the more ports the better

There is no way to get to the ship other than cable car or the donkey trail unless on a boat tour.  We took an O catermaran tour in Santorini.  It was fabulous.  Back at the dock at 2:00.  Decided to go up to shop.  Big mistake.  Cable car had a 2.5 hour line at 5:30.  Large Celebrity ship in port until 8:00.  We walked down the donkey trail.  Several injuries.  My husband is having a knee replacement in July, partly because of that donkey trail!

On your own for sure!!!  We spend time on land in Sorrento every year plus we have stopped many times on cruises.   Do not waste your time wandering this lovely area following a guide.

The tenders come in right at the ferry dock.  Ferries run several an hour and are appx a half hour long.  The ferry schedule is naplesbayferry.com. It lists all ferry companies.  You can purchase tickets online too, highly recommended, but please note, as of this past October, you still must pick up your tickets at the ticket office of your particular ferry company.  All the ticket offices are in a row at the ferry docks.

Purchase a round trip and you can pick up your return ticket at the same time.  Tickets do sell out for the most popular times when ships are in port so do purchase in advance.

In Capri, do not miss the gardens of Augustus, they have some of the best views on Capri.

Regarding the Blue Grotto, you will be bombarded with people selling tours to the Blue Grotto as soon as you get off the ferry.  You can also rent any size of a boat to take you around the island including a stop at the grotto and a stop or two for swimming.

Enjoy, Sorrento is our happy place…..

In Feb on Riveria, we were a few minutes late for a sharing table.  When we sat down I asked the husband how his day was.  He said it was good until he had to wait for us.  I looked at my watch and it was 6:33.  The doors opened at 6:30 and they had to check in and walk to the table at the rear of Toscana.  I figured the most they had to wait was 90 seconds.  
 

Later in the meal, we learned he was a retired mathematician, maybe a bit on the spectrum.  He told us of his terrible divorce and how he made sure that did not happen again by purchasing his current wife of 20 plus years from China.  He said he knew she was of “good stock” as he had worked on a project with her cousin, mind you, she was sitting right next to him during the entire conversation.  

We almost always meet wonderful people with sharing tables.  That time, it was an adventure……

For me, R ships seem much more crowded than O ships.  Have not been on vista so I can’t comment there.  I am all for more space per person but agree with everyone here, there needs to be an additional restaurant, Jacques gets my vote!!!

Bora Bora and all of the FP ports are overwhelmed by both O and R ships.  Those tiny towns cater to Paul Gauguin and Windstar.  I cruise O regularly but have done FP on both O and PG.  No comparison, is a mob scene on O and perfectly pleasant on PG.  Can’t imagine something even larger.

Thanks edgee and Pinot!!

Can you post the PDF of the itineraries on the social media site.  No social media here.

I went through the first few pages of the O thread and didn’t find the date that the new itineraries will be available.  I know it’s in there somewhere but may take a while to scroll through to find the topic.

Will someone post the date that they will be available for viewing?

Does anyone know if there is a shuttle in Lorient France?

I am the OP

I have to say, O came through as did my TA.  O gave a FCC for the penalty which was $5600 not $4500, I calculated wrong.  They applied it to the correct sailing are refunding the balance.

Final payment on the June 13 sailing was much less that I anticipated.  While my TA was working with the O rep, the O rep said she had worked on my account several times with my old TA and that I had a $3900 pp FCC.  That was a surprise to me.  
 

I had so many sailing booked and cancelled during COVID that it was hard to keep everything straight.  I had so much going on financially at work as I was in the middle of a private equity deal that I had to hire a CFO, keeping track of my FCC was kind of not on the top of my priority list.

I have to say, my TA stepped up to the plate and said she should have cancelled and O stepped up to the plate and applied the penalty to the correct sailing.

I use the largest TA company in the U.S.  They have a luxury division who really goes to bat for their clients and they do a ton of business with O.  Plus the suite has a long waitlist so O will sell the suite for much more than I paid plus penalties so….. everyone makes out in the end.

