isbclarin

I am traveling solo on this cruise.  This will be my first ACL cruise and first river cruise since losing my wife in September.  Will anyone else from this forum be on this cruise?  I'm looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

Bob  

On 8/21/2019 at 12:15 PM, katmu said:

I'm also new to traveling with limitations, and I've decided to go with a scooter for my cruise in December.  I decided it would make traveling easier for both me and my friend.

On 8/21/2019 at 1:48 PM, angie7911922 said:

I am not sure where your cruise will bring you, but nowadays they have companies where you can hire a scooter. In selected ports, they will bring it onboard for you and when your cruise ends, you can just leave it onboard and the scooter will be collected again.

And think about using  a scooter in a different way. You will not be restricted as much anymore cause you can go anywhere  by yourself. And it will also be more comfortable for your husband. Cause pushing a wheelchair is not for the light hearted. My mom is in a wheelchair and its  not easy to push all day. 

One more positive thing, your husband can actually walk next to you, not behind you pushing the chair. 

We considered renting a scooter.  I don't think my wife would be a very good driver for it.  Also my understanding, which is probably wrong, is that the scooters are heavy and are not foldable.  We plan on using a cane when onboard the ship and for getting off and on the ship.  I'll carry the wheelchair and put it into service once we are on the dock.

We've done a large number of river and ocean cruises since 2004 but are about to take our first cruise using a transport wheelchair for excursions and a rollater on board.  My wife has osteoarthritis and by holding on to me and using a cane can walk short distances, go up and down a few steps, and get in and out of minivans and cars.  We bought a transport chair for those outings involving a lot of walking and plan on using it throughout the cruise  - i.e. going through airports, exploring in the neighborhood of hotels, ship excursions, embarking and disembarking the ship, etc.  We are renting the rollater for on board use only so she can get around the ship if I go on an excursion and she decides to stay behind.  We are looking forward with some trepidation to this first time adventure.  Hopefully everything will be OK.  Would appreciate any hints to make this seem a bit less daunting.  We've notified the airlines, private excursion providers, and the cruise line of our mobility issue. We are cruising on Oceania from Southampton to Barcelona.

Barbara and Bob

Just now, LHT28 said:

Have you notified the special services Dept ?

If not have your TA  make sure they are aware  of the problem  or call them yourself

do not take chances

Speak to the Chef  when you board  & make sure you know what is "Safe"  for you to eat

 

We always notify the cruise line directly about the diet and also visit the restaurant manager(s) when we board to make ourselves known.  As for gluten free baked items we have had really good ones on other lines that are baked on board.  The wife doesn't eat gluten free as a fad diet; she needs it to stay  healthy.

What you're saying about gluten free on Oceania concerns us.  The wife is a celiac and has had to eat gluten free for at least 25 years.  We are coming up on our first Oceania cruise and expected that we would be treated to good gluten free options as we have been on other cruise lines - Celebrity, Viking, Princess, NCL, Holland America.  Several of those lines now go to the trouble of labelling food selections in the buffets and menus with a GF symbol to save having to question the serving staff.  I'm surprised that with the way Oceania and its clientele rave about the food there would be as much attention paid to gluten free options as the regular options.  We hope we will not be disappointed.

Barbara and Bob

We booked an overview tour of the Faroe Islands on September 2018 cruise from Bergen to Montreal.  It was with David from Heimdal Tours.  He was an entertaining and knowledgable guide and provided an extensive overview of the islands.  You might want to consider him for your stop in Torshaven.  As I recall his minivan accommodated eight people.

On 2/9/2019 at 6:18 PM, franski said:

We have travelled with both...  If money was no object, I would choose Uniworld --> they have an attention to detail that I have not experienced with other companies.  However, when they made the decision to go "all inclusive" a number of years ago, they priced themselves out of my financial level. 

