curmudgeon98

I would say that both itineraries are excellent. Both will give you a lot of time in interesting ports that are well suited to exploring on foot, though I'd probably give the edge to the Greece itinerary on that aspect. As others have mentioned, the ships are essentially the same. Well maintained, but older and without glitzy features. Note that most of the cabins, and especially the showers, are smaller than on most cruise ships. Entertainment will likely have a couple of (good) big events, but be fairly limited otherwise. For Azamara, the focus is the ports. The smaller passenger count makes ports and tendering much less of a zoo than on big ships.

Personally, I'd say Seabourn for caviar, Oceania for lobster, or Azamara for the people... Those three lines are at the top of my personal preference list, and I'd generally be content with a cruise from any of them. Seabourn and the larger Oceania ships will have more spacious standard cabins, and possibly better onboard entertainment. We've generally found Azamara passengers a bit more active and engaged with the destinations. If you are looking for the luxury life on the ship, I might lean towards Seabourn, but otherwise I think that itinerary might be less interesting for you. The Azamara cruise has a lot of good ports, many of which can be interesting in themselves even without doing an excursion. The Oceania cruise has three ports (Livorno, Civitavechia, Marseille) that tend to require long bus trips to get to the more interesting areas, but finishes in Barcelona, which is a great spot for a couple added on nights after the cruise.

The Great Barrier Reef tours can be a bit of a gamble. Bad weather can hamper the visibility, and a pontoon floating out in the sea isn't easy to keep in nice condition if you don't have those low-paid cruise line workers to keep things painted and polished. Some years ago I was staying in Port Douglas and did a reef trip with Quicksilver. Weather and visibility were good, the boat was quite large and stable, and the buffet lunch fairly extensive. The snorkeling experience was badly hampered by too many people in a relatively small area. I liked what I saw, but not the zoo in the water. When we got back, I found a smaller boat going out the next day. About 30 passengers. They didn't go to a fixed site, but picked from a few locations depending on wind and weather. Lunch wasn't nearly as elaborate, the boat wasn't as stable, it was a long day in the sun. It was a vastly better experience for someone focused on time in and under the water, but would have been uncomfortable for someone less active.

One thing I have done in recent years is to bring a Euro-plug USB charger along. You can get them on Amazon cheaply, and most cruise ship cabins will have some of the euro 2-pin plugs along with US style. This gives some extra flexibility for outlet use.

That's a lot of change to a cruise, especially this far out. If it were affecting me, I'd be inclined to put in a query as to what's up, but wait a couple of weeks before making any decisions. This has a bit the flavor of some IT glitch.

It's unfortunate, but very true, that one bad experience with an overly officious maitre'd can put a taint on a whole cruise. We had something similar happen on a Regent cruise. It subconsciously made us look at everything else on the cruise with a more critical eye and detracted from the overall experience. We haven't written off Regent entirely, but it tends to start out toward the bottom of the list when we are considering a new booking. Our own experiences with Oceania (on the larger ships) have been fairly good. We do regard the R-class ships as a bit of a mixed bag; we like the size, but recognize the limitations. We've been happy with our R-class cruises on Azamara, but haven't done any with Oceania.

The Red Sea (and Persian Gulf) have been on my "don't need to go there" list for quite a few years. China (and Hong Kong) have joined them in recent years. We like to travel, but we feel no need to try to see everything. The present situation with Yemen, with helicopter-born assaults, drone attacks, and ballistic missile attacks on shipping is pretty extreme.

I'm not sure there are any easy answers for this unstable situation. It's a country of 30+ million population, in the middle of a 10-year civil war. And the root of the problem is really Iran.

I suspect this may be driven by customer perceptions as much as the actual local situation. People may just be a bit less inclined to stick with cruises that are on the edge of their comfort zone as final payment date comes up. It doesn't have to be an explicit fear for their safety, just a concern that there may be more hassles and less enjoyment than originally expected. I expect the marketing people understand this pretty well. For myself, for example, I wouldn't choose currently to take a cruise that goes through the Red Sea and past Yemen. Sailing the Suez Canal just isn't that big of a priority to me. Which makes for an interesting challenge for the 2024 world cruises of various lines. Turkey doesn't fall into that level of concern, of course, but I'm sure some people get similar vibes about it between Erdogan and the general ME issues.

