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I miss TapaTalk!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm looking forward to sitting down and reading through all this and reliving the cruise....it was indeed an awesome trip! Thanks for doing this.

Barbara Jo

 

 

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I forgot to mention they are continuing from the last cruise allowing the use of the Diamond drink vouchers in the MDR. That make things easier. :D

They have never allowed that on any cruises we have been on! Is that unique to this ship? It would be really nice.

 

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After dinner we strolled around the hotel grounds and then along the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished the evening at the beach bar for drinks and a little live music.

 

 

 

 

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We stayed at Hale Koa last fall. Beautiful and affordable!

 

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Thanks for the book suggestions. I too like to read books set in the location we will be traveling to. I'm making a note of these for future reference.

Will be looking forward to following your review!

 

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Been to Coz several tomes and returning in January. Going to walk around again as we love the town.

 

Any places, squares, markets, streets, points of interest worth venturing towards or to that are off the main tourist strip? Great little bars or locations? Local markets?

 

 

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Check out cozumelmycozumel.com. I've found great suggestions there in the past.

I'm appreciating all these great suggestions! Thanks!

A distinct lane on each side of the road, some amount of shoulder and usually good visiblilty to the sides, as opposed to a single lane with no shoulder and high hedges or stone walls. :D

 

Try arriving at a Y intersection (this was in Ireland) with just enough room for one vehicle on section of road you are on, a tractor coming at you from one direction, and three horses abreast coming at you from the other arm of the Y. :eek: Luckily there was a bit of space where the three roads joined. The horses turned down where the tractor had come from and with a bit of wiggling between car and tractor we managed to squeeze past. I've never had that in NZ, although I have come across the odd flock of sheep or herd of cows on the road.

Exactly! Sounds very much like our experience in Scotland. ....only we ended up with 2 flat tires! ! NZ sounds like it might be more manageable.

The other thing we'd like is to see some of the Maori culture.

Thanks so much for the tips!

Thank you for these responses! This helps immensely. I'm not so sure about going to Rotorua, as we live near Yellowstone, so have seen hot pots, geysers, etc.

Can you tell me if the roads are fairly wide? Probably seems like a strange question but we rented a car in Scotland and were fine until we got onto the narrow side roads. At that point driving on the"wrong" side of the road was very nerve wracking! So we are a bit hesitant in renting a car in NZ.

This fall we will be doing a transpacific cruise from Seattle to Sydney. Before heading home, we would like to see a bit of New Zealand as well. What are your best suggestions for touring in the Auckland area for 3 or maybe 4 days??

Just getting off the Liberty this morning. Tidal Wave is still not operating.

Wow. That quite an upgrade. Lucky you.

Well darn! ! By this afternoon they had changed out cabin to an outside on deck 2.😥 Can't really complain as it's still an upgrade from the inside we paid for. But we were really excited about that first cabin they have is on deck 12.

And I will post once we get back with an update on the Tidal thing. ☺

We will be sailing on the Liberty in 3 more days. We just booked a week ago....an inside guarantee.....and just today we were given one of the new deck 12 outside staterooms! So apparently they are ready now! Can't wait to see them!

The official countdown in my house has begun with us getting on the Liberty out of Galveston on March 6th!!

 

So excited to try out all of the new, cool things I'm seeing in these posts and on blogs - I even created a FB group to try and get a meet and greet going on board the ship - I'm just SO excited!

 

Anyone else on this cruise with us? The roll call looks pretty stale with no one on there for months....

 

We are on this sailing as well on. I looks for your fab page, but couldn't find it.

I'll post since no one else has posted. We stopped at these ports last year on the Celebrity Millennium - probably your same cruise.

 

Not really a lot to do in these two ports. To give you some ideas use the Japan Guide website for local attractions and self transportation.

 

Shimizu http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6354.html

 

Here we got a day pass on the local (non JR) rail/bus line (1,200 yen for train and bus) and visited Sumpu Castle and took the bus up to Nihondaira and the ropeway for a nice view over the port and Mt. Fuji. Kunozan Toshogu Shrine is also there. It cleared up in the afternoon and we got a good look at Mt. Fuji as we left the port.

