New to Oceania - the good, the bad and the excursions

[emckeeve]

I have been following recent threads as we anticipate our upcoming cruise on the Nautica in SE Asia. We chose Oceania because of the itinerary and the fact we took a cruise with Renaissance in Tahiti shortly before 9/11 (and their eventual demise). At that time, it was our first "small ship" experience, and we loved it. I had heard nothing but good things about Oceania until I started reading this board. So now I know about the laundry, the slow internet, the lack of shuttles, lack of good entertainment, etc. none of which is an issue (except maybe the shuttles). On the good side, I look forward to the smoking policy, the port intensive itinerary, and hopefully, the wonderful staff. We have been fans of SeaDream, Sea Cloud and Regent in recent years, and I guess what I want to hear is more GREAT things about Oceania. Secondly, although we are usually very adventurous when it comes to shore excursions, we are quite unfamiliar with this part of the world, and we are tending toward playing it safe with mostly ship excursions (which we generally avoid). Is this a big mistake? I have read so much about private tours and how it's the "only way to go," that we're getting a little nervous. I guess I'm asking for reassurance from some SATISFIED passengers that Oceania will take care of us at the excursion office. Thanks.

[LHT28]

I would have a back up plan for shore excursions just in case, sometimes they are cancelled due to lack of participation.

Many Oceania cruisers are the DIY types & arrange private tours well in advance but there are those that like to be secure that they will get back to the ship on time so stick with the ship's tours

 

Join the Roll Call for your cruise ..maybe others have tours to share

Read the ports of call forums for Asia unless you are set against DIY then hope for the best;)

We like some of the low key entertainment but it is not for everyone

Go with an open mind

 

Enjoy the cruise

 

Lyn

[PaulMCO]

I would have a back up plan for shore excursions just in case, sometimes they are cancelled due to lack of participation.

Many Oceania cruisers are the DIY types & arrange private tours well in advance but there are those that like to be secure that they will get back to the ship on time so stick with the ship's tours

 

Join the Roll Call for your cruise ..maybe others have tours to share

Read the ports of call forums for Asia unless you are set against DIY then hope for the best;)

We like some of the low key entertainment but it is not for everyone

Go with an open mind

 

Enjoy the cruise

 

 

Lyn

 

 

Good suggestions. My experience has been if there are not many other choices (private tours) or the tour is a special one (popular) then you are safe to go with Oceania and it will not be canceled.

 

I think you are safer in SE Asia (less English speakers), than in Europe or Caribbean where private or or do-it-yourself would be more popular.

[jaga04]

The few excursions we've gone on were well-run and met our expectations based upon the descriptions. So, we were definitely satisfied.

 

On a Caribbean cruise, we did have 2 snorkeling excursions cancelled ahead of time for what I assumed was lack of interest, and a 3rd due to weather (no control over that one).

[digby]

We were on Nautica's first Beijing to Hong Kong cruise and loved the experience. We used only Oceania excursions and were very satisfied. Our only negative was the 'shopping time' built into many of them. I see no reason to shop for things which are mostly available in any big American city. I wish they set up shopping and no shopping excursions and let us pick which we wanted!

[Mura]

Don't assume there are never any shuttles.

 

On the recent Midnight Sun cruise (Dover-Copenhagen, mostly in Norway) there were free shuttles at several of the ports.

 

Interestingly, we were in Kristiansand in June 2006 and again on this cruise, and neither time did they have a shuttle available -- paid or otherwise. Considering that this port was the farthest distance from town, I found that surprising. This time around there was a local little train that takes you into the center of town and it wasn't terribly expensive.

 

On the June 2006 cruise, there were paid shuttles into Dublin but they were expensive and the time was limited. Even the shuttle that was ostensibly for the full day really wasn't. We found taking a cab was a much better choice.

 

It can depend ...

[pacheco18]

To the OP

 

We are on Oceania Asia in Jan 2011 - same cruise? We are traveling with 2 other couples that we met on our last O cruise.

 

We have arranged all private excursions. There was so much good information on the port boards about very reliable companies that I found it easy to make arrangements.

 

There are always people on the roll call who want to partner up for excursions. Why don't you try doing it for one port? When you see how much money you can save and how nice it is to be in a small group going where you want at our your own pace, you might get hooked.

 

By the way, I think you will love O.

