Oceania to Positano & Cinque Terre? Been there?

I am thinking of a cruise with stop in Positano, and I see a good looking itinerary next May with O with stops in both Positano & Cinque Terre, which sounds great. Seems quite hard to find with anyone else. Has anyone done this on Riviera? Is she too big for that kind of small stop? We were on Marina in a South Pacific and I guess she did not overwhelm fairly small islands. Anyway, anyone with experience on this itinerary, please share your thoughts. Thanks...

I am thinking of a cruise with stop in Positano, and I see a good looking itinerary next May with O with stops in both Positano & Cinque Terre, which sounds great. Seems quite hard to find with anyone else. Has anyone done this on Riviera? Is she too big for that kind of small stop? We were on Marina in a South Pacific and I guess she did not overwhelm fairly small islands. Anyway, anyone with experience on this itinerary, please share your thoughts. Thanks...

The ship does not go to Cinque Terre. You will tender in La Spezia. From there you can take the train to Cinque but be forewarned it is very crowded. Train Station is about a 20 minute brisk walk, lines for tickets were long. Weather permitting you can go by boat which I would do if there again but they were not running the day we were there. Someone else will have to chime in on Portofino. Ship does not stop in Positano

Thanks for recognizing my error -- I meant Portofino, not Positano.

Lots of little shops and bistros...then take a taxi up to the Splendido Hotel and have a drink or coffee on the terrace, beautiful. You will tender in.

and would not take cruise if you want to see that area. As stated above,must take train and 5 small towns to see.Would be just a rush and barely time to appreciate it.We drove and spent a few day trips there.

Portifino a lovely little town ,very scenic but afraid it might be overwhelmed by 1200 passengers desending on it.

Love O cruises and have taken 3,but this area not the most conducive.Sorry:(

I agree with Caroldoll Portofino is lovely. We were there on Regatta in Oct 2014. We wandered around the small town, had coffee and then walked out to the lighthouse. I know Regatta has fewer passengers but there certainly wasn't a 'busy feel' to the town!

We will be back next October and intend to visit St Margherita this time.

I happened to have been in Portofino in October when Marina was there...people tendered in. Portofino is VERY small, and very overpriced...ie 3 of us had a total of 2 cokes and one coffee and it cost us 14 euros...

We too walked to the lighthouse, enjoyed our drinks overlooking the harbor...it is very pretty. However, I wouldn't choose a cruise on whether it went there.

I'm interrupting here because my suggestion won't help cruise passengers much, I don't think. But we did a self-drive trip in Tuscany in 2005 and spent several days in Portovenere. From there, it is very simple to take a ferry to Cinque Terre. In our case we went to the last stop and worked our way backwards. We didn't try to stop at each port. As I recall, you can also walk the route from the first stop. (No, we didn't try!)

But we had a lovely day there. The main reason we did was that members on the old yahoo Oceania board had rhapsodized about their visits to Cinque Terre. It's so long ago that I don't recall how they got there. I would assume the ships stopped in the same ports that they do now.

Too bad O doesn't stop in Portovenere ... Although going by memory, I don't see how they could.

Has the OP checked the ports of call section here? You might get more information than people here have been able to give you.

Mura

We visited both ports on Regatta and found them to be lovely. As DOJO466 mentioned, for CTerre you will tender off LaSpezia & from there a train or boat ride will take you to the towns. We visited by boat, a Hop on Hop off style, and enjoyed our day. Of course, we didn't see as much as we would have liked but we are very happy we went & hope to return. These days you will find many ports busy/overrun with crowds of tourists but it should not deter you. Have a plan A & B, know what to expect, and have a great time. Cruises IMO, are great for visiting many places in a limited amount of time...never enough time to see everything you want, but enough time to know you want to go back:)

next October. We are having a private tour, and we may not make all of the five, but we will do the one Stan/Jim advised and a couple of others. I know you can not make them all really well in one day. I think a ship tour is too time consuming.

Thanks to all for comments. I'm with Canuck.qc on the idea of a cruise here..no thought of it as an in depth experience. More like an appetizer-size bite. We had that with Positano & Amalfie coast years ago. First a cruise stop (.overnight) on one of the old Renaissance ships in Naples and because an Itslian friend had told us not to miss Ravello, we hired a car & driver, & drove like a race car thru Positano and on to Ravello, nearly ran to the grand mansion on the cliff, loved it but had to rush back....and then saw Positano from the sea as we sailed away. I vowed to go back, and several years later we did, staying in the gorgeous hotel in Positano we had admired from the sea, renting a car and driving back to Ravello along the heart-stopping Amalfie Coast (I loved that...DH who was driving, not so much) and had a lovely, leisurely day and lunch in a Postcard perfect restaurant on the path we ran by the first time.

