IWantToLiveOverTheSea

I haven't read that it does, but who knows? I guess if it doesn't, you might be able to get a massage on the nearby island of Placencia, which is a fairly developed, upscale, public resort area. Apparently there is a ferry or tender service for cruise passengers on NCL (and presumably Oceania and Regent) ships. One person reported it was $20 roundtrip. Another person mentioned that tickets were sold on her NCL ship, but that there may be a place to get them in the NCL's Caye area. For more info on Placenia and the ferry, you may want to ask someone on the NCL section here.

I would guess that at some times, if there hasn't been enough rain, or too much rain, a company may have to pass up a particular tubing site. You could google Caves Branch Adventure Company.

Some people on our cruise were a little apprehensive about doing anything on their own in Belize City, assuming that's where you're going. It may not be unsafe, but from what little I saw it definitely looked like a poor place, and one with few attractions for tourists. I took an excursion to Lamanai Ruins, and really enjoyed it. But there was some transportation involved....

steeldrums, here's most of page 1 of the pdf version of excursions. Sorry the copy is so bad. The other pages of the lengthy document are just the excursions listed in a more readable/printable format. Emsmom, thanks for the info. I entered my required number of excursions and everything looked good to me, although I didn't go back and run the numbers to make sure, push the button to purchase, or add more excursions above the minimum. So thanks for the explanation and the alert!

If I can ever find Flatbush's info, I'll try to remember to post a link here. But basically, I don't know how soon you can get a pdf copy of excursions for your cruise, or when excursions are posted in your "Your Account" section of the website. But I'll find and attach the first page of my pdf excursion document. It doesn't explain everything but will at least be a start, with descriptions of terminology, how to get 25% off excursions, etc. Your booking invoice tells you what SM credit you have, broken down by traveler. The pdf document will tell you minimum number of excursions you must book to be able to get 25% off (any; your choice, except I think car/driver excursions, if offered, are off the table). For my 14 day cruise, 5 are required, and I have $400 credit from SM. But both these things vary by length of cruise. So in a nutshell, pre-cruise you're making up a package of the minimum number of excursions required, applying SM credit and paying any difference. You need to do this at least 7 days before your sail date. What you've paid for the whole package can be refunded pre-cruise, but it's not specifically stated whether you can switch from one excursion to another after the sail date. But availability may make this difficult, simply due to the number of people reporting very full excursions on both Oceania and the other cruise line we sometimes use. Once you find excursions posted on the website, you can play with that to get an idea of what's possible. But many people say the onboard system for excursions is glitchy for pricing, so it has been recommended that you pick excursions and then call Oceania or have travel agent call to book excursions. I'm finding the pdf and website agree pretty closely (7 or so months pre-cruise?) and availability is quite good. But what I owe and how it's calculated is a little confusing. When I finally pick excursions (maybe in a month or so?), I'll have my travel agent call Oceania to do the actual bookings. The onboard system does count your excursions separately from your travel partner's. But I've heard you can probably get away with using a partner's excursion ticket. And I've heard that you get 25% off any excursions, regardless of how booked, after the required number is chosen (and remains unchanged). But I don't know if the "regardless of how booked" part is accurate. If you have shipboard credit (for example, from O's loyalty program), you can use that on excursions as well. I'll attach something later.

Just ignore this. I didn't mean to quote and comment on this! I'm just going to figure out what excursions I want, and then have the TA book them, using any credit we have!

Good job. I typically (pre SM) I would do a mix of O excursions, third party excursions, or DIY days. But in certain areas of the world, I would probably pick more O excursions more than usual. And while a lot of people dislike ship excursions, there are certain occasions where they offer a lot more than I could find on my own. Up in the Canadian maritimes in early September, we went to a port in which I could find absolutely nothing - no tour providers, taxis, public transportation, or anything to walk to. I was glad there were ship excursions offered. But I'm curious - is there a reason you had the TA call in your excursions? I've seen some comments about the website being a little unpredictable, and I wondered if that was true.

I found the perfect excursion, should I need a 5th: Kayak in the Lagoon Rental, $25 tour price, or $18.75 with Simply More (in this case less)!

I've left mine once in a while. Not sure if I'd do it on Carnival, though.

I just choose a table on Waves, and if someone sits down there before I get my order in, I just ask the person taking my order to pick a table for me. It has very rarely been a problem. On the Terrace, if I want a particular table (like outside, when it's a great day and there are lots of people) I put my key card down and something else (if I have something else) on the table. Or I do something with the napkin. If I don't care where I sit (which is most of the time) I just get my food and then find a table. In the rare instance that either place is totally packed, it IS OK to ask someone politely if they'd mind sharing a table with you.

