Zandarr

We were on the Riviera in April and they did not have kettle bells.

Julie was our CD on our first cruise with OC. We loved her and what impressed us even more about her was when she saw us in one of the cities we visited and she took her time to talk to us and ask how the cruise was going. She is our favorite CD and hope to see her again.

Thanks. We would be leaving in early June (of next year). Just started planning everything. I am a little nervous about taking the earlier flight.

I think that maybe a later flight would be best. I was talking to the wife and I forgot that we spoke with a couple who were randomly pulled going through the check point and was there for 15 minutes waiting for an officer to look through their carry-on. Murphy's Law comes to mind. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Plus you are leaving in June when school is out. Could you make it? Probably but what if you can't?

If you are a little nervous then I would take a later flight. We had an 11:20 flight from Barcelona a month ago and had plenty of time. We were nervous the whole time and wondered about taking a later flight but we gambled. Getting off the ship was fairly easy as well as the picking up our luggage. We got to the airport before 9 am (we did get off the ship 10 minutes before the actual time that we were supposed to). We even had time to get a quick bite to eat. It has a lot to do how well disembarkation goes I think. You did not say what month you were leaving Barcelona. There will be more tourists leaving BCN from when we were there.

There is always a chance of getting sick but how do you when that will happen??

DH had a gallbladder attack on one cruise should we have stayed home it was not something he planned ??

I still have my appendix should I stay home incase something should happen while I am cruising

You make no sense ..

LHT you are not reading what I am saying. Put on your glasses. So let me rephrase. I see a lot of Seniors that have no activities in their lives except going on cruises. The chances that something will happen to them are a lot higher than those seniors who do work out. I see a lot of seniors on OC and I am just waiting for something to happen but I also see seniors that I admire the shape they are in and hope and pray I am like that in 30 years.

That’s just it - it can happen to a teenager with appendicitis or person of any age with a broken limb, etc. Many things may require a medical evacuation, not just “ailments” of elderly folks.

Hopefully people will use common sense when traveling far from home.

OK I see that I am beating a dead horse here. So not going to go back and forth with you. Yes things happen to people of all ages but a teenager's chance of having an ailment such as a broken leg is almost null as compared to an 80 plus person who never gets out of the house except to go on cruises and yes I know there are people in their 80;s who are in pretty good shape. My parents and In laws are but when you know that there is a chance of you getting sick while on a cruise. STAY HOME!!

Instead they should just sit at home and wait to die?

Besides, plenty of “healthy” 50+ years olds get surprise heart attacks, broken limbs and other things that may inconvenience you.

Did I say that they should just sit home and die? I knew that someone would say some people in their 50's have heart attacks and that is true but when at least 70 percent and I may be underestimating here of the folks on OC are at least 75, the odds are a tad bit higher on who will get the heart attack.

OK so I know I am going to get killed for saying this,however here goes. I can understand weather conditions or ship problems causing the missing of ports but why do people who have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel go on these cruises knowing that if an emergency happens they are causing others to miss out on a port? I just literally spoke with my in laws who are 88 and 86 and are flying to Greece in a few weeks and I asked them about going on a cruise (they have been on over 30 over the years and without me bringing it up, my father in law said well if I should get sick I don't want to cause others to have to suffer. They both hike several times a week and are in pretty good shape.

If a particular port is really important to you and the reason you are booking a cruise do NOT book that cruise. Travel there by land. Cruises can cancel ports at will and imo O does it more often than other lines.

Wripro and LHT you are right. On our last Barcelona to Barcelona trip in April we were a bit nervous about missing Florence and Rome although we thought that Rome had the hospitals for special treatments. Usually on our cruises, some of the places that we went to were take it or leave it places but were just icing on the cake to where we really wanted to go. We use to travel to ports we liked before finding OC but really thinking about going back to traveling by land again. To each their own I guess.

The wife and I have been on 5 Oceania Cruises and have only missed one port due to a passenger's heart attack. Over the past few months we have been hearing about such passenger occurrences more frequently for example: GI or other related sicknesses, causing ports to be missed.

We are thinking about giving up cruising and going back to traveling on our own as we cannot afford to miss a port, well we can but you see our point. How many ports have you missed out of the cruises that you have taken either on OC or some other CL?

