Nautica May 17, 06 Trip Report??

[Miata6]

Hoping to get some impressions of your trip as some (many) of us are taking same later in year. How was it? How were the ship-organized excursions (pos and negs, pls). Anything you would do different(ly). Anything you wish someone had suggested to you before you went? Sorry to be a bother, but living vicariously is better than not living atall (?).:eek: Thanks.

[cruisin'cats]

1-don't take the 'company' cabs that are waiting on the pier in Istanbul unless they go metered. We were taken for a ride, you might say, having agreed to a 10 lira fare to go to Neve Shalom Synagogue only to find ourselves (there were 4 of us) dumped at the curb on a busy street 10 minutes away from the ship being told that our destination was just up the street (that the cabbie couldn't drive on) and around the corner. 45 minutes later after walking all over the place, we found our destination. I suggest that you walk away from the ship to the main street just above the pier to get a metered cab and give the address of the pier not say the port/ship name when returning and departing for a private excursion.
2-go book your dinner reservations at Tocana and Polo IMMEDIATELY upon embarkation and have an idea when you'll want to eat at these places when you go upstairs to do this so you can move through the reservations line quickly (and your fellow PAX won't want to throw you overboard for hemming and hawing about when and if...)
3-after you do #2, you can go back, if you choose, this way--call on any particular day and ask if you can get a reservation--and if there are any cancellations. Even if they don't have any cancellations when you call, ask to be notified when one is made--and state that you are flexible about timing, incl. last minute. Doesn't matter which class you've booked on the ship in this case. We were concierge class but people in the regular class did this regularly with good success.
4-Toscana has a lot of food on the menu and most of it was delicious--COME HUNGRY! The Osso Buco is excellent. The veal chop was too.
5-Polo's meats are good, though not all cuts are great. My porterhouse was tough two of the three times we ate there, the other time I ordered the lamb chops and they were excellently done. I should have sent the porterhouse steaks back when I discovered that they were tough--and didn't. Mea Culpa but I think the steaks could've been better. DH said that the strip steaks were fine. Others liked their filet mignons. I'm a Del Frisco's (or, when in San Diego, Rainwater's) kind of gal--I like great hunk o' cow, not merely good steak.
6-sometimes there is a wait in the Grand DIning room for larger parties that want to sit together. This didn't become a problem for the 8 of us who'd met on the ship and became friends--the Maitre 'd asked us if we'd like to eat at Toscana because they had a large table ready when we arrived--and we said yes! Not a bad thing at all. On the last night there were 10 of who wanted to sit on the aft deck to eat in Tapas together. There was no table for that large sized group--no worries! Someone in our group asked for assistance and Voila! the staff carried a large table out to the deck and set it up for us! Bravo!
7-if you've never sailed on a smaller ship (we hadn't before this) be prepared for the amazing beauty of a smaller scale ship! When/If you forget something back at your cabin it'll take all of 5 minutes for you partner to go get it and you won't feel guilty. On the mega ships you can expect your partner to be gone for 20 minutes (easily!) going there and back. Not on Oceania's Nautica!
8-our cruise companions were generally older than us by 15+ years BUT this doesn't mean that we didn't find a nice group to befriend, it just meant that we had a range in our ages that made it more interesting. I had my 50th birthday on the ship and, though there were a few younger (than me) people onboard I was defnitely at the younger end of the demographic.
9-Don't expect there to be an extensive amount of shopping to be done onboard. The shops are limited and I didn't find the selections all that well planned out or appealing to my tastes. Prices were no bargain too.
10-if you are a fan of good single malt scotches--not all the bars have access to the best of the list. The best location for single malts on a menu goes to the bar at Polo which, unfortunately, is only open when the restaurant is and has very few seats. But reading the scotch menu and tasting something really good was worth it.
11--PILLOWS on the ship are feather filled BUT you can indeed get a foam or not feather filled pillow, you just have to ask for it. Call your cabin steward or stewardess and have them bring you the kind you like. I was up half the night trying to plump up the feathers before I called and now know I wasted a lot of my time being uncomforatble that first night.
12--be prepared for people to complain about being nickeled and dimed all over the ship. Like I said, the ships shops are not cheap and you can get better perfume pricing online or elsewehre. But for crying out loud--deal with it and don't ruin everyone's vacation by continuing to complain to the fellow PAX, tell the management.
13-the beds are very comfortable; the duvet is very comfortable; the sheets weren't too bad--too news and a bit scratchy for this princess, I'm afraid. Oh yes, if you like the linens, robes and towels, you can buy the whole ensemble online while you're on the ship by going to the computer room and going onto the only free website offered--Oceania's website! (Not surprised, are you?)
