot, I jumped on it. For most or all of our cruises in the past 6 or 7 years we've received a call offering us to upgrade (paying extra, what I call an upsell) for a higher level category. Once we accepted the offer paid the extra, and enjoyed something nicer. Usually, however, we say no thanks, as we don't mind the lower-priced rooms. On a few cruises, there was no call at all, and those cruises turned out to be sold out.

I'm curious how long it might take on a day when the ship is docked (not for embarkation) to get outside the port to meet (with police presence!!) a taxi driver or tour provider. It sounds like a shuttle will be provided by the port to outside to a staging area. So if that's correct, would you think maybe a half hour would be needed to get on a shuttle and be taken to a place where you could meet a driver? And also, are taxis available on embarkation day? We'll be staying over a day so need to get transportation to a hotel in Lima (likely Miraflores area).

I should dig out my picture from Australia or New Zealand....our O ship next to one of the monsters.

Wow> Is that a P& O or what?

We used Efendi Travel to go from the airport to a hotel in Sultanahmet; we pre-paid with credit card. They gave explicit instructions on where/how to meet them. Our luggage didn't make it so we had to go fill out forms to get that straightened out. So we got to the location a bit late, but they had a rep there & he called an Efendi driver for us. Overall we were happy with them. But yes, traffic in the city is awful, though I don't know where your hotel is. But Sultanahmet area near the Blue Mosque has one-way streets and lots of traffic congestion, so it took forever. It was also the end of the week of Ramadan, so that probably added to the normal congestion.

Only one I've seen was on a long cruise in the Pacific with lots of sea days. Hilarious.

Definitely too early!

I don't know how Vista and the other O ships like Riviera & Marina compare in size and depth. But I know that one of the larger ships docked in the heart of Bordeaux last year for an overnight. I tracked her on Marine Traffic. So I'm guessing Vista will too, assuming she's overnighting. Here's where Sirena (smaller ship) docked - near the Bourse. It was great to walk off the ship. And we had a lot of interested people looking on as we got tied up! If you stop in Le Verdon, it's due to tides. We were there for a couple hours and had to stay onboard unless we were taking an O excursion to Bordeaux (to meet ship later after tour).

My first trip on Sirena was not that long ago (maybe 2022?) and we made all ports on our 14 day cruise with many ports. My second trip on Sirena was last year, and I think we may have missed one port out of 14 days and many ports. Both were in Europe, though different times and regions. And in Australia & New Zealand, we did experience 3 port misses. One was due to horrible fires in Australia, another to weather, and I don't know what the third was attributed to. One port was replaced with another port and the other 2 became at sea days. It was definitely disappointing, but unfortunately it's something you can experience with cruising, and perhaps with all kinds of travel. And as everyone is now back to vacationing after a long pandemic drought, and with cruising becoming extremely popular, I wouldn't be surprised if more than the usual number of dock overbookings occur for a while. I don't like to book with any vendor that has a hard and fast rule about either 24 hour or 48 hour notification of a cancelation. But some will put in writing that if your ship doesn't visit the port at all, they will not charge anything. And many vendors don't even charge anything anyway until the day of the cruise visit to their city. And a few vendors (like the mailman's tour in Akaroa, New Zealand), do make it clear no cancelations of any kind are accepted. In this last case I determine if the price of the tour is such that I'd prefer not to lose any money if you don't make the port. So far I have not lost any money from booking with a third-party provider, and I've been on quite a few cruises in various regions of the world at different times. But it IS best if you clarify things before you book, and get things in writing, as weather/sea/dock conditions don't always make themselves known to a Captain more than 24 or 48 hours in advance. As for other cruise experiences, it's my feeling (but not based on any data) that the other cruise line we use about a third of the time has more skipped ports than Oceania does. I always figured it was because their ships are newer and they don't want to risk them, but who knows? And as for the larger, more main stream lines, they tend to stick to the larger, tried and true ports, and repeat the same itineraries from one month to another. And Oceania goes to smaller places, with smaller ships, and with less experience. So maybe that accounts for some difference, if there are differences. Again, who knows? Maybe the higher seas from global warming, or port congestion, or a ton of other factors are at play. I've just learned to roll with the punches....and I tell myself that a missed port is an opportunity to go back. In any case, good luck. Australia and New Zealand are fabulous places to visit.

Thank you for the information! Now I see why we aren't scheduled to be in Panama City for our overnight until (I think) 8 PM. And from what I've read, the last part of the journey, as you implied, is the latter portion. It sounds like I'll be quite awake by then, although possibly eating dinner. But if so, dinner on the Terrace sounds perfect.

2005 white lighthouse......

Thank you everyone. I never expected to get so much response to my questions about the lighthouses. But I'm determined to see every one I can on my next cruise. I saw a color coded (black, red, green) diagram of lighthouses on a nautical site, but didn't save it, so now I'll have to go back and search for it. And I found the webcam on the canal yesterday and watched as a container ship went through one of the (I think) locks near the Caribbean side. And now I'm going back to see if that now-black lighthouse was white in my pictures from my previous trip through the canal. I'm pretty sure it was....