envirochick

I'm still unclear as to whether you are buying tickets to "climb" the SOL. You are staying at the Hilton Penn Station as opposed to the Hilton Newark Airport, right? If you land at 9 am, you will be at the Hilton between 10 and 10:30 if you take their shuttle. Then you have to Uber to the SOL. You have 1 day in New York and you're getting a late start. Staying at the NPS Hilton will make your return to NJ a lot easier after a whirlwind day in NYC.

 

PATH costs $2.75.

Our tickets are for noon. I thought 11 would be pushing it. Perhaps not?

We’re honestly not set on a “whirlwind” day. We’ve been to NYC before, but not to the statue. We actually thought about just spending a leisurely day at the Bronx zoo and having some great sushi for dinner, lol.

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What time are your SOL tickets and are you taking the SOL ferry from NY or NJ?

 

 

 

Local folks have posted that they walk to the Ironbound District from the Hilton area. However local cabs are cheap. Personally if you're in NYC I don't see any reason to return to Newark to eat.

Excellent. Thanks for the help. We plan on doing SoL first from NJ. Do you think that’s the right choice? We will be ubering.

Makes sense re: eating in the city, although I understand there are nice Portuguese restaurants in the Ironbound area.

One more quick question, considering the itinerary I’ve laid out, do you think the Hilton is our best bet?

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Hello, I am booked at the Hilton Penn Station. We have a full day to play before our cruise - plane arrives a 9 am. Our plans include climbing the SoL, heading into the city and enjoying some of central park and then coming back to the hotel in the early evening. We were hoping we could walk to a decent restaurant near the hotel in the evening. Based on the last couple of posts, is that not a great idea? Should we plan to eat in the city and then make our way back to the hotel for the night?

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Thanks Pudge. Interesting about the sailing ships’ stability - seems to be the consensus. Is there a roll call thread started for this Pride repositioning cruise? I looked, but didn’t see one.

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Thanks strenz. True about medication effectiveness. It’s actually my husband who has motion sickness, yet since the invention of Bonine he’s able to prepare and is much less affected. We were in the North Sea a couple years ago in 30-40’ seas on Celebrity. Vomit bags were discretely placed and the ship was a’rockin for a good 24 hours. We played Yahtzee, read, ate dinner and were fine, but rough seas aren’t ever fun in our opinion. I will say this Pride cruise I’m looking at is a repositioning Cruise, but isn’t a true Atlantic crossing. It moves from Iceland to Greenland, then makes its way to eastern Canada. There are 2 sets of two consecutive sea days between Iceland and Canada with stops in Greenland between. Perhaps not being in open water changes things somewhat.

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On the Star Pride right now, three days out of Lisbon, 15 foot swells. The ship is rocking gently and a fellow passenger who normally gets seasick ate some crystallized ginger and hasn’t had a problem. My concern is walking on solid ground after 2 weeks at sea! LOL!

Hi russg140,

Thanks for the input. I’ve been following your excellent live review and know you’ve definitely encountered some high seas on this crossing. I guess the stabilizers must be pretty good on Pride if 15’ swells only cause a gentle rocking.

I know the weather can’t be predicted, yet just trying to decide if the possibility of a great adventure on a lovely small ship outweighs the possibility of paying money to be miserable for a number of days.

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So I wonder about small ships handling rough seas also and am contemplating a September transatlantic crossing on Pride. Would you advise against this if one takes medication to combat motion sickness? Is it really only recommended for folks with great sea legs?

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Thanks, I thought since our cruise in a Northern Europe cruise, posting it here would be appropriate. I'll check out western Europe, as well.

We were there 2 days ago as we're doing a week pre-cruise in Amsterdam. We enjoyed it very much, although it was raining when we went. We walked from The Rijksmuseum and enjoyed the walk as well.

Loved the fresh fruit, nuts and the stroopwafels. If we'd had more time we would have bought some fish for a dinner later in the week - everything looked very fresh. We found the souvenir items to be the same as downtown, with better prices (a few Eros difference, not a huge discrepancy). It was far superior to the Bloemenmarkt in our opinion, which had most of the same trinkets at a higher price with larger crowds.

Hope this helps.

Both of you are so right! Why am I even deliberating this? Sometimes I guess I get so caught up in planning, I over plan! Thanks to you both.

