MOTB

Last time we were on Britannia in 2015, we were able to buy wine packages of 6/9/12 bottles, one range called Captain's Collection, the other Commodore's Collection (slightly more expensive). Overall the saving was about 15% over the bottle price. Anyone know what's happening now?

Usually on cruises, (not just Oceania) we find we can just walk off the ship at the end. They take our passports at reception and we think they must do formalities on our behalf. When we arrived in St Maarten in the Caribbean after a transatlantic cruise, just one of us had to meet border control staff who came onto the ship early in the morning. And when we did a cruise on Queen Victoria to Amsterdam, Bruges and Le Havre, I'm pretty sure we just walked off the ship when we returned to Southampton. Obviously fly-cruises are different  - we go through the same border controls as anyone else getting off a plane.

We are British cruising from Lisbon to Southampton on Nautica arriving on 9th June, with a train home to London booked for 9.55am. I was presuming that we would not have to wait long to get off the ship as we are returning to our own country. Are we likely to be waiting in a queue (line) with people of other nationalities (US, Canada etc) doing immigration procedures?

Janet

Forgetting the come in early, as many only come in 1 maybe 2 max. But forget that.

There is the energy and hype of first getting to the ship. It uses up most all the day counting taxi from hotel to ship or airport, hustling bags etc. lines waiting for this or that. With your hand baggage with you after check in I don't see going back ashore as an option.

No matter how you look at it boarding day take a lot out of anyone, whether your in port for a hour or a week. There is a lot to do that boarding day and Adrenalin will be flowing. .it takes its toll unless your 22 !

 

Glad you like to eat ashore. Me, I have seen too many bad experiences and if I want to get some cuisine I will make a land trip for it and plan my trip around restaurants. Port cities can be a mixed bag some industrial wastelands others like HKG and BKK have lots. but places near the port are pretty much tourist or longshoreman's dives. But I came to cruise and getting sick at the start is not very fun way to begin.

 

For me the cruise is about the ship#1 and ports #2 and I plan my cruise that way. ( I love ship travel and if they went out for 10 days and cruised in circles Id be pleased as punch

 

My boarding pattern/ profile is to stay at my hotel till around 2 pm resting, taxi to the pier and board around 2;45-3:15 I never hit the boarding day Terrace plenty of time for meals later Normally my wife and I are 2 meal per day folks. Dont have to haul bags around, my cabin is ready no waiting, relaxed put stuff away grab life jacket and go relax in the place where the live boat drill will be then hang out watching sail away on deck 5 on the rail instead of fighting for stair or elevator access on deck 9-10.

Go to dinner around 2030 at Terrace same time as the staff does ( ships officers, Director) and the place is empty

As far as getting more reservations for specialties, Pick a cruise that experiences come rough water sections and the ship in any venue is yours.... On R ships I dont even reserve a specialty, On O Jacques is about all .... been to the others enough However, I understand a first time cruiser has the wants to try as much . Toward that end take a 14 day cruise and you can pretty much get anything as many times as you want . 21 days and it gets even better.

If you are starting or finishing your cruise at places like Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Venice (and others), they really do deserve at least a couple of days pre or post cruise exploration. We call it a cruise sandwich and it helps limit the damage of all the wonderful food onboard.

We are usually in a specialty first night. We prefer not to share and do not book high cabins, so by the time we reserve, there isn’t much choice. First night always has some openings in one of the restaurants for a two top.

We've done the same - as Brits, we miss out on the scramble for speciality reservations. Midnight in USA East is 5am for us, ie fast asleep, but I take my laptop to bed with me and book as soon as I wake up. First and last nights have more availability at sensible times, ie not 9pm and for a table for 2. A nice way to start and finish our cruise. That's what's happening on Nautica Round Britain in September.

Going to Olympia from Katakolon is a must. Apparently there is a train but I have painful knees so I took a ship's tour (from Queen Elizabeth) in order to save my walking capacity for the Olympia site.

I just hope they don't keep those of us who turn up at the correct time waiting for a long time for the late-comers. This happened in another cruise line recently and as we had our son, his wife and three young grandchildren with us, it was really annoying being kept waiting for 40 minutes. At least we had seats.

We are relatively new to Oceania, having only experienced Riviera for a week in Oct 2016 from Barcelona to Rome. We thoroughly enjoyed everything about our cruise and are looking forward to going Round Britain (our own British Isles) on Nautica in September. The age of a ship does not bother us, more the layout and general atmosphere on board. Our first cruise ever was on Cuinard's QE2 in 2006, one of the last cruises on this veritable ship, being about 40 years old at the time. Loved all the wood and brass, the prom decks etc, a proper ship. And one of our nicest cruises (although we did have our son and his wife and young family with us, making it extra special, was on Cruise and Maritime's Columbus, a 30 year old ship, which they had just acquired from P and O Australia, prior to that it was UK P and O's Arcadia. A lovely traditional ship, with wide prom decks, easily accessed from the central bar lounges, and lovely tiered aft decks - we had an outside cabin right at the back, with a door just feet away to one of these decks, with seating and sunbeds. Very quiet and it was better than a balcony for viewing the Norwegian fjords - we could see in three directions. Modern ships build up the back with cabins and the bigger the ship, the less outside deck space there is per passenger. Food was good on Columbus; not Oceania standard, but our cruise was excellent value for money for our party of seven. Plus my sister as a single (around 25% extra to have a cabin to herself).