YAY!!!

That was the price when I booked early on.  The TA had nothing to do with it.  
 

O is going to make out big time at my expense.  Whoever ends up in the suite that I booked will pay considerably more than I paid. Plus they plan to keep my $4500.  Triple win for them, huge loss for me.

The deposit was supposed to be moved to the June 13 sailing.  Clearly that did not happen either.

I doubt I would win a credit card challenge.  If my TA doesn’t do the right thing, it will be they said and I said.  I do wonder if they record calls though.  I will ask.

I always communicate via email predominantly because I really dislike being stuck on the phone but my TA happened to call shortly after I found out about the wedding so I told her over the phone. I should have had her send a confirmation that she cancelled the sailing but my old TA always took care of everything so I was not too worried about it.

If it were a few hundred dollars it would be one thing but $4500 is a huge penalty.  The entire sailing is sold out and on waitlist.  Also, there are always long waitlists for Oceania Suites, including this sailing, so O will not have any problem booking the suite.  They really make out on the deal, they get a fare much higher than the one I have as I booked early, plus they get an additional $4500 for my penalty.  

I booked two sailings on Marina, June 1 and June 13, both in an OC.   Called my TA in December and let her know that our Grandson was getting married June 1 so we could only do the second sailing and to cancel the first.  Last week, final payment was due and she called me, when I was driving in the car, so I told her to pay the balance to the card on file.  
 

Yesterday, she sent an email and asked if I wanted to put the second leg on the same card.  I emailed her back and said, I already paid for the sailing, didn’t you cancelled the June 1 sailing back in December?  I didn’t hear back from her so I called a few hours later and she said I needed to pay in full for the June 13 sailing and she is working with her manager to cancel the June 1 sailing, however, I will have to pay a 25% penalty.  The sailing is over $18,000 so the penalty is more than $4500.  I said no, I am not paying another $18,000 when O already has $18,000 of my money applied to a sailing that was supposed to be cancelled months ago.  They can just transfer to the correct sailing, we just paid for it six days ago and it was her mistake.

My TA retired last year and this TA took over for her.  This is entirely the TA’s fault and Oceania is not budging on the 25% penalty.  Oceania already has my $18,000 and they are not willing to move it to the correct sailing unless they can deduct the $4500 penalty. I am just so disgusted with this TA, Oceania, and all the rules that go along with cruising, penalties, shortened port times, lack of flexibility, etc.  I’m ready to throw in the towel on cruising all together.  Things like this never happen on land trips and if I am enjoying myself somewhere, I never have to worry about leaving early to get back to the ship before sail away.

I have annual travel insurance but weddings and travel agent screw ups obviously are not covered.

Any suggestions on how I can resolve the situation without having to pay another $4500???

I should be ok.  I booked a flight that arrives at 4:30p on boarding day.  The ship doesn’t sail until the next evening at 6:00.  There are two later flights that day and six the next that can get me to Bangkok prior to sailing and the flight is only an hour.  If for some reason all flights are cancelled that day and the next, I can always hire a driver to take us the six hours back to the port.  Not ideal but there are a few people on our sailing that are driving from Bangkok to Siem Reap and back the day of boarding.

I'm basically flying in from Siem Reap a full day prior to sailing.  Worse case scenario, I board a day late and miss the first night on the ship.  In the event that there are two full days that travel is impossible either by air or land, I would bet that there will be many people missing the sailing, including the O overland but you are right, you just never know!

Normally, I would travel to Siem Reap earlier in the trip as I typically travel to a port and explore for three days or so but I want to spend as much time with my son in Bangkok before he departs Bangkok two days prior to my boarding Riveria (three days prior to sailing).

Explora is going to give O and A a run for their money opening up more options.  They are the most cash flushed cruise line out there as they are one of the oldest major shipping lines around.  My guess is that they will expand rapidly and be a major player in luxury cruising in the next five years just like MSC did in mass market cruising.

