No excursions for this port

[Mrs f.]

Our cruise is scheduled to stop at Mindelo,  Cape Verde in November.  Originally back in January,  Oceania offered 4 different excursions.   Then they all disappeared and now nothing is offered for that port.  One member of our rollcall contacted O and said she was told that the O agent thinks  that the port will be dropped. 

 

Has anyone ever encountered this?

 

 

[pinotlover]

4 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

Our cruise is scheduled to stop at Mindelo,  Cape Verde in November.  Originally back in January,  Oceania offered 4 different excursions.   Then they all disappeared and now nothing is offered for that port.  One member of our rollcall contacted O and said she was told that the O agent thinks  that the port will be dropped. 

 

Has anyone ever encountered this?

 

 

One would hope that if a port is intentionally eliminated or replaced, you’d be notified by final Payment. That would give you plenty of time to make arrangements. Of course, that may be wishful thinking.

[Mrs f.]

That would be nice.  Final payment is in a week. 

[Cape Hernlopen]

Dear Mrs. f:

 

On our Papeete to Darwin cruise in 2022 we had numerous port changes.  We also had two ports without any Oceania tours offered.  The ports were both tender ports and Oceania provided tenders.  At one port we did a beach day and at the other we toured several sights via local taxis.  Both days were enjoyable.

Joel Barry

[Mrs f.]

2 hours ago, Cape Hernlopen said:

Dear Mrs. f:

 

On our Papeete to Darwin cruise in 2022 we had numerous port changes.  We also had two ports without any Oceania tours offered.  The ports were both tender ports and Oceania provided tenders.  At one port we did a beach day and at the other we toured several sights via local taxis.  Both days were enjoyable.

Joel Barry

Thanks.  We've also had port changes in the past. I   had just never encountered a port with no Oceania excursions offered.

[ronrick1943]

I don't understand why they would drop all tours just in case they may drop the port.  You'd think when they drop the port the tours would be dropped.  What happens if they don't drop the port and now they have no tours..........

[the mice]

Hi.  Not on your cruise, but I follow the Oceania boards so got notified of this post.   I remembered someone on the Azamara boards (follow them, too) doing a blog on West Africa.  So I did a quick search, found the post, then the roll call.   She arranged a tour with this company:

https://www.cabomundo.com/

(Roll call was March 7, 2023 - Pursuit - Rio to Lisbon  post 84.).  You can also search the Azamara board for Mindelo and find the write up she did of the excursion.

 

Perhaps this will help you.

[cruiseaholic78]

Hi Miriam, its been a while,

When we were on Mindelo many years (2010) ago we did a 4 x 4 tour with this company.

https://caboverdesafari.com/en/tours-for-cruises/

Glad to see they are still in business! we had a great time, I was worried about motion sickness but I was fine. 
 

I hope you get to see Mindelo our excursion was one of the highlights of our Mallora-Manaus cruise.

Happy Planning 

Rosalyn

[Chewbecca]

2 Brazilian ports on our Amazon cruise in November also have no excursions listed and are not clickable on in the itinerary. 

We are equally curious what this might mean!

[Mrs f.]

9 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

I don't understand why they would drop all tours just in case they may drop the port.  You'd think when they drop the port the tours would be dropped.  What happens if they don't drop the port and now they have no tours..........

Right now thats exactly what has happened. Port stop is there but zero O excursions 

[pinotlover]

As one that doesn’t need Mother Oceania to hold my hand at every move in every port, my recommendation is to find a private tour that interests you and doesn’t require pre payment. Then enjoy the day. 

[sunlover12]

There is one port (Saguenay) on my Nautica cruise in September/October that does not have any excursions available.  Several excursions are listed but they all state "this excursion is closed". When I called Oceania about it, he told me that they are all sold out.  It is hard to believe that every excursion in that port is sold out while all the other ports on that cruise show lots of availability. I don't know what it means.  They either cannot find tour operators for this port or it's possible this port is going to be eliminated.  

