willidc

I'm sure there is a very good reason for this, but it does seem to vary with the sailing.

In July 2012 on Riviera, our passports were taken at checkin (both US) and we did not see them until we needed to retrieve them in the main lobby at either Israel, Egypt or possibly both (cannot remember). The rest of the cruise, we did not have our passports. I believe this was true of all passengers and not just US passengers.

On our next sailing which was a B2B in the Med (also leaving from Barcelona as the first cruise did), we were all ready to turn over our passports as we had 9 months prior. We were told that we were going to keep our passports for those sailings. We were on a tour with a British couple who also had their passports with them, so it appeared that theirs were not taken either (or if they were, they retrieved them for the tour---I didn't ask).

For the Baltic, we felt that perhaps our passports would be taken due to the length of time we would be in port at SPB, but we had our passports with us again for the entire sailing as did a couple from Mexico that we met.

So, not sure what the criteria is for either holding or taking of the passports at checkin. It doesn't appear to be ship particular, nor does it seem to be dependent on 'country of issue' on our sailings.

As I said, there must be a valid reason for what they do and perhaps I will ask next month and report back if I find out anything 'official'. :confused:

Welcome to Oceania!

I can see why you have a question. It seems that there have been changes in pre/post cruise hotel inclusions and pricing since 2012. And based on our experiences, those changes did not come all at once.

Our most recent experience (late 2013) where we took Oceania's air and a one night stay before sailing, our transfers from airport to hotel and then from hotel to ship were included. We did not have to pay any air deviation fee since it is included in the cost of the pre-cruise.

For our cruise next month, we are not using Oceania's air, but we are doing their pre-cruise hotel. Even without taking their air, transfers from airport to hotel and hotel to pier are included. At the end of the cruise we will be disembarking at Tianjin, China which is 2 1/2 hours from Beijing, and somewhat longer to the airport. We didn't want to be bothered with arranging that transfer, so we have booked one night post-cruise with Oceania and our long transfer from ship to Beijing Marriott and then from that hotel to Beijing airport the next day are included.

On three other sailings, we have not taken the Oceania transfers or pre/post cruise hotels. We feel comfortable in places like Barcelona, London, Istanbul, and Venice and made our own arrangements for transfers, hotels, tours, and longer stays. Cheaper? Yes. As carefree and easy planning? No.

I would agree with the previous posters who indicate that you do your research, decide what you want, how long you will be staying pre/post cruise, and get out the calculator.

Every cruise is different as far as weighing the pros and cons.

Enjoy your cruise!:)

There is always the taxi as Orchestrapal has mentioned.

And we were going to use the taxi from the airport until we met a nice young man across the aisle from us on the plane from NY to Stockholm. He lived in Sweden and had been in the states on business. He convinced us to take the train directly from the airport to central Stockholm. It was quite convenient getting the train from the airport, well marked, very quick and reasonably priced. The trains ran quite often and we didn't even bother with the schedule. We just showed up and bought our tickets and went to the platform.

Our new Swedish friend was with us on the train and we seemed to get to center Stockholm in about 20-25 minutes. (The train is not affected by traffic jams). He then walked us outside of the train station to where the taxis were and we got a taxi to the pier. It wasn't a long way---almost looked as if one could walk it without luggage. But it seemed as if we were in the taxi a longer than expected time due to traffic. Taxis are expensive in Stockholm (like everything else) and when we got to the pier and paid the taxi fare, we were glad we did not have to pay the fare from the airport.

So, that was our experience.

Some passengers on our sailing made arrangements with each other prior to arrival to share a cab from the airport to the pier. You can go to Roll Call boards, find your ship, then your sailing date, and exchange information and make plans with other passengers who will be sailing with you.

We were on Marina near the end of August 2013 for a Baltic sailing---our fourth Oceania cruise. I hope you enjoy your experience as much as we did.

Welcome to Oceania! :)

I am booked in this stateroom for a 14 day in July. I normally book forward rooms to avoid any vibrations. Has anyone ever stayed in or close to this room and noticed any vibrating? I think it's safe to say that Riviera is pretty smooth but I haven't yet stayed in that area of the ship so I want to be sure. Thanks all!

