Oceania Excursions on Nautica

[londonmo]

We have just booked the Nautica on March 10 Beijing to Rome. Our first Oceania voyage. It would seem that everyone thinks their excursions are too expensive. Nobody has mentioned if they are done well or not. Would appreciate some input. Thank you.

[LHT28]

We have done a few ship's tours & they have been fine

It may depend on the ports & what is available to them

 

We usually join the roll call & do private tours with others

 

It is where ever your comfort zone is

[Bashful3]

Beijing to Rome is an ambitious itinerary to try to plan private tours. I will answer your question about quality, but suggest that you post the same questionon the Nautica Roll Call for your cruise.

That way, folks who have done a similar tour earlier could answer

your question.

 

We just returned from a Lands of Time

Barcelona-Istanbul tour. I could not go on the Oceania tours

due to their inability toplan tours for a traveler like me with

mobility challenges. But, myhusband reported to me that on his

Ephasus tour, the guide simply walked away for a long period of

time, and was not effective when we was conducinting the tour.

He also felt the Knossis tour in Crete was quite poor. Now, those

are two regular destinations for Oceania, where private tours rhar

others took were excellent. A friend I made on board payed lot

of money for an Istanbul tour, and reported that her guide

took them to a museum, pointed to the archeological wing on one

side of themuseum, and to another wing, looked at her watch,

and told the group she would meet them at that spot in 90 minutes! Now, there is no excuse for that.

 

In Jerusalem, our private tour in a Mercedes Van was able to get

inside one of the gates, saving walking time, whereas the large

bus of the ship's tour could not. Our tour was quite good; I heard complaints about the Oceania tours in Jerusalem, including

being rushed. Jerusalem would have been a good choice for

a private tour vs the ship's tour. 10 people in a van makes

for far less waiting time while a large bus discharges and re loads

passengers.

 

 

On our Panama Canal cruise this past May-June, my husband

reported that his two tours through mangrove swamps were just

plain uncomfortable and poor. It is possible that Oceania runs

poor tours in some ports, but not in others, but our experience

has been spotty at best on the three Oceania cruises we enjoyed thoroughly, other than the shore tour experiences.

 

On our Barcelona-Istanbul cruise, the private tours that I arranged

were excellent, and cost about half as much as the Oceania tours

that those who took them did complain about . With that said,

arranging the private tours was a lot of work! I happened to have

the time and motivation to do it, but you might not choose to do

that. Without that effort, one could wind up with a private tour

that would also be s0-so.

 

A further thought. Some sites are very far from the port the ship

docks at. If our tour hadn't cancelled the Egyptian ports, I

was not willing to have my husband take the risk of missing

the ship's leaving port if he had chosen a private tour. For Egypt,

we would have taken Oceania tours only. Too much risk.

[orchestrapal]

If you go to search at the top of this page you will find many threads on the topic. Bottom line is they are expensive and many are not up to par. Your own planned tours or those with folks on your Roll Call will be much more enjoyable and most probably cheaper.

[wannaberetired]

I have used a mixture of Oceania's tours and private tours on 2 trips. On the Athens to Istanbul trip, the tours were better, on the recent 9/12 Lisbon to Rome trip they were just average. After the 9/12 tour, I decided to book my own tours in the future unless there is a visa issue with using a private tour company (heard this could be the case in St. Petersburg but still checking into it). I would go with the private tours if you can - check on the roll call and see if you can share with others. The Oceania tours are so expensive - it would be fine if they were really good, but they are just average. If you do choose private tours, you may want to ask your TA for suggestions.

[Mura]

Wannabe, if you use Red October, Denrus, et al., in St. Petersburg they provide the visas for you -- just as O does for the ship's tour people.

 

We did something similar in Sochi in August and it worked out just fine. THERE, our tour organizer submitted all names and passport numbers in advance and then we went through passport control as a group. I've heard it works somewhat differently in St. P., but it does work.

 

To the comment that "all ship's tours are bad" (or words to that effect), I would have to differ even though I myself prefer private tours. With only one or two exceptions we've had very good ship's tours. Very occasionally there was a problem. My main objection to the bus tours is due to your having too many companions, but not everyone feels that way. We usually do a combination of mostly private tours with a few ship's tours, depending on the itinerary.

 

There ARE people in CC who prefer ship's tours just from the "safety" angle -- by that I mean you know that if your bus gets back late, the ship will still be there!

 

Mura

[Takyla]

I've done both, "O" and private..got to say that we found the private tours much easier to work with in terms of smaller groups and interesting guides as compared to some of the bored "O" guides. Also they were less expensive.

The worst tour guide we've ever had was on a Casablanca to Rabat on Marina's inaugural cruise. Felt we were ripped off for the cost of the excursion through "O".

[taxjam]

We have just booked the Nautica on March 10 Beijing to Rome. Our first Oceania voyage. It would seem that everyone thinks their excursions are too expensive. Nobody has mentioned if they are done well or not. Would appreciate some input. Thank you.

 

I use private excursions wherever feasible. On our 21 day July 2012 Oceania cruise to Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Shetland Islands, Dublin, Belfast, Isle of Skye, etc. I did 5 private excursions and 8 ship's excursions because some of the ports had poor tourist infrastructure, concern over delays getting back to port, concern over whether the ship would skip the port and tour operators had a bad cancel policy, and Oceania had a deal if I bought 8 in advance I saved 25%. The results were 2 very good, 4 average, 2 very poor; all overpriced and I would prefer smaller groups.

[pacheco18]

How good can any ship's tour be if you are traveling in groups of 50 in large buses, going where THEY want to take you, with fellow cruisers that you might not wish to be with and with a guide not of your own choice?