[capecodder2]

We usually do a mix of private and Oceania excursions and have done the Hong Kong to Athens cruise for Asian ports. We have always been satisfied with O's excursions when we chose them. Private excursions have been a mix of good and bad. I always research ports and know what I want to see. If you choose to go with a small group on Rollcall, my suggestion is to ask a lot of questions about the excursion. One time there was no mention of shopping in the description or discussion (which I don't care to do in any extended way) but every stop included shopping. Another time, and it was my fault for not asking the specific question, there was no opportunity to grab a bite of lunch during the 8 hours we were out. The organizers didn't care to eat "locally" and assumed everyone else felt the same way. Lots of folks complain about the cost of ship excursions, but they are what they are and sometimes are a lot better buy than a miserable private tour - just know what you want to see and do and take it from there. In the grand scheme of things, the cost is a small percentage of the entire cruise.

[pacheco18]

Absolutely correct - you must be very clear about the excursion - how long, where you will go, lunch etc.

 

We have always found that we are "in charge" on a private excursion - we can stop, shop, eat whatever - the guide works for us.

 

We go in groups of no more than 6 - 8 and we make sure everyone is on the same page about what they want to see and do.

 

I have never had a bad experience.

[gillianrose]

We were on Nautica's first Beijing to Hong Kong cruise and loved the experience. We used only Oceania excursions and were very satisfied. Our only negative was the 'shopping time' built into many of them. I see no reason to shop for things which are mostly available in any big American city. I wish they set up shopping and no shopping excursions and let us pick which we wanted!

 

That's a great idea. Or else ALL the excursions could have zero shopping time. Does anyone here actually WANT the shopping time built into their paid-for excursion?

[StanandJim]

That's a great idea. Or else ALL the excursions could have zero shopping time. Does anyone here actually WANT the shopping time built into their paid-for excursion?

 

Many, many people adore shopping on vacation. Some even plan their trips around it. We find that it's an inverse ratio, dependant on age.

 

The younger folks tend to consume more conspicuously, and the..... ahem.... more experienced among us, are usually concerned about the house full of stuff that they have collected on previous trips. :D

[Starlaker]

Wow! What an amazing wall. I know that you look at them and relive each trip. Amazing. Add me to the list of those who like to have shopping stops. My thing is Christmas ornaments from my travels. I have a separate travel tree for my travel ornaments. I also try to find a small piece of local pottery.

[pacheco18]

I love to shop - but I do not want to shop where the ship's excursions take you. They get a cut (kickback) I am sure and prices are rarely the best. I want to pick my shopping stops based on my research -- another reason to opt for private tours IMO

[StanandJim]

I love to shop - but I do not want to shop where the ship's excursions take you. They get a cut (kickback) I am sure and prices are rarely the best. I want to pick my shopping stops based on my research -- another reason to opt for private tours IMO

 

Yes and no. In many cultures, there is a longstanding history of graft which results in even the highest quality vendors offering incentives to tour guides as part of their standard business practices.

 

Russia is a perfect example, so is Turkey and most of the Middle East.

 

By the way, those "Special Entrances" to the museums that we are all so crazy about are bought and paid for through a rampant system of bribery.

[emckeeve]

I am the OP. Many thanks for the reassurance about the ship excursions, if that's the route we take. I had taken the suggestion posting on the Roll Call (yes, pacheco, we are on the Jan. 15 sailing from Singapore) but no responses thus far. (I have to admit, we are just back in town after several weeks away, and I didn't see that there was a page 2 already - oops.)

 

I have asked if anyone has privates tours lined up and need a couple of extra could they send me their itineraries. I'm not sure what is the polite way of saying "we don't like to shop" (except for 15 minutes of look-sees), love some down time during a hectic 8 hour day (people watching at a nice cafe?), enjoy a nice hike for a beautiful view, want to see the main sites, but not ALL, like to mingle with locals etc. etc. etc. You get the idea. How do you match up your preferences with those of strangers? (We certainly don't want private tours for 2!) Of course we are more than willing to be flexible (there will never be a 100% match), and there is so much to see and learn in that part of the world, I don't think we can go wrong.

 

I envy you Pacheco. You met congenial people on an Oceania cruise and have arranged your private tours together. We do that when we travel with friends . . . but this time we are on our own in unfamiliar territory. Any more suggestions would be appreciated.

[pacheco18]

We all actually met first on cc arranging private tours for the last cruise. One of the two couples is now our constant travel partner - we have 4 more cruises booked together.

