terry&mike

Jax, I did this, and assuming policies in the UK are similar, it should not be a problem.

We originally booked our cabin in May, 2013 when the sailing first came out. After doing some reading and research, I decided I wanted a better cabin, and emailed my TA if any of these cabins were available, cost, and would I lose any benefits. She responded with a cabin number that was available in the class I was looking at, and the difference in fare, stating all my benefits would remain. We switched to that cabin, and received an updated invoice. Very simple.

Because I am out of the country quite a bit with travel to new places, and visiting a second home in Mexico, but am self employed and like to give the impression I am in town and available to my clients, I need to be accessible but don't like to spend a lot of money. My plan of action looks like this:

Handle anything I can via email first.

If a call needs to be made then I will move to Skype, Truphone or Viber depending on who I'm calling, and what service is working well at the moment.

On the rare chance that all that fails, I just make a call on my iPhone via AT&T. Before I leave home I add the international packages (for phone, text & data) for a small monthly fee. For example the international phone package for travel to most of Europe is $30 month and gives you 30 minutes of calls free, with overages billed at $1/minute. The Mexico plan is $30/month for 80 minutes of calls, and overages billed at .50/minute. Just remember to cancel the plan when you return home so you don't keep getting charged the $30/month.

And if you didn't do any of this, and just picked up your AT&T phone and made a call while onshore back to the US, it's only $2.99/minute, which is high, but for people who only need a very rare, short call, not ridiculous. A note on this, please let your provider know you will be using your phone out of the country, as they will need to unlock the international calling capability if you have never had this done before.

I have Viber and use it frequently. A very good service.

Yes, of course, but not the same. This one looked very old and hand crafted, and it held the memory of being purchased on the trip. A mistake on my part.

Many thanks.

That reminds me of the biggest regret I have of not buying something. About 15 years ago I was in Agadir, Morocco and found a beautiful woven sterling silver ankle bracelet with tiny silver bells on it at a market stall. I kept looking at it, and thinking I could have it adjusted smaller for my wrist.

We were on our way to dinner, and were a bit rushed. The price was high, and kept getting lower while I was standing there. Feeling pressured by the dinner plans, and the decision, and holding people up, I passed on the bracelet and moved on.

To this day, I wish that I had purchased that bracelet.

DaisyUK, If you decide you are up for it, I'd like to read your thoughts on the excursions, drink package and the room you left off. I thoroughly enjoyed your review, and appreciate you taking the time to write it.

Oh yes, hello again NickCarraway! I knew your name sounded familiar, but was thinking it was in my mind from the book.

We disembark in Athens at the end of October, and I have arranged exactly what Aloha1 describes. Pick us up at pier, give us a tour, and drop us at hotel with luggage at end of tour. Pick us up next morning and take us to airport. Should be smooth, and an efficient use of our time.

One of the other gems of Orkney is diving Scapa Flow, one of the bucket list dives in the world. It's a cold water dive, and takes more time than while on a cruise visit, but if you're a diver and you return, you'll want to add that in also.

That's not just an O thing, I believe if you check around it is common lingo for this type of promotion.

I have sailed other lines in the past and been given free pre-paid gratuities as a promotion, and it has always been the daily room gratuity surcharge that is put on your bill, and has never included the gratuity on extra/optional charges you make onboard.

Possibly it is in the wording of "free pre-paid gratuities" that describes it. Your room gratuity charges are automatic and placed daily onto your account, in essence a given charge that will be levied on you, and the promotion is offering to pre-pay them for free for you. It would not be possible to pre-pay gratuities that are not a given, but merely a possibility and a thought.

As others have said, it just is. I have it as a perk on my next sailing, and am happy for it.

We spent a week on Orkney 2 years ago, as part of a home exchange with a local family, and really enjoyed it. We visited all the ancient sites mentioned earlier in the thread, and found them very interesting.

Some of our favorite memories are of a private walking tour with a historian, John, of the town of Stromness, and then a visit to the Brough of Birsay in northern Orkney. This is a small island off the northern tip, where you watch the tides swiftly sweep out and expose a walkway across to the Brough of Birsay. On the B of B there is a lovely park up on the cliff with magnificent scenery, nesting birds, and makes for a great walk around. Then you walk back to the mainland before the tides return and disconnect it again.

I have not taken that cruise, but have visited Varanasi and have been on short boat rides on the Ganges out of Varanasi twice. It is such a heavily spiritual place, filled with all types of wondrous sounds, sights and scents. It is a place that I will carry with me forever, and am so happy to have seen. How fortunate for you.

