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...official papers arrived - we're sailing again!

Imagineer

By Imagineer,
in Oceania Cruises

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Imagineer

Imagineer

Posted
Posted

...after all the planning and booking and reservations and talking to the TA and all the other stuff like paying for it all, whew, the cruise documents have finally arrived. So now it's official, we're committed, and the realization sets in that we've only got less than eight weeks until we board our next Oceania cruise. We're on the Insignia this time going on a reverse itinerary to our previous cruise on the Regatta, we start out in Venice and finish in Rome this time around. We hope everything is still just as great as it was last time, with the introduction of the new bigger ships taking up a lot of the lime light we hope they're still paying as much attention to their little ships...

...we did notice that our Cruise Director is David Shemet, we thought he was on the Marina now, he was our CD on the Regatta, did a great job, so it will be nice to have him once again. One little nitpicky thing I have to mention, on the very first page of the cruise documents they have pictures of all the senior officers and the new president of Oceania, Bruce Himelstein. Couldn't they get a better picture of Mr. Himelstein? Whoever did the art direction for the brochure tried to make his photo fit the page by simply widening it, and ended up literally giving him a fat head. C'mon Oceania, you can do better than that...

...anyway, we're now into countdown mode and very excited to be heading out on another Oceania cruise...:)

 

cheers,

 

the Imagineer

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aohkay

aohkay

Posted
Posted
...after all the planning and booking and reservations and talking to the TA and all the other stuff like paying for it all, whew, the cruise documents have finally arrived. So now it's official, we're committed, and the realization sets in that we've only got less than eight weeks until we board our next Oceania cruise. We're on the Insignia this time going on a reverse itinerary to our previous cruise on the Regatta, we start out in Venice and finish in Rome this time around. We hope everything is still just as great as it was last time, with the introduction of the new bigger ships taking up a lot of the lime light we hope they're still paying as much attention to their little ships...

...we did notice that our Cruise Director is David Shemet, we thought he was on the Marina now, he was our CD on the Regatta, did a great job, so it will be nice to have him once again. One little nitpicky thing I have to mention, on the very first page of the cruise documents they have pictures of all the senior officers and the new president of Oceania, Bruce Himelstein. Couldn't they get a better picture of Mr. Himelstein? Whoever did the art direction for the brochure tried to make his photo fit the page by simply widening it, and ended up literally giving him a fat head. C'mon Oceania, you can do better than that...

...anyway, we're now into countdown mode and very excited to be heading out on another Oceania cruise...:)

 

cheers,

 

the Imagineer

 

Have a GREAT trip!

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lais

lais

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.....anyway, we're now into countdown mode and very excited to be heading out on another Oceania cruise...:)

 

cheers,

 

the Imagineer

 

I'm envious! We still have to wait 5 months for our cruise although everything has been settled. Have a fabulous trip.

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Racdan

Racdan

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Lucky you, we still haven't received our official documents and we leave on the 1st Oct. the originals were sent by our TA the end of July but were 'lost in the post', a second lot were ordered by our TA from Oceania Customer Service UK but were forgotten, apologies were given, so we are now waiting yet again, I have been assured by my TA and Oceania that we will receive them in time, lets hope so. This is our first Oceania cruise so I am hoping that everything else goes according to plan.

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JimandStan

JimandStan

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Lucky you, we still haven't received our official documents and we leave on the 1st Oct. the originals were sent by our TA the end of July but were 'lost in the post', a second lot were ordered by our TA from Oceania Customer Service UK but were forgotten, apologies were given, so we are now waiting yet again, I have been assured by my TA and Oceania that we will receive them in time, lets hope so. This is our first Oceania cruise so I am hoping that everything else goes according to plan.

 

I know that it is no consolation to you, but the thing that is likely to surprise you most about the final documents is just how little you really need them.

Once you've paid your fare, all that you really need to check onto the ship is identification and a credit card for incidentals.

Oh, and don't forget a pen to fill out blank luggage tags at the pier, if you don't receive your pre-printed ones.

