LadySadie1

I see now that X calls them Explorations rather than cruise tours, which sort of renders searching for them impossible. They're more like what I was looking for than the ones HAL offers, which are like extended pre/post cruise stays.

We've done the independent travel thing and I just don't have the time to plan that sort of thing anymore.

I recently got a brochure from Princess for 2016 and 2017 cruises and they have a couple of cruise tours for the Mediterranean (that go through France or Italy) and N. Europe (that go through Germany and Austria) and was wondering if there were any other cruise lines that offer the same sort of thing? Or is there a regular tour operator that does this?

I know there's a bunch of Alaska cruise-tour operators but we're not interested in going there next time. Some searching found that NCL and X used to do this, but I didn't find anything current on their websites.

I suppose if someone were to really make a case for a river cruise, I would be willing to listen but part of what made these appealing is that they go to places the usual river cruises don't go to, like Berlin or Rome.

I usually suggest the Moore Hotel to people looking for a good price and good location. They have some suites that look like they might fit your party, depending on how you need to sleep people.

It was $35 - the price is on their website. There's no professional photographer so you're taking your own photos with the jaguar (or monkeys or whatever).

This is a followup to my question. We were there last week and they were bringing people in until 10 am or so. There's a sort of schedule where the monkeys are fed in the morning so you can get a chance to have pictures with them after that.

The jaguar, which is apparently not the original male jaguar they rescued, eats around 12:30 and then they do pictures. They don't seem to have a limit on the number of people you can include on 1 "ticket" so it's possible there can be a couple of groups ahead of you. Everybody gets their individual picture even if it's 8 of them.

They ran out of paddle boards in the morning but after lunch lots of them were just sitting around unused so if you don't get what you want, you can maybe borrow or trade someone for one.

The glass bottom boat leaves pretty frequently. I think it was once or twice an hour.

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone knows how late transfers from Mahogany Bay to LFK go, as in if I wanted to go over 3 or 4 hours after the ship debarked would there still be someone there to take me over?

I emailed them and the answer was that drivers will be there 1-2 hours after the ship arrives but that doesn't mean they won't be there later.

Is there a "schedule" for lunch, monkeys, snorkel boats, etc? Or is it more "there's people here let's do this".

One thing I didn't know about embarking in Vancouver (BC) is that if you're not getting a transfer from the cruise line getting a taxi will take EXTRA long. We waited over an hour for a taxi and got lucky when someone came from the airport to the hotel, and grabbed theirs as they were getting out.

I have to agree with layers. I've only been to Alaska once but the weather when we went in August was like the spring here in the PNW - rain, about 50* and light breeze. A fleece jacket under a waterproof rain jacket is probably all you'll need. I recommend a rain jacket with an interior liner so you have an extra buffer between the fleece and the outer jacket. A hat could be useful, if you normally wear one. I took way too many sweaters - around the ship I usually just wore a cardigan and off the ship I wore my fleece and rain jacket. In Ketchikan I wore the cardigan and the rain jacket because it was 64* that day.

Don't bring an umbrella. You'll hate yourself for it, unless you're like me and bring it ward off bad weather.

This is just a guess but based on other replies I believe Island Marketing is like a tour broker, so you contact them and they find someone to do the tour. The price seems reasonable based on what I could find on the various tour operator websites but I wasn't able to figure out who they use in Roatan.

The TA attached the notification from Princess which said we had 48 hrs to decline the offer, so I called her and got our original cabin back.

She said she would mark it "no upgrade" so we don't lose it again.

But did you tell your TA that you did or did not want an upgrade?

No, I didn't specify no upgrade because I (maybe incorrectly) assumed that my TA would not allow an upgrade that since I made my cabin preference known.

First off, we didn't book a guarantee but specifically picked our cabin on the Caribe deck on the Emerald. I got an email from our TA that we were upgraded from our fore cabin on the Caribe deck (C222) to a mid-ship cabin on Baja (B310). I picked Caribe deck because of the larger balcony but I don't know if this is actually a better cabin or if I should pitch a fit and get our original cabin back?

Could people more familiar with the Emerald and the various decks please advise?

We'll be on the Emerald in March and I was wondering if the price or availability of the cabanas or chairs in the Sanctuary was different on port days? On our HAL cruise this year the spa and salon always had a special on port days and I wondered if that extended to something like the Sanctuary.

If I'm sitting in the sun and looking at the ocean, I might as well do it on the ship with almost no crowd!

I saw a tour offered by Island Marketing that they include a visit to Daniel Johnson monkey and sloth sanctuary. Has anyone been on this tour or to this place?

I was looking at pictures of Little French Key and found out that you can swim with their jaguar for an extra fee. Does anyone know of any other places you can touch and/or photograph jaguars in Roatan? If it's an upcharge, how much more is it?

We also want to see monkeys so anything that does both would be cool.

We looked at HAL and Princess vs Oceania for Alaska (this past July) and chose Oceania. The "free" air credit, an Oceania special discount with free gratuities (available to our TA as a top O producer) a price drop and significant TA OBC actually made Oceania cheaper than the other two. A top O producing TA is the key here.

Check Conde Nast Traveler for "cruise specialist" recommendations that include both Oceania and Alaska. Even if it turns out that O is a few bucks more than you find with other lines, remember the quality of food and services (plus under 700 passengers) will surpass the mass market lines.

 

 

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I didn't consider that using a TA with special status could bring Oceania down to the same price level of Celebrity/Princess, after all the perks were added in.

This might be a bit of a picky question, but how are the drinks on Oceania? I'm willing to pay $10 for a cocktail if it's good.

Thanks.

We recently went on a cruise to Alaska with HAL and have decided that cruising is for us. We liked HAL (the MS Zaandam) pretty well but the vaguely "colonial" feel was a little much for us.

I've started researching other lines and we're looking to do a 7-10 day Med cruise in 2016. I really like the Med cruise listings for Cunard's Queen Victoria but 3+ formal nights a cruise is NOT us. My husband hates wearing ties and will do anything to get out of it.

I looked into Oceania and NCL because both are supposed to be more laid back but Oceania is very expensive. I haven't figured air yet but the price is really more than I would want to pay.

NCL cabins just seem to small. We were looking at getting a balcony cabin but even with the lower price, which is considerably less than even Cunard, I don't think we'd be happy with the size.

Is there any line sort of in the middle between Oceania's price, Cunard's crazy formal nights and NCL's tiny cabins? Should we just cruise HAL again?

Thanks for the info. I'm looking at June dates now!

I'm thinking of booking a cruise that stops in Dubrovnik, Kotor, Santorini and Athens and am debating between booking a early to mid March date so we can get a better cabin for less. I was wondering what the sea is normally like at that time of year or if anything would even be open. Would it be penny-wise and pound-foolish as they say?

The other alternative is to book a cheaper cabin for June or July. I also posted this in the Greece forum.

Sadie

I'm thinking of booking a cruise that stops in Kotor, Santorini and Athens and am debating between booking a early to mid March date so we can get a better cabin for less. I was wondering what the sea is normally like at that time of year or if anything would even be open. Would it be penny-wise and pound-foolish as they say?

The other alternative is to book a cheaper cabin for June or July. It's the Viking Ocean Empires of the Mediterranean cruise for 2016 if that matters.

Thanks in advance,

Sadie