mygreyhound66

Thank you Charles for the picture, it will be most helpful to others, and again, I am sorry I didn't take a picture of it.

Also, as a note to those that may decide to take the walk along the beaches/dunes from Warwick to Horseshoe. Do yourself a favor and start at Warwick, since the shuttles and taxis are plentiful at Horseshoe and not necessarily so at Warwick!

OP, I am not sure why some people are giving you such a hard time. I would have been very disappointed, as well. I don't think it would have occurred to me to get out and cancel the rest of the tour, but that is a good idea if it happens to any of us in the future. It sounds like a total bust as a "tour" of the island. I hope the rest of your vacation was fun.

Hi and thanks for being pleasant! Yes, it never occurred to us that we should get out and move on with someone else. Again, we were 3 couples so there was more than 1 opinion to be considered.

I posted in earnestness and was very disappointed in the unkindness of several posters.

We love Bermuda and will return next year!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I'm interested in this part of your trip. Did you have to book the shuttle to Warwick Bay in advance? How much was it? How much to get the tax back? Was the taxi easy to find? Thank you!

Greetings. The mini bus shuttles were almost always available at the dockyard. In fact, they do go more places than just to the beach. There is a board posted there that shows all the routes and prices. I am sorry that I didn’t think to take a pic of the board bit do recall mentioning that I felt the fares were quite reasonable. I hope this helps.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

When I say robbed - I assume everyone understands that I am referring to my time, my day. I cannot get back that vacation day - it was given in good faith with the expectation of a tour, by a professional.

Utter silence by a tour guide, is not a good tour - it is reasonable to expect some discourse, some history of the island. I don't feel that my expectations were unreasonable - of course, you were not there, so you can take my word for it, or continue to vilify.

As to the recommendation, yes I can refer to it, I am going to wait a couple of days. I have sent my review to the company and will give them a chance to respond first. I feel that that would be the fair thing to do. I will update when I can.........

Many thanks......

Sorry you had a bad time, but if the driver "robbed you" why did you give him a 15% tip?

 

I have a brand new car...under 3,000 miles and yesterday I had to replace a tire because a large chunk of metal implanted itself . The tire couldn't be repaired. A few months earlier I got a flat on a different well-maintained car with good tires. Flats happen. Debris on the road causes them. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the car or the driver.

 

And your observations about his lack of commentary might be valid...he very well may not be the best tour guide, but to complain about a taxi driver not knowing the price of a round of golf? Really? It smacks of someone just looking to complain about minutia .

NJhorseman - i tipped the man because my friends wanted to do so, and i didn't want to cause a fuss with them. If it was up to me, I would not have tipped him a penny.

I paid for a tour guide - not a taxi driver - and as such, on an island famous for its golf - I would expect that this is a frequent question, and I would expect a tour guide to know the answer to that.

Two flats within 2 hours?

I don't feel as though I am looking to complain about minutia - quite frankly, your comment is undeserved and rather impolite.

Greetings, I am sharing/posting my truly awful taxi tour last week. I had read some recommendations here and on cruise critic and made arrangements for a 5 hour taxi tour (blue flag) of Bermuda for 6 people.

Wednesday, 5/23 at 10am we met pierside and it was Robert, taxi plate T1421. I introduced our group, myself and my husband with many, many trips to Bermuda (but never a blue flag tour), the next couple, on their 3rd trip to Bermuda and the others, their first time to Bermuda. I was explicit about us, because I wanted to ensure that we received lots of information and knowledge. Since we are all young 'seniors' we felt a tour would be comfortable, informative and a good use of our full day on the island.

I wanted to start the tour by heading out to St. Georges first, Robert was reluctant to do this, but didn't give a valid reason, so he finally agreed to do so upon my pressing.

As we headed out of dockyard, we asked about the America's Cup buildings (future plans etc), part of his answer insisted that the Cup race was held in 2016, hmmmmm, thinks me. As we traverse, Robert gives some information but it is rather sparse.

We come into Hamilton and a local on a scooter, taps the pax window and informs Robert that he is riding on a flat tyre. So Robert goes around behind the bus depot to a tyre shop and it is replaced - obviously we all vacate the vehicle and just stand around waiting.

We head on to St. George and I ask to be driven past Tobacco Bay, SCF etc, as we approach the Cut, I had to ask for us to stop to have some photo ops. We then head into St. George and we disembark and I have us all go to see the enactment. Robert has not even mentioned that this is on at this time.

At this time, I am muttering to my husband of my dissatisfaction with Robert - Robert pointed out NOTHING of history/interest in Hamilton, except the spot where he will sitting in the park to enjoy Bermuda Day Races. Robert has pointed out NOTHING of history/interest in St. Georges, including the replica ship and the statue, he had not even mentioned about the re-enactment.

