CruisingGoddess

Anyway... who is booking one of the St. Maarten Celebrity cruises tomorrow?? I'm planning too! Can't wait to get back to cruising!! 🙌

Thank you, everyone!! This is super helpful!

16 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

Any particular interests in restaurants?  Can I ask where you will be staying (not specifically, but generally, ie, downtown or out of town) and will you have a vehicle?

 

 

For restaurants, we're interested in local food and up for anything pretty much. We like all sorts of cuisines.

We are staying at SpringHill Suites Fairbanks and yes, we'll have a car.

Thanks!

I'm visiting Fairbanks next week for 1 week for a land trip. I like collecting local souvenirs, crafts, and food gifts. Any favorite shops or dining you can recommend?

Thanks in advance!

How likely do you think people will bring their kids on this cruise? I was really excited when I heard it was going to be adults only and then now the Celebrity website says kids with a negative COVID test are allowed. 

Thanks! I haven't decided which itinerary to book yet so I wanted to get ideas on must-visit ports to help me narrow down the list. :)

For those of you that have sailed a Panama Canal cruise (full or partial transit), which were your favorite ports and why?

I have Rick Steves' book and he recommends using the cruise line to go to Pulpit Rock, due to the distance from the port and limited time on shore so that's our plan this summer.

A friend of mine went last year on Princess. He said only 6 of 3,200 passengers went and 1 quit midway through!

I found lots of good info on Anastasia Travel for St. Petersburg but they also offer tours in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Tallinn at a discount when booking multiple tours at once. Does anyone have experience with using them to book a tour in one of these other cities?

Thanks in advance!

I will be spending night at Hotel Continental. When I arrive at airport what would be the best way to get there. Also the best way to get to cruise pier. How much $$

We used taxis both ways. The taxis are easy to find at the airport. Before you depart the hotel, write down the name of the pier and ask your hotel to call you a cab when you leave. Show the driver the name of the pier so he can take you to the correct place. You may want to verify with the hotel that the name is correct as well.

I don't recall how much the rides were but you can check here:

http://www.worldtaximeter.com

I know this is a really old topic - but does anyone know if the Pride of America is allowing doors signs?

Use magnets. Don't use any sort of adhesive because it could damage the paint on the door. I decorated my door both times on Pride of America.

Thanks to both of you! I appreciate the quick responses.

Does Royal Caribbean allow you to buy an internet package before sailing and do they offer bonus minutes if you do?

I'm used to sailing on Princess, where they give you bonus minutes for buying before getting onboard.

Thanks in advance!

We will be using West Quay cars from London to Southampton.....just out of curiosity how much did you tip the driver?

I tipped 10% based on this article on TripAdvisor:

"If taking a licenced London taxi cab to or from Heathrow or in London a 10% tip is the average amount, although as in the previous paragraph, it is not a requirement, nor should it be expected by the driver."

While I know it's not expected, the driver was very appreciative.

Did Blackberry ask you to prepay? Did you?

 

I indicated we wanted to pay cash and now they want us to prepay.

Yes, they asked me to pre-pay and I did. I prefer to pre-pay since I'd rather use my card than cash anyway. We just tipped our driver in cash.

How do we add money to our existing Oyster Cards? We have Oyster cards from our trip in 2012 that still have some money remaining on them and would just like to add more to them for our next visit to London.

We also had Oyster cards from 2012 and used the a few weeks ago. We had no problem adding money (using cash) via the machines at any Tube station. On the last day of our trip, we did redeem them for our GBP 5 deposit per card and they also refunded any remaining balance on the cards.

Anyone heard of Blackberry?

 

They seem to be cheaper.

I used Blackberry to go from our London hotel to the airport a few weeks ago. I would recommend them as well. I thought they were more expensive than West Quay Cars though when I got quotes but if not, go with Blackberry.

We used West Quay Cars last month and very pleased with their service.

I'm trying to get ideas on how to display and store my souvenirs from all my travels without my house looking like a cluster! I have postcards (hundreds!), magnets, and random trinkets from our travels.

What do you collect and how are you displaying/storing your souvenirs?

Has anyone confirmed that we can still redeem points for OBC after 9/30? If I redeem my points for OBC, how long will I have to use it? I don't have any NCL cruises booked right now.

We sailed Island Princess last July. We saw in the indoor pool and hot tubs on both glacier cruising days. On the last sea day (before arriving in Vancouver), it was actually warm and we saw a girl swimming in the outdoor pool. She said the pool was actually heated!

Read the detailed review with photos of my Alaska cruise, packing list, and shopping tips:

http://moonprincess.com/travel/category/cruises/alaska-2010/

We bought a pair of Bushnell 8x42 H2O Waterproof Binoculars on eBay for $32, including shipping. I can't guarantee you'll find the same deal but we were very happy with these binoculars on our Alaska and Hawaii cruises.

Some of these posts make me curious as to why folks who recommend specific private tour companies fail to mention the cost. In the interest of full disclosure and in order to help folks do a quick comparison of their options it is helpful to know some price history. For example, we might recommend to somebody who asks about renting a car in Civitavecchia that they can get a small passenger car for $100 for the day and drive themselves to Oriveto and perhaps a couple of other places. Their cost per person would be about $35 (adding in the cost of gas and some parking). Then another person will post some great info about using XYZ Limo company for the same itinerary but fail to mention that their excursion cost $700. My only point is that its really helpful to give all the info in the original post.

 

Hank

Well one reason I didn't mention the cost is that my trip was a year ago and prices may have changed. If someone is interested in a company, they should always contact the company directly to find out the cost.

I don't think anyone is hiding the cost of RomeInLimo. A simple Google search will bring you to their web site where their prices are shown:

http://www.romeinlimo.com/

By the way, it normally costs $75 per person if you fill a van of 8 people, like we did. Also, we booked 2 tours with them so they gave us a discount on top of that so it was cheaper and better than going through the cruise line. Not everyone wants to be their own guide in a foreign city.

We used RomeinLimo in Rome (Civitavecchia4) and Florence/Pisa (Livorno). We were very satisifed and would use them again when we return. You can read the full review, including all the places we went, on my blog:

http://moonprincess.com/travel/category/cruises/europe-2009/

When you refer to the "review board", do you mean here?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/

Just want to make sure there wasn't another place I wasn't aware of. Thanks!