waiting2retire

Nice recap for someone (me) who was also on the cruise. Agree with everything. Totally awesome staff in every venue. We were sad to leave this morning as we disembarked early to spend a week in Paris. Very smooth disembarkation and we got a taxi to the train station quickly.

 

 

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Hope you come back to this thread Spideysmum! We are disembarking in Le Havre as well in August. Did you pre-purchase your train tickets? Did you get the 10:05 train to Paris or an earlier one? Would appreciate any information that would make our trip smoother :)

Thank you so much for letting us come with you!!! My daughter and I are doing this cruise in July and taking many of the same excursions. We are also spending 3 days in London prior to the cruise and 4 days in Paris after, so I am anxious to hear about your adventures in London as well.

Have a wonderful trip... you deserve it :)

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Monicajay!

And to mcship, thank you so much for taking the time to help your fellow cruisers by providing such detailed directions and photos :) We have scheduled a tour for the morning, but if we're not ready to get back on the ship at the end of the tour, now we know where to go to have a swim and walk in the warm sand :D

Thanks so much for the review and the pics! I will be on the next sailing; first X cruise and your post has really added to my excitement !!!

Thanks for the responses. I did see somewhere on the boards that the property was built and is maintained by Carnival Corporation, which is the reason for the shocking fact that it is actually cheaper to take the ship's tour. We will have to weigh whether the cost savings is worth standing in long lines with the rest of the ship's tour and having to stay for 7 hours! Maybe we could just let the tour operator know we are going to take a cab back when we have had enough

Capt_BJ, could you hazard a guess as to how much "silly expensive" would be for a taxi?

Is it easy/possible/safe to take a taxi from the port in Ocho Rios to Mystic Mountain? There are four of us, and we only want to do the zipline, so we want to get there before the ship's tours and go straight to the zipline first. Also, the ship's tour says it is a 7 hour tour and we don't want to spend 7 hours on a tour for this. I understand that we can buy tickets there, go up the aerial tram, zipline and come right back down again. I don't see any reason to book a tour operator for transportation only if taxis are available to take us and bring us back to the ship when we are done.

Comments?

I am about to book the Chilkoot Yukon Bus and Rail Excursion with Lunch/Husky Puppy Camp/Emerald Lake for our group of six (ages 52 to 81). I did the same tour in 2008 with HAL and loved it! I didn't find it too long because there was so much to see and do. Chilkoot quoted me $20 less pp than the same ship's tour. I sent an email to the address posted on their site and they got back to me very quickly with prices and availability for the day I will be in port.

Fabulous review and photos, thanks so much for taking the time to do this!! I just booked my second AK cruise for August, and have already selected my Pinnacle Grill lunch choices for Glacier Bay day :)

I wish you many many more great cruises, even if you need to go back to work for a while first!

Thanks for the input on the promenade cabins. The idea of them kind of intrigues me, so I think that's what I will book. I am also toying with the idea of a balcony, but I can't decide whether it is worth the $$ for this cruise.

Bonnie

I am also about to book the Adventure November 28 TA. This will be my first RCI experience, and I am looking for opinions on whether the inside cabins or the promenade cabins are better. They are the same price.

Which do you think this newbie should book???

Bonnie

Hi Burm,

I am pretty sure that this is the Sofitel Miami, although it is now showing $110 on Hotwire.

Just wanted to report my Hotwire deal for the 4* Crowne Plaza Manhattan hotel in Times Square for $189 per night for my precruise nights of September 14 and 15, 2009.

It's possible that rates will still come down, but I'm happy with the price for the location and mid-September timeframe. This hotel is currently going for $449 per night for those dates.

Bonnie

Woohoo! :D:D Now I'm even more excited about this cruise! Thanks for the inside info :)

Bonnie

All,

 

 

For waiting2retire and Samsmom, sorry I wasn't complete in my descriptions -- yes, there is still a library, and it is in the Explorations Cafe on Deck 10. The choice of books seems about the same or a little less than when it was down below. If you don't bring your own books, I would recommend that one of your embarkation day activities be to hit the libary before all the good titles are checked out.

 

Thanks so much Dave, for taking the time to clarify this. I will certainly do as you suggest and hit the library as soon as I can. Samsmom, what time are you boarding :D:p

Bonnie

I know you said you weren't a big fan of the shows, but I'd like to invite you to see Joel Mason's Tribute to Elton John. He's on your cruise this week, and is pretty good. I'm not just sayin' that....no, really.:D

I have been wanting to see Joel's show for the longest time; I have heard so many good things about it on these boards and from others I know who have seen him onboard.

Please tell me he will still be on board for the March 29 Westerdam sailing so that I can finally see his show :o:D

Bonnie

Thanks so much for posting Dave. I will be on the Westerdam at HMC in just three short weeks :D. I will be following your reports with great interest and hope you don't mind answering some questions if you have time.

I spend a lot of time on a cruise reading, and was hoping to not have to add to my already overweight luggage by choosing books from HAL's normally well-stocked library. Now your comments on the library have me somewhat concerned. Where is the library now? I recall they had moved the library on the Zuiderdam up to the Crow's Nest area along with the Explorations Cafe. Can you tell me if that is where the library is now, and does it seem to be well stocked?

Have a great cruise!

Bonnie

Zippercat,

Captain Mateboer's book is available on the Noordam, and when we were on it in November, he held a booksigning event, so watch the dailies to go and have it signed.

Bonnie