Robert has not given any decent information on Bermuda only to mention about his daughters' birthday dinner the previous evening,(several times) his own rise to fame in the Bermuda restaurants, and sadly the demise of his son (for which we all offered very heartfelt sympathies). He also showed us his favourite home colours! As a major point, as a tour guide, I do believe that if you are to identify something of interest, it would make sense to say "on your left is........, Robert would merely say 'over there is......, so we were never quite sure of which way he meant us to look.

We carry on from St. George and we are just bypassing everything briefly, Robert does not know the price of a round of golf (when questioned), he did not volunteer any interesting stories or tidbits about the places/sites we were seeing. There are interesting stories abounding in Bermuda, the way the caves were found, the original sea-glass beach, the convicts burial ground, the birdcage, the important buildings in Hamilton, the gas-light church, so many things to be shared, but not by Robert.

As we are coming along towards the round-about near Hamilton/South Shore Beaches, Robert feels that the vehicle is not quite right - so he finds a full service station and again we disembark to wait around, this time Robert replaces yet another flat tyre with the donut from the trunk. 2 flat tyres in one day? Clearly, our faith in this vehicle is down to zero, in fact I am disgusted and feel that we are not safe. Robert is not even speaking, so his minimal tour guide discourse is now down to zero.

We stopped (at my request again) to have a photo op of the south shore beaches, and then informed Robert to take us back to the ship. As a group, we felt that we should not have to pay for the full 5 hours since an hour was spent waiting on his repairs. This was broached and Robert reluctantly agreed to deduct 1/2 hour from his services. We paid him, and we tipped him (15%).

My husband and I know Bermuda well - we love it, we wanted to share our love of the island, and the people with our friends. We were anxious to show off this beautiful slice of paradise to our friends. Needless to say, I was completely underwhelmed by Robert and his poorly maintained vehicle. In fact, I was angry at the lack of a tour, I knew so many great tid-bits, but I didn't want to say anything and look like a 'know-it-all' - we were supposed to have had a professional tour, so all this great information should have been imparted by the tour guide.

The next day, we all took the shuttle service to Warwick Long Bay to do the walk thru the beaches and dunes to Horseshoe, the shuttle driver Dean, was an absolute pleasure and in that short trip from Dockyard to Warwick he imparted way more information than Robert did in the 5 hours. On our return from Horseshoe we took a taxi (after carefully looking at the tyres) and the driver Kevin, was super affable and again informative. We explained our miserable tour of the day before, and Kevin spent much time aghast and very apologetic on behalf of Robert.

I realize that this is a long report - however, I feel very strongly about the incredibly poor tour offering by Robert. So not only did Robert give a sub-standard vehicle and tour, he robbed us. This was our vacation, and we cannot get that day back in time.

Greetings. We just disembarked Summit. When we arrived last week we entered into the parking garage (outside lot not the inside lot) at 10:15am and were on board Summit by 10:45am. It was very well organized and efficient both coming and going!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Greetings. I just used a recommended person and was extremely disappointed. I am awaiting an answer from the company representative. I am giving them until Tuesday. After that I will post my review. Many thanks.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Update live. Greetings. I am the OP. We are here and in fact departing in about an hour and a half. We were indeed using $5 bills on the ferry and for a couple we did utilize a $10 bill. There were no questions no comments it was fine. We did not use the public bus so cannot comment to that. I do hope this helps.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

When are you sailing? FYI. Read my post #3805 from yesterday on the Cape Liberty 411 thread.

Bajonnejoe. Many thanks for responding along with the other post! I am going to leave after the cruise next Sunday and I will try to find a reasonable priced self park garage in jersey city and take the ferry over to nyc for the night!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Greetings, we will be cruising out of Bayonne and using the terminal parking garage. Does anyone know if I can leave my car there an additional day after the return of the cruise? I was thinking of taking a taxi (or some type of service) to NYC for the evening, staying in a hotel, and returning for my vehicle the next day.

Would there be someone there to let me in to the terminal to pay for the car, and then someone to actually let me out of the garage?

Any advice is greatly appreciated - I did call the terminal but have not had my phone message/call returned!

Greetings, I did see on the transportation site that it is acceptable to use a $5 bill (not singles) for the ferry and bus.

Has anyone had any luck in doing this recently? Many thanks........

Greetings, I have been searching to no avail! we are arriving into Venice late september and plan to take the shared water taxi shuttle to our hotel - our drop off point will be San Stae stop. I saw from a trip report recently that another poster did this very successfully (plus I have contacted the VeniceLink company to indeed confirm that they would drop us at San Stae).

So my question now is, has anyone used VeniceLink to go from a designated stop, ie San Stae to the cruise ship pier? and if so, how was your experience? would you recommend this method of transportation?

