ssawjo

Indian Visas?

We are flying to India early to do a two week tour of the country. A lot of other pax are doing the Taj tour beforehand. We are flying into Delhi. I was planning on obtaining an e-Visa online for entry, which is perfectly acceptable. HOWEVER, my TA informed me today that, per Oceania's visa department, we must obtain a "full" Indian visa in order to be able to board the ship in Mumbai (Nautica - April 29). I do not see the reason or purpose of obtaining a full visa if you have no intention of returning in the next ten years, which applies to us, and you are leaving, not entering, India. An e-visa is fine according to what I have read.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/e-visas-from-november-for-tourists-on-cruise-ships-4774814/

I am wondering what others plan to do. I don't want to be denied boarding in Mumbai. If anyone has any different information, please share on this board. Obtaining a full visa takes several weeks while an e-Visa is pretty straight forward.

Let us, that is everyone, know if you have other information.

Thanks,

Here is something else to add to the confusion re: India e-Visas for cruisers.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/e-visas-from-november-for-tourists-on-cruise-ships-4774814/

By my reading, you can just get an e-Visa if you are on a cruise ship instead of the other type of visa. However, I would check with your particular cruise line.

Bill

Kathi and I were in Brisbane for one day this past April, a Saturday. We found Brisbane to be one of the most livable cities anywhere. Clean, friendly, etc. Had a great day. We went to see the koalas and had a full day tour of the city. Enjoy your cruise and we'll see you in Mumbai with Cathi and Bruce.

Bill and Kathi

Can't answer Funtime18's question. I have a different one. We are in port in Santorini from 8 AM to 11 PM, a Tuesday. How late is the bus/taxi service from Oia to Fira? I would like to have dinner in Oia and return to the ship later, around ten.

Thanks, Bill

OOOOOHHHHH! I get it now. Thanks, and never mind.

Bill

Question: I made my final payment on 11/30/17 for a 28 day cruise on Nautica, leaving Mumbai on April 29, 2018. I checked my account and found that I cannot book dining reservations until 2/13/18, and we are in a PH. Is this normal? I am asking because of Mura's comment above. Should I be concerned and call my TA?

Thanks,

Bill and Kathi

Since we are on the subject of tips, secrets, etc., I have two questions. I will be a first time cruiser on O in April on the Nautica.

My wife uses a CPAP machine. Does O have distilled water available for her to use in her CPAP?

I guess the ladies can answer this question, how is the in room hair dryer? If I/we can avoid humping her hair dryer that would be great.

Thanks,

Bill and Kathi

Strange, they must code share as my Cathay Pacific flight is booked with Air New Zealand and I get points!

They must have some arrangement that I was not aware of. So, that is great for you.

[ Cathay pacific to HK and Air New Zealand home, both Star Alliance airlines, so get the points, safe travels all of you!

Cathay Pacific is a member of OneWorld, not Star Alliance. Air New Zealand is Star Alliance.

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ssawjo--

 

two things i learned in today's research: that we shouldn't drink the water so bring water from ship and to wear good sturdy shoes because the hike either up or down is on uneven old stones.

 

I also have found some rec'ds for lunch--even better, a place for great gelato, and a bakery!!!

Thanks, will definitely keep this in mind.

Bill

think we're going to do a diy tour here...i think it is doable. Looking very forward to this port stop. I'll try and report back, perhaps do a thread as I did for ATW16, on this cruise. Great itinerary, i think!

Cynthia and Dave,

I agree with you about Patmos. It will be, IMO, an easy DIY. Plenty of time to visit the monastery and Cave, plus a lunch in town. I did see reviews of one or two places for lunch with great views near the monastery.

Take care,

Bill and Kathi

Just learned that the Oceania Nautica will be visiting Patmos instead of Kusadasi, Turkey, for Ephesus, in May 2018, instead due to the visa issue between the US and Turkey.

So, has anyone been there recently, and if so, what is there to see/do.

Thank you,

Bill and Kathi

Just learned today that the Oceania Nautica, scheduled to arrive in Kusadasi on May 21, 2018, has been eliminated. We are going to Patmos, Greece, instead. So this visa business has one cruiseline changing things.

