galliegirlie

I know, a bit of an odd request. But I'm one of those people who loves looking at NCL food "porn". Although I am already Platinum level, it will be my first time sailing on one of the "big" ships this March, so it will be the first time that I will be exposed to O'Sheehans. I've read about their dinner meal specials that repeat during the week (prime rib, fried chicken, pork ribs), but I've never seen a review that includes pictures of these dishes. So I'm wondering if anyone might have a picture showcasing the O'Sheehans dinner specials?

Can't wait to hear more. We will be on the Reflection next July (our first time on Celebrity), so I've been seeking out good honest reviews like yours.

Looking forward to reading more about your trip of a lifetime.

I saw several posts about Papitos Beach Club, so I decided to look into the a little. I sent them several questions through their website, and they answered back the next morning. The packages they wrote about were very different then what was posted on their website, so I wanted to share.

We offer two different options to visit Papitos:

Cozumel Punta Sur Park, Snorkel and Hidden Papitos Beach Break Excursion​

Bilingual guide pick you up from outside the ship pier and takes you on round trip transportation to Papitos.

Includes:

•Punta Sur entrance fee.

•Guided snorkel tour and snorkel gear.

•One course lunch (fish, beef steak or chiken)

•International open bar.

The cost of this excursion is $109.99 for adults and $94.99 for under age. Infants under 3yo do not pay.

Cozumel's Hidden Gem - Papito's Beach Club at Punta Sur Park​

You take a taxi to Punta Sur at your own cost (approx. ​60usd round trip per four persons). The snorkel tour is additional 25usd.

Includes:

•Punta Sur entrance fee.

•​All you can eat.

•All you can drink.

The cost of this excursion is $67.99 for adults and $49.99 for under age. Infants under 3yo do not pay.

If you decide to take the Cozumel's Hidden Gem - Papito's Beach Club at Punta Sur Park​ excursion that does not include the round transportation, do not worry, you can pay one way ride to the Punta Sur Park (approx. 30usd per 1-4 persons) and the Papito's Beach staff will call a taxi cab to take you back at your own leisure and cost.

Papito's is never crowded, maximum capacity is 50 guests, so you will have plenty of room to enjoy this dreamed beach break.

I booked a last minute Jade 10 day Eastern Med cruise 3 weeks before sailing during NCL's 12 day of Christmas sale (cruise occured right after New Years 2013), and they were offering inside rooms at like $325 pp if I am remembering correctly. That's $32.50/day before taxes/fees in Europe! :eek: I ended up booking an obstructed Oceanview (turned out to be an accessible cabin on Deck 8, score), and I sailed solo, so my total room cost was around $75/day! I was able to grab air fare from California to Rome at $1300 last minute. Which wasn't great, but wasn't horrible either. Adding up cruise fare, flights, excursions, and spending money, I spent 10 days in Europe for about $3,000 total. Granted it snowed on us for 2 days in Istanbul, and a few ports were slightly drizzle-y, but none of this hindered seeing everything I planned to see at these great historic ports. And especially being the middle of winter, none of the main tourist sites were crowded. I met so many awesome people on this cruise, especially those sailing solo, and many of them booked at the very last minute also to take advantage of the killer price. This still remains probably my favorite cruises taken to date.

I'm hoping to hear about the rest of your port stops and the experience on the cruise.

Can anyone share how much the day passes were when you attended? I didn't see the day pass price clearly marked on the st. John website. unless I missed it somehow.

hoping to hear more from your trip. We are planning to take this same cruise next year.

We were on the NCL Star this past June, and my sister had the Chocolate Volcano EVERY night of the cruise for desert. She got hers without strawberries. Even on the nights we went to a specialty restaurant, she asked for the chocolate volcano from the MDR, and they brought it to us! Sometimes you could tell the desert had been sitting there awhile, by the melted icecream or the inside not being gooey. But when served perfectly, the inside was very gooey and tasted awesome.

