BarbaraM

We did this a few years ago -- it was necessary to take a taxi, we dropped our bags and walked into Southampton for a few hours.  

On 6/4/2020 at 10:36 AM, 31 cents said:

I was hoping to go to south Africa in Jan./Feb 2021, but with the Covid 19 virus, it is on hold.  I think my expectations are too high,  I would like to visit the Krugar area, Capetown and VIctoria Falls.  I hope to include stays at 2 different lodges for safaris for 2-3 nights,  I think that is doable, but my problem is I am a cruise lover.  I also have a hard time with long flights.  We are coming from the united states.  I have found cruises that sail round-trip Capetown and also from Dubai to Capetown on NCL that are reasonably priced.  So we would do the Safaris before of after the cruise.  I like some of the packages OAT has.  My problem are the flights.  Flying to Dubai or Capetown is sooooo long.  Any ideas?

We have done a short 2 night safari from a cruise ship near Port Elizabeth -- after the 2 nights, we flew to meet our ship in Durban.  We also spent 2 months in South Africa this past Jan/Feb.  I can recommend Qatar flights for well priced business class from the USA -- the problem was the long layover in Doha, but part of the adventure?? (not really).  The 12hr+flights did not seem long at all.  We ruled out flying into Jo.burg, which would have made a Kruger safari a choice.    We decided to base in Cape Town, and a safari was not our main goal.  We ruled out Kruger and other parks as it was their summer, and didn't feel like it was the best time of year for us. We did stay 3 nights in a private game park near Port Elizabeth (the end of a 2 week garden route drive) and then flew to Victoria falls from Port Elizabeth with a return to Cape Town.   The flights connected through Johannesburg, but I believe there might be a direct flight from the Falls to Cape Town.  If you have a short amount of time, I found the private reserves to be very nice -- though I would like to do Kruger some day. 

Check out Google Fi, data rates same as at home. 

I signed up for a service that blocks a lot of junk mail, as we tend to take long trips.I don't believe there was a fee for that service, or if there was it was not expensive-- (not perfect as my adult children still receive mail at my home). It takes a while, but does reduce the amount of junk mail.

I cancel any catalogue,  advertising mail as soon as I receive it -- It has helped also.

 I did the forwarding thing for my first ATW cruises, to a daughter who lived near -- and it was not a good experience.  For our last world cruise,  I fortunately live in a small town and was able to have our mail carrier hold all mail for 6 months.  Since I put so many bills on autopay, or did online billing,  I arrived home with no surprises. (except the tax change!)

 For those recurring bills with no online bill pay, I "guesstimated" the bill monthly, and paid online -- A six month trip does require being more proactive than a month trip.

1 hour ago, cbb said:

 

There are many who have now been on extended voyages lasting several months who will have many great tips and may explain what did and didn't work for them.

 

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Have you made any changes for your upcoming ATW??

Thx for the tip.  We are also doing a TA from Lisbon.  I can get that rate from ORD— also available on a few other airlines.  

To the OP original question , On the Insignia we tried to hook up a DVD player via HDMI -- there is no way to select another input (or they are disabled).   I assume the Regatta has the same set up.  

You could order the Kobe Beef slider as an app, the "best" of the three.   The rest are forgettable, apparently not ordered often, and in my experience, the bun was very dry. 

If you just have one or two reservations for Polo -- don't waste it on this as an entree.

There are many ways you can lose the "free" cruise benefit -- I found it helpful to email Oceania Club directly.

You can book what you think might be your 20th cruise -- after you do this, you can let Oceania know you will 

be applying the benefit, and close to final payment you let them know again it will be the benefit cruise, and your

invoice will be adjusted.  I tried (not successful although others have reported differently) to take another cruise before the

"free" cruise, but was told that was not possible.  I would caution being very careful about booking your benefit cruise.  I "think" the 6 month booking has some wiggle room.  I just booked the cruise I wanted, and the benefits were applied closer to sailing. 

No idea what they do if you take the 19th so close to the benefit cruise... good luck.  I cancelled a cruise and didn't sail with Oceania for a year since they required my next cruise to be my benefit, and we didn't have time to take a 14+ cruise. 