On 2/9/2019 at 6:18 PM, franski said:

As far as cabins go, look at sizes & configurations closely.  Viking's French Balcony cabins are actually smaller that their Aquarium Class cabins on their longships…  We almost always travel lowest category, so costs of upgrades don't affect us.

We are of the same mind as you.  We have cruised Uniworld seven times; none since they went "all inclusive" - too expensive.  We have cruised Viking river three times with a fourth scheduled for 2020 and have not been disappointed.  Like you we always book steerage and, as you note, the steerage cabins on the Viking longships are larger than the higher priced French balcony cabins.  Our river cruise experience has been that you spend little time in the cabin what with wanting to be on deck or in the lounge to see the scenery or exploring the town where we are docked.  Ocean cruises are different; we spend much more time in the room and appreciate the verandas.

We are booked on a post Azamara cruise excursion to Kapama Game Reserve in January 2020.  What can you tell us about Kapama?  Are we going to need to take anti malaria medications?  Thank you for any information you can provide.

Barbara and Bob 

Based on your feedback it appears that if we book a 2 day HOHO ticket and 2 Octopus cards we'll be able to see and do most of the things that first time visitors need to experience.  Thank you for your inputs.

9 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

As the poster from Australia pointed out, this isn't really the point.

 

Example: Let's say I am quoted $10,000 for a cruise in Canadian dollars (CDN).  That cruise might be quoted today at $7500 USD.  But six months or a year from now, the Canadian dollar might have increased in value so that you could then "buy" $7500 USD for $9000 CDN, say.  So, having some flexibility in what currency you book in *can* be relevant.  Of course, this is fairly unpredictable, but worth considering when booking, if you have that option.

OK   I believe I'm beginning to understand the point.  If you book and pay for the trip completely in Canadian or Australian dollars and both the foreign dollar price and the US dollar price remain the same but the foreign dollars go down relative to the US dollar in the meantime then you've won and Viking loses.  But if the foreign dollars go up relative to the US dollar then Viking has won and you've lost.  So the exchange rate fluctuations become a player.  

I may be missing something here.  Using a credit card with no foreign transaction fees will insure you get close to the current official exchange rate for your home currency.  So it shouldn't matter what the dollar cost is for the transaction; you'll not lose 

out.  If the discussion is focused on debit card transactions then you do have an issue because you are at the mercy of the cruise line exchange rate.  Of course currency exchange fluctuations between booking and final payment cannot be predicted but using a credit card insures you won't have a usurious exchange rate at either time.

Thanks for the feedback.  It reinforces our thought that the HOHO bus is a good way to see the highlights.  We are aware of the Octopus card and intend to get one (two?).  Can you confirm that one card covers us both or do we need one for each of us?

Have been researching tours in Hong Kong.  Wife has mobility issues so walking tours are out.  Will be staying at The Kowloon Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.  Have more or less settled on 2 day Hop On Hop Off pass to see the highlights of the city.  Does anyone have experience with Hop On Hop Off touring or can offer alternatives?

1 minute ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

You can do the upgrade as soon as you board.

Thanks for the info.

We got the House Select beverage package with our Olife package.  Does anyone know the procedure and cost to upgrade to the House Premier package?  Can i take care of it onboard?  I understand it's an additional $20 per day per person.   Ordinarily we can't justify the cost of any of the drink packages offered by cruise lines but Oceania drink prices seem absurdly high which makes it cost effective to upgrade.

We were on the Sept 4 - 18 sailing and concur with Aurgrl's assessment of the weather and clothing layers. We went prepared for cold weather, lots of rain, winds, and heavy seas. We did get the winds and chilly weather but no really heavy seas and no rain when we were on excursions. We had rain only when we were indoors or a day at sea. The weather in Greenland was unbelievable - two bright sunny clear days. According to beavertgal's the crossing that came after ours must have got all the bad stuff we expected.

Barbara and Bob

Only twice? Nothing new. You'll be bombarded with Oceania literature until you ask to be removed from mailings and/or hit the Bronze loyalty level.

