susiesan

On 2/10/2024 at 5:43 PM, deadzone1003 said:

Hi Susiesan,

We have to be at the Venezia Mestre Train Station for a 10:10am train.  What time is your train?  Do you want to share a van to the train station? The problem with Tronchetto is that it is a distance to the Venezia Santa Lucia even if using the people-mover.  I booked a van for an 8am departure (can change it to 8:30am).  The total cost is just over 140 euros (though it is not confirmed, still processing).  Are you interested?  

Jim

Jim, 

I have not purchased train tickets yet, I will do so later on. 

Can the van take us to Padua from Chioggia? Would that save time from going back to Santa Lucia station? I am interested in sharing the van with you either place we go to.

I'm working on finding a VRBO apartment in Milan for 4 nights. Where are you staying?

Someone on TA suggested to take a taxi to Padua and get the train to Milan from there. It's closer to where we disembark. I'm still in Uganda now and will research more when we get home, in a few days. But yes, we'd be happy to share a van with you. I have not purchased train tickets yet, I will do so after final payment and we are definitely going.

At the Captains Party on Sirens September 2023 you could order any drink you desired from the bar. You could have as many as you wanted within the 2 hours. You also could go straight to Martinis and order any drink you liked, no questions asked.

1 hour ago, Harters said:

 As I mentioned in my OP, Australia and and New Zealand customers have had this arrangement for some time. 

So if I was booking the same cruise in the same cabin I'd see a different price than the Aussies do? Interesting. 

43 minutes ago, combine said:

Midway through the cruise you will receive information re transfers to airport or Tronchetto  plus other alternatives and you can use obc to pay for this.  You can also arrange private transfer with many of the online car services.

 

Any idea of what the cost of the transfer to Tronchetto is per person? I will have a lot of OBC to use.

31 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Read post # 1.

Does that mean UK and Irish cruisers will see a higher fare by the amount of the gratuities than Americans do? When you look at the O web site for prices there is only one column of fare showing.

I would not want to see this happen for Americans booking in the US. I use the OBC from my TA to pay gratuities. If they are included at a higher fare then there is nothing of interest to me to use the OBC on.

So UK and Irish cruisers will end up paying less overall, the value of the tips, than American passengers. That's not right.😠

My Sept. 8 cruise on Pursuit that begins in Fusina ends in Chioggia on Sept. 17. We will be going to Milan by train. I have no information from Azamara after disembarking how to get to Venice, more specifically the train station. Will Azamara bus us back to Terminal Maritime like the y bus us from there to Fusina? If not, are there Ubers that will go to Venice Mestre train station? is there a train or bus from Chioggia that goes to the train station? I will be buying train tickets ahead of time and want to get an idea of what time to buy.

For anyone who disembarked in Chioggia, how didd you get back to Venice?

Oceania has already rerouted their Red Sea cruises in 2024 to go around the long way via Capetown. 

I just got a new phone. It's a Motorola, Android OS using the chrome browser. When I try to log in to Cruise Critic  on the web site using my log in name and passport nothing happens. None of the sign in buttons bring up a log in screen. I am able to log in on my desktop and my tablet using my existing log in and password. Can you help me so I can post on my phone while traveling on a cruise?

Maybe this is why O is not sailing through the Red Sea in 2024 to get from the Mediterranean to Abu Dhabi but is taking the long way around Africa. Perhaps their insurance carrier massively raised the rates.

2 hours ago, tobique33040 said:

Oh golly. Those are crazy prices. Well I guess we will keep waiting and watching for sales like that. Compared to Viking, the price we got on our Baltic sailing was quite good so we were pleased. 

With SM, you will never see those prices again. At a minimum, all prices now are $800 more per person. You have to cover the cost of the beverages package and shore excursions that you may or may not want.

