Barcelona to Rio De Janerio

[BC mom]

I am looking at the Dec 2010 sailing for our family - couple and 2 boys. Does anyone have any comments on the trip? What would one expect for weather in Dec? I am interested because the airfare is included. Are the air connections usually good? As well the cruiseline says it will deal with the Brazilian visa for 299 per person...is this reasonable or a cash grab?

 

Thank you for your help.

[StanandJim]

How old are "the boys"?

 

If they are too young they will be bored silly on an Oceania cruise.

There is absolutely zero provision for children on these ships

 

The same goes for the airline arrangements, if the boys are young you'll need to control how long you sit at the airport.

 

Your best bet is to research which flights suit you best, and get a price quote from the Airline.

 

Then, see what Oceania will charge you for that routing. The advertising says "Free Airfare" but there will be fees and taxes involved, as well as a fee for choosing your own flights.

 

If you do decide that you can do better financially booking the flights privately, then you pay a reduced "cruise only" price.

 

The Visa fee is much higher than doing it independantly, and about 35% more than using the service that we priced. The big advantage to doing it through Oceania is that you wont need to send your passport in.

 

The real choice lies in what level of convenience you're looking for.

[MightyQuinn]

As well the cruiseline says it will deal with the Brazilian visa for 299 per person...

I’m going to go out on a limb here & assume from your screen name that you’re Canadian from BC? If so, you can get a Visa directly through the Brazilian Consulate in Vancouver for much less than US$299. A multiple-entry Tourist Visa costs CAD$117 and is valid for up to 2 years. Or depending on the length of your visit to Brazil, you may qualify for a Transit Visa. It’s for single-entry only & valid for up to 10 days after you enter the country. It only costs CAD$36. On our recent South America cruise, we were in Brazil for 4 days so the Transit Visa worked perfectly for us. YMMV. ;);)

 

http://consbrasvancouver.wordpress.com/visas/

[tak2]

I did Lisbon to Rio in Nov 2008 on Insignia. The year before I was in Barcelona on Nov 25.

It's cool but not any more than Vancouver, and generally not as rainy. Sea a bit rough after Gibralter, about 10-15 ft seas for a day, this is based on my readings on reports of such crossing over the past 4 years. After Funchal it generally is smooth sailing, and getting warmer , up to 34 degrees celsius the next 10 days, cooling off when you're near Rio, to 25-27. Although we encountered some 10 ft seas from Recife to Rio, fellow passengers who did the same itinerary in 2006 and 2007 said it was unusually rough .

The air offered by O was a big incentive. If we were to do our own, it would have costed CAD 2900 for economy, per person. My chosen routing was YYC-FRA-LIS, and GIG( Rio)-IAH(Houston, on Continental)-YYC. I had to pay an additional USD250 per person for this, on top of air deviation( to fly there early and come home later)charges, but it's peanuts compared to 2900.

I sent my passport plus application to Brazilian Counselate in Vancouver and got it back in three weeks, I think the fee was USD80( this info is on their website)

It was a wonderful cruise BUT beware Insignia is small and has little in terms of entertainment for young people. The 9 sea days are not easy for most people that are not used to small ships.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I agree that if you're convenient to Vancouver, get your own visas. You can also do it by mail with a smallish additional fee. You have to get the visas within 90 days of your first landing in Brazil, by the way. My consular website here in Toronto says they are good for 5 years.

[potterhill]

We did this cruise in 06 and it was great. I would do it again in a New York minute!

 

We had rough seas out of Lisbon until we got to Madeira. I was wondering what we were in for, but the captain assured us it would be smoother the further South we went and it was. Couldn't possibly have been smoother. Apparently the waters around Lisbon are known to be quite rough. perhaps not as much an issue if you leave from Barcelona, I don't know.

 

It gets pretty hot around Recife and cools off again as you approach Rio.

 

The cheapest air I could find at the time was $3300 each, which was way more than we paid for the entire cruise, including air. this was from Toronto.

 

This past Nov we did Barcelona to Miami and I much prefer the more Southerly route.

 

I think we will probably do this every year once we get finished with the kidsI

 

Mo

[hondorner]

We did this cruise in November of '07. Weather was great, wore shorts in Barcelona. Seas were smooth, as I believe they generally are on this route. check out the route map -- you are actually sailing more in a southerly direction than a westerly one. You will be going through hurricane alley, but will do so after the end of hurricane season, Nov 1.

