Live from Insignia

[LuAnn]

You know...sometimes I "meet" people on CC before a cruise...and I'm so happy to get to know them...from our R/C while on a cruise. Paul..you come to mind on this idea...but you...I have not been on a R/C with you...but would find myself to be so happy to be a passenger on a ship with you...hope that does happen in the future! In the mean time...thank you for your wise/fun and informative reviews and suggestions!! LuAnn

[SellaVee]

Thanks, LuAnn. I know exactly what you mean. On our first O cruise I "met" a great bunch of folks on the roll call and very much enjoyed their company on the cruise. We shared a similar sense of humour!

[aunteemom]

Stella,

Did the ship offer late afternoon trivia on a daily basis? Did they have different shows each night in the lounge with various performers and their own troupe?

[SellaVee]

Yes and yes. The visiting performers were backed by the Insignia Orchestra. There were no production shows like we had seen previously on Riviera.

 

I've posted more details about the entertainment on my other thread which is mainly about the ship rather than the ports.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Sella

[Paulchili]

You know...sometimes I "meet" people on CC before a cruise...and I'm so happy to get to know them...from our R/C while on a cruise. Paul..you come to mind on this idea...LuAnn

 

Thank you LuAnn - the sentiment is mutual.

And I too would enjoy meeting Sella one day - here is hoping.:)

[SellaVee]

Thank you LuAnn - the sentiment is mutual.

And I too would enjoy meeting Sella one day - here is hoping.:)

 

If only I had another cruise booked ..... :)

[LuAnn]

If only I had another cruise booked ..... :)

 

Let's work on that!!....I am waiting for the fall "17 T/A from Europe to USA"...how about we book that one??? Sella, Paul, and me.....it will be a FUN combo...I promise!!! And we will KILL at Trivia!!! ...but only if our better halves come along, right??? :cool::D LuAnn...it will be EPIC!!! :p

[SellaVee]

Sadly, I'll never get OH on a Transatlantic. He's not that keen on cruising so I have to tempt him with a fabulous itinerary.

[Paulchili]

Sadly, I'll never get OH on a Transatlantic. He's not that keen on cruising so I have to tempt him with a fabulous itinerary.

 

How about on Nautica Jun/July '16 Copenhagen to London? :D

Only a short flight to CPH for you.

[LuAnn]

Sadly, I'll never get OH on a Transatlantic. He's not that keen on cruising so I have to tempt him with a fabulous itinerary.

 

What about "fabulous" cruise-mates????? :p LuAnn

[SellaVee]

:D:D:D

 

You know they say opposites attract. Well I would love the fabulous cruise mates, but .......

 

He's not so much anti social as shy and retiring. I love cruising but he's not so keen and has said he doesn't want to go on another one.

 

Mind you, he said that last August :).

[LuAnn]

:D:D:D

 

You know they say opposites attract. Well I would love the fabulous cruise mates, but .......

 

He's not so much anti social as shy and retiring. I love cruising but he's not so keen and has said he doesn't want to go on another one.

 

Mind you, he said that last August :).

 

We can "keep the faith" that he will again change his mind!! Right??? LuAnn

[warburg]

:D:D:D

 

You know they say opposites attract. Well I would love the fabulous cruise mates, but .......

 

He's not so much anti social as shy and retiring. I love cruising but he's not so keen and has said he doesn't want to go on another one.

 

Mind you, he said that last August :).

 

Sella, my husband is similar. He isn't crazy about cruising, but he goes along in good spirits because I like it. He always finds things he enjoys about the experience. On February 26th, we were invited to board Regent Navigator for an event. It was so pleasant we booked two more cruises while aboard. I hope to meet you one day. Great posts. Thanks.

Mary

[Miami1971]

I really appreciate your detailed description of this cruise since we will be on the Insignia in October on this same itinerary! I was especially pleased to hear how much you liked the ship, even after sailing on Riveria. We sailed on Marina and loved that, but were hesitant about the R class ships. You have eased my mind!

