anadi

So just to clarify....we have a private(not through a company) driver/guide pre-paid in Copenhagen for several hours. From my understanding, it is not required or expected that we tip him?

Just now, StollyBolly said:

Anadi,   Yes.  We had a tender to the ship that was anchored next to the Belfast that we accessed the ship from.  I’m unsure how it would work if you overnight at port for going off ship.  Enjoy the Thames experience.  The bridge raising and the entire trip down the Thames is memorable.  
 

sorry if this duplicated.  I’m learning doing threads on this site 

I am excited to be right there by Tower Bridge - it should be interesting!

On 5/6/2023 at 10:54 AM, StollyBolly said:

We did Norway out of London on Silversea.  The added bonus is departing from Tower  Bridge.  A fabulous experience.   
 

 

We are doing Windstar out of London in August. 

StollyBolly - we were told that we will tender from Tower Millenium Pier over to the ship. Is that what you had to do? We board one day, but do not depart until the next afternoon, so we may have to tender several times to go out into London.

23 minutes ago, Badger Dad said:

We did this cruise last year.  The barbecue was the only special event.  Since the weather was chilly and a bit rainy, it would have been challenging to have another outdoors event.

That is what I was thinking. Our cruise departs from London, 2 days at sea , then starts in the fjords with Alesund. I am wondering what the at sea days will be like as to choppiness and temperature. 

37 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

Seems as if they don’t have many of these left.  If they do, it will show up when you go to the cruise and click on on “Overview.”  Will say “A Complimentary Destination Discovery Event.”

Thank you! I don't remember seeing that, but I will look again.

We are doing a Norwegian Fjords cruise on the Legend in August. This is my 3rd Windstar cruise. I know the Deck Barbeque will take place, and on our other cruises, 1 had a special beach barbeque and 1 had special dances along with wine at a location off the ship. 

Does anyone know if there are any special events, other than the Deck BBQ, on a fjords cruise?

We are transferring from LHR to London, but already pre-paid a Black Taxi tour company. We are also doing a tour with them the next day, also pre-paid. What do we do about a tip? Should we use cash for that, since we have already paid? And is USD OK, as mentioned above? Also, what is the rate for tipping for a transfer, and for the 4 hour tour?

On 4/8/2023 at 9:04 AM, doglover214 said:

Our group of 5 will be in Copenhagen pre-cruise in August. 
Can anyone recommend a tour guide there?

We will be in Copenhagen post-cruise in August. We booked a private guide through Tours By Locals. We had some specifics and mobility issues to consider, so found someone who sounds wonderful, but since we have not gone yet, I can't tell you if this worked out. There are many walking tours, but we needed a car. The taxi tour that hallsm suggested was also something else we had considered.

Thank you hallasm. I had forgotten about the taxi tours! They seem reasonably priced. I will continue to look into the rickshaws and the hop on hop off bus. 

I have another Copenhagen question. Since we are traveling with my elderly mother, I have determined that walking around for any distance will be impossible. She is very unsteady and slow on uneven surfaces. I am looking for  some type of tour/guide that will drive from place to place, combined with a bit of walking around.
I have been searching tours that are in cars/buses and they seem quite expensive for a few hours. I considered the hop on/hop off buses, but am unclear as to where you need to start - can you begin anywhere they stop, or is there a "beginning" point where you must board first? Our hotel is near Tivoli, so we could walk that far. 

I have also seen rickshaw/pedicab tours. Has anyone done one of these? Most I can find on the internet seem to only seat 2, and we are 3 small adults. 
Thank you for your help!

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

I have never heard of a hotel room anywhere that had 3 beds. I have seen 2 beds plus bring in a rollaway cot but never 3 beds. (I don't know about Denmark, but finding rooms with 2 beds in France and Germany wasn't easy; I spent a number of nights on my last trip sharing a bed with my sister.)

There are definitely some, usually it is a king or double split into 2 twin beds plus a sofa bed. Just hard to find without checking each hotel individually. I have checked a lot of them!

Thank you hallasm. Yes, just 3 beds, not 3 separate rooms. I like the walkabiity of the Hebron, but like the NH Collection better. Decisions, decisions!

We are also looking for a guide who would pick us up at the port, and drive us around touring for several hours. So that is my next search!