14--Everyone on staff says Hello so much that you'll be programmed to greet them before they greet you by the third day. Give in to the power of the Happy Face!
15-Not all the wines on the wine lists are overpriced. The higher end ones are really reasonable. If you know what I mean then you are someone who likes great wines and is willing to pay the price for the experience of trying them in restaurants. Our bottle cost $168 in Polo and lists retail for $150. And it was worth it! However some of the lower end wines were definitely priced in multiples of the retail prices, as you would find on many land based wine lists.
16-night time is relatively boring because most of the people on these port intensive trips go to bed exhausted and early (certainly earlier than my husband and I do). HOWEVER--the shuffleboard game pieces are up on the sun deck and you too could be one of the crazies that plays shuffleboard at 1 AM like we did. Hey--no crowds!
17-the demographic on our cruise tended to weigh heavily in the late 60's early 70's end of the age group. I turned 50 on the cruise and, while there were a few younger adults and one 9 year old child on the ship, I was amongst the younger people on the ship. Let me counter this by saying that this didn't bother us once we got to know people. Our 'gang' turned out to be a wonderful mix of ages and backgrounds and we meshed quite well. I imagine that it might have been lonely for the 9 year old, however. I don't know, I didn't ask her.
18-There is a Concierge in the lobby. That's why there's this guy sitting at this desk in the middle of the Reception area but he didn't go out of his way to make his purpose known unless you knew to ask him something. At least our guy, Robert, wasn't exactly effusive about going out of his way unless asked and pressed into service by us. The reason I say this is because we learned that one can order a birthday or other occasion cake sent to a fellow passenger's cabin (free of charge) if your Concierge is asked to arrange it. We'd gone to him to ask how we could enliven the birthday of a fellow passenger and fellow Cruise Critic member (you know who you are!) and he wasn't very forthcoming...until we asked the right questions and then he came through.
At least now you'll know why that person is sitting at that desk.
19-Set up a third party internet address for people to contact you if you're likely to check email on the ship. The line assigns you a web-address that comes with your documents but then charges you $2.00 for each incoming and each outgoing message. It's cheaper to use the internet cafes off ship (we averaged about 1 Euro for 15 min. onshore). OH and the ship's connections were VERY SLOW...no wonder they're charging you per MINUTE to use this slow system. (I think it was $0.95 a min.)
20-Check these message boards for private tour guides with good recommendations (like Nejat in Turkey) because they charge a lot for excursions that are cattle call kinds of bus tours. This was the first time we'd ever arranged a tour privately and we took two cruise line offered tours on this trip as well (Katacolon and Athens 1/2 day)--there is no comparison with having a tour guide who is leading 8 people around and picking out nice restaurants to have lunch with you at when you take the cruise tours. Even if the price is close, it's not close enough to enjoy. I'll do my best not to take a cruise sponsored tour ever again if I can find an alternative.
21-FREE air fare--ask for a credit, find your own or know which flights are workable for you in advance and be willing to fork over for the deviation fee. The flights we were originally assigned for the free program worked out OK--but then they were changed about 4 days before we left to some awful flights that would have flown us across the US to return back east again...and we had to pay not only the deviation but the price differential because of the late decision to change the flights--but at least we got a non-stop flight from Athens to JFK and had to add on the car service cost to get back to our home in Southern NJ. Despite the upcharges it was worth it to us in the end.
22-Keep in touch with people through Cruise Critic message boards before you go--and then you'll have people who know you and whom you are familiar when you get on the ship. Instant friends! Ideal for people travelling alone or not in a group. Our group arranged to meet for coffee in Horizons the first day at sea and it was nice to have faces and names come together. The cruise line did not arrange this for us (unlike a previous Celebrity cruise experience we'd had in Feb.) We made the arrangements before we got off the message board and onto airplanes.
23-the cabins aren't huge by any stretch of the imagination but they are efficiently designed and adequate for storage (we were on a 12 day cruise). We don't do laundry, we sent a few things out to be laundered...I didn't want to pay all this money to go on vacation to do laundry--but there were people on very extended trips, esp. the Aussies, and I can see why they'd need to do laundry. Others were better packers than I am and didn't mind re-wearing outfits, I didn't either, but they did tell us that the laundry room was PACKED with people on the sea days and that getting a washer/dryer was hard to manage unless you were early to arrive or late to come to use the services. I'll take the price of sending things to the laundry over this way of spending my time--personal preference is all. To those who washed clothes, I say good for you--and let me know if you don't have enough for a full load next time! <wink>