If this isn't your first EU stop, you might not have much red tape to go through to get off the ship.  

10 minutes ago, Go-Bucks! said:

 

Glad you had no problems, but I am.....was told by 4 different people that the pickup dates would be either (depending on who I was talking to) Dec. 26, Jan. 14 or Jan. 17.  And the luggage tags said Dec. 26.  Well, it's obvious that that date was wrong since no one arrived to get them on that date, but I now don't have any tags and don't know which date to expect someone.  Makes me have no confidence in this company which I'm entrusting my belongings to.

 

You said you had the luggage tags,  now you don't?  I didn't see any pick up date on my tags, unless it was super small print,  just the letter inclosed with the tags confirming my pick up date -- I got several emails from them the closer the date came for the pick up.  UPS came a few hours early, 10 minutes after they were good to go.  Hopefully you can get this cleared up next week.  See you on board!

23 hours ago, pinotlover said:

 

 

While realizing some posters here consider any number above zero (0)  as being to large, I can say I have never seen “ lots” or “ loads” of under 20 year old passengers on any Oceania cruise . I have witnessed a “ few”, with that being defined as 20 or less on one cruise. Typically, the number has been less  than 5. It should be added that there were zero issues witnessed by us with the children and the overall conduct of those ~20 young passengers was better than that of several adults.

Our experience on the Riviera this past summer -- 100 + children for back to back cruises in the Med.  Babies to under age 21 -- tables of 4-6 in specialties with children only under the age of 10-- under 3's dining with parents and grandparents.  Luckily, it was a port intensive cruise.   There was a large group from a wine organization on one segment , closing some venues for their get togethers, maybe that was the source of the families with young children?? The kids weren't all well behaved -- we had kids running in the hallways screaming after 10pm.  I felt sorry for the staff in the specialties trying to keep the kids controlled.  This was more than we have experienced on Celebrity during the same time in the Med.  Last time for us with Oceania in the Med in the summer.  Fortunately, we can now travel at other times of the year.  

Is there a blu ray or DVD player in the tv?

We forwarded to our daughter's house for 6 months 3 years ago -- it is not a "perfect" service, so be aware of some problems.

I had a long talk with our local PO administrator a few days ago --  this time I was just going to forward to a local PO box temporarily, hoping this would be a better fix -- but it's no different than sending it to her.  He explained that some companies pay for a service that when there is a change in address, it is returned to sender and there is nothing the local PO can do about it. I missed a few important bills last time because of this, as there was quite a delay and some wasn't received at all. I decided not to forward at this time.   It was quite inconvenient last time to sort things out when I got home, which included a credit card racking up months of charges and being cancelled, late fees applied to other accounts.  It was just a couple of services, not everything.  Although I have put almost every bill I pay to be paperless or have an online account -- I still decided not to forward this time.  But YMMV, good luck.

 Go-Bucks, they won't forward the junk mail for a while,  I think there might be some info on how long they will do this. 

I’d you happen to have a visa in your old passport book that is still valid, just remember to bring both books.  For me, just one more thing I’m afraid I’ll lose or forget..  packing for our RTW that leaves in a few weeks.  Going just a little crazy...

Thanks for posting -- could you post some pictures of the bathroom and storage?  Are those outlets near the bed? 

4 hours ago, lovegod01 said:

Do people have adult kids back home while on a world cruise and is it hard to be away for so long 

I have 5 "adult" children -- none were living at home when we took our first world cruise, and we were gone for 6 months.  I missed them, but still stayed in touch via messaging and emails.  I missed my youngest getting her PHD,  and I think that was harder on me than anything.   We had friends on board for the 6 months who missed their cats, had a parent die, kids having some type of crisis (nothing major), One couple left the ship early to deal with some home emergencies.-- I think everyone gets a bit homesick at some point, but then soon you will be sad when you have to leave your new friends and end your adventure.  In 2 months when we leave again, I now have more grandchildren to miss than I did last time!  Luckily their parents are good about exchanging frequent photos-- so I can see them grow, and so they won't forget us!

