CCJack

Hotel Abruzzi.. We booked a room with Pantheon view and it is just as advertised.... right in front of the Pantheon. For our young adult children traveling with us, we booked rooms in their annex which is a couple doors down and does not have a nice view, but still a very adequate room. Included breakfast was actually in a cafe across the Pantheon plaza and was very good. No complaints, I loved it and would stay there again.

I would recommend a small boat experience rather than the larger glass covered boats, even though you will pay a bit more for the smaller boats. Both Flagship Amsterdam and Those Damn Boat Guys appear to be smaller boats, as is Floating Amsterdam, which we went on and can recommend. Floating Amsterdam is a bit closer walk than Anne Frank house, although all walks in Amsterdam are enjoyable. Unrelated comment, I hope you consider watching A Small Light - recent mini series, before visiting the Anne Frank house. It was very good.

For the 9/13 NCL cruise, most excursions are still showing up as available on my account. The only one which I think is sold out is Gros Morne National Park out of Corner Brook, they could add another bus at any time, however, as cruise lines sometimes do. I don't know the answer to your question, as I have not been to these ports yet. I am guessing most people leave the port towns for excursions, either by the cruise line or DIY, (with the exception of Halifax.)

Did you ask Airline about refund or rebook....since they cancelled the flight? Rebook for Sunday or Monday ? My thought is you would likely be OK making a 1 pm flight on Saturday. With a sea day on Friday, the ship has lots of time to make up any delays and likely will be on time. (Note for our departure from Amsterdam, our ship was delayed 3+ hours by the traffic control through the lock. My understanding is they re-order smaller ships, bigger ships, etc. for traffic control. However for an am arrival, the cruiseline has to get the ship ready for the next passengers, so I would think they will be docked well before 7 am. ) If you walk off with luggage at 7 am, that gives you lots of time to make it to the airport by 10 am, which would be 3 hours prior to departure. Either by train or taxi..

they had lots of bikes, but small bikes were in short supply. We got regular bikes, and it was fine since we walked the first 1 km over the rough patch, and after that the path was smooth. Suspension never hurts, however, if you want a smoother ride. If you do get off the ship to make a 10:45 departure, I wonder if they would let you board the train if it is not sold out. That would give you more time to enjoy the bike ride.

I think it was a single que, if i recall correctly. However, if it turns out to be nice weather and you plan to bike down, i really wouldn't worry about a window seat on the train. Your views from the bike path will be 10x better than a view from a train window. Note the people renting the bikes to us were super friendly but a little unorganized. I would get right to the Cafe when you get off the train to secure a right sized bike for you. We had a little issue with finding a bike for my wife, who is very short, but it was resolved ok.

No drawback to booking early except the river cruise line might book the rest of the ship as one group. This happened to us on Viking, we were the first cabin booked then they booked every other cabin to a single group. It worked out OK for us as our TA found out, and thus we moved to another Viking cruise date - 2 weeks from original sail date and I had not purchased air yet. If we had purchased air, this would have been a problem. I do not think travel insurance would consider this a "cancelled cruise" since Viking said we were welcome to keep the original booking and be the only ones not part of a group. I could not imagine us being the only ones in the dining room not part of the group and having to listen to toasts for " nice job meeting last year's corporate sales goals!" or toasts to "best luck to the bride and groom" ! I would never book the first cabin again, I would wait until 10 or so are booked to be safe. I think it is not infrequent that river boats are taken by a single group.

We will be spending 2 nights pre cruise in QC in September. I have had mixed results with HOHO buses in various cities, really don't like waiting only to have a completely booked bus show up and you wait some more.... Anyone with experience in QC with this and availability of buses, are they usually full? The link above is very helpful, thanks.... I am wondering what this means, however: Available May 13th to October 29th Schedule may 13th, 2023 to june 22th, 2023 09h25, 10h10, 10h50, 11h25, 12h10, 12h50, 13h25, 14h10, 14h50, 15h25, 16h10 june 23th, 2023 to june 30th, 2023 09h25 july 1st, 2023 to october 31th, 2023 09h15 Does this mean there is only one bus running after June 22, while there are many buses running from May 13 to June 22, it is confusing..... thanks.

I can only give you a partial answer... we hired a private guide to give us a tour of Genoa, S. Margareta, and Portofino using public transportation. I loved all 3 stops including Genoa, which is an interesting city. She (our guide) took us up on the Funicular and at the top was a residential area with a small park and the views over the city were quite nice. I think without the guide telling us what we were looking at it would have been less interesting, however.

We walked from the ship to the bus station and took the National Express bus to London. It stops at a couple of metro stops in London. If your hotel is close to one of those stops, that might be a doable option and inexpensive. If your hotel is not close to one of those stops then you would be looking at another london taxi or metro to get to your hotel. The walk from ship to bus in Southampton is not short, but doable. In nice weather, it is not a bad walk. Maybe 30 min. You do have to go over some cobblestone streets with your luggage however.

