shorton

16 hours ago, mauibabes said:

Really that is my point, every line has changed, especially since Covid. “Stuff Happens” when it comes to travel, airlines, flights and cruising and opinions and tastes only apply to the beholder. We can all be critical and we all have opinions. We have taken a few 5 Star trips before and after Covid, land and river and Ocean and I can honestly say that in my opinion their wonderful French Chefs and amazing cuisine did not compare to Oceania’s. When asked to rate dining, I stretched to a C+ and explained I was comparing to Oceania and no other cruise lines. FDR Trademarked the Finest Cuisine at Sea and drove that home. Fact or Fiction, it is a great tag line and the cuisine is outstanding, IMHO. 

My 2 cents and that is all it’s worth, blow off someone else’s negativism, their opinions and  look forward to “your” adventure and cruise and go with a positive attitude and have a fabulous trip and create your own opinions just for you. 
I will drop the mic,

Mahalo,

Mauibabes

Mauibabes, I so agree with you, especially on Viking. We did one ocean cruise on Viking and just didn't like the vibe. Fellow passengers just weren't that friendly. No cruise line is perfect, but Oceania suits us best. 

We were on the same cruise as Mauibabes. Terrific! The lecturers were top-notch, especially with being on deck as we lied Antarctic waters. The lectures were very interesting. Lots of great slides and great historical stuff. Go and enjoy!

2 hours ago, mauibabes said:

We did this cruise in January 2023, Antarctica Bays as well and it was wonderful. The Team of lecturers, 5 as I recall, were all University professors with 25+expeditions to Antarctica.  We even got an invite to a private cocktail party with them, absolutely awesome. Your TA should be able to get more info for you if the lecturers have been selected. 
Go and enjoy. We also added the O Pre Tour to Iguazu Falls from Buenos Aires and would definitely do that one again. Not cheap but worth it since you fly up to the Falls, great hotels and food, etc. We had just been to Niagara Falls a few month earlier and Iguazu Falls is much more spectacular IMHO. Sorry to our Canadian and New Yorker O family members 😇🙏
Mauibabes 

2 hours ago, DrHemlock said:

Well, shiver me timbers!  I'd have noted the same thing as WESTEAST above since Rouen is definitely inland and basically a river-cruise port.  But CruiseMapper's schedule for October (https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/rouen-port-3937?month=2024-10#schedule) shows Sirena docking in Rouen as the OP posted.  

Still, as others have written, a day trip from there to Paris is risky.  Besides, Rouen's a beautiful, atmospheric city with a cathedral as spectacular as you'll find anywhere.  I can even recommend a great place for lunch if you're so inclined.

Looks like there’s plenty to see in Rouen without any risk. We will be there on my wife’s birthday. Your lunch recommendation looks terrific. 

2 hours ago, DrHemlock said:

Well, shiver me timbers!  I'd have noted the same thing as WESTEAST above since Rouen is definitely inland and basically a river-cruise port.  But CruiseMapper's schedule for October (https://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/rouen-port-3937?month=2024-10#schedule) shows Sirena docking in Rouen as the OP posted.  

Still, as others have written, a day trip from there to Paris is risky.  Besides, Rouen's a beautiful, atmospheric city with a cathedral as spectacular as you'll find anywhere.  I can even recommend a great place for lunch if you're so inclined.

My wife and I are on the September Stockholm to Amsterdam cruise on Sirena. We dock in Rouen, France, at 6 a.m.  Oct. 14. The ship leaves Rouen at 5 p.m. If we figure to be back on board at 4 p.m., is it still feasible to take the train to Paris and back? Doesn't seem worth it if we only have a couple hours. Thoughts?

We have a Sirena cruise scheduled for September. We signed on before Simply More, and stuck with O Life. Wondering if we will have two internet connections per cabin.

Mauibabes, will be interesting to chat with you at the Meet and Greet about Ponant. We join a Seychelles cruise next month. 

Just to make sure I understand…As a PH passenger, sounds like you don’t want to send just a few items to the laundry because that would only partially fill a bag, and you lose that bag when you send it away. Is my thinking correct? 

Regarding the three-bag limit on free laundry for PH passengers. Not sure what that means. Three bags total for the length of the cruise? Per day? (Unlikely). We usually send a few things to the

laundry every few days, but not sure how that computes with three bags. 