Could someone please enlighten me, or point me in the direction of where I can find a rundown on how Simply More excursion credit is applied in the online booking system? I know the basics for my excursion: The two of us each has $400 excursion credit when 5 or more excursions are purchased for our 14 day trip (counting as Oceania does - embark & disembark days = 1). And although I don't know which excursions I'm going to choose, I did look a little bit online under My Account to make sure a lot of excursions aren't already full. (They aren't -- we still have around 7 months before the cruise). But I have questions: 1. Can I use my ship board credit (SBC) with the Simply More excursion credit to book excursions on the booking system under "My Account" section? So if I book $500 worth of excursions, will the system total the "tour" (full) price of the 5 excursions, delete $400, and charge the remaining $100 to my (or possibly OUR) SBC? 2. The system keeps my and my spouse's picks separate, and applies the requirement for 5 excursions separately, right? 3. Do I have to book excursions with SM before I board the ship, or can I wait....if I'm willing to wait, given that excursions seem to be quite more in demand since Oceania went to SM? 4. What happens if we miss a port where we've booked an O excursion using SM credit? Do we get credit back to use in a remaining port? If the excursion was "paid" for partly in SM credit and partly with $$, how is that handled? And what about if I want to cancel one excursion (within the usual time frame for canceling) and add another? Is that possible? Easy? 5. Is there anything else I should know?

I'd call T Mobile. Our service covers all data (texts, etc.) and phone calls are (I think) 25c a minute in most parts of the world. Maybe you can change plans for a month if that's worth doing. In Europe we've gotten by with texts and an occasional 25c/minute phone call as needed. In other places, on occasion we've used whats app.

Isn't there a way to get waitlisted for an excursion on the website? My cruise isn't for 7 or 8 months and there are only a few excursions that aren't bookable. But when I saw one, I noticed a "wait list" selection popped up, though I didn't push it to see what happened. But even if there is, I agree with the poster above. Often people change excursions, and I have to believe that even with everyone now having Simply More credit, some people will always drop out/change their excursions. If I see something wait listed that I want to book, I'll likely come back later to see if anything has changed. I recently changed room categories that way, though of course it did take some time and effort.

It depends on the requirements in that country & city. But the one time we took 2 back to back cruises, no disembarkation was needed, although we DID end up going off the ship. At least there were plenty of taxis to take us somewhere!

Le Verdon stop is just to await favorable tides. We docked in the heart of Bordeaux.

I don't know about that. We saw the river cruise ships up (or down?) the river a ways. The cruise along the river was pretty uninteresting compared to some river cruises. But the location where we docked was fabulous - tram a block away, places to walk to, etc.

Last year we (on Sirena) docked near the Bourse on the river - so much fun! One of the larger ships had docked there earlier in the year. If you're overnighting, with "Le Verdon" on your itinerary, I'm guessing you'll dock on the river. We weren't allowed off in Le Verdon unless we took an Oceania excursion to Bordeaux or arranged something private from there. But there were no taxis or buses or trains or vendors to use around the area, and we were only there a couple hours. (The stop there is to await favorable tides to get onto the river.) Just for fun, here's what the bow cam showed while we were docked.

I've only been on Riviera once, and we weren't in an inside cabin. On Marina, we were once in 8088 - a bit different from that end room you're looking at. But I don't remember any noise in 8088 (British Isles cruise in 2013) Really, though, we've cruised in a lot of the inside cabins, and I rarely hear any noise from inside the room at all. The smaller ships are really nice because they group many of the inside rooms together in the middle of the ship -- you're special little area, where it's very, very quiet!

For what it's worth, my experience: I've only paid/asked to be waitlisted (put down a deposit) once, and it was to be moved from an inside or oceanview to a higher priced room category on one of the smaller ships about 6 months pre-sail. It did not come through. I've had a guarantee on a category (but never higher than oceanview) maybe 5 or 6 times. Once or twice we were placed in a veranda category room. Room categories DO often open up over time, if you have time to look frequently (and wait). I changed from a higher category to an oceanview on our upcoming cruise by checking the website every few days. And I would have definitely checked around final payment time if I hadn't found something sooner. Once I found an open slot, I jumped on it. For most or all of our cruises in the past 6 or 7 years we've received a call offering us to upgrade (paying extra, what I call an upsell) for a higher level category. Once we accepted the offer paid the extra, and enjoyed something nicer. Usually, however, we say no thanks, as we don't mind the lower-priced rooms. On a few cruises, there was no call at all, and those cruises turned out to be sold out.

I'm curious how long it might take on a day when the ship is docked (not for embarkation) to get outside the port to meet (with police presence!!) a taxi driver or tour provider. It sounds like a shuttle will be provided by the port to outside to a staging area. So if that's correct, would you think maybe a half hour would be needed to get on a shuttle and be taken to a place where you could meet a driver? And also, are taxis available on embarkation day? We'll be staying over a day so need to get transportation to a hotel in Lima (likely Miraflores area).

I should dig out my picture from Australia or New Zealand....our O ship next to one of the monsters.

Wow> Is that a P& O or what?

We used Efendi Travel to go from the airport to a hotel in Sultanahmet; we pre-paid with credit card. They gave explicit instructions on where/how to meet them. Our luggage didn't make it so we had to go fill out forms to get that straightened out. So we got to the location a bit late, but they had a rep there & he called an Efendi driver for us. Overall we were happy with them. But yes, traffic in the city is awful, though I don't know where your hotel is. But Sultanahmet area near the Blue Mosque has one-way streets and lots of traffic congestion, so it took forever. It was also the end of the week of Ramadan, so that probably added to the normal congestion.

Only one I've seen was on a long cruise in the Pacific with lots of sea days. Hilarious.

Definitely too early!