travelgal777

Thank you! I appreciate the input

Thank you

No, I was surprised that no one responded to the question at all, and I haven't really gotten the answer anywhere else. I went ahead and signed us up for our ship's excursion to North Cape since we had the shipboard credit to use, but I don't know if Blue Puffin would be better in any significant way. I could still cancel the ship excursion if we change our mind about it.

Hi, we're booked on a RC cruise in July 2024 that goes to 8 ports in Norway and I'd appreciate any insight since we've never been to any of these places! We have some shipboard credit to use and I'm trying to figure out where it makes the most sense to use it, versus touring on our own or signing up for excursions with other companies. I've read that many people recommend going to the North Cape in Honningsvag, and many use Blue Puffin Tours. I also see it's apparently possible to take a public bus to North Cape, or our ship offers an excursion that's a 3 1/2 hour non-guided transfer to North Cape. I'm wondering if Blue Puffin does anything significantly extra on their tours because their price is quite a bit higher? Or could the public bus or ship transfer be comparable enough? The ship excursions are also on sale right now so it's another reason for me to make a decision about this. For Molde, I was considering Norway Excursions' Atlantic Road excursion. The ship also has an Atlantic Road excursion, and it sounds like they go to a lot of the same places, but it's hard to tell how much is different. It does appear the ship excursion doesn't go to the top of Mount Varden for a view, which Norway Excursions includes. It would be nice to do that, but I don't know if it makes enough of a difference to rule out the ship's excursion? In Geiranger I've signed us up for Norway Excursion's Mt. Dalsnibba & Eagle Road, and plan to do Norway in a Nutshell in Flam. We're also going to Tromso, Alesund, Olden, and Bergen, and I see many people say you can do these on your own, but I'm reviewing the ship excursions to see if any would work in these places as well... If anyone would like to recommend excellent ship excursions you've had in those places, I'm open to suggestions! Thanks for any feedback!

Thank you jbrinkm, more good info!!

Ok, thank you for that information on where the snorkeling is, I appreciate that! I do see an excursion that sounds just like yours. It's helpful to see your video to get an idea what it would be like! There's also another one that's more pricey, with more time snorkeling and no time on a beach. So perhaps we'll do one of those...

Hello - my husband and I will be in Cozumel December 5 on a Princess cruise and I'm looking for recommendations for what to do. We'd like to find some good snorkeling. (We have snorkeled a little bit in the past, so we're not super-experienced but not beginners either. We would have to rent equipment.) We have some ship credit to use but I'm not sure if the excursions go to areas that are good for snorkeling. Several of the ship's excursions go to Islands Beach Club, which is on the north end, and from what I've read it sounds like the best snorkeling is on the west side of the island? There are a couple excursions by catamaran that include snorkeling, but they don't say where they go. They might be worth a try. Or, I found an independent excursion that would take us to Palancar and Columbia reefs and Playa El Cielo and is based out of Tortugas Beach Club, but we would have to get there ourselves by taxi. Does that sound like a good choice? I don't see many comments here about Tortugas. I'm not really accustomed to having to rely on taxi drivers but I haven't found any independent snorkel excursions that would pick us up at the port. Or, is there a good snorkeling area near our ship that would be easy for us to get to ourselves? Any recommendations would be appreciated, thank you!

Thank you, much appreciated!

I looked at Copenhagen hotels again for our trip in July and came up with Andersen Hotel as another possibility, and am now trying to decide whether to go with that or keep The Huxley. Would any Copenhagen expert care to give their opinion? At the Huxley we had reserved a business room - a step up from economy - without breakfast. For a very similar price, we can get a room at the Andersen, but it's a very small room, called a Cool Double. It does have breakfast and air conditioning, although I understand that a/c might not matter. I'm trying to figure out which is in a better location to get to after a cruise, for sight-seeing, and then going to the airport, and which sounds like a better place to stay in general. The Andersen is rated a little higher on Tripadvisor & looks closer to some things, but some people say the area is a little sketchy. If anyone can enlighten me which one might be better I'd greatly appreciate it! Thank you.

Thanks for responding, I appreciate it - we talked to a travel agent friend who booked them for us. The website she used was RailEurope, and I had neglected to check that one!

Hello, we are flying to London in late June and taking a Princess cruise out of Southampton on June 29. We've been trying to buy train tickets for London Waterloo to Southampton for June 29 and are finding a lot of difficulty doing this from California! We went through a long process on the Southwestern Railway website, including creating an account, and downloading their app, only to be told our address had to be in the UK to buy tickets! We just tried using the National Rail website, only to have it link back to Southwestern Railway for the same problem! Does anyone know what else we can do to buy tickets ahead of time? Thank you for any help.

Thanks for the question & answer about the Best Western Huxley Copenhagen - I was going to ask about it too! We're ending a cruise in Copenhagen in July & have never been there before, and booked this hotel for a few nights because it looked like it was in a good area & the price was pretty reasonable.