ny cruisequeen

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i have posted many times  but not in the last few years

please help

Also, your port side might not give you the best side to view! You want to face St Marks Square with the bell tower in front of you! Check onboard about this.

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The higher you go, the further and more you will see. Also, many ships play music to set the mood, and you may not hear it from your veranda. It takes about A half hour to pull out. It truly is s beautiful memorable sight

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We just got off the Quantum yesterday. Perhaps they changed the dinner menu? There was No burger or fried chicken or pretzel dog for dinner on our sailing. They ran out of vanilla ice cream for the warm cookie dessert, ( but it was great anyway with butter pecan ice cream) and they ran out of romaine lettuce for salads, substituting wild lettuce without first informing us. Small issues, both. Overall, this was the ONLY place for a decent meal! It was not spectacular, but good. The dining on this ship was generally awful. Very difficult to change restaurant reservations except to go eat before 5 or after 9! Everyone was complaining. Everyone! It was the most common conversation on the ship. The worst was Chic. Very poor service and food. Considering the fact that there was no deal when booking this cruise, and we paid top dollar, I expected the same top service and food as other ships in this line and in Celebrity. The only ship I have ever been disappointed in like this was NCL Breakaway which has similar dining issues. Book American Icon a lot!

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I do not know when the increase stated here will start but we just got off the Quantum today and Chops was still $35 pp. The tater tots were huge masses of cheese infused potato balls. No, not nearly close to anything frozen except the shape. Do try the truffled corn! OMG!

There is a tremendous amount of walking on this excursion. The grounds are huge and they walk you through all the flower beds and gardens. There are many rooms to see and the Alhambra is is a huge complex. If you need to rest and sit, you might have a problem as our guide kept us moving at a clip so we could see everything.

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I heard that RCCL built a new covered parking lot by the ship along the pier. Is that true? Worried that a winter cruise could find us buried under snow when we return.

Overall. How are people dressing for dinner on this ship? I would think it is a lot more casual, but maybe not. I need help packing. Thanks!

We did this cruise on the same departure date last year. They provide a free shuttle in front of the ship and it takes you right to the lower town. No problem. It runs at least every half hour, if not more, until at least midnight. Yes, being in town without a bus is nicer but this is just fine to. No worries. Be happy.

I've only asked questions and have not drawn conclusions. I said a long time ago that this thread should be closed and that Celebrity should investigate and take action if required. But, do I understand from your comment that other than talking amongst themselves no one, to the best of your knowledge ever said or wrote anything to anyone in authority expresses their feelings? Do I also understand that the CD on his own initiative invited the passengers to the helipad and that may have been to say he was aware of what he said and perhaps wanted to apologize? I believe that this will be a very short investigation if my interpretation is correct.

I have no idea if anyone reported this on board.

I explicitly wrote that I had HOPED he invited us.

As the original poster, I feel it is time close down this thread. It is quickly disintegrating into nastiness and no longer full of healthy discussion.

This thread has taken on a life of it's own, and it has become very negative. People accusing those at the M&M of not understanding what was told to us, not being truthful, having no sense of humor. Accusing us of performing actions, (hawking excursions, setting up private excursion tables, grabbing mikes for announcements, collecting money during the meeting time) that we have all repeatedly denied. Everyone who was ACTUALLY THERE has confirmed this. Accusing us of "mob hysteria" in trying to discredit a CD! Really? Pure snarkiness and not called for!

My intent, as I have stated previously, was for clarification. We all got it. We got guidelines for arranging private excursions. Celebrity said they would look into this. There is no reason not to believe them. We do not need to know the outcome here. If more of us hear the message we were given onboard, then we will know clearly how the cruise line feels. If we never hear it again, then the CD made a faux pas. Celebrity said they value CruiseCritic.

I never called for punitive actions against the CD. I even wrote that I had hoped CJ invited us to the helipad to make it up to us. I have no malice toward him. I was on vacation. He sure surprised us all, but we were not assaulted. We were, as I stated twice, a very sedate, educated, polite group. We listened. We left. Yes, we discussed it, and I still wondered about it when I got home. The is no "shame" in the fact that I waited and sought information instead of reporting him. I did not know if there was anything to report as I thought, as we all did, that perhaps this was company policy!

I asked on my upcoming Roll Call if anyone had heard the CD's statement on any of their cruises and it was suggested I try to post it here. So I did. That is simply and honestly how it started...but not where it is now. Some valuable discussions came out from this early on, but now the topic has been covered. I think it is time to move on. Happy cruising!

