Floppy McTurnriver

I have always been asked for my passport when checking in to foreign hotels ( even within the EU)

I suspect you will have to arrange with the ship to disembark in Dublin, so you will need it as you are entering a EU country as you are Canadian.

I would be checking with the ship.

thank you UpwardUK - I've decided today to abandon my onshore overnight stay, so puts my passport issue to rest.

I wrote a review our our trip last year on this thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2539205

 

 

The TL;DR version is that from Cobh, we visited both Blarney and Kinsale, and I especially enjoyed Blarney Castle. (Even though we weren't interested in kissing the stone, we enjoyed the gardens, especially the poison garden and rock close.) In Dublin, we visited sites in the city on the first day (loved the student tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells) and, since I have a love of prehistory, we visited Newgrange and the Hill of Tara on the second day.

OMG. I'm so sorry I didn't recognize your call sign. Your BI review are one of the ones I've been studying this past week. There have been several detailed BI reviews I've bookmarked for research reference. A big thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

I've been researching all day trying to plan how I could achieve my objectives regarding the Irish west coast and I've come to the difficult conclusion that it cannot be done satisfactory from our few Irish ports. I will have to bite the bullet and return for a land tour.

don't disagree. driving on foreign roads on the opposite side is not my first on vacation. What can you tell me about your 1st time in Cork + Dublin?

Haha. Don't have exact destination just yet, just a general idea where my sister would like to visit. She's a disciple to Lonely Planet travel guides and their recommendations are on Ireland's west coast eg) Galway, Aran island, Cliffs of Moher, Ring of Kerry, etc.

The option is either do a 1 wk pre-cruise land tour with Intrepid. Or we try to hit as many of these places as possible during our Cork port (10 hrs) and Dublin overnight port (37 hrs)

Appreciate if you have any experience in those areas.

thank you for all the quick feedback. Lots of excellent points surrounding the passports I had not even considered when I first posed the question.

Superfragger - couldn't agree more. Even if most Irish accommodations will accept other forms of documents. Just that 0.1% chance that I miss the ship on my return, I really would need my passport to continue my journey.

snowskier - I really appreciate your first-hand experience/feedback on fetching back the passports. Scanning thru the forums today, I'll across passengers on this BI cruise that experienced both having their passports held for the entire cruise while others had theirs returned midway thru the cruise. I will make the request from guest services just for this port.

thanks trosebery,

also being cdn, that was the first-hand feedback I was hoping for. Seems the passport policy might not be consistent across all sailings and ships? (just read another BI cruise review where the passengers were given back their passports midway thru the cruise)

Maybe i'll tackle this from another angle and see what the document requirements are from Irish accommodations instead.

Hello,

Hoping that any recent passengers on a Princess British Isles cruise could confirm if passports need to be forfeited to the ship upon embarkation? (I'm assuming this is not necessary because it's the British Isles, but wanted to confirm for peace of mind.)

I'm planning on spending overnight on land during an overnight port stay in Dublin and might need my passport to check into hotels/inns/b&bs in Ireland?

much appreciated and thanks in advance

thank you all for such prompt feedback. excellent point about the passport - did not occur to me. I will now pose that question in the forums to confirm recent BI experiences from Princess cruisers.

cheers

Hello,

I am booked this summer on a BI cruise with an overnight in Dublin. A full 37 hours in port. I am seriously entertaining the idea of driving to Ireland's scenic west coast and staying overnight so as to not having to double back each day. This cruise's overnight itinerary was one of the key decision factors in booking this particular sailing.

I am reaching out to those in the cruise critic community, in specific - those with actual recent experience on any Princess cruise in any overnight port.

Did you need to obtain permission even before the cruise started?, obtain permission on embarkation day at guest services?, or simply inform security when walking off the gangplank at the overnight port?

I'd appreciate and thank you in advance for sharing your experiences and any tips, advice you may have.

I am fully aware of the associated risks such an action would bring. eg) if the ship leaves dock before originally scheduled departure due to unforeseen circumstances.

We did go to Sao Pablo and enjoyed it very much. The trip is longish but interesting. The city has much to offer.

