Back from Nautica June 27 Barcelona to Istanbul

[Bruin Steve]

Thoroughly enjoyed your descriptively detailed review. We are looking forward to touring in some of your same ports next April. Regarding the Hotel Continental, was it the Placete or the other listed as the Barcelona? Both seem to be near the Placa Catalunya and I wanted to be sure before booking. Thanking you in advance for your response!

 

This was the "Continental", not the Continental Palacete. The Continental is right on Las Ramblas while the Palacete (same ownership) is across Placa Catalunya and a couple of short blocks to the north on Rambla Catalunya--which is not to be confused with "Las Ramblas"...A little newer hotel than the original Continental we stayed in.

[CintiPam]

Thanks for your informative posts regarding your trip.

 

I guess by the time listed on your first post this morning (6:08 AM:eek:), you are jet-lagged to a fare-thee-well. Good luck on getting your body's clock back to LA time!

[MightyQuinn]

Wonderful review Bruin Steve. Your vivid descriptions of the ship & ports are superb. I have a couple of questions about Barcelona.

 

1) Where did the ship dock? WTC or Quai Adossat?

2) Is Tablao de Carmen anywhere near the Magic Fountains at Montjuic?

 

Thanks again. :):)

[Bruin Steve]

1) Where did the ship dock? WTC or Quai Adossat?

WTC--very convenient for those wishing to go back out to sightsee after checking in.

 

2) Is Tablao de Carmen anywhere near the Magic Fountains at Montjuic?

Real close...Look at a map of Barcelona for El Poble Espanyol...From the Magic Fountains, you'd follow Avinguda del Marques Comillas west a few hundred meters...

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Font+Magica+de+Montjuic,+Barcelona&daddr=Avinguda+Marqu%C3%A8s+De+Comillas+13,+08038+Barcelona,+Spain+(Poble+Espanyol)&geocode=%3BFWU_dwId8sYgACFjC5sC54em0A&hl=en&mra=cc&dirflg=w&sll=41.37053,2.149715&sspn=0.004179,0.007263&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=17

[MightyQuinn]

WTC--very convenient for those wishing to go back out to sightsee after checking in.

 

Look at a map of Barcelona for El Poble Espanyol...From the Magic Fountains, you'd follow Avinguda del Marques Comillas west a few hundred meters...

Thank you so much. Just the answers I wanted to hear! We've been to Barcelona before & managed to avoid the flamenco shows. But this time I'm trying to convince my DH to go. My odds improve if I can roll it into seeing the Magic Fountains. ;);)

[Bonbeak]

Did the ship do an overnight to Cairo?

 

Did the ship do a full day Port Said/Cairo? excursion? What hotel did they use most probably for lunch on that excursion?

[Bruin Steve]

Did the ship do an overnight to Cairo?

 

Did the ship do a full day Port Said/Cairo? excursion? What hotel did they use most probably for lunch on that excursion?

 

The ship had NO overnight offerings in Cairo.

[LindaM]

Steve,

 

I was especially interested in your review of Nautica as we are getting ready to reserve their new Greek Isles sailing in Sept 2010. We have never sailed Oceania, but their unusual itineraries piqued our interest. We were supposed to sail with you on a Baltic cruise last summer. We had to cancel due to my husband needing neck surgery. I had read that you ended up leaving that cruise early. We are getting ready to go on the Prinsendam---starting with sailing down the Thames, to Belgium, Portugal , Spain, France, Italy.

 

I was sorry to hear you didn't like Crete---we had looked forward to going there, but will avoid Knossos and choose something where we can see the beauty of the island. Our highlight on Cyprus was visiting a little village, whose name escapes me. To tell you the truth, we get tired of ruins!! We too stayed at the Conrad in Istanbul, but will stay at the Swisshotel this time. Hope we aren't too disappointed. We love Istanbul!!

 

Linda MI

[mamabear1625]

Thanks Steve for your honest and upbeat review. We are thinking of this trip next June 2010 so will take to heart many of your observations. We just got back from the Oceania Regatta 15-day Baltic cruise, Stockholm to London so if you would like any information, let me know.

[PhoenixBuff]

Thanks for your outstanding review, Steve. We're taking the same itinerary in three weeks (on the Insignia) and it was great to see what we could expect, particularly where ports of call are concerned. We've never cruised with Oceania before, so we were pleased to see your comments there as well.

 

We've already lined up private tours in Egypt (with a Cairo overnight) and in Kusadasi, but will contact your guys in Israel and Tunisia given your recommendation. If there's anything further you can enlighten us on where this (or anything else) is concerned, it'd be great to hear your thoughts.

[gtragitt]

The guide that Steve was assigned in Tunisia was Ben El Hedi Ridha if you contact Chris Sheridan to book an excursion in Tunisia. I found Ben to be an excellent tour guide. Chris also scheduled us to be with Christina in Malta. I apologize for not getting her last name.She was fabulous. Her English was impecable, and she was easily understood.

[happy cruzer]

Hi Steve and G,

 

Great reports from the cruise.

