Volterra24

Thank you. I wasn’t really specific about when we arrive. We are actually traveling Provence for a week prior to boarding in Monaco. I chose Nice for the two nights prior to boarding the cruise as a base to allow for some travel east and West along the water and some inland areas as well. Like you I would never fly in the day of.

You both mention dropping your luggage off at the room. I assume you are referring to handheld luggage? That works. I am glad to hear I can get off the boat again. Was not sure and my Oceania rep did not seem to indicate we could do that. But he was not clear himself on the process. Thanks!

Finalizing my packing and because we have travel prior to and after our Vista cruise I am having a super hard time packing light. Which also means I am likely having to edit my favorite clothes/shoes. I had planned to check one suitcase and bring a small carry-on suitcase to the plane with the needed supplies and some extra clothes in case my suitcase goes missing. But I am rethinking the carry on as I just don't want to be burdened with so much luggage plus a crossbody handbag and a shoulder tote(with reading materials, charging cables, trip details etc). So a few questions. Regarding my personal packing, I know it is super hot right now so I have packed accordingly. I have a few jackets just because and I am assuming that sometimes the interior dining rooms etc on the ship might be chilly? Is that more like a shawl or a jacket type solution? Re: my husband: he will have his own suitcase/checked luggage. I want my husband to pack a sport coat. For dinner he usually will wear a nice collared long, sleeve shirt and pant with a casual style dress shoe. Should I encourage him to bring the sport coat? Any other comments or tips appreciated.

Hello, We will be starting an Oceania Vista cruise in a week that starts in Monaco. The boat leaves quite late that day. A few questions related to that specific day. 1. I would like to walk around like a tourist in Monaco that day but will have my luggage as we will be coming up from Nice that morning. Can I check my luggage at the cruise ship and then leave for 2-5 hours before formally checking into the ship? 2. Or is there a central luggage locker that we can hold luggage until we head to the port? 3. We did the online check in and my husband chose 12:30 pm, ugh. I had planned to choose later that afternoon. I may be able to change the check-in but if we did check in at 12:30 can I assume we are supposed to get on the ship and stay on the ship for the afternoon? Is there any benefit to boarding that early? I could possibly work on our dinner reservations which are a bit wonky but I hate to be on the ship all afternoon when I could be walking around Monaco. We have been on other cruises but this is our first Oceania. Thank you

UPDATE: I called again using some of the tips noted above. I was directed to my "concierge's" extension and this time he actually picked up--I did not have to leave a message(which I had done at least 5 prior times). We took care of the excursion cancellation. Thank you all for the rapid responses.

Hello, First time Oceania cruiser here. We are traveling with our 4 adult children (3 concierge level staterooms). I booked excursions for the group and now need to cancel a few of them. My husband booked this cruise directly with Oceania. Our Oceania concierge was great the first two months but it has now been almost two weeks that I have called and emailed him without a response. I believe that excursions must be canceled 72 hours prior to embarkation. Our cruise departs out of Monaco on August 24 and we are traveling through Provence for 7 days prior which means I am headed out of the country in three days. I need to wrap this up asap as I do not plan on spending one minute ironing out issues on this cruise while in Provence. Suggestions? *I called customer service twice and they will not handle this. They said that we have an assigned concierge and he is the only one that can access our booking. They also said that any excursion cancellations cannot be done online. They must be done directly with the concierge. Help!