Hello,

Need some advice pertaining to transport from Schipol. We'll be staying on Prinsengracht St. in Jordaan.

How difficult is it to maneuver baggage on the train from Schipol to Amsterdam Central, and then from Amsterdam Central to a taxi or tram? Lots of stairs, long walks, etc...?

We usually take public trans, however Tinker Taxi is quoting a very nice price of only about 10E total over public trans costs for a direct taxi to our apartment. Seems to be worthwhile, but looking for opinions.

Also, on the return from Piet Heinkade, would a direct with Tinker Taxi be the better option vs. taking our way to Central Station and taking the train? Price is the same with Tinker for both of my routes.

Thanks!

If you mean the 82nd airborne, now that's interesting.

 

I trusted the roads and my brand new German-made 2015 rental car. The roads are plenty safe for some serious speed. What I found out, though, is that people can be driving at VERY different speeds on the autobahn. Most roads with a speed limit, there's a traffic flow to it. But on the autobahn you can go 70mph in the right lane (thinking that's fast), and you can have two cars behind you, one going 120mph and the other going 140mph, haggling with each other over the left lane. If the guy doing 140mph comes at you from behind, he is going ANOTHER 70mph faster than you. It's easy to underestimate how much you need the brakes. Also, I was that guy going 120mph a couple times. And I was getting passed. What do I do...switch lanes? They are doing 70mph there. You have to be rude and stay in the left lane. Better rude than unsafe. It's still safe overall, but that's the new safety hazard I found. I wish I had read up about the autobahn on CC before I did it, so here I am.

Wow, this is very enlightening. We'll be driving the autobahn in August and will be sure to consider your experience. Thanks.

Thanks! I'm so glad I posted. I'll change the rental to Schipol and we'll take public trans out for the pick up.

I do have hotel booked in Bruges; there is a car park underground and I have reserved. No worries there.

I usually favour rental offices at the airport or outside the city to one's in the city centre for just this reason. Look at where your preferred rental company has offices that are an easy bus/train ride from your accommodation.

 

 

 

BTW, I'm totally with you re: maps vs. GPS - I challenge any GPS system to out-navigate me with a good map and my wits :D;). Haven't driven in the Netherlands/Belgium, but you might want to look at Michelin maps - I got their France Road Atlas when we toured there a few years ago and I found it very good.

Thank you! By the way, a map has never let me down either [emoji3]. My GPS on the other hand...

Thanks for the replies. Yes, we will be visiting areas in between and surrounding, thus it makes sense to rent a car vs taking trains.

Ine, I see what you're saying about Leidseplein pick up location. I was thinking only about the ease of the pick up from our apartment, not the ease of getting out of the city. I will rethink this. Would the airport be the recommendation or near central station? I understand the highway isn't far from the station.

We both drive manual shift, and have driven in the UK, Scandinavia, and Italy before. If the signage is clear we should be able to maneuver.

Hello,

We'll be in Amsterdam for a little over a week pre-cruise next month. We'll do an overnight trip to Bruges, renting a car. What is the best route to avoid potential city (Amsterdam and others) traffic? We're picking up our car in the Leidsplein area. Can you recommend a good map that include both the Netherlands and Belgium? We're old school (but not old :D) and still prefer a map to GPS.

Much thanks!

Its very flat but to be honest the bicycle drivers can get very irritated if one doesn´t follow the flow.

 

 

 

But one simple rule can get you out of trouble.

 

 

 

just keep to your right so the others can pass on your left.

Thanks Danish Viking. I didn't want to "become a hazard" to others or myself. In cities like Amsterdam it's borderline dangerous (you'll get knocked down or pushed around) for tourists to use bikes to get around. If the lanes are wide and commuters can pass easily, we might try this. We love using bikes for transportation.

The new city bikes are very technologically advanced. The have on board GPS tablets, electric motors and sophisticated locking systems. Sounds like not only a practical form of transport, but also an interesting experience.

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I usually agree that it is best to avoid HOHO buses and boats whenever possible, but if you are docking in Stadsgarden and you want to visit the Vasa museum, HOHO boats are a great option since they run directly to Vasa until 10 am since most of the other attractions aren't open yet. From Stadsgarden, the HOHO boats are a very quick and enjoyable way to get to Vasa prior to 10 am (I don't know how long it takes them to reach Vasa after 10 am since they will be making all stops). Stromma sells one ride tickets for 50 SEK on the boat, so it isn't too expensive.

