RCNslr

These are the GPS coordinates for the Cruise Ship Terminal in La Havre.

 

N 49° 28' 54.13", E 0° 6' 32.25"

 

Copying them into the address bar of a new Window should bring you to the Google Earth map of the port.

From there, click on the "nearby" icon, then type in "Parking" and you should see a map similar to this:

It looks to me like there are tons of safe lots, but all of them are at least a cab ride away.

In June of last year, the Port was running a free shuttle bus with drop offs at the Le Vulcan entertainment complex or the Espace Coty shopping mall; you may want to do further research to determine if any of these lots is near those locations.

Hope that this helped. Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks for this harbour plan, it took me back to 1953 when I was on my way to New York on the MV Georgic and visited this harbour complete with junk from WW2 (German fighter Plane) poking out of the water. Sorry for being off-topic, but i do know that i once saw a Messerschmitt parked in the harbour illegally.:D

This response obviously refers to Deck 7 on the R ships. On Marina and Riviera, cabins 7000 and 7001 are situated very differently.

Absolutely right, Jim & Stan, thanks for correcting my response with a picture! It was 8000 and 8001 in Marina & Riviera and 7000 & 7001 on the R class ships.:eek:

We just returned from a July Alaska run on regatta and there were over 50 kids. They were much better behaved than many of the adults and it was great to share a cruise with them (the kids). O had a fine program of activities for the kids and they seemed to involve themselves in it. It did surprise us to see the kids as they have been invisible in our previous cruises by not being there. I guess some of these parents/grandparents are doing a good job in managing their young ones and it is the luck of the draw if you run into the badly behaved.

That is a good deal for r/t comfort seats ...where are you flying to/from ?

EDM to SEATAC, finally we get a break for living in the West and the ship is less than 1000 miles away.

This just jogged my memory. On one of the cruises I had this discussion with one of the future cruise sales people. She said that O contracts for a minimum number of seats on their flights. If you opt out of the included air at a time when they think they won't sell all of the seats they've contracted for, the credit they offer you will be quite low.

We are most happy with O's options, We opted out of air and received a $450 credit each (+/- $1100 Cdn $) and booked in Comfort seats on Delta for $668 Cdn $. As you may have noticed in the arithmetic, we are in fact being paid to do our own thing and it just happens when the US$ is higher than ours and the flight deals are good. In the past we have used air deviation on O with success, but generally book our own flights and take the air credit. The Air Travel Dept at O is most fair and usually very considerate of passenger requests within the constraints that t:Dhey have to work with - this has been our experience.

I'm looking at a transatlantic on board Marina in April' date=' 2017 and have questions:

 

has anyone stayted in 7001, 02 or 03 on a T/A? If so, was there much movement that far forward? We had hoped to get one of the B3's toward the stern, but those were not available.

 

Also, with an eastbound T/A, would the starboard side be less windy than the port? That is my assumption, but could be wrong!

 

Thanks for any input![/quote']

We have stayed in both 7000 & 7001 and, yes, there is more movement since it is as far forward as you can be and still in a cabin. Wind - the apparent wind (from the speed of the ship) is always there and the solid steel railing deflects most of it but reduces your vision if you are sitting down. You do get to see where you are going and any docking brings a bit of noise from the forward windlasses when they take up the strain on the lines. We like it, but it is not to everyone's taste. Relax and enjoy your trip!

I have done the O trip twice across on Marina, once out of NY and once out of Montreal. Regrettably, it was not rough (we like a bit of bounce) and when we were in the Irish Sea it did get rough which we enjoyed, but the ship handled it well. Now the trip leaves from Miami on the eastern trip and should be even less subject to gales. Have a good one.

Just returned from SEA to AK 7 days on July 15 and had prepared for wet and cool trip, no wet and not even cool ( we are Canadians, so might be off base for our US neighbours). What a wonderful trip with many whale sightings, porpoises, Orcas and-children! The most kids we have ever sailed with on Oceania (over 50 of them) and they were very well behaved and fun to have around. Food was the usual, great to outstanding, crew were superb and attentive, ship handling outstanding ( close up to Dawes Glacier). The string quartet entertained us royally, the pianist superbly, and the ship's band/orchestra hit the right notes. The new dance/singers were enthusiastic but hit a few wrong notes, oh well. We do an encore of our own on August 4 on Regatta and look forward to another great week of cruising the Inside Passage which sure beats the Royal Canadian Navy cruises I took chasing Russian subs in the late 60's. Do this trip if you have not done it before, or like us even if you have! Oh, one more thing, if you live in western Canada, book your own flight and get a reward from O via their credit (which is paid in real dollars (USF) and you will have money in the bank - go for it.:)

That's what it was, Princess didn't so much as replace a light bulb after the sale was set.

