Koz1

Thanks dandbuk.   After reading your  review of your tour with Mario I sent an email to him and his daughter Antonela replied, telling me that she handles his bookings etc and she sent me details of the different tours that he offers.   We booked a city tour, a National Park tour and a tour to Escondido & Fagnano Lakes for early January and all tours were wonderful and we are very pleased that we booked with him.  Mario was very friendly and knowledgable about all of the places that he showed us.   We went to a lot of places that the big tour buses wouldn't have taken us and we didn't feel rushed at each stop as we took a lot of photos.   We would highly recommend using Mario for any tours while you're in Ushuaia.   

This website has links to contact Mario and Antonela through WhatsApp if you would like to make any enquiries.
https://www.atom.bio/ushuaiaprivatedriver

  

We are booked on the G Adventures “Spirit of Shackleton” expedition cruise on 10 February, 2021 that visits the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica on the G Expedition.   As we prepare for our trip we have watched a lot of YouTube videos about Antarctica cruises and when searching again yesterday I found this new video that was filmed on the February 2020 “Spirit of Shackleton” cruise with the same itinerary as ours, that had just been uploaded the day before by Stefan Bernhard.   

We were very impressed with this video, which includes a lot of wildlife footage and has been edited with background music and an informative commentary and is one of the best video productions we have seen of all of the Antarctica videos we have watched.  

I wrote a comment on his YouTube page telling him that I thought this video should be seen by as many people as possible and suggested that he post a link here.  He has replied “I don't do social media personally, so please feel free to share my film where ever you like! :)”   so here are the details of the video produced by Stefan Bernhard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bgIbT-BrYM

Antarctica - "Spirit of Shackleton" - 2020 Feb 12 on G Expedition

A summing-up trip documentary of the outstanding "Spirit of Shackleton" expedition with G Adventures to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica, from 12 February to 2 March 2020. We had a truly great time! Thank you to all the staff on the ship, of course the marvellous expedition team, as well as our friendly co-passengers!

Thanks gbenjo.  Glad to hear that.  Hopefully they'll update their website with the correct information at some stage.

Has anyone claimed a GST refund with the Tourist Refund Scheme at the Sydney OPT?

We'll be on the Celebrity Solstice in a few weeks and have something I purchased that I can claim a refund of the GST under the TRS.      According the the Border Force website  https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/tourist-refund-scheme/for-travellers   under "At Seaports":  "You can make a claim between one and four hours before your ship’s scheduled departure time."     Our ship is scheduled to depart at 6.45pm so according to that statement we could only make the claim between 2.45pm and 5.45pm. We are usually on board well before then and I would expect that most passengers would be on board well before 5.45pm.   Has anyone noticed if claims can be made earlier than 4 hours before a ship departure?   I've seen signs in the terminal stating that passengers are not allowed to leave the ship once they have boarded so I wouldn't expect that I would be allowed to go back out to the TRS desk once I have boarded.   

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

2 hours ago, TheDee said:

Koz1,

When we had our Vow Renewal ceremony in August there was also no official cruise photographer.  The assistant cruise director offered to take pictures of the entire ceremony.   She used my iPhone and the pictures came out great.  It would be pretty difficult to take a bad picture on Motu Mahana.  🙂

Linda

Thanks Linda.   Your photos are great!  Thanks for posting.  We're really looking forward to the ceremony. 

After reading the discussions and photos here we've just added the Vow Renewal package to our booking for the 29 August 2020 14 night  Marquesas, Tuamotus & Society Islands cruise.   Thanks everyone.   

Although the website lists the cost as $315 I was charged $290.  When I enquired about whether the package listed on the website is the same with the lower price I was charged I was told that it no longer includes the  8"x10" photo portrait as they no longer have a photographer on board.   Hopefully we'll find someone there, either ship staff or other passengers, who can take some photos for us with our camera.  

13 minutes ago, davwen81 said:

Koz1, we are also Aussies and have  our first PG cruise booked for April. We booked through a US TA and got a very nice cash back offer of over $1400 for a deck 6 balcony D cabin which reduced our fare, then about October last year PG offered a promotional OBC of $125 PP which we were able to add via our TA. We were hoping to add the Valentines day one this year as others had done previously but it wasn’t available for old bookings just new bookings. It’s a good deal and I dont think you have to spend It in the spa,  others have used it towards tours. So I’d book using this promotion and just keep checking back through the year on the PG app for further promos and if they’re open for new and old bookings ask your TA to add it. Mine actually got us $50 more each than the promo, so that was even better! We’ll use that for two excursions we are doing in the Marquesas Islands where independent tour guides are few and far between. Hope that helps 

cheers Wendy

Thanks Wendy.  I saw this second reply from you after I replied to your first one so you've answered my questions already.  We're looking at a Category E deck 4 cabin and they're not offering any extra off the cruise price, although when they quoted a category F price their price was 5% lower than PGs price.  I called back and he said he'll ask a Manager tomorrow if they can do better with the cruise price too, as he said the discounts vary depending on cabin grade.  

