travelglobetrotter

Thanks for your comments which helped us decide against the art suite 880. 

We recently returned from our first Regent cruise on Navigator and were very impressed with the spaciousness of the suite we had.  Now we're looking at Explorer, and the suites and verandas seem to be much smaller.  Our TA says that 880 is a very desirable location, but it looks much narrower and possibly smaller than than others of the same cat G2 located on deck 6 midships (637 is available).  We'd be grateful for any comments on either location.  We're long time Oceania pax, and Marina's veranda cabins are seemingly only slightly smaller than what we're looking at on Explorer.  Thanks,  Marlene

This is from a bit different perspective, not a broken foot, but a broken wrist while on an Oceania cruise. Having a cast on my arm for the majority of the cruise was difficult, and cut down my clothing choices. When my sleeves kept catching on the cast, I solved the problem by putting my arm in a plastic bag sleeve, which made putting a long sleeved jacket on a breeze. You should be able to do the same with a leg cast is it comes to that. Hope it doesn't, but this tip really helped me a lot. As far as dress goes, I was able to dress appropriately for the evening, wearing the same things multiple times. Thank goodness for laundry and dry cleaning on board. Marlene

Do you know of any restaurants near the port? Unexpectedly, family wants to meet for breakfast after we debark, and I'm not familiar with the area at all. Thanks for any info.

Where can we access a list of the premium wines and spirits for purchase?

We are new to Regent, but have cruised on Oceania many times. I know how to make dining reservations on O's site, and wonder if Regent is the same. That is, I choose the date and time, add the other couple dining with us, and say no to sharing. Is this the same procedure for Regent? Right now, since the res window is not open, I can't find any info. Thanks, Marlene

I was on this cruise and in talking with people affected, it seems the gastro problems were related to food and drink on shore. In Guatemala I observed quite a few people drinking margaritas with ice, and in Costa Rica prepared drinks were offered along with a snack of french fries. I believe that people on O tours might have thought that as long as it was an O tour, food and drink were safe. The warning about taking care in Mexico came too late.

No matter what the cause, O reacted as if it were Noro, and put sanitary measures in place. The Captain and the CD informed us several times that those affected (and their companion in the cabin) were in isolation. It was a long 2 or 3 days for those directly affected. It was certainly strange to go for dinner and find only a sea of bare linen covered tables. The crew had a lot of extra work, and got a good start at least on sanitizing the cabins during the 5 hours we waited to debark after clearing our cabins. Inconvenient, sure, but no quibbles with the steps O took to keep us safe.

We have over 300 nights on O, missing 2 ports in the Med on our 2010 cruise (our second), then had no missed ports for awhile, but lately there have been quite a few, mostly weather related, and I think all on the R ships. Last cruise from Dubai to Cape Town there were many medical emergencies with maybe a half dozen passengers having to debark prior to their final destination. Things happen, accidents, illness. It's life. I feel sorry for those who are affected, whose cruise gets disrupted, whose lives are in turmoil because of whatever happened. As for me, I will continue t sail the itineraries I choose, and if a port is missed, I can handle it without a lot of angst.

We are just off Regatta, arriving 7 hours late in San Francisco, and O was very busy making flight changes. Glad we had taken O air this time. The concierge was also very busy taking care of Independent travelers, who may have had to change their reservations twice. As to timing getting off the ship, I noticed that anyone taking an O transfer and booking it on the ship had to have a flight later than 1PM, or it couldn't be booked. Hope that helps, even though it's not Barcelona. You Just never know.

Having just done this, the answer is No, you cannot use OBC to pay Luggage Free, and you use a CC to pay. It was the perfect solution for us.

I broke my wrist on our last cruise, and couldn't handle the big bag. O's Concierge arranged all the details with Luggage Free, and we packed the bag and housekeeping took it to the Concierge's locked area the afternoon before debarkation. It was easy, necessary, and a bit more expensive than we expected. Wonderful service!

I'd be very wary of flying a red eye the day of sailing. Coming from the west, it's better to arrive day before at least.

We live in Phoenix, and have enough status that we do not have to pay the deviation fee of $175pp. We are flying to Miami in May, return from San Fran. O's air was less than I could book on my own, so we sent our deviation request to O, detailing the exact flights we wanted, which was arrival the day before sailing. O came back with a red eye flight getting in day of sailing, and a different flight from San Fran than we asked for. Declined the deviation as it was not at all what we requested, our TA submitted it again, and this time we got the flights requested, at no additional charge. BTW, American has now changed both flights to different flight no. and time. (We tend to book flights early for better seats.)

I don't think O's air dept likes us very much. At different times, they have come back with a deviation itinerary taking us to LA for our final destination, rather than home to Phoenix, as well as having us depart from Dallas, rather than PHX. Apparently they want us to move somewhere other than PHX, and don't care where!

Seriously, if paying for an air deviation, either with $ or loyalty amenity earned, they should do better than this. It's never right on the first try it seems.

sorry , computer problem.

Thanks to all who made suggestions!

Pet Nit Noy, You've made some great suggestions and I do like the one about asking the question about "what to do to prepare for an extended vacation" I will do that ASAP.

