lcumpire

We are on the Reflection in May that visits Athens. I have arranged a tour with privategreecetours.com and he just asked me for my passport number and country because the Greek government has now made this data mandatory for travel related services.

Has anyone heard of this requirement?

Thanx

Happy New Year

We are on the RCCI Monarch of the Seas sailing Jan 14, 2011. We are flying into MCO Thursday evening and looking for something to do Friday morning before boarding ship. Did a little research and found the Port Canaveral Locks. From what I read it appears that you can just park the car and look at mantees, dolphins, etc. (hopefully) for about an hour and then board the ship.

Does this sound reasonable?

Thank you

hello everyone!

just joined and have found your info very helpful!

i have already contacted Ramses to visit Cairo and will write to GTI for Isreal.

another question : if we want to spend more time in Cairo, does anybody know if it is easy to travel on our own from Port Saïd to Cairo?

I do not know the answer but if you go to tripadvisor.com then cairo there is probably a travel expert that will give you good advice - they always help me. It is my understanding that Ramses will adjust your tour to fit your needs so you might ask them specific questions.

My friends and I will be in Israel in Oct. for two days. We have been doing a lot of research via the CC boards re: private guides to hire (we do not want to take ship excursions). The CC boards have been very helpful and we have been in touch with several guides re: availability & prices, etc. One of the guides has asked that we send a check (now) for 10% of the tour cost -- and then a month before the trip, another 20% deposit. Does this sound right?? For those that used private guides or companies, do they require a deposit right up front? And, what about cancellation policies e.g. if the ship does not dock in the ports as planned... refunds??

I think this particular guide is charging $500 per day for 4 or 6 of us. We are not staying overnight .. they are picking us up each day in a different port.

Any info you can give us re: the deposits would be most helpful.

We will be in Haifa/Ashdod in October as well. Our CC roll call has hired GTI for a variety of tours and there is no requirement for any upfront money. We did discover that the private tours/guides charged quite a bit more then GTI because they have to rent a car, gas, etc. I would be nervous about upfront money since what happens if the guide does not show up or the ship misses the point. There are alot of Israeli guides listed in CC and tripadvisor.com so take your time and find someone who does not require upfront money.

We are on Pacific Princess in July and would like to hear of experiences with Guided Tours Israel for an overnight/2-day tour. Were you able to get a group together outside of your Roll Call?? Please give details! ;-)

We are scheduled for a Celebrity Equinox cruise in October with two days in Israel. After doing research I got a Roll Call group together for a tour with Guided Tours Israel. They have been very responsive and helpful in deciding which places to visit. I also know that other people on our thread decided to use them as well.

a) the drive from Civitavecchia to FCO is an hour or just under - and that's from getting into the car to getting out at Departures. Of course, that relies on there being no holdups on the road;

 

b) as long as the ship's last call was at another port in the Schengen Zone - which includes France, Spain, and Greece - there are no immigration formalities when you arrive at Civitavecchia. The Schengen Zone is an area of genuinely open borders. Also, as long as your last port of call was in the EU - which also includes France, Spain and Greece - there's no need to go through Customs; the EU is a customs union. So there won't be any holdup on arrival at Civitavecchia. In any case, many cruises finishing at Civitavecchia do so having previous called at another Italian port, e.g. Naples or Messina - definitely no formalities when moving from one Italian port to another.

thanx for the info. Our last stop is actually in Isreal so I do not know if that will be a problem or not - probably not (I hope)).

We used Rome Cabs too for our cruise. We asked them to pick us up at 6:45AM. We woke up to a rain storm. Turns out our driver, sorry I forgot her name, had been waiting outside the terminal under an umbrella since 6:00AM. So if you get off early, I think they will be waiting.

 

For US departures, everyone checks into Terminal 5 but then you need a bus to the real terminal. It's a pretty fast ride. You check in luggage, get boarding passes and pass security in Terminal 5. Your gate is usually in in Terminal C. And after all that rushing, our flight left an hour late, as do many international flights from FCO.

 

From the Delta web site. http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/airport_information/airport_maps/rome.jsp

How long did it take you to get to FCO and what time was your flight. Thanx

We have a 9:45 flight from Rome to D.C. and our ship docks at about 5:00am on a Sunday morming.

If we leave, hopefully, at around 6:00am how long is the drive to the airport?

Thanx

We're booked on a Ramses tour in October and I think that the Egyptian Museum is included. The info for the museum indicates that cameras are not allowed.

 

Did anyone encounter this? If so, what did you do with your camera while you toured the museum?

Thanks

I have read on other threads that the security guards will take your memory card if the see you taking pictures. That is all I had to read.

Ruth

We are on the roll call for the Equinox Holy Land leaving 10/18/10 and we are working on our private tours. I am working with GuidedToursIsrael in planning a Christian and Jewish itineary since we will be in Ashod one night and then in Haifa for one night. We are thinking the first day from Ashod the Christian trip would include ***** the port of Haifa the Christian itinerary will visit Nazareth, Cana, Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Tabgha, Jordan River, Kibbutz Ginosar, and Mount of Beatitudes. The Jewish trip might include Acre, Rosh Hanikra (optional), Safed, Rosh Pina (optional), Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, and a Kibbutz.

The second day would include Masada and the Dead Sea, etc. The ship stays overnight in Haifa so as long as we are back for dinner we are OK.

Does this sound like a good itinerary?

Any assistance will be very much appreciated.

Thank you

Larry