For our July 2012 sailing we were on Deck 10 three cabins from the Owner's Suite which is the most expensive suite on the ship and is completely aft. We did a 15 day Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona to Egypt to Israel to Istanbul with many stops in between and barely noticed any vibrations except for times when Riviera was in final few feet of docking. We actually noticed more sounds from the ship when we were forward in 9005 for one sailing and 9004 for another. The anchors and crew activities at the front were more noticeable than anything at the back during docking or cruising. The forward cabins also had more pitch, but nothing of any degree to impact our enjoyment.

The placement of 9103 is just a bit further aft than midship according to the deck map, so you should be fine.

Enjoy your cruise! :)

We were in Venice for the fourth time this past May for a three night stay after our Oceania cruise.

We wanted something away from the craziness, but still convenient. We also wanted the small neighborhood that you describe. After many hours of research, I took a chance and booked at the Hilton Molino Stucky. I was concerned about being on Guidecca Island across the water from the center of Venice, but the decision was one of the best I have ever made.

We had the loveliest time of all of our Venice stays. The Hilton has a private transfer shuttle to two places in the main area and that boat runs according to the posted schedule. Also, the view of Venice is beautiful from so many places in the hotel. If you are Hilton Gold or above, you have access to the executive lounge which had some of the best (limited choices, though) food that we have had in Venice (and complimentary with our room). They also had a superb selection of wine and spirits from about 5 PM to 8:30 PM. I had a port there that was the best I have ever tasted, but cannot get it here in the US.

There are a few small bars and restaurants just up the bank from the hotel and heading toward the public vaporetto stop which we used extensively to travel the Grand Canal a couple of times, use to take us to Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Murano, Burano, and Lido Islands. We bought the 72-hour Vaporetto pass and it was one of the best bargains in Venice. The area between the hotel and vaporetto stop is a nice little 'village' type of community with outdoor dining where weather permits.

We had a very easy time getting from the ship's dock at the marina to the Hilton. We wheeled our luggage to the Alilaguna, bought a ticket for $12 each which included handling and storing one large piece of luggage. The Hilton was one of the first stops. Some of those young Italian dudes that you mentioned were right at the boat to help us out and take care of luggage. The ship wanted excess of $100 each to transport us to the hotel, so we saved a bundle on the 16 minute trip.

Going to the airport after our stay was just as easy, but more time consuming due to the route taken by Alilaguna. It took us about 75 minutes to get from the hotel to the airport going the cheapest way ($16), but the trip was a sightseeing adventure of its own. And you can always do a water taxi for $100-$150 that gets you there in about half an hour. That amount is for the entire boat, so if you can get a group of 4 or more together, the price will go down quite a bit per person.

In years past we have stayed at the Westin Europa and Regina. I think this is the best location on the island itself. However, in the past ten years or so, these properties have priced themselves out of our budget. We still go there for lunch to take advantage of one of their amazing waterfront outdoor dining areas and spend at least three hours taking in the atmosphere and views on a nice day. As you had specified, both water taxis to/from the airport stop at the door. Vaporetto is just a short walk away and I do not remember any bridges with the up and down steps.

Enjoy! :)

We are on the similar 2014 sailing on Nautica called "Pearls of the Orient". It sails from Hong Kong to Tianjin (Beijing), 2/22/14 to 3/10/14.

We have had a very active roll call for about a year or more. It is a great roll call and is filled with helpful information (particularly with China Visa options). Some people organized private tours quite early on and by the time my husband and I booked the cruise, many of the private tours were already filled. But between some of us latecomers getting together with suggestions from those already set with their private tours, and the more than adequate selection of the ship's tours, we will have plenty of options for our upcoming cruise. We typically do a mix of ship's and private tours.

On previous cruises with O, we have seen several tours added by Destination Services once we board the ship. There should be something in your cabin or in Currents that brings you up to date on any additions, changes, and/or cancellations. Also, a stop by the Destination Services desk once on board can prove to be helpful.

As Lyn has said, the tours remain similar from year to year. So, check our sailing on the O website as well as Roll Call and you will see what we have offered for our cruise. We recently had a change of our time in Hiroshima giving us 4-5 hours less time there. Consequently, some popular longer tours for that port had to be scratched. In particular---Mayajima. Many are guessing that for the extra sailing hours we will be sailing to circumvent the area in the East China Sea that has been in controversy during the past few weeks. So things can (and do) change.

Enjoy your cruise!:p

So sorry and surprised to hear about your husband's tendering incident. I hope he is doing well as I write this.

