kimiata

Here's a (not very good) picture of the happy hour menu from our cruise (Legend April 24-May 31). Most, if not all, nights it was from 6:30 to 7:30 and then again from 9:30 to 10:30 in Compass Rose.

Drinks are $4.50 during happy hour, which usually ran from 6:30 to 7:30 and 9:30 to 10:30.

We are just off the Legend after 38 days (Osaka to Vancouver) and if there were exhaust fumes I would have definitely noticed. We were aft on deck 4.

To the poster who asked about Kenai Fjords: We have done the Kenai Fjords day trip in the past, and in my opinion you don’t need to do it if you do this cruise. We woke up in front of Aialik Glacier and spent the whole day there, as opposed to the (maybe) half hour we spent on the day cruise, much of it jostling for position to try to get pictures.

Hi Floris, I know you asked about Mandalay but I can tell you that the Bagan trip is definitely worth doing. The ship's tour was full by the time we booked the cruise, but it was not that hard to do it on our own and a lot of passengers did it that way. I am sure there were people on our cruise that went to Mandalay but I don't remember talking to anyone who did; it seemed everyone went to Bagan.

Hi, we just did this. We didn’t know how it worked, so we didn’t sign up until we were on the ship. The guest services person said the kayak excursions are often cancelled and recommended that we sign up for several different days. So that’s what we did. You can cancel with (I think) 48 hours notice.

Fortunately, we got to go on the first day in Antarctica and had a wonderful time. I think it was worth the price tag and would certainly do it again. We rowed through some crunchy ice, got probably too close to a leopard seal lounging on an iceberg, and watched penguins porpoising through the water next to us. It was beautiful and peaceful and quiet.

Our assigned time was at 11:30 am, but our color group was supposed to go ashore that day at noon. We went ashore with the 9:00 group but could have gone with any of the other groups at 6:00, 7:30, or 10:30. You find out what time your group is scheduled the next day at the pre-dinner briefing, but you don’t know what time your kayaking excursion is until they give you the tour tickets. This didn’t seem to happen until very late in the evening so it does make it kind of hard to plan.

You wear all your regular clothes that you wear to go ashore except for the waterproof pants and the orange waterproof parka. I don’t think we wore our regular black parkas either. They dress you in a waterproof oversuit and a life jacket, so you don’t need to bring your life jacket from the room. Someone told me to wear two pairs of wool socks but probably one would have been enough on the day we went.

The paddles have these big neoprene mittens attached to them that you are supposed to put your hands in. I guess it’s to keep your hands warm, but it was the opposite for me since I was always getting cold water in them. I wore waterproof gloves underneath but thought that maybe mittens would have kept my hands warmer.

Oh, and they also give you a dry bag for your stuff. We left the big camera in the suite but we did take a few pictures with our phones. There wasn’t a whole lot of time for photos though.

Hope that helps. Have fun!

HPeabody, how did it go? We just got back from picking mine up :)

Well, I made it through the form and have my appointment Thursday at 10:10 AM. Maybe I will see you there kimiata :)

Good luck!

Hi, I agree with you about the application. The only things we uploaded were our photos and signatures.

I was just coming here to tell you to bring a copy of your itinerary. The instructions didn't say to bring one, but we did, and they asked for it. I just had the printout from the airline about our flights (none of which actually involve Brazil) and they seemed to be satisfied with that.

Did you have to get a new passport photo? I am glad to hear it is taking a week, sounds good.

Yes we just went to Costco and had them done. Mine too is just over a year old. Oh, and double-check to make sure you have enough room in your passport. I thought my husband did but the agent said he didn't, so now he has to get a new passport first. I also found out they don't let you just add pages anymore.

Hi, we just filled out our applications and had some of the same questions. For "other document" we used our drivers licenses. And we checked the "not informed" box where they wanted the Brazilian address since we are just going to Iguazu Falls for the day.

We had our appointments at the consulate (LA) last week and they said it would take a week to process the visa. So I'm assuming I filled everything out OK but I guess I will know for sure on Thursday when I go back to pick up my passport. Good luck.

Wow! Those are some great pictures! Sounds like you had a fabulous day!

That was great. Thanks.

Have fun, LeeAnne! Can't wait to read the stories!

Thanks for this.

We are onboard right now and staying on for the next cruise. We were told that there is a minor problem with the steering system and that Seabourn decided to address it now rather than later.