OTOH, Santos has plenty to do & see as well - can't go wrong either way.

good to know - thanks. I plan on using the free OBC to take Oceania's excursion. Wasn't sure if it was going to be worth the drive. Heard it's a landlocked city of 17 million. Never seen a city that large before.

Why not drop off everything early, and be on your way. That way you don't have a problem with luggage. Also on checking out at 9:00AM no problem - in fact if you have a upper suite they let you stay even a little longer.

Ronrick1943,

Drop off early?, some tip I don't know about? Most airlines I know won't take luggage till 2 hrs before departure. We'll have more than 12 hrs before departure. Also, on the other point, we're in inside cabins, so no perks for us.

Yes, although it was a struggle in some smaller ports to find something to do.

Rio was great, especially with a private van. If Sugarloaf and Corcovado are clear insist on doing them first. They often cloud over. The Escadaria Selaron and the old trolley there is great. Neighborhood much safer than the guidebook claims.

 

We enjoyed Punta del Este very much. We ditched the tour on the way back and walked through town which was fun and easy. The Railli museum is a must. In Montevideo there was not a lot to see except for the government building.

 

In BA we enjoyed a tour of the Delta by boat. Standing of Evita's balcony was also fun as was the tango area(Carmenito)

 

In short there was enough to make it a memorable trip.

your review confirms what i'm finding in my research, small quiet towns sandwiched between larger cities in the cruise itinerary.

Curious, what did you do in Santos, in specific, did you make the trek out to Sao Paolo? and if so, was it worth the drive?

We have done the same cruise although three years ago.

 

In Rio the security guards at the port want to see ALL documents before they will let you on the pier. Have all the printed documents from your e-mail from Oceania and also your booklet handy. Obviously we travel under two different last names and I only had my e-mailed document handy and the guard would not let Frank on until someone from the ship came down and vouched for him. Things may have changed but better safe and sorry.

 

We did a day tour with a private van in Rio and got to the pier about 5pm and there was no problem checking in.

 

You must be off the ship by 9am and as I remember customs was quick. However be aware that you cannot check in at the BA airport until two hours before the flight. So if you arrive at the airport four hours early you will have to sit with your luggage for two hours. They are very strict on this. There are also few sitting areas so most people end up on the floor.

Thank you RetiredFL for that prompt response.

That's exactly the information I was looking for. Thanks for the tip regarding EZE airport, i'll adjust the private tour dropoff accordingly.

BTW, did you enjoy that cruise?

Hello,

Would like to pick the brain of past Oceania passengers specifically.

Will be embarking in rio on dec 7th. Official embark time given is 1pm.

The ship docks overnight and won't leave Until 8pm on dec 8th.

Since I want to maximize my day in rio on the 7th, how late do you think it is possible before I show up to embark? I worry they will close all the check-in desks if I come too late. Eg) 5-7pm

Hoping someone here has had similar experience on Oceania.

On the flip side, we are scheduled to disembark on dec 19th in buenos aires officially at 8am. i assume waiting till 9am to get off is not unreasonable?

Also, does anyone have experience disembarking in buenos on Oceania in specific? If I step off ship at 9am, do you think I can clear customs. And get luggage by 9:30am? I'm thinking the marina only hold 1250 passengers max and this cruise will definitely be undersold. Just trying to judge when to tell private driver to meet.

Thanks in advance for any responses. Much appreciated.

..at least in Toronto

I submitted applic on 26th (last fri) and it was ready this morning

...so not even 2 business days. can't complain about that speed.

Usually only possible if the cabin category status is not CLOSED or WAITLISTED

Eg) if rooms are still available, they'll rebook at the new lower fares. (I understand you already have a stateroom booked, but they won't give you price drop if that category is no longer available....I know it makes no sense since you already have a cabin, but that's how they do it.)

our cruise is not till dec/16 so I had stopped checking the oceania site for price drops

unfortunately this cdn resident offer did not apply to our cruise, but luckily this thread prompted me to re-check the prices for our cruise and there was a $300pp reduction across all categories since we orig booked last spring

so thank you (merci beaucoup) to the orig poster of this thread - CANUCK.QC

you saved our family 5x$300 as a result