dfb

Yes you need permission from Oceania before overnighting, or overlanding. Yes, they can say no. Our TA handled our requests and I don't know who she asked, just that it was required. The notification and permission should be reflected in your passenger information once you board but our TA and Oceania also emailed permission letters that we were to take aboard with us and give to the purser onboard to double check. We did this in 2015 for India and China on Insignia's first world cruise that was subsequently canceled. In 2017, we left Sirena for an overnight in Bali and again went through the same permissions process. We found overnights were permitted more easily than overlands but we always got a yes answer after some tinkering with plans.

Keep in mind that even though Sorrento is on your itinerary, conditions are often such that tendering there is not possible. The ship will cross the bay to Naples and dock. You can still visit Pompeii, but you have to be flexible. I have never tendered into Sorrento. Only visited it on a land trip.

There is no concierge lounge on Insignia.

In Rome, it's always been Hotel Canada for us! I believe that we completed our 5th stay this past May. We like it for the family run atmosphere, the large rooms and bathrooms, the included breakfast buffet, and the close proximity to the Termini and subway. And if you are an avid walker, all the major attractions are within walking distance. More than a hop and a skip, but close enough for a brisk stroll. http://www.hotelcanadaroma.com/en/

Seconding!

Baristas should still be open at 5pm. They usually have some kind of snacks there, both sweet and savory, in my experience. Otherwise, you might just want to pack a couple of protein bars from home in case you don't find anything else.

We did the Australia circumnavigation cruise earlier in 2017 and checking my notes, I find the following ports had shuttles.

Darwin

Portland

Brisbane

Broome

Eden

Exmouth

Airlie Beach ($5 AUD pp, each way after a tender ride ashore)

Sirena docked at the port of Benoa in March. I think the airport was pretty close as we could see low flying planes over the port. In March, we spent our 1 overnight at Elephant Safari Park Lodge which I can recommend though it is north of Ubud and nowhere near either the port or the airport.

From the Oceania Cruises FAQ

What is your gratuity policy?

How much you choose to tip is a personal matter and completely at your discretion. For your convenience, the following gratuities are automatically added to your shipboard account.

• For guests occupying staterooms, gratuities of $16.00 per guest, per day will be added.
  
• For guests occupying Penthouse, Oceania, Vista or Owner's Suites where Butler Service is provided, gratuities of $23.00 per guest, per day will be added.
  
• In addition, an 18% service gratuity is automatically added to all beverage purchases, spa services and dinner at La Reserve. Naturally, guests may adjust gratuities while on board the vessel at their sole discretion.
  
• 
  

Fetchpeople,

We are exploring doing this next year and would be interested in any additional information you'd be willing to share. I realize it is off topic. So take out the spaces and insert the punctuation to contact me directly please... dfriia at aol dot com

Thanks, Debbie

Good Luck! Note that we did a tour of Norway for the 2 weeks or so between these 2 Oceania Marina cruises. The blog of that portion starts here.

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/fly-back-to-oslo.html

My husband is the photographer in our family. I believe he shot most of the photos on that trip with an Olympus Stylus SH-50 point & shoot type digital camera with 24x zoom. It is gone by now though. You might search online and see what has replaced it. He doesn't do any photo processing, so those are straight from the camera's memory card. I believe they may have been automatically size-reduced by the photo storage site's uploading process. If that doesn't answer your questions, let me know and I'll get my husband to give you more information.

I don't know about the HOHO bus, but I've been to Boston twice on 2 different cruise lines and both docked at the same place, Black Falcon Terminal. Here is a good website with maps about the area.

http://www.boston-discovery-guide.com/black-falcon-cruise-terminal.html

We did this itinerary in both directions in the summer of 2015. Here are some blogs links about our experiences. I recommend Alla Tours as well (except for in Copenhagen). They were easy to work with and formed groups on their own, so you don't have to do it. Alla handles all communications and planning through a feature on their website. It is easy to figure out. Also, since we were on the itinerary twice they were great about customizing our tours when we came back so we could go to Moscow. Alla had a tour in Klaipeda! I also recommend Friends of Dave in Germany. We did do Berlin with Alla and enjoyed it but it was a long bus ride. The bonus of that ride was that you drive through an area famous for stork breeding/nesting and they were in season when we drove through so bird watching kept us busy.