 

We are world class shoppers - you would not like going with us. LOL

 

One possibility is for you to find private tours YOU like and ask others to join you. Many people do not book as far ahead as we do and will be happy for you to do the work. You do not have to confirm until you have the number of people you want for the tour to make financial sense. If you send out the itinerary for the tour, you will likely get some takers. That's what I did for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise and we added 2 more couples to each of our private tours, lowering the price, and giving us the opportunity to make new friends. We also joined someone else's private tour. I know it's a crap shoot as to who will be on the tour with you, but look what happened to us? We made lifelong friends.

 

We found all our private tours from the recommendations on the Asia boards and everything was easily arranged by email.

[Palmetto Lady]

We usually do the shop's excursions especially in places like Asia and North Africa. We are always concerned about getting back to the ship on time unless the city is within walking distance of the ship. We are concerned about being stuck somewhere because the tour operator's vehicle broke down or ran out of gas.

Because my husband had been ill on our Hong Kong to Athens trip, we booked a private car through the ship's excursion desk. Because we were traveling with friends, we split the cost and it was only a little more expensive than the ship's group tours. Except for one tour, we were happy with the ship's tours.

I'm a shopper, so don't mind the shopping stops.

[Aruba]

The wall in the picture above is full of Loony Tunes characters. "Loony"...how appropriate! :D

 

One thing to consider if you are concerned about a particular excursion being cancelled due to lack of participation (this happens often to us if we are booking "active" excursions like kayaking, biking, horseback riding etc) is to choose excursions that are also included in the "Discovery" or "Explorer" collection of excursions. Those are the packages of multiple excursions for a single, discounted price. You know in advance that it's highly likely they will be running, so if an individual excursion you're interested in is on one of those 2 lists, you should be safe.

[wripro]

IN SE Asia, especially Viet Nam, it is much wiser to arrange private excursions. Not only will you see more, and what you want when you want, but you will pay less for it. In my hundreds of days of cruising, 90% of which I used private excursions for, I have never been late for the ship or even come close, even when the ship was three hours away i.e. Tianjin for Beijing, Cai Lin for Hanoi etc. Imo, life is too short to worry about what could happen.

 

As for shopping on tours, of course the shipping line gets a cut. That's the beauty of a private excursion. You're the boss, not Oceania.

[frqttrvlr09]

OP: I am on your cruise (as well as the IST-CPT and CPT-SGP cruises) and am/have arranged, or am joining, private shore excursions in virtually every port. I agree with all of the comments that have been made in this thread. There are pros and cons to the ship's excursions; cancellations, cost, number of people, lack of flexibility being the cons. If you go to Roll Call for Nautica you can see my posts and email me. There are others who are arranging private shore excursions as well. I have arranged or joined these smaller shore excursions because I wanted specific itineraries/activities, smaller groups, and also they were cheaper. I did not want to visit batik, etc. factories, but I did want to go to markets, specific museums, etc. Also, the private trips are longer than those offered by the ship, particularly snorkeling trips (which I also arranged to scuba dive on).

 

The ship-arranged tours with shopping excursions are, as noted, often a trap. As was discussed very accurately in another recent thread, an example is Ephesus. After a very good excursion with an excellent guide, at the end of the tour he announced that we were going to have a special opportunity to see how Turkish rugs were made, and were led into a rug shop near the port. There indeed was an interesting demonstration, and then we sat around and were served our choice of tea, wine, etc. while employees brought in samples of various types of rugs. It was clearly a sales pitch, but one that I got sucked into. i had not planned to buy a rug, but in fact I bought 3, after extensive "bargaining", at much reduced costs because it was "at the end of the tourist season" and they were "emptying their inventory." There was of course one "special " rug that was brought out that was the cost of a nice car. When I was told the cost, I laughed and said I needed a new car. What ho! The actual seller of the rug, which was quite small and really a work of art which was framable, just happened to be around, and was summoned by cell phone. He was eager to bargain as he said, through the rug merchant translator, he needed to pay the tuition for his daughter attending Brown University! I am now glad I bought the rugs as they are beautiful, I think I got them at quite a bargain, but at the same time, I resented not knowing we were going to be stopping at this shop and getting what was a high pressure sales pitch. I also did not have credit cards with me so I had to go back to the ship to get them, trailed by the rug merchants' young nephew. I felt like I was engaged in an illicit transaction. Similarly, in Malta, the tour of the Dingli cliffs, et al involves a stop at the Handicraft Village, which is really simply a glass retail shop and a jewelry shop, where you have a very short period of time to power shop. Again, I got some great deals on glass, and jewelry; the glass was beautiful and much cheaper than in Venice, but it was not a handicraft village at all. In fact, there are some nice shops in the Old Town in the walled city in Malta that have nice glass as well.

