kimstew49 Posted March 5, 2012 #1 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I have been going back in forth, driving my husband crazy, between Crystal Symphony and the Marina for our cruise to Northern Europe. I have read a few posts stating that Oceania Marina does not do shore excursions well at all. They also do not offer the day trip to Moscow on the 8/11 sailing. Any feedback your experience with shore excursions on the Marina would be greatly appreciated. This is a port intensive cruise and it would be miserable to deal with poorly run tenders and excursions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted March 5, 2012 #2 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I wouldn't say that Marina doesn't do shore excursions "well at all" but rather that -- as with the "R" ships, too -- shore excursions are on the expensive side for what you get, and many passengers prefer to form up groups and have smaller private tours. I would suggest you find the roll call for your cruise and check that out. There may be people looking for more participants in tours they are setting up. Back in Renaissance days a Moscow tour was offered from St. Petersburg (this was in May 2001) but it was cancelled when they didn't have enough people sign up. That may be the case with your cruise. If in general a tour doesn't sell well I could see where it just wouldn't be offered. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted March 5, 2012 #3 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I have been going back in forth, driving my husband crazy, between Crystal Symphony and the Marina for our cruise to Northern Europe. I have read a few posts stating that Oceania Marina does not do shore excursions well at all. They also do not offer the day trip to Moscow on the 8/11 sailing. Any feedback your experience with shore excursions on the Marina would be greatly appreciated. This is a port intensive cruise and it would be miserable to deal with poorly run tenders and excursions. The important thing to understand is that NO cruise line actually "does" its own shore excursions...In fact, just about every cruise line, perhaps EVERY cruise line, uses the SAME tour providers in each port... The same companies providing tours to Carnival or Royal Caribbean or NCL are also providing, basically, the same tours to Celebrity and Oceania and Crystal and Seabourne... Cruise lines do not have buses and vans and tour guides on the wait in each port for the few times a month their ships pull into port... So, these local companies handle these things on a contract basis for all of the cruise lines...why the same guys? There are simply not that many tour providers in any port who can accommodate the demands of a large ship...tour companies who "check out" for safety record and vehicle maintenance and insurance...the shore excursions department at each line knows who those companies are and that is who they all use... The only real differences in doing shorexes with Oceania or shorexes with some other lines are: 1) Pricing...Each cruise line figures out how much a premium it must charge above what the local provider charges in order to make sense for them...So, the pricing on the same tour line to line may differ... 2) Selection...How many different shorexes each ship may offer is really dependent on the number of passengers on the ship...If you have 3,000 passengers, you may sell 1,500 shorexes in a given port, so you can likely offer more options...If you have 600, you may sell only 300 shorexes--and you most likely can only offer a few options... All that said, we've found that the better option in most of these ports is often to go with a private small group tour... Go to the Cruise Critic Roll Call for your cruise and see if there are groups forming or if you can start a group...The Ports of Call boards is a good place to find tour guide recommendations... It is often much easier to tour with, say, 6 or 8 people in a van than 30 to 40 on a bus...the itinerary can be tailored to your liking, the tour can move more at your desired pace, you can actually hear your tour guide, etc. We've done private tours in St. Petersburg and Warnemunde and Amsterdam and, fot the most part, they work out much better than the shore excursions...though we have had some excellent shore excursions as well...We had a guide in Amsterdam who put together a tour that none of the offered shore excursions came close to in terms of content and quality... Good luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted March 5, 2012 #4 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Most Oceania cruisers are the DIY type The shorex by the cruise ships are usually fine..we have done a few but prefer to DIY with smaller groups (12 max) I would look at the roll calls for both cruise you are considering & see what private tours others are doing Enjoy whatever cruise you choose Lyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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