 

Given how ridiculously expensive O's tours are (we were on the Nautica in May and we were astounded at what they were charging -- sometimes 4 times the cost of a terrific private tour), you will be much better off doing it on your own. If you do not like the planning, there will be those on your roll call who love to plan and you can join their tours.

 

As you can tell from the posts, these expensive tours are "hit and miss." Why take the chance when you can have some control over your touring experience?

 

On our upcoming 21 day Dubai to Rome cruise we have planned all private tours and they are fabulous. I shared the planning with a fellow cruiser who also likes to do the research and we are even meeting up in Dubai pre cruise. Fellow cruisers were quick to join our tours and they filled up more than a year in advance.

 

Do not settle for "average" or "not up to par" or a bad guide. It can ruin your experience.

[londonmo]

Thanks everyone for your input, obviously private tours are the way to go.

[Mexfolkart]

You know, I have to say that there are times when we definitely take

Oceania's tours..we did Florence on our own with them in May as well as another tour with them..we were VERY pleased and they did an excellent job! I can't remember the other tour this minute but it was so good we went to the shore Exc desk to commend them! Florence the bus got back

a little late and they waited for us. On our upcoming trip Bangkok to Dubai we have several ships tours lined up as well as private excursions..it

just depends what you want to get out of the tour. We have not had a problem with their tours and been glad to be on them when we were! When it is an iffy traffic situation we do ships tours..we have chosen

ships tour for Kuala Lumpur so we don't have to worry about the traffic

at all!They have a trip also to a private museum that we want and it seems perfect to go with them.

Sherry

[24theroad]

A last note about O tours. Oceania does not run, operate or conduct any excursions. Oceania hires a local company to do all the work. Some are good, some are bad and some are the only game in small ports.

 

Most Oceania tours have a crew member along as an escort...simply to step in if there is an emergency and to be the eyes and ears for Oceania. Having escorted many O excursions I can tell you that there is a four page form that we fill out after every tour...from cleanliness, to audio system, to guest reactions to what worked and especially what didn't. If there is a pattern of unhappiness or poor operations then O will change operators.

 

It is a very dynamic field and it is always changing....operators come and go, guides come and go, passengers approve or dont....so every cruise is different. There are many threads about the pricing and you can comment and follow the debate there.

 

With close to a hundred excursions both as an escort and a paying guest I can truthfully say that we have had some fabulous, wonderful excursions and some dreadful ones. I suspect the same can be said for private tours. As someone said a mix of the two usually means a great cruise!

Happy Cruising,

Harry

[elizabethannie]

What is the ships roll call? we are joining Nautica in November and would be interested in sharing tours,especially in Jordan. I feel Petra might be too difficult with tours quoting 4 or 5 hours walking. 4 x4 jeep safaris sounds good. has anyone done this?

 

 

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[LHT28]

What is the ships roll call? we are joining Nautica in November and would be interested in sharing tours,especially in Jordan. I feel Petra might be too difficult with tours quoting 4 or 5 hours walking. 4 x4 jeep safaris sounds good. has anyone done this?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

A Roll Call is where people on the same sailing go to chat or share tours & other information on that specific sailing

 

You can find the roll call for your cruise @

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=422

just look for your sailing date & post in there

 

Enjoy

[Noxequifans]

There are positive sides to O offered excursions. Easy of booking with insured operators. Also, last year we decided not to go on an O excursion we had paid for and had no problem canceling 2 days before while on board. Also, while a small group may sound attractive, smaller vehicles may not take the road as well as larger vehicles on some terrains. In short, I don't believe there is a perfect answer to the question that fits all.

[Mura]

What is the ships roll call? we are joining Nautica in November and would be interested in sharing tours,especially in Jordan. I feel Petra might be too difficult with tours quoting 4 or 5 hours walking. 4 x4 jeep safaris sounds good. has anyone done this?

 

 

We visited Petra on a small group tour when we were in Israel (on a land trip, not a cruise). The tour picked us up in Eilat and transferred us to Petra where we spent the night. The next day we went to Sinai, spent another night in Egypt, and then back to Eilat.

 

Petra is not particularly difficult walking. There is a slope (you walk down, then back up) but it's not all that steep. Besides, you can hire a donkey, horse or carriage if you don't feel up to walking. It IS possible to climb the hill, that might be where 4-5 hours of walking comes into play. Petra itself is not all that huge.

 

It's a very special place to visit. (But, as I said, I've never done it on a "ship's tour".)

 

Mura

[Floridiana]

Since the questions of private versus ship's tours comes up every so often and the people who prefer private tours are very vocal, I will chime in.

 

All of our ship's tours (Oceania, HAL, Princess, Azamara) have been good to excellent with one really bad exception in Antigua (Princess). Quite a few ship's tours were on small busses (Mexico, Guatemala, Caribbean Islands). Most of the operators have contracts with several lines, so you get the same guides and tours with whatever line you book.

 

When the destination is far from the port, we ALWAYS take a ship's tour. Too much can go wrong with traffic.

 

By the way, I consider touring a museum, a small town or a market alone, without the guide to be normal.

[Ronniewales]

In Jerusalem, our private tour in a Mercedes Van was able to get

inside one of the gates, saving walking time, whereas the large

bus of the ship's tour could not. Our tour was quite good; I heard complaints about the Oceania tours in Jerusalem, including

being rushed. Jerusalem would have been a good choice for

a private tour vs the ship's tour. 10 people in a van makes

for far less waiting time while a large bus discharges and re loads

passengers.

 

 

Who did you use for your Jerusalem tour as I am there in November on Nautica and did you do an overnight in Jerusalem