Ronniewales

Thank you for your review and as I have sailed on both its a very fair reflection of what I found. I like you sailed on A's 'R' ship and then on O's Marina, I am leaving tomorrow for 21 days on O's Nautica , lets hope it lives up to our Marina experience.

We stayed in 7135 on Marina last year on a very port intensive cruise and the vibrations didn't bother us much, in fact it was better than an alarm clock to tell us we have arrived in port :rolleyes:

I am from the Uk and have never been offered a upsell or down sell but I think the offers we get in the UK make up for it like free gratuities, free drinks package and free wifi. Not sure if the people from the USA get offered these free.

Thank you for your review Suni, I am on Nautica in 44 days time so I am interested in your opinions of Nautica. Previously done Marina and Azamara Quest so I am hoping it as the quality of Marina with the intimate ambiance of the R class ship. Keep the reviews coming.

So does that mean people from the UK have to get up at 5am to wait for booking to open?

Yes Julie James is our CD on Nautica Nov 2014 cruise.

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I have just received my blue booklet Cruise Vacation Guide and have two questions:-

1. I have searched the O forum for Julie James CD and could not find one post on her, so does anyone know anything about her?

2. I have a free drinks and gratuity package, should this be mentioned in my Blue booklet Cruise Vacation Guide

I think that beats "free air" any day :D

On certain European cruises they were also offering Free Business Class Air for Penthouse and above with the offers I have already mentioned.

Was not offered on Free Business from Dubai what a shame :mad:

I have no problem with offers or contests but am not happy with the deals that are available only to customers in the U.K. What are we....... chopped liver :eek: :D

What does that make us from the UK then???

Anyway to rub salt into the wound I was offered for my November Cruise on Nautica:-

Free Drinks package worth $2518

Free Gratuities worth $880

2 Free nights stay in a Dubai Hotel

Free Transfers from airport to ship and from ship to Hotel and back to airport.

Name an Oceania cruise ship?

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I am in the UK and guess what..... I got the e-mail :D

We are due to be stopping in Salalah in April and would like to hear if anyone can anyone recommend any hotels situated on the beach offering day passes for the use of their facilities?

How did you get on in Salalah we are visiting there in Nov 2014.

How many cruises with O do you have to do before you get invited to these parties?

We were on Marina in the Baltic in 2013 and our butler had no problems getting us to dine twice in each of the 4 speciality restaurants on a 14 night cruise.

That's why there are more than one cruise line. I've never sailed Azamara, as I have aleady formed an opinion similar to yours -- I won't like the other line. You're better than me; at least you tried.

I think you are missing a trick here Don and denying yourself of a very good cruise line. I have sailed both and enjoy both but I had a bigger smile when disembarking Azamara as the crew are a step up compared to Oceania.

We have done 4 cruises on Oceania, and so far one on Azamara. Based on our experience, I think the OP nailed it!

 

The Insignia has been beautifully restored, but Azamara wins on service, friendliness, food , entertainment, shuttles. We had some poor food, service and shuttle experiences on O on our recent Istanbul to Venice cruise, which I outlined in another thread.

 

Subjectively, I would give O a good grade, and AZ an outstanding grade.

On my experience with the two cruise lines I absolutely agree with your comments apart from the food which I would slightly favour O.

We are going in November to try the R class now with O which is a more direct comparison with AZ, but I very much doubt if the friendliness of the crew and officers will ever match AZ.

We stayed in an aft cabin, won't again. Higher up can see below decks. No privacy.

We stayed in aft cabin PH 7135 on Marina, IMO one of the best PH cabins on Marina, the balcony is amazing.

That's like saying I won't go to New York because there is trouble in LA.

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Is there any news on the Nautica visit to Israel in November 2014.

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If you are not going to be happy without the ports which are in a state of flux, I would suggest that you cancel now and be done with it.

Getting a Cruise ship into a Port requires a great deal of logistical forethought, so when plans require changing late in the game the Front Office must consider practicality before "interesting".

 

Is the wharf long enough?, is the water deep enough? Are shore-side electricity and fresh water to be had? More importantly, if the ships' larder is running low on raspberries, band aids, or Maraschino cherries, will a sufficient supply of the proper quality (none of this local muck, mind) be available for purchase?

 

For these reasons, and hundreds more which we civilians could never think of, the larger, busier Ports in an area almost always handle the overflow when other Ports must be cancelled.

 

Don't hold out and expect something exotic or unusual...

We have already paid in full as our deadline date was a few weeks back. Reading earlier posts looks like we cant cancel so will have to go with the flow, but it will make for many unhappy cruisers when on board.

I see where you are coming from. We have looked at these trips for years as we would love to go to the holy land. These trips are not cheap and the hilight is the holy land. We also decided years ago it was best to see it on the history channel. I would call Oceania and ask them what was their plan moving forward. Good luck.

Thank you, as when the Itinerary was first published it was Holy land and Egypt which made it a very nice cruise, but now if the 2 main areas of attraction are taken away it makes it an Eastern Med cruise with a trip down the Suez Canal, Aqaba, Oman and Dubai.

That makes it nothing like the published itinerary so they must find some other interesting ports but I cannot see where.

Do you think they will wait until everyone is onboard before announcing an itinerary change?

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Surely they can't expect us to put up with 6 Greek Islands and lose 7 interesting days.

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We are on Nautica in November 2014 sailing from Istanbul to Dubai. How much notice would O give us if they decide to cancel the 3 days in Israel.

From the original itinerary they have already cancelled the 3 ports 4 days in Egypt and if they cancel the 3 days in Israel we will end up with 11 sea days out of a 20 day cruise unless they can find 3 interesting ports between Istanbul and Dubai. They have already added a meaningless port on a Greek island.

By now everyone will have paid for the cruise so would we be offered a refund if they cancel Israel?

About 15 Years ago we had a great Med. cruise on the R 7. Now we are booked on the Insignia for Thanksgiving week.

I got to thinking that perhaps it could be the same ship.

No R7 is Azamara Quest which is a lovely cruise ship and Azamara IMO are just a good a cruise company as Oceania although I cruised on the bigger Marian. But in November I am cruising on Nautica which is R5, so will then have a direct comparison.