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Mystery cruise


tring
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We are booked on this for May and have just received an excursion book which gives trips for ports 1 - 6, with tours for each port. The descriptions of the ports describe the sort of place visited. The plot thickens!

 

I have started a roll call on the roll call section if anyone is interested. Just one other poster so far.

Edited by tring
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  • 3 weeks later...
We are booked on this for May and have just received an excursion book which gives trips for ports 1 - 6, with tours for each port. The descriptions of the ports describe the sort of place visited. The plot thickens!

 

I have started a roll call on the roll call section if anyone is interested. Just one other poster so far.

 

 

Hi Tring

 

I looked at this cruise but the time was not good for me.

 

Would love to hear a trip report as would consider doing this in the future if Fred offer it again.

 

Jackie

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There is another mystery cruise and mystery weekend I think for the future. This one is different though as all ports are maiden calls which is what really interested us. Trips not bookable on the web, but we have a cruise excursion book which explains the type of excursion offered. We have booked a boat trip and I am pretty sure I know what it is.

 

With the maiden status, five UNESCO sites within easy reach and other clues in the description of the trips, I am pretty sure I have worked out where each port is - took a fair bit of research, but I do like puzzles. Obviously I will not say any more here or to passengers on board. It seems we will be given a daily sheet the day before as usual, so presumably will know about port times, (if any), but they will not tell us where we are until we arrive in port.

 

 

I will say though that it looks like an extremely good itinerary with a good mix of towns and more rural type of locations.

 

One big bag packed and waiting to be picked up by The Baggage Handling Company this afternoon and we will head off to Dover by train on Wednesday. Not the best of ports to get to so that seemed the best way forward.

 

I will be sure to do a review on this and will probably put a link to it from here as it is so unusual.

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Well the packed bag has just been collected, at 6.30pm. The pick up should have been between 12.00 noon and 5.30pm. We had to ring the courier twice before it was collected. On the second call we were told the original driver had to return to base for personal reasons, (going out tonight perhaps.....), and they were sending out another driver. We were only able to get a number for the courier as they were named on the label provided for the case and we could look their tel. number up on the internet!

 

The Baggage Handling Company only have their office manned until 4pm on a Friday and are closed weekends and bank holidays, so will not be open until Tuesday. I was told on booking that a Tuesday pick up was not early enough for a Thursday sailing.

 

Just hope the luggage does actually get to the ship on Thursday!

Edited by tring
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oooh good luck with the Luggage.

 

Going to be following the route of the ship tracker.

 

I think they have promised to switch of the locator, so you will need to wait till we return - unless someone posts as they go, but we plan be too busy enjoying ourselves.

 

Tried to add a face but do not know how to do it. Can anyone help me with that?

Edited by tring
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:)

 

The faces are just at the top of the box where you type your reply.

 

Just trying it again - I assume you just drag one - I think I tried to drag one from below last time and it just posted the script referring to it rather than the face.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Like has happened above - I have post edited to add this sentence. Perhaps it is something to do with my computer.

Edited by tring
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:)

 

No you don't need to drag it. Just click on the drop down list and click on the one you want.

 

Thanks for that, I am in a rush now but will try it another time.

 

Thanks again,

 

Barbara

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The Countries and general area were not difficult to guess, but the actual ports were a surprise at times. We got home this evening and the full itinerary was:-

 

Larvick (Norway), Hundested (Denmark), Nyborg (Denmark), Wismar (Germany), Fredericia (Denmark), and Lysekil (Sweden).

 

All ports except Hundested were good in our opinion, though the people of Hundested have to be given 10/10 for trying. Just a shame the facilities are not there to accommodate 800+ cruise passengers at one time (small local shuttle was not easily accessible as there were too many people wanting to use it, no taxis available if you could not get on the shuttle bus and lack of cafes were they were needed). Also the immediate port area was heaving with people, which was worse because it was a sunny Sunday afternoon with lots of Danish day trippers.

 

Larvick was a bit of a a problem as Fred sent their shuttle bus to the centre of town rather than the sea front and we had no useful tourist information. The sea front area was very pleasant for people who could walk down the steep hill to the sea front and back up to the shuttle bus point. There was also a lovely woodland area a bit nearer to the shuttle drop. We enjoyed the port a lot once we found our way round - but we are able bodied, unlike some Fred passengers.

 

Nyborg was exceptionally good and the other ports good as well.

 

The only trip we did was the seal watching boat trip from Lysekil and that was excellent. I got 'seeking seals' right but not the port. In fact I only got Wismar as the third port and Fredericia as the forth port. Good job no one offered a wager on the ports as I could have lost a lot of cash!!

 

Will do a review when I get around to it, including detailed port reviews so people can pick the port reviews up if they want to. CC only lets you do port reviews of ports they have on their system, so most if not all, of those can only be reviewed along with a cruise review.