We recently returned from our first Viking cruise.  Viking ships are gorgeous. Staterooms are great. But we didn't like the vibe. Too sterile. Too staid. And the food was mediocre. 

As a previous poster noted, Viking has a lot of ships, but the itineraries are the same year after year.  No Africa. No South America. We like a cruise line that offers us a chance to see the world. Oceania  does that. 

Does the Restaurant open at 6:30 p.m.?

I just contacted Viking via chat to see if we could get an egg crate topper for our Rome to Istanbul cruise next week on Venus. I was told the ship does not have egg crate toppers, but that each bed has a mattress topper already (and no plastic sheets. Not sure why that was mentioned). 

Thanks, MikeyB. E-visas were indeed easy to obtain. Looking forward to a wonderful Med cruise, our first with Viking. 

I read that an e-visa for Turkey is not required if you're entering the country  by sea. But I assume it's needed if you're doing a post-cruise stay or departing Turkey by air. Am I correct? 

I know the main dining room opens for dinner at 7:30 p.m. What time does the informal buffet open? Thanks!

 Loved all the great info and pics. We are on the Rome to Istanbul cruise on Venus in October. Your post is perfect reading for us. 

We completed our ETIS form, clicking LAX as your airport for flying to French Polynesia. I'm thinking FP officials are only concerned with which airport you flew out of to get directly to the islands. We got our checkmark back promptly. 

Another factor is the mad scramble between cruise lines to get new ports in place. Only so much docking space in what was likely to be a very busy Baltics season. We are assuming that since our September cruise is a carry-over from 2021 and we are fully paid, we are stuck. It will be interesting to see what Viking decides to do. 

We just received the e-mail. Not unexpected. We don't want the Russian government to profit whatsoever from our cruise. We applaud Viking for quickly reacting. 

Here is a story from The Points Guy:

https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-lines-russia-calls-ukraine/

We are on the September Homelands cruise from Stockholm to Bergen. I cannot find Venus listed in the Viking Ocean roll calls. Does anyone know why?

Basor, my fellow Oregonian, I so agree. We love to travel, and will do our best to be safe and secure. 

I hope you get a chance to see it some day. So fascinating.

This was our fourth voyage with Oceania. The stops in Cuba were 10 out of 10. Oceania gets an 8 out of 10. This was our first experience with a sold-out ship. The wait staff seemed overwhelmed at times. It was especially hard to find places to sit at breakfast and lunch. It would have been great to have someone greet you as you walked in and help you find a place to sit. The four of us were really annoyed with our dinner at Toscana. Because of the packed room and people waiting, we were rushed through our meal. You barely put down your fork and the waiter whisks away your plate and puts another in front of you. On past Oceania cruises, it was never this way. Sad. Also, the bathrooms on the R ships are especially tiny. We've never gotten used to that. On the plus side, we loved afternoon trivia (and bathrobe trivia when it moved to 11 a.m.), and the food was excellent all week.

Now on to the off-the-ship stuff. We did a 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. private tour of Havana through Cuban Trips Compass. It was fabulous!!!! 45 CUCs apiece (roughly $45 each) for the four of us, riding in a 1957 Chevy and walking through various sites. Heidi was our very knowledgeable guide (helping us buy cigars, rum and chocolate!). She spoke great English, along with Spanish and German. Havana really came alive with this tour. A beautiful city.

We did Cienfuegos and Santiago on our own. And it worked out just fine. Cienfuegos has a beautiful old theater and Santiago boasts the oldest home in Cuba. Both worth seeing. Note: reaching downtown Santiago requires a very steep climb for a few blocks. Coming back to the ship we moved over a couple of streets and the slope was much easier to negotiate. Cuba was just amazing. We so glad we took this cruise.

We used Oceania's air because we needed this to be a quick trip and we didn't want to pay the $175 deviation fee each. The trip home was through Newark to Portland, Oregon, and made for a very long day. Luckily we just managed to avoid a winter storm.

Good story from AP on the situation. We are on the Oceania Dec. 1 cruise. No qualms.

https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/travel///249687/travel_industry_sticking_with_trips_from_us_to_cuba