seeriteR

We are planning to walk from the ship to the station at the end of our September cruise and catch the 9:16 train through Rome and Venice all the way to Trieste. We will have wheeled luggage (1 each). Are there any barriers (steps are okay) on the way to the station that would prevent us from taking luggage? Is there enough room by our seats on the train for the luggage or is it stored somewhere? We plan to purchase our tickets 90 days in advance (anytime now) to ensure a seat. Is the trip to Rome reserved seating or open? 

On 11/5/2020 at 5:14 PM, Hoopster95 said:

I sailed on  Marina (Oceania) Feb 14-26. On land Did 3 days in Rio, 2 days Buenos Aires and 3 days at Iguassu Falls.... got home Feb 29 just before everything was starting to get sketchy in North America. Bucket list trip... Iguassu is the least known "wonder" of the world imo. Argentina and Iguassu were totally awesome, would love to go back someday

 

Hoping to do something similar in March 2023. Any suggestions or contacts for arranging a trip from Rio to Iguassu Falls? Our ship departs BA on March 10. Planning to spend 2 days in Rio and 2 in BA with Iguassu in the middle. Two more couples on our Roll Call would like to do the same. 

On 2/23/2021 at 12:48 PM, Organized Chaos said:

No, there won't be zip lines between ships (c'mon 🙄), but it'll still be a unique experience. It is what you make of it. We'll be on the Sunrise and are looking forward to it.

We'll be there with you! Sailing March 5.

Now that would be awesome! We are booked on Sunrise for March 5, 2022 and looking forward to the Sailabration - whatever it turns out to be!

Jim and Pam are sailing on Westerdam, 04-Mar-22

31-Day S. America, Inca & Panama Canal Discovery

Please add us to your list. We did this once before and it was so nice to get the email prior to our departure and thinking, "Yes! Someone knows we are going cruising!" Thank you for doing this! Keeping our fingers crossed that we will get into SA for this one!

On 2/5/2021 at 2:02 PM, Love-to-ride said:

We booked the Pride for 9/11/2022 a few months ago, round trip from Rome. After our Legend cruise was cancelled this year we booked the Pride for 9/02/2022 London to Rome. Our first B2B, any info would be great.

The Roll Call for both Sept 2, 2022 and Sept 11, 2022 are up and running. Just click on the dates and join the group!

Thanks for taking us on this trip with you! Good wishes for Christmas and your next adventure!

Jim

11 hours ago, Tbay said:

We are doing this cruise next year, and I appreciate your cautionary warnings.  You have had quite the adventure. Stay safe.

Glad to hear you made it onto Devil's Island!

For those doing this cruise next year, the Roll Call is up and running. Click HERE!

2 hours ago, Btimmer said:

I just posted a long update to my blog for Belem.  There's also some cautionary info in there for the first time.  
 

Wow! That was quite a tale. Thank you for sharing. Enough lemons! May the rest of your journey be sweet!

Just sitting here waiting for it! Will this be another 10:30 dinner day?

On 12/1/2019 at 10:27 PM, Btimmer said:

This was a private excursion and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again...

Tim,

We are on the 2020 sailing. Would you mind sharing your list of excursions and how they were? If you don't post it here, could you please send me an email when you get home? kratz dot travel at gmail dot com

Thanks!

Jim

PS

If you run into Towelman (Howard), please say HI from me. 

29 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

...So far, though, it doesn't sound like it's been a lot of fun going down the river with all of the missed ports, bugs and going aground in the silt. Hopefully, you're finding plenty to do on the ship.

To me, those things add to the adventure! I agree that missing ports is a disappointment, but how many people can say they got stuck in the mud on a cruise ship? 

There is a link to the launch video HERE. 

250 launches for Ariane!

After two postponements and a temporary halt in the timeline due to weather conditions, Ariane 5 was finally able to fly this Tuesday, November 26 to carry out its mission and put into orbit its two passengers of the day, the telecommunications satellites TIBA- 1 (Egypt) and inmarsat GX5 (United Kingdom).

A mission with a particular flavor since it was the 250th launch of the Ariane family, which comes almost 40 years after the launch of the first launch Ariane, December 24, 1979 at the Guiana Space Center!

Wow! That was almost an instant response! Thank you!

Following your blog. We are booked for this cruise in 2020. Thanks for posting extra info here and your willingness to answer questions.