28 minutes ago, davwen81 said:

KozHi we booked our PG cruise over a year ago for this April. At the time there were no offers, but during the year they had an OBC offer for old and new bookingsof $300, which our TA added to our booking. We will use this towards our excursions too though we’ve only booked two as we are going to the Narquesas and independent operators are few and far between.

This Valentines offer is a good one and I had been waiting for this as in previous  years you could add it to old bookings, but this year 

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Wendy and David, Hi, we're planning to book the August 29 2020 Marquesas 14 night cruise so could use OBC towards excursions    Did you book through an Australian TA?   The couple of quotes I've had from TAs here are in US Dollars and are for the same price as the PG website.  This morning I've contacted a US based TA that I've used a few years ago and they can give me a $500 OBC from them as well as the $200 spa credit from PG, and I haven't found Australian TAs offering extra OBCs like US based TAs usually offer.   

We visited Papeete, Moorea and Bora Bora while on a cruise from Hawaii to Sydney on the Celebrity Solstice in October 2013 and have wanted to go back to French Polynesia ever since.   We've been reading a lot of the posts here and have decided to book a Paul Gauguin cruise for August 2020.  

How often do PG have promotional offers when booking, like OBC?    They currently have a Valentines Day offer that expires on February 16 that gives a $200 spa credit, box of chocolates and a bottle of sparkling wine but we would prefer an On Board Credit that we could use towards the cost of excursions.  From past experience, has anyone noticed if they usually introduce a new offer soon after the current one expires?  We'll wait until next week to book in case they do have a different offer.     We've only recently been considering a Paul Gauguin cruise so don't know what promotional offers they usually have at different times of the year.

I've seen mention in some old posts of people having OBC offers added to current bookings.  Do they usually do that most of the time when you request it?   If the price of a cruise increases can you still get OBC offers added to an existing booking without having to pay the higher price?

Thanks for any advice you can offer. 

We sailed on the Ovation on March 8. When we did online checkin the earliest time that we could choose was from 1pm. When an email came a week before the cruise it said:

"To enhance your check-in and boarding experience, please arrive at the cruise terminal at your selected appointment time. For those that have not selected an appointment time, your cruise check-in will take place between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m."

We are Diamond and a friend who has sailed on the Ovation and is Diamond Plus told me that as Diamond we would be able to board any time. We arrived at around 11.40am and after lining up in the main line, once inside we were referred to the Diamond line and were checked in quickly and nothing was said about being earlier than the 1pm appointment time on the SetSail Pass.

I tried to order some Norwegian currency through City Forex and selected my Black Watch cruise but when I tried to use my Australian Debit and Credit cards it didn't work so I phoned City Forex and was told that they don't accept foreign cards, only UK ones, so yesterday I purchased some Norwegian Kroner here in Australia.

We will be sailing B2B on the Black Watch on the 8 July Norwegian Fjords cruise and the 17 July Arctic cruise. I've phoned the FO office and asked if we buy some Norwegian Krone for the 8 July cruise can we use it for both cruises and exchange any unused notes on board the second cruise since the first few ports on the second cruise are also in Norway. I was told that I would have to call City Forex to find out if this is possible.

I called City Forex and the lady I spoke to said she would check with the person who handles the Fred Olsen account. She came back and said that they didn't know as this service is arranged by Fred Olsen and that I would have to call the Fred Olsen office.

I think I will have to wait until we are on board to get a definite answer.

I'm really not sure how much Norwegian currency to buy as we have already paid for some tours and we usually use credit cards wherever possible when we travel so we'll probably get a couple of hundred dollars worth and get more from an ATM if we run out.

Ken

I read on the FO website that this service is only available from certain departure ports--is the correct? I'm sailing out of Tilbury and that is not one of the listed ports.

Hi Tamara, you can order currency for the Black Watch Arctic cruise on 17 July. Go to the FO website and click on "Cruise Extras", select "Foreign Currency". On the "Foreign Currency Exchange" web page go to "How to order your currency" and click on the link listed under

Online : visit cityforex.co.uk .

That will take you to the CityForex website where you will see:

"Welcome to the City Forex - Fred Olsen travel currency site.