 

Oceania got a good deal because the ship had deteriorated badly while in the care of the Carnival Corporation, but they wrestled every possible penny out of her, during those last few months

 

It's disgusting how sharp tactics like that are now accepted as "standard business procedure"

Very good points, SnJ, and we were on Sirena for the inaugural. Chapp Chapp did a superb job of running the CC m&g and their comments are particularly apt about Sirena. I would return to cruise on Sirena in a heartbeat - it was excellent!

 

Yes indeed Mr. T ! :D

Where would we be without the ladies?

At sea with the newest list of our favourite drinks!:D

We, too, have received a very generous offer from O to bail out but had to turn it down because what they offered was in early November. Horses and Llamas command our time in the Nov - Mar time frame since we live 54 degrees North & snow and cold mean the animals need attention. It caused some internal stress since they offered a 14 day PH for our 7 day oceanview. Darn! You can tell who runs this ship: "she who must be obeyed", I would have been gone and some room freed up.....oh well another time!:(

Non-stop from Denver.

 

I'm really not concerned about it, and am pleased it wasn't a 6AM flight leaving me with hours to kill, hence the question regarding how much time we could explore Pikes Place right by the dock.

 

Thanks for the help all!

I think you are just fine, if all goes well. We were on Delta last week from Salt Lake to Seattle and the flight left SLC 30 mins behind schedule due to air traffic control, then circled Seattle for 15 minutes which put us almost 1 hour behind arrival time. Our ongoing flight was still ok. If you don't have a lot of luggage to haul, there is a Light rail transit on the 4th deck at SEATAC that takes you directly to the Pier 66 area (almost) that is quick and avoids traffic delays. We plan on doing that on our July 8th Regatta cruise. Enjoy your trip.

Just heard from our TA. We will be arriving in Ketchikan at 2pm instead of 10am in the morning due to lack of availability of a berth.

 

Sounds like ships are being shuffled around to accommodate everyone with the missing dock. At least we stay until 11pm so perhaps the crowds will be less after the other ships have moved on. Anyway, nothing we can do about it except enjoy the extra time at sea.

 

Mary

I just read a report that says Berth 3 will be repaired by July 5 at a cost of $930,000. Since the June 3 dock smash some 35 ships have been affected but the port has "made do" with a shuffle system of berthings that sees some ships using a combination of available piers and tenders that accommodates their visits. So, after july 5, all should be back to normal again! Well done, Ketchikan!

Well, after watching all this back and forth on the board, I feel that O is generally not interested in distinctions beyond suites and have enjoyed my stays in vista, concierge and about to be ocean view. Will see if my being on the 4th deck for my next cruise (July) sees any difference in service, I doubt it.:D

I agree with your advice with the insertion of the word" can" typically be" steel blue gorgeous in July" Alaska has its surprises and one of then is weather.

I worked as a NPS Ranger in the region and have seen snow storms July 4th.... The lower sections of Alaska are classified as a "temperate rain forest"... There is a reason that they call it that.

Your odds of good weather are best beginning late July to early September.

But I use the word odds. with careful thought.

Going to Alaska is a lot like going to Las Vegas.... there is always going to be an element of risk.

Right again, Dan, one of the wettest places in USA is Ketchikan and it respects no season and I am going there twice within a month just to make sure that NOAA predictions are still true.

Thanks, Laura. Done this coast many times and still love it! MIA to LAX trip is a good one and I am sure you will love it. Best to you and it was fun chatting on Sirena.

According to the cruise calendar Celebrity’s Infinity was scheduled to berth at dock 3 with the Regatta at dock 2. Hopefully that will mean no disruption.

