Oceania air and safari options

[lynsy]

Hi,

 

DH and I are debating between similar Cape Town itineraries on Oceania and Crystal. Oceania's cruise price includes standard air, Crystal's does not. However, we are wondering if with deviations and air differentials, the air price might be close to the same. Would welcome advise from anyone who has experience with Oceania air. Thanks.

 

Also would welcome information about any experiences with Oceania pre, post or shore trip cruise safari options.

 

Thanks again,

Lynsy

[spindrift]

Actually we were booked on Oceania last year, and we were taking the air deviation to include Business Class. We were looking at safaris prior to and during, all of which were extra.

 

I checked Regent, and lo a behold they had a special that included a pre-cruise safari as well as Business Class. When I put the pencil to the paper, I came out better with Regent considering everything is included.

 

Now understand, I am an Oceania fan and felt guilty changing but it was a no brainer. I have two more Oceania cruises booked when I could have selected Regent, but the pricing is close.

 

I think it is dependent on when the trip is, are the itineraries what you want, and so on. Pay the deviation and select the flights you wish--on either O or R.

[bitob]

Plan your own safari. Don't let the cruise line do it for you. There are amazing options for safaris. The cruise line does not give you those choices

[no fuss travel]

I agree. Plan your own safari. Pay the deviation fee and let Oceania take care of the air. We did that and did 10 days pre-cruise in South Africa and Zimbabwe. We saw more doing it on our own than we would have seen if we had done the safari offered by Oceania.

[wripro]

Another vote for planning your own safari. That way you choose the camps, the amount off time in each etc. And do not underestimate the amount of days to spend in the camps. If you do you will feel cheated as it is one of the most magical places on the planet.

[no fuss travel]

WE stayed 3 days at the Sabi Sands Private Reserve and could easily have stayed another day. That time was the highlight of our entire trip and beat the cruise hands down. We did several day safaris from the cruise ship and they were not nearly as good as our time at Sabi Sands. With the private reserves you can go off road whereas if you do Kruger, you cannot go off road to the same extent. One of our biggest thrills was having the leopard walk right beside our jeep. If I had moved my hand just slightly the tail of the leopard would have touched it.

[bitob]

Take a look at Dulini. Magical. Small and elegant. Get a good agent who specializes in South African safaris to help u plan. A safari is life changing

[dar68]

WE stayed 3 days at the Sabi Sands Private Reserve and could easily have stayed another day. That time was the highlight of our entire trip and beat the cruise hands down. We did several day safaris from the cruise ship and they were not nearly as good as our time at Sabi Sands. With the private reserves you can go off road whereas if you do Kruger, you cannot go off road to the same extent. One of our biggest thrills was having the leopard walk right beside our jeep. If I had moved my hand just slightly the tail of the leopard would have touched it.

 

Was wondering what cruise you did. We are contemplating Dubai to Cape Town November 2016 but having a few reservations about this cruise after doing some research. Perhaps if you did you could give me some comments on the cruise. Thanks.

[no fuss travel]

We did the Cape Town to Singapore cruise. Friends of ours did a cruise that went from Bangkok to Dubai and enjoyed it very much. Our next trip to Africa is going to be a land one as we fell in love with the continent. Our TA had warned us that once we went we would want to go back again, and she was right. We are planning on going back with friends but will only go for 3 weeks instead of being away 6 weeks. Our animals did not do so well with us being away that length of time and we ended up having to retrain them again.

[lynsy]

Thanks spindrift,

Regent does have a very appealing itinerary and price. We originally booked it, but regrettably had to cancel as work commitments wouldn't allow such a long time away. Is the Oceania business class air with deviation generally trouble free and a substantial savings over buying from the air carrier? If you wouldn't mind, would you be willing to post the approximate savings.

 

Thanks very much

Lynsy

[spindrift]

Lynsy, I took O's air deviation which was $3,500 pp RT. I found that to be quite good, but with the cost of Regent's trip, it was a wash.

 

Our pre cruise safari was fabulous. It was Sibuya Forest, and I can't say enough about how good it was.

[lynsy]

Hi Spindrift,

 

After reading your post, I did the pencil and paper thing for the Regent cruise we'd booked (Lisbon to CapeTown) and found the same result. Regent's overall price is better. I also looked further on Regent's schedule and found a CapeTown to CapeTown sailing, shorter in duration and at a more convenient time of year. Plan to book it and hope there is good availability left.

 

I would be very interested in hearing more about your trip if you have the time. If you'd rather use e mail, my e mail address is liwamoto@comcast.net.

 

P.S. Have you ever taken an AMA river cruise? We met a couple from Sugarland on a recent Danube cruise and wondered if by coincidence it might be you. Many thanks, Lynsy

[Travelcat2]

Hi Spindrift,

 

After reading your post, I did the pencil and paper thing for the Regent cruise we'd booked (Lisbon to CapeTown) and found the same result. Regent's overall price is better. I also looked further on Regent's schedule and found a CapeTown to CapeTown sailing, shorter in duration and at a more convenient time of year. Plan to book it and hope there is good availability left.

