TERRIER1

We did Australia and New Zealand with Oceania but booked all our own tours with people on the roll call.

In Sydney we booked a Blue Mountain Tour from the Tourist office and they picked us up at the hotel apartment. It was a great day. We took the bus there with some stops and then on the way back to Sydney they dropped us off for the ferry on the river. Great ride.

Melbourne has an excellent tram system and you can buy a ticket and hop on and off as you please to see the sights. 

Our cruise stopped in Geelong so we did the 12 Apostles from there. We used Gary from http://morethanatour.com.au/. They may go to 12 Apostles from Melbourne as well.

Our ship than went to Hobart Tasmania and we used https://www.showyoutasmania.com.au/index.php/our-tours/day-tours. We had late departures so we chose a 8 hour tour.

In Dunedin we used https://awesometours.co.nz/tours/cruise-ship-shore-tours/ that included Akaroa and Christchurch.

We did Wellington on own and went to the museum and walked around.

In Napier we hired a tour that is no longer in business. It took us to three wineries with tastings, the town of Napier and Te Mata Peak.

The company we used for Rotorua (Tauranga) is no longer doing day trips. We ported there twice so the second time we stayed in Tauranga and went to the beach.

A really nice day trip from Auckland is taking the ferry to Waiheke Island and the taking the bus around the island. You can also take a tour once you are there. There are loads of wineries.

https://www.fullers.co.nz/experiences-tours/day-tours/waiheke-island-explorer-hop-on-hop-off-bus-tour/

Enjoy.

Oceania has more interesting itineraries. Viking goes to the same places and ports which is surprising given the size of the fleet. If this is your first time cruising than this won't matter. I like both lines and find the ships very nice. We have always taken a lower balcony on Oceania. Oceania will often include the air. If you are not interested or can get a better deal, then the air portion is deductd from the cost. I don't know if this is true for "air included" specials on Viking. This makes a difference. 

As mentioned, food is subjective but in my opinion Oceania has better cuisine. Oceania drinks are more expensive than on Viking but we always purchased our own local bottles of wine and paid the $25 corkage fee. Viking has a much better pricing for drinks. Also, Viking incudes beer and wine at meals.

Viking does include a "free" excursion but in my experience that excursion was just a panoramic bus ride or local walking tour. The bus was always full. Anything of real interest was optional and had a fee. Oceania tours in my opinion are expensive but we always did our own thing. Several times we took the OLife option and then used it for tours.

Personally I think WiFi is lacking on both cruise lines.

Something that really bugs me about Viking is the fact that they don't post port times. You don't find out about how long you are in port until your are invoiced. We prefer itineraries with long port days since we do a lot of touring on our own. 

I would look for the itinerary that appeals to you than ask a travel agent to sort out the pricing so you can compare the two. You really can't go wrong with either.

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Personally, I find the Viking model way easier for my research. Takes a few minutes to make a dummy booking and Viking send you the Pax Statement that has everything list on 1 to 3 pages. Way easier than researching on some cruise line websites.

 

If I want to book, I let the option lapse and have my TA call them to commence the negotiations prior to a booking.

I don't understand how that would be more efficient. I just go on line to my booking agency and select the cruises and lines I am interested in and the port times are available except for Viking. I don't want to make a dummy booking to obtain that information.

3 minutes ago, dd57 said:

If you do a booking hold, with no deposit yet, you receive an invoice with the port times.  You have a few days to decide whether you want to go on the trip before a deposit is due.

That's a lot of work if you are in the reviewing phase of choosing an itinerary on various cruise lines. I really don't inderstand why a potential customer has to go through that. 

I would like to see Viking post port times prior to invoicing. I prefer cruises with longer port times and late embarkations. We do our own thing in ports and you can't plan or determine if a specific cruise will work if there are no port time posting. I am aware port times can fluctuate all the time but posting them provides a framework to work with. All other cruise lines do so.

A nuber of years ago Oceania had us embarking at a dock in Sydney that hadn't been operational for years.

On an Oceania cruise we docked at La Spezia. We walked from where the boat was docked to the train station about 1.25 miles and purchased a Cinque Terra Card.  It The Cinque Terre Train Card gives you access to the hiking trails together with unlimited train travel on the Cinque Terre Express trains. We took the train to the farthest town Monterrosa and then hopped on and off at each Cinque Terra towns. There are no roads through these villages. The road is above. There is only one village that lies on top. The train was reliable and quick when we there on the shoulder season in Spring. The ship offered a ferry excursion and it was cancelled due to swells and winds so we are glad we didn't go.

21 hours ago, bontemps1 said:

We have a tour booked from Bilbao to San Sebastian with an Azamara excursion.  We really would prefer to go to the various Tapas Bars on our own rather than a restaurant or eating club,  I was hoping to just tell the tour operator that we would meet up with him/her later.  Do you know if anyone from your tour did this?  Do you think it's possible?

We went on our own. We took the bus (PESA) from the Bilboa bus station to San Sebastian. The ride goes along the coast and mountains and was beautiful. It took about 75 minutes and the bus left every 30/60 minutes depending on time of day. We purchased the tickets round trip at the bus station and you do get assigned seats. We were on a Oceania trp and the ship didn't leave until 11 pm that day so we got to see Bilboa as well as eat tapas in San Sebastian. We never made it into St Luz the next day due to swells on the water so we are glad we did this excursion on the Bilboa day.

