SueMo

On our upcoming 14 day British Isles cruise, six of the ports are tender ports, so for the priority tendering benefit alone we booked CO. At first there was no availability, but our TA started calling HAL daily around the time of final payment (when some people decide to cancel) and snagged us a spot. So if you don’t succeed at first… try, try, again!

When we were in Rome, we got around using the metro. The metro runs trains every 5-7 minutes. To get from the Vatican to the Colosseum, it will take about 15 minutes. Buy metro tickets inside the metro station or at a newsstand or corner shop. A one way ticket costs less than 2 euros. Walk to the Ottaviano metro stop, take Red A line (direction Anagnina) 6 stops to the Termini. Change to the Blue B line (direction Laurentina) two stops to Colosseo. Although we felt safe on the metro, hold on to your belongings, as Rome, like most large cities, has its share of pickpockets.

If you get on the X app, you can sign in, browse the ships, and choose the current week. You won't be able to see future entertainment and dining, but can get a good idea what's going on on the Summit right now.

Unfortunately I was sick that day so we didn’t go. Maybe somebody else has been there and can comment?

I'm on a 14 day British Isles sailing in August. While I had booked our excursions a while back, many of the people on my roll call are complaining that ALL of the excursions now are sold out, they cannot use their HIA credits, and are all on waiting lists. I would prefer to not use any of HAL's excursions but feel obligated to do so with the HIA, and for some, they can't even book one!

My son bought two watches in the shops on the Edge in 2020 and the amount went over the customs limit. It used to be that they would distribute the customs forms before debarkation but they haven’t done that in a while so nobody had filled them out. As they scanned his sea pass in Fort Lauderdale a beeper went off and they escorted him to customs where he was asked to fill out a form, which he filled out honestly. He wasn’t “grilled”. The customs agent had a problem figuring out the amount due, so my son did it in his head (3% of amount over the limit isn’t that hard to figure out) and told them he owed $42. They told him it had to be paid in cash or promissory note, so he gave them $60, and of course, they didn’t have change. He had to wait about 45 minutes while the agent went onboard the ship to get change. Meanwhile, the line of passengers who needed to declare grew and grew behind him. (Luckily he was one of the first off the ship so he was able to make his flight, but I wonder about those behind him!). Lesson learned…don’t go over the customs limit in the shops on a cruise!

We always love to spend a little time at Kelly's Bar for its beer, Irish coffee, and live music. However, I don't think they serve food.

If your cruise line offers the excursion, "Fun with Falcons", in Charlottetown, do it! If not, check out https://www.experiencepei.ca/tour/fun-with-falcons/ and try going on your own.

We ended up switching to T-Mobile. They have a 55+ Magenta plan that allows cell data and unlimited texts that we plan to use on our next trip to Europe in August.

I DO NOT recommend tours.pe for your Lima/Salaverry port excursions because of their cancellation policy. Our ship notified us upon embarkation that we would not be visiting Salaverry because of safety concerns. We emailed tours.pe immediately (about 48 hours prior to the tour), as did a number of other couples who booked a tour there. They said we would get a refund ($65 pp tour) but it never happened. It turns out we missed the deadline and they had no stipulation like other tour companies that will refund money if the ship does not go there. There were over 20 people who had booked the excursion, so tours.pe pocketed about $1300. Go with Haku.

There are a lot of desserts they used to have but offer no more. I always enjoyed a nice soufflé but haven't seen them in years, either. As a matter of fact, I really don't care for many of their dessert offerings these days, which is just as well as I could stand to lose a few!

I love dressy nights on European cruises because I get to see the Scots wearing their kilts! My husband will just wear a dress shirt and dress pants and I will wear a dressy blouse and slacks, so we will probably be one of the "underdressed" couples, but we don't really care. We're going on a 10 day out of Copenhagen as well--are you on the Aug. 9th sailing?

Parking is $25/day. You'll get a ticket at the parking garage entrance on embarkation day and then pay at the machines outside the garage on debarkation day before getting your car. You can let anybody with walking problems off in front of the terminal and go park. The walk is easy (under 5 minutes).

OMG, I'm losing it! Punta del Esta is in Uruguay. In my defense, my trip there was in March 2020 and DH and I came down with raging cases of covid. Yes, we were on one of the ships that circled aimlessly around the Pacific Ocean since all of the ports in S. America closed due to the pandemic.

