Oceania Amsterdam to Barcelona-September2-14

My wife and I are taking the above cruise. I would like to know the following from anyone who has been on this or similar cruise:

(1)Does Oceania provide shuttle transportation from port into town

(2)Did anyone take a trip from Pont-Aven(Concarneau) to Normandy Beaches and cemetery-if so what means of transportation and did you buy a tour(not offered on ships excursions)

(3) What Excursions offered by Oceania did you feel were worth while.

(4) How did you get to London from Dover

(5) Did you book any private tours and if so-details. One in Bordeaux to winery reasonable if you have 8 people-were you able to meet or recruit people for this type of thing.

(6) anything else helpful that I should know about this cruise or ports or anything to do/see in the ports. thank you-

Bob Britton

I haven't done this itinerary so I'll just comment about transportation between London and Dover. The cheapest way is by train or bus but that means being able to haul your luggage around. Not everyone wants to do that.

We have several times hired a car service. If you find others on your Roll Call who will be doing the transfer at about the same time, it brings the price down. The first time we did this we were going to central London from Dover as was one other couple, but two other couples were going to Heathrow. It was a minimal additional cost to have the extra stop.

Mura

(2)Did anyone take a trip from Pont-Aven(Concarneau) to Normandy Beaches and cemetery-if so what means of transportation and did you buy a tour(not offered on ships excursions)

This is quite a distance! And you still would need to go back on the same day. You could rent a car and speed both ways. Probably 4 hours or more one way.

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLS_enUS594US595&q=google+maps+Kilometers+from+Concarneau+to+Caen

By the way, Concarneau is a lovely town.

I hope that you are planning to spend an extra night in Barcelona before returning home. It is a great city. I have been there twice for pre- and post-cruise overnight stays before having to fly home. We just love walking around on Las Ramblas and seeing the street performers. Many of the restaurants have outdoor seating in the center of the street where you can enjoy a drink and some tapas.

Since I am not due to take my first cruise with Oceania until August, I cannot answer many of your questions, but I am pretty sure that Oceania offers a free shuttle into the towns. You can verify this by calling Oceania directly. I do recall my PCC mentioning that to me. Also, to answer some of your other questions, you might want to post them on the Ports of Call forum for Europe and ask the specific questions for your ports. You won't be limited to just Oceania cruisers there.

I would also mention that Barcelona is well known for its pickpockets, so take the proper precautions and be aware of your surroundings while you are there. It is also a great city to hire a private guide for a day.

Welcome to CC.

I can answer some of your questions.

1 Oceania and/or port authority offers shuttles buses in many but not all ports.

There is a separate thread about O shuttles

4 Cheapest way is either bus or train - best way is a private transfer. As suggested by Mura, join your roll call and maybe you can share a ride or a tour with your fellow passengers. Also, find recommended transfer companies for this route on Ports of call for Dover.

5 & 6 Do a search for all of your ports on the Ports of Call forum here on CC - lots of very good info there about many ports.

Good luck

For starters, I agree about extra time in Barcelona but also in Amsterdam pre-cruise. Both are wonderful cities to visit. We've been to Barcelona half a dozen times since 2005 and have spent several days on each visit. There's still a lot we haven't seen.

Given that your itinerary is Amsterdam-Barcelona I was wondering about your Dover-London question. Since Dover is your first stop I would highly recommend that you NOT try to see London. Dover is charming and has a number of interesting places to see, especially for a one day visit. If you hire a car it will be 2 hours in each direction; if you do the train or bus, it's 4 hours.

So I would suggest that you stay in town. You could also rent a car (if you want to risk driving on the "wrong" side of the road) and go up as far as Sandwich. We spent a lovely day doing that on one of our visits. Or you could go to Canterbury. But personally, I think it's a waste of time trying to go into London from Dover when you only have 12 hours in port.

I also agree that going to Normandy is too time consuming. I didn't mention this before because I wasn't familiar with Pont-Aven. But our first cruise in this area had a port of call in Le Havre and the ship offered tours to Normandy. But it was 4 hours each way, and when I contacted a tourist agency in Bayeux they strongly recommended against doing a one day tour with such a long drive.

So we planned a land trip in Fall 2002 where we rented a car in Paris and spent several days in Normandy. We saw so much more than you could possibly see in a few hours, plus we had a wonderful guide recommended by our B&B hosts.

In 2012 we did a Viking riverboat trip Paris-Paris which included a day trip from Rouen to Normandy. Even though the drive was about 3 hours each way, we'd been there before and wanted to return to Bayeux -- so we took the "Canadian" ship's tour which took us back to Bayeux plus the Canadian WWII sites which we had not seen on our previous trip.

So ... I would suggest in both ports that you stay local. Just my opinion! I always recommend against driving several hours to a major destination if you only have one day, but many people think it's worth it just to see the place -- especially if they don't anticipate being able to return. It's up to you as to how you want to travel.

Have a great cruise,

Mura