Thank you “C”. I really appreciate it!!!

Any info on Vietnam ports besides HCMC?

Thanks Jan, I really appreciate the info!!!  I’ll let O know we will be late.

I am sailing from Bangkok in February.  We are arriving in Bangkok a week prior to the sailing.  The first night of the sailing is an overnight in Bangkok.  My son will be in Bangkok at the same time and we are all meeting his GF’s family.  He is leaving Bangkok for home two days before we board Riveria.   I would like to fly to Siam Reap to see Angkor Wat the day he leaves, stay two days, and fly back to Bangkok late on boarding day.  We overnight in port the first day so the ship will not be leaving but I’m not sure how late I can check in.

Does anyone know the check in procedure for overnights??  If I spend the day in Angkor Wat and take the last flight, it will arrive around 8:00p but will I be able to check in that late?  There are numerous flights per day and they are only an hour so I’m not too worried about timing.  The O overland to Angkor Wat arrives at the ship around 4:30.  Some of the O flights get in later in the evening so there will be people checking in late with O transfers.

Any info is appreciated!

Also, why bother with a day room and sit at a pool while waiting for the flight.  Tahiti is gorgeous once outside of Papeete.  Renting a car is cheaper than a day room and seeing the island is a great way to spend the day.  Throw your luggage in the trunk and you are all set.

Also, the food trucks in Papeete are fantastic.  The start every night a 6:00.  Crepes, burgers, Asian….  All made fresh.  Great way to have a last meal in FP.

I would say the later sailing where you can see the whales would trump the hassle of the late flight.  Seeing the mom’s and babies swimming all over the place is really special.  If you get in the water and swim with them, it is bit scary but experiencing the sheer size and behavior of them up close gave me a better understanding of how much we really do not know about the world under the ocean.

It is your only option.  All airports in FP connect thru Papeete.  International flights all go in and out of Papeete.  Unless you are sailing through Fiji or into Hawaii or SA, you fly to/from Papeete.

We typically stay on Bora Bora after the cruise and fly to Papeete a few hours before our international flight.  Air Tahiti inter island is really reliable.  It’s a nice mix of cruise and land and makes the late flights much easier.

Once when we stayed on Bora Bora precruise as opposed to post, we disembarked Marina and rented a car and circled the island while waiting for our flight.  It is beautiful once you get out of Papeete.  We went to the cultural museum, drove to the top of Tahiti Iti to the lookout, swam in waterfalls and hikes and swam at Teahupoo.  We booked a cheap hotel room at Hotel Sarah Nui, which we split with another couple from Marina, to shower and change after driving all day, then we had dinner at the food trucks at the port, then headed to the airport for our night flight.  It worked out really well.

Gary, I’m glad you enjoyed the hotel in Athens.  It is so nice and the Bonvoy perks are great.  Hopefully the Arts hotel will be just as good.

I forgot to tell you to download the free Rick Steves Audio Europe app.  Rick Steves narrates walking tours of all the major sites in Europe.  They are better than many of the guides that I have hired over the years.  There are talks on the app too of various interviews that Rick Steves has done on his TV shows over the years that are interesting but the walks are so fun and entertaining and….free!  In Athens it’s a great overview of the city.  With one day and being jet lagged it would have been tough though.
 

The gothic quarter walk in Barcelona is really good.  It is a lot of fun and you will see all kinds of interesting sites.  He also has “Renaissance Walk” in Florence and a “ Heart of Rome” walk in Rome.  Both great if you have some time to spare after your planned tours and want a free Rick Steves walking tour.  Also, the Forum tour in Rome is one of my favorites and only an hour or so.

Enjoy your trip!

Between August and September, 100% September.  It is the start of whale season.  The Humpbacks are there with their babies.  Michael Poole has a whale swim, you get in and swim with the whales, that you can book while on Moorea or with O.

It is high season and weather is good both months.  Rainy season is Dec thru March.  Keep in mind that it does rain throughout the year, just more in rainy season.