Dittothecat

I just tried to create a post and if came back "hidden" in pink.  I've never seen this and no search function addresses this issue.  I really didn't want to go through 96 pages looking for an answer.  Sorry.

I see on Friday Shannon McKee a Managing Director of Banana Coast is giving a talk on this port. I will be really upset if she has been scheduled to take this cruise longer than a week ago.

Hello from Germany and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

For us and some other people were some of the ports real interesting because they are not offered very often in one cruise and specially not by German Cruiselines. So we were really looking forward to that cruise. And then Azamara changed a lot of ports. Until Tuesday I did not know about this board and about some ports. Anyhow, we like to discover a few things ourselves. But for us it is even more disappointing when things are changed, because it is not only the cruise we booked. We have to get to Miami, book there accomondation, hire a car etc etc... For us this means we fly on Sunday (if Lufthansa will have service on that day...) and stay four nights before our cruise will start. And then several changes until it comes to a point that the cruise might not be interesting anymore. We are happy to go to Jamaica instead to Labadee. Might be that we change mind when we have been there...

 

San Andres Island is changed because of the maintenance work at the pier there. Playa del Carmen is removed for a longer stop at Cozumel going together with a beach party in the evening. And the removal of the stop at Colon goes together with Playa del Carmen as an optimization of the route as our TA mentioned to us.

Although we are just a traveling couple from D.C. We agree completely wth the traveler from Germany and that group. Hopefully adding our voice to their group will help Azamara know that changing ports significantly affects many passengers in different ways. Although the cruise contract lets the cruise company do whatever they want after final payment, we will vote with our dollars in booking future cruises (very unlikely) and spreading the word on social media. We look forward to the Monday message, but will be severely disappointed if they do not return some of the ports, some way somehow. We do not want vouchers for future cruises, ship board credits or an apology, we want real ports, NOT Labadee! If we have to go to Haiti, let's go where we can make a difference and provide some volunteer work. This country needs help, not a bunch of tourists at a make believe port.

We just booked a 20 day cruise last week on the Riviera for next summer, great destinations, but now likely not so great. Our plan, unless we get some really great answers, is to cancel that cruise with the perpetually cheerful Oceania Club Ambassador during our Lisbon to Cape Town cruise in November. Plus there will be an Oceania Club Cocktail party (we'll get our bronze pins) during the cruise, so there will be an opportunity for putting someone on the spot whose job is to sell the Oceania experience. It maybe hard to sell cruises when a company is gaining a reputation of bait and switch tactics.

We are also on the Lisbon to Cape Town cruise and very upset about losing 23 hours of port time. Although I do not have a Facebook or Twitter account, I do believe that posters to those social media platforms might get actual responses from Oceania. Has anyone left comments there? I have contacted a travel advocate at the Washington Post and am seriously reconsidering an Oceania cruise we just put a deposit down for 2016.

In May and June of 2011 we cruised with Oceania on the Nautica. One of our last ports was Koper, Slovenia. We normally go off on our own, hiring local guides rather than ship tours. Koper was one of the more difficult stops in finding guides that actually responded to e-mail, but we finally found Matjaz and Nina of Autentica (info@autentica.si). Most of our shipmates who stayed in town or went on the ship's tours were disappointed in this port of call, but we had a wonderful day. We would say it was one of our favorite ports, but with an itinerary of Istanbul, Kusadasi, Kotor, Dubrovnik and Venice that would be a stretch. During the day some of the highlights Nina showed us were Hrastovlje Village and the walled Roman Church of the Holy Trinity. The fresco's in this church were amazing particulary Danse Macabre (or Dance of Death). The church is a must for any tour of the area. We also stopped at a local winery, tasting Refosk, Malvazija and Cabernet Sauvignon. They also served us excellent Slovene cold cuts (prosciutto, house salami, cheese, olives, olive oil and home made bread) to round up our tasting. Our final stop was to the Secovlje Salina Nature Park and the ancient salt-pans. We loved Slovenia and hope to return and see more of this beautiful country.