NYAS

All 4 R ships listed, but departures only through June 2026.

Agree with @AMHuntFerry on the “spoke” method. This has worked well for us in Normandy (based in Bayeaux), Basque Country (based in San Sebastián) and the Italian Lakes (based in Stresa). Now researching other such itineraries, especially ones as above where the base towns offer several appealing dining options.

We found the underground British war rooms at Valetta very interesting. An unfamiliar part of WWII.

Sorry that you had to cancel, and hope your husband is better soon. I faced the same situation in May, when my husband fell and broke his hip two days before we were to leave for Europe, with days in Lisbon, then a Marina cruise Lisbon-Amsterdam, followed by some days in Amsterdam. I filed our insurance claim in June and received full payment 6 weeks later, at the end of July. It was my first time filing such a claim, and I was quite satisfied at the end, but there were some frustrating moments. Part of our claim were some prepaid expenses made in Euros. I learned that the best way to provide backup for those was to submit copies of the relevant credit card statements, where the expenses are shown in USD and well as in Euros. Perhaps that info will save you some time during the process. Good luck!

Seems to be working fine now for our June 2024 booking. I notice they have deleted the Unlimited Passport Collection package as an excursion pricing option.

This is something I’m not clear on yet. If I keep my O life booking with 3 “free” excursions pp, can I still select 3 excursions priced at $199 or less at no charge and then add more for 25% off of 5 or more (including those 3), as in the YWYW offer previously? The excursion ordering mechanism online now does not make that clear, so it’s difficult to compare the SM excursion credit (in my case $400 pp) to the 3 excursions included with O Life. Any thoughts on this?

Is YWYW still offered with Simply More, with 25% discount off five or more excursions, including those booked with the excursion credit?

We received cruise documents April 3 for our upcoming May 23 Lisbon-Amsterdam sailing. It includes a personalized 46-page brochure similar to a “Blue Book” I kept from years ago, although excursion descriptions were not included. The packet did include personalized luggage tags. Everything was packed in a good-looking glossy folder with pockets and Velcro closure, cover artwork depicting Portuguese tile work.

Ironically, our first O cruise was the Baltics on Marina in 2013, chosen because, unlike other ships’ itineraries, it had two overnights in St. Petersburg, allowing us to go to Moscow on the middle day in port. It was a great cruise and a lively CC roll call, where I arranged small group tours for several ports, including the Moscow visit. We took no O excursions. Now, our upcoming Lisbon-Amsterdam cruise on Marina has had most port stays shortened, and from recent posts on this board I am wondering if we will even make all ports (one is a tender). Because of the uncertainties for ports, we’ve booked O excursions. The concern about port stays, as well as reported shortcomings related to food quality and supplies, certainly have me adjusting expectations.

We faced the same issue for a flight from NYC to Lisbon for our cruise in May, with return from Amsterdam. There are several non-stop flights daily in both directions, but when I checked O for flights they were charging additional for any non-stops, on top of the deviation fee for flying in prior to the embarkation date. (I understand the policy for arriving early is now changed.) These were consistent charges across several so-called Custom Air requests. We decided to book our our flights, non-stop both ways, allowing us to select our seats.

Thank you for your review, @pinotlover. Very sorry about your missed ports, but your comments on Marina are welcome as I try to adjust my expectations for our return to her in May after 10 years. Always appreciate your comments on this board.

Also looking forward to full post-cruise report on Marina from pinotlover beyond disappointments about missed ports, and to reports from PhD-iva on her upcoming TA. We are on Marina May-June and trying to adjust expectations in light of current realities. Last on Marina in 2013, when she and we were ten years younger. TIA

Very good to know. Thanks again, Simon-t!

Thank you, Simon-t! We’re now set on going to Concarneau from Lorient, and sticking to St. Malo on our port day there. Hoping to get up on the ramparts if the steps up aren’t too steep. When we were at Mont St. Michel a few years ago we stopped climbing the steep stone steps with no hand rails about halfway up. Still very glad we got to MSM, though.

This evening we received a message from O detailing revised times in ports for our upcoming May Lisbon-Amsterdam cruise on Marina — a total of 7 fewer hours in 6 of our 9 port stops. The letter attributes this to O’s efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, but certainly reducing expenses must be a significant factor. This cruise is a segment of a longer itinerary, so I assume there are also revisions to other itineraries as well. I’d read in other threads about skipped ports and reduced hours in ports on some Caribbean and Australian itineraries, and now I see it is happening for European ones. Very disappointing, especially in light of negative comments seen recently on this board from recent cruisers.