ReturnCruiser

I downloaded the Stockperks app to my iPad on Friday (last week) and submitted a monthly statement from my brokerage account (striking out all account information other than my name and Carnival information). I received a confirmation from Stockperks that the brokerage scan was received and I could use the Stockperks app to input my Princess booking number, my name, email and sail date. The app indicated that I should receive an OBC confirmation in about five business days. Although this seems to work - I prefer the old days of faxing my info to Princess rather than dealing with an app. The account statement seems to be valid for 5-6 months before a new statement needs to be scanned for Stockperks. In early February I tried the fax approach to Princess and never heard any word back that the process had changed (and fax failed to be accepted). I just happened to check the CruiseCritic boards and stumbled on the change.

Hello Shiba_Lover

When you went to Machu Picchu, how much time did you actually have at the site and about what time did you arrive and leave.  We are doing the same trip in late January .

On 8/30/2023 at 4:21 AM, DrKoob said:

 

 

BTW: We arranged this in advance with Viking. They had no problem with it as long as we knew, if we missed the ship it was on us and that we were NOT getting any money back for not eating their food for two days. And since they did not offer their shuttle on the last day, we took a taxi back to the ship. 

 

I believe we were on the same trip.... We also arranged our overnight stay in Venice with Viking in advance. The excursion staff told us we could join a Viking shuttle in the morning and return to the ship. The excursion lead at the Venice dock was fine with us joining a return shuttle to the ship. Of course, if we missed one of the several return shuttles, it would be on us to deal with it.

Thank you all for the above responses. Looks like we’ll keep our cabin that backs up to the elevators.

On a recent Viking Ocean cruise, I forgot to bring meclizine/bonine. I went to the medical center and it was given out free. I was told Guest Services also has a supply for guests. From past experience, I won't use a scopolamine patch. Besides the 'dry mouth' issue, I felt nauseous for several hours while back on land after patch removal (a side effect for some). I have not had this response with meclizine/bonine. With meclizine/bonine the trick seems to be taking it -before- you are seasick.

We’re looking at a veranda cabin that backs up to the elevators on an Odyssey class ship (e.g., 815, 717, or 621). We were wondering if noise from the elevator shaft/doors could be heard from within the cabin. Our alternative is a penthouse cabin with a connecting door in a location that is not near the elevators/stairs/exterior doors/public spaces. Which would be better? This would be our first Seabourn cruise and I’m admit to being noise sensitive. I realize that noise from a connecting door cabin is dependent on the folks in the cabin. Thanks.

On 7/20/2023 at 3:40 PM, CCWineLover said:

OK.  Sounds great!  We'll be there in late February.  Any experiences then from our travelers on places to spend that middle night in Venice?  Thanks!

You might check my Venice content at https://travelscrivener.blogspot.com/2022/10/venice-september-2022.html

On 7/19/2023 at 2:53 PM, Fieldofdreams said:

Thank you ReturnCruiser - 

Were the Viking Water Transfers offered to all guests and did they run frequently?  

Were the transfers part of paid Viking excursions that Viking allowed you to get on with others that had paid for the excursions so you could get back to the ship? Thanks (We previously spent time in Venice so likely will not stay in Venice again but you are correct Venice at night and early in the morning is very special. When we were there I got up at 4:30am just to watch the fresh fish and produce being brought in by boats for the markets. Fun being there when all the chefs were buying for their restaurants.

I can’t recall the Viking water taxi schedule from ship dock to Venice pier. That said, on day 3 for our AM return to the ship, we simply joined a Viking water taxi bringing guests back to the ship (no pre-reservation required).  We checked the likely AM pickup times with the Viking excursion staff on day 2.

We had a Viking Sky visit to Venice during 9/9-11/2022. The first day we used the Viking water transfer from Chioggia to the Venice Coldnoldi pier and the one-way trip took about 90 minutes. We found this experience not a great use of time (3 hours total round-trip on a water bus). On day 2, we took an 8 AM Viking water transfer to Venice and spent one night in Venice (Hotel Palazzo Barbarigo). On day three, we returned to the Sky via a 10am Viking water transfer from Cornoldi to Chioggia. We very much recommend a Venice overnight stay, particularly if you haven't done so in the past.  Venice in the evening and early morning is a completely different (and often wonderful) experience than during the day.

We are on an upcoming Viking Sky cruise that will be in Venice for two nights and departing Venice on day 3, at 5pm. We prearranged with Viking corporate to spend the second night in Venice, at a hotel of our choosing. 

We finally received approval for spending one of the itinerary two nights at a single port for an overnight stay. It took many weeks to receive written approval from Viking for this activity. We were alerted that we are responsible for carrying our overnight luggage off/on board without ship assistance. This should be relatively easy as it is only one night. We're pleased that this was approved.

Our Viking Ocean itinerary will have 3 days/2 nights at the Venice port. Does Viking permit a guest to remain in a port city overnight to avoid the evening return to the ship on night #1 and enjoy 24+ hours in the port city? I'll asl Viking but was curious if anyone has done this.

Thanks. 

Have you considered a proctored antigen test, such as https://www.emed.com/products/covid-at-home-testkit-six-pack.? We carry there with us when traveling overseas just in case we need a test. You do need a strong WiFi connectivity and an iPad or android tablet. 

