Grandma Cruising

I always research the towns carefully & try to find something specific I want to see or do - not always possible, but often there’s a fort, a museum, a land train, a beach etc.

Sorry, that should be Agios Nikolaos!

Avios Nikolaos - very easy to walk around on your own. There’s a lovely little land train that leaves from just past where the ship docks. You can book tickets ahead of time or take your chance when you get there https://www.littletraintours.gr/agnikolaos-train-tours

Thanks for posting, Ithikan, that’s most reassuring.

I think any offer I might get could be before Phil’s as our cruise is 20 Feb and I think his is March. If I get an offer I’ll post here how much information I get before having to accept/decline the offer.

I agree, it’s very unclear whether they’ll give you the cabin number assigned before you ‘complete the payment’.

You can bring as much alcohol on board as No want. You pay a corkage fee if you want it served in a public room, but nothing if you drink it in your cabin. Can’t point you to where it says in the website.

TAs don’t pay the same price for the cruise as we do, so some TAs (more so in the US) discount their prices or provide a lot of refundable OBC by sacrificing some of their commission, hoping this will increase their sales.

Firstly, you only need to make reservations for the speciality restaurants. The main dining room (Discoveries) is open table. You just turn up and can usually go in quickly. If you have to wait the entrance is in Discoveries bar so you can sit down & they’ll call you when there’s a table. Nowadays the reservation desk for the speciality restaurant on embarkation day seems to be in one of those restaurants, on Deck 10 aft, or sometimes just inside Windows buffet - ask at Guest Relations. It’s usually open to book as soon as people are allowed onboard

We’ve done it in Egypt so we could do a decent length tour to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, along with a lot of other passengers.

Note that Oceania has 4 ships that are the same age & size as all Azamara ships - they are the other 4 of the 8 ‘R’ (Renaissance) class ships built at about the same time. These are Regatta, Insignia, Sirena and Nautical. There other ships are bigger.

Still there for me, including (under available) the section you tick if you want to use OBC. I’m on an IPad using Safari

I missed that bit, seems very strange tho’ that you have to fill in all your credit card details when you make the bid!

If you have lots of OBC talk to the concierge about booking a private transfer.

In your cruise in Upcoming Cruises, click on your cruise, scroll down to excursions, then click on the paper/pencil icon on the right. Notice that gives two headings booked/available. You can then click on each excursion & get full details & prices and book them.

Depends which ports they’re going into. Personally Athens to Dubrovnik sounds good - especially if it goes through the Corinth canal

No, ours was the same as before, make your bid, pay & submit your bid, agreeing that you can only have the cabin you’re allocated.

Just had an invitation to bid for our forth coming Cape Town to Canaries cruise on Pursuit. We’re in an Oceanview which we’re happy with so have put in a weak bid for a Verandah. Happy with what we’ve offered as prices are now higher than they were when we booked (despite the fact that when I did a mock booking, there seemed to be plenty of empty cabins. I’ll come back & report how we got on.

Same here using Safari/Google

They didn’t a year ago when we had a few days in Rio before our Rio to Lisbon Cruuse

Standard speed is $19.95 a day and I think the high speed is $7.95 a day extra

We’ve had similar issues to you regarding what wines are included in the Ultimate package and with trying to get them. It’s a good idea to ask at Guest Relations for a copy of what is in the Ultimate package.

Note there is no corkage charge if you drink it in your cabin. This covered in the ‘Tips for Newbies’ spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15Deg-GaeZYLml8NN3PVwoh_jUkQ8QmYUe1wxnVAlODE/edit

Pleased to hear you enjoyed your cruise. The premium drink package doesn’t include wine, it’s only the ultimate package that includes a wider range of wine

Worth looking at Katarina cruises too. We loved our cruise with them.