Just talked with our O PCC and she confirmed the laundry perk is for concierge cabins and above, the 3 bags of laundry perk is for each segment on a Grand Voyage and the perk does not need to be listed on a confirmation in order for it to apply. So if you were worried about making sure it was listed on the confirmation like we were, no worries. All is good. Just thought I'd pass this along.

Sounds great, thanks for checking.

Bill

I am also hoping we see a clarification on this perk. I sent an email to my TA as soon as I realized it was out there, asking if it would also apply to the PH we have booked for February. Waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed!

Did the same thing, called my TA about this b/c we are in a PH on Nautica. A day later, she called me and said she was told by Oceania "No". Agree, very bad PR on their part. We are on a 28 day voyage and it would have been nice. This was a week ago.

Bill

Thank you for your responses.

Bill

Hello all,

We will leaving Cairo at 8 AM and we were wondering if someone could recommend a quality but reasonably priced hotel at the Cairo airport for one night. We will be staying prior at the 4 Seasons Residence and I really don't want to get up at 3 AM to beat the traffic.

Thank you, Bill

I have flown SAA several times over the past few years for business and with my family. I always found their product to be top notch. Usually flown from either IAD or ATL and did several internal flights. Hopefully they will survive.

Bill

Is this on the same cruise?

The number of included excursions varies from cruise to cruise depending on the length of the cruise.

Sometimes it is only 4 on short cruises (7 days) sometimes it is 8 on longer cruises.

Question: Are included excursions, let's say, eight per cabin or eight per person in the cabin for a 28 day cruise?

Thanks, Bill

On my recently completed cruise on the Sun out of Sydney, Princess did charge 1.5% fee for using a credit card. So, they do it also in Australia and, I assume, New Zealand cruises.

Great review and thanks. The Sun Princess has been our favourite ship for a few years,probably because we have spent some time on her. Great that things haven't changed much.

My question was "how did you get around Luganville? Did you pre organise something or just organised once in port?

Thanks

Kate,

I organized a tour prior to leaving from the US with other cruise critic folks. It was with Luke Tovar at Paradise Tours Santo. This was what he sent me and what we did:

"Nice to hear from you , wellthis is fine and we can do this WW II History tour for your group so first willbe to the B17 air strip , then to the sea plane Base , then to the HospitalBase , then to million dollar point where they dumped every war equipment afterthe war and it’s the best snorkeling spot then to Oyster island (very nice but I think it was closing for renovations this month) for Lunch thento the blue hole for a swim in this fresh water .

The pickup time will be 9:00 amat the dock and back again at 3 pm . All the payments will be in Aussidollars on that day .

The price per person will be $75 and entry fees will be at your own cost like million dollar point is $ 5 pperson , Hospital is $ 5 p person and blue hole is $ 5 p person."

We did not actually go to the hospital. Not sure why but that was ok, no one complained. Snorkeling at million point was amazing. Very good tour and everyone enjoyed it.

Any other questions, let me know.

Bill

Who was the Maitre d' please?

Thanks for posting.

I don't recall, sorry. Suffice to say I only saw him once during the cooking demo on the last sea day.

My DW and I took this 20 day cruise because of memostly. I am a WWII history buff andwanted to visit some of the southwest Pacific battlefields. I am 63 and DW is 62 and we are in prettygood shape and we are from the U.S. Apparently there were only 83 Americans on the ship and the rest weremostly Australians and a mix of New Zealanders and others from placesunknown. I found the Australians to begreat fun and we meet some really nice people hanging out at Crooners, our mainwatering hole on ship.

We left Los Angeles, CA on March 30, arrived April 1, andstayed at the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney for four nights. Great hotel and we had a great view of boththe Harbor Bridge and the Opera House and cruise ships coming and going. Exciting city with a lot to see and do. The Rocks area has some excellentrestaurants. One night we ate at theRocks Café and I had a kangaroo burger. Interesting flavor but I enjoyed it. Took a tour of the Opera House and a full day city tour. One day we ventured off to the BlueMountains, probably the worst day to go because it rained all day and thevisibility in the area was non-existent. Couldn't see a thing. However weimagined it to be beautiful.

On April 5, took a car to White Bay Cruise Terminal where weboarded the Sun Princess. Embarkationwas easy and we were in are cabin in less than twenty minutes. We arrived at around 1 PM so that may havehelped. We dropped our carry on in thecabin and had lunch in the Regency Dining Room, which was also our MDR for thecruise, table 156. We purchased the AIBPfor the cruise because we had a lot of OBC to use. We felt that it was a good deal because wepaid in AUD not US dollars. It includedevery beverage we had onboard.