 

I would be very interested in hearing more about your trip if you have the time. If you'd rather use e mail, my e mail address is liwamoto@comcast.net.

 

P.S. Have you ever taken an AMA river cruise? We met a couple from Sugarland on a recent Danube cruise and wondered if by coincidence it might be you. Many thanks, Lynsy

 

We just completed the Cape Town to Cape Town itinerary on Regent -- it was wonderful (there is a review of it on the Regent board). Oceania's Nautica was also doing the same itinerary and reports from there were also great. You will have a wonderful, once in a lifetime, trip:)

[lynsy]

Hi Travelcat,

 

Thank you for your review. Was Eagles Craig your first choice for the safari and how were your flights? Am apprehensive about such long flights from the west coast. Will do the business upgrade and deviation to come in a day early. Am hoping the contract business class has lie flat seats and not too long a lay over. Any advice you have will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks again,

Lynsy

[no fuss travel]

If you are coming from the west coast, don't let them fly you to Hong Kong, on to Johannesburg and then to Cape Town. It is shorter to fly to Europe and down to Cape Town than the other way. We went 56 hours from bed to bed going the other way. We both still shudder thinking about it.

[Michael@ssrp]

We just returned from the Regent Capetown to Rio cruise. Outstanding in all ways. Re; travel from the US west coast, it is a LONG way and wiped us out for a while...We did SFO to Dubai in flat bed Businesss class on Emirates, (16 hours), 8 hour layover with hotel provided by Emirates, then another 9 hour slog to Capetown. The game drive the next day in Anguilla while wonderful, is better in the pictures than our memory banks!! Jet lagged zombies!! Sure the critters enjoyed viewing us!!

[Travelcat2]

Hi Spindrift,

 

After reading your post, I did the pencil and paper thing for the Regent cruise we'd booked (Lisbon to CapeTown) and found the same result. Regent's overall price is better. I also looked further on Regent's schedule and found a CapeTown to CapeTown sailing, shorter in duration and at a more convenient time of year. Plan to book it and hope there is good availability left.

 

I would be very interested in hearing more about your trip if you have the time. If you'd rather use e mail, my e mail address is liwamoto@comcast.net.

 

P.S. Have you ever taken an AMA river cruise? We met a couple from Sugarland on a recent Danube cruise and wondered if by coincidence it might be you. Many thanks, Lynsy

 

Never have been on a river cruise (except the Nile) so it wasn't us. Also not sure where Sugarland is - we live in northern Washington state. Anyway, I sent you an email about Eagles Crag, etc.

[Lane412000]

I cannot offer you any information on Oceania air as we always book our own.

 

In November 2015 we did the Marina Trans-Atlantic crossing Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro. Before the cruise we were on the Oceania pre-cruise tour.

 

We flew into Johannesburg, spent a couple of days at a wonderful hotel as part of the pre-cruise tour (54 on Bath Hotel). 1st complaint - we were not given any tour information on check in and ended up paying own meals that were supposed to be covered by the tour.

 

Oceania provided transportation to the airport and had someone with us (there were four couples total on this tour) all the way through the JNB airport making sure our flights were ok to Victoria Falls. This person also took care of storing our cruise luggage and had it awaiting for us upon our arrival back to JNB three days later.

 

Chobe Game Lodge was a wonderful experience. I have read others who say to book your own safari tours and they are probably correct in saying you can pick the locations you want to visit. But, we had no complaints about our experience at Chobe.

 

Flights from Chobe (Kasane, Botswana) to Cape Town were all organized by Oceania. Second complaint - we could not get an airline reservation number before we left the states from Oceania so we could log in and check our seats on the flights.

 

Arrival into Cape Town brings the third complaint. We were met at the Cape Town airport and transferred to the Marina, but upon arrival at the port there were no Oceania staff to meet us. We had to find our way through the port terminal and carry/drag luggage to the ship because we arrived at the port at 9:00pm.

 

Fourth complaint - when we spoke to the Concierge on board the Marina, he told us nobody was there to check us in or help with our luggage because we had decided to arrive at the port at 9:00pm. This pre-cruise tour was not one offered by Oceania as a freebie, we had paid for the tour and then the Concierge brushed us off with the comment it was our fault for arriving so late.

 

Guess I can jump off the soap box for now and just say I agree with the majority of the other posters. Book the safari tours yourself. We loved our pre-cruise tour to Chobe, but for the price we paid, the portions handled by Oceania should have gone much better than they did.

[lynsy]

Thanks to all who replied with such good information. After weighing every thing we decided to go with Regent and are looking forward to the Africa sailing.

 

Lynsy