[SellaVee]

I really appreciate your detailed description of this cruise since we will be on the Insignia in October on this same itinerary! I was especially pleased to hear how much you liked the ship, even after sailing on Riveria. We sailed on Marina and loved that, but were hesitant about the R class ships. You have eased my mind!

 

Glad to hear it, and welcome to Cruise Critic.

[aemari]

Sella

 

I am curious (and perhaps I missed it at some point during your posts) as to whether you have used the Oceania shore excursions or have been exploring on your own? We are scheduled to travel the same itinerary from Singapore to Hong Kong on Insignia in October and have booked our shore excursions, but I think in some ports it may be better to explore on one's own. This causes great concern from my wife who I think prefers the "safety" of the ship's shore excursions, but that of course comes with a price.

 

I am curious to hear what your experience has been as well as that of others who may have faced the same choices and pros and cons of both.

[no fuss travel]

We used private tours for this cruise this past February. If you look a couple of pages back on this forum you will see a description of the tours and the tour companies we used. We felt we got value for our private tour and saw more than what the Oceania tours did. We also did not have to wait for anyone to show up for the bus.

[SellaVee]

Aemari, I wrote another post entitled "Impressions if Insignia" which is now on page 2 of the board and on that I mentioned excursions and shuttle buses.

 

We've never taken an Oceania excursion, but I have heard reports that they've not always been ideal. However I can understand how your wife feels. I'd consider us to be well travelled and we're used to public transport in the UK so we are not fazed by metro systems or buses abroad. We also like walking and wandering off by ourselves as we did in Hanoi.

 

On your itinerary I'd say that you could do Singapore and Hong Kong on your own. In both ports Insignia was docked near a transport hub. We used the MRT in Singapore having read up on places to visit before we left home, and the Star Ferry and HoHo bus in Hong Kong, which we'd visited before. In both places English is widely spoken.

 

We also did our own thing in Bangkok. I think we'd have seen more places on a private tour but I enjoyed the things we did do. The Skytrain was an efficient way to get about, as was the river express boat and taxis were cheap and easy. The problem with the ships excursion, apart from the cost, is that there are potentially many people on the trip and so everything takes longer. I very much enjoyed the textile museum at the Grand Palace in Bangkok but people I spoke to on board said that on the ship's tour they hadn't been allowed to visit it. (Likewise in Ephesus last year the ship's tour didn't visit the terraced houses.). Some fellow cruisers were really surprised when they asked what tour we'd been on and I replied that we'd just headed off on our own. It helped that the ship was in port overnight and we were in the habit of carrying the port address written in the local language wherever we went.

 

Vietnam was trickier but we were lucky to be able to join private tours organised by others on the roll call. I wouldn't have tried DIY here. Sometimes we found ourselves in the same places as the Oceania tours! Our group was much smaller, and of course we paid a fraction of the cost of a ship's tour, and, IMO, had a more interesting itinerary.

 

Smaller groups make for shorter queues. We actually used a private guide for just the two of us in both Ephesus and Istanbul last year and were able bypass the queues in Istanbul. I later learned that people on the ship's tour queued for up to two and a half hours to get into popular sites.

 

Mini buses or vans can usually get closer to attractions than coaches can. Cruise ships have a bit of a captive audience for tours whereas tour guides depend on their reputation. Tripadvisor and your roll call can be a great help.

 

Only you two can decide how intrepid you want to be! The ship's tours are the safe option.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Sella

Edited May 14, 2015 by SellaVee

[aemari]

Thank you for your insight. We will spend two extra days in Singapore before embarkation and have arranged some tours through Viator and also plan to explore on our own. Will likely take your advice and do the same in Hong Kong. Sounds like you are having a wonderful trip. This will be our first time on Oceania, very much looking forward to our trip!

[SellaVee]

We also spent 2 days in Singapore before the start of the cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Here's a link to the other post I wrote describing the ship - it might be helpful since you're going to be on Oceania for the first time. We loved both the ship and the itinerary. You probably guessed that from my posts :).

