Trieste and Venice?

[Mareblu]

7 hours ago, RD64 said:

Mareblu - should you ever want to discuss anything Friuli related, feel free to email olegnad4961@gmail.com.

Grazie, RD64.  Will contact you through this week.

Mandi,

Linda

[teampierce]

 

I will be on the Nautica leaving from Trieste on May 15.  When I booked the cruise it was scheduled to depart from Venice.  After this was changed, Oceania said they would provide complimentary transfer from Venice to Trieste.  The problem is that I have spoken to my TA and Oceania and I cannot nail them down on a time for this transfer or what type of vehicle will be used.  I was told just to be at the airport "around 11AM" and I should be able to find the shuttle.  Does anyone know the exact time of the shuttle departure, where it will be and what it will look like?  This uncertainty has caused me more anxiety than any other part of the cruise. Thanks.

 

[basor]

1 hour ago, teampierce said:

 

 

I will be on the Nautica leaving from Trieste on May 15.  When I booked the cruise it was scheduled to depart from Venice.  After this was changed, Oceania said they would provide complimentary transfer from Venice to Trieste.  The problem is that I have spoken to my TA and Oceania and I cannot nail them down on a time for this transfer or what type of vehicle will be used.  I was told just to be at the airport "around 11AM" and I should be able to find the shuttle.  Does anyone know the exact time of the shuttle departure, where it will be and what it will look like?  This uncertainty has caused me more anxiety than any other part of the cruise. Thanks.

 

• We left Trieste on Marina in November and, from other travelers, the transfer from the Venice airport was via buses.  There were Oceania representatives very visible at the airport, they were directed to a bus when they arrived and, when the bus was full, it left for Trieste.  There were no "scheduled" times so if the buss was full, it could leave.  I believe the last bus left around 1PM......if you arrive at the airport around 11AM, you will be fine.
•  

 

[curmudgeon98]

On 4/24/2022 at 7:11 AM, teampierce said:

 

 

I will be on the Nautica leaving from Trieste on May 15.  When I booked the cruise it was scheduled to depart from Venice.  After this was changed, Oceania said they would provide complimentary transfer from Venice to Trieste.  The problem is that I have spoken to my TA and Oceania and I cannot nail them down on a time for this transfer or what type of vehicle will be used.  I was told just to be at the airport "around 11AM" and I should be able to find the shuttle.  Does anyone know the exact time of the shuttle departure, where it will be and what it will look like?  This uncertainty has caused me more anxiety than any other part of the cruise. Thanks.

 

There are a number of cruise lines doing this kind of thing with the shifts to Trieste and Ravenna.  I would just go to the arrivals area (after baggage claim) and look for the person with the Oceania sign.  It's really no different than people flying in that day with transfers arranged.  The standard mode is that they will have several busses arranged, and as people arrive on various flights they will fill up one bus at a time and send it off.

[teampierce]

Thank you @basor and @curmudgeon98!

[daleandrews]

On 4/7/2022 at 5:43 PM, daleandrews said:

We are booked on the November 1 through 19 Mediterranean cruise on Marina, our first cruise with Oceania.  The cruise was originally scheduled to have two days in Venice, though we were not surprised to see the port changed to Trieste given the present docking restrictions in Venice.  We have never visited Venice and were planning to book an all day tour through Oceania, a couple of which were offered (without prices) for the last few weeks.  I note that today prices have been posted for offered tours but now none of the Trieste tours presently listed are for excursions to Venice.  We have never seen Venice and would hate to miss it.  Query:  Have others on Oceania cruises visited Venice from Trieste on O-offered tours?  Is it likely that Oceania will add more tours as we get closer to our cruise dates?  I know we could book independently but Marina is currently scheduled to leave Trieste at 6:00 p.m. and I am a little worried about booking with a company other than Oceania at this port for fear of, err, "missing the boat."

As noted in the quoted material, I started this thread back in April concerning the possibility of Oceania offering Venice shore excursions while Marina is docked in Trieste.  I have been checking daily since April waiting to see if such excursions might eventually be offered.  

 

A couple weeks ago it occurred to me that since we were taking an 18 day cruise (November 1 through 19) composed of several segments I should check smaller segments.  Lo and behold I found that Venice excursions WERE offered on the November 1 through 11 Marina segment which (obviously) was scheduled for Trieste the same day we were.  I called Oceania to ask if I could book one of those tours and was told that this was not possible until the tours were loaded onto the November 1 through 19 itinerary.  They promised that the shore excursions office would be asked to do this.  I continued checking and (to make a long story shorter) called three more times, weekly, with similar unsuccessful results.  Finally, however, the Venice tours were added for our November 1 through 19 booking today, June 24.  

 

I mention all of this to (1) let anyone else on the itinerary know of this availability, and (2) to let everyone know that the glitch that led to our experience could be a recurring one -- so be forewarned in the context of other bookings.