[ORV]

56 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

There is one port (Saguenay) on my Nautica cruise in September/October that does not have any excursions available.  Several excursions are listed but they all state "this excursion is closed". When I called Oceania about it, he told me that they are all sold out.  It is hard to believe that every excursion in that port is sold out while all the other ports on that cruise show lots of availability. I don't know what it means.  They either cannot find tour operators for this port or it's possible this port is going to be eliminated.  

Having been to Saguenay it's easily walkable. It's not a real big place. If I remember right there were some cancellations from various cruise lines due to the speed limit to protect right whales. It might be iffy. 

[Mrs f.]

I emailed O and got a reply back from one of their cruise specialists.   There are definitely 4 excursions listed and was told to call one of the O cruise specialists to help set it up.   

[roothy123]

On 6/14/2024 at 3:57 AM, Chewbecca said:

2 Brazilian ports on our Amazon cruise in November also have no excursions listed and are not clickable on in the itinerary. 

We are equally curious what this might mean!

Since your cruise isn't until November, it may just be that they haven't finalized and posted excursions.  We had excursions posted for all but one port for our December cruise until maybe a month ago.  One day I looked, and excursions for that port were listed in the My Account/Reservation area of the webpage.  But I think over the years there have been an occasional port where there were no excursions.  I believe that was the case when we went to the South Pacific.  Oceania goes to 600 ports, and some of those ports are pretty small and/or not visited by cruise lines very often.  But I enjoy just wandering around in the smaller places.  I always find something that keeps me occupied for at least a few hours.

 

[terrydtx]

On 6/14/2024 at 9:30 AM, sunlover12 said:

There is one port (Saguenay) on my Nautica cruise in September/October that does not have any excursions available.  Several excursions are listed but they all state "this excursion is closed". When I called Oceania about it, he told me that they are all sold out.  It is hard to believe that every excursion in that port is sold out while all the other ports on that cruise show lots of availability. I don't know what it means.  They either cannot find tour operators for this port or it's possible this port is going to be eliminated.  

We had a similar thing happen on our Marina cruise next March. One stop in Laguna San Rafael, Chile. The Chilean government only allows passengers booked on an Oceania cruise to get off the ship. There was only one excursion offered by O at 8:00am and it sold out quickly. Then a second one opened up 4 hours later and it sold out, now a 3rd one opened up at 3:30pm and we are booked on it.

 

Maybe as you get closer more in Saguenay will open up. We stop there in August on our Holland cruise, and we booked one with them to use an excursion credit we have. There should be some private tours there.

[ORV]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

Laguna San Rafael, Chile. The Chilean government only allows passengers booked on an Oceania cruise to get off the ship.

Is this the only port that has this restriction in Chile?

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, ORV said:

Is this the only port that has this restriction in Chile?

The only one we are visiting on the Marina.

 

Here is what is noted in the Oceania website:

[ORV]

10 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

The only one we are visiting on the Marina.

 

Here is what is noted in the Oceania website:

Interesting, never run across that before. 

[gaeltrav]

That is because nobody actually gets to land. The catamaran pulls up to the ship to load passengers and then takes them  on a scenic cruise in the lagoon and past the glacier(s) and then directly back to the ship. There is no landing area.

[grmmybtty]

On 6/22/2024 at 12:48 PM, gaeltrav said:

That is because nobody actually gets to land. The catamaran pulls up to the ship to load passengers and then takes them  on a scenic cruise in the lagoon and past the glacier(s) and then directly back to the ship. There is no landing area.

That is exactly what we did on an Insignia cruise a few years ago. It's a sea day or an expensive OS tour.

 

Just a word of warning for those who visit ports that have very limited tourist infrastructure or want one of the expensive culinary excursions that excursions will book up very fast. An excursion I was looking at for the port of Cork filled up within a week of excursions opening.