 

We let Oceania do our air with a deviation to arrive early in Barcelona. We paid the deviation fee ($75 per person), but on this trip, there was no extra cost for the custom air arrangements. There were no direct flights from Miami to Barcelona, but Oceania put us on the best available combination, Air France to Paris and connecting to Barcelona. For the trip home, all flights from Rio go through Sao Paulo, so once again we had the best possible flights -- Rio to Sao Paulo, then direct to Miami. It is our experience that when doing a deviation, Oceania will try to put you on the best possible flights.

 

One word of caution -- the "free flights" are not entirely free. Air fares are split into two categories -- the air fare itself, and taxes and fees. Oceania includes the air fare portion in the price of the cruise, but the air taxes and fees are added to you invoice in addition to the cruise fare. You need to get a quote with and without air.

 

Regarding the visa, as the other posters have stated, you are much better off getting the visa on your own. In addition to not having to pay Oceania's service fees and the fees of the visa service that Oceania uses, the price that was quoted to you was for a USA citizen. Go here for the official Brazilian Embassy in Ottawa to see the requirements. There is a link on the page to see the fees.

 

We enjoyed this trip; Gibralter was absolutely worth seeing. there was not much to see or do in the Cape Verde Islands. Recife was worth it; the port is in an industrial location, so the local government provided free shuttle buses to the downtown area, where there were plenty of taxis and such for further touring. Salvador is unique; the old city is on a bluff, which can be reached by an inclined railway or a huge elevator. Both are within walking distance of the ship. You will want to have at least a small amount of Brazilian currency to pay the tiny fee for the elevator or funicular (about 2 pesos); there is not place outside the ship to get it at Salvador, so get some in Recife the day before. You will be staying overnight on the ship in Rio. The ship's tours included the Christ Cross on the day of arrival and Sugar Loaf, Ipanema Beach and more on the next day.

 

Be advised that the airport in Rio is one of the slowest anywhere -- it is good to arrive as much as 4 hours early. Our tour put us in the airport about 3-1/2 hours early, and after waiting in lines for check-in and security that stretched the length of the terminal, we barely made our flight.

[potterhill]

I forgot to mention that we got our Visas through the consulate in Toronto. At our travel agency they were doing an escorted tour to Rio so when they dropped off those passports they took ours along. As I recall it took about 5 days. Forget what we paid, but it wasn`t $299. And it is good for 5 years.

 

We did the deviation through Oceania and refused a couple of flights. Then the one we were going to take home had us flying from Sao Paulo to Toronto direct, but no flight from Rio to Sao Paulo. Got great connections from Rio-Miami-Toronto for no charge. Only problem was we arrived in Miami to find that for that day and that day only, our flight to Toronto didn`t exist. Managed to get on a flight to Chicago and then to Toronto. I don`t blame Oceania for that screwup, but was not impressed that they (AA) made no attempt to contact us or our agent re the nonexistent flight. The whole point of this epistle is to say make sure you check your flights carefully to make sure that you have all the legs you require booked. And you can go back and forth with Oceania until you get what you want for flights at an upcharge you are happy with. We have never paid more than the deviation fee.

 

Mo

[BC mom]

Thank you for all your wonderful information. My boys at that time would be 13 and 9. We just did Alaska and the eldest wasn't interested in children's programming. The youngest went a couple times but if we brought some games along he would be ok with that as well. If there is a good swimming pool and tv(something we don't have at home), that is all they require. Our cruises have never been on the "rock climbing wall" entertainment ships. I will take all you have said and think it over. Perhaps a more port intensive itinerary should be considered. Unlike Regent that has the shore excursions included, this line does not. Are the prices on the shore excursions comparable to other major cruise lines?

[tycruiser]

We are considering the Insignia for next April, but I have some concern about the size of the ship making it somewhat smoothly across the Atlantic. It seems small and that spells rock and roll and heavy doses of dramamine.We have 9 days at sea and it sounds like entertainment is mostly lounge acts like comedians and jazz trios. I pity any child on this. I am 60 and it even sounds too quiet for me. My friend is anxious to do the itinerary. I speak Portuguese as my second language buy my friend likes to wonder off and speaks no Portuguese at all. I also wonder if Portuguese is the first language on this ship. Could any of you familiar with this itinerary advise?

Thanks

[tak2]

We are considering the Insignia for next April, but I have some concern about the size of the ship making it somewhat smoothly across the Atlantic. It seems small and that spells rock and roll and heavy doses of dramamine................. I also wonder if Portuguese is the first language on this ship. Could any of you familiar with this itinerary advise?

Thanks

 

This southern route across the atlantic is generally very calm. Perhaps a day or two of 12 ft seas, the rest 8 ft or less. I am used to taking dramamine, and on that route I took it for one day only.

 

There was no announcement in Portugese, nor any language other than English, although every port I went to on my Lisbon to Rio cruise Portugese was the official language .