VenturaGal

Wonderful to hear that management values the opinions of its customers and great to know that management can make a swift decision when it needs to. Thank you Azamara........we will be back for another cruise. You made the right decision.

i just returned from our first Oceania cruise.. We did no ship sponsored excursions as they are about 2 to 3 times the cost of what you can arrange on your own with CC buddies or other friends you may have cruising with you for very little effort. However what i saw of how they planned and arranged them was very very good. You prob need to realize that they 1. have to work with the Travel Agents and 2. have to see who is signing up for what excursions first before they give you the details. Once you get close you will find many nice excursions available but again you are paying for the convenience of Oceania doing the planning and leg work for you. We had nightly updates on tours you could join as soon as 2 days forward so you dont even need to decide for many ports of call what you are doing til you get on the boat if you are a bit open to possibility of some being full.

Also their Destination services group is very good -- every day someone from that city gets on board and has many maps and suggestions for how to do your own tour. They dont pressure you into doing a ship tour and you can hook up with folks on the cruise to do something pretty spur of the moment if you like like renting a car or a tour guide. Many ports have tour guides waiting for the ship and you can arrange your own price with them by negotiating. If you get one or more couples the price is quite reasonable.

From what i saw they ship excursions were very varied - about 4 or so per port or more and some from 2 hrs to 8 hrs duration and varying levels of walking involved. but again they are expensive so consider doing a few with the ship and filling in with your own with some Independent touring...Oceania reps had bus timetables, etc. and it was very accurate and easy to do on our own.

also every day on the TV the ship has a channel devoted just to the tours...they go over each one of the tours, tell you what is covered, how long and how strenuous. That is a wonderful way to find out what you can do.

I know it could seem like they may be disorganized or unresponsive but i found that you just have to be a bit open to either waiting til you are much closer to your trip time or doing it on your own...you will have a wonderful cruise no matter which avenue you choose. Oceania is really very good and have excellent customer service....just give it a little time.

good luck