[su-arizona]

Now that I've completed the cruise from Trieste (formerly Venice) to Rome, I thought I'd take a moment to let everyone know what the trip was like.  We spent 3 very nice days in Venice as we'd originally planned.  My clever TA found a flight arriving at Marco Polo airport from the US early in the day we were to depart from Trieste, told O that we were arriving on that flight, and advised us to be in the arrival area at the time of that flight's arrival.  Because we stayed in Venice for three days pre-cruise, we had to take another Covid test to board the Marina.  FYI we used proctored Binax Now tests and they worked flawlessly from Venice.

We took a taxi back to the airport, and found the Oceania rep after some searching. Our bags, and those of a number of other passengers, were loaded on a large bus.  We weren't given any tickets for the bags, and it was all a bit chaotic, but not too bad. 

The bus trip from Venice to Trieste was about 1.5 hours and fairly boring.

The arrival in Trieste was another story.  We were dropped at a terminal and had to climb several flights of stairs to a truly awful checkin.  While we looked at "SailSafe" banners, we waited in a long unmasked un-socially distanced line to have our PRE-CRUISE COVID tests checked.  THEN we waited in another line for a security check.  THEN we climbed down a couple flights of stairs to wait in yet another line for yet another bus to take us to the ship.  Our bags (even carry-ons) we apparently/hopefully loaded from bus to bus, but we had no receipts for them.

Finally got to the ship and our cabin, and had our usual lunch in Waves.  Back to the cabin, but no bags had arrived (in our penthouse, which is supposed to provide early bag delivery).  About an hour later (about 3 hours after we arrived in Trieste) my husband's bags arrived.  He unpacked as I waited for my bags.  As the ship prepared to depart, my bags had still not arrived, so I began to search for them.  Finally found them as the ship began to leave dock and took them to my cabin.   The butler was horrified but unhelpful as I brought by own bags to my cabin.

The entire embarkation experience was the worst we've experienced in 7 Oceania cruises.  It was so nasty that I cancelled my next cruise (on Vista) which was scheduled to depart from Trieste.  To add insult to injury. I had received notice that the Vista cruise would depart from Trieste (instead of Venice) about a week before we departed for the Marina cruise.

It was the worst embarkation we've ever experienced, and simply put, I will NEVER embark from Trieste again.  Expect that things will get a little better over time, but Trieste is simply not ready to be a major cruise port.

 

[basor]

51 minutes ago, su-arizona said:

Now that I've completed the cruise from Trieste (formerly Venice) to Rome, I thought I'd take a moment to let everyone know what the trip was like.  We spent 3 very nice days in Venice as we'd originally planned.  My clever TA found a flight arriving at Marco Polo airport from the US early in the day we were to depart from Trieste, told O that we were arriving on that flight, and advised us to be in the arrival area at the time of that flight's arrival.  Because we stayed in Venice for three days pre-cruise, we had to take another Covid test to board the Marina.  FYI we used proctored Binax Now tests and they worked flawlessly from Venice.

We took a taxi back to the airport, and found the Oceania rep after some searching. Our bags, and those of a number of other passengers, were loaded on a large bus.  We weren't given any tickets for the bags, and it was all a bit chaotic, but not too bad. 

The bus trip from Venice to Trieste was about 1.5 hours and fairly boring.

The arrival in Trieste was another story.  We were dropped at a terminal and had to climb several flights of stairs to a truly awful checkin.  While we looked at "SailSafe" banners, we waited in a long unmasked un-socially distanced line to have our PRE-CRUISE COVID tests checked.  THEN we waited in another line for a security check.  THEN we climbed down a couple flights of stairs to wait in yet another line for yet another bus to take us to the ship.  Our bags (even carry-ons) we apparently/hopefully loaded from bus to bus, but we had no receipts for them.

Finally got to the ship and our cabin, and had our usual lunch in Waves.  Back to the cabin, but no bags had arrived (in our penthouse, which is supposed to provide early bag delivery).  About an hour later (about 3 hours after we arrived in Trieste) my husband's bags arrived.  He unpacked as I waited for my bags.  As the ship prepared to depart, my bags had still not arrived, so I began to search for them.  Finally found them as the ship began to leave dock and took them to my cabin.   The butler was horrified but unhelpful as I brought by own bags to my cabin.

The entire embarkation experience was the worst we've experienced in 7 Oceania cruises.  It was so nasty that I cancelled my next cruise (on Vista) which was scheduled to depart from Trieste.  To add insult to injury. I had received notice that the Vista cruise would depart from Trieste (instead of Venice) about a week before we departed for the Marina cruise.

It was the worst embarkation we've ever experienced, and simply put, I will NEVER embark from Trieste again.  Expect that things will get a little better over time, but Trieste is simply not ready to be a major cruise port.

 

 I am sorry that your embarkation experience was so terrible....we embarked on Marina from Trieste and had a completely different experience,.  It was very smooth and easy.

[ChadnKate]

On 7/3/2022 at 12:40 AM, basor said:

 I am sorry that your embarkation experience was so terrible....we embarked on Marina from Trieste and had a completely different experience,.  It was very smooth and easy.

Hope that continues as we board the Vista there next May 20th. Arrive Venice on the 17th and have a private transfer booked for the 20th. It's a bit pricy so hoping one other couple wants to share.