Also I am surprised since we experienced some turbulence when we were tendering in Monaco this past May on Riviera. We had three or four crew members each leg of the tender trips that we made (I just checked with DH to verify). Plus we had crew at the shore and more crew at the Deck 4 platform upon return.

We are also in our 60s and remain active. We have always had a family boat since we both loved to water ski---then took our three boys out on the boat and taught them to water ski as well. Needless to say, we are very comfortable with getting on and off boats in choppy waters. But taking that into consideration, we felt that Oceania crew went above and beyond to keep us safe boarding and disembarking the tender boats.

Someone was on either side of me when getting on/off and grabbed my arm if I didn't extend my hands for help. The word 'timing' was repeated loud and often and we were told to look at the boat's position relative to the shore or ship when getting on/off to assess the right 'timing'. We were given some instructions prior to the tender leaving its position and additional instructions upon arrival prior to getting off. All of this took a lot of extra time and it wasn't particularly comfortable with a fully loaded tender sitting closed up in the humidity and hot sun of the Mediterranean. However, we understood that it was necessary for Oceania to keep people safe.

I now check to see how many tender ports are on an itinerary before we book sailings. We had 7 on a B2B this past Spring and it was 7 too many IMO. However, sometimes tendering is a necessary inconvenience and is the only way to see some of the lovely ports offered.

Sometimes the waters are so choppy that tendering is cancelled and the port is missed. In Monaco, the waters were active in the morning, but not dangerously so. After a day in Monaco, we were shocked at how rough and rocky the waters were, but Oceania needed to get people back to the ship. I can truly say that I have never experienced water that rough in a boat of relatively small size. We were holding on even though we were all sitting down in the tender.

But, as I have mentioned, we had more than adequate crew (IMO) and they were doing their job most conscientiously and in a serious manner. This was not the time for friendly chit chat with crew.

As far as the reported lack of concern by management, that should not have been. The worst injuries I have had in a rather athletic lifetime have been when hitting my shin on a bed post (turned into blood poisoning) and walking out of my girlfriend's house not realizing it was icing up in a rain and getting a quadruple fracture on my ankle. So, every injury should be treated with respect, no matter how minor it may initially appear. So it is a bit disappointing to hear your experience regarding staff and management.

Based on past experience, this would appear to be something out of the typical case, but things could have changed since our Spring sailing regarding crew on tenders. We sailed again in late August on a Baltic cruise, but we had no tendering. So we cannot compare experiences from early 2013 to later in 2013.

...and worth it on a variety of levels: the special wines, the service, the venue, and food and presentation I have not experienced on any of our other 3 Riviera cruises and one Marina cruise.

I cannot address the frequency with which the menu changes, but I believe I did see some changes that probably need to be made due to region of the world that the ship is sailing and/or desire to take advantage of local or seasonal ingredients.

I am a bit disappointed that our next sailing is on Nautica so we will not be able to experience La Reserve---my first R ship and the R ships do not have La Reserve.

I'm sure I will not be the only one posting a response on this.

Enjoy!:p

On port days is there lunch in the GDR?

We do remember that GDR was not open for lunch on Riviera when in port one day in Cairo (Port Said) in July 2012. Also, this past summer GDR was closed for lunch at least one day when docked in St. Petersburg when many traveled to Moscow, Catherine's Palace, etc. with tours that ran most of the day.

When we take a half day tour that is more like five hours than three hours, we try to make it to GDR before the 2 PM closing. It is a delightful time for at least several reasons: we are hungry from the long tour; there are usually very few people in GDR; staff is so very happy to see us; kitchen is not crazy busy and sends up great food beautifully presented. Salads and sandwiches are on the menu, but entrees are also available that are about the size of a dinner portion. The down side of this lovely lunch is you are not hungry until a later dinner hour, so be careful as to how much you eat for a GDR lunch if you have Signature restaurant reservations before, say, 8 PM.

Enjoy! :p

Perhaps the schedule is different for Caribbean sailings. But for our past three sailings on Riviera in Europe and our most recent on Marina two months ago, the show times changed very little. Most often they were at 9:30 or 9:45 PM.

In total for our four cruises, I can only remember walking out of a show one time. While we haven't been completely blown away at all of the shows, we can truly say that we have been entertained while having our after dinner drink. It is a nice place to go to relax after dinner. The production shows are bright, colorful, and lively. And some of the single guest entertainers do a good job as well.