 

Okinawa http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7101.html

 

We walked from the Naha port to the commercial area. Not much there. We stopped at an interesting Fukushuen Chinese Garden along the way. Entry was free.

 

Okinawa was pretty much flattened during World War II so what you see there is either new construction, a re-construction or a memorial. Difficult to get to many areas in the short time we had in port - from 7am to 3pm.

 

This cruise in 2014 was originally scheduled for Kagoshima (an interesting town) but was replaced with Okinawa (an uninteresting town IMO). What this did was get us into Taipei at 1pm instead of the original 8am which did eat into the time in Taiwan.

 

If you are on this cruise and go to Taipei (Keelung City), if you do not have a tour booked, there will be taxis outside that can be booked for around 3,300 NTD for a full day or about $110 USD. There is a currency exchange office where the taxis line up. The taxi fits four people easily. They have some larger taxis for six people at a higher price. The salesperson will have pictures of all the various places the taxi will take you. This will be important since the driver will most likely not speak English. That is the main downside to these tours. It helps to have a Chinese speaker along. On the first afternoon and into the evening we went to several attractions in the Northeast. The second full day we went along the Northern Coastline. Many others took a full day to go into Taipei. The driver was very nice and stopped at many scenic/photo op sites. He also bought us all water and some fireworks to shoot off the first evening.

 

Thank you for posting this...and for the website links. Still not sure what we'll do, but this is helpful.

Yes, it is the same cruise on the Millenium. We have private tours with cc groups lined up for Taiwan, so we'll be OK there.

Thanks again.....

In October we will be in Shimizu (near Mt. Fuji) and also in Okinawa....from 7:00 AM to 3:00 Pm each and would prefer to do these ports on our own, as we have lots of excursions booked for our other stops. Any suggestions please?

We cruised for a lot of years now and still go to the M&M. Like others, it's a good way to put faces to screen names.

I think you get out of a M&M what you put in it. If I sit off by myself, expecting someone to come talk to me, that's pretty boring. But if I get up and go meet others, then that's the way we make new friends. You have to make the first move.

At a couple of recent M&M's someone has created a fun "bingo" type card that gets everyone up and meeting. That was great!

[quote name='stones902']No I don't think there is a kitchen near the pub. It used to be the sports bar.


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That's a shame. We were recently on the Libery OTS and they served fish 'n chips each day in their pub for a quick lunch. No kitchen there, they used chafing dishes.

Would really appreciate a copy of the map please. I'll promise to share the map to all who wish to have a copy on our roll call. That should save alot more requests. pacificduoathotmail.com

 

Many thanks!

 

Could you please send me the map as well? Thanks!! Bjchartersatgmaildotcom

I also like Harlan Coben. Just finished Six Years and it was EXCELLENT!

No need to get any kind of foreign currency for anywhere on this trip. US dollars are accepted everywhere.

 

Thank you for your speedy reply!

Happy travels!

Love your review! We sail that same route on the Vision April 5 this year.

I have one question.....in Cartegena do we need to get local money? Or do the taxis, etc all accept US dollars?

Thanks!

Selective memory! :)

 

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can anyone tell me how long it takes to go from Fortlauderdale airport to the port of Miami? Need transportation for 7. Any recommendations? thanks!

 

We went the other direction last fall.....from Miami port to FLL. We used QLS shuttle service. I think it took about 15 or 20 minutes.

We will be arriving in Colon at the end of our cruise and need to find a way to our hotel in Panama City. We are also looking for a city tour in Panama City that same day. I've emailed Myfriendmario to see if they offer that, but have not received any response from him.

Does anyone know if we'll be able to just get a taxi from the pier.....or if shuttles might be available to the city...NOT to the airport?

I'd prefer to find a combination transfer and tour. So please let me know if you have done this before and what company you used.

Thanks!