At sail away we met up with some cruise critic folks atthe Sundowners Bar that I had beencorresponding with for about a year. Beautiful sail away.

CABIN:

We were in a mini-suite, B333. It was spacious but it seemed to lack somecloset space. Our room steward, Savio,was efficient and friendly. No noise atall from anywhere. The new mattress wasvery comfortable and we slept very well. Plenty of hangars.

FOOD:

We had traditionaldining at 1730 hours. I felt it was tooearly but the second seating was too late. Our table was for six and all of us were Americans. I was hoping for a more mixed group so thatwe could learn more about Australia and/or New Zealand. But we all got along and had a goodtime. We only on occasion purchased abottle of wine at 40% off due to the AIBP. I felt that purchasing individual glasses of wine was a better bargainoverall. The wine by the glass was ok atbest but our assistant waiter learned what we wanted after the second day andall was good. Overall the food was goodto excellent. If something was notsatisfactory, our waiter, Sebastian, made it right. We ate most of our dinners in the MDR, twicein the Sterling Steakhouse (excellent), and once in the buffet because wereturned late from a tour. The buffetfor dinner was adequate. It was nice notto have to dress for dinner for once. We had most of our breakfasts in theHorizon Court and everything was good, except the coffee, which tasted likeyesterday's dish water. We did go to theMDR once for breakfast but it just seemed to drag, so that was it for us. After eating breakfast, we usually went tothe International Café for real coffee and a danish. Lunch was wherever we felt like, TridentGrill, the buffet, or the MDR. BTW, thepizza on the Sun is terrible. I can makea better frozen pizza which is what it tasted like. I miss Alfredo's from years past. Kai Sushi Restaurant was mostly empty when Iwalked past. Shares was a little morebusy and those who ate there enjoyed it very much.

SHIP:

We had first cruised on the Sun in April 1997, twenty yearsago with our then six year old son. Itwas brand new and state of the art in cruising. Now, it is dated and does need more work. However, it was clean and everything workedas it was supposed to work. The rumor on the ship was that the Sun, aswell as the Dawn, were being sold to P&O Australia, dates unknown. Topsiders Bar was never open, not once. No chair hogs to speak of.

For ANZAC Day, there was a memorial ceremony on the RiveraDeck. It was conducted by the Captainand the Asst. Cruise Director and guests. It was very moving and well attended. This was on April 24 because we were sailing into Sydney on April 25.

SHOWS AND OTHER THINGS:

I personally dislike song and dance musicals and the showsonboard were no different. I only gobecause my DW loves them. So, I forceher to go to the comedians and other entertainers. They were good but not great. There was a WWII lecturer onboard, BrucePetty, who gave a presentation in the Princess Theater about different aspectsof the war, with emphasis on the contributions of the Australians and NewZealanders, and how the war was fought. He had a presentation for about 50 minutes every sea day. RANT: Why do some people think it is ok towalk into the Princess Theater about five minutes before the end of Petty'spresentation, disrupt everyone, to find a seat for the next event in the theater? Rude is all I can say. There was plenty of time to get a seat andthere was no rush.

There were the usual ice craving, fruit carving, cookingdemo, gallery tour, etc. scheduled. Bingo of course. Cruise criticfriend won $3100. He had been on since Perth and this put a dent in his barbill.

TOURS:

We did not do any Princess tours. I personally arranged tours for Alotau,Rabaul, Guadalcanal, Luganville, and Port Vila. Much cheaper than anything the ship offered. I must mention that the roads on Alotau,Rabaul, and Honiara, Guadalcanal, are one big pot hole. The coast road from Rabaul to Kokopo had beenmostly washed out between the Japanese Barge Tunnel and Kokopo due to atorrential rain storm the night before we arrived. We had to take a roundabout way to Kokopothat was nothing but pot holes but paved. The coast road appeared to be mostly mud. But all of the tours for Rabaul had to do thesame thing. Then again, we had somebeautiful views of New Britain Island and saw everything that we wanted tosee. We did take the coast road back toRabaul but it was slow, rough going.

