Questions: Cabanas? Oceania Excursions?

[Zira]

1. What is the average group size of the Oceania book excursions?

2. Does the group typically go in one huge bus :eek: or mini vans :)?

3. What are the tour companies that Oceania typically uses for their excursions?

4. Is it wise to book the cabanas in advance or are they easy to come by once on the ship? From the pictures in the brochures it looks like the cabanas are partially enclosed by glass. Are they really nice?

 

Thanks in advance for the responses.

[luvsmickey]

We booked a cabana when we booked our cruise. This is our first cruise so I don't know the answer to your questions. I just thought it would be nice to have it for anytime we wanted to lay out and not have to worry about getting a place by the pool.

[conan]

Cabanas are on the top deck, forward. There are 6 or 8 of them, the ones on the ends are largest. They are essentially curtained-off enclosures with the forward end being the plexiglass windscreen of the ship. They come equipped with lounge chairs. On our 2 week Istanbul to Venice cruise aboard Nautica, I never saw them used.

Re shore excursions: On our 2 cruises with Oceania, we preferred to plan our own shore excursions and did not use Oceania's arrangements so cannot comment.

[Zira]

Thanks Conan. I really appreciate the feedback.

[LHT28]

1. What is the average group size of the Oceania book excursions?

2. Does the group typically go in one huge bus :eek: or mini vans :)?

3. What are the tour companies that Oceania typically uses for their excursions?

4. Is it wise to book the cabanas in advance or are they easy to come by once on the ship? From the pictures in the brochures it looks like the cabanas are partially enclosed by glass. Are they really nice?

 

Thanks in advance for the responses.

 

1) 40 + passengers (at least the ones we took)

2) large bus

[capecodder2]

Large tour buses in most cases and usually several if it is a popular excursion. We have been on 7 Oceania cruises. We have taken a few that were on small buses (large van) due to what was available at the port. We have had excellent experiences on most of the shore excursions we have taken with Oceania (we do a mix of Oceania and private depending on the port and our interests). I will also say that we have had some awful private excursions with people on a cruise as well. It is the luck of the draw.

[skip01per]

Hi! We have just returned from our Nautica Aegean Adventures cruise. Since this was our first cruise, we decided to only book excursions through Oceania. We usually did the most comprehensive tours and thought that they were excellent. The size of the tour group varied, but never felt overcrowded-the guides (except for our cruise of the Bosphorus) were superb!-all spoke excellent english,very interesting and knowledgeable

I don't know what cruise you are going on, but if you are on one that ends or starts in Istanbul-the 4 day Cappadocia trip is out of this world!We went on this,only 3 other couples with us. Our guide Muge was amazing and this part of Turkey is fantastic.

We talked with a lot of people who explored on their own, but we felt that we learned a lot more from the guides, not just pertaining to the sites visited, but also the culture and every day life in those countries.

We didn't try the cabanas-we were out touring every day except our sea day!

Have fun on your cruise-we justs loved Oceania and will definitely go with them again-it was a perfect vacation!