Our rates are very competitive so order your currency now and have it waiting on board the ship saving you time and money. Exchange any unused EURO, US Dollar or Norwegian Krone notes back on board the ship and receive the same rate as at time of purchasing.

All orders placed here must be paid for by bank transfer direct or debit card at the time of your order."

You then select which Fred Olsen ship you are on and when you select the Black Watch you go to "Please select your cruise" and it shows all of the Black Watch cruises, including "W1610 Tilbury : 17 July 2016 : Black Watch : Arctic"

You then put in your Booking Reference and other details to place the order.

Ken

When we have self disembarked and advised Celebrity of the fact we hear nothing more from them. We have queued up prior to disembarkation time to ensure an early get away. I do agree that if disembarkation is say 6.30 am and you turn up at 6.30 you will be about 100 people behind the head of the queue. That said it only takes 10 - 15 minutes to clear the early bird line.

In the OP's case they don't have to be at the early disembarkation but can take their time to meet their shuttle

Thanks to you both for your replies. So even if they tell us to be at the earliest disembarkation to leave the ship before 7am there should be no problem if we don't line up until around 7.30am - 7.45am and still have our luggage with us even though we were supposed to have left earlier? Since we started doing self-disembarkation and taking our own bags off we've always lined up before the time we're told to, which has been the first group to leave the ship.

We're planning to do a self disembarkation at Civittavechia at the end of our cruise on the Constellation in September and the ship is scheduled to arrive at 5am. We have a private transfer booked to pick us up at 8.30am and our flight from Rome is at 12.55pm.

We've done self-disembarkation on our last few cruises, on Royal Caribbean and on Princess, and we've usually had to be among the first groups leaving the ship and that has always worked out well.

For anyone who has done a self-disembarkation on Celebrity, is it also the first group of people leaving the ship? I'm thinking that if we have to leave the ship by say 7am we'll have a long wait outside before the 8.30am private transfer. If they say you have to be in the first group to leave and you leave a bit later would that be an issue (besides perhaps the lifts being busier later)?

I'm wondering if we should change the pickup time for the transfer to an earlier time? I don't mind how early we get to the airport - I'd always prefer to be there early rather than worrying about being late.

I have not taken this tour BUT....I was born in Newport RI and have been back numerous times to visit and show friends that were visiting from overseas around the Mansions, Cliff Walk and other sites. Newport is glorious :)

 

I did look up your tour - sounds like you will get a nice look at the best of the city as well as one of my favorite mansions, The Breakers although admittedly, it is not easy to choose - they are all uniquely magnificent. Although you'll come in by tender to port, you do get in early so I wonder if it might not be better trying to do a small portion of the Cliff Walk prior to your tour rather than later, perhaps arranging to call for a taxi to get you back to the Visitor Center where you board your trolley to start the tour - I would choose a mansion as a landmark to meet a taxi - they of course run along the Cliff Walk/Ocean/Bellevue Avenue where it would be easiest to rendezvous and return in the taxi...waiting on a bus just eats up time.

 

Trying to do the Cliff Walk after a day spent touring - it is an arduous though breathtaking walk - might be challenging and you won't get very far to make it thoroughly worthwhile. I'd rather see you happily back at the visitor center, perhaps relaxing and having a snack whilst enjoying the sun shining the sparkling waterfront reflecting on your Newport day and knowing you'll be back on the ship in time. Perhaps you'll have had a morning Cliff Walk to think about? Even just wandering out on the very long, precarious jetty can be enough, really...but it's entirely up to you to know what works. The last person I brought to the Cliff Walk was a hearty New Zealand farmer that I once climbed a glacier with (in New Zealand - he made easy work of the glacier!) and the Cliff Walk was a *bit* of a challenge for him - winds, walking on the rocks, etc. but a great adventure...just a portion of it.

 

I hope you love Newport :)

Thanks for your suggestion to do part of the Cliff Walk before the tour Colleen. I see that some Princess shore excursions have starts as early as 7.45am and 8.00am so hopefully if we are ready to leave early we can be ashore by 8am and we could get a taxi to take us to the start of the Cliff Walk. Our tour is at 10am and they say we should arrive 15 - 20 minutes prior to tour time. I'm thinking if we can get a taxi as soon as we're off the tender we could comfortably have a 30 to 45 minute walk along part of the Cliff Walk and still get back in plenty of time to join our tour.

Would you suggest that we ask the driver who takes us up to the cliff walk if he can pick us up at an arranged time, or just phone the taxi company to organise it?

I have a map of the Cliff Walk that I have printed out. Would you suggest that we start at the South End, the North End, or some middle point for an easier part of the walk considering the limited time we will have available? If we started at the South End could we walk as far as Marble House or Rosecliff in 30 to 45 minutes?