All of August still seems to have a number of Turkish ports, as well as some in late July. Of course, if they are really moving things, those may still be in process of being reworked. It might be that it's Istanbul as an embarkation port that they are getting away from; comments on the new terminal there (Galataport?) haven't been great.

Some notes on Venice as a cruise port (as I understand it in 2023). 1) Only quite small ships, around 200 passenger or less, can dock directly at the island now. 2) Large ships can sometimes use the industrial port on the mainland (Marghera), but berth availability is pretty limited and mostly used by MSC. There are no passenger handling facilities there, so passengers are all bused to/from the old cruise terminal on the island. It can be 30+ minutes by bus around to Venice proper. 3) Mid-size ships (Viking, Seabourn, etc) can dock at the Fusina ferry terminal on the mainland, but again passenger handling is very limited, so most passengers are bused to/from the old island cruise terming. I have heard of some lines arranging for boat shuttles directly from their dock to San Marcos on the island for continuing passengers (there's also a vaporetto line, but not reachable from the docks). Can be 40+ minutes into Venice by bus. 4) Mid-size ships can also dock at Chioggia at the southwest corner of the lagoon. Passenger handling is done onsite. Town has hotels and restaurants, but not normally a destination. Probably close to an hour by bus into Venice proper. 5) Ravenna is closer to two hours away, no direct train. Has some historic interest of it's own. 6) Monfalcone is mostly a shipbuilding port, but got used for cruise passengers sometimes when the squeeze out of Venice first happened. 7) Trieste is somewhat a destination of it's own. Train station is not too far from the docks with inexpensive, frequent local train service to Venice. There is a small "Trieste" airport with limited flights, but it's not very close to anything.

There is an argument for doing PC in a "Panamax" ship. That is, a ship built to the old maximum size to fit through the locks, typically about 2000 passengers or less. There are two parallel sets of locks, and while the new locks are more technologically advanced and handle large ships, people say they aren't nearly as interesting to watch operate. We went through last year on HAL Eurodam, and squeezing through the old locks with only a couple of feet of clearance on each side was a fascinating experience. On the other hand, the canal transit is only one day of your trip, so having a ship (or ports) that you otherwise prefer might outweigh the transit experience.

We've only done one Regent cruise (in Western Med), so no expert, but a few other points to keep in mind... 1) there will most likely be additional spots opening up around final payment date (90 days before?) of the cruise, as that is a point when there is a fair amount of cancellation, so if you want to change your mind, that's a good time. 2) the included excursions will typically be much the same as excursions offered by other cruise lines (for a fee), but the Regent ones were less crowded (half-full buses). 3) Guides are a bit of "luck of the draw" from local tourist agencies; we had some great ones and some mediocre ones. 4) in some cases, if you are a bit bored with the guide or tour, you can make arrangement to meet back at the bus, or find your own way back to the ship; just make sure that the timing or circumstances are clear. Excursions do fill up. Sometimes space will open up later, sometimes not, so grab at least a decent placeholder.

Ephesus tours are generally very similar. A fair bit of walking and steps. Some add in the more recently uncovered "terrace houses", which can be interesting but add a fair bit to the walking. Mykonos is a cute town to wander around, shop, and get lunch, though a bit of "Beverly Hills goes to Greece". I don't think you need or want a guide. There are tours that go to the beaches, or deeper into the island, or over to Delos, but for a first visit I'd just wander the town. Santorini is another spot rather overrun by tourism. If you hit a day with five or six cruise ships there, it can be a zoo, especially getting down from the town by the cable car in the afternoon (you don't want to walk the donkey path). Beautiful, though. If there are several big ships on your day (I look at cruisemapper site), I might think about trying to do a caldera boat tour rather than going up into the towns. Ship schedules do change here more than most ports, since nobody gets dock space, so sometimes smaller ships will try to tweak their timing to avoid congestion.

We've never bothered with purchased trip insurance. We do make sure of our medical coverage. There are several factors involved for us that might not apply to other people. First, the cost of our cruises/trips is not such that writing one off would really move the needle in our retirement finances/spending. Second, we do take advantage of any "free" coverage that may be available from credit cards and such (recognizing that this is probably "worth what you pay for it"). Third, we don't book far in advance; one week to three months is typical for us. Fourth, we don't normally do just a cruise; there is usually extended additional travel, where the cost is often not committed in advance. I might take a different view of something like a round-the-world cruise, especially if it was on a line like Viking with their very early final payment deadline. Or not; the question may come up in the next year or two and we'll see then.