 

Was the cruise full? Do you know how many passengers were onboard? Just wondering if O is filling up the ships.

 

Also G mentioned extra dining in the specialty restaurants. Was it hard to get extra reservations? some have reported some issues with that.

 

Thanks!

[gtragitt]

I think there were slightly over 600 passengers when we left Barcelona. I think Steve has the actual numbers. I also believe that some additional passengers boarded in Malta. Our cruise gained some of the Princess passengers that were left without a cruise due to a fire.

 

The downside to lack of passengers is the loss of income to crew members that rely on gratuities. Also there is a danger that cruise lines may need to make expenditure cuts if the occupancy levels drop. From the immediate result it was nice to have a relaxed less crowded atmosphere. Even if the ship was full Oceania Crises are more relaxed than others I have experienced. Also lower occupancies make discounts a greater possibility.

[Bruin Steve]

With about 3 or 4 weeks until sailing, the ship was only 82% sold--approximately 560 passengers. Onboard, at the start of the cruise, I heard that we had picked up 40 something passengers previously booked onto Royal Princess. I heard at the start of the cruise, we had 610...

 

We did pick up additional passengers at the first couple of ports...I saw some of them check in. My guess is that these may have been more former Royal Princess passengers. For those who don't know, the Royal had a fire in the engine room during it previous cruise. The June 25 sailing of the Royal was supposed to also go to Egypt and Israel....but on an Athens to Venice itinerary...That cruise was canceled with only about 3 days notice...Some of the passengers were already doing pre-cruise trips in Europe...Those wishing to tranfer over to our cruise had to scramble for alternative air and hotel arrangements to get to Barcelona and home from Istanbul...

 

I'm guessing some folks couldn't get it all together in time to meet us in Barcelona but managed to get to Malta for a slightly shorter cruise...but, at least, they didn't suffer the disappointment of no cruise at all...

 

I also heard that we picked up some passengers in Israel...Not sure if these were re-routed Royal passengers ...or just that with empty cabins they sold some partial cruises...

 

In any event, LATE in the cruise, I heard a number thrown out that there were 640 on board...but this was just "hearsay"...I cannot verify the exact numbers...

 

Needless to say, the ship seemed even more uncrowded than last time we were on it...And I am sure the folks at Oceania are looking forward to a return to the full sailings of years past...

[mamabear1625]

We just returned from the Oceania cruise Stockholm to London, and I believe we were told there were about 618 on board, less than the close to 700 capacity.

 

Everything was very uncrowded, and we didn't see a lineup once in 14 days to anything.

[meow!]

Everything was very uncrowded, and we didn't see a lineup once in 14 days to anything.

That is nice. Imagine within a couple of years, there will be two large new ships more than doubling the capacity. Perhaps it will be even less crowded and fares may well go down further!

[gtragitt]

I was sorry to hear you didn't like Crete---we had looked forward to going there, but will avoid Knossos and choose something where we can see the beauty of the island. Our highlight on Cyprus was visiting a little village, whose name escapes me. To tell you the truth, we get tired of ruins!! We too stayed at the Conrad in Istanbul, but will stay at the Swisshotel this time. Hope we aren't too disappointed. We love Istanbul!!

 

Linda MI

 

I rarely disagree with Steve. Each of us has our own personal tastes. I liked both Crete and Cyprus. they were a good change of pace for me since we had intensive outings for several ports. We enjoyed being in Crete and Cyprus without any tours. I especially enjoyed walking all around the city in Crete. I also took an opportunity to use reasonably priced internet cafes in both ports. Both had reasonable bandwidth unlike the ship.

 

I had not previously been to those ports. I chose this itinerary because there were ports that I previously had not experienced. I had previously been to Barcelona many times, Cairo, Kusadasi and Istanbul.

[brian_uk]

Somwhere on this thread you mention jtours.com as your guides in Israel.

 

I have not been able to find them. Was there an error in your posting.

 

We are going to Tel Aviv over New Year and would like to use Joel Berman.

 

Brian

[Bruin Steve]

Somwhere on this thread you mention jtours.com as your guides in Israel.

 

I have not been able to find them. Was there an error in your posting.

 

We are going to Tel Aviv over New Year and would like to use Joel Berman.

 

Brian

 

Brian, his web site is...

 

http://www.jtours.co.il/

 

Or try reaching him by email at:

 

joel (at) jtours (dot) co (dot) il

or

jtours (at) netvision (dot)co (dot) il

 

Tell him you are a friend of Steve Doshay.

 

Too bad you couldn't join us on the cruise, but I am sure you will have a nice time over New Years...The weather should be much nicer there than at home for you.

 

Take care,

Steve

[brian_uk]

Many thanks Steve for your help

 

Brian

[kinghw]

We've just booked the very similar Barcelona to Athens itinerary on Nautica for June 2010, and it's great to see the detailed ship. port and tour information from Bruin Steve and gtragitt.

 

Thanks and I'm sure there will be many questions as we start planning what looks to be a great itinerary on a splendid ship!