styme123

4 hours ago, klfrodo said:

Curious if anyone out there has recently applied for and received their renewal.

Curious about the time frame you experienced? Were you notified? Or did you just continue to monitor by visiting the website?

 

I'm coming up on 4 months and according to the website, I'm still in a "Pending" phase.

 

Yes, I am aware that since the renewal process has been started, that my expiration has been extended and should still be good for my travel plans.

Did you do your interview or are still waiting on that even?

58 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

What part of Brooklyn ? I was born in Crown Heights and later on moved to Canarsie.

Sheepshead Bay

2 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

We have only gone to NJ via the Belt Pkwy.Having lived 75 percent of my life in Brooklyn it is our preferred way .If we have to get onto streets we will not get lost

Sounds good. Go whichever way suits you. I grew up in Brooklyn as well and that's why I avoid the Belt it's always a nightmare, you never know how it will be. Happy cruising!

13 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Do you take Linden Blvd ?

No I don't go through Brooklyn at all. Use Waze or Google maps and it will give you better option than Belt Parkway.

5 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

All of our cruises in which we drove have been between December and February.We only were on one in a June and then we used car service  and that was not to NJ.

Perhaps in the summer it is a faster ride.

I drove to the port end of February 2 weeks ago and made the same time as I did when I went there in July last year. 

2 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Wow ,you probably have a better vehicle than we do or drive a tad faster.

We are on the south shore of Nassau County and always hit traffic on the Belt Parkway.According to Waze it is supposed to be a 57 minute drive but it has been 90 minutes always.

Nope I don't speed, and I don't take the Belt Parkway ever to get there. 

5 minutes ago, hazeleyes46 said:

Not bad at all. We are actually going to meet another couple in Nassau county this time and trying to figure out when we should leave their house if we can get the earliest check in time. We were thinking like 8:30am to get there about 10.

Yeah that should be fine we left at 9:00 for 10:30 spot. Gave us time to spare. 

4 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

From NE Queens to points south in NJ, Cross Island/Belt Pkwy is sometimes slower than the LIE to BQE thru Brooklyn, other times it's over the T.Neck or Whitestone Bridge over to I-95, across the Bronx & upper Manhattan across the GW Bridge and then catching the NJ Turnpike - it might cost more in tolls paid but saving 30 minutes is worth it. 

I took the Williamsburg bridge when I went and through Holland I believe. Sunday morning no problem. during the week that would have been a different story.

54 minutes ago, hazeleyes46 said:

Well I can tell you in 2018, when we went on the Anthem in June, we left at 8am and got there at 9:30 because I remember parking in the garage and we were early. By the time we sat down it was 10am and they let us onboard at 11:30. 

I got off Anthem about 2 weeks ago and from my house in Nassau county it was 45-50 minutes to Cape Liberty on Sunday morning at 9:00. Used Waze.   

Good video! 

3 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

Plainview to Bayonne without traffic is 1 hr.45 minutes but there is always traffic unless you go between midnight and 4 AM

I don't know, I can only speak from my own experience. I live 20-25 min north-west of Plainview. I drove to the port this last weekend on Sunday at 9:00am it took me 50 min to get there. On the way back home from the port, I left the terminal parking garage on Sunday at 7:15am and was in my driveway 45 min later. At this point in the post I'm sure the OP will figure some place to stop.        

11 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Would you not believe that if a person lives in Plainview and is asking about traveling from LI ,they would be leaving from Plainview ?

I was asking the OP because it should not take 2 hours to get to the port from Plainview. More like 1.15min-1:30. So maybe they were leaving from a different starting point and not Plainview. Or if it's taking them that long maybe they were going a longer way around and would benefit from a different route suggestion. 

54 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

Are you posting to the OP or to me as the last person who posted ?

I live in Long Island .

The OP

We did British Isles last summer and loved it! We went on Emerald Princess out of Southampton. The ship was a little dated but we didn't really focus on the ship as it was such a port intensive cruise. It was a 12 day cruise with a great itinerary. The one stop that interchanges is either Liverpool or Orkney. We did Orkney. I think we only had 2 sea days so we were off the ship all those other days. We saw sooo much. We did private excursions with others from CC. Take a look back through some of the reviews and roll calls to give you an idea about what to expect. If you time it right for the first 3 weeks in Aug there is the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle. It was wonderful!  