On our Odyssey cruise in 2022, kayaks and zodiacs were used extensively. It's very possible that they were specifically onloaded for the season. I could see the potential that boats used "for hire" in Alaska waters have to be registered there, or something similar. Also the potential that there are state-specific training/certification requirements for operators. It can be a harsh environment up there at times. It's a bit like the New Zealand hull-scrubbing requirements that caught quite a few ships, including a P&O ship last week. It's a bit tricky for Venture, making a one-way pass through Alaskan waters after doing the NorthWest Passage. Hard to justify flying equipment into Nome and trying to get certified boat operators for a 10-day cruise. Logically, of course, you might say that people and equipment capable of use in Greenland and Antarctica should be suitable for Alaska too, but states get to set their own rules.

I expect that Seabourn was doing some website changes for special promotions in the US this week, and created an error in the German (and possibly other languages) site that wasn't caught in testing. I'm sure they care, but being a US holiday weekend along with big shopping promotions, it might take a couple of days to fix.

Looking at what I think is the itinerary for OP, it looks like it includes Marseille and Igoumenitsa. I haven't visited those myself, but I don't think either would be good "get off the ship and wander" ports. The area around the docks in Marseille doesn't have a good reputation. I think I'd make plans for someplace away from the city, maybe Cassis or some of the Provence countryside, whether by ship excursion, local guide, or group arranged in the roll call. In a slightly different vein, Igoumenitsa doesn't seem to have much to do in walking distance; arranging a trip to Ioanina looks like it might be a good option for that port.

Argostoli might be one of the more challenging ports from your list. There's nothing really wrong with it, it's not an industrial zone or anything, but... The whole island was badly leveled by earthquake in 1953, lost 2/3 of it's population, and was rebuilt on a more utilitarian model, so it doesn't have the charm of the walkable "old towns" you find in many Greek/Croatian ports. We took a ship excursion while there, but it was a lot of time sitting in a bus grinding up and over the steep mountains for sights that were only moderately interesting (most of the other excursions were similar). If we were to go there again by cruise ship, I might lean towards a private guide with car, or renting a car, or looking into doing a beach day. Most of the other small ports we have visited in the area are great for visiting on your own on foot; sometimes with a shuttle bus to town, sometimes walking straight from the pier.

I'm starting to wonder whether Red Sea / Suez Canal transits are going questionable for cruise ships. In the news today was a drone attack against a US warship in the Red Sea, launched from Yemen. Piracy defense is one thing, but most cruise ships don't have anti-aircraft missile batteries. Yemen, supplied by Iran, has dangerous arms than the Somali pirates did.

As long as there are no glitches, Vueling works fine. I've flown them several times. They are picky about random bits and pieces, and quick to add on surcharges, so read the details on the ticket policy. If there is a glitch, however, there is essentially zero customer service. We got rebooked onto a Vueling flight by British Airways last spring (after a major BA meltdown). Our etickets were in the system, but they triggered a "additional information required" flag when we went to check in (several hours early). The Vueling agents at Gatwick spent 3 hours trying to reach their central office to resolve the ticket issue, and never got through. The plane eventually left without us... We were really fortunate that we were flying in several days early for our cruise, as BA/Vueling cost us two days going in circles around London airports.

Several nearby villages are quite scenic, and not quite so tourist overrun as the ones near Nice. Off-season can be pretty quiet around there, though. The hilltop villages of Gassin and Ramatuelle (quite small) and Grimaud (a bit larger) are interesting for the way they were built for defense and have nice views.

Yes, the showers are annoying. I sometimes think that those showers actually end up being part of the "secret sauce" that makes us enjoy Azamara above other cruise lines. Passengers who are willing to put up with those showers tend to be more pleasant, relaxed, "take things as they come" people when compared to the general run of cruise passengers. We've found that while other cruise lines may have nicer ships, Azamara seems to have the most congenial passengers. No guarantees, of course, life doesn't work that way, but it draws us back.

As a reference point, we used civitavecchiaport.org for car service from cruise port to our apartment and apartment to airport last month. Communication and service were excellent.

In Rome, Uber will normally link to a local taxi, and make payment appropriately. It can be hard to hail a cab or even find one in cab ranks, so this is helpful. It also helps to enforce use of the meter, as their are plenty of Rome cab drivers who like to overcharge tourists with "meter off" fares if you get one at a cab rank.