On 6/30/2021 at 4:17 PM, ReturnCruiser said:

Several years ago, we stayed in a Nyhavn hotel that was listed in a Rick Steves' tour book. It was over the weekend and the music from the Nyhavn restaurants and bars finally went quiet by 3am. My less than fond memory of this location was hearing MJ's "Beat It" at a very high volume after mid-night.  Unfortunately, this was during a warm spell and opening the windows only made the sleeping more difficult. My recommendation is consider the days of the week you will be visiting and if you are sensitive to noise. Of course, this was. a pre-COVID trip, so the situation was very different.

Looking through my notes, this stay was at Hotel Bethel. The only negatives were the late night music and warm room temperatures. Great location. 

Several years ago, we stayed in a Nyhavn hotel that was listed in a Rick Steves' tour book. It was over the weekend and the music from the Nyhavn restaurants and bars finally went quiet by 3am. My less than fond memory of this location was hearing MJ's "Beat It" at a very high volume after mid-night.  Unfortunately, this was during a warm spell and opening the windows only made the sleeping more difficult. My recommendation is consider the days of the week you will be visiting and if you are sensitive to noise. Of course, this was. a pre-COVID trip, so the situation was very different.

My wife and I took a very similar all-day excursion in 2018. Notes and photos are available in my blog entry, https://travelscrivener.blogspot.com/search/label/Norway. I recommend this excursion - it is not strenuous and the landscape views are beautiful.   

We enjoyed the Black Pearl hotel serviced apartments. Great location and short-stay one-bedroom apartments permitted us to either make breakfast or bring back BF items from local bakery and grocery store. Black Pearl also offers continental breakfast delivered to your room. Note an order for one was fine for two people.

Ship vibration/movement can be an issue. I brought a tripod to the Arctic and used it to capture wide-angle Northern Light photos from the expedition ship. The ship wasn't moving and engine vibration didn't cause issues with my long exposures. I didn't bring a tripod on my other (three) polar expeditions and it wasn't missed. My longest lens on four polar trips was 300mm.

During our "fly the drake" expedition in 2015, we left by plane from Punta Arenas to King George Island on the scheduled date and time. At the end of the expedition, heavy fog rolled over King George Island. For the next 2.5 days, we would be on standby for disembarkation but the planes could still not depart Punta Arenas (with the next guests) as the fog was still present. Around 2am on the third day, we were awakened with news the planes would arrive around 6am. When we arrived in Punta Arenas in the early afternoon, Quark provided a hotel room for us to use until our evening flight departure. 

While waiting on board, Quark allowed guests free use of satellite phones to modify travel arrangements. That said, phone service was not great. As we made our continuing flight reservations through Quark, we informed Quark over satellite phone that we would forego Iguazu Falls (we would have been 4 days off schedule) and just return back to the US. Quark took care of all flight changes and we were ultimately reimbursed by our travel insurance for trip interruption. Note that those guests that had made continuing travel reservations independently had a very challenging time arranging any itinerary changes from the expedition ship over a poor phone connection. Many had to wait until they returned to Punta Arenas. 

I'm told this doesn't happen very often. We are scheduled for a similar Antarctica trip in 2023. Once again, we will arrange our flights through Quark. Expedition company documents will describe an established number of days that the departure flight to King George Island must take off - after which the trip is cancelled. In our situation, the guests on the late arriving plane lost three days of their Antarctica trip.

My travel blog describes this trip (https://travelscrivener.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-day-in-punta-arenas.html).

Bob

In 2019, we stayed at the Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel and Towers. This hotel is very modern and next door is both the rail station and a large mall. If you're continuing your Japan travel, we had the hotel ship our luggage to our next hotel - very convenient. Details about this trip are at: https://travelscrivener.blogspot.com/search/label/Japan   

Just a red winged blackbird.

We've traveled with Quark three times (Antarctica, Svalbard Circumnavigation, East Greenland) and Poseidon Expeditions (South Georgia and Falklands). Both of these companies have terrific expedition staff, ship/hotel crew, itineraries and well maintained ships. Due to COVID concerns, we recently moved our Quark 2021 Russian Arctic expedition to a return to Antarctica in 2023. Check out my blog below if you're interested in reading about our polar adventures.

Bob  

On one polar trip, my luggage was lost by LATAM and never found. Luckily, this was on the way home. We've now completed several polar trips and have learned that delayed luggage is not uncommon. On one polar trip, my large duffel was heavily damaged during an LATAM flight into Punta Arenas and had to be replaced in town before ship boarding. Best to be prepared for the worst. We now pack items that could be difficult to replace in a day in our carry-on airflight luggage. This includes waterproof pants (I'm tall) and one each of heavy sock pair, waterproof gloves, mid-weight top, light-weight top and bottom layers and a jacket. We figure that if restocking is only partially successful at the embarkation location we should still be ok.    

Several of the polar expedition ships (100-120 passengers) we've been on place these non-slip liners on cabin desk tops. That said, when the ship is going through heavy seas, it is best to stow as much as possible in drawers/cabinets or, possibly on the floor. Polar travel can be quite an adventure.

If you have a few days in Ushuaia, you might consider a hike in Tierra del Fuego National Park. This park is just a few minutes from town. We hiked/walked the Costera Trail from the Little Post Office to the park Visitor Center. We had a taxi drop us off at the PO and pick us up at the park Visitor Center. This trail takes about 4 hours and has beautiful views. The VC has a small restaurant. We also rode the End of the World train to the park entrance - an hour train ride if roundtrip. You can catch a taxi to/from the rail station. More polar info is shared via my blog link below.