Thanks again.

Ken

We'll be visiting Newport, R.I. on September 23 and our ship is scheduled to arrive at 7am and depart at 4pm.

We have booked a "Grand Mansion Tour with The Breakers" with Viking Tours for 10am, that is scheduled to last for 3 hours. This tour includes the Scenic Overview tour that lasts 90 minutes as well as the visit to The Breakers.

We would like to walk part of the cliff walk but with the tour finishing at 1pm I don't think there would be enough time to travel by local bus back up to start part of the Cliff Walk, since we would want to be back to board a tender by 3pm ready for our 4pm departure.

For anyone who has done this tour, do you cover most of the Scenic Overview 90 minute tour before arriving at The Breakers? If we arranged with the driver that we would not re-board the trolley after we finish our time at The Breakers but stay there and walk part of the Cliff Walk while we are in the area, and then travel back by local bus, would we be missing much of the Scenic Overview tour that shows the various sights around Newport?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Thank you everyone for your replies. We'll still head up to St. Martins and drive along the Fundy Trail Parkway as originally planned.

We'll be visiting Saint John on Monday 26 September and have booked a rental car to be picked up at 8am. Our ship is scheduled to arrive at 7am and depart at 4pm.

We've been planning to drive to the St. Martins sea caves and then drive the Fundy Trail Parkway. I've just looked up the tides for that day and it shows that the first low tide will be at 2:50 am and the next low tide at 3:15 pm. The first high tide will be at 9:05 am and the next high tide at 9:35 pm.

Since we will not be there at a suitable time for low tide to be able to walk on the ocean floor is it still worth driving to St. Martins or are there other options for the day that we should consider? I gather that it is still a scenic area with plenty of opportunities for photos on the day.

We have booked our flights to arrive at JFK and have booked to stay at the Sleep Inn Brooklyn Downtown.

We had looked at the Comfort Inn Red Hook, which is only two blocks from the cruise terminal, but I read some reviews saying that there are no restaurants nearby and that people had to travel by taxi to get something to eat so we decided to book at the Sleep Inn Brooklyn Downtown which is near a lot of restaurants and is only 7 minutes drive away from the cruise terminal.

Yes, its not an easy ride. The roads are narrow. Some parts only one lane so you have to wait at a "road pocket"/"waiting place" (which are marked with a sign "M" in blue and white) for cars to pass. If you have passed your "road pocket" you must back up. This especially when there are busses coming.

If there is a bus approaching/in a curve or on the way out of a curve you have to back up or stop as there simply isnt enough room.

Its not for the faint hearted and my advice its to take is slow...very slow.

When driving there isnt much protection between the car and a few hundre meters of freefall.

 

But, is a stunning and rewarding drive.

 

I hope I didn't scare you to much:):) Lots of people do the drive every year and no accidents yet.

Thanks for the information about the drive to Mt Dalsnibba Lars. I've discussed it with my Wife and we've decided to book the two bus tours. I know it would be more flexible having the car and I would still be willing to try it but we are both a bit nervous with heights and with often having to back up for busses and not being used to the road we think we'll enjoy it more on the bus this time.

Ken

I always say that when cruising in Norway prepare for rain. If you get sun ️its a bonus[emoji23]

Since ️its highseason everything is set to sell out.

To make sure you get your departures I advice to pre purchase your tickets.

Thanks Lars. I've contacted the Visit Flam Visitor Center today and received the reply "Unfortunately the booking for summer cruises in 2016 is not available on our website yet. We are currently working on finalizing the products for publishing on the website and booking online will be available at any time soon. Stegastein viewpoint booking is ready and you may purchase your tickets now." We will book everything together as soon as bookings are available for the boat/bus trip.

For our day at Geiranger we are in port from 8am to 4pm and we are planning to book the Mountain Highlights bus trip to Mt Dalsnibba and Flydalsjuvet and also the Panorama Bus Geiranger that visits the Ornesvingen and Flydalsjuvet viewpoints. I've been considering renting a car for the day instead of doing the tours so we can have the flexibility of spending more time at the viewpoints and stopping at other places along the way as well but my wife is worried about how narrow the road is on the way to Mt Dalsnibba, especially if there are a lot of buses travelling both ways. Is it a difficult road to drive? Is there sufficient room to pull over if buses are passing each other, to allow them to pass?

Ken - I would suggest since you have the time to do the "slow" service instead of the "fast" service.