Since others were so helpful on this thread, I wanted to share my family's visit to Stockholm on 6/22/14 and our experiences with Mid Summer's weekend, early HoHo boats, visiting Ice bar on our own, etc. Hopefully this info will help others as well.

We were on the NCL Star docked at Stadsgarden 167. It was Sunday morning of Midsummer's weekend. It was surprisingly super chilly (high 51 deg F) and drizzly for part of the day. We got off the ship right at 8am and followed the lines on the ground towards the HoHo boats (5 min walk) for the early trip to Vasa. We were expecting to see a Redsightseeing boat because I had written both companies before the cruise and Red said they would have the early boat, but Stromma specifically said they would not have an early boat. So it was to my surprise that we walked up and saw a Royal Sightseeing (Stromma) boat loading up passengers and no Red boat to be seen. Weird. So we purchased our Royal Sightseeing HoHo day passes and loaded up on the boat. About 10 mins later a Red Sightseeing boat pulls up next to ours, but the operator still kept pointing people towards Royal. So my guess is that the two companies have a deal worked out, that the first company there gets the first group, then the next company takes the second group, etc. The operator waited for the boat to fill up, so we didn't end up leaving the port until around 8:30am, which is the same time Vasa opens. The operator said that they would be running the direct shuttle ride to Vasa until 9:30am, so I'm guessing they had maybe 1 or 2 more trips after ours.

Got to the museum around 8:45am and paid for our tickets, there were already a few small group tours arriving at that time, but the museum was still pretty quiet. The first english video started at 9am, and the first english tour started at 9:30am. We decided we wanted to explore on our own first to see as much as we could before the mases invaided. We started at the bottom floor and worked our way up. We had a good hour before things started getting crowded. On our way out we watched the video (swedish with english subtitles). We spent around 2 hours total in the museum, and felt that we saw everything.

We caught the HoHo boat around 10:45am and headed to Old Town (Slussen stop). We did the Rick Steve's Old Town walking tour in reverse, starting at Slussen and ending at the Palace. We noticed that most stores in Old Town seemed to be open, but the streets were fairly quiet. Since it was Sunday, the churches had services going on, so there were signs No tourists allowed. We probably would have wandered around Old Town longer, but we were trying to escape the rain. Since we had time to kill before the changing of the guard at 1:15pm, we decided to check out the Palace Armoury museum which was recommended in Rick Steve's book. The musuem was worth a look, but nothing spectacular. We spent about 35 mins there. On our way out we caught the parade for the changing of the guard (around 1pm), but we decided not to circle back for the actual ceremony.

Instead we starting walking to the Ice Bar, because we didn't know how long it would take us to get there. We booked the ice bar ourselves online a few days prior for a 2:15pm slot (after the cruise ship tours visit). Walking from the Palace to the Ice bar was no problem for myself, my sister and my mother, but I could tell that my father had his share of walking by then. It took about 20 mins, and was slighly uphill. We found the Nordic Hotel, but had to get help to direct us to the Ice bar which is located in the Alley behind the hotel and train station. We were very early (around 1:30pm) and there were still cruise ship tours inside the ice bar. We found a bench outside the train station and rested for a bit, while checking out the taxi situation for our ride back to the port. There was a line of taxi's outside the train station, so no problem. Once we saw the cruise group start to wander out of the ice bar we went in, and they said they could take us earlier then our appointment (around 2pm). There was only my family of 4 and one other family inside, we it was pretty cool. The inside is alot smaller than what I thought it would be looking at pictures. They had pre-made vodka drinks sitting out on the counter, one flavor only (we did not get to choose our own). The drinks were very watered down. I'm thinking that they were left overs from the large cruise groups, so that kinda sucked. The bar tender was also not present with us inside the whole time, so even if we wanted another drink we didn't get a chance to order one. But we took a bunch of pictures and spent about 20 mins inside.