We are elite plus and know that shore excursions are given priority over priority tender. This was especially so on the Solstice although perhaps not as noticeable on the millennium class ships. We asked at the time and were told shore excursion guests are priority for tenders. I had never seen this in writing until I saw it in a flier I received in the last month from Celebrity. I have cut and pasted it below:-

 

 

Celebrity Shore Excursions:

Why would you trust your experience to anyone else?

 

 

1 Guaranteed

first off the ship

 

2 No cancellation

penalty

 

3 Guaranteed

return to ship

 

 

 

Guests on our tours enjoy priority departure in port

 

A change in plans is hassle-free

 

If your tour is delayed, we won't sail without you*

We had Celebrity excursion tickets for the Flam Railroad. The day before, we were so exhausted, (this fabulous cruise was very port intensive) that we decided to turn in our tickets so we could sleep late and rest. We felt walking around town was just perfect for us for that day.

My DH went to turn in the tickets and was told they would decide later whether we would still have to pay for them. They want 24 hour notice. As it turned out, they accepted the tickets with no penalty.

Had we turned them in later, they would have made us pay. Which I totally understand. But do not think that a "no cancellation policy" and a "change in plans is hassle free" does not mean you can cancel last last minute and not have to pay.

I think it is fair, but not clear enough. Everything should be explicitly written out...transparency! You would have to pay any private guide if you cancelled last minute on them, too!

As to "first off the ship", many many times we have had to wait (up to 45 minutes and a few times even longer) in the auditorium, (past our printed tour meeting time), with those stickers on our shirts, for the ship to announce our tour is leaving. That is one of the unpleasant aspects of a large group tour.

People get anxious and antsy and they rush to pass you across the ship to go down that gangplank and get first choice of seats on the bus. We would much prefer to get off and just get onto the bus, but I guess they have to control and organize so many people that this system works for them. I just do not enjoy it.

As to priority tender, I can understand that they need to get whole bus loads of people off together so that everyone can board the bus for their ship excursion. Tendering is always a problem. Good tour guides know about this. I suggest that you discuss this with potential tour guides and those you share the excursion with. That you arrange to meet onboard and get off together, and the guide knows your time on shore might be compromised. You have to factor that in beforehand, so your tour will not "be ruined".

I've sailed on many Celebrity cruises, attended many Cruise Critic parties, taken Celebrity shore excursions, joined private excursions planned by Cruise Critic members on roll calls and planned several private excursions with those on our roll call.

 

I've never seen anyone at any on board Cruise Critic parties ever promote their private shore excursions. I've never seen a Cruise Critic member grab a microphone at a party and I've never seen money changing hands to pay for private excursions at parties.

 

If this were/is happening, both Celebrity and Cruise Critic have a right to address the situation. But not publicly. If there was a problem on the recent sailing of Constellation, the offending parties should have been pulled aside and the situation addressed.

 

I've always felt that Cruise Critic has strengthened cruising and feeds our cruising addiction. I'm sorry to read that a cruise director took out frustrations at a Cruise Critic party.

 

I appreciate that Celebrity and Cruise Critic are both looking into the situation.

I am in TOTAL agreement and I thank you for how perfectly you phrased this! Since I am the Original Poster here, I have been reading all the replies. I would like to add a few things now....

First, my intent was to clarify the rules of arranging private excursions, not to crucify the Cruise Director. I used his name to legitimize my posting. I know that the cruise lines do not love when we book them by ourselves, but I thought it was like the alcohol policy...they want you to buy it from them, but allow two bottles of wine brought by you to come onboard. A small amount. Reasonable.

When the cruise director made his announcement, it was very clear that he conveyed his displeasure over ALL private excursions. He made very clear comments about "loss of revenue that contributed to the demise of the cruise industry." Strong words. There was NO doubt that he was serious. This was NOT a misinterpretation. This is NOT about our lacking a "sense of humor". So far, three others from my Roll Call have written here to confirm this.

No one said anything. No one responded. Why? Personally, I was so surprised that I did not know what to think. The captain, (who stood silently beside him) said nothing. Honestly, at the time I believed that the cruise director was told to say these things by some official. I think many of us felt the same. As I initially wrote, you could hear a pin drop in that room. We were all stunned by the unexpected rebuke.