Assuming you get off your cruise ship early, I would pick up the car rental and drive the short 12 miles to the Alaska Wildlife Center and spend an hour or so there. Then I would drive two hours to hike to Exit Glacier. If you have the time you can visit the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward (I think it closes about 5 pm in September). Spend the night in Seward and go on the morning Major Marine cruise. The Major Marine cruise is 4-6 hours long, depending on which one you choose, so considering it is a 2.5 hour drive to Anchorage, you won’t get there in time for lunch. The last trolley tour in Anchorage is about 4 pm so you might be able to get the last tour and have dinner in Anchorage (I loved the Glacier Brewhouse—reservations needed). This is really pushing for time. If it were me, I’d spend a night in Anchorage and after breakfast at Snow City Cafe take the trolley tour the next morning before driving 2 hours to Talkeetna. I definitely recommend the pricey Denali Flyer tour with glacier landing through K2 Aviation. We also did the ziplines in Talkeetna, but they really weren’t that great. It is a 2 hour drive from Talkeetna to Denali National Park. I would recommend spending the night near Denali so you can get an early start for your green transit tour. Spend a 2nd night near Denali as it is only about a 2.5 hour drive to Fairbanks and you have plenty of time to make it on the Riverboat trip. Here are a couple bed and breakfasts that we stayed at that we recommend: https://bearlakelodgings.com/ is 11 miles outside of Seward, but has a great breakfast and very nice setting near Bear Lake. There is a salmon viewing station on the road leading there. https://www.talkeetnadenaliviewlodge.com/talkeetna-lodging.html has a great view https://www.denalilakeviewinn.com/ Loved this place! I remember one of the places above was cheaper booking through Expedia and the others through their websites, so be sure to comparison shop.

I've been to Acadia twice and never been up Cadillac Mountain. Sometimes it's really foggy in Bar Harbor, so going up high isn't going to give you any views. The first time we visited it was so foggy the ship's tenders kept getting lost going to and from the ship!

I have to correct myself. I did this tour in Punta Arenas, Uruguay, not Costa Rica!

We went to Cuzco and Machu Picchu and found it necessary to get Sols for tips. Outside the urban areas, US dollars are not as acceptable as perhaps in Lima. We used the ATM in the airport without any problems.

For Skagway, check out https://www.nps.gov/klgo/planyourvisit/shorterdayhikes.htm.

Yes. However, if short on time I suggest you do the south loop and then just up to the 1000 steps on the north loop. Parts of the north loop are one way only, so pay attention to the instructions and map they give you when you rent your golf cart.

We did our own land tour by car in 2023. We did the Major Marine tour, the Riverboat cruise in Fairbanks, and the green shuttle bus in Denali (much cheaper than the Tundra Wilderness tour, and had a great driver!) Below are some of the other activities we really enjoyed. On the way to/from Seward: 1. Hike to Exit Glacier. Turn on to Herman Leirer Road, commonly called Exit Glacier Road, at mile 3 of the Seward highway (AK9). Drive 8.4 miles where the road will end at the parking lot for the nature center. There is limited parking, so get there before 10:30 am. Turn left at the nature center and follow Glacier View Loop Trail (1 mile) through the cottonwood forest to the Glacier View. Continue on and turn left at the trail side kiosk for .6 miles to the Exit Glacier Overlook. The trail to the overlook is moderately strenuous. 2. Do the Seavey's Ididaride dog sled tour. https://ididaride.com/tours/ 3. Stop at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. https://alaskawildlife.org/visit/ In Anchorage: 1. Take a Flora and Fauna walk. https://www.gohikealaska.com/summerhiking 2. Take a Coastal Cruise Bike tour. https://alaskatrailguides.com/tour/coastal-cruise-bike-tour/ In Talkeetna: 1. Do the Denali Flyer with glacier landing. Expensive, but by far the best thing we did on our trip! https://www.flyk2.com/tours/denali-flyer/ You may be able to save money by downloading the Alaska Tour Saver app. The app is free, but you then need to peruse the discounts and purchase the coupon package that might save you $.

I found out about the changes 6 weeks before we were notified because I started to see discrepancies between our supposed itinerary and the official port authority websites. When I was checking in Cobh to see if we were docked in Cobh or Ringsakiddy, it showed NS in port a different day than what was on our itinerary. I emailed Cobh port authority, and the assistant harbor master responded that the change was requested by HAL just that week (this was the first week of February). Well, that meant that the Dublin date would have to change, and when checking their website, sure enough, we were anchored (not in port as described in our itinerary) in Dun Laoghaire on a different date. This led to a chain of changes as this is a very port intensive itinerary. A couple other people on my roll call got on board and found us docked in Holyhead and Lerwick (not on our original itinerary.) Other people on my roll call got upset with us as they called HAL and were assured there were no changes in the works and accused us of starting unfounded rumors. Not pretty. It wasn't until March 21 that we got official notification via our TA. The info on the website didn't change for another week or two. By the way, I haven't been convinced that these changes were due to propulsion issues. It was suggested by one person on my roll call that NS was never listed on the official cruise ship schedule for Edinburgh, and that there may have been a scheduling mistake that could have caused these dramatic itinerary changes. I would be surprised if we ever found out the real story.

The OP hasn't given the full itinerary changes for the August 9th sailing. As a matter of fact, it's a completely different cruise! Four ports of call were deleted--St. Peter Port, Stornoway, Kirkwall, and Cobh, three ports were added--Lerwick, Holyhead, and Portree, and all other ports had the dates and/or times of our visits changed. A date change for our overnight in Edinburgh had people on our roll call scrambling because many had ordered tickets for the Military Tattoo, which are nonrefundable (but everybody has had good luck in getting the performance ticket date changed, thank goodness!). Most of us had nonrefundable airfare already booked to/from Copenhagen so cancelling the cruise was not an option.

According to their website, they will be running June 23 to October 9, 2023.

We did the Land and Sea tour through https://portlanddiscovery.com/tours and enjoyed it a lot. It's an easy walk there from the port.