We are on the wait list for a 32-day cruise on the Sojourn that is listed as “call for availability.” According to the Seabourn website, the two segment cruises both have room; last week, all but one category were listed as available.

Seabourn tells me though that not only is the 32-day cruise fully booked, but both of those segments are as well. “We do apologize for the website not being reflective of the current situation with your sailing. At this time, there is no space for sale, for certain, in our booking engine.”

So either their website is incorrect or somebody is not telling me the truth. Has anyone been in a similar situation and finally cleared the wait list? The cruise is November 18 so I guess I’ll find out soon enough. (We have already decided to use a different TA next time.)

On our last cruise, we were given no advance notice that times in a few ports were shortened or lengthened, until we read it in the ship paper the night before. Is it possible they were in an embarkation document I overlooked? Or is this standard procedure?

 

Harry

Hi Harry, we were on the same cruise. It seems like we were notified ahead of time about the early departure from Kotor but I didn't know about the other changes either. In both Sorrento and Taormina we felt rushed trying to make it back to the tender in time. It was only after we got back onboard and I compared the original departure times to the actual times that I realized they had both been changed from 6:00 to 5:00.

Kim

To change the subject a just bit, we were recently on deck one on the Windsurf, and we constantly smelled cigarette smoke in our stateroom. It turns out that the crew have a smoking room on the deck below, and the smoke permeated our room. We had friends in adjacent staterooms, and they complained and were moved to another deck. Apparently this is a chronic problem. The nearby elevators seem to pump the smoke up from the lower decks. This is one of many reasons that this was our last Windstar cruise.

Thank you for this. We just booked a cruise on the Surf and our cabin this time is on the first deck.

Not recent, but several years ago we were in #104, which didn't have enough room for the normal bedside table and no room at all in between the bed and the wall on one side. If you look at the deck plan you can see how the curvature of the ship makes the last couple of cabins narrower. It wasn't horrible, but I'd probably book a different cabin.

We were on Riviera recently and experienced someone on an adjacent balcony smoking. We never did figure out what balcony it came from and nor did the security officers nor cabin staff discover the culprit either. Suffice to say it was a terrible experience to open the sliding doors intending for a leisurely time on the balcony only to have to come inside again. After several days of this we were moved to the other side of the ship. What a hassle! Repack and unpack for a second time.

 

My question, do you think Oceania should have compensated us? (they refused)

I'm just curious, which cabin were you in? We were in 7008 on Riviera a couple of weeks ago and smelled smoke on our balcony too. I reported it several times; people came to investigate but nothing was done. Thinking about it now, we wonder if it came from the crew area since we had a similar issue on a Silversea cruise once.

We were pulled over randomly in Sicily once and were glad we had the permit.

You can get an International Driving Permit at your local AAA. My husband just did that today for a couple of upcoming trips, but we have done it several times before. It's $15 plus whatever the cost is of the photo they need to take, and is good for one year.

We were there in November, although not with Oceania. You will need Egyptian pounds for those tickets you mentioned. Depending on the size of your group, your guide may be able to get them and you can reimburse him/her. Ours did that for one of our friends who went inside the pyramid, but when we went back the next day on our own we definitely needed pounds.

The good thing about going to the museum now is that it's not likely to be crowded and you won't have to wait behind people to see some of the exhibits. Our guide told us that five years ago the line to see King Tut's throne was out the door. But we were able to walk right up to it and everything else. We even had the pyramids to ourselves one morning.

We just got back. It was fabulous, maybe the trip of a lifetime. We loved the ship, the service, and the food. The Hilton Luxor is amazing, you will love it. We did the Cairo extension instead of getting back on the ship in Safaga for the rest of the cruise to Dubai. It was nice to have a free afternoon and an extra night in Luxor, and we loved Cairo too.

The Egyptian people were great. They love Americans. At least they kept telling us that they did. We ventured out on our own some and not only never felt unsafe, we felt welcome.

US dollars were accepted in both Jordan and Egypt. We had a private tour in Jordan and we paid our guide in dollars. Bring lots of one-dollar bills, you will need them every time you go to the restroom and a bunch of other times as well.

The ship will take care of your visas.

If you have any specific questions about the ports and the tours or anything else I will try to answer them for you. I hope to write a review about the ship too. I'd give it five stars.

OK :) We leave tomorrow.