Stockholm

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/stockholm-sweden.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/stockholm-day-1.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/stockholm-day-2.html

Tallinn

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/tallinn-estonia.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/return-to-tallinn-estonia.html

St. Petersburg

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/saint-petersburg-russia.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/saint-petersburg-day-2.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/saint-petersburg-day-3.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/private-tour-in-st-petersburg-day-1.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/moscow.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/last-day-in-saint-petersburg.html

Helsinki

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/helsinki-finland.html

Klaipedia

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/klaipeda-lithuania-and-curonian-spit.html

Gdansk

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/malbork-castle-and-gdansk-poland_86.html

Berlin

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/berlin-germany.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/warnemunde-germany-again.html

Copenhagen

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/copenhagen-denmark.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/copenhagen-again.html

Oslo

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/oslo-norway.html

Southampton

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/06/southampton-salisbury-and-stonehenge.html

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/2015/07/southampton-again.html

In June of 2015, Oceania wanted $1399 for the Moscow train trip.

Duration: 18.25 Hrs

LED-010 MOSCOW BY HIGH-SPEED TRAIN

Tour Price: $1399.00

June Date: 14, 2015 05:45 AM

For those of you who have cruised on the St. Laurant, what is the smoking policy? I can find nothing on the Haimark website about whether or not they allow smoking.

 

However, they apparently are booking Cuba cruises for next year through Road Scholar, and its website says smoking is allowed.

 

Charlotte

Hi,

Yes, thanks Lyn we are still in Europe river cruising, but I just checked in. Yes, St. Laurent did have a smoking area on the aft section of the top sun deck. This doesn't sound like much, but in reality it included about half of the sun deck area and it was nicely furnished with some areas under sun shades. There was an aft outdoor bar/restaurant that may have had a smoking section as well but I can't recall for sure. We don't smoke and although there were a number of smokers, we don't remember it being a problem at all.

Debbie

Dear dfb, would it be possible to contact you. I have many questions about the St. Laurent. However, the most important one is if the itinerary were to your liking, would you sail on her again?

Sorry it took me so long to find this. We are in Europe again and not regularly accessing the Internet. Yes, I absolutely would sail the St. Laurent again. I have no hesitation recommending Haimark and St. Laurent.

As far as contacting me directly, that won't be a good idea for a while until we get back home to our own Internet. Debbie

First of a big you're welcome to all.

Deborah,

I can't say that there was more to see off one side vs. the other. I would say that things to see were probably evenly split. The only exception I can think of is going through the thousand islands area in the St. Lawrence River. There are 2 castles on islands, Boldt and Singer. They were on our starboard side and would be on the port side returning. Also, Montreal would be approached on the port side. But, then there is a man-made island you have to come around to dock in Vieux Port and at that point Montreal would be on the starboard side for final approach. So, really there is very little significant difference. Half of what you want to see will be on the other side or best viewed from forward or back. Good luck, Debbie

We're home! All in all we enjoyed our cruise on Haimark's Saint Laurent and would recommend it. There are about 10 posts about it on our blog during the first 10 days of August 2015 and photos. If anyone has any specific questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them while the experience is fresh in my mind.

Debbie

http://epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com/

Viv,

I understand if it is too late, but for future reference I'll tell you that while we will book a balcony cabin whenever possible that on a small ship with exterior passageways instead that we'll go with the lowest possible window cabin. We have never had one that was even a 30 second walk from the cabin door to an outside view and usually than long or less to a front or back outside view. On Saint Laurent, we are 2 doors off the central stairwell lobby and maybe 20 steps from the outside door there. Double that and we can be outside on the starboard side of the ship. Up 2 flights and we are on deck 4 with its promenade deck and we can be either fore or aft in about 2 minutes. We don't feel we gave up anything by taking this cabin 122. Just something to consider in the future. You may still be quite happy on deck 4!