2 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

With the exception of your last sentence, I agree w your sentiments if not your specific recommendations.
Have been trying to find replacement options for my next O cruise. But, since I reserve when itins open and need good solo pricing, its not easy to find replacements. Seabourn’s website is hopeless, silversea’s itins haven’t called to me, and I won’t pay in full 12 months in advance so Viking is out.
Regent is the closest to what I’m looking for, but its still an NCL brand. And, they didn’t do so great either on their response (25% FCC w limitations).

Have you ever been on a safari? OAT has a lot of solo and women tours/safaris where they don't charge a single supplement. 

5 hours ago, Linda Deenen said:

On board Nautica. Day 2 of 9 sea days. Mandatory piracy drill today where we sat on floor in the hall for 10 minurtes while they read from the same letter they sent to our rooms.  We are now in a HRA (high risk area) for the next 3 days all the ships curtains will be closed at sundown. No lighrts on running track or outside decks. Seriously why are we here?   

Wow. Were you offered anything for your anxiety? Are you getting free drinks to help ease anxiety?

Since there are so many empty cabins all of you should ask to be upgraded, start filling the ship from the top suites and work down. I can't believe O won't do anything special for you. An open bar would go a long way to keeping everyone in a happy mood.

The US is warning of evolving threats to ships sailing in the Red Sea

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-warns-evolving-threats-ships-112754658.html

13 hours ago, roger b said:

The more I read on this thread, the more  it is plain to see that A has  little clue as to what is happening  with their  IT system,it is not fit for purpose and that's  the long and short of it!!

Roger, other than all the IT problems, how is your cruise going?

Why were you quarantined, was it covid? I thought no one was reporting they had it anymore.

2 hours ago, roger b said:

After everything  I finished  with 1450 ,don't  know  if that's good or bad 

Hi Roger, where are you now, off the coast of Africa? I'm still planning on an AZ cruise in September,  Croatia intensive. My OBC and shore ex credit do not show up in my online account.  My TA says to use rhe shore ex credit I have to call AZ to reserve them. That's crazy that I can't book them myself.

1 hour ago, basor said:

I don't believe this is the first or second or third time you have stated that you are not going to sail O again over the last few years....unclear why you keep booking as it obviously not a good fit for you.  

I am not currently booked on a O cruise, I'm booked on Azamara for next Sept. I took a O cruise in September that was cruise only, no SM. Up until changing to SM P has been a fairly good fit. They are not perfect, but I have not been unhappy with any of my past 6 O cruises. Going forward, O won't fit my travel style.

10 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

 
Seems from your comments SM isn’t for you. Fine. Don’t sail with Oceania!

I've sailed with Oceania 6 times over the last 20 years. My next cruise will be with Azamara. I'm unlikely to sail with Oceania again unless they get rid of SM.

Just another reason not to like O's change to forced excursions with SM.  If you are going to use the SM excursion credit pick excursions early in the cruise so if ports are dropped/cancelled as happens frequently you will have had the use of the SM shore ex money.

3 hours ago, MarianneBD said:

I sent the earlier article about drone strikes + threats of attacks to Oceania CEO and others. Could you send this one? Good for them to hear from different voices. 
cortega@oceaniacruises.com

fdelrio@oceaniacruises.com

I'm not on the cruise. Why don't you send the article if you are one of the affected cruises?

I've been following along to see how terribly Oceania is handling all this so I know whether or not to book another cruise with Oceania. Right now, it's a big no.

Now ships in the Red Sea are being hijacked:

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2023/11/19/Israeli-ship-reportedly-hijacked-by-Yemen-s-Houthis-in-Red-Sea

Maybe this will get Oceania to call off these 2 cruises scheduled to sail through the Red Sea.

9 hours ago, Tjoolder said:

Our 06/27/2024 cruise on Riviera lost 5 Turkish port. Embarkation has been changed from Istanbul to Trieste.

The itinary now also includes Rijeka and Zadar (Croatia), Kotor, Santorini and Mykonos.

 

Wow, that's a lot of changes, especially to a different embarkation port. Are you still going to take the cruise? Were you offered any compensation in the form of a discount so as not to cancel?