The night before our arrival in Honiara, three warships fromTaiwan arrived for a port visit. Taiwanis investing a lot of money in the Solomon Islands. It was a Saturday and the streets were fullof Taiwanese sailors, mostly cadets by the looks of them. Well dressed and well behaved. But they took over most of the tour buses intown. I had arranged a WWII battlefieldtour with Destsolo Tours and they had trouble getting us a van, and we neededtwo vans. One had inadequate airconditioning and the other had cigarette smoke residue that one of the my tourparticipants complained about. The townstreets were packed. I have seen gridlock and this was terrible. We managedto see what we wanted to see and do the tour. In the afternoon, we were going to take a town tour but we cancelled itdue to the traffic. No problemcancelling and those who wanted to do the tour wholeheartedly agreed. We had lunch in town and then went back tothe ship.

One thing I enjoy doing is sampling the local beers. I found the beers in Papua New Guinea, theSolomon Islands, and Vanuatu to be delightful. And reasonably priced.

We snorkeled at Doini Island and Champagne Bay. We did not snorkel at Kiriwini due to theinclement weather but we did go ashore. We dearly wanted to snorkel at Kitava Island but due to very rough seasit prevented tendering. Looking at theisland I am disappointed we could not go ashore. Otherwise, it was a beautiful day at Kitava.

The tour at Luganville was a combination of town tour,million dollar point for snorkeling, and a swim a Rigi Blue Hole. We had lunch on Oyster Island, a resort thatyou have to take a ferry of sorts to get to. Very good food and again great beer.

The tour at Port Vila was with lelepaislandtours.com. After a visit to the big yellow house, akaduty free store, we went to this island via boat for snorkeling, a deliciousbarbeque lunch and more snorkeling. Thiswas followed by a visit to a cave used by the islanders for shelter during cyclonesand a visit to the village. This was thebest tour of any of the ones I arranged.

In Brisbane we did a private tour and saw everything thatneeded to be seen. We visited the LonePine Koala Sanctuary. We found Brisbaneto be a very livable city.

As I mentioned above, we met some wonderful people fromAustralia. One bloke in particular hasthis craving for Victoria Bitters beer. Theship ran out and he was not pleased. Itried one and personally found it undrinkable. Australians I found have strong feelings about their beer and I getthat. One other Australian only drankCorona, which I think is not very good. I found Crown Lager and Fat Yak to be quite nice. They laughed at me. Go figure.

Overall, a great cruise, great people, but the ship needssomething. A Vines would have been nice.

One other thing. Apparently, this was Princess's last port stop in Honiara, Guadalcanal,due to insurance issues with the local tour operators. Princess did not offer any excursions on theisland. There were two tour companiesset up on the pier and they were very busy. I think there are other tour companies operating on the island but I amnot certain. Anyway, if you want to goto Guadalcanal, P&O still goes there.

After returning to Sydney, we stayed at a airport hotel foran early morning flight to Queenstown, NZ. What a beautiful place. We stayedtwo nights and wish we had spent more time there. We did an all day trip toMilford Sound. And it is literally all day. We stayed at the Queenstown Boutique Bed andBreakfast. After Queenstown, we flew toAuckland for three nights. Did a citytour and a tour out to Waiheke Island for a wine tasting tour. Very nice time and a beautiful place. In Auckland, we stayed at the Sofitel on thewaterfront.

The next day, we flew Air New Zealand home. Great flight and I recommend this airline ifyou travel to/from NZ.

Any questions, please ask. I did not keep any of patters or menus. But I can answer general questions.

We just returned from a 7 day Marina cruise. We brought 5 bottles of wine and 1 bottle of bourbon in our small roll on suitcase. There was no discussion at check in.

 

We took 4 nice bottles of wine to dinner and paid for corkage. The last bottle of wine and the bourbon we consumed in the state room. There was quite a bit of bourbon left, so that got packed up and shipped home in the checked luggage, and the bottle did not break.

What is the corkage fee in the GDR? Thanks.

Bill

An Indian tourist visa is required for a cruise and note that Indian E-visas are NOT valid for entry via seaport. Failure to have the proper visa will result in being denied boarding.

Ut might be for the future, but not for now

We are planning on arriving at Delhi for about two weeks and then joining a cruise in Mumbai. Can an e-visa be used? We will not be returning to Mumbai on the ship.

Thanks,

Bill