InRetirement did ask him if he could ask the Captain a question. I thought he wanted to address this situation. (I could be very wrong.) He was told the captain had to leave. The cruise director did not ask what questions needed answers. I felt like we were being shut down about this as he then moved the gathering into a different direction, asking us to call out CC names of those we wanted to meet. As people raised their hands, we still did not get a chance to get up and greet them.

We left soon after that. I think we were all just too polite, just too surprised to say anything. For me, it was both a combination of surprise over what he said, how he said it and a wonder over why he said it.

Again, there was NO ONE hawking excursions! NO ONE discussing excursions. NO ONE collecting money at this meeting. Any transactions and discussions were done at a different time, not here. No Mike grabbing. Just people sitting and waiting to meet each other. Period.

I was there early. I needed my morning caffeine and was waiting for the coffee cart to be set up. This was the first sea day and it was, unfortunately, a morning gathering! (I had jet lag. I really wanted to sleep late, like my DH chose to do.). I was the Keeper of the Roll Call and wanted to be there for the whole meeting. I wanted to put faces to the names of people I had been corresponding with for over a year so I know what was going on, and what was NOT going on in that room.

On the Roll Call there WAS extensive discussion and explicit, extremely helpful step-by-step assistance on how to book online excursions for boats and buses and trains that provided PUBLIC transportation through fjords...at a fraction of the ships prices. In fact, in Stavenger, as you walked off the ship, right behind us was the boat that many of us had booked online. People were trying to buy tickets on the spot. Most had already been sold out online. I can understand how the cruise line can be upset that we had the same trip without them for less. A loss of revenue for sure. I would understand if they charged a bit more, as a ticket broker, but not their huge mark-up. We paid $56.50 for the three hour trip. The ship charged $119 for it. Granted they stopped to serve coffee and waffles, which we did not get. Very very expensive coffee and waffles! In this specific instance, if the cruise industry lost a few customers, they more than made up for us with everyone else who did sign up with them!

With ship excursions you have the piece of mind that they will wait for you. This happened in Egypt. The buses were an hour late returning. We waited for them. With ship excursions you can cancel the day before and have your money refunded.

With ship excursions you have no say about how long you spend in a place, what buildings you will enter, what food you will be served, when the bathroom stop will occur. You have no say in anything from the moment you get on their big bus.

With ship excursions, they can cancel your tour a few days before and you can be left with nothing you want, (happened to us three times). We took the ship tour to the countryside and waterfall in Canada and they did not give us enough time to walk from the bus,(unescorted) to actually SEE the waterfall from the top view! We were really upset over that. They spent away too much time keeping us in a restaurant over lunch. In a private excursion, that just does not happen. As others have posted here, they should work on revamping their excursions to compete.

On the other hand, I have had some absolutely fabulous ship excursions! On this same cruise to Norway we went with the ship in Olden. We had another beautiful, scenic boat ride, yummy waffles and coffee, ( they are BIG in Norway) and went to see a glacier up close. It was a GREAT excursion. (I later heard that some others had the SAME private excursion for a fraction of the price. They had arranged it on the Roll Call. Most of those arrangements were discussed via emails as it did not concern the rest of us. We all believed that this was an appropriate procedure. No one made any profit by this arrangement and all transactions were discreet and respectful to the cruise line.)

Just last October I was on the Summit in Halifax and we did a costly, full day ship excursion on the big bus. We had the best guide, and saw the top sites. It was a fabulous day and worth every penny. This Fall we are going back there with Celebrity on the same ship. There are no ship excursions to different areas from those we experienced last year in Halifax. What does the cruise line expect us to do? Stay onboard? Walk around the town by ourselves, ... or go back to some of the same places? We naturally want to see other lovely towns and historic, scenic sites, and a private excursion is the only way to do so. To bring down the cost, we need to share the car. This is common. We find each other on the Roll Call. Over the years I have made the closest friends this way. That is one of the many reasons I just LOVE CruiseCritic!

If I could ONLY visit places with the ship excursions, believe me, they would lose even MORE revenue as I would be cruising LESS. I would get a hotel room in a city and go where I wanted. As InRetirement said, I cannot be forced to spend my money on their alcohol, photos, or casino. I can choose to buy in their gift shops, (actually I LIKE to get some trinkets there as sometimes they have unique port items and jewelry), and I can choose to buy art, ( which we do). I don't see excursions any differently. Am I wrong?

According to the Cruise Director, we should not book privately. That is why I posted here. I wanted clarification. I am, by my very nature, a rule follower. I am a retired Special Education teacher. I like order. I feel more comfortable when I know what to expect. I always return to the ship at least an hour before necessary. I don't like risk or taking chances with things like the ship leaving without me.

