cbb Posted April 6, 2012 #1 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Our cruise begins in Sept 2013 so I have lots of time to research but I have a question concerning excursions. From what I've read, it doesn't matter whether you take an optional through O or a private guide, when you arrive at the destination, the guide for that "building" takes over. Some reviews I've read seems to indicate that the "building" guide speaks in Russian and then your guide translates for you. It seems that at other sites your guide sticks to a standard script. For those of you who have made that trip, is what I've described true? (I put "building" in quotations because it could be at Stalin's dacha or the Livadia palace, or battlefield, etc.) I want to be able to ask questions about the Balaklava Battle without upsetting my guide but I also want to be prepared for tours to take longer and to be a good guest. Thanks for any feedback! c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benita Posted April 6, 2012 #2 Share Posted April 6, 2012 We took this cruise about four years ago and had both private guides in the Ukraine and an Oceania tour in Sochi. All guides spoke in English. A couple of museums in the Ukraine had their own docents and they spoke English as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted April 6, 2012 #3 Share Posted April 6, 2012 We did a cruise tour (not with Oceania) the guide did the tour in all the places we went to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 6, 2012 Author #4 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Did you go in the summer and how hot was it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted April 6, 2012 #5 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Did you go in the summer and how hot was it? Not sure who you are asking but we went mid June in 2003 It was warm most of the trip SPB it was 74F the 2 days we were there Cool in the mornings & some days were wet & cool We did the Baltic & Norway Some photos @ http://travel.webshots.com/album/560218737gnTarg?start=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleRedJohn Posted April 6, 2012 #6 Share Posted April 6, 2012 We were aboard Nautica for a similar Black Sea cruise several years ago. Had a fabulous time. I would guess you will go to many of the ports we went to. The key is do your research now and decide what you want to see and not see in each port. Then figure out a plan for each port and decide if the ship's excursion will take care of you. For example, we didn't take, or need, any excursion in Odessa. We studied up beforehand and just walked around and had a great time. The ship had a free shuttle to downtown. Elsewhere we often took the ship's excursions. They were overpriced but usually at least adequate, if not good. Ship excursions have their downside, but they also offer a reliability that is comforting in strange places. We are concerned about traveling in Russia, for example, so in Sochi, we took an all-day ship's excursion. The guide was great and we saw a number of interesting things and received a tour of Stalin's dacha, which was great. In Sevastopol, we wanted to go to the Charge of the Light Brigade battlefield. We took a ship's excursion and it was great. But another passenger might not care about the battlefield. It depends on what YOU want to do. If there's something you REALLY REALLY want to see--for us that was the Yalta meeting hall where FDR, Stalin and Churchill discussed the end of World War II, we signed up for a ship's excursion as soon as we could to avoid being disappointed. In a couple ports on that cruise, fellow passengers sought out and hired a taxi driver for a tour of one or more hours to one or more locations. They were pleased with the results. We used that technique in a couple of places in the Caribbean last year and it worked well. I would recommend getting on the CruiseCritic board site for your particular cruise and compare notes with others on your trip in the months before you depart. You will meet some nice people that way, too. Also, seek recommendations for shore excursion operators from others who have visited your ports in the last year or two. That's the technique we used on a recent cruise to the Amazon, and we found several wonderful shore excursions that were as cheap or cheaper than the ship, and far better. While we got good information from the web, we didn't use any operators who did not have a reference from a previous cruise passenger. In a couple of cases, we talked by telephone/email with the previous passengers. All this takes some work, but we found on the Amazon cruise that the work really paid off. At one port, other passengers told us they envied what we had done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrssbi Posted April 7, 2012 #7 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Did the Black Sea last summer and all our guides stayed with us the whole time even in museums, etc. We used some great private guides/tour companies and were very pleased. I did a lot of research and was very pleased with what we did. If you can find the Oceania Roll call for the Black Sea from last July I posted quite a bit about our excursions. I booked the guides early as they get booked up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 7, 2012 Author #8 Share Posted April 7, 2012 great advice everyone. We have been on several O cruises and I am a huge researcher. We won't get our own Russian visas so we will be dependent on guides. So far there is no roll call for this Sept '13 trip but it is still early. I used to teach history and I'm quite anxious to see the WWII sites since one of the courses I taught was WWII. We are also interested in seeing the Crimean War area of which I know very little