Review Nautica Beijing - HK 2006

[de winters]

Simply, what a cruise!!!

We started off with a few days on our own in Beijing - a powerful city with surprises at every turn. It was a few hours drive to Tianjin where we boarded the good ship Nautica. First impressions: very comfortable ship, well proportioned & ample cabin space. Already this cruise looked promising...

On to Incheon, where we walked around Jayu Park & wandered about. All the pepole we met were friendly & helpful. Interesting, but not compelling.
Then to Shanghai - a boisterous place with a little too much noise & pollution. Some good sights, but 2 days were enough.

Setting sail for Japan, we were delayed 16 hours by dense fog.

First stop Hiroshima - a very elegant & restrained city with wonderful taxis & likeable people.
Because of the fog delay, our stay in Kobe was reduced to one day, which we spent in Kyoto, touring castles & the usual sights. Then to Naha & Ishigaki - very laid back. On to Taiwan & HK, bustling & busy.

As for the Nautica, we were very impressed by staff & style of the ship. For example,one of us experienced a dental emergency the day before docking in Hiroshima. The Nautica nurse emailed the port agent who drove us straight to a dentist as soon as customs cleared the ship - what a relief!

Only complaints would be the lack of onboard currency exchange and little day to day variation in the menus.

Would we go again tomorrow? You bet!!!

[digby]

We were on the same cruise and had a wonderful time. We had spent 5 days in Beijing which was a very exciting city. Our other favorite place was Shanghai. What growth! All ports were interesting, and we find "O" to be our favorite cruise line for so many reasons.

[spindrift]

We, too, were on the same trip. Ditto on all. Just wish they had shows a little earlier. We missed them all as there was so much to do during the day, and we were really, really tired.

Only part of the trip that was a zoo, and which really surprised me for Oceania, was disembarkation in Hong Kong. Nightmare.

Love Oceania. Have a couple more booked on her now.

[Rickey 88]

We too were very pleased with our first Asia cruise. Having been on the Insignia previously, we were impressed with the improvements Oceania had made to the Nautica and its crew and staff.

I did pick up pneumonia in Beijing which turned ugly after we boarded. I can't say enough in the way of praise for Dr. Izasa and his nurse Katrina. Their care and expertise put the cough and congestion back out of my system in short order. However, folks, DO CARRY INSURANCE. Ship board medical care is not cheap....

We are booked back on the Nautica in November from Istanbul to Singapore.

[NYDee]

I agree, get insurance.

We were on this cruise also and I got very sick with dysentery and vomiting on Wednesday night with the following day at sea then disembarkation on Friday morning. My bill was over $2000 for IV fluids, IV medications, oral medications, and nurse and doctor visits. Wednesday night I was able to go to medical. By Thursday I was too sick to make it down there. So the doctor and nurse came to our cabin and ran the IVs there. The doctor felt I had picked up Cholera somewhere and what ever it was, was due to bacterial infection not viral. I didn't have the abdominal pains typical of Norwalk and other viruses or salmonella, or e-coli. I had a temp of 101.8, my blood count was typical of a bacterial infection, and my liver function tests were elevated. The doctor told me no one else on the ship had been sick with the same symptoms. I am curious about this though. And I didn't eat or drink anything except my bottled water in the ports while some of the other passengers did. And I was very careful in the restrooms, carried my Purell and Clorox wipes. How I got sick is a total mystery to my husband and me.

The scariest thing was that the nurse told me if I wasn't able to get off the ship Friday morning I would be quarantined in Hong Kong. And the authorities could quarantine the whole ship.

Does anyone know of other passengers who were sick with my symptoms on this cruise?

Our room attendant. Elena, was so sweet and would come and visit to see if I needed anything and clean the room. She would hold my hand when she came in. I want to write a note to Oceania praising her.

Other than the illness, and missing a day in Kyoto and 1/2 day in Shanghai, the cruise was great.

[spindrift]

I must say that I spent one night very, very sick, but I blamed it on the food that night. Who knows. I was fine in the morning.

I did, however, return home and within a few days was admitted (after 2 times in our Emergency Room) to the hospital for 4 days with a major lung infection. I could not breathe. Really scarey. I'm never sick. No fever, just could not breathe. Oxygen level very low. Put on heavy steriods. Much better now.

Interesting reading about some of the other illnesses. I've never had a pulmonary problem in the past. Yesterday's final check up showed everything back to normal with good lung capacity.

Hope you all are feeling better, but I find all this interesting. Anyway, it was a GREAT trip.

[shoshona2]

To Dee, Rickey and Spindrift,

So sorry to hear about your illnesses. I knew about Dee, but didn't know if any others became sick. Hope you are all doing better and feel thankful that I didn't return home with my usual case of bronchitis. I know Dee and I were so careful with wipes and Purell. It was great that the ship had those stations set up with an anti-germ liquid before entering the Terrace Cafe and the Grill. Oceania is the only cruiseline we have been on that has the servers wearing plastic gloves and serving you. We are going on Royal Caribbean with our granddaughter in June and I use paper napkins to hold the serving pieces. If anyone should sneeze or cough in their hands and then serve themself with the serving utensils, you will catch whatever they have. When I used the computers on the ship, I also went for my wipes as soon as I finished.

But the most important thing is to have medical insurance that will cover any illnesses you might develop. As Dee stated, it gets very expensive getting sick on the ship.

Sheila