seadiamond

Any news regarding the dropping of the VAX for transatlantic/transpacific cruises.

I would like to offer my opinion of Venture Ashore, which may offer another reason not to use them.   I recently found out they were Shore Trips.   I have used Shore Trips in the past and never had an issue.   So I looked at Venture Ashore for my trip to Greece and Turkey.

My issue is with the pricing.  I was looking at a 4 hour group tour to in Chania, Greece, which is priced at $430/pp, yes, you read that right, a total of $860 for two on a 4 hour sightseeing trip.  I "chatted" with the company asking the question why this and other trips of theirs were very expensive.  They replied, "in Greece the tour guides are doing extensive training."   I am sure that most countries, who train tour guides have similar training and standards.   I did tell the person that and that I had looked elsewhere and other sites, were less expensive.  They apparently don't care.    Predict, they won't be in business long.  

I am doing my first Seabourn in September. So I have only comments regarding Oceania which we have sailed 4 times, last time, last week. I do mean last time. Oceania used to be fantastic, great food, wonderful state rooms, etc. It has seen a decline since being acquired by NCL. Food is all tasteless, tiny drinks, tiny bathroom, tiny TV, horrible entertainment, lectures featured topics of fish and ships. Our veranda, had not seen maintenance in quite a while. The walls had huge rust stains, balcony flooring looked like it was done by someone with poor eyesight and poor measuring skills. The dividing panel was kept from moving by strips of paper forced in between. We were extremely disappointed. Here is one example of the food quality, our table mate received her entree consisting of 3 small scallops on equally small potatoes--that was it. My artichoke heart salad, had 3 paper thin strips of artichoke--really!

The staff is still very wonderful and the library, which is great saved our sanity. The destination desk, was uninformed and not at all helpful. I am really hoping the Seabourn does a better job,because we booked it for our anniversary.

We were in Tenerife, last October and used Spain Day Tours. We went to Mt. Teide and La Laguna. We had a great day and great tour guide her name was Elizabeth. It was very enjoyable and Elizabeth was well informed and attentive to our needs, hard to do when there is 18 people. Didn't have any problem with the price.