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2202923#

 

Insignia, Regatta and Nautica are sister ships.

 

A cruise critic member, MVPinBoynton, has a website, thepreismans.com, which has lots of photographs both of ships and of places. He and his wife did a similar itinerary to yours on an Azamara tour in 2012. He describes his private tours in detail and also writes about his stay in Singapore.

[Pet Nit Noy]

Sella

 

I am curious (and perhaps I missed it at some point during your posts) as to whether you have used the Oceania shore excursions or have been exploring on your own? We are scheduled to travel the same itinerary from Singapore to Hong Kong on Insignia in October and have booked our shore excursions, but I think in some ports it may be better to explore on one's own. This causes great concern from my wife who I think prefers the "safety" of the ship's shore excursions, but that of course comes with a price.

 

I am curious to hear what your experience has been as well as that of others who may have faced the same choices and pros and cons of both.

 

There are a couple of compromises option between the safety of a ship's excursion and the seeming risk of DIY: private tours and small-group private tours.

 

As long as you're considering the expensive ship's tours, consider hiring a private guide for the two of you only. This is every bit as expensive as booking a ship's tour for tour, but has the wonderful advantage of being exclusively focused on your interests and pace. The guide will get you between destinations without wasting time, but, best of all, the guide will add information that goes beyond the signs or what you can read in a guide book. (Guides can enliven the periods when you're simply moving between places and there's nothing to talk about directly in front of you.) Go to the Port Call Boards and ask directly about well-regarded guides.

 

The most popular and cost-effective approach on this board tends to be small group tours often formed among strangers on the Roll Call before sailing. One cruiser is responsible for a port call, makes arrangements with a well-regarded guide and, signs up somewhere between six and a dozen participants. Small groups get the benefit of a guide's specialized knowledge and no one has to keep consulting a map or a public transportation timetable while out touring.

 

There are definitely some cruisers who just love to shape a port call to their needs and interests so they'll happily organize tours in every port call on the cruise. But that effort takes time so it's somewhat more common for the same people to stay as a group during several port calls and share the responsibility planning for one port apiece.

 

In either situation, you're using private, professional guides. The guides whose names get recommended on CC are professionals who reliably get you back to the ship on time and make your day interesting and informative. These guides know their future bookings depend on doing a good job for CC posters. A wonderful day in port gets written up for people to read but a disastrous day does too!

 

I understand the temptation to take a ship's tour in a place as exotic and distant as South-east ASia, but a small group is far less risky than it feels at the moment.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Pet Nit Noy

[brian_uk]

B R I L L I A N T

 

Thank you.................Brian

[desertfun]

Sella,

 

Thank you so very much for taking the time to share your trip. Your posts have been extremely helpful.

When traveling to foreign countries it is always difficult to know what to see and do; your information gave a lot of insight which will be very useful.

We will be doing the segment from Singapore to Shanghi and we will be re-reading your posts as we select our different excursions.

We appreciate your taking the time to inform CC readers. Your sense of humor made the posts even more enjoyable!

 

Sincerely,

 

Dean and Carol High

 

 

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Edited June 6, 2015 by desertfun
Include last name

[desertfun]

Sella,

 

I have read your posts and they have been very helpful. I have some questions and if you would be comfortable I would like to email you directly.

We are booked to go on Insignia, Singapore to Shanghai and I would like to book our excursions independently, not with Oceania.

I think I understood that you didn't use Oceania for your excursions.

My email is: deserthigh2001@gmail.com

Thank you!

 

Carol High

[coldweathergirl]

I loved your posts. We're planning our first Oceania cruise this November and I loved reading about your trip. It's making me all the more excited.

 

We did many of your ports on an Asia cruise last spring and your descriptions brought back so many pleasant memories. One memory that I may have preferred to have not relived though was the trek from Halong Bay to Hanoi. Never have I been so scared on a bus with the traffic that seemed to form multiple lanes on the tiny ill repaired roads.

 

Thank you for all the time you spent putting the posts together.