I am Elite on Celebrity and Diamond on RCCL. I love to travel and see new places and meet new people. I love to cruise. Once I unpack I can come "home" to my clean stateroom in a new port every day.

I love Celebrity. I love the way this cruise line's staff bends over backwards to make vacations wonderful. From the cabin stewards and maintenance staff to the dining room staff they are superb. The entertainment is wonderful. The ships are beautiful. Everything is clean. The food varied and delicious.

Captain Tassos was one of the most charming captains ever. He did "doughnuts" and turns at sail aways to allow incredible views of the magnificent fjords. He can even make Lifeboat Drills humorous.

I want to add here that CruiseCritic members on this trip were invited to go up to the helipad for two sail-aways. This was a special treat considering the spectacular scenery we sailed through. I want to thank whoever arranged this for us. It might have been Captain Tassos, or even our cruise director, to make it up to us. I would like to think so. My aim was, as I began in this long-winded post, to clarify, not crucify!

Hello Everyone:

 

I'd like to thank NYCruiseQueen for bringing this specific issue to our attention. If anyone else has experienced this, please write to me directly at: community@cruisecritic.com.

 

That said, we believe that the sharing of shore excursions in small groups is one of the best features of participating in a Cruise Critic roll call! We do have these rules published in our guidelines:

Cruise Critic's ROLL CALLS are one of the most popular features within our community. In an effort to keep them fair and as safe as possible, the following is in effect:

 

 

SHORE EXCURSIONS

- Sharing shore excursions is fun and can help you save money.

- Get to know the other members in a Roll Call before attempting to get them to tour with you.

- Shore excursions should be arranged so that payment is made directly to the tour operator, do not be the collector of funds for a shore excursion.

- Do not arrange any shore excursions/tours if you are not going to be taking them yourself. In other words NO THIRD-PARTY arrangement of shore excursions are allowed. This includes people who are not participating on the Cruise Critic ROLL CALL *for whatever reason*.

- Travel agents may not arrange shore excursions on ROLL CALLS.

- Anyone attempting to "fill a bus" or making money from the sharing of shore excursions on our forums runs the risk of losing their membership.

- Do not post your email address so that someone can email you information about a shore excursion. If they have important info, they should be willing and able to post this information on the forum. We will remove posts, at our discretion, that are nothing more than requests for emails OR posts providing email addresses.

- Do NOT arrange to collect funds for shore excursion shares at any Meet & Mingle or Meet & Greet so graciously provided by the cruise lines. In the case of Princess Cruises, they have stated you cannot solicit other passengers for any reason once you have booked your cruise. If they observe you arranging tours on board, you run the risk of being asked to debark your cruise at the next port (verified via Princess Cruises March 2013)

***************************

The above shared, I will be contacting Celebrity later today to clear up this issue. Know that we can and do contact individual members who aren't adhering to the above.

 

As with all things, there are always people who just do as they please. We always do our best to ensure Roll Calls and resulting parties/events work well for everyone.

 

Laura

Thank you for your response and for clearing up some of my confusion! This is what I was looking for: guidelines.

Just to be clear...on Princess you can look for others to share a private excursion on the Roll Call but NOT onboard? I have never seen anyone solicit for any excursion once onboard on any cruise.

I have also always thought that emailing privately about excursions was the correct thing to do...two or three individuals discussing their own excursion was called "hijacking" on some previous Roll Calls. In trying to do the "Right Thing" these guidelines are very helpful for the future.

Thank you again for your assistance. I love Cruise Critic. I have met the best people through this site, and learned invaluable travel information.

Even more important, We have made lifelong friends who We met through private excursions - total strangers who signed up to share them with us...on a Roll Call!

I find it annoying when someone grabs a mike at a Cruise Critic gathering and starts handling their tour or tours. Frankly, I walk out as soon as this starts. I will probably not go to the gathering for one of my cruises since the entire roll call seems to be about large tours and I believe that will become the theme of the gathering. However, there are no rules governing posting or announcing tours that have been violated and I don't believe Celebrity has specific rules governing what can or cannot be said. Perhaps there should be, but that should be a discussion between people at Celebrity and people at Cruise Critic. If there is a problem it should be addressed by the two parties. If they feel that there should be guidelines, they can take action to implement them. Perhaps that the good that come out of this.

