Change to itinerary Oceana E602

Oceana cruises in 2016
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Gill W
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Change to itinerary Oceana E602

#1

Post by Gill W »

Our 35 night cruise to the Caribbean and the southern states of the US is fast approaching - just 3 and a half weeks to departure on 8th February

I had an email from P&O yesterday, advising of a change to the itinerary.

The overnight stop in Charleston has been reduced to one day only. This is because P&O have been unable to secure a berth for the 2nd day

We still have the overnight stop in New Orleans, but I imagine a 2nd overnight stop was a big draw for some people.

We were originally due in on 3rd March at lunch time and to leave the following lunchtime. We are now arriving 'during the morning' of the 3rd and will sail for Ponta Delgada 'late in the evening'.

We've booked a tour to Patriots Point Naval Museum on the afternoon of the 3rd, and our plan was to look round historic Charleston, which is right by the cruise terminals, the next morning. Hopefully we'll have enough time either before or after our tour to have a good look round.

This change also means we now have 6 sea days to Ponta Delgada. Even our 2017 Pacific crossing is scheduled only to have 5 sea days on the trot. I like sea days, but 6 of them in a row is a lot.

I'm still hopeful we'll see everything we want, and I'll load an additional book on to my Kindle for the extra sea day.

But, when you consider I booked this cruise in April 2014, and the schedules must have been put together even further in advance, it seems very late in the day to find out that we haven't got a berth - and why is it always P&O that are the ones that can't get a berth!?

They've already issued the e-tickets incorrectly, saying we'll leave and return to the Mayflower, when it's really the Ocean. I'm just hoping it's not going to turn into one of those cruises, when everything goes a bit pear shaped!

There's already some disgruntled passengers on Facebook, so there'll be plenty of potential for moaning on this cruise!!
Gill

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Jan Rosser
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Re: Change to itinerary Oceana E602

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Post by Jan Rosser »

I did this cruise in January/February 2012 - lots of days at sea but more than made up for by the stops at New Orleans and the American ports. We had the overnight stop in New Orleans but can't remember whether we stayed in Charleston too. I rate this as one of my favourite cruises - loved the ship, the itinerary and met some lovely people - I hope you have a fab time Gill and don't let the moaners spoil your trip.
Janis

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Suekersh
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Re: Change to itinerary Oceana E602

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Post by Suekersh »

We are doing a similar itinerary on Oriana in April. We have overnights in New Orleans, Charlston and Bermuda.
We would be very disappointed if any of these are changed.

I look forward to reading all about your cruise Gill.

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Change to itinerary Oceana E602

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Post by Mervyn and Trish »

I know we've heard this "not been able to secure a berth" thing before and we say the same thing - why didn't they plan it in advance? In reality I think it is often unscrupulous ports to blame who take the booking and then gazump one cruise line by taking a higher offer (i.e a bribe) from another cruise line. It happened to us on a cruise when up to the day before even the Captain believed we were docking in Corfu to be told at the last minute the port had allocated the berth instead to an RCI ship and we would have to tender.


Quizzical Bob
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Re: Change to itinerary Oceana E602

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Post by Quizzical Bob »

Mervyn and Trish wrote:
I know we've heard this "not been able to secure a berth" thing before and we say the same thing - why didn't they plan it in advance? In reality I think it is often unscrupulous ports to blame who take the booking and then gazump one cruise line by taking a higher offer (i.e a bribe) from another cruise line. It happened to us on a cruise when up to the day before even the Captain believed we were docking in Corfu to be told at the last minute the port had allocated the berth instead to an RCI ship and we would have to tender.
We had the same excuse (explanation) on Adonia D522 last year. We were originally scheduled to have an overnight in Charleston and a day in Jacksonville but these were both cancelled and replaced by Port Canaveral (x2) and Miami. There were many rumours ranging from the US Navy taking a berth and commercial interests in order to promote this new Fathom thingy.

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Gill W
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Re: Change to itinerary Oceana E602

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Post by Gill W »

We always felt a bit uncertain about Charleston. The excursions for all the other ports were released, but there weren't any listed for Charleston at first. There was a delay of at least a month before the Charleston excursions appeared online, so I'm pleased we still have one day there at least.

We're still looking forward to the cruise - we've done 24 days before, but this will be our longest cruise to date.

Hopefully everything else will go to plan
Gill


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Re: Change to itinerary Oceana E602

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Post by Quizzical Bob »

Gill W wrote:
We always felt a bit uncertain about Charleston. The excursions for all the other ports were released, but there weren't any listed for Charleston at first. There was a delay of at least a month before the Charleston excursions appeared online, so I'm pleased we still have one day there at least.

We're still looking forward to the cruise - we've done 24 days before, but this will be our longest cruise to date.

Hopefully everything else will go to plan
The excursions are always a clue. I started getting suspicious about ours when I saw that there were only about 3 excursions offered over the two days.

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