Are you coming from Plainview?

Overlord was great!

If anyone stayed in one of these cabins can you comment on how it was? Any noise from above?

5 hours ago, hallasm said:

Bergen and Ålesund are probably the two best coastal ports at the Norwegian west coast.

Thank you so much for your reply. It's very helpful when I'm trying to decide what to pick! 

46 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Just note that Midnight Sun above the Arctic Circle is June/july

 

So I'm thinking the longer 13 day one would be better since we will see the Midnight Sun and the added port stops of Ålesund, and Bergen. Thoughts?

3 hours ago, hallasm said:

Olden is included in the itinerary post #256.

Oh that's right I looked back and it's actually Ålesund, and Bergen that are changed out 

The 12 day is beginning of Aug and the 13 day is in beginning of July 

 

I prefer to do Iceland as land tour rather than cruise.

Yes that's what I have heard as well. So I will be going back to see it on it's own.

 

1 hour ago, styme123 said:

Thank you so much for the reply. That's awesome that the ports are scenic with fjords going in/out and you can get off the ship and see the town-double bonus! I didn't realize that as when I was looking into HAL they specifically stated scenic fjord cruising. So I was thinking if it doesn't say it they don't in that deep and just stopped at the town.

 

This itinerary from NCL is a bit cheaper by about $1000/1500. They have NCL Air also but I haven't used them before for plane tickets. It makes me a little nervous as I've heard some real mess-ups and horrible connection times/lay-overs etc. I was kind of trying to stay away from the itineraries that have Iceland as well as it's my intention to go see it on it's own later.   

• London (Southampton),England
• Brussels / Bruges (Zeebrugge),Belgium
• Amsterdam,Netherlands
• Bergen,Norway
• Geiranger,Norway
• Ålesund,Norway
• Akureyri,Iceland
• Isafjordur,Iceland
• Reykjavik,Iceland

 

 

RC also has a 13 day that adds Bergen and Olden. You lose Stavanger. All the other ports are the same. Which would you choose?

3 hours ago, hallasm said:

@styme123
Scenic cruising of the deep fjords includes a full day port stop - in this itinerary there are three deep fjords - you sail in and out the same way - scenic cruising is often two to three hours before arrival and the same  When sailing out.
In this itinerary, ports visited in deep fjords are Olden, Geiranger and Flåm. Nice view points and the Flåm railway.

Arctic Circle cruising I ‘just a sea day’. Also the July cruising will be Midnight Sun from day 4 to 7 - August will be too late for Midnight Sun.

A very nice Itinerary - Tromsø and Stavanger are two nice coastal cities - Honningsvåg is at North Cape.

Thank you so much for the reply. That's awesome that the ports are scenic with fjords going in/out and you can get off the ship and see the town-double bonus! I didn't realize that as when I was looking into HAL they specifically stated scenic fjord cruising. So I was thinking if it doesn't say it they don't in that deep and just stopped at the town.

This itinerary from NCL is a bit cheaper by about $1000/1500. They have NCL Air also but I haven't used them before for plane tickets. It makes me a little nervous as I've heard some real mess-ups and horrible connection times/lay-overs etc. I was kind of trying to stay away from the itineraries that have Iceland as well as it's my intention to go see it on it's own later.   

On 1/15/2023 at 4:25 PM, Tedferg said:

I have read extensively about D Day etc. and am very interested in the history. Normandy seems like a highlight of our British Isles tour.

 

However, I wonder what is to be seen today. Are there memorials, visitor centers. I am concerned that we drive for 2-1/2 hours and just see a beach as it is today.

When we were on Princess we did a private tour with https://www.overlordtour.com/

I highly recommend them. Very professional, knowledgeable and cheaper than what Princess was offering. It was a very moving day.

4 hours ago, gunnywife said:

So far I've booked several tours.  But I need help on some of these ports

Portland   -   Is there any thing to do there or should we book a tour?

Dublin  --  Is the port near the city center?  Is it walkable or can we take a cab?

Invergordon  -   Same question as above

Edinburgh  -   Seems like quite a distance from port to town.  What is the best way to get to town?

Forgot for Invegordon,  we did a independent group tour with Gavin from Invegordon tours.