Cre8

Need help on making a decision on whether to take the ship tours or go it on our own. Ship leaves from Rome. (got that covered) ends in Barcelona (got that almost covered)
Ports are:
Sorrento
Porto Servo
Livorno ( almost covered)
Portofino
Monte Carlo
Marseille
Palma de Mallorca
Thanks for all the help with things that are covered!!!

manycruiser

Just came back from a two week cruise on the Regatta, and sad to say the service was horrible. Cold food, over priced tours, etc. Since you are obviously booked and cannot cancel (my recommendation) make your own tours. We took three on this trip. One was fine, and two were horrible. The destination (tour desk) was no help, and they are very overpriced. You can make some of your own right on the internet, or get a taxi.

Prepare to be nickeled and dimed to death. Tips on any drinks are 18%, and most classes have a fee. I do not know what kind of cabin you have, but the penthouse suites had butlers, and ours never did a thing. Did not show up for two days.

This cruise line has leased their two ships from the Bank of France. They are lovely ships, just a bad staff, management.

Also, they take automatic tips and put them on your account. Many, many people had that stopped, as did we, and tipped only the people that gave us good service. That was the woman that took care of our cabin, and no one else.

Cre8

Hi Manycruiser
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I've been reading the Oceania boards on Yahoo and Cruise Critic and had some very positive feed back. Where did you sail? What ship tours was good? Bad?
You could go on Cruisecritic.com, follow the links for Oceania and post a message to Frank Del Rio about your cruise, (food, butler service, tipping. etc.) I think he'll get back to you. You can do it as a post or private post. I don't think he would want this to show up on the message boards. But I'm sure everyone else would.
Thanks for letting me know how it went. I have till the end of May to cancel.

marilynfaye

I've just got to jump in here.

We sailed on the Regatta last September. We will sale on the Insignia in June. Obviously, my experience was different than manycruiser.

I agree that the Tour desk is not the best area of the ship. It is expensive, but we try to balance those tours with doing our own thing. On the plus side, the atmosphere of the ship is great. The food was fabulous. We met many delightful people. All in all, had a great vacation and are looking forward to the next one.

Cre8, in answer to your original question: There are many highly recommended guides serving the ports you will visit. Check out the various Cruise boards. Perhaps buddy up with some other passengers. Do your homework. Sometimes I think the planning is even more fun than the doing.

Enjoy.

manycruiser

We did the trasatlantic on March 15th for two weeks. My husband was so annoyed at the horrid service, and poor attitude that he would have gotten off at the first port (The Azores) and come home. I had to agree.

I called the company in Miami several days after we returned, and they never returned my phone call. Obviously they could have cared less. It was expensive even with all the promotions they run, and the air service back from Europe was a horrible connection that took 24 hours to get back to MSP. Pretty pathetic.

Are you aware that they do not own these ships, but the Bank of France does, and the Captain works for the Bank of France. Very interesting twist.

With all the great cruise lines out there, it is such a shame to waste money and two weeks of our time.

manycruiser

You might want to go to cruisecritic.com as there are four reviews (mine has not posted yet) and two are not positive of that sailing.

manycruiser

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...amp;ShipID=287

You might want to read these reviews if you can still cancel.