I know there has been a lot of discussion about hotels, and I have searched and read the topics on here. I have also spent a lot of time on Tripadvisor searching and reading reviews.

We need a triple room for one night after our cruise in August 2023. Preferably 3 separate beds, and reasonable price of around $300 USD. We will be taking a taxi (or a private tour with hotel drop off) from the ship to the hotel. We are travelling with our elderly mother who can walk well but not super long distances. We would like to be able to walk to a good restaurant, and maybe walk around a bit in the evening. So far we have found The Best Western Hebron and the NH Collection. 

Any thoughts on these 2 hotels, and also ideas for others that definitely have triple rooms? It has been tiring searching for hotels with triple rooms!

Thank you in advance!

We(my mom, my sister and I - all adults) have done 3 in a room twice. Once we had a balcony room(french balcony so you can only stand on it), once was an ocean view. The rooms were both the same size. There is a curtain you can pull between the beds and the sofa. My sister usually takes the sofa bed, so not sure about comfort, but she has never complained, so assuming it is OK. 

Great observations diebroke! We will be on the Legend next August for the Norwegian Fjords. (my 3rd Windstar cruise, but first on the stretched ship). I know the weather may be completely different from what you had, but I am trying to figure out  how warm my clothing should be. I love to stand (or sit) outside while cruising along....I think I have my rainwear figured out, but not sure what type of coats to take. 

Thank you hallasm. This is the map of the route, for the most part, although the map doesn't show the first 2 stops, which are Haugesund and Alesund.

Just wondering the risk of choppy seas. We will be cruising August 2023. The cruise goes from London to Haugesund (that is an at sea day), then several stops along the Norwegian coast, then Aalborg to Copenhagen. 
We have 1 member of our party who gets sea sick quite easily. I know from other cruises that there are certain areas that are typically choppy, but I know it can really vary depending on the weather. 

Looking to do a Mississippi River cruise. Are there any cruise lines besides Viking and American Cruiselines that go from Memphis to New Orleans(or vice versa)?

From reading the fine print on our statement it says embarkation Aug 3 at 1:00 at the HMS Belfast cruise terminal. That sure took some research to figure out where that is....it is considered Tower Bridge Upper, but apparently they tie up next to the HMS Belfast. Apparently we leave London Aug 4, in the afternoon, but that is listed in Cruisemapper as leaving from Tilbury, which is quite a ways down river from The Tower Bridge. Very confusing.

This cruise departs from London, however, it boards on August 3rd, 2023, but doesn't depart London until the afternoon of August 4th. Has anyone ever been on a cruise where the cruise starts the day before you depart? I am wondering how that works - I am assuming we just find things to do in London for the day! So far no excursions are listed, but this is a cruise that they modified, so assuming they just have not arranged things yet. 

When you get out of the dugouts, are you getting out into the water? Just wondering if we should wear our water shoes and bring others. 

We cruised on the Pride a few years ago. Had a cabin for 3 adults - me, my mom, my sister. You can have the beds be 2 singles, or a queen, and then the sofa pulled out into a bed. It really was not crowded during the day when the sofa was a sofa. When pulled out, hard to get around the bed to the balcony. But we really did not feel crowded at all....my sister quickly got used to me crawling across her bed to get to the balcony in the morning!

Thank you Strenz, that is reassuring!  That particular night was definitely wicked - the crew even said it was worse than usual and many of them were sick. 

We are thinking about this cruise in the future and I am wondering if anyone has experienced rough seas enough to cause motion sickness on this route? I only ask because on our last Windstar cruise, Barcelona to Lisbon, the last night heading into Lisbon was so bad that we were unable to leave our cabin for dinner and 2 of us who practically never experience motion sickness, were very sick despite medication. Turns out that this is a common spot for rough seas.  So....I just want to be forewarned if this is a regular occurence on this route. 

Thank you!

We were on the Star Pride in June. Loved every minute of it! Ok, well not the last night when we had extremely rough seas and had to miss our last dinner! We had a "balcony" room, which you can only stand on, but I enjoyed standing out there and taking pictures as we were coming into a port early in the morning.

The staff was exceptional - from the wait staff, to the room stewards, to the excursion folks, to the front desk - they all seemed to learn our names, coffee preferences, wine preferences within the first day or 2!

The bad? The weight I gained from all the delightful food!