11 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

It's interesting to me that some sail a World Cruise annually or every other year or some other frequency.

 

For those that sail each year, my opinion is that it has become a very social experience coupled with destinations that they repeatedly enjoy sprinkled with new ports as the cruise line can provide.

 

 

We also are in the group that thought our world cruise three years ago would be a once in a lifetime event-- wrong!  We are taking our second in January.  We found we liked the social aspect much more than we expected.  In fact, part of the reason we are taking this second ATW is due to the number of repeat cruisers from 3 years ago.   While we may not be able to afford taking a world cruise every year --  I'm not going to say this is the last one either.   As others have posted, we don't take PH cabins, put up with small bathrooms and small space in order to extend our travel budget.  We also prefer taking long trips.

What if they are in a lower cabin category?

I found booking our complimentary cruise to be confusing. We had ours booked but needed to cancel due to health issues, within the cancellation timeline. We wanted to a take a short cruise 4 months later, but were told in no uncertain terms that would be our free cruise. Even though, it was less than 6 months in advance. They seem to bend the rules on the booking date, I would guess depending on the popularity of the cruise. They would not bend on having us pay for this cruise and use our credit for a later cruise when we had time to take a 14 day trip. We ended up waiting a year to take our complimentary cruise. You do make the Down payment and book the cruise as normal, and then close to final payment request the club benefit. I recommend talking to Oceania club directly, as it seems there are various scenarios where you could lose the benefit. And, it is a very nice benefit. We did receive our platinum pin and benefits on this cruise, but still listed as gold online.

Thanks for posting this Keith -- I keep learning what smart devices can do, and have cancelled my security service for this reason. I am most concerned about fire and pipes freezing than I am about break-ins in our neighborhood. The thermostats are pretty nice, as I can monitor them from overseas, and my daughter who lives much closer can get alerts. Now -- to install one of those cameras and smoke alarms!

I still find mail the most challenging -- though I rarely get important bills in the mail anymore. I have signed up for

a service to reduce junk mail about 9 months ago -- but it doesn't eliminate it. I still get junk mail in the names of my children, who haven't lived at home for 15 + years. I still have more to do -- trying to make it easier for someone to pick up the mail regularly. Other than having someone pick it up -- any suggestions? I found forwarding to my daughter who lives near, but not in the same town, to not work out well.

• We used ABC Kuala Lumpur 2 years ago abckualalumpur.com
  
• We will use them again -- great price for a private car/driver. We had booked them the year before also, and had to cancel , and there was no problem.
  

When we were there 2 years ago, we arranged a tour in advance, but we saw very many taxis and open air tour

vehicles on the tender dock, so many we had trouble walking to our driver!

-- we needed to pay in local currency, but our driver was very happy to stop at an ATM,

I suspect you won't have trouble finding taxi/tour if you say that you need to stop at an ATM as you have no local currency.

I made a couple mistakes on our 2016 WC that I won't repeat for our 2019.

I forgot to check auto payments and credit card expiration dates, I had an obscure yearly payment on an expired

card -- long story.

I didn't take enough clothes and shoes, if that is possible -- I didn't predict wear and tear on clothing, and the generally hatred of clothes and shoes that I had worn 2-3x a week for 6 months.

I had my home mail forwarded, which lead to multiple problems, missed mail, mail sent back to sender, and junk mail/flyers still delivered to my home. It didn't work the way I expected.

I

We bought too much on the trip -- souvenirs, etc. -- for family, that I am sure was only appreciated for the day they received them! Was more expensive to ship back (from our first return USA port) than the total price of the goods! I plan to get more specific about gifts next time! I did have fun shopping tho!

I took more "supplies" than I needed -- this time checking how long that shampoo, toothpaste, etc. lasts before we go.

I did't plan on how to spend nonrefundable OBC! We ended up scrambling to spend the $$ the last couple days.

I'm sure I'll add to this mistake list after our next WC, luckily no horror stories! We did have friends with medical and dental emergencies on board.

Oceania does have some itineraries like this, but usually from Somewhere like Singapore and goes west.

Was just on a Med sailing 100% EU, only gift shop and spa merchandise added the VAT.