I have two: 1) What is there to do/see at Devil's Island? and 2) The 2020 itinerary shows Macapa as a "service stop". What is that?

Safe travels!

Jim

November 6, 2019

Veendam

7 days

My introduction to Indian food was during our first sailing on Carnival. We were on Liberty in 2011 and sat at a table for 2 that was next to an Indian couple from Toronto who were on their first cruise. We quickly got acquainted. They both ordered the Indian food. When the waiter brought their orders, he presented all these large plates of wonderful smelling food that seemed much more than anyone could eat! When I commented on how good it smelled, Karan offered to share hers with me because it was more than she could eat. I accepted and was instantly hooked! The next night, I ordered my own. Since then, I have enjoyed Indian food in various MDR's on both Carnival and Holland America ships.

Daily lunch at Tandoor on the Splendor was wonderful! I hope it is not going away. 

On 3/25/2019 at 8:51 AM, georgiacat said:

This cruise sounds very interesting.  I looked at it, but I wish to know about airfare.  How do I check for airfare through Carnival on the website?  Do I have to be registered for the cruise first?  Where do I look?

thanks

georgiacat, you can find information on the Carnival web site. Here is a link for the Fly2Fun page https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3110/~/carnivals-fly2fun-air-program 

Djptcp,

A few months in Spain sounds awesome! Hope it works out for you! At this time, we are planning to stay only a week in Croatia before getting on board in Venice but we might also go earlier and spend another week in Germany. We'll see how things develop. There is a lot of time to plan!

Maybe we'll see you on board in October!

cellfree, 

You were on the Magic with us in January. I saw you signed up for the M&M on the Legend TA from Barcelona and also here on this page. We have a Roll Call going for the TA. Many people have combined it with the October 20 sailing from Venice to Barcelona to make it B2B.

Come on over and check out the Roll Call. I created a spreadsheet for the B2B to help organize activities. Hope to hear from you!

Jim and Pam

Oh, and when I got my first order, it included a code for 1,000 points.

Good to know about the 1,000 points. Sounds like you get it with each order. I ordered 2 cards today. In the future, I'll order them separately to get an extra 1,000 points!

Now that I used up all my points, I have to wait until tomorrow to begin adding more. You can accumulate up to 5,000 points per day. You get the maximum points even if your answers are incorrect!

Thanks for the review so far. Really enjoying it and feel like I'm there with you.

 

We'll be sailing on the Magic in January and this is a great overview.

James,

Thanks for your review and many pics. Looking forward to seeing the ship in person!

bdpartrick,

We're on Magic Jan 20.

...One other thing, personal and, granted, irrelevant to most people, is attending Mass - always enjoy a little singing there, the homily...

Excellent point. HAL is one of the few remaining lines that offers religious services on board - something we also appreciate very much. We attend the Interdenominational services but also an occasional Mass and Shabbat service. We had lunch with Father Roman and enjoyed being with Rabbi Eliot on excursions during our last cruise. Always mention this "perk" in the HAL comments after a cruise. They need to know it is appreciated.

I'm always happy to hear of good experiences from other HAL cruisers. We fit into the same category as the OP and enjoy HAL ships, food, entertainment (mostly), passengers and crew. What stands out for us with HAL are the enrichment programs and being able to walk all the way around deck 3! So many other ships cut you off at the bow.

We were just on the Voyage of the Vikings July 18 - August 25 on Rotterdam and loved every day, every port, almost every speaker, the food, the MDR, the Lido, the viewing area on deck 6 forward, etc. Was there anything not good? Well, there were some problems with the automated wake up calls and one evening with no cold water but hey, we didn't let it ruin our vacation. Sure, the ship is old but we just walked around the buckets collecting leaking rain water. (We were on a brand new MSC ship which had the same thing and worse that were worthy of complaint - and we did!)

We still sail Carnival due to the price but our expectations are low. We let everyone else do their thing and have always been able to find a quiet place to eat, relax and enjoy the sun. Any cruise is a good one but HAL's are special.

This morning we had the Dr Suess Breakfast scheduled for 8:45am (we signed up for this on our first day). This was one of the best activities on the ship; people of all ages were there and got dressed up in character (we did too).

This was one of our favorite activities last year. The photos alone are worth it but the real thrill is to see how excited the kids (and some adults!) are. Most enjoyable Carnival experience we've had! Thanks for posting all the photos.

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