cwms

Wife and I are considering an Alaska cruise this summer and Royal has the itinerary we like.  
my question, Royal is A LOT cheaper than the other Princess ships making the same trip.  For a balcony cabin, it’s like 1/2 the price.  WHY?

Ok, so what is open for lunch the day we board

Any suggestions for off site parking to save some cash?  We’re going on Celebrity for 10 days…$300!

I have the same situation…not flying out until 5:30 and would love to find something to do and transfer to the airport.  Found a company that would do a private tour but it is $650.  Was hoping to find something a little more reasonable.

7 hours ago, Jepockn said:

Which tour company are you using?

thanks 

www.marina travel.is

We’re doing Blue Lagoon and we have been told they have luggage lockers there. Our tour company is picking us up at the airport, take us to Blue Lagoon and afterwards, are delivering us straight to our hotel in Reykjavik.  Luggage lockers are around $5 each.  
I’m sure the company will do just the opposite for you…pick you up at the dock, take you to Blue Lagoon and then drop you off at the airport.

We’re not using the cruise ship excursion, we’re using one of the local companies.

1 hour ago, Kari and David said:

I thought from your post you had already travelled. You just booked the same thing?  Are you on the same cruise?  If Lava is they crazy priced I will order just an appetizer and leave for the snack bar. 

We're taking the NCL cruise on 7/13.  Flying in early am on the 12th.

Wife and I talked this morning and we're going to keep the Lava reservation.  I'm guessing it will cost us minimum of $100-125.  Even going to the Spa restaurant (cheapest of the three) will cost $45 for a burger or Ceasar salad.  I'm guessing you can easily spend $30-40 in the snack bar.  At least we don't have to tip...that helps.

9 hours ago, Kari and David said:

@cwms Yes I booked Lava also any recommendations?  

I've got a feeling we are going to pass on Lava...$$$$.

Will probably hit either the Spa Restaurant or the snack bar.  

On 1/18/2023 at 4:30 AM, Kari and David said:

Just booked a Blue Lagoon 10am spot and added transfers at 9:30 am from KEF to Blue Lagoon, after the visit transfers at 3:00 pm from Blue Lagoon to Downtown City Center at Bus Stop #1 which is 2 mins from our hotel.   Did it directly on their website and the reverse route was also available.

We just did the exact same thing.  We arrive at 6:30, get on the 9:30 transfer  (7:30 would be pushing it) for the 10:00 spot.  We do get dropped off right at our hotel...numerous hotels were listed as drop off points.

It won't be cheap, but we did make a reservation at the Blue Lagoon Lava restaurant for lunch.

Any chance I can get a refund from NCL?  We booked a July cruise several months ago and have made final payment.  Looking at my TA website a few minutes ago and my cruise has gone down about $800

We need something a little more short term.  We have a 5 PM flight coming home, so I assume we need to be at the airport by 3.  Looking for something to do after getting off the ship and it would be great to have an airport drop off.

Also, any tour groups that pick up at the airport (early am) and maybe drop off at hotel late afternoon?

We’re doing a NCL cruise this summer.  Get on ship in Reykjavik, cruise to 3 other stops in Iceland and then over to Greenland for 3 stops there.  Back to Reykjavík 11 day trip.  Really looking forward to it.

I highly recommend visiting the Mariner’s Museum in Halifax.  Our ship also went to Saint John and we did the Bay of Fundy-St. Martin excursion.  We don’t recommend that excursion.  It was a long way to go and not much to see when you got there

On 8/21/2022 at 9:24 PM, cwms said:

Ok, so the ticket booth is close by, but what about the first (closest) hop on spot.

Ok, we did the HOHO the other day.  The HOHO company needs to do a better job giving directions to the ticket booth and first stop near the cruise ships.

Other than that, it is a good way to get around the city.  Drivers do a lot of narration along the route.

Got to go aboard the USS Constitution and visited “Cheers”.  BTW, they didn’t know our names.

On 8/16/2022 at 2:37 AM, Ashland said:

Easy to walk to the HOHO ticket booth right by where your ship docks and buy your ticket.

Pricing we found wasn't worth the difference just in case we changed our mind or the weather was bad. Do what works out best for you.

Ok, so the ticket booth is close by, but what about the first (closest) hop on spot.

The Maritime museum is really worth going to.  The exhibit of the Halifax explosion is unreal.  If you are not aware of it, to this day, it is the largest man created explosion in history short of an atomic bomb.

Quick question, if we do the HOHO, and we hop off at any stop,  how long before the next bus comes along to hop back on?

We’re going to Nuuk, Paamiut and Nanortalik.  Any advice, suggestions on any?

I’m sure it will be at least 6 months before we book out flight, but will keep an eye on flights just in case there happens to be a big reduction one day.  It does happen.

15 hours ago, Ingabinga said:

CWMS - We might be on the same cruise. We depart on 07/13/2023. We are looking forward to it since we have already driven the Ring Road in Iceland.

 

A fellow Virginian

Yep, that’s the one we will be on.  Long ways off, but what are your thoughts on air travel.  Looks to me our best option is flying from BWI.  The cost savings makes it worth the drive up from Richmond.

The furthest north we have ever been is Halifax, so we are really looking forward to it.

We've booked a 10 NCL cruise for July 2023.  Get on ship in Ryekjavik, cruise to Djupivogur, Akureyri and Isafjordur.  Then head to Greenland:  Nonortalik, Paamiut, Nuuk and then back to Reykjavik.

Look forward to reading any and all threads that covers these ports.

On 5/3/2022 at 7:14 PM, adonisr said:

I considered doing a cruise on POA.   But for 3 people it's over $7k.  That's just stupid expensive.

One of the reasons the price is high…it’s an American flagged ship,  probably the only one that actually cruises in the ocean. The only others I’m aware of are river boats and small coastal ships like American Cruise Lines.  Being American flagged, they have to pay American wages, not 3rd world wages the rest of the cruise lines pay.

14 hours ago, alisonalm said:

Where  in Honolulu can you get tested?  How much does it cost to get a covid test at the dock before boarding?  We are sailing on Saturday and NCL is no help at all.

Hawaii has a website that shows many locations where you can get tested.  We went to a small doc in a box just a block from our hotel on Ala Moana Blvd.  Antigen test was $89 and had our results in 15-20 minutes.  NCL website says they can test at the dock, but it is $120.

14 hours ago, opshannon said:

Aaron,

Quick COVID testing question: Where did you go to get tested prior to embarking and what was the turn around time on the results?

Hawaii has a website showing all the places you can go to on all the islands.  We went to a small doc in a box just a block away from our hotel on Ala Moana Blvd.  Antigen test was $89 and we had the results in 20 minutes.  POA also offers it at the dock but much higher price.

The taxi line ,however, had no real method to it: instead of pulling folks from the front of the line, officials seemingly randomly assigned taxi's to people all over the place, which made it difficult to know what to do.

Regarding this, we were standing in the taxi line as well and saw this happening and we asked why.

Turns out the folks further back in the line getting taxi's ahead of the rest of us, were passengers using ship's porters to help them with their luggage.  They got priority treatment in the taxi line.