I am the originator of this thread. I want to make the scenario clear for everyone. At NO TIME during the M&M did any tour announcement come about. At this meeting there was no money changing hands, no gathering at any tables. This was an unprovoked rebuke!

There were private tours arranged online, and the info and transactions were all done PRIOR to the meeting! In fact, the person in charge of the tours did all correspondence via his private emails, keeping them out of the Roll Call! Except for the common, " I am looking for people to join us on a private tour" type post initially, there was barely any mention to hijack the Roll Call.

Most people in the room had no idea what JC was referring to. When he walked into the room we were milling awkwardly about, going to the table where the morning coffee was being set up. JC took control of the meeting. He made his announcement and you could hear a pin drop. It was very awkward, indeed! Then he was asked if we could address the Captain, and he said no, the Captain had an important meeting. So he just showed up to stand there and then leave? I think he was protecting the good Captain from the inevitable fallout from his statement.

He tried to lighten up the atmosphere, but it was too little too late by then. He had squashed the meeting and we never really got to get up and find those of us who had written to each other for over a year! He wanted us to call out the names of those we wanted to find. It was a bit too public and embarrassing. And...they had scheduled the room for another event so we had to all leave anyway!

I am happy to answer any other questions about this, and I am STILL hoping someone from Celebrity can address it here for all of us. What, exactly, are the rules, if any?

On our recent Celebrity Constellation cruise to the Norway Fjords, the Cruise Director, ( Jay Cee) attended the Meet and Greet on the first sea day. He stood next to our Captain, and made a startling statement.

He said that "Cruise Critic is contributing to the demise of the cruise industry because cruisers get together on Roll Calls and arrange private excursions." These excursions "hurt the companies that run cruises, as it takes away badly needed revenue."

He went to say that such privately arranged excursions should be limited to very small groups only and kept private, not publicly discussed on the boards. The Captain never said a word.

Has anyone else had experience with a Cruise Director making such an announcement?

Can anyone in official Celebrity or Cruise Critic positions respond to this? In my thirty cruises, this is the first I ever heard about this issue!

Thanks to all for taking the time to post your experiences. It will be very helpful. I'm not sure I have ever seen such a one-sided thread on CC!

 

We have sailed the Wind, the Gem, and the Jewel. All great experiences so we have no reservations going with NCL. Also have 4 RCCL, 3 Princess, and 1 Carnival under our belt so we have seen a good variety and understand there are pluses and minuses in all sailings. Still, thanks for the insights NYCruiseQueen. We have a little one who will love the characters and ship activities so we see the vacation through her eyes these days. She doesn't much worry about cold food and she will love the cupcakes!

 

Besides the Bermuda Breakaway itinerary, all of the other options we considered this year include flying which we are just not feeling this year.

 

Again, thanks and Happy Sailing to all!

I hope you have an absolutely Wonderful time! Enjoy and relax. I learned here that people have loyalties and don't want to read negatives about what they loved. In the future, I am keeping my opinions to myself. They are, after all, just my opinions. Never intended to ruffle feathers. WOW! Lesson learned. Some day, do try a Celebrity...occasionally, they also go out of the area so no flying.

It is so interesting to read reactions to our Breakaway experience. First, I am not a "Royal Loyalist", as we travel on many of the big lines. We did more Royal and Celebrity for a good reason...we had better experiences. We love cruising, and have taken over 30. When we see a vastly different treatment for about the same price we share it. Yes, different strokes for different folks, and if you read back on CC reviews, there are many others who felt the same way. If you go on utube you can see the things I mentioned, like the tiny veranda.

I do not think that nastiness, (like claiming that if we had printed confirmations it would get us into the theatre when they had no record of it ) is helpful to those looking for honest information. We had the printout. It meant nothing. This is a fact, whether you like it or not. It was an inconvenience. It was not life changing but we were on vacation and had done our homework before hand. The staff was apologetic but we still had to start from scratch at the box office, as their ship computer did not share the online website info. The room tv did not allow us to put in the info. The soup was cool nightly. They took it to microwave. The staff was indeed indifferent on our trip. We did witness people falling forward in the theatre. I wish it were otherwise. I would have loved to have a vastly different experience.

The snarkiness here is unwarranted. If you don't have an open mind, perhaps this is the wrong forum for you?