Yes, our ship docked in a bit of an industrial area which was fenced off. Nothing within walking distance. There was a lineup of taxi's right outside of the ship, but I don't know if those taxi's would be interested in a day tour type of trip. We just took a taxi to Titanic museum, then we walked from there to downtown area.....

Dunmore East is not a bad little village to take a stroll through either before or after your trip to Waterford. There are good ocean views, etc from the town. We took a ship excursion to Waterford, I do not remember seeing any waiting taxis in Dunmore East. I think you would want to have transportation arranged. Our ship (Celebrity Apex) did not have a shuttle, perhaps Oceana will.

You may want to reach out to the whale watching vendor (if you booked directly with them) or the cruiseline if it is a cruise excursion. My guess is it would be no problem on either the bus or the boat. On our whale watching boat there would have been plenty of room.

Thanks so much.

Probably pros and cons to both. Cruising Southbound and doing the land portion first has the advantage of doing the busiest / taxing portion first then relax on the cruise. Cruising Northbound and doing land portion last has the advantage of the cruise leaving from Vancouver which is a great departure city. Spending 1 or 2 nights there is perfect pre-cruise, the ships dock right downtown, etc....

It sounds like fun,,,,, Could you tell a little more about the hike? Is there a parking lot at the national park? Trailheads and marked trails to the Statue? Restrooms? From the map, I don't see any parking available. Thanks..

Check 2024 wimbeldon schedule, you may be able to catch a day of tennis. We did that one time before a Southampton cruise. It was a fun day.

I like the 12, just because it is 12! Both have flam. With the 12 you give up geiranger, but gain those northern ports. I have not been to those northern ports but they really look appealing to me.

I like the idea of having 3rd party travel insurance to cover this problem. Just make sure you price the trip insurance to include any non refundable excursions. The premium may not be much more (if at all) since sometimes the premium only goes up at certain price points (ie, $5900 coverage is the same premium as $5200 coverage - premium goes up a $6k - just as an example.) I have filed a couple of travel insurance claims and both went rather smoothly and I was paid what I claimed, but there is some paperwork involved and you have to prove that these costs were not refunded to you. These T&C on the excursion websites may come in handy in this case. For a trip to Norway I would have everything pre booked. I would book the excursions you want no matter the refund policy, and then count on the insurance if you need it. Also, I have found that ship's excursions are still more $ than independent but not as much difference as they used to be - the costs are getting closer from my viewpoint. I used to be 100% independent but lately have been booking more ship's excursions especially if involves long distance from the ship. I loved the Lysefijord day cruise. It rained for us but it was still enjoyable, would have been that much better if sunny ! Have fun....

Yes, you may want to be first off the ship, in the first bus, etc.... in case there are more than one excursion bus going there.....

We took a ship's excursion and I was pleasantly surprised with the excursion. The grounds around the castle are beautiful. (Also, The clothing store on site was really nice, with high quality clothing at reasonable prices, I thought.....) We did kiss the stone, but I would not be too disappointed if you don't. We made a bee-line to the castle from the bus and beat the crowd. We waited only 15 min or so. On our way down, however, the line had grown to 2+hours if the signs were correct. So the answer is... it is hard to tell but the wait could be significant. I would not wait 2 hours. You not only have to lie on your back but you need to slide down a bit head first. You are safe from falling, but it can be quit uncomfortable. If you have any back issues, I would not recommend.

I think smaller boat is better for whale watching for many reasons..(except if you are prone to sea sickness, then larger may be better.) Our ISP whale watching trip was fantastic.... one of our most memorable excursions ever.... I loved it. We used Icy Strait Whale Adventures and our boat held about 12 if I recall correctly.

We are in a similar situation, I really wanted to spend a couple nights in QC before our cruise, so we are booked on the 9/13/23 NCL Joy, which visits the stops you list, plus Halifax and ends in NYC. I have not been to the 3 you list, although I have visited PEI and NS on previous land trips. I am thinking (hoping) that the sail in to Saqueney will be very beautiful along the Sagueney river. This is another reason I chose this itinerary. In Corner Brook we are taking an excursion to Gros Morne N.P. I would be surprised if that is a disappointment, I understand it is a beautiful park. I do think the # of excursions that NCL is offering is somewhat limited, but that may say more about NCL than it does about the ports. There are independent excursion options at each port from what I can tell.

When we biked down, we booked a rountrip train ticket. In case of rain, we would have a ride back on the train. It turned out to be beautiful weather so we rode bikes, but it was worth the extra cost to have a backup plan...

We are in the same situation as OP, on the Sept 13 NCL Joy... this stop is confusing for a newbie, understanding the towns, etc. This brochure link is really good, thanks. am I correct in that: Ship ports near the small village part of LaBaie, but that part of LaBaie is not walkable to the museum area of Labaie, which is 2.5 miles away? Chicoutimi is another town 11 miles away but would be a better town to spend the afternoon on our own as it is larger than LaBaie? You can get to Chicoutimi on the Ho Ho bus, taxi, city bus, or ship's excursion (NCL Saguenay Highlights, $65, 2.5 hours, not sure if you get free time on your own.) ? thanks for the help here.