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Mura

Mura

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Agreed, the real benefit of the package is the preprinted luggage tags with your name and cabin number.

 

Even the booklet describing tours, etc., is information that is available online. If you aren't computer literate, that is helpful ... but obviously if you are posting on CC you ARE computer literate.

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RetiredFL

RetiredFL

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If you do not want to take the whole booklet, it helps to take out the pages with personal and cruise info on them.

In Rio for an Oceania cruise the security guards at the entrance of the pier wanted to see our passports and our "tickets" After some discussion they looked over the pages from the brochure and let us pass. Everyone was having the same problem and finally a representative of Oceania came out and spoke to their boss and got it more organized. Some cultures just love paperwork.

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JimandStan

JimandStan

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If you do not want to take the whole booklet, it helps to take out the pages with personal and cruise info on them.

In Rio for an Oceania cruise the security guards at the entrance of the pier wanted to see our passports and our "tickets" After some discussion they looked over the pages from the brochure and let us pass. Everyone was having the same problem and finally a representative of Oceania came out and spoke to their boss and got it more organized. Some cultures just love paperwork.

 

Yes......they do stop the shifty looking ones......

 

:D kidding!:D

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LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

Posted
Posted
If you do not want to take the whole booklet, it helps to take out the pages with personal and cruise info on them.

In Rio for an Oceania cruise the security guards at the entrance of the pier wanted to see our passports and our "tickets" After some discussion they looked over the pages from the brochure and let us pass. Everyone was having the same problem and finally a representative of Oceania came out and spoke to their boss and got it more organized. Some cultures just love paperwork.

Yes ....you cannot get into the terminal at Miami without the Personal information page

I also take my invoice

 

Lyn

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Mura

Mura

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That's funny ... I don't remember showing anything to get into the terminal in Miami for our March 2009 TA ... OTOH, I was just glad to have a brand new passport and to have boarded the ship in time!

 

Mura

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findacruise

findacruise

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That's funny ... I don't remember showing anything to get into the terminal in Miami for our March 2009 TA ... OTOH, I was just glad to have a brand new passport and to have boarded the ship in time!

 

Mura

 

We had to have our personal page in Miami in March for our TA. Miami seems to be one of the more strict ports going and coming.

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Mura

Mura

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We had to have our personal page in Miami in March for our TA. Miami seems to be one of the more strict ports going and coming.

 

I have heard that this is the case, and given their location I can understand why that might be.

 

But I also wonder if this is just a more recent change. Did they ALWAYS require the personal page?

 

I'm thinking about this because I just checked my husband's passport and he was just about out of visa pages. So rather than get additional pages, we decided to renew his passport early. But our personal page for our October 21st departure on Marina (although not from Miami) shows his old passport number. I'm wondering if this might cause a problem in Civitavecchia. Obviously I can change the information contained on the passenger information form, but we may not be able to get a new personal page before our departure ...

 

Well, like Scarlett O'Hara, I'll worry about that another day ...

 

Mura

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LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

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I have heard that this is the case, and given their location I can understand why that might be.

 

But I also wonder if this is just a more recent change. Did they ALWAYS require the personal page?

 

 

Mura

Must be hit or miss then in Miami

We had to show paperwork in 2008 but not in 2007

They just wanted to be sure you were on THAT cruise ...they only checked the photo matched our faces before allowing you in the building

 

SFO we just walked into the building then lined up no problem

 

Amsterdam ..no problem getting into building just had to wait to be checked in & allowed onboard

Dover we had our S & S card for the B2B so not sure what they checked there for new arrivals

 

Each port is different

I still take my final invoice ;)

Lyn

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findacruise

findacruise

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On our Regatta cruises out of Miami in 2010 and 2011, we had to show our personal info page and passports to Port Security.

 

Don

 

I just take them all since it's just a few pieces of paper and then safe - better than not having them. Sort of like TSA in different airports - never sure how or what's going to transpire - sometimes jewelry sets it off and sometimes not so I just wait to put on my watch etc. until I'm through and getting "redressed":)

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