ColoradoCruiser88

We were waitlisted on several excursions for our B2B cruises in JuneJuly of this year, despite trying to book at least 6 months out. But all were cleared at least a month before boarding. In each case, O sent our TA a pdf notification of the clearance with the verbiage that our credit card on file would be “automatically” debited for the now cleared Shorex. When our TA forwarded us the email, he also advised us to call Oceania to make sure the payment was taken care of. The first time, we watched our CC online to see if it was debited or not. After a couple of days waiting (no activity), we called O and asked them to please take the payment for the Shorex. After that, we immediately called O whenever our TA forwarded another “cleared waitlisted” Shorex email from O.

Both @mahdnc and @Miaminice wrote up really good cruise reports that featured this port call earlier this year - I believe also on Solstice, so similar itinerary.

@MiaminiceThank you SO much for taking the time to do this! Found you on the Asia board already this morning! We have a B2B SE Asia cruise with DIY precruise to Ankor Wat next year and your past trip reports are a fabulous source of insightful information. Perfect timing now for Ankor Wat! Thanks again and have a fabulous trip! CC88

@Miaminice Some of us are not on that other website and we (I) would really love to read about your new cruise experience - especially for Ankor Wat. You always provide such relevant and useful information 💐. is it possible for you to post your cruise experience on the Asia forum for now, and if perchance it gets moved, we will just follow it to its new home? Wishing you and your wife a wonderful cruise!!

Can you use the AARP gift certificates to make payments (not the deposit) on a cruise booked through a travel agency?

We have returned from our O Marina cruise and the O transfer to Heathrow went perfectly fine. Several days before the end of the cruise, a questionnaire appeared in our cabin asking what your plans are for Southampton - if you are continuing on the next leg of the cruise, if you have independently arranged transfer, if you have already purchases a ship transfer, etc. We indicated we wanted to purchase a transfer - to Heathrow airport. You need to mark down which airline, flight number and flight time you have. This is so that they know which terminal you will be going to and what color/number luggage tags to assign to you. I think it read no flights before 1pm was acceptable. The cost - $79 USD per person - was deducted from our onboard account (where we had refundable onboard credit) and the appropriate luggage tags appeared a few days later. One minor note - although the transfers are called “excursions”, they do not qualify for the 25% Shorex discount (if you had already booked the minimum number of Shorex). On the morning of, we just waited until they called our luggage tag color/number, walked off the ship, found our luggage in the terminal and was on the bus by 8 am. I don’t think there was a limit on the number of luggage as we saw couples with 4 and 5 suitcases being loaded. They are loaded into the bus storage compartments according to which terminal you will be going to. Th3 bus waited for stragglers and we didn’t pull out until 9:00 am. The trip takes 90 minutes and we pulled into terminal 2 at exactly 10:30 am. It took awhile to unload everyone’s luggage, so if you are departing from the other terminals, it may take some time. We cleared security and dropped off our luggage by 11:00 am and so had lots of time to kill before boarding time at 2 pm.

Just did the walk today. Come out of the station, river side, look to your right and you will see the Movenpick hotel sign. Walk to the right following the red bike path. Keep to the right path until you come to a crosswalk with a light. There seems to be a walking path on either side of the busy red bike path)and you want the one on the right. Cross over and STAY on this right hand side path and cross over a ramp like bridge. This is the “higher” of the 2 paths going towards the Movenpick hotel. If you walked along the “lower “ path, you will need to climb a set of stairs because that path will end at water’s edge. (Guess which path we and a bunch of others took today? all following each other, rolling suitcases.🙄😟) stay on this upper path and pass the Music Hall ramp someone posted above. Soon after there will be an opportunity to cross the road to the other side of the street where the hotel is. I think just in front of the Passenger cruise terminal, so you backtrack slightly as the hotel is to the left of the passenger cruise terminal as you face both of them from across the street. BTW, there were lots of people rolling suitcases doing this walk, but I personally didn’t think it was such smooth rolling over the brick walkways. Nothing like rolling the suitcases over smooth mezzanine floors at the airports. But it was cheap though - €11.80 for 2 train tickets. Just use the kiosks at the airport to buy - they have signs(instructions) in english and pay by credit card. The machine spits out the tickets and you will need them to exit Centraal station later. Or stand in line and buy from a real person at the counter.