Bermuda is just lovely. It is clean and beautiful and very relaxing. There are many lines that go there with just Bermuda as the port...but the Breakaway? We tried it and swore Never Again! We are Diamond on RCCL, and Elite on Celebrity. I can tell you, I would rather do a Carnival than the Breakaway! The food is awful...it has slow and indifferent waiters, the hot food often comes out cool and they take it back and microwave it for you! People all around us complained that their dinner took over two to three hours because of terrible service. On line reservations are not forwarded to the ship so all our entertainment bookings were for nothing. We had to start all over at the box office. We could not do it from the so-called interactive tv in the room. The verandas were the tiniest in the industry. You should go onto utube and check that out. The entertainment was poor, with the worst cruise director and staff we gave ever seen. Those 27 restaurants? Forget it! They have tiny hot dog cart...a restaurant? I think not! They sell cupcakes.. That is not a restaurant , and where they sell specialty coffee...to add insult to everyone, you must also buy a cookie to go with it...they give you nothing to accompany your coffee for free! Outrageous! All the specialty restaurants are for fee and I think people went to try to get a decent meal.you are nickel and dimed everywhere. Pay more for the Haven? Heck, just get a different ship and be treated well!

The theatre has steep stairs and three nights we witnessed women and men fall over forwards as they tried to go down to a seat. Their comedy club has few shows and they were awful. One afternoon we went to the pub for lunch. They messed up our order, slapped down the plates and we could not get a waiter for over 20 minutes. The Italian specialty restaurant was terrible, from the soft crusted soggy bread to cool soup and chewy calamari. Do yourself a favor and look into another line to Bermuda. The only big thing about the Breakaway is the number of cabins and therefore the crush of people., and if you live in the tri-state area, you don't have to fly, but other lines do this too. Also look at cruises from Bayonne, NJ to Bermuda!

I am torn with indecision over which excursion to book in thus port.

I know all about the train. It has been thoroughly detailed here.

The ship offers a bus trip to Stalheim Valley and Tvinde Waterfall that takes you through Gudvangen, stops at waterfall, and also Stalheim Hotel.

There is also the World a Heritage cruise, and we were thinking about just the first part which is the boat ride.

Which is the best for seeing beautiful scenery and PHOTOGRAPHING it? We will be seeing lots of similar scenery during our cruise and which might be a bit different or most spectacular...or does it really make a difference?

We stop in Stavanger, Olden, Molde, Alesund, Geiranger, Flam, Bergen and Oslo.

We are in Flam from 8-6.

The boat can be bad in rainy bad weather and choppy too. We dock in a Flam July 3. Will the mountains have snowy peaks then?

Just cannot seem to make a final decision. Really need help and appreciate all advice.

Oh...does the train have bathrooms? Does the boat? Just curious. HELP!!!!!

Of all the cruise lines, Princess has the BEST excursion details on their website! They list how long to get there, how long in each spot, and if there are bathrooms and snacks available! However, we were on a Princess excursion in Hawaii to the Haleakala crater and it was a good two hour ride and the bus never stopped! We had checked with the cruise member accompanying us and he had even assured us it made a bathroom stop. Thank goodness we were okay, but that was not right!

I totally understand the anxiety. It is awful to have to urgently go and the bus keeps going! Usually we stick to shorter bus rides. On those trips you spend more time back and forth than seeing anything once you get off. In Italy we had to pay to use the WC and in France we had to sit down in a cafe and order something before we could use it. In Egypt we had to pay for toilet paper, ( we also brought tissues from the ship). This is a real issue. I like private excursions so we can just say stop, we need to use the facility.

http://www.stavanger-guide.no/rodnefjordcruise/map.pdf I agree that it looks longer than 5 minutes. I looked at Google maps --they say about 17 minutes.

I think we will leave the ship at least an hour before so we have time to get there and we have be there half an hour before anyway. Just hoping it is an easy short walk and no rain.

Now I am looking at the Flam Stalheim View and World Heritage Cruise. Anyone know how far THAt is from the dock? You only get a map after booking so it's hard to know distances. Thanks!

Do you know if there are cabs in these ports? We booked the Rodne.no tour but in their map it looks like it is a very big walk from the cruise ship...looks like it is across the water. We heard it is a five minute walk but not so sure. Love your photos! What camera and lens do you use?

Wisely spoken! I am learning much. I ave heard and read and been taught about the importance of lenses. Dare I even ask...Canon or Nikon lenses for "best"?

Oh, how I wish everyone would agree on the BEST camera...oh well, (sigh), I am going to wait and try out several from my local shop and keep reading. Thank you thank you everyone!