More to see. Travel will be closer to shore and you will visit more places. For sure you will get more photo ops on the slow boat to Gudvangen (:D)

 

2:15 hrs in Gudvangen leaves you plenty of time as the village is really tiny and its not much there.

 

10 minutes between departures are to narrow for my liking. If you can do the 15:00 departure I would choose this. Gives you a little more time to breath and to sit down and just listen to the silence.

Thats magical:)

Thanks again Lars. The slower service it is!

I've been looking again at the 2016 timetables and we're now thinking that rather than do the 9am boat trip we'll do the Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour at 9am or 10am and then the 12:00 boat trip from Flam to Gudvangen, arriving at 14:15. This then gives us the option to get a bus from Gudvangen back to Flam at 15:30 or 16:00 and be back in plenty of time for our ship departure of 17:30. If you buy the bus ticket at Flam where you buy the boat ticket do you have to pick a definite time for the bus? Can you just buy the bus ticket at Gudvangen when you're ready to go back to Flam?

You strongly advised to pre-purchase the 9am boat departure as it is a very popular departure. Do you think we should pre-purchase the 12:00 boat trip in advance or could we wait and book it when we first arrive?

Also for the Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour is that something that is likely to sell out as well? It's getting the balance between buying in advance and being sure you've got tickets for that day or waiting to see what the weather is like in case it is foggy or rainy and you can't see much. If we do book ahead we're thinking we'll go for the 10am bus tour, which is scheduled to arrive back at 11.30am, giving 30 minutes before the 12:00 boat trip. Would you be happy with a 30 minute gap between them with the 10am bus tour? I would think that should be enough.

Thanks again for your advice Lars.

Ken

You can chance it and purchase tickets on arrival but I will strongly advice to pre purchase in case your departure will be sold out as 9am is a very popular departure.

Thanks Lars. I've just looked at the 2016 timetables and there are changes from the 2015 timetable so I can no longer stop at Undredal at 09:45 and then get on the next service at 10:45 to arrive at Gudvangen at 12:15. There is still a 9am service from Flam and it stops at Undredal at 09:50 but the next service to stop at Undredal leaves Flam at 12:00 and Undredal at 12:50, arriving at Gudvangen at 14:15. They now have the new Fast service that departs Flam at 10:00 and arrives at Gudvangen at 11:30. I had looked for 2016 timetables on the visitflam website after someone mentioned that the new ones are available but couldn't find them but I've just done a Google search for "visit flam ferry timetables" and found the new timetables.

The changes will now mean that we can still travel to Gudvangen but not also spend time at Undredal. I'm thinking that it would still be better to get the 09:00 service that stops at Aurland, Undredal, Dyrdal and Styvi on the way to Gudvangen as I would think it would be nice to sail close to shore as we come in and out of each town and I would probably be able to get some nice photos along the way, whereas the fast direct service, although a 45 minute quicker trip, would not bring us as close to shore as we pass each of these places.

The 09:00 service would arrive at Gudvangen at 11:15 and we can then travel back to Flam on a bus leaving at 12:00 or 13:30. Do you think there is enough to see while walking around Gudvangen if we spend 2hr15 there and travel back on the 13:30 bus, which arrives back in Flam at 13:50.

We could then book the 14:00 or 15:00 Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour. Would you think it would be safer to book the 15:00 service in case there is a delay with the bus from Gudvangen arriving back by 13:50?

Thanks again for your advice.

Ken

Ken - These are 2 amazing itineraries. I bet it will be special sailing on a smaller vessel that can take you closer to some of the sights the larger vessels cant reach.

 

If you do the boat trip you will - as you say spend some time exploring Gudvangen and Undredal. In addition to cruising Nærøyfjord.

It would not matter if the tour and your ship is cruising the Nærøyfjord. Its such a stunning fjord you will love to sail it twice.

Also, being on the tour boat and the cruise ship will give you a very different perspective of the fjord.

You have truly planned a fantastic day with enough time to explore the 2 villages.

15 minutes in Gudvangen is not enough but with 1:45 hrs it will give you enough time to explore.

Gudvangen and Undredal are tiny little places so your 1hr - 145 hr is enough.

 

I would say it paramount to get of the ship early and depart for your tour on the 9am boat. I can not see why you shouldnt be able to get of so early.

Thanks Lars. Would we need to buy tickets for the 9am boat in advance or do you think we should be okay to buy them when we arrive, which would give us flexibility in case the weather is not the best?

We also want to do the 3pm Stegastein Viewpoint 90 minute bus tour so I think we should book that in advance as I'd like the chance to take some photos from a high viewpoint over some fjords since most of our photos are going to be taken at sea level from the ship or shore and I wouldn't want to miss that trip.