Well that covers what comes to mind right now. If I think of more or find my notes with other ideas, I'll add to this list.
Happy Sailing! This was our first Oceania trip and we'd go again in a heartbeat--and may just be ready to book our next one soon. (NO we're not retired!)

[Miata6]

Wow, what an effort!! Thank you so very much. Any other contributors from that voyage??

[cruisin'cats]

by the way, sorry for repeating the point about the age differences; at least I didn't write EXACTLY the same thing twice but you got the point.

Anyway, I thought of something else worthwhile to add--
look at your itinerary--see how it shows that you have what appears to be TWO days in port at the start of the cruise and TWO days in port at the end of the cruise??? Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?
WELL, and you knew there'd be a WELL coming...
If you don't plan a pre-cruise overnight before the day that you board ship, you may not even have two days in the port when you get on--some flights might get you to the ship late on that first day or you may spend that day waiting for luggage that went on a separate vacation from you and might not be arriving until the next day. Not fun! We were glad that we'd scheduled the one overnight pre-cruise, done through Oceania, at the Swissotel Bosphorus. The hotel was lovely, the bed was comfortable and the breakfast buffet was the best we've ever had in a hotel (not counting Mother's Day Brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, of course). We got to the room about 2 PM on our arrival day and dropped our bags in our room and headed out for a ferrry cruise on the Bosphorus, making the first day on the ground one that held good memories. (We ate at the Hamdi restaurant across the the ferry landing for dinner, also a good suggestion.) We boarded ship the next day after having done some touring on our own before going from the hotel to the port. AND, because we were well rested, we got on the ship, got our dinner reservations booked and went right out and went exploring some more on our own for the rest of the day. That night we went with Nejat on a privately arranged folkloric dinner excursion to Orient House, which was a lot of fun.

Part TWO--see that lovely last day with an overnight in port again? In our case we were in Athens for the last two days. Or was it really two days or were we just imagining it might be two days? We had visions of going to night clubs, of seeing the Acropolis all lit up at night, of staying awake and out as much of the night as we could just to keep living the dream vacation.

WELL, and you knew that I'd say WELL again, didn't you?....
You don't have all night to party hearty in that last port. As a matter of fact, we had to be onboard ship to pick up our passports (which were held by the cruise ship staff the whole time). Passport distribution was between 5 and 6 PM. (There went the plans for staying on shore!) Then we had to stand in line to turn in our "O points" for fabulous parting gifts. ("O" points are won at games of intense competition such as shuffleboard and trivia...in our case we won our points playing Name that Tune and were able to come home with "free" gifts such as a Nautica shot glass and a Nautica photo magnet--which I really wanted a lot more than the shot glass but, hey, free is free...it's worth more! ;) ) AND THEN...the luggage had to be out in the hall, not by midnight but by 10 PM...packed, sealed, labeled and ready to go. Why so early? Well, it seems that disembarkation began at 2:30 AM (yes, AM as in "it's ALREADY MORNING?") for those with early flights and the rest of the PAX have to have vacated their staterooms by EIGHT A.M. so you're up early and out having breakfast no matter how late your flight is, you lucky dog. We had a noon flight and we were off loaded by 8:45 AM. The really lucky dogs were the ones who booked a night or two at the end of the cruise so that they could indeed see more of Athens than those of us held back with obligations on ship the night before we were leaving.