We thought that we would have to rush back to ship for all aboard at 3:30pm, but since we got into the ice bar early, we actually were really good on time. We got a taxi with a good rate and headed back to port. The ride only took about 7 mins, and the cost was around 170 SEK. We had just enough SEK cash on us to pay for the taxi without having to use a credit card, so it worked out perfectly.

Our day on our own in Stockholm cost us about 600 SEK each, and we had a great time. Stockholm is a beautiful city, and we would definitely go back in a heartbeat to explore more.

I love taking pictures, and from what I've seen the city view of Old Town Tallin can be quite remarkable, so I'm wondering what is your favorite viewpoint in Tallin to catch the best pictures of Old Town? I know that there are many different church steeples that you can pay to climb for viewpoints, so I'm wondering if there are any that are worth the price or that are better than others? Also, is the climb along the town walls worthwhile for viewpoints?

DV,

Is it even possible to think that we could get off the ship (NCL Star) early on a tuesday morning (C330), take the 26 Bus into Nyhavn, drop off luggage at our hotel (Bethel), and then make our way (26 Bus again) to Town hall for the 11am free walking tour? Or, instead of going to the hotel first, is there anywhere to store our luggage (8 bags, 4 people), and just make our way over to town hall?

I know there is a 2pm free walking tour as well, its just the 11am will work better for my plans so that we can get back to the hotel in the afternoon before venturing out again to go to Tivoli that evening.

Is it even possible to think that we could get off the ship (NCL Star) early on a tuesday morning (C330), take the 26 Bus into Nyhavn, drop off luggage at our hotel (Bethel), and then make our way (26 Bus again) to Town hall for the 11am free walking tour? Or, instead of going to the hotel first, is there anywhere to store our luggage (8 bags, 4 people), and just make our way over to town hall?

I know there is a 2pm free walking tour as well, its just the 11am will work better for my plans so that we can get back to the hotel in the afternoon before venturing out again to go to Tivoli that evening.

I know this is an older tread, but wanted to ask a question related to this.

I'm not a gambler myself, but I wanted to get some slot play coupons as a father's day gift for my dad for our cruise next week. I have ordered the $25 for $50 coupon off the website. But after doing a search function I saw these threads that talked about getting a $10 for $20 coupon through NCL that can be combined onboard with the other one. So I called up NCL to book the #721 Bon Boyage package referenced, but I was told that they no longer offer slot play coupons. In fact I couldn't find any casino pre-purchase options on the website.

When did they stop doing the NCL slot play coupons?

Wanted to share some information I received about my questions for the early HoHo boats and one stop tickets. I wrote to both Stromma and Red Sightseeing.

Stromma responded back saying that they do NOT have an "early" direct boat to Vasa. Their boats start at 10am.

Red Sightseeing responded back saying that there will be a boat ready to debark as soon as the ship people get there. I tried to clarify if there was an exact time of departure and saying our ship gets in at 8am, but they just wrote back again that they will be there waiting as soon as people exit the ship. They also said that their "shuttle" one stop ticket is 60 SEK.

I still haven't gotten my question answered about what exactly constitutes "one stop", but I'll keep trying.

Wanted to share some information I received about my questions for the early HoHo boats and one stop tickets. I wrote to both Stromma and Red Sightseeing.

Stromma responded back saying that they do NOT have an "early" direct boat to Vasa. Their boats start at 10am.

Red Sightseeing responded back saying that there will be a boat ready to debark as soon as the ship people get there. I tried to clarify if there was an exact time of departure and saying our ship gets in at 8am, but they just wrote back again that they will be there waiting as soon as people exit the ship. They also said that their "shuttle" one stop ticket is 60 SEK.

Yes, it has been mentioned on this board that first boat ride goes direct to Vasa museum.

 

But in mid-may at least, that was not the case. (may be different in peak summer)

 

There are two boat companies.

