My wife and I will be on the Insignia from Rio to Barcelona in March 2008.
We've never been on a trans-Atlantic cruise before. We are somewhat concerned about what to expect with regard to rough seas and how the ship will ride, since we are both prone to seasickness.
Any insights on what we can expect?
Any seasickness prevention measures you can recommend?
Thanks for offering to answer questions. I am seriously considering booking our first Oceania cruise after almost 40 cruises (most on RCCL or Celebrity). What are the main differences I can expect? Are there things included in the cruise fare with Oceania that are not included on mass market lines? What's the story with the free airfare? I have been reading on CC that some people seem to be unhappy with it. Are the routings very convoluted?
One caveat about the Oceania free airfare...when they quote the price for cruise and air they do not include all the taxes & fees! Our final quote ended up being about $500 more Per Person than the "preliminary" quote. That kinda soured me on cruising with them.
However, I understand the onboard experience is wonderful!
Sorry, I don't know about the airfare offered by Oceania. But much of the time, complaints about flights booked through the cruiselines involve the type of flights you are given: usually red-eye flights, without any choice unless you want to pay extra for any changes. The one type we had Carnival book our flight that's what happened. We were expecting a LAX to Miami flight to get us in on Saturday night for a Sunday cruise, with a hotel stay for the night. When I received the packet at work from the travel agent, I opened it up while I was dialing bf. I was giving the flight info and then realized it was an red eye. We agreed this wasn't acceptable and I immediately called the TA and gave 'em a whatfor. I don't remember if I was charged any extra for making a change (this was in 1994), but I insisted we get into Miami by Saturday night as we didn't want to be blurry eyed for the cruise (we were already going to be dealing with a 3-time-zone jet lag).
Many times, people stayed with the flights given, only to arrive late to their embarkation city. Some have even missed getting to the ship on time.
After that, we've booked our own travel if leaving from a city other than L.A.
BTW, the morning of the cruise, we ran into some people who were checking into the hotel (for use as a day-room while awaiting the shuttle to the port) and they didn't look too happy or fresh.
My wife and I will be on the Insignia from Rio to Barcelona in March 2008.
We've never been on a trans-Atlantic cruise before. We are somewhat concerned about what to expect with regard to rough seas and how the ship will ride, since we are both prone to seasickness.
Any insights on what we can expect?
Any seasickness prevention measures you can recommend?
Oops, sorry I didn't see this. You might want to post your question about trans-Atlantic cruises in the destination area as there are many CLFers who've been on a TA (you might try the Celebrity area too as there was a whole group who were on a TA last month).
As to sea sickness remedies, here's what I recommend:
1. if you're on any medication, check with your doctor to make sure you won't have an interaction if you use bonine, ginger, etc.
2. Try a few different remedies while on land just to make sure you don't get any side effects. Different things affect you differently than what may affect me.
3. Take more than one remedy on your cruise, as it's possible that one may not work for you in actual use.
4. Also consider ginger ale, saltines as remedies.
5. You can always buy some of the remedies onboard many ships, but at a higher cost than at your local stores.
My last cruise was the round trip LA to Hawaii which involves crossing a strong current that causes rough seas in many trips. I decided to bring ginger and started taking when the wooziness kicked in (probably should have started earlier). I took candied ginger (available in my local grocery store) and ginger flavored Altoids (available at Target, Cost Plus Market, and many other places). I tend to get sleepy with some meds so I wanted to avoid Bonine, etc.
One woman at my dining table used the wristband. Seemed to work fine for her.
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