We'll never look at that double day in the last port and think-wow,think of all the time we'll have there! unless we're booking a hotel for a night or two at the end of the trip.

[Shirleya53]

Helene, that sure was a nice, long list of suggestions you wrote about. I wish I had known some of them before our cruise. I too wish we had come a day earlier. We boarded at 6pm on day 1 of the cruise. But we did take an extra day in Athens.
I tried to arrange a get together for all of us on our last sea day, but too many activities going on to find a good time.

Shirley

[cruisin'cats]

I guess it's better late than never with some of these ideas. Did you enjoy your cruise? Don't you miss being in Greece? I tried to speak Greek to the olives at the supermarket, you know--things like--I know where you come from, I've seen your family tree, etc. The bad news is that the olives didn't answer back. The good news is that I didn't get arrested and put in the local loonie bin. LOL

Hello to Bob too!

Helene

[mdmgso]

Crusin'cats,

Thanks for the great report! We are taking the Venice to Istanbul cruise on the Nautica in October.

A couple of questions:

1) Was the guide Nejat you referred to Nejat Incedogan? He is to be our guide in Ephesus and Istanbul. If so, any advice as to what you enjoyed most/least on his tours?

2) Was the Orient House dinner and show worth doing? Was he able to get you a good table? We are leaving for the US the next day and were wondering if the experience was worth the late night.

Thanks

[cruisin'cats]

Yes to both questions-he is the same man we used as our guide and he arranged for a stage side table for our wonderfully fun evening at Orient House (be sure to order the Turkish food and not the usual stuff so you can try something new!).

As for Nejat's tours--the only complaint we have is that we didn't have more DAYS to spend in Turkey with him as our guide! He makes sure you get plenty of exposure and time to do things on his tours plus he helped us avoid the worst crowds at Ephesus (even in May there were several ships in at the same time). His English is excellent, he is very smart and knows his history and his facts and is up for a good discussion and Q & A sessions. What more could you want?

Enjoy your trip!
Helene

[cruisin'cats]

He knows where good restaurants are and picks nice ones to have lunch at too.

[conan]

A word to the wise. We started contacting Levant and Nejat in January for late September guide servives and they were already booked. Plan early!

[whyme]

A word to the wise. We started contacting Levant and Nejat in January for late September guide servives and they were already booked. Plan early!
WHEN ARE YOU GOING AND WHICH CRUISE???/ WHYME71842@AOL.COM

[tropicalkerry2002]

How do they charge for the laundry you send out? By the pound? Was it expensive?
Thanks for all the info.
Marian

[Shirleya53]

A word to the wise. We started contacting Levant and Nejat in January for late September guide servives and they were already booked. Plan early!

We had booked early with Levent. Close to the sailing time he emailed me and asked if I would mind if five ladies could join us. We didn't mind and they were a delight to be with. Of course then I knew we wouldn't be in a taxi. He had a wonderful airconditioned van that was quite comfortable. He also had a driver so he could concentrate on sharing all his wonderful knowledge of Istanbul and Ephasus

[Shirleya53]

A word to the wise. We started contacting Levant and Nejat in January for late September guide servives and they were already booked. Plan early!

We had booked early with Levent. Close to the sailing time he emailed me and asked if I would mind if five ladies could join us. We didn't mind and they were a delight to be with. Of course then I knew we wouldn't be in a taxi. He had a wonderful airconditioned van that was quite comfortable. He also had a driver so he could concentrate on sharing all his wonderful knowledge of Istanbul and Ephasus:D