Regatta shore excursions

[neophyte]

This is my first time posting a thread anywhere on the Internet so I hope this works. I am booked on a Regatta spring cruise and spoke with a retired gentleman who took the Venice to Barcelona cruise in October. They both LOVED the cruise, calling it their favorite in their experience of cruising. He was VERY complimentary of the shore excursions.

However, due to rough seas they were not able to tender in 3 ports - Bonifacio, Sorrento, and Portofino. They completely skipped Corsica and went to Naples instead of Sorrento and Genoa instead of Portofino. Shore excursions were hastily arranged for these Naples and Genoa ports, and he said they were not good at all. In fact the passengers demanded, and received, a partial refund.

So his tip is not to join the ship's excursions when they have to use an alternate port. Having checked guidebooks and the Trenitalia (Italian train) schedules, it appears that passengers can travel by train to Sorrento from Naples and to Portofino from Genoa on their own without too much trouble.

I hope someone will ackowledge reading this thread so I will know that my new registration is working!

[Petoonya]

Hi Neo!
You are posting just fine.
I have read a post or two which described the same sailing, and that inability to dock in Sorrento and Portofino in particular. I am doing the same as you- having a backup plan in case. Have plans for the day in both Portofino and Sorrento- and have figured the alternate route via Trenitalia just in case our ports should become Genoa and Naples.

It's great to have the boards here where you can figure out contingencies and be prepared with as much local info as possible. Travel has it's bumps and a little preplanning helps us to go with the flow.

We are on the 4/25 Regatta- how about you?

[joan24]

Hi Neophyte,
Which Regatta cruise are you on? We're on the Venice to Barcelona cruise on May 9. We've booked private guides for Sorrento, Civitavecchia, Monte Carlo, and Marseille. I plan to email or call our guides, especially for Sorrento, if we change ports. We only took one or two ship excursions on our June Regatta cruise, mainly for transportation. If you're interested in booking private guides post here and you'll get lots of information. The Oceania board on Yahoo is very active and you can get great information there. You can email me at rcohen3989@aol.com if I can help you.
Joan

[neophyte]

Petoonya,

I hope this reply goes through. My mother and I are travelling on the 4/25 Regatta sailing (Barcelona to Venice). We are looking to share a guided tour of Rome with Claudio Caponera who was highly recommended by several threads on this site. Have you already made all your arrangements? Or are you interested in learning about our tour and possibly sharing?

Please e-mail me at cathbj@comcast.net. I'd love to talk to you about other aspects of the cruise, if you are interested.

Thanks,
Neophyte

Hi Neo!
You are posting just fine.
I have read a post or two which described the same sailing, and that inability to dock in Sorrento and Portofino in particular. I am doing the same as you- having a backup plan in case. Have plans for the day in both Portofino and Sorrento- and have figured the alternate route via Trenitalia just in case our ports should become Genoa and Naples.

It's great to have the boards here where you can figure out contingencies and be prepared with as much local info as possible. Travel has it's bumps and a little preplanning helps us to go with the flow.

We are on the 4/25 Regatta- how about you?