marilynfaye

Go to Cruise Critic's Roll Call section. Click on Oceania Roll Calls and then on Regatta where you will find the roll call for your cruise. You will see lots of discussion which you might find helpful for Rio and other ports.

Good luck and enjoy your journey.

Just returned from Santiago this week. We had a terrific guide who showed us his Valparaiso, drove us to Santiago and was our tour guide for the next two days. This is his contact information:

Vivian PROUTEAU

+56 9 77524877

vivian@abctour.org

http://www.abctour.org

He was born in France and has such passion for his adopted country. He is fluent in French, Spanish, English and plans to learn Portuguese.

Doubt this will ever happen but am curious what happens to on board credit if you don't use it all? Do they give you a check? Hand you some cash? Or does it simply disappear :-(

 

Cat

I found myself in the boutique on the last night of a cruise buying a travel mug, a teddy bear and overpriced M&M's. Unless the ship board credit is due to a cash gift certificate, I'm afraid it disappears so should you find yourself in that position and M&M's don't float your boat, bump up your gratuities.

Does anyone know if the shops stock Estée Lauder make up or Channel perfume? These are often good value for us UK folks. I need to decide whether to purchase at airport or wait and see if they are available on board.

Suggest you re-post this as a separate question with the heading something like: Anyone currently on Marina / Riviera or Regatta / Nautica, depending on whether you are sailing an O ship or an R ship. I don't know if the boutiques are different, but it's possible. Anyway, maybe someone could check it out for you and post the price of one or two products (Is that allowed on CC?) so you have a general basis of comparison because you want to know not only are the products available, but how the pricing stacks up to duty free. Good luck.

Roy (Perez?) was promoted from asst cruise director while we were on the Riviera in March. Don't know which ship he is on now, but he is great!

We had Roy this month on Marina. However, I think our cruise was the end of his contract. I don't mean he was necessarily leaving Oceania. I really don't know. I assumed he was taking vacation.

We will be docking at Rosyth and would like to see Stirling Castle and surrounding area. Is there a tour company that is based in Rosyth or would pick us up at the port? So far, I have only found companies where we have to meet them in Edinburgh which seems like we would be going in the opposite direction and wasting a lot of time. Alternatively, can we get there by train or bus and just go on our own? I know there are audio tours of the castle.

Thanks

marilynfaye, I went to Suzhou in April, on a cruise tour, from an itinerary where we had one overnight in Shanghai. It was nice (for China, which on the whole to me is seriously lacking in charm), but unremarkable. I'm curious as to your expectations, it being on your bucket list.

e.

The gardens.

We recently returned from the earlier segment of your cruise. Rather than 3 days in Shanghai I would prefer a stop in Tokyo, maybe with an overnight instead of one of our other stops in Japan. Or a second night in Hong Kong. Shanghai was not a highlight for us.

 

Mo

The reason I would like to see an extra day in Shanghai is that Suzhou is on my bucket list and it's an easy day trip by train.

Marilyn

I'd like to add my vote for three days in Shanghai, too. Your analogy to St. Petersburg is perfect.

Marilyn

How did they get your phone number?

My thought exactly. Do you have an account with Oceania? I'm always curious about what cabins are available on cruises I'm interested in AND cruises I've booked. I log in and pretend to do a booking and then stop before I get to the actual sign up part. With all that, I've never gotten a call and surely they could find me based on my log in.

Do appreciate the additional information on Ringaskiddy. We are on the August Nautica cruise. Obviously, in this case, size is not the determining factor.

My plan had been that this would be an easy, laid back, day . . . get off the ship at our leisure, wander around the small town of Cobh. This does change things.

Marilyn

Thanks for the info. We will certainly get the shuttle from Rosyth and then plan the HoHo bus in Edinburgh to HMY Britannia etc. We are going to Cork from Cobh in a week or two on Discovery so will check out different options to do later in August then.

Hi Sharon:

I think the "shuttle" that Ruth was referring to is a private coach that runs from South Queensberry. She is on Marina, which is larger, and is docking there.

The information I have so far is that we can get a taxi to either Ferrytoll, which is a Park & Ride and from there, there are frequent buses to Edinburgh City Center. http://www.ferrytoll.co.uk/ or Inverkeithing train station.

I just checked the port information for Cobh. We, too, are docking in Ringaskiddy. I am so disappointed. Since the day there is rather short, I was planning to just stay in Cobh. I had no idea we weren't docking there. I look forward to hearing what you learn when you are there on Discovery.

Marilyn

Susan-M: Thank you for the Embassy link. My question was answered by the following:

"U.S. citizens who previously paid the fee and its validity period has not expired in accordance to the provisions of the National Migration Directorate, do not need to pay it again."

At least I am assuming my question was answered. We paid a fee upon arrival at EZE prior to our T/A cruise in 2011. I have a sticker in my passport saying it is good until 2021, but I have no way of knowing if this is the same fee as is being discussed now. Hope so. We will be docking in BA & Ushuaia next December.

If you book a future cruise while on board, can the "ambassador" / sales staff see what is actually available? When I say "future cruise", I mean a specific cruise in the future.

Yes.

Has anyone used E.T.A. to get an electronic visa? Any problems obtaining it or using it?

Thanks

Marilyn