zula

Hello,

Can someone help me.  Do Oceania have alcohol free sparkling wine?  Because of medication I should not have alcohol.  In Europe they already have some decent alcohol free sparkling wine (which is not as sweet as fruit juice)

Kind regards,

Sonja

Hello Can someone tell me if there is something special about this spa verandah VQ or is it just the location near the spa

Thank for any answers,

Sonja

Thank you for your answers,  I will go prepared and enjoy my cruise.

We have not cruised on HAL for several years.  We are going on a  cruise in the  Caribbean on the Rotterdam end of february.  My question concerns the public spaces on the ship the restaurants, bars ... inside.  We are taking this cruise to enjoy some of the warm weather, but often the public spaces inside the ship are very cold because of the air conditioning.  Can anyone tell me if the public spaces on the Rotterdam are very cold?  So I know what to pack.

Thank you for any information.

Kind regards,

Sonja

Sorry another question

Can you also pay corckage when you bring your own wine to dinner ?  

Is there another winelist for bottles , I seem to remember it being more than one page 

Here in the north of Belgium masks have to be worn in hospitals, public transport,  some homes for the elderly,  for the rest you wear it if you like.  No PLF anymore.

But for the rest of Europe, you have to check each country as they all have different rules.  The countries in the EU still decide.  

In Flandres in the north of Belgium the rate of vaccinations is very high (+90 % in rural areas, but in some parts of Europe it is quite another story especially in some of the big cities.

I have a cruise on the 5 th of May from Rome with Nautica and will be checking the rules for every country on the route of the cruise because of possible changes after 30 th april in some countries. 

Try to stay safe

hello,

Docking at Ravenna in May 2022. Does anyone know if there is a shuttle in town?

Thank you for any information.

Kind regards,

Sonja

We get a lot of news on the TV concerning Barcelona in Belgium.  I'm also interested in this news as we will be staying in Barcelona before boarding Sirena on the 6 th November.   

During the day there doesn't seem to be many problems, most of the protest seems to be non violent, but at night sometimes other people (nobody seems really certain who these people are) come out on the street and set garbagebins etc. on fire and throw up blockades on the street (and police reacts).  

During the day you should be OK but during the evening and night you have to be careful.

The elections will only be held on the 10 th of november so before this date there will probably still be protests, just hope they will be non violent as they usually used to be in the past.

Hello,

We stayed in this stateroom but I don't know if it was on the Sirena or another R class ship, but although it is small we were OK.  The view from the window is partly blocked but you still get plenty of light. 

I think it all depends on how much space you want/need and how important that is to you.  We were on a long cruise in this stateroom and it did not bother me because we always had plenty of room in the public spaces of the ship (inside or outside), always plenty of chairs.  If your room is just to sleep and have a shower it will be fine.

Sonja

Hello,

I'm considering booking a cruise with Oceania which include some shore excursions.  How does this work?  Do you get a separate list with shore excursions, or do you choose from the excursions listed (with exception of some special ones).  Just want to know if it is worth it.   

Thank you for any information.

Kind regards,

Sonja

Thank you for the info, this is very good news for me.  I love to sit outside on deck 5.

Sonja

Hello,

It has been a few years since I have sailed on Azamara, but in july we will be sailing on the Pursuit.  On the Journey and the Quest one of my favourite places used to be the lounge chairs on deck 5 (outside).  My question : are they still there?

Regards,

Sonja

Hello,

I'm considering a cruise on the American Queen from Memphis to New Orleans in march 2018. Can anyone tell me how long the ship stops in a city during a visit? I was not able to find any information.

Kind regards,

Sonja

Hello,

The house select beverage package gets you wine, beer at lunch and dinner, if I understand it right from the list you find in the bars, terrace café (the wine by the glass).

But for the Prestige Select beverage package is there a difference concerning the choice of wines?

Regards,

Sonja

Hello,

I can confirm that as a Belgian citizen I don't need a visa for Brazil. I already made the cruise to the Amazon and we didn't need a visa. I heared stories from Americans on board that for some obtaining the visa for Brazil was not always easy.

So I think it is best to always check what regulations apply to you. I arranged for the visa for Tanzania, Kenia and Mozambique myself as they are much cheaper in Belgium than onboard. Also I received a message from Oceania that if I didn't have the visa in our passports when we board the ship, they would charge us for the visa on our onboard account.

Regards,

Sonja

Hi,

I've already sailed twice on Regatta and once on Nautica, so I can say that I like the small ship experience. Only the reviews for Insignia were so poor that I started to wander if there was a problem with this ship, maybe the ship just had some difficult cruisers on board.

Thank you for all your comments

Greetings

Sonja

Hello,

We are booked for a cruise on ms Insignia in October. I'm a bit worried about all the negative reviews. Are there any cruisers out there who still have nice things to say about ms Insignia?

Regards,

Sonja

Hi,

First of all thank you for all your responses!!

I got in writing from my TA that we are able to get all the visa on board. I only find it a pity that I will have to pay 169 USD for a visa for Mozambique when I'm not interested in visiting the country. In the past we bought already visa for Vietnam on board the Insigna which was much cheaper and easier than getting one ourself. Visa for Africa are not so difficult to get in Belgium as all countries have an embassy in Brussels (EU headquarters)and Belgium is so small, but they sometimes just enjoy making it difficult for you. For India, a cruise of ours ended in Mumbai and we had to fly home from there, it was OK for us to have a transitvisa for 72 hours which is half price. I had the email of the embassy of India with me saying that this was OK, because the staff on board first thaught it was a problem.

Regards,

Sonja

P.S. We Belgians don't need a visa for Brazil, on our Amazon cruise we were one of the few that didn't need one.

Hello,

I will be on the cruise from Hong Kong to Cape town. For some ports you need a visa (Kenia, Tanzania, ...) My question : if you don't want to visit a port where you need a visa, do you still need to get the visa if you stay onboard?

Regards,

Sonja

Hello,

I'm looking at the 35 day cruise from Hong Kong to Cape town, 26 th october 2015. On the website of my TA it is mentioned that you can buy the visa for the african ports on board the ship. Has anyone taken this (or a similar) cruise and tell me how much these visa cost when bought on the ship?

Regards,

Sonja

Hello,

I would like to thank all the people who responded. I was a bit worried by some of the bad reviews, but now I'm more likely to book the cruise to Hawaii and the french polynesian islands, if I can get the necessary vacation time as I'm still working.

Regards,

Sonja

Hello,

I would like to cruise to Hawaii and the polynesian islands with HAL. The cruise I would be able to do is with is the ms Statendam. But when you read some of the reviews I doubt it sensible booking a cruise of 30 days on a ship which seems to have problems with odours and the airconditioning. I know a lot of people don't write reviews that why I'm asking any of you who have sailed the Statendam the last year if it is really so bad on the ship??

Thank you for any replies

Regards,

Sonja

Hello,

I you don't want to go to Bruges, please don't stay in Blankenbergen, it's a seaside town with a rather 'bad' reputation. It's better just to take the seaside tram to Knokke or maybe Den Haan or Nieuwpoort which are much nicer towns.

Regards,

Sonja

Hi,

As a dutch speaking Belgian, I think the previous poster is right. In Belgium a lot of people have a name with the ij in it (Schrijvers, Stijnen....) Initialy all the names would have been written with the ij, but these days you will see that half of these names are spelled with an y, so I think that even dutch speaking people thought it was easier to spell these names with a y. It does make it easier to type. We will specify this with saying it is a y (without dots) or a ij (with dots) when we have to write the name down.

Regards,

Sonja