 

 

I'm currently receiving forwarded mail for my daughter, whose trip is not quite as long as yours. Only first class mail is being forwarded, which reduces the amount being saved for her return. We have taken trips lasting between 30 and 40 days, and out local post office manager OK d our hold mail request asking for more than 30 days. We love the longer cruises, and wish you a wonderful voyage. Marlene

We bought Norwegian krone from our local bank, which charged a lot more than for other currencies, but we did it because our first port was an early pickup for a private tour, and we didn't think we'd have enough time to find an ATM. The tour operator was very reluctant to take currency, asking us where we got it. Seems like there's a lot of funny money in circulation there, He preferred credit cards, as did the restaurant we went to for lunch. Ultimately, O offered a buy back of unused money, which we took advantage of. So if you're cruising Norway's fjords, don't bother with changing money. Marlene

I'm not a cake dessert person, but I loved the decadent chocolate Didirot that was once served in the GDR. Alas, it was removed from the menu, thus saving me lots of calories!. Nothing has replaced it as a favorite. Marlene

These posts are from a few years ago, so I'm looking for an updated answer for our Nov. '17 cruise. No excursions are posted by the ship yet, but we know going in that we will require a visa ($169pp) in addition to the cost of any tours, bringing the possible cost to $350-$400 per person for touring Maputo, in the 8 hours we will spend there. So given these facts, is it worth it? The Eiffel train station is intriguing, but can we see it from the ship? Will appreciate your comments. Marlene

20 some years ago, my husband and I hosted a restaurant dinner for Japanese businessmen, most of whom didn't speak English, but seemed to understand it quite well. One of them discreetly took a picture of his entrée, explaining that he grew tired of replying to his wife when asked about what he had to eat on business trips, so now he just took pictures to show her. BTW, I have never seen anyone taking food pictures on O in something like 250 nights on board. I don't think it would bother me, but would amuse me. Marlene

On our last cruise, I idly picked up an itinerary listing from a stack of papers at Reception, and turned it over. On the other side I found a listing of the port agents for all the ports. It was handy to tuck just one piece of paper in my pocket for the entire cruise. I actually took 2 copies, one pinned to the wall with a magnet, and verified that there was no change in the port agent info for each port listing in Currents. And to think it took only 10 cruises to discover this! BTW, one couple missed the tour pickup point in Russia, and needed the info to ultimately have the tour bus return to pick them up. Same couple missed the sailing time in Norway and had to take a ferry to the next port. The only thing they did right was taking the port info along.

This was the poorest Internet we've ever had. Granted, we were in the Arctic Circle in Norway and Russia, then in Iceland and Greenland, and the ability to even connect was sporadic to non-existent. We will not have unlimited Internet on our next cruise, and see no reason to spend $ for something that may or may not work. Supposedly this was after an upgrade, too.

It works both ways, too. We're just off 40 days on Nautica, and I guess this time we did a poor job of figuring what we needed in small bills, and those singles are really thick when stacked up. We checked with Reception first, then turned in our ones, fives and tens for several hundreds, reducing the bulk of taking home our excess dollars. They were happy to get the smaller bills, and we were happy to take home fewer bills.

And you can get the traditional dinner in the specialties as well, according to our experience in Toscana a few years ago.

In 4 trips to Alaska, we've cruised on 4 different lines, beginning in 1984 on a small Cunard ship, seeing Hubbard Glacier, among others. Actually, it was our very first cruise. Next was Princess in 1991, where it rained steadily every day in Alaskan waters, including Glacier Bay-it was the Alaskan cruise where we saw nothing but shapes in the mist. When Oceania offered its first Alaskan itineraries, we signed up quickly for O's inaugural sailing in May, 2011. There was a naturalist on board, and while we didn't go to Glacier Bay, we sailed into Tracy Arm, and stepped from the tender deck onto a pontoon boat for what was our best shorex ever. We sailed into what looked like impenetrable ice to anchor very close to Sawyer Glacier, which treated us to a fantastic calving show, which we could see, hear and feel. Along Tracy Arm we saw many waterfalls, some brown bears, quite a few bald eagles posing on a log, and even a whale or two. It was just a magical experience.

Our last trip was on Celebrity in May, 2014, with my sister and BIL, where the Tracy Arm experience wasn't as wonderful. The pontoon boat we hoped to experience again did not start service until June. We noted that Celebrity had the poorest mooring locations, especially in Juneau and Skagway, meaning very long walks or paying for a shuttle bus.

All in all, things have changed greatly over our Alaskan cruising years. Maybe we'll go back to this gorgeous state again, and we might choose Princess just because of the land tour aspect, because we have not done that before. Marlene

I don't recall the prices, but I do remember Siddhu, whose sports massages truly helped my chronic sciatica. I'm hoping to find him on one or both of my future cruises. Best massages ever!! Marlene

We were on the Shanghai - Papeete w/c segment in 2015, and remember this very well. What did you think of the metal "pushing the world back together" sculpture in front of the building housing the entrance to the tunnel?

Did you see the deserted modern train station, with the Pyongyang stop? Only birds were standing in line there.

I believe the 2018 winter Olympics are to be in Pyongyang. Don't think we'll be there for it! Marlene