SisterHavana

On 7/12/2022 at 4:18 PM, GICNJC said:

• Even though SAS pilots are on strike and they have filed for Chapter 11, Oceania is only making flight changes when SAS officially cancels the flight.  That is occurring roughly 2 days before scheduled flights.  This as of July 11th inquiry for a return flight on July 31st.

This happened to my mom. She was supposed to fly back from Venice to Chicago via Copenhagen in premium economy. That flight was canceled. The good news is that Oceania did manage to get her on another flight tomorrow that comes in less than an hour later than her original flight. The bad news is that she’s now on a United flight to Chicago via Newark, in Basic Economy! (And had to pay $75 to check her bag!) Ugh…that’s probably going to suck…but at least she will get home on time.

On 6/7/2022 at 9:03 PM, GICNJC said:

Does anyone have experience with O transfers where the connecting plane to destination was substantially delayed and/or transferred to another flight?

Not me, but someone on my cruise told me that one of their traveling companions missed getting on the ship in Barcelona due to flight issues. (I want to say they flew out of Newark but I could be wrong.) Oceania flew them to Valencia, Spain (the next port/first one visited) and arranged for them to embark there.

We just returned from Riviera on Sunday. We disembarked at 8am for an 11:45 flight out of Nice. I believe the ship docked at 7.

16 hours ago, SisterHavana said:

 It was in the Travel & Entry Requirements email I got from Oceania on May 11 - if you scroll way down, they give the specific embarkation testing requirements for each country. Here’s what it says for Spain:

 

SPAIN:

·         TESTING FOR EMBARKATION: All guests must present a negative Covid-19 antigen or PCR test that is not more than 1 day old (antigen) or 3 days old (PCR) at time of embarkation.

·         All travelers must have proof of vaccination when going ashore.

·         Face masks are currently mandated for all indoor activities and attractions.

And today I got an updated Travel & Entry Reqirements email and now it’s back up to 3 days for the antigen test! I swear the rules are going to change like 3 more times before I get on the plane Thursday afternoon!

Our precruise program is through GoNext. They don't make arrangements for us to get tested in Barcelona - we're on our own if we need to do it there. Hence,we're going Thursday morning before we leave.

30 minutes ago, flrose said:

We're on the same cruise and I am confused when you say you "saw" information that the antigen tests are one day prior to embarkation.  In the Oceania Sail Safe information area it says that either PCR tests or antigen tests can be 72 hours prior to embarkation.  Please tell me where you see the timing information that I do not see!

 

Thanks

J

 It was in the Travel & Entry Requirements email I got from Oceania on May 11 - if you scroll way down, they give the specific embarkation testing requirements for each country. Here’s what it says for Spain:

SPAIN:

·         TESTING FOR EMBARKATION: All guests must present a negative Covid-19 antigen or PCR test that is not more than 1 day old (antigen) or 3 days old (PCR) at time of embarkation.

·         All travelers must have proof of vaccination when going ashore.

·         Face masks are currently mandated for all indoor activities and attractions.

I'm glad I decided to fill out the form, then! (I figured better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.) The good news is that they allow you to fill out one form for your family or group - everyone still gets an individual QR code, but the form only has to be filled out once.

Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if the rules change another time or two before we leave on Thursday!

We’re boarding in Barcelona on Sunday and have a 2-day precruise program, so our flight leaves on Thursday afternoon. The information I got originally said the test had to be done no sooner than three days prior to embarkation, so I booked appointments a couple weeks ago for mom and me to get rapid tests at CVS on Thursday morning. Then today I rechecked the information and saw that 3 days is only for PCR tests - antigen tests needed to be done no sooner than 1 day before embarkation. ARGH! Luckily, Walgreens does NAAT rapid tests, so I was able to get us appointments there on Thursday morning. Let’s hope that will still be sufficient by the time we leave!

I’m flying into Barcelona next week, so I was wondering the same thing, especially since I’ve seen lots of conflicting information. Am I better off filling out the health form just to be safe?

If you got your flights through Oceania (and didn’t deviate on dates), Oceania will provide free transfers between the airport and the ship. 
 

We're doing a two-day pre-cruise program in Barcelona before our cruise starts on May 29. We're going to have to test on the day we fly out. 

We're doing the Oceania Uffizi excursion on our cruise, so I'm glad you had a good experience. I'd love to hear more about it!

I’ll be boarding the Riviera on May 29 in Barcelona, so I’m glad to hear embarkation went smoothly. Which excursion did you go on in Marseille? We’re deciding between a couple for that port.

How sad. I enjoyed his posts in the forum. May his memory be a blessing. 

On 2/3/2022 at 1:29 PM, mamaclark said:

Exactly! We did Oceania's Copenhagen to Stockholm Baltic cruise a few years ago. Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and 3 days in glorious St. Petersburg. It was fabulous and the point I'm trying to make is if there's somewhere you want to see and it's safe to do it, go now! We have said so many times we are glad we did that one when we did, as well as Egypt and Turkey. Hoping we can get to Japan next year. 

We did the 7-day Stockholm to Copenhagen cruise in 2019 - Helsinki, overnight in St. Petersburg, Tallinn, and Berlin (Warnemunde) in between. I loved all the cities, and St. Petersburg was exceptionally meaningful to me since I have Russian roots on both sides of my family. So glad we took that cruise when we did! 

Oh, this makes me sad. My first cruise was on Ecstasy in 1992. I loved it!

When I was there a couple years ago, we stayed at The Square. Loved it. Excellent location- across from City Hall, a block or two from Tivoli, lots of shopping and restaurants nearby. 

The Faberge Museum is fantastic and definitely worth a visit. (If you chose the free shore excursions on OLife, that excursion's eligible.) We did that one during the day and saw the ballet in the evening- actually, that was two years ago today! We did the Hermitage tour the next morning and had talked about doing another excursion that afternoon, but we were so wiped out after the Hermitage tour that we decided not to. (There's A LOT of walking, climbing stairs, etc. involved on that tour!) 

One of the ship's excursions I'm thinking about is the Metro Ride and Shopping. From the description, it looks like you would ride the metro as a group to Nevsky Prospect, then after a brief orientation, will have around 3 hours of free time there before meeting back up with the group to return to the ship. Has anyone done this one before? Since it sounds like most of that time is on your own, would the blanket visa still apply? 

I'd love to see some fairly recent copies of Currents from Marina, preferably from a Baltic cruise. (I'm doing one in July!) I haven't been able to find any online.

I'm booked on Oceania Marina July 4-11! The cruise is from Stockholm to Copenhagen, with stops in Helsinki, St. Petersburg (overnight), Tallin, and Berlin (Warnemunde) in between. I'm super excited. : )

My first cruise was on the Carnival Ecstasy in 1992, and they had midnight buffets most nights, if not all of them! I remember they had time for people to take pictures of the buffet before you were allowed to help yourself.