@flahaganThank you so much for the directions! Hope you had a great trip and wishing you many more great and wonderful adventures ! As others have noted above, your enthusiasm and beautiful upbeat outlook on life and adventure shines through in your responses. Travel Safe & Well, CC88

@kaisatsu OMG! Thank you SO much for the detailed instructions! Thank you!

@flahagan Were you able to make the walk from Centraal station to the Movenpick hotel as planned? We will be departing on a cruise from Amsterdam early next week, booked 1 night at the Movenpick and hope to take the train in from Schipol airport just like you outlined above. Were you able to take the ramp or did you walk around past the hotel and U-turned (back-tracked) per Google maps? The last time we embarked from Amsterdam, there was a Conexxion bus from the airport that drops you off at any downtown hotel, but I think that is gone now. Thank you for any advice.

@gnome12 Thank you.

@gnome12 Thank you for the response. I’m guessing that since you mention taking the bus 81 to meet up with tram 12, the tram stop must be some distance from the pier?

Hello, We will be in Oslo in early July for 1 day and would like to visit Vigeland Sculpture park. The ship will be docked at Filipstad Quay. What is the easiest way to get there, please? Is it by tram #12? What is the nearest tram stop to Filipstad Quay? Alternatively, approximately how much would Uber be? Thank you.

Been away and just now catching up on this thread - I can no longer get email alerts from CC forum on threads I follow. It appears to be the most recent price for O transfer is now $79 USD or $102CAD. You can pre-book through your travel agent now or just as easily book while onboard ship a few days before the end of the cruise. On our past cruises from Southampton, there were 4 of us traveling and it was reasonable to book private car service to and from London (once with Stonehenge added). But this time with only 2 of us, the easiest and cheaper alternative is to do the O transfer. Thank you all for posting the information!

@osandomir Wow! Thank you for that information! My husband was keen on taking Uber, but I thought the numbers he got off his Internet search were too far-ranging. Thanks again!

@22travel2 Thank you for the information and confirmation of Oceania’s transfer price.

@ORV, No, we always do our own flights.

@alcpa1 Yes, I checked our roll call, but it’s very quiet and no one on it seem to be doing a straight transfer to Heathrow. I have also checked the British Isles forum and tried to contact several of the highly recommended private transfer companies, but it appears I have (for once) procrastinated too much and they are booked up. That is why my preferred private transfer gave me a quote of £365 - their “cheaper” cars are already booked up.😟 And the recommended private bus transfer company is quoting a price of $105 pax, so I’m better off taking Oceania transfer. Thank you for responding!

@Jack1 and @Mrs f. - Thank you. $99 CAD is roughly $73 USD, so that is in the ballpark for Oceania charging $70 USD last year and in 2022. I think that will be our plan. Unlike Celebrity or some other cruise lines, Oceania doesn’t seem to make end of cruise transfers or excursions available for pre-booking, so we’ll just wait until it’s available onboard.

Hello, Does Oceania still offer a transfer from Southampton port to Heathrow airport, and if so, how much please? The last price I saw on a forum thread was $70 pax in 2022. I just got a quote from a car service we have used in the past and it is now £365 (for 2 of us). Are taxis/ubers readily available at the cruise terminal and would that be a good alternative (8:00 am on a Tuesday in early July). Our flight to the U.S. is 2:50 pm) Thanks for your help.

Yes, the waitlists do clear. We are also booked on Marina for Northern Europe/Norway cruises starting in late June, and booked shorexes because of the mandatory Shorex credits. We booked 5/6 months out and were waitlisted on 3/6 Shorex for the first cruise. Two months later, one cleared. Oceania sent our TA the notice and he forwarded the email to us. We called O to authorize the payment and confirm the credit card. Two weeks after this, we got another notification that another waitlisted Shorex on this cruise was cleared. At this point, we looked for a “cheap” still available Shorex at a port that we were originally planning to DIY and tried to book it so that we would have the minimum 6 Shorex to get 25% off (all the shorexes). The online cart didn’t work, so we called O to book to ensure we got the 25% discount applied to all 6 shorexes. We still have 1 pending Shorex waitlisted for this cruise. We have a back up privately booked excursion for this port so will decide what to do if/when this last waitlisted Shorex gets cleared.

Do they still do the port pictures when you disembark at each port?

WOW! Thank you so much for this information! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all my questions, @mahdnc! A lot to think about.

Thanks, @Jim_Iain! PS. As with @mahdnc, I greatly enjoy reading your beautiful live reports and learn so much!💐

Thanks again, @mahdnc! I think I understand more fully now the nuances.