We take at least two trips per year to NYC to catch up on Broadway entertainment. I think that perhaps sometimes the entertainment on Oceania takes a larger hit than it should. Is it Broadway? No. However, I am not spending an extra $250+ per show on Oceania for two seats as we do in NYC.

For a 9:45 show, we have found that 8 PM in GDR works. However, for Specialty restaurants, we prefer a reservation a bit earlier than 8 PM for the 9:45 show. And if the show was at 9:30, we got to GDR a bit after 7:30.

Enjoy your cruise! :)

I have had problems logging in on Oceania for a few days. Anyone else having problems?

I see you are in WV. We (and probably you as well) have been dealing with weather issues for the past two days. The ice does nothing good for communications in your area (voice of experience with three family members being WVU graduates) . Perhaps clean your cache and try loading in a fresh page (not one that has been sitting in your temporary internet files area).

Good luck!

When Crocs first came out, they were rather ugly in neon colours. However, there are some very nice styles offered now in chic colours. I am not trying to make any fashion statments, I really want to know if they will be a good choice to wear around the pool deck, as I don't want to slip on the wet surface. My Tivas (which are also not a fasion statement!) sometimes are slippery on certain surfaces. I don't want to have to pack extra shoes if I don't have to.

 

Re the salty snacks, I did buy a bag of pretzels and a bag of peanuts. A handful is all we need just to tide us over till the dinner hour. Can hardly wait for that amazing food.

 

And, what may I ask is the Grand Bazaar??

Perhaps the poster was in Istanbul and purchased the nuts at the Grand Bazaar there. I am not familiar with any Grand Bazaar on Riviera, Marina or Regatta.

Hello, we have taken two Oceania cruises and were most satisfied with the service, quality and overall value.

 

However, since we retired our "cruise budget" ain't what it used to be. Each week it seems, we receive 1 or 2 glossy Oceania cruise brochures/catalogs. I pour over these dreaming. I compute the per day per person cost for the inside and veranda cabins - $200 - $500. That is pretty steep for us.

 

Well the other day, I finally found a cruise we might afford - Lisbon to Rio a year from now. Most of the cheapest inside cabins are already booked and wait listed. Hence others seem to be looking for an Oceania bargain too.

 

An alternative is to go back to one of the cheaper lines. However we decided to take up RVing instead as we have more time now. We can generally be on the road for 3 mos. for about the same price as a 2 wk O cruise.

 

Hence my question. What do you think? Is O over priced?

 

Best,

 

Dave

In today's mail we received a brochure titled "Caribbean Dreams" and the prices appear to be much lower. On second look, the prices do not include air or taxes, but are still quite reasonable once I added those in and went to the website.

For instance, "Traveling the Tropics" on page 22 shows a 12 day November 11, 2014 sailing from Miami to San Juan on Insignia. The ports are interesting even for someone who has traveled the Caribbean since they are not all the 'same old, same old'.

Even if one does not even get off of the ship, it is 12 days on Oceania with the same exceptional food, service, ambiance, etc. An inside is $1862 and was available earlier today. Add to that $300 if you need Oceania air (which sounds like a bargain from PA for us). And then add the $137 taxes. Still $2299 for 12 days inclusive of air and taxes. And on page 24 is "Tropical Breeze" for a 7 day total of $1799.

Cabin choice is a personal thing. We have sailed Oceania in Concierge through Inside categories. One thing we have noticed --- no matter which cabin category we choose, the food is still outstanding, the itineraries are just as magnificent, the string quartet sounds as lovely, the wine tastes as good, and the crew is just as gracious.......... Before we retired we chose the more expensive cabins. After retiring we realized that we could cruise more if we tried to save money where we could on O.

One thing that we decided would not be a compromise is the cruise line.

Spindrift....

scroll to the top of this board page. In the upper left corner you will see the blue ribbon with the 'Cruise Critic' logo. Immediately to the right of that logo is a 'bar' with boxes. The first box has "Reviews" in it. I selected the "All Cruise Reviews" option from the pull down menu and found the review.

Good luck!

Perhaps there is a better way, but this worked for me.