 

a) Stromma (which is heavily advertised and promoted)

b) Royalsightseeing

 

Both have English website (Google is a friend) and have both detailed schedule and pricing info (both for whole day pass and single trip)

 

My plan was to go over to Vasa and Abba first and then use remaining of my time in Gamla Stan open ended. But since there was no direct boat, I ended up buying day transport pass for 115 SEK. Took the first bus with route number starting with 4## to Slussen (there is one coming every minute or so it seems) and then one can take city boat across to Vasa (it was faster to take bus 76 and then tram though)

Yes, I have explored both their sites, but I have been unable to see where it references the cost of the one stop pass. All I could find is that it says one stop tickets are sold onboard. Maybe I'm missing something.

And then I'm also wondering what constitutes "one stop". Is it literally you get on at one stop and have to get off at the next scheduled stop, or is it just "exiting" off the boat once after entering? Example: If I get back on the HoHo boat at Vasa, does it count as 1 stop or 3 stops to get back to the cruise berth if I only exit off once at the ship (skeppsholmen, Djurgarden, cruise berth).

I'm just trying to get back to ship after Vasa the quickest/most cost efficient that I can for a lunch time tour. And I'm trying to avoid busses/trams, because quite honestly for Stockholm I'm finding the system to be a little confusing.

Looking for information for those who have taken or researched the HoHo boats in Stockholm. I know that a few offer an early morning one way ride over to Vasa from Stadsgarden, but I haven't gotten a clear answer on whether you can purchase just the one way pass and not the entire tour, and how much this would cost. Anybody know from experience? I'm also looking for a quick way back to the port after Vasa, and was wondering if they allow additional pay by the ride stops for going back to port, and if so, how much are these rides?

I have written both Royal Sighteseeing & Red Sightseeing, but I haven't gotten a response back yet.

We are avoiding using credit cards for our trip, so I'm trying to determine how much quantity of each currency I will need. I am planning to order SEK for our known costs for the HoHo boat tour and for the Vasa museum, but I'm not sure how much extra we will spend on shopping or snacks (if any). I wanted to ask if typical shops/vendors would accept Euro's for such items like snacks and souvenirs, or must we have SEK on hand? I'm trying to see if we would be able to use up any extra Euro's we have since this will be our last port stop, and it is easier to keep extra Euro's but not extra SEK.

Ultimo Thule & Jonza - thank you both for the notes.

I'm trying to decide if it will be worthwhile to go to Rock Church first and then to Suomenlinna, or just spend the day at Suomenlinna.

My family will be arriving in Helsinki Saturday 6/21 at 7am on the NCL Star at West Terminal berth LMA. I would like some advice for transit options for the following activities.

- How to get from the Terminal to Rock Church.

- Confirm best way to get from Rock Church to Market Square is tram 2.

- Confirm that ferry to Suemellina fortress takes off from Market Square. (5 Eu ticket. Or is this covered in the all day transit ticket?)

- How to get from Market Square back to West Terminal.

For the direct water taxi from the main port area to Vasa first thing in the morning, do you have to purchase the full HoHo boat tour ticket or do they have a one time use fee?

When we went ncl sun a few years ago they offered a vasa/ice bar/city tour. I went with it because I wanted to experience all three and not worry about the logistics.

Yes, NCL does offer a vasa/ice bar/old town tour. It is $150 for the all 3 combo and starts at 9:30am, or they have just the ice bar/old town tour for $100 that starts at 12:30pm.

If we did Vasa ourselves in the morning we might save around $25pp by just doing the 2 part NCL combo. But if I can figure out how to do the ice bar ourselves in the afternoon (after the cruise ship tours) and still make it back to the ship on time, I figure there might be around a $80pp savings compared to the NCL 3 part combo. What to do, what to do.

somehow I missed the note about the museum opening early starting in June. That's good. I think that would give us enough time to go to the Vasa first on our own for a few hours, then make our way back to the ship for the 12:30pm NCL tour to Ice bar and Gamla Stan. Yes, there is some back tracking, but I think it would be doable. I might try this.

thank you very much Desdichado62