There seems to be rather a lack of references/experiences with the VeniceLink shared shuttle water taxi. So I would appreciate any and all feedback!

Greetings. I stayed at the holiday inn express on points and was not pleased at all. In fact there were tons of ants in the room. Our friends used their points and stayed at the Sheraton four points. Much better choice. Both hotels are very close to each other. Tons of restaurants right there. We took the hoho bus and it was a good value. I hope this helps.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Greetings, I am struggling with the same issue: we are getting off Celebrity and embarking MSC. So far, I haven't had any answers! (there was a poster here a ways back, and it was the same question along with laundry facilities in town)

What I have ascertained after combing through the port map is that most likely, we will need to disembark Celebrity and get luggage, get on the shuttle bus (provided by the port) to the main area - at that point, I guess we will just look for the shuttle bus that is then taking new/incoming passengers over to the MSC ship. If you recall, it used to be the buses picked up at the fort gate, now it is further along the port route. There is a shuttle bus depot/station which has the buses marked for each ship........

I hope this is accurate - if anyone has any other information - please share!!!!! Many thanks.....

to the OP, I know that this was a few months back - but how did you make out on your transfer between 2 different ships at Civitavecchia?

I am doing this in October 2018 and have been searching for information ! we are transferring from Celebrity to MSC - probably won't need to do laundry tho!!!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.........

Bea - I have been reading many of your posts and thoroughly enjoying them! I suspect that we are going to have a marvellous time - we go to Europe just about every year, so multiple languages is not a problem to us! Also, I think many of the concerns I have seen asked, probably won't apply to us either!

I really just wanted to do something a little extra special on this TA since it is lengthier than our usual routes. I have been hoping to do a Haven on NCL and frankly was horrified at some of their pricing, so this is a very viable and affordable option to us. We shall also disembark early in NYC on the second day, rather than having to fly back to NJ from Miami. I am hoping to have several nice bottles of port in my luggage from the stop in Lisbon!!!!!!

Greetings, I was very interested in your well-rounded review - thank you! I have booked MSC for the first time, yacht club, on the Davina for the return Transatlantic this October! We are looking forward to this lovely ship, and I think the extra bonus of the yacht club just might be the 'over-the-top' for the longer voyage! We usually sail in a balcony level cabin, mostly Celebrity (Elite) and NCL (Plat).

We were able to have the status match, which is really well done on their part!

Any hints or tips regarding the Davina would be greatly appreciated also.

Greetings. I don’t argue that Easter island would be a great destination. My question was around the embarkation and disembarking of the ship as an end point or entry. Also the question was about the actual listed ports of call on this voyage. This is a trip of immense interest to my seafaring spouse thus the intensity of the inquiry. Additionally I can be reached privately which I welcome. Thanks to all.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thank you all very much! most helpful indeed! now, if only I can find a good agent to help me........(sigh) I think I scared off the last one with my few questions - she hasn't called me back (only been 3 days!)

Greetings, I am trying (and failing miserably) to get as much information as possible. I am very interested in the Explorer, specifically the Easter Island/Papeete itineraries.

For those lucky people that have already gone - has there been any issues in missing any of the ports (?) - I ask since so many people say that it is rare to get on Easter Island. Even though, it shows as embarkation at Easter Island - the one TA I just spoke with, said that it might not happen due to weather? I pointed out that this was embarkation so I assumed it would happen!!!!! she disagreed - was she right?

I am also in the process of trying to secure a knowledgeable TA to assist with this trip. We have travelled on expeditions to Antarctica twice before and didn't have as difficult a time gathering information as we are finding for this particular voyage.

If anyone can help me,, I would be extremely grateful! Many thanks in advance........

Hi I had hours of trouble last night. I even called their tech support who assured me that there were no website issues! I finally logged in but it took many attempts.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I read this with great interest, since we are pickleball fans!! However, we are on the January 17th sailing out of Tampa............

Greetings, I have booked the transatlantic 2018 MSC Divina from Rome. Since we are new to MSC we were advised by our TA to apply for the status match - we did, we used our Celebrity Elite to match to MSC Black.

From the time of initiating the form on-line to receiving confirmation and an MSC Black member number, was 3 days..........

Just providing data...........YMMV

Greetings, OP here - first - many thanks to everyone for their input! I was pretty sure that it would be rather easy, and I have ascertained so especially since it is NYC and customs would be on-hand as first US port of call anyway.

I have booked YC for the Transatlantic October 2018 and obviously intend to disembark in NYC rather than Florida.

We have never done the YC before, or even for that fact, not MSC. So this will be a real treat for us.

I booked through a TA and he is about to the get the form for the early disembarkation. I will come back here and update everyone as soon as it is under way etc. I am going to have other MSC questions and I will post at the main thread.

I just wanted to provide a large thank you to everyone, and an assurance that I will follow thru.....