This is my first cruise! Istanbul to Venice, September 26th departure. I have no idea about the weather or the expectations of "resort casual - resort chic" wear! Any thoughts? Tips for men and women appreciated!

Alison

What ports of call are you doing

Percy

Alison -

You're doing the exact same itinerary my husband and I did 9/26/06! We loved it.

Weather will be still very warm in the Greek isles. Plan on T-shirts, shorts or dockers and such for ports. We did get some rain at Amalifi, but only a little. Otherwise very warm to hot. Not as bad as summer though - beautiful time of year to go.

Country club casual means long-sleeved collar shirts for guys (only saw ties 1 x and that was captain's cocktail party and only on a few men) and nice slacks, pretty tops for women. I dressed up my outfits more with some fun jewelry.

Hope you get to go into Istanbul early. Well worth it as is staying in Venice extra time.

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions about our trip. We did some private tours at the various ports which I highly recommend doing too.

This September we're doing China with Viking River Cruises - otherwise we would opt for another Oceania trip.

You will have so much fun!

We did a Med. cruise with Oceania in Sept. 04. We love Oceania! My husband wore short sleeved print or solid golf shirts for dinner every night. I wore dressy capris with print or solid tops. We were comfortable and felt well dressed at all times.

Other women wore slack sets and even some dresses. Some men wore regular dress shirts, some wore Hawaiian shirts, very few in jackets.

The weather was much hotter than we expected so we really appreciated the self-serve laundry facility as our daytime attire got pretty wilted.

Enjoy!

For country club casual, my husband wears button down shirts, either long or short; he always packs a sports coat.

I wear dressy slacks and tops, dresses and skirts and heels for dinner.

You've all peaked my interest in Oceania. We've cruised only on HAL but I like the idea of more casual cruising.

Is Oceania all-inclusive, i.e., drinks, tips, etc? I've seen some very good 2 for 1 offers on their website for a Mediterranean cruise.

Thanks for your help.

No, Oceania is not all inclusive. What's nice is that it has smaller ships (about 650), the open dinner seating, and the country club casual dress for evenings. Ships are primarily non-smoking except for a couple of areas. Their known for port-intensive itineraries. Met a lot of well traveled people. Have been on the big ships - now we really don't want to go back!

Thanks, patandhank, that sounds very nice.

Did you stay in a suite or a room? I'm thinking about a verandah stateroom but for a 12 or 14 night cruise, we don't want to be cramped.

Arizona07: One more thing about Oceania, dining in the specialty restaurants are free. We were in a category C1 on our first cruise (14 days) and have booked the same for our second. Ample room and closet space. We will take a verrandah cabin the next time we sail in warmer climates. Check out the floor plans on O's website.

We stayed in a Category A3 which is a oncierge class stateroom with verandah. There was plenty of closet space and storage space for the two of us. There was a small loveseat with table so seating was little tight. A3 and above have a refrigerator in the statement which we liked. Categories below A3 do not. We are thinking next time of bumping up to a PH3 just for the extra space.