I would go for Ocean Village as I know they have fridges and safes in all cabins, lol. That way I can stock up on cheap drinks from any supermarket/newsagent type place. That way I wont have to pay an extortionate price on the ship and get my drinks cold at the same time! Also handy for when going on excursions if you get up late!

Can you post the prices for each please. we will be looking for a family group(3 generations) next year and we like ex uk/short flight trips.

further to my previous post about oceana at xmas i know we fly on a charte flight but with which airline and what time do they normally depart from manchester airport ?

Hi and welcome to HT!

I'm sorry no-one has been able to answer your queries so far. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find specific information about your flight, but if you call your travel agent or P&O direct and they may be able to help.

My brother went on last Christmas & New Year cruise on Oceana. He did mention that most people seemed to really dress up every night, not just formal night. He is actually away on the Aurora at the moment, due back in about 10 days, I will ask him for more detailed info and reply to you when he returns.

Hi
Usually two flights out of Manchester to Oceana, leaving between 8.30 and 10.30 am. check in 3 hours before. get there early if you want a window seat. Brittania and Thomas Cook Airlines used. Only flown Britannia, cramped but good service and complimentary bar.
Only bar of real note IMO is the Wheelhouse and it does get busy.
Casual seems to mainly be cotton button up shirts as opposed to a polo shirt, some wear jackets, a few ties. It can be bl**dy cold with the aircon
belting out. Formal is 80% tux with the rest dark suits. No problem, your choice.
Enjoy Ocean its a beutiful ship.
Arcadia

I have booked a cruise on (o) village with premier seats from gatwick but do not know who we fly with yet any one know who ocean village fly with and what is the weather like in april

I went on Calypso & Coconuts on 30th March - 7th April this year flying from Manchester with Thomas Cook - I think OV may use Thomas Cook and Britannia from London. We had absolutely fantastic weather - we could not have asked for more, it was very very hot. I also cruised the year before on Sundream from 7th - 14th April and again had fantastic weather so hopefully you will too!

I have wrote a full review which is listed as Calypso & Coconuts 30/03/04 - 07/04/04 further down the topics if you would like to read it. This also gives you details of some of the excursions we did.

SAM

Hi Big Dog and welcome to HT! You can read Sam's review of the Ocean Village Here

Sam, our Cruise Review section is now available. There is a link at the top of the page or click Here to go directly to the OV section if you would like to copy your review across.

Thanks
luci

Okay Luci,

Have posted the review

Thanks Sam.

Hi all, can any one tell me if they sell cigarettes on Ocean Village on Med cruises? We were on Sundream round the UK a couple of weeks ago and they did't sell them, something to do with customs regulations! Thanks, Dennis

Hi, in your photos at Yahoo you mention Titanic Evening - whats that about?! Sounds interesting!

I am booked on the Calypso&Coconut and Sugar&Spice in January. Your photos looked amazing, can't wait to go now! (I'm stuck behind a desk too!).

Hi Gemma,

Titanic evening doesn't mean much really - the ships photographers are usually taking photos most evenings and they generally follow a theme such as black and white, for Titanic they just had a background of some stairs!!!

Have you cruised before? If not you will have a great time doing both Calypso & Coconuts and Sugar & Spice - make sure you do some of the excursions they are fantastic. You can pre-book them before you travel as some of them have limited spaces and can fill up quickly. The Antigua flightseeing was really good especially as I had never been in a helicopter before and Antigua has some beautiful beaches. Grenada also has a fantastic beach (Grand Anse) altough this was very crowded with ship passengers. Aruba is beautiful and has a lovely little town with some nice shops where you dock and again has a lovely beach (Palm beach).

Antigua is also very good for shopping (start saving) with items such as watches and jewellery really cheap and cosmetic stuff which is really expensive over here such as Clinique and Lancome.

Don't take the ship excursions to the beach - it is easy to arrange a taxi and you will usually get in a mini-bus and other people will share with you - this works out fairly cheaply.

If you have any queries whatsoever please don't hesitate to ask.

SAM

Not sure about ocean village but the Thomson Spirit does.

While on the subject it seemed that now we are all part of the EU a lot of us found it tricky to find cheap ciggs and backy out in the Med or like the old duty free stuff of yester-year many people thought like us once we got to the UK airport we would be able to buy a pile to take out and bring back , BUT, be warned smokers you cant buy anything if you are flying into the EU, the bloke wouldnt even let me buy some at UK rates , ended up having to get some backy from WHsmiths in the airport and they only had small pouches. This caught a lot of non regular flyers out !!!!!

There is a sort of duty free shop in Palmer Airport so after 7 luckless days we where able to get some cheapish stuff on the way back.

Furbag

Hi Raymond, Yes the OV does have ciggies onboard but wait till the sale day I cant remember which day it was it might have been the day at sea they where cheaper but even cheaper still in Malta.
You will have a great time on the OV.
Mandy

Thanks for the info.

Sorry I took so long to reply Ippwrth, but I had a last minute trip to organise and take in Florida!!
OV Brochures for Winter 04/Spring 05 have arrived so renewed the interest.

I thought the schedule seemed slightly different and I think the prices have increased. As we're not going until Nov/Dec 05 I dread to think what will happen by then!

Does anyone know if OV take your luggage from Palma directly to the ship.
Got my tickets and labels today to go on 31st. and the labels have the deck and cabin number printed on them in huge letters!

The thing is we are going to a hotel for the first week, so don't want our cases going straight to the ship!

If you have to pick your luggage up in Palma I might put them on, if not think I'll wait til we leave the hotel.

Marjrie

I would leave them off until you leave the hotel after your first week and just put one on with your hotel details, otherwise your cases may sail away without you and have a two week cruise of their own!

luci