Our only experience of Oceania so far is a week on Riviera from Barcelona to Rome, with ports every day. Bridge was billed in Currents and took place in the Polo Grill at 2pm. So generally only enough people turned up for one table of social bridge. It was disappointing on one occasion that we got there to find four people already playing and we waited a good while to see if another couple would turn up. They didn't. It would have been nice if the group already playing had offered to rotate with us, at a suitable break in play. This is what we would have expected to happen. We will be on Nautica's Round Britain cruise in September - just two sea days, but it might be nice to get a game.

The more ports the better....

You will find Barcelona very easy to do on your own. The public transport is excellent, both the metro (easy access with lifts to street level) and the buses. All information re routes and timetables is on the internet. With the odd taxi as well, you will find you can see quite a lot in your day. If you want to visit the inside of Sagrada Familia or Parc Guell, you need to pre-book an admission time on line. If you visit SF first and book a slot for Parc Guell about three hours later, you should be OK. I recollect the 116 bus stops right outside Parc Guell. Have a lovely time in this great city.

We met a lovely English family at breakfast in the GDR on Oceania's Riviera. An elderly gentleman started talking to us about football, a subject neither my husband or I are experts on. His daughter advised us that he was talking about football from 20 years ago - he had Alzheimers and although he thoroughly enjoyed cruising, he wouldn't remember anything about it after he went home.

We've only been on one Oceania cruise so far (Barcelona to Rome in October 2016 on Riviera). We mainly used the GDR and speciality restaurants, but also Waves Grill four times when we had the surf and turf ciabatta every time (Fillet steak and lobster - wonderful). The food is brought to your table. You can order it at the grill counter, but I think they also took our order from the table, ie waiter service. And in the Terrace Cafe, which we used a couple of times to save time, although you choose your food at the counter (and it is served to you), the waiting staff are very eager to help and will carry your plate to a table for you (I do have mild walking difficulties due to arthritic knees). In fact I would say the service is excellent everywhere. Plenty of staff who are very keen to provide good service. Looking forward to our second Oceania cruise in September on Nautica, cruising around our own British Isles.

Thanks for your helpful replies.

I'll be interested in using the thalassotherapy pool. I have painful knees and find being in water really helps. There'll only be a shower in our cabin and I'm not sure how easily I'll be able to get in and out of the swimming pool (assuming it's warm enough on the Round Britain cruise in September) although I'll be OK in the jacuzzis. So my options seem to be: pay for a day pass, or have a treatment and get a free hour. Might be worth going for one of the less expensive treatments as an hour will probably be sufficient for me.

Thinking of booking an outside cabin. We can have a window, possibly obstructed with no sofa, or a cabin with a sofa but a porthole - they look pretty small. How big are they please?

Thanks. Looks identical to the photo of the Nautica pool, but they are sister ships.

Maybe I'll just stick to the jacuzzi - the cruise is round Britain during the second half of September, so I can't be sure it will be open-air swimming weather anyway! Might be OK if they are nice solid wide steps.

The Cinque Terre coastal ferry is delightful, both the views of the villages from the sea and the villages themselves. But you will save a lot of money if you DIY this trip! The ferry is pretty cheap and you just need to get to the pier from where your ship is docked. If it's too far to walk, I would think there would be a taxi to take you. The only concern is planning your schedule (you should be able to visit at least two of the villages, maybe three with an early start) so you are back on board before sailaway.

I have bad knees and much prefer swimming pools with steps you can walk down, with a handrail (as on Riviera) rather than pool ladders, which I can find very difficult, if not impossible. Photos of the pool on Nautica suggest that access to the pool is via a ladder. Can anyone confirm this and how easy it is for them please? I would be able to manage the jacuzzis, but would like to get in the pool for a swim if I can.

Jo-B

We're on the same cruise as you, Barcelona to Rome. We booked cruise only which saved us a bit and we're using up some BA airmiles. Direct flight from Gatwick, spending 2 nights in Barcelona to have a look round and then four nights touring Italy with a rental car at the other end, flying back from Pisa (again on airmiles). A week's cruise sandwiched between city breaks suits us, cuts down the weight gain a bit! Maybe see you on board - there is a roll call for this trip, are you on it?

Strangely enough I had a call from Cunard this afternoon. I said I was happy to receive email and post communication, but would prefer no phone calls and she said this would be respected. Hope so.

I hope that somewhere along the line, I have ticked 'no phone calls' - I haven't had any. Other cruise companies we travel with seem to have respected this. It's part of googles T and Cs that they can analyse our activity - I use google for searches but I tend not to use gmail as they analyse what you write - a bit spooky!

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's a busy cruise with ports every day, but hopefully we'll get a game or two in, maybe in the late afternoon?

We enjoy a game of bridge. Is this timetabled in the daily programme and is it organised or do we just turn up and play social bridge? Presumably it depends on the cruise - we're going on a 'port every day' cruise from Barcelona to Rome, at the end of October, so I wouldn't expect a serious bridge programme but it would be nice if we could get a few games in. (I'm not a brilliant player - my husband is quite good.)

As far as I can tell, it isn't very far to walk to the ferry terminal. Very easy and much cheaper to DIY. I've done it from Marina di Massa, further along the coast. It's a lovely trip, if the weather is good (it was a glorious hot sunny day in July when I last did it; I'm next planning to do it at the end of October. The villages are delightful and you can do as much or as little walking there as you wish (not a lot for me as I have painful knees). You won't have time to stop at more than 2 or 3 of them.