Reading some of these posts. I asked my wife is this what we have to look forward to is that when we go on vacation that we are concerned about the food quality over everything else? Especially when we travel on OC? God I hope not. My want is to be able to board ships at 80 plus, without assistance as my parents and in laws do and be able to take the most rugged shore excursions that we can.

Should you want to save money on shore excursions, book through companies like Viator. Go to Trip Advisor for suggestions. You can save on average up to 100 dollars or more on trips.

It appears that you are, obviously, not a "yachtie" whose "dress" uniform would always be a blue blazer, Dockers khakis and Sebago Billfish boat shoes to which you'd add a blue or white button down shirt (w/wo tasteful tie -preferably with an actual yacht club logo pattern). "Timeless" and rightly so.

No I am not as you say a Yachtie but if I were. My blue blazer would not look like it came from Walmart and my Dockers would not look like they came from Goodwill either. Oh and did I mention that my boat shoes wouldn't look as though I had just walked a mile in the desert? I am not going to go back and forth on this issue but my wish is that OC stuck by their own rules. But then again I am 50 and and I guess the older generation could not care less about how they look. God I hope I never change.

We were on this cruise and had a great time in MC. We walked to the Monte Carlo casino from the ship and I (the husband) was fascinated by the city getting ready for the race in May. We went to the Monte Carlo casino but decided not to go in as there was a 17 euro charge per person and we said that we were not going to pay to lose. We did go to another casino however and the missus won 20 euros and I won around 60 euros. We are big gamblers(smiling).

Dooleygeo we saw the same thing on the Barcelona to Barcelona trip that ended 4/21. We also saw some of the worst dress men in the GDR that we have ever seen( this was our 5th cruise). Men had on nice jackets with boat shoes or dockers that looked as though they were ages old. At first we were giving people the benefit of the doubt and maybe they had lost luggage but we saw people dressed really bad. I could go on and on about the dress code but it wouldn't make any difference.

It would be after midnight east coast or after 9 pm if you are on the west coast.

We went on a O cruise on the Riviera a few years back (Athens to Rome) and the Captain was Greek. My wife is Greek and she went out of her way to meet him and they spoke to each other in Greek. One would have thought we would have been invited for a set down, not that we were looking for one. I guess being on a Veranda suite was not high enough to be invited. Not even for a Greek person. But since it was my first time to Greece before the cruise, I had a great time.

First of all I hope to make it to 80 given I was told I had 2 years to live 10 yrs ago after being diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, however, we have been on 5 Oceania cruises I have never met any 80 somethings that acted younger than any 50 somethings that we know. We are mid 50's. Now when and if I get to 80 then I will probably say that age isn't anything but a number as well (smiles).

We are in our upper fifties and have been on 4 Oceania cruises. We only take cruises that occur when school is in. In all of our trips, the average age appeared to be around low 70's but that didn't bother us as we did not have to deal with a lot of loud passengers and there were still a lot of passengers in our age range that we had great conversations with.

You don't say where you are looking, or not looking. If you are looking on O;s website's "cruise finder", it will only display cruises that have not sailed and not those that are too close to sailing to book. Marina is cruising the area.

Thank you. I was wondering if the case.

Am I missing something here? I don't see that there are any cruises to PPT at this time with OC

We used taxiclassrent.com and they were great. A sign with our name on it and waiting outside of customs for us. Just a few dollars more more than getting a cab without a reservation. I think either way way would be fine. :):):)

Thanks for the info. We will look them up.

You might pay a few bucks more for a pre booked taxi. I did going from the airport to my hotel but do not know it that covers the port also. Either way a taxi is the way to go.

I think we will pre book a taxi. The cost would still be way cheaper than using OC. We are investigating taxis now. So far we like Taxibcn but looking into using Viator as well.

Thank you all for the responses. We have canceled our pick up with with OC and will be using a Taxi. Our question now is whether to book a taxi on line or just wait at the airport for a taxi. We arrive during the weekday by 10:30 or so on April 11th.

Yohoho,

 

Now you've got me wondering where I came up with that $49! Maybe it was $149? All I know is the cost difference between the transfers and the taxi was substantial. Your $119 number could well have morphed into $149 today.