 

http://claalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Ketchikan-KTN-2016.pdf

Thanks for the great response showing the dockings of all the lines. :)

Now that the Celebrity ship, Infinity, has bashed into one of the piers and put it out of commission, will Regatta have to moor off and tender passengers to the dingy dock? Given the rainfall in this port is often and high, it may mean a very wet welcome.:confused:

Our first cruise was on Celebrity at about your age, 16 years ago. We were definitely in the younger (5-10%) demographic, but enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

 

An older crowd (in general) is quieter, more polite, well mannered, and hold much more interesting conversations IMHO. You will have a more refined and relaxed experience.

 

We loved being the youngest people at our table. Now we are at the average cruise age or slightly younger.

 

Oceania will not give you the Carnival experience however, if that's what you are looking for.

This response says it well - and if there is a California wine club onboard, the age demographic lowers considerably and the noise factor increases, which is all part of the fun! Oh, Alaska sounds good, so much so that we will do it twice this summer which makes it 4 times in all on cruise ships and many many in the Canadian Navy on this part of the Pacific.:)

:)

How are the speciality restaurants?

They are up to speed for Oceania, however, I was looking forward to tasting a

Tuscan steak, but the only one available is 20 ounces which is far too large for me and my wife. The best choice in our opinion was the tenderloin or the lobster as the other steaks are kind of thin - just our opinion. Service was outstanding, but it is rather "hyped up" for what still is a combo of Toscana and Polo menus. Red ginger is as good as ever and it is always interesting for us to note that the chefs in RG can achieve crispy duck that does not seem replicable in the JP roasted chicken dishes elsewhere. That was my one, minor, snag that the JP chicken dish always had skin that was not crisp and had to be discarded. The staff were really giving it their best and by cruise end all the venues were doing well and I can vouch for that having just topped the scales with 7 more pounds-soon to be gone. Great little ship for dining and up to O standards and beyond in some instances.:D

GM is Thierry Tholon. Don't know the Captain

The Captain was a wonderful and genuinely good guy called Giulio Ressa who did a great job keeping the ship going including dousing a small engine room fire ( oops, no such thing as a small fire at sea) that was quickly brought under control by the crew. We were walking along with him on Deck 5 in Marseille and he noticed 2 crew doing something in that little closet with the vented door, he opened the door and said," what the hell are you guys doing?", to much laughter from us and the 2 crew who were running some wiring. He told us he likes to have a joke with the staff and cares about his crew and his ship very much. He left the ship in Venice for 6 weeks vacation - well-earned after bringing her through this refurb IMHO!

I'm enjoying Azamara's tweeting on the Quest Refurb but haven't seen any progress reports on Sirena -- anyone have any updates?

A long time in coming, but Sirena is enroute towards Barcelona now so she is finished with the refurb and it is engine testing time and other shakedowns before pulling alongside the pier in Barcelona. Of course, I had to dig this up myself from marine traffic - she is on course 282 M heading west at 14 knots. I am on my way to the airport to fly to Barcelona and join the ship, and very happy to learn that all appears well with the refit.:)

I'm basing my observations on the education that I received at the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York; education aside, and I say this with all due respect, if you really imagine that body surfing gives you any insight into the way that a SIXTY SIX THOUSAND TON ship handles in bad weather, then I honestly don't see any point in our continuing this conversation.

You are absolutely correct in your observations, Jim and Stan, we were in 8001 in Marina last May, and at sea in a gale off Dublin. :)I braced myself on the side of the balcony so that i could better observe and take pictures of the large swells (in excess of 30 ft) and nothing came near the foredeck of even close to washing over the bow. The ship was remarkably stable and it made my day to be able to enjoy the ride!:)

I'm enjoying Azamara's tweeting on the Quest Refurb but haven't seen any progress reports on Sirena -- anyone have any updates?

It appears that the bosses of O have decided to keep everything quiet on the refurb. I asked them some time ago to consider a few photos or written updates from the yard, but have not had a response. When I called the PR folks they said they had passed my request along, I suspect it is in Davey jones' locker (the sea). We are on Sirena for her first trip out from under the sea witch label and look forward to her being refreshed, refurbished and renewed in the O style.:rolleyes:

It's Customs, not the Cruise-Line, which runs the show on debarkation day, and until they give the all clear, there are generally gendarmes at the foot of the gangways who wont let anyone go anywhere, period.

 

One cannot fight City Hall successfully, so we always bite the bullet on our return flights and book later in the day flights.

We're just keeping an ulcer at bay!

Absolutely correct answer - and in Civitavecchia it is a long run to the airport! Good luck.:)