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Thanks Tring, looking forward to your fuller review.

 

I followed the ship on a tracker for a bit but the go busy!!

 

I do have one question did the Captain announce where the next port was or was it in your Daily Times.

 

Thanks

Jackie

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Thanks Tring, looking forward to your fuller review.

 

I followed the ship on a tracker for a bit but the go busy!!

 

I do have one question did the Captain announce where the next port was or was it in your Daily Times.

 

Thanks

Jackie

 

You obviously have access to something other than Fred's tracker. Is that 'ship AIS', which I have seen in the past, or do you need proffessional knowledge to access it. I did speak to one lady on board who said her husband was a retired sea captain and that all ships have to give their destination details to somewhere, regarding the movements on the seas, so he told her where they where before we were told.

 

A sat nav used on the open decks to determine co ordinates before retiring to bed and a photocopy from our atlas of the area around Denmark was also useful from our point of view! I was fairly certain we were going to that area, given the 'clues' we had been given regarding number of countries and unesco sites, trip descriptions and Fred's brochures for the next two years. We were obviously heading for Sweden from Fredericia for the last port as we still needed our fourth country and one thing we did know from the begining of the cruise was the sea days as they printed the dates on the tour tickets.

 

The sea days threw me from the outset as I thought the first stop was Southwold with the second stop in Norway. Anyway the locals all ordered the best of weather for us as it was glorious throughout. We are really cold now back in Britain, even Dover and London were really cold yesterday when we travelled north by train.

 

The set up was that the ports had always been referred to as "mystery port 1-6" and the trips were known as "mystery trip A to (not sure what)". We were given a daily sheet as usual the night before, which gave "mystery port x" or a sea day. The trip departures and their meeting times was denoted as "mystery trip x". After we arrived, it was either the captain or the cruise director who announced the port name and usually the country, although we had to wait a bit longer for the country one day. The trips were still referred to as "mystery trip x" and we were not told we were looking for seals on our trip until they were sighted.

 

Overall a good cruise, but we will not be tempted to sail anywhere from Dover in the future! It's access and the lack of decent hotels and taxis in the area is an absolute nightmare. The port is only suitable for people from the south East who can drive on the day or get a taxi/or other lift, from home. Even then the roads are hardly user friendly though.

 

Our express train to London on the return had people standing from Ashford as there were not enough seats. Also, we had to get a rail replacement bus between Dover and Folkstone and the only way we knew about that is because it was announced on Fred's website - our tickets gave times and journeys to/from Dover with no mention of a bus and different times! The replacement buses were chaotic, being overcrowded with no storage space for luggage and there were no directions from the station to the bus stop (and vice versa), yet the bus did not stop outside the station in Folkstone.

 

Glad to be sailing from Liverpool for our next cruise in a couple of weeks. Not only is that very near to us, but there are very helpful staff from both Fred and the port in the terminal and they are very helpful at giving approximate boarding times, so you do not have to sit in the terminal as it is right in the heart of the city. We take our cases there very early afternoon and check in if it is open. We can just then walk off into the town centre or along the waterfront, having asked what time we are likely to be able to board, (and/or check in). If we have boarding cards we can then just go straight on the ship, without any waiting in the "waiting room situation" which I hate, no matter where it is). I do not understand why so many people just sit there, (unless they have mobility problems) as there are lots of pubs and places to walk around within a minute or two of the terminal.

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Hello there Tring,

 

That sounds really fun if the time is right I must try a similar one if Fred keep offering them.

 

Yes sailing from Dover was one of the reasons I never booked it l think I will suggest that they do one from one of the Nothern ports i.e. Rosyth, Greenock, Liverpool or Newcastle SO much better for us up North to get to.

 

No professional knowledge needed just type in "Vessal Finder" and the ships name gives you the current location and the next port the are headed to. As the lady on the cruise suggested I think they have to keep the ship "locator" on just Fred never published the info on their website.

 

Happy Sailing

Jackie

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  • 1 month later...

Well they do say better late than never. I have finally done a review of this cruise and have had email notification that it is available on this link

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=536541&et_cid=2730561&et_rid=22073748&et_referrer=Boards_Million_Member_Newsu

 

It may be a small while before it is visible.

 

I have made this quite a detailed review and reviewed each port in the main text as they are obviously unusual ports so details are not easy to find, even when searched for. As I stated earlier the ports were:- Larvik, Hundested, Nyborg, Wismar, Fredericia and Lysekil.

 

Now I need to do a briefer review of Boudicca, around Ireland from from a couple of weeks ago - hope to have that done within a week.

 

Hope the mystery cruise one is useful to some people,

 

Barbara

Edited by tring
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