So the idea of a stop in Portofino & cinque Terre is like that...to take a quick look & see if we want to order a full course visit later.

We went to the Med in April on the Regatta several years ago.

The ship tendered in La Spezia. The port to the train station is a pleasant 15 to 20 minute walk through La Spezia which has a pedestrian walkway for part of the town. We purchased a Cinque Terre ticket at the train station which included the train and hiking trail access. The train runs very frequently maybe every 20 to 30 minutes. We took the train from La Spezia to Monterrosso which is the farthest of the 5 Cinque Terre towns. We walked around Monterosso and hopped back on the train to the next village. We did this for the 4 towns (skipped Corniglia) and had lunch in Manarola. We then walked the Via Dell'Amore which is the shortest of the trails between the towns which left us off in Riomaggiore the last village. We hopped back on the train to La Spezia and took a leaisurely walk back to the ship. This is very easy and since we did not hike the entire trail we had lots of time. There were many people who took the tour from the cruise ship which used the ferry to get between several villages. Due to the weather that day the ferry could not port. We ended up seeing all the villages and cruise tour did not. If the sea is choppy the ferries cannot run. The villages (except Corniglia)are at the base of very steep rock cliffs and are at the mercy of the sea. They are lovely and the scenery is beautiful.

For Portofino, we took the bus to Santa Marguirita Liguria and then walked backed to Portofino. It was a lovely walk with beautiful views. The weather was good the day we were there. Great walk and not strenuous. We went slowly and stopped to admire the scenery which was breathtaking. We missed the sign to stay on the path at one point and ended up on the road which was a little scary since it is so curvy. When we got back to Portofino we walked around a bit but Portofino is expensive.

...to take a quick look & see if we want to order a full course visit later.

I'm always intrigued by comments like these. In this day of cruise boards, people posting videos on YouTube, people posting pictures here and on photo sharing sites, and on the dozens of blogs and web sites about a place, just how much is unknown to visitors before arriving?

By the time I finish my early planning, I have a pretty good idea which destinations I'm content to visit via the restricted time of a port call and which destinations I want to visit via pre- or post-cruise stays or independent land trips.

I'd love to hear from folks who thought they knew about their destinations from advance planning and yet had big surprises -- both positive and negative -- about a cruise destination.

I am thinking of a cruise with stop in Positano, and I see a good looking itinerary next May with O with stops in both Positano & Cinque Terre, which sounds great. Seems quite hard to find with anyone else. Has anyone done this on Riviera? Is she too big for that kind of small stop? We were on Marina in a South Pacific and I guess she did not overwhelm fairly small islands. Anyway, anyone with experience on this itinerary, please share your thoughts. Thanks...

From October 2013 on Marina at La Spezia we walked down to the ferry to see the Cinque Terre like this, and came back by train. Lovely day despite the rain, so in good weather it must be very special. All the best, Tony

[YOUTUBE]MPZfm28F_lc[/YOUTUBE]

P.S. The music is very incongruous but was played by the superb on-board string quarter 'Romantica'.

Oh my, thanks so much for taking me along on your visit!

We have been to both the Cinque Terre and Portofino. Many times to the latter. For Cinque Terre from la Spezia you can charter a boat and skipper and the cruise along the coast and stop at one or two of the villages. Costs a bit but well worth it.

Portofino is heaps better to approach from the sea than by road. Often there is a huge traffic jam waiting to get into Portofino... When there - the views from Castello Brown down over the harbour and village are beautiful. You can also hike over the peninsula to San Fruttuoso which is on the Camogli side. This is well worth it. For one not many people know it is there. You can visit the old abbey, have a drink by the water etc. IF you are a swimmer you can dive down in the harbour to see the underwater statue of Christ! The walk over takes about 30 mins and is not too hard.

BTW 14 euros for 3 coffees and a coke doesn't strike me as all that expensive. It was likely the coke that pushed the price up. Coke/beer/wine all cost about the same... And in Italy service is included and so is tax so really it wasn't bad.

Oh my, thanks so much for taking me along on your visit!

LOL...but without you getting wet :) A few more Italy cruise videos here if it's of interest

Love your videos! Thanks for posting them.