Often times I will book this type of tour/transfer. Your best bet to find someone to accommodate you is to hire a private guide. Large tour companies that take many people usually do not have the space for you plus your luggage (although Rabies Tours in Scotland made an exception for 4 of us once). A private guide will usually keep your luggage in the trunk while touring you around, and then drop you at the end at the airport, or your hotel.

Another thing to consider is that there are 4 of you, which can be a bit more of a problem. 2 people and 2 pieces of luggage (you may have more), can easily fit into most guides cars. 4 people with 4 pieces of luggage (or more) would require a larger vehicle, such as a mini van, so you'll want to locate a guide with this type of vehicle.

Use tripadvisor and online networking to locate a list of private guides that you like and contact each of them telling them what you want to hire them for, and you should be able to find an accommodating one.

Edited to add - after I posted this, I realized you said EZE. We actually did something similar in Buenos Aires, we were picked up at the airport (after flying in from Mendoza), and then taken on a tour of BA, and then dropped at our hotel in Recoleta later. We used Cultura Cercana tours, our guide Luciano Bullorsky was very accommodating, and knowledgeable. There were only 2 of us with luggage, and he had a medium sized car, but he may also have a larger vehicle he can use.

I just had a final payment due on an O sailing, 90 days ahead of sailing, and our TA contacted us a week ahead of the date on our O invoice to find out what cc we would be using. I imagine it's to ensure they can get a hold of you, get your card info, get things processed, and submit it in time to meet your actual final payment date.

Squarevanman, I am interested in booking a Duoro cruise with CroisiEurope in 2015 or 2016, and I would love to read your review or hear your thoughts on your trip. If you have posted your review somewhere and I missed it, could you email me a link at terryandmike (at) cox (dot) net or post a link here. Many thanks!

I understand that it seems to not make sense that if you are willing to get yourself back to the airport on the embarkation day, why O will not commit to providing you with the free transfers. There is one thing that is worth considering on this, and that is O may be unwilling to commit to this, because if circumstances make them unable to fulfill it at the time, they would upset you further. By not being able to fulfill it, what I mean is that if you are not able to enter the airport from the exterior to meet up with the transfer person at baggage claim, or the like, and then you miss the transfer. There are lots of airports where people are not allowed to enter the airport main doors without a ticket for that day's travel, such as most airports in India and in Costa Rica, as well as others.

I very much enjoyed reading this review, thank you for taking the time. I do have one question, you mentioned a private charter affecting some future cruises - do you know what period this private charters covers? Or have those sailings affected already been taken off the web site? I ask because there is a cruise there I have been eyeing, and your review has pushed me closer to the trigger pull.

So nice to see you posting again!

Yes, a PH2 automatically gets the Concierge benefit, which is 10% off internet packages, use of special lounge, butler, in room dining served course by course, bottle of champagne, earlier specialty dinner reservations, and some other perks. If you look on Oceania's web site, choose your ship, choose your stateroom category, you can see a list of the benefits.

Something else you may want to double check on is the line under your Amenities that states Concierge Internet Benefit. If I read you correctly, you understand it to be unlimited free internet for your cruise, but I am wondering if it actually means

*Guests staying in concierge-level staterooms and above

are eligible for a 10% discount on internet packages.

Thank you!

On the day that I become available to make specialty dinner reservations for our Riviera cruise, I will be on another trip, and away from my computer. As I know that not all web site features work on iPads, I am wondering if I'll be able to make my dining reservations from my iPad. Has anyone made their specialty reservations through an iPad (or an iPhone), or tried and not been able to?

I agree with the upsell comment, it is annoying. If I decide to splurge and get a spa service on a cruise, I am aware I am paying more than I would at my regular places, but am usually doing it to treat myself, so am okay with it. What I don't like is for my treat to myself to be interrupted by pushing of salon products, even once I have declined, something I am not okay with. It is off putting enough to hinder me from booking appointments.

Yes, it is just for US Citizens, as payback for the fee we charge to Argentinians to enter the US. The fee is $160 per person, each person has to fill out the form, you pay with your credit card online. Within a day you will get an email from the site showing you have paid, you need to bring this email receipt and your ID to the proper desk when you enter Argentina, as proof you paid the fee.

Even though it is technically not a visa, it may be easier to think of it as a visa to enter Argentina.