There was very little difference in pricing when I looked into the cost between a solo and a B level cabin several months ago. Since I really wouldn't avail myself of the concierge benefit it made a lot more sense to have a bigger cabin. Just to be clear, I didn't book. 

13 hours ago, longterm said:

I don't believe that is accurate, because if you booked a pre-extension, they meet you at the airport when you fly in, move your you and your bags to the hotel; then on the day of embarkation they pick you up and transfer you and your bags to the ship.

That is correct but they didn't have a pre-extension. They came in the day of the cruise.

I think it depends on the land tour you pick. There are tour companies that stay in one place for several days so the packing/unpacking is lessened. Personally, I think the best way to go is to arrange a tour yourself so you set you own timing. We would do this with a cruise in the middle of the the two land stays. Best of both worlds.

I believe my friend just paid $75. She booked her own airfare but to  use the Viking transfer you need to come in the day of embarkation. 

I have never cruised on HAL so I can't speak to the quality of that experience. I have taken a 32 day cruise from Sydney to Papeete and a shorter 12 day cruise that was dedicated to French Polynesia and the Marquesas. Both trips were on the larger Marina. I could have stayed on the ship for another month. We never got bored. However, we also never had more than 2 sea days in a row. Some people love to sail just for sea days but I am not one of them. Both the itineraries have a LOT of sea days so if that is something you enjoy than I would chose the more appealing itinerary. Both also have lots of tendering which is not expedient on a larger ship. Oceania "R" ships only have about 650 people versus 2600. But with all those sea days there may be more to do on the larger HAL ship.

Papeete isn't that great. I would suggest you hop on the ferry which is right at the cruise port and stay in Moorea which is just beautiful. If you really want to see Tahiti than rent a car and drive all around the island and Tahiti Iti. 

You might want to explore expenses beyond the base cost of the cruise. Alcoholic drinks on Oceania are not cheap nor are their excursions. We have always arranged on own.

Both cruises look wonderful. Enjoy.

According to the port your times are 8:00 and 19:00.

https://www.civitavecchiaport.org/cruise-calendar/

We also stayed at the Athens Gate. View was great and there is a roof top bar. Very good location for walking around and close to the Museum and Plaka.

6 hours ago, TxnAquarian said:

I'm in Mykonos often and I'd recommend booking a private transfer. Taxis are not very available and Uber isn't on the island. I feel like taking the bus takes away from the fun of a quick beach day. I use this transfer company and recommend them. They can do a large van for a group of 7.

 

https://luxurytransfersmykonos.com/?_gl=1*1hysmoo*_up*MQ..&gclid=CjwKCAjwquWVBhBrEiwAt1Kmwsj0XgzlqGuzTNd14z3sSWFOX5fcHqgMEaseKNTbz-OpJ4wTJ5s5pBoCrDYQAvD_BwE

 

Little Venice is accessible from the pier if you tender. If you dock, you'll have to take a shuttle from the port. 

 

 

Michael

 

 

We went to another beach that is more quiet and took the bus. The bus can get very crowded during the high season. I would definitely recommend a car service for 7 people as the above poster suggested.

When I first started sailing Oceania the GDR was open every day for lunch including prot days. The last time I sailed on Sirena I noticed the GDR was often closed for lunch if in port.

30 minutes ago, jakeHOU97 said:

This is great insight, thanks! Agreed with many of the things as I noticed them on the land trip to Europe I’ve been on before, just haven’t taken a non-Caribbean cruise to compare it with.
 

We’re looking at the 7 (or 8?) day from Rome to Barcelona. We’d get to see the Italian Riviera, southern coast of France and Spain, which we wouldn’t if we did one of the land trips we’re looking at. However this cruise obviously wouldn’t take us to Paris or London like the land trip would.

 

If you want to see Paris and London then maybe you should look into a river cruise that ends in Paris and then take the chunnel to London. I don't think you need an escorted land tour to see those places and you could save significant money by arranging the trip yourself. You can just look at what 7 to 8 day land tours include and duplicate the itinerary. Land excursions and cruises charge per person but the hotels charge per room so there is a cost savings to DIY.

There are several nice beaches. We tendered into the Old Venetian port and took a bus to Golden Beach which is west of the port. This is a more developed beach. We then walked to Yanni Beach and Agii Apostili beach which were lovely. It was only a kilometer from Golden to Agii Apostoli. We took the bus back to the port.

I noticed a drop off on the roll calls after Oceania instituted the "free" tours and OLife. Before then it was easy to get participation in shared private tours.

3 hours ago, GKTV32162 said:

World Cruise Day 159/163 Scenic Scandinavia - Rønne, Bornholm, Denmark - we're Born(holm) again tourists


https://kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com/2022/05/world-cruise-day-159163-scenic.html

Looks like you had a day without rain. SO glad for you.

Maybe we were just lucky but we tendered into Positano but that was on a R ship.

No. We took a walk from our hotel and found it. We went inside with the intent to come back after dinner and time got away from us and we never made it there. I can tell you that it wasn't crowded or commercialized like the Bue Lagoon.We were in Iceland in June and 24 hours of daylight messes with your time clock lol. Weplanned to go to the Myvatin baths but it was snowing that evening so we passed. There is always next time. Spent 12 days driving in Iceland and could of used another week. Lovely country.

This is the spa in Husavik.

Wit four people you would be better off doing a private tour than an Oceania tour.