Thank you. Just the advice I needed. 😊

Hello, Need some guidance from this group. You all seem to know a lot about cruising and specifically Oceania. We are booked on the Oceania Vista leaving out of Monaco on August 24. My husband selected this specific cruise for various reasons and also because it fit into the schedule of our three young adult sons and daughter in law. I agreed even though I have been to almost all of the ports/cities at some point(some multiple times) in my life. I am in charge of booking the excursions so I booked the Oceania Pompeii excursion for all of us feeling it is an important site to see and learn about. At that point in time I was thinking I would book us on all the same tours but I have rethought that. After booking Pompeii I decided that I deserve to see things I have not seen before and I don't think we will pass this way again so I decided that my husband and I would go to Capri instead of Pompeii. The kids (still kids to me) can to go Pompeii. Everyone agreed. However I then discovered the two Capri tours are booked and we are wait listed on one of them. Several Questions: 1. What is the likelihood of the wait list opening up? 2. Does Oceania make more spots available at some point maybe after the cruise starts so there is still ann opportunity to sign up for the Capri tour? 3. If the cruise tour cannot accommodate us we can book a private tour or take the ferry over and back. I really prefer not to book a private boat tour. Don't really feel I need a whole day private for the two of us. Also most tours cannot guarantee me we will get back in time for our boat departure unless I book the private boat. -We could also book a ticket now for a ferry to Capri and back and maybe find a grotto or water tour at some point if we feel like it. I know from family and friends that the return ferry will be a nightmare as hoards of visitors attempt to get off of Capri at the same time. I have even been told if I take the ferry to get in line around 1 pm as it is a madhouse. But that might be for people without advance tickets??? Do any of you have personal experience with the ferry system? If I book advance tickets on the ferry am I guaranteed to get on the ferry? -Or if any of you are interested in booking a private boat for 5-10 people let me know. Any and all advice appreciated.

Thank you all for the multitude of kind responses(mostly). Not much I can say except I goofed. I still have not received a return call from our cruise concierge, it has been four days. So I went online and just started booking dinners as best I could. There are 6 of us traveling together in three rooms so toggling between those bookings was a learning curve. Meanwhile I did not know that my husband was getting all the reservation updates by email. He never mentioned it! So I was busy creating a spreadsheet for each excursion by family member, port, hours, cost etc. Same for all the diner reservation by table size and time for each in our party. More redundant hours. Dinner wise, I reserved tables of 4 and a table of 2. Maybe they can be placed near each other. Only on two of the reservations could I get them at the same reservation time. So my sons can go earlier or later as the case may be. (You will probably recognise them as they are handsome and likely the only guests on the boat under the age of 60!) All available dinner reservations appear to be on the back end of the cruise.(Is there something I don't know that you all front ended your reservations??) As most of the reservations were late I have to assume we will miss the shows. My husband has not thought of that yet but he will and I will be in the dog house again. -I also did not know that this forum existed on Cruise Critic. Definitely would have been helpful. I only saw reviews of the boat. Too much on my mind at the time with other responsibilities as well. Back to the Oceania website: I did not really understand the reservation system as this was our first time on this cruise line and I don't think you can even see it until it goes live. I feel they could offer some video tutorials (maybe there is one on Youtube?!). But clearly I should have jumped on at 12:01 am the day they opened it up.(My husband could have too). I was concurrently trying to digest the excursion options for the ports and spent hours, days, weeks, researching each port, top activities and independent excursions to get a handle on what was out there and how best to approach each port relative to cruise excursion or independent contractors, with my husband in the background saying we will just walk around, who needs tours. More redundant time. Anyway no need to keep commenting. I messed up. I will board early on the 24th and hopefully be able to swing the dinner reservations we would like and the changes to the excursions I have already selected and paid for. See you on board.....

We are on Vista August 24, 2024 cruise out of Monaco. So far I am extremely unhappy with the online navigation particularly dinner reservations and excursions. So to respond to the initial topic here on reservations.... I guess I should have gotten on at 12:01 am to make dinner plans. But I went on at 9 am and it appeared that all but Embers was booked. We are a party of 6. Apparently that is a nightmare too. We are on the Concierge level so my trusting husband said our Concierge is going to take care of this for us. So that same morning we got our rep on the phone, we had an hour long conversation and the rep, who has been lovely, took all the information and said he would take care of it. The first night is our anniversary and we have discussed since the day we booked and paid in April or May that we wanted a special dinner that night. I trusted too. I failed to check our dinner reservations until this week when I went on to look at the excursions again. Only one dinner reservation and not on our anniversary. We have called and emailed for three days our lovely concierge....nothing. I have called Oceania and no one will talk to me. They said they cannot access the booking because it is Concierge and assigned only to our Lovely rep. I am starting to say the word Lovely with a growl. Although when he is on the phone he is awesome. Too bad I feel so negatively prior to boarding this cruise in two weeks. And that is in part because my spouse is blaming me and the online website is not user friendly particularly if you have multiple rooms and are planning for the whole group. Wish I wasn't even going.