about--just through the work of Florence Nightingale and her influence on US nursing and the Sanitary Commission of the US Civil War. I think this is going to be an awesome trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globevest Posted April 7, 2012 #9 Share Posted April 7, 2012 cbb, I am bit of a history buff and loved the Black Sea cruise. The Yalta meeting....Wow! Being in Churchill's bedroom and walking out on his balcony and looking out over the Black Sea was emotional for me. (Yes I am a Brit). I could have talked to the 'Charge of the Light Brigade' guide for hours. Standing on a ridge overlooking the battle site was marvelous. Also think about where three fashion items....Cardigan, Raglan Sleeves and Balaclava came from. I played a game of snooker on Stalin's snooker table at his Dacha in Sochi. What great fun. Then the rest of the cruise covered sites in history ranging for 1,000 to 3,000 (or more) years ago. I am sure you will enjoy this cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimandStan Posted April 7, 2012 #10 Share Posted April 7, 2012 cbb, I am bit of a history buff and loved the Black Sea cruise. The Yalta meeting....Wow! Being in Churchill's bedroom and walking out on his balcony and looking out over the Black Sea was emotional for me. (Yes I am a Brit). I could have talked to the 'Charge of the Light Brigade' guide for hours. Standing on a ridge overlooking the battle site was marvelous. Also think about where three fashion items....Cardigan, Raglan Sleeves and Balaclava came from. I played a game of snooker on Stalin's snooker table at his Dacha in Sochi. What great fun. Then the rest of the cruise covered sites in history ranging for 1,000 to 3,000 (or more) years ago. I am sure you will enjoy this cruise. Yes, but when the glassy eyed passenger next to you inquires, "Is that the same Churchill who owns the restaurant in West Hollywood", pandemonium might set in...:rolleyes: Better to hire a private guide and solicit similar minded history buffs to join you through the Roll Call. Then you may revel in as much historical detail as you please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 7, 2012 Author #11 Share Posted April 7, 2012 globevest; If you took an O' excursion, do you remember which Crimean tour you took? It looks like there are a couple being offered in 2013. Also for those of you who spent extra time in Istanbul, is the Amira still a good hotel? Tripadvisor contributors seem to think so and since we will probably be doing Istanbul DIY (thanks to Paul and Cinti Pam's advice from a couple of years ago) we want a good central hotel within walking distance of the sites. The other one I was looking at was the White House. We're really looking forward to it although the 2012 differs slightly from the 2013. For 2013 yet another stop in Ephesus and Mykonos and 2012 does an overnight in Istanbul and then ends whereas our cruise simply ends there so we'll need an least an extra day or maybe 2. The order of the ports has also been tweaked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globevest Posted April 8, 2012 #12 Share Posted April 8, 2012 cbb, The cruise we took was Black Sea Serenade on Nautica in June 2012. Our Crimea excursion was 'O's "The Balaklava Valley". We were very satisfied at the time. This was prior to reading Cruise Critic and expanding our horizons with a mixture of 'O' and private tours. With hindsight I now believe a private tour of 6/8 people would probably have been even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 8, 2012 Author #13 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Thanks Globevest--That is the one that I was looking at. I wonder if anyone has any good guides to rec'd for this port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 8, 2012 #14 Share Posted April 8, 2012 CBB, I suggest you peruse the roll calls for the Black Sea cruises in July and August 2012. We are on the latter and happened to luck into a fellow passenger who had done all the research, so we just joined with her. But I think if you go through those roll calls, and also for the year before, you will get a lot of information. From what I have heard, the guides do book early. The link to the August cruise is http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1477773 but it's been rather inactive, even til now. You may well get more in from the July cruise, or those in 2011. Mura (It's funny, I think the roll call I set up for the November 2013 TA, Barcelona to Rio on Marina, is already more active than this August's Black Sea cruise!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 8, 2012 Author #15 Share Posted April 8, 2012 thanks Mura, I've been looking at the August one so I'll expand my search into the July one. I looked at the years before but was wanting updated info on the Instanbul hotels. Perhaps someone from the July or Aug ones will post some comments. c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 8, 2012 #16 Share Posted April 8, 2012 As to Istanbul hotels, if you do a search you'll find many comments. We were there in early November (2011) and stayed for the first time at the Hotel Nena in Sultanahmet (only a few blocks from the Blue Mosque) and were quite happy with it. Small rooms but a good breakfast, and a 50% discount on dinner one night. We're booked there again after our Black Sea cruise. On our first visit we were sailing with Renaissance and they included a hotel stay after the cruise in Taksim -- the Sultanahmet location was vastly more convenient even if we weren't in a five star hotel! I've seen a number of favorable reviews here on CC for the Nena, but also for any number of hotels in this area. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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