From what I understand from several folks who have already tried Viking, Oceania has nothing to worry about.

So it's not a recent thing. We've recently booked our first Oceania cruise. That probably triggered the blitz.

Oceania seems to be staging an advertising blitz. We get an Oceania brochure at least once and sometimes twice a week.

Is the line's bottom line being hurt by upstarts like Viking? Advertising at the level we're seeing must be terribly expensive and hopefully doesn't impact the delivered product.

Another consideration might be the strong possibility that work will be carried out on board on the last cruise in advance of the dry dock and/or the first cruise following same. Noise, dust, noxious smells, and areas being closed off can and do occur as CCers have often reported.

We experienced some of that on our NCL Sun South American cruise this past February. Our cruise was the next to last before the ship was to be refurbished. They were doing work above the lounge during the day and the pounding noise was almost unbearable. The cruise after ours was even worse and was described by CCers as the cruise from hell. Hopefully Oceania doesn't operate like that.

We were supposed to be on the cruise and were disappointed when we looked at the itinerary. You might want to look at Marina's itinerary; for April 19 - May 3, 2019 going from Southampton to Barcelona for 14 days. We opted to switch to this cruise.

Unfortunately that cruise is too close to our March 2019 cruise. If you find any later in the year like July or August onward that include both St Peter Port and Bilbao please post it. We've done a lot of searching and haven't found any. For now we're keeping with the modified cruise.

Anyone have advice on booking the last cruise before Nautica goes into dry dock. Should we do it? Will service be slighted because the crew is looking forward to the break? Will the ship be in a sad state of repair? We are booked on the Nautica Southampton to Barcelona itinerary (Oct 2 - 16, 2019) and were recently notified that the itinerary would be cut short 2 days because of dry dock scheduling. Unfortunately one of the ports we were really looking forward to was Bilbao which will now be bypassed. There were two less interesting ports that could have been bypassed - Brest and La Rochelle. They did keep St Peter Port which is on our bucket list. Needless to say we are somewhat upset by the Oceania decision but there seems to be no similar itineraries on other cruise lines in the same time frame.

Barbara and Bob

I agree with Peregrina651; it is pretty far in advance. I've researched the route a little and if I were doing the scheduling I would use Cathay Pacific all the way connecting for Bali in Hong Kong. I've never flown them but it has great reviews.

We have traveled on the Viking Sky Into the Midnight Sun itinerary in July 17 and loved the ship with one small exception. We were in a DV cabin and found the position of the closet relative to the bed to be quite confining; we were constantly in each other's way in trying to use the closet. This minor annoyance has been mentioned in a number of Viking ship reviews. That's not something that has kept us from booking two more Viking cruises - the repositioning cruise in Sept 2018 from Bergen to Montreal on the Sea and the Sydney to Bali itinerary In March 2019 on the Orion. Viking Ocean will continue to be our first choice in booking future cruises.

Barbara and Bob

We were in Bangkok in February 2014 when there were demonstrations to remove the prime minister. We kept in contact with the US Embassy who could only apprise us of the situation and let it up to us to decide. We went and had a wonderful time. We walked through the crowds of demonstrators and didn't feel threatened at any time. It was obvious we were tourists and weren't really involved with the politics either way. Talked to a few of them to find out what was going on. It was more like a hippy gathering of the 70's with tent cities, booths selling T-shirts and anti-government paraphernalia, nightly music shows, etc. The military took over shortly after the demonstrations which is the situation now insofar as I know. I would imagine the situation in Barcelona now is similar to what we experienced and I don't think we would hesitate to continue with whatever plans we had. Just watch your valuables which is true anytime and carry your backpack over your chest as you walk La Ramblas.

Barbara and Bob

Thanks for the information; we'll try to choose our wardrobe accordingly. We concur with your thoughts about not taking bulky items if it can be avoided.

Barbara and Bob