I recently contacted Stromma to confirm they would run early, direct boats from Stadsgarden area to VASA for an upcoming cruise. They responded twice saying that they would not. They would be running a regular schedule beginning at 10:00 am. I have yet to contact other boat companies, however Stromma was pretty clear that they would not be an option for us.

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Does anyone have experience with bicycle rental in Copenhagen? I see that CityBike has a docking station at Langelinie and thought if the weather was nice it might be a pleasant way to get into town from the ship. Is it hard to get around? Similar to Amsterdam or more laid back?

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We picked up the bikes at City Bike but tour guide was through Tallin Travelers, guide was Karoline. Booked before we left with small down payment. Guide met us at ship as promised. They have other bike tour options, we picked the "funky one." It was just us two so we had lots of flexibility. She also helped with after ride suggestions.

 

 

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Great! Thank you so much for sharing.

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We were just there a couple of weeks ago and did a bicycle tour with a great guide. Found the company via Trip Advisor, guides are college students

Hello,

Thanks for this info. Do you remember if this tour/bike company was City Bike?

It's in the old town, yes?

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Thanks Anni! Sad to hear about Celebrity's later arrival and the train situation, but the info sure makes planning easier. Do you think Wismar would be the best choice for sampling food and local imbibing, while being in a picturesque spot. It almost sounds as though getting a van with driver might be the way to travel if we wanted to start our day earlier. Thoughts?

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Hi Anni,

We sail into Warnemunde in late August on Celebrity Silhouette staying from 9:30 - 24:00. A small party of 10-20 people would like to do a laid back, DIY excursion that includes sampling food and drinks in a few of the most quaint of nearby German towns. I've looked at possibly taking the train out to Wismar/Mecklenberg area (Schwerin too?), maybe stopping at Bad Doberan on our return to Warnemunde/Rostock (where we thought we'd continue our adventures before boarding the ship). Lubeck seems to be a little far to keep the trip unpressured. Wismar certainly seems to be a gem and worthy of the trip. Not sure if the towns offer nice pubs/beer gardens and cafes/street food (I know Wismar offers some of this) and thought you could help by weighing in and perhaps providing some suggestions/recommendations. Of course, we'd be on foot, so ease of getting into town is important. I greatly appreciated your website and the insight given to get me this far. Thanks.

Stephanie

I'm curious NCruiser, would you recommend and actual excursion over DIY in Helsinki? It sounds as though one might be able to see more and/or get around more efficiently. Thanks for posting. We're in the process of deciding how to maneuver in this, and other ports. This is helpful.

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We always obtain local currency through ATM's once in port. We have a Schwab checking account we use solely for international travel that provides an ATM card with zero foreign transaction fees and refunds your account for all ATM fees. We fund the account prior to the trip and have even transferred money into the account electronically while overseas. It has really simplified the international currency dilemma for us.

Also, when cruising the Med a couple years ago our cruise line had 2 ATM's by guest relations. One dispensed USD the other Euros. We used both a couple of times. No big deal since the Schwab account paid all the fees.

Hope this helps.

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Burma,

While I initially started this post a while ago looking for information for a trip I have in August, and you hijacked it, lol, I'm a huge trip planner and your request is super intriguing to me. Wow. 45 people and 25 rooms. Two things I've found: a website at hotelplanner dot com, that takes your group request and bids it out to hotels. You put all of your info in the system, including specific needs of the group (elevators, close to center, etc) and hotels respond. There is no fee for this service. I ran a test, plugging in April 13-16, 2016 and so far two hotels have responded with no availability within a few moments. This may only be because the rates aren't out for April 2016 yet and you may need to wait a few more weeks to get accurate replies. There is another service like this with groople dot com. Google group hotel planning and you may find more services such as this.

Another suggestion, and you may have done this already, is to phone the large hotel company's group sales lines directly - not the hotel directly. Focus on European chains vs North American. For example NH hotels has a dedicated group reservation number on their website. The hotels are 3 and 4 stars, well located in Amsterdam and many are moderately priced. Also Accor hotels with the Mercure/Ibis brands. Mercure Arthur Frommer is available for mid April 2016 dates from 170 Usd and ibis Amsterdam center near central station starts at 135 usd.

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