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Last Cruise Before Dry Dock


isbclarin
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Anyone have advice on booking the last cruise before Nautica goes into dry dock. Should we do it? Will service be slighted because the crew is looking forward to the break? Will the ship be in a sad state of repair? We are booked on the Nautica Southampton to Barcelona itinerary (Oct 2 - 16, 2019) and were recently notified that the itinerary would be cut short 2 days because of dry dock scheduling. Unfortunately one of the ports we were really looking forward to was Bilbao which will now be bypassed. There were two less interesting ports that could have been bypassed - Brest and La Rochelle. They did keep St Peter Port which is on our bucket list. Needless to say we are somewhat upset by the Oceania decision but there seems to be no similar itineraries on other cruise lines in the same time frame.

 

Barbara and Bob

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I doubt the ship will be is dire straits before the drydock

Most of the crew stay on & help with the refurbishment some will be at the end of their contracts or may go to other ships

but they will be their cheery selves

If you are not happy with the new itinerary cancel now & look for some other cruise you will be just be worrying about the what if's until the cruise

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We were supposed to be on the cruise and were disappointed when we looked at the itinerary. You might want to look at Marina's itinerary; for April 19 - May 3, 2019 going from Southampton to Barcelona for 14 days. We opted to switch to this cruise.

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Another consideration might be the strong possibility that work will be carried out on board on the last cruise in advance of the dry dock and/or the first cruise following same. Noise, dust, noxious smells, and areas being closed off can and do occur as CCers have often reported.

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Another consideration might be the strong possibility that work will be carried out on board on the last cruise in advance of the dry dock and/or the first cruise following same. Noise, dust, noxious smells, and areas being closed off can and do occur as CCers have often reported.

 

 

 

There is a serious risk of this!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Another consideration might be the strong possibility that work will be carried out on board on the last cruise in advance of the dry dock and/or the first cruise following same. Noise, dust, noxious smells, and areas being closed off can and do occur as CCers have often reported.

 

We were on Marina May 2016, 14 days, NYC to Lisbon, then the ship went into dry dock in Cadiz, came back to Lisbon and we boarded again for 8 days to Southampton. No sign of diminished service or visible signs of repair required either before or after the dry dock break. In Lisbon, about 200 workers were waiting to board the ship and started stripping out carpeting by 9AM when all passengers were required to disembark. Ship was sparkling when we boarded in Lisbon 10 days later.

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We were supposed to be on the cruise and were disappointed when we looked at the itinerary. You might want to look at Marina's itinerary; for April 19 - May 3, 2019 going from Southampton to Barcelona for 14 days. We opted to switch to this cruise.

 

Unfortunately that cruise is too close to our March 2019 cruise. If you find any later in the year like July or August onward that include both St Peter Port and Bilbao please post it. We've done a lot of searching and haven't found any. For now we're keeping with the modified cruise.

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Another consideration might be the strong possibility that work will be carried out on board on the last cruise in advance of the dry dock and/or the first cruise following same. Noise, dust, noxious smells, and areas being closed off can and do occur as CCers have often reported.

 

We experienced some of that on our NCL Sun South American cruise this past February. Our cruise was the next to last before the ship was to be refurbished. They were doing work above the lounge during the day and the pounding noise was almost unbearable. The cruise after ours was even worse and was described by CCers as the cruise from hell. Hopefully Oceania doesn't operate like that.

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>>Another consideration might be the strong possibility that work will be carried out on board on the last cruise in advance of the dry dock and/or the first cruise following same. Noise, dust, noxious smells, and areas being closed off can and do occur as CCers have often reported.<<

 

I was not impressed on Regatta a few years back when it was due to go into the dock at Vancouver for the refit: several days of jackhammering, stripping of carpets etc before we left the ship.

I think companies are getting above themselves when they subject paying guests to this sort of thing. They are also treading a fine line when dozens - in some cases hundreds - of travel agents roam the ship getting in the way and closing the dining room to guests. It can be a bit like being an animal in the zoo.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Anyone have advice on booking the last cruise before Nautica goes into dry dock. Should we do it? Will service be slighted because the crew is looking forward to the break? Will the ship be in a sad state of repair? We are booked on the Nautica Southampton to Barcelona itinerary (Oct 2 - 16, 2019) and were recently notified that the itinerary would be cut short 2 days because of dry dock scheduling. Unfortunately one of the ports we were really looking forward to was Bilbao which will now be bypassed. There were two less interesting ports that could have been bypassed - Brest and La Rochelle. They did keep St Peter Port which is on our bucket list. Needless to say we are somewhat upset by the Oceania decision but there seems to be no similar itineraries on other cruise lines in the same time frame.

 

Barbara and Bob

 

If you would like any information on St Peter Port, Guernsey from a local, please feel free to post here or on the British Isles board and I would be happy to help.

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