I can only speak for the sailings we have been on, but when large numbers of people were scheduled for VERY early tours (6:15 AM), Terrace opened at 5 AM one morning. This was to accommodate the 13 hour tours to the pyramids on our Riviera, July 2012 ports of call in Egypt. I also seem to remember some flexing of the hours for ports in Israel.

On our Baltic cruise a couple of months ago when passengers were doing Moscow or Berlin day trips, Terrace again was open early in the morning and stayed open until midnight one night for the returning passengers.

I cannot remember exactly the conditions, but even the GDR opened early (6:30 or 7 AM I believe) a few times when many guests booked early tours.

And, as was mentioned, you have the 24/7 room service. Oceania certainly tries to keep their passengers comfortable!:p

Enjoy your cruise!

If you could have 3 wishes for booking an oceanview on either the Marina or the Riveria, which 3 rooms would you choose?

 

I was looking at 7082 and 7085 but wondered if the verandah wall on the adjoining cabin would impede our view in one direction a bit? Also 7067 and 7064? The same problem perhaps? So thought maybe in the middle.....7074 or 7077 might be a better, clear view out the window?

 

Some indicate they are a triple room. Does anyone know what that really means? More space or just more furniture/beds??

 

Of course, we may not have all the choices available, but I'd like to have a short-list ready.

 

Thanks in advance!

Regarding the triple cabin on the O ship I have this to offer. We were almost halfway through one of our sailings in a triple cabin that had been assigned to us at the pier since we were on a GTY. We did not notice anything different from a previous cruise in a standard cabin on Riviera that was not a triple. We asked our cabin steward and were told (as Lyn had indicated) that we may notice the sofa was a bit more firm since that is where the third passenger would sleep on a pull out. Other than that, there was no difference.

As I said, we were about 7 days into a 15 day sailing and never noticed anything different---not even the firmness of the sofa. The rooms appeared to be identical to us.

We briefly visited someone on Riviera one afternoon in a Category C room and the room seemed to be so very bright because of the full window that did not have a veranda railing or furniture between the room and the outside view. So, in actuality, the outside view in the room I visited was not obstructed in any way---not even by a veranda railing or outside furniture.:rolleyes:

You will enjoy your cruise no matter what kind of cabin you have. We have been in Concierge A2 down to Inside F and the cabin had little to do with our overall enjoyment of the cruise. We've thoroughly enjoyed them all. :)

+1 to all of the positive comments above.

We have had him on two cruises so far and will be sailing with him on Baltic Odyssey on Marina next month.

We had the good fortune to have him giving us commentary while we were sailing into Venice at sunrise this past May. I know the man must sleep sometime and somewhere, but it is as if he is always around during the cruise if you need his expertise or just to smile and greet you.

And when he says "8 o'clock", you can set your watch by it.

We had hand sanitizer delivered to our room jun June when we reached Morocco. Maybe it has to do with the ports.

We had spray sanitizer placed in our cabins on "Lands of Time" on Riviera this past July with some ports in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Israel, etc. But the sanitizers should be used no matter which ports are on itinerary.

Of the five lines we have cruised with, Oceania comes up first with Disney a distant second.

Even though the Specialty Restaurants are included in the Oceania cruise fare, we were equally as happy in the Grand Dining Room most nights. We were on a 15 day cruise in July of this year and the GDR did not repeat the menu---only some entrees and side offerings. The menus in the Specialty Restaurants remain largely the same (deliciously) each evening. :p

Thanks for taking the time to post this information. We are booked on our first Oceania cruise next year and looking forward to the food and service.

 

Can you please expand on your comment re the difficulty in getting dinner reservations? Did you attempt to book online in advance? Or did you choose to have your butler handle it once aboard?

 

Since we are booked in a standard cabin, I am now concerned that we will be last on the list for dining in the specialty restaurants. We do prefer to dine later, about 8-8:30, and wondering about the popularity of those times.

 

Thanks.

We are sailing on July 19 for 15 days on Lands of Time. We are in a lower cabin as well (C - Deluxe Outside) on a GTY. I was sure to make our Specialty Restaurant reservations online very early the first day and we got most of our first choices. I had to go to our second choice of date to get that 7:30 table for 2 at Jacques, but no problems if you are the early bird on reservations.

Our sailing is completely waitlisted also. You should be fine with around 8:30 requested time. I saw that time available on every reservation I made. It was the 7:30 and 8 that seemed to be so popular.

Good luck!