[LHT28]

I have asked if anyone has privates tours lined up and need a couple of extra could they send me their itineraries. I'm not sure what is the polite way of saying "we don't like to shop" (except for 15 minutes of look-sees), love some down time during a hectic 8 hour day (people watching at a nice cafe?), enjoy a nice hike for a beautiful view, want to see the main sites, but not ALL, like to mingle with locals etc. etc. etc. .

 

Just put that in your message looking for tours to share.... no or minimal shopping & a food break

When I organize a tour I try to make sure there is a coffee stop/lunch stop or I will have one cranky hubby on my hands

 

If you do not like the tour offered keep looking there is bound to be some that will share the same idea

 

enjoy the cruise

 

Lyn

[pacheco18]

OP: I am on your cruise (as well as the IST-CPT and CPT-SGP cruises) and am/have arranged, or am joining, private shore excursions in virtually every port. I agree with all of the comments that have been made in this thread. There are pros and cons to the ship's excursions; cancellations, cost, number of people, lack of flexibility being the cons. If you go to Roll Call for Nautica you can see my posts and email me. There are others who are arranging private shore excursions as well. I have arranged or joined these smaller shore excursions because I wanted specific itineraries/activities, smaller groups, and also they were cheaper. I did not want to visit batik, etc. factories, but I did want to go to markets, specific museums, etc. Also, the private trips are longer than those offered by the ship, particularly snorkeling trips (which I also arranged to scuba dive on).

 

The ship-arranged tours with shopping excursions are, as noted, often a trap. As was discussed very accurately in another recent thread, an example is Ephesus. After a very good excursion with an excellent guide, at the end of the tour he announced that we were going to have a special opportunity to see how Turkish rugs were made, and were led into a rug shop near the port. There indeed was an interesting demonstration, and then we sat around and were served our choice of tea, wine, etc. while employees brought in samples of various types of rugs. It was clearly a sales pitch, but one that I got sucked into. i had not planned to buy a rug, but in fact I bought 3, after extensive "bargaining", at much reduced costs because it was "at the end of the tourist season" and they were "emptying their inventory." There was of course one "special " rug that was brought out that was the cost of a nice car. When I was told the cost, I laughed and said I needed a new car. What ho! The actual seller of the rug, which was quite small and really a work of art which was framable, just happened to be around, and was summoned by cell phone. He was eager to bargain as he said, through the rug merchant translator, he needed to pay the tuition for his daughter attending Brown University! I am now glad I bought the rugs as they are beautiful, I think I got them at quite a bargain, but at the same time, I resented not knowing we were going to be stopping at this shop and getting what was a high pressure sales pitch. I also did not have credit cards with me so I had to go back to the ship to get them, trailed by the rug merchants' young nephew. I felt like I was engaged in an illicit transaction. Similarly, in Malta, the tour of the Dingli cliffs, et al involves a stop at the Handicraft Village, which is really simply a glass retail shop and a jewelry shop, where you have a very short period of time to power shop. Again, I got some great deals on glass, and jewelry; the glass was beautiful and much cheaper than in Venice, but it was not a handicraft village at all. In fact, there are some nice shops in the Old Town in the walled city in Malta that have nice glass as well.

 

 

The rug story is reason enough to book a private tour wherever possible! LOL

[caroak]

Even the private tours take a stab at the rug places. We did agree and enjoyed watching how they weave the rugs and knew we would never be talked into buy one. We spent no more than five minutes actually looking at the rugs and they were not pushy.

[pacheco18]

Even the private tours take a stab at the rug places. We did agree and enjoyed watching how they weave the rugs and knew we would never be talked into buy one. We spent no more than five minutes actually looking at the rugs and they were not pushy.

 

But on the private tour you can decide not to go to the shop at all or when to leave. On the ship sponsored tour you are at the mercy of the tour guide. That is a huge benefit IMO.

[tropicalkerry2002]

I also enjoyed the demonstration, and even hubby didn't mind it!

I wish I COULD have afforded a small rug, they were gorgeous. I asked if they had a placemat or coaster I could buy(dunno if they got the joke!), and we got out no problem!