Insignia Rome to Athens - Any Thoughts?

[redcookie]

I am in the process of attempting to find a Rome to Athens cruise, and this is the one that has taken the top spot. We are two couples late 30s early 40s, pretty new to cruising, and know we want a smallish ship and looking for a more informal atmosphere.

 

Can someone comment on this trip and ship and let me know your thoughts, and if, taking the few things i mentioned above, we might enjoy this journey? I am looking to find a TA to help me find the best cruise for us, but until i get any leads on one of those I am attempting to go it alone.

 

Thanks in advance for any help or information you can provide.

[dkbustr]

Hello redcookie,

 

We did the Insignia Athens to Rome this April 18. The ship was outstanding, staff exceptional and food quality topnotch. It was also our first cruise on Oceania, but we have been on other lines previously. As noted by other cruisers, the bathrooms on the Oceania fleet are very small unless you can get into a PH class or higher. Shore excursions in the past have been spotty, but it seems that recently the excursions have been improved quite a bit, and I did not here many complaints from the passengers on this sailing. We had booked private excursions with passengers we met on this board to share the cost with, so I cannot comment directly on the ship shore excursions.

 

Our sailing was Athens, Delos, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Valetta, Taormina, Sorrento, Amalfi, Livorno, and Rome. If the sailing you are looking at is the same, I can recommend the itinerary whole-heartedly. It is very port intensive, but if you are reasonably healthy, you will have no problems.

 

If you are looking for a TA that has experience with Oceania, which I would suggest, I could recommend one for you on email.

 

I think your top choice for the sailing is your correct choice in Oceania.

 

Have a great time,

 

Mike

[redcookie]

thanks for the info mike. i am interested in some help with locating a ta and my email is imredcookie@yahoo.com.

 

thanks in advance.

[zu zu's petals]

Hey Redcookie,

 

We fit the same age bracket and will be setting sail on our first cruise ever on Oceania in just over a week....we'll be back around June 8th...I'll post my impressions if you're interested....

 

Why we chose Oceania...the itinerary mainly appealed, second was the country club casual attire...I'm not at all interested in wearing formal attire whilst on holiday!

 

good luck in your decision making

 

zu zu's petals

[redcookie]

oh i can't wait to read your impressions of your trip. i do hope you will reply when you get back, or email me to my email address which i have listed above. the more i read about this cruise the more i think it will fit what we are looking for.

 

happy sailing!! can't wait to hear from you again.

[nealandalyson]

I am 26, and my wife is 25. We are booked on this cruise (flying to Rome Saturday), which will be our first, and I just have some questions for any experienced cruisers.

 

First, does anybody know where I could find good reviews of the excursions? I see that dkbustr mentioned that they were "spotty" but improving. Do most people on cruises buy packages from the cruise line, or do they book something privately? Which is the better option and why?

 

Second, do you think there will be anybody else on the ship close to our age? Our travel agent told us that we might be the youngest onboard.

 

Thanks.

[GenXCruisers]

nealandalyson,

 

My wife and I recently returned from the Athens to Rome cruise on the Insignia. We are both in our early 30's and we were among the youngest passengers. It appeared that most passengers were in their 40's-60's, but there were a few in their 20's and 30's. That did not bother us at all as we found all the passengers we cruised with to be very pleasant.

 

My wife and I have been on other cruises but none to the Meditteranean. We decided to go with Oceania's Explorer Excursion package versus individual tours as we saved some $ by doing so. Since we had never been to any of the ports before, we did the safe thing and went with Oceania's excursions. Lots of other passengers booked their own excursions however. The advantage of that is you can probably save some money and you can customize your excursion to exactly what you want to see. However, I believe that people who book independent excursions spend lots of time researching it and book weeks in advance of the cruise. Also, lots of those people seem to have been to the ports before and know by experience who to use. If you decide to do independent tours I'm sure lots of the readers on this forum can give you advice on who to use.

 

Being that this is your first cruise you may want to play it safe and use Oceania's excursions, but you should probably book before the cruise if you decide to do so. The nice thing about booking with Oceania is that you are among the first to disembark (you can disembark first if not on an Oceania excursion if you immediately go to the lounge when they announce you can go ashore) and they are responsible for ensuring the tour makes it back to the ship on time. On most of our tours there was time left afterwards to do some sightseeing on our own. Most of the excursions we went on were very good with very few exceptions. I'm not sure which ports you are going to but the Malta tour was not very good and Florence was moderately good at best. We did really enjoy the tours and the guides in the Greek Isles (George was our guide on Mykonos and he was exceptional). Looking at the big picture, we were glad we went with Oceania's excursions. However, if/when we cruise to the Med again and visit some of the same ports again we'd do some stuff on our own as we now know more of what to expect and would feel more comfortable sightseeing on our own.

 

You're fortunate that your first cruise is on Oceania and to the Med. You'll be spoiled with Oceania and might find it tough for other cruiselines to measure up. My intent is not to knock other cruiselines as there are some very good ones out there but Oceania has proven to us at least that it is exceptional.

 

I'm sure you'll enjoy your cruise no matter what you decide.

[LHT28]

I am 26, and my wife is 25. We are booked on this cruise (flying to Rome Saturday), which will be our first, and I just have some questions for any experienced cruisers.

Thanks.

 

You may be able to join others in private tours

check the roll call for your sailing and see if anyone has opening on their tour or you may meet someone onboard.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=420

Failing that Oceania tours are fine ...we have found them a good way to see some of the sights in a short period of time so the next time we travel to that port we will know what we want to see more of.

 

Enjoy the cruise...you will be spoiled!!;)

[zu zu's petals]

Hey Redcookie,

 

Run, don't walk to your phone/computer/nearest TA and BOOK THIS CRUISE!!!

 

You will not be disappointed! We had an awesome time.

I've never cruised before, so really have nothing to compare Oceania to, but I cannot possibly imagine having a better experience.

 

The ship is lovely, the food amazing, the crew outstanding, the itinerary awesome....we had the time of our life.

 

While our fellow cruisers were mostly in our parents' age bracket, we never felt out of place. Infact, many came up to us to mention how wise we must be at our young age(!) to choose Oceania!

 

We were actually travelling with our 10 yr son who thoroughly enjoyed himself as well (because of the cruise, he's now addicted to prosciutto!).

 

Let me know if you want specific info on the ports, the restaurants, attire,anything! and I will write further...or, you can see my husbands' posting in the Roll Call portion. He writes under the name Rabbit of Caerbannog. I believe he's giving a port review in his thread.

 

Good luck with your decision!