Ginny,

Today is our last day and it has been a good cruise. I am sure you'll enjoy yours too. In many ways it has also been a relaxing vacation too. On such a small ship with the number of "sea days" on this cruise (3 + 2 half days) it has been a lot more down time than most of our cruises and has given us a lot of time to rest up. So, while it is a unique and interesting fresh water sailing if you actually booked this as a vacation, then it is great.

Debbie

Hi Ladies,

Been following your chatter!! Lovely to see the photos of smiling passengers. Would love to know more about the ship. The meals and tours and also if you have had a chance to explore the ship. We have booked on the promenade deck that allows one to exit from the cabin and I would love to know if the deck space is a bit squeezy and if one's privacy is compromised with people walking past. Booked to go Montreal to Portland leaving 21st October!

Hi, I personally would not book the promenade deck on this or any ship designed like it, of which there are many. First, no you do not have any privacy. You step out into public outdoor space and people are always walking past your windows and doors. The other issue is that if there is any inclement weather, you have to be out in it to go to and from your cabin to any other space onboard. If you have an indoor cabin both problems do not exist.

The tours have been okay to good. Information sharing has been a little less than good. Meals and service have been good. Choice is limited compared to bigger ships, but we haven't gone hungry! We found quality excellent.

Internet. It is spotty as any shipboard Internet will be. We were told in writing that we had 2 hours of Internet complimentary in our fare. Once onboard we were told it was 2 hours per passenger, not per cabin. In our passenger briefing at embarkation, we were told to go by reception to pick up a network password per passenger that would be good for 200 minutes, not 2 hours. When I picked up our passwords, the slips just said they would expire in 9 days. We only used one password and I am certain we have used more than 2 hours, more than 200 minutes and it is still working. We just got our bill for the cruise and there is no Internet charge. So, I would say that in practice Internet is included and unlimited.

Debbie

Hi Emmy! That was fun meeting you at a distance! Thanks for the greeting.

Thanks for posting the link. You took some great photos of the day!

Debbie

Emmy,

Well now I know what to look for, we'll be out front looking for your pink boa! The CD just finished his Sault Ste. Marie port talk and still didn't name or describe our docking location. He did say that the lock would be within a 15 minute bus drive of the docking location. I don't know if that helps or not. I am wearing a blue blouse and dark blue striped shorts and my husband is in a tan t-shirt and tan shorts. I don't think we'll be as easy to pick out as a woman in a pink boa!

Debbie

Emmy,

Sorry, no we have not been given a dock name or location. We turned around next to Ile Parisenne and the announcement was that we should be back in the lock around 10:45 to 11am and docked by 1pm.

Debbie

We have a blog and there are photos on there if you click the Photo Slideshow words on each entry at the top or the bottom of the page. The Saint Laurent and Great Lakes cruise are part of a larger blog.

epicendurancecruising.blogspot.com

Debbie

I see on Marine Traffic that the Saint Laurent has left Little Current on Manitoulin Island in Ontario and is on her way to Sault Ste Marie. It does say US after the city so looks like she will dock in US side of the river.

 

Arrival time says 1130 UTC which in eastern time zone is 6:30 am.

 

Will be watching for her and to pay her a visit

Emmy,

We came through the lock this morning at 5am. It woke us up! I don't know what time we'll come back through but we have to at some point today to sail down Lake Michigan. The Saint Laurent has not given us any predicted times for the Soo Locks. The CD just hedged earlier in the cruise when asked what time we would lock through to Superior. He said if we did it would depend. Now we are through though and still sailing into Superior at 6:30am. We do have to come back today. The schedule has us going ashore in Sault Ste. Marie MI at 1pm. We won't have today's port talk until after 9am this morning and that is where they say they will tell us about US Customs coming aboard to clear the ship into the US. Sorry I can't be more specific! Good luck spotting us. I guess once we dock this afternoon, it should be easy enough.

Debbie