royalcedars

13 minutes ago, island lady said:

Not sure about the Machu Picchu...but I am bummed about the phone message I just got from shore excursions desk.  "Due to a lack of participation, your tour in Lima the "Taste of Lima" tour is cancelled".  Whaaat??  They cancel this tour two days prior,  that I booked over a year ago, that I am sure they knew exactly how many had booked...they just now cancel it??!!  Not happy.  This was an all day "foodie" tour I was looking forward to.  Crap.  

Perfect time for a private tour since you don't have to worry about missing all aboard!  Trip Advisor has quite a few highly rated food tours for Lima that still have availability.  Don't miss out!

We disembark around 8 am and check in at our Airbnb isn't until 4 pm.  Any ideas where we could store our luggage during that time so that we can take a tour and enjoy lunch?  The Airbnb host has been unresponsive to my questions about luggage dropoff.

We did the Manatee Encounter at Chankanaab and absolutely loved it.  You get to feed them, touch them and swim with them.  Unlike the dolphins, they really seemed to enjoy interacting with people.  After that we went over to the snorkel area and snorkeled for awhile and ordered some snacks.  Great day.  Booked online through Dolphin Discovery and it included admission to the park.

I think it is not only a cost-cutting measure, but a revenue-producing measure.  More and more people are buying dining packages at specialty restaurants since the change in the MDR and the cutbacks in the WJ.  It is working as designed.

I enjoyed the Sea City Museum on turnaround day in Southampton.  Lots of great exhibits on the Titanic.  Walking distance from the port.

We did a food tour in Puerto Vallarta with Vallarta Food Tours and it was amazing!  We learned about the history of the area and the history of the food as we walked around and stopped at 8 different places for some delicious food.  One of the best tours we have been on.

Yes, Royal accepted our Any Lab Test Now result with no problem for our sailing a couple of weeks ago.

I did this tour the end of May and it was fantastic!!  James was our guide and chatted about the history of the area the whole way.  We saw a caribou, and bear and 3 different spots.  Each time he would pull the small bus over and make sure everyone got a picture.  We stopped numerous places for photos.  Getting across the border was no problem, just needed to show your passport.  The ArriveCAN that we did initially to get into Vancouver sufficed.  I thought I would miss the train, but I saw so much more.  Highly recommend.

I coordinated a group cruise in January 2020.  I'm not a TA, just an avid cruiser.  I call RC's group department to set it up and get a group number, then everyone called the groups department to book their own cabin and pay their deposit.  Yes, we did have cabin's of 3-4 people in our group.  We wound up with 14 staterooms (you need a minimum of 8 to set up a group).  Each stateroom got $50 OBC, and the primary person who set up the group, got a credit equivalent to one berth in the most common booked stateroom type.  We used the money to buy group tee shirts, back packs, reef-safe sunscreen for everyone and a poopouri for each stateroom.  We also bought some photo albums from the photo area on ship to give as prizes.  We had several big tables in the MDR and had it set up so we could rotate where we sat among the tables so we could sit next to different people each night.  We set up our own cabin crawl, slot pull, scavenger hunt, and shore excursions.  It was massive fun, can't wait to do it again.

We just had Allan a couple of weeks ago on the Oasis.  He was wonderful!  When we arrived the room was decorated and there was a birthday cake for me and an engagement cake for my daughter, along with fresh fruit.  We had never done star class before and didn't really know what to ask for, and we are low maintenance, do-it-yourself farmers, so poor Allan was really struggling all week trying to do things for us.  He reserved seats for us in the 3rd row at the Adult Comedy Show, "safety" seats as he called them, while the other star guests were in the front row.  Yep, we had the better genie!

I just cancelled a 3rd guest after final payment on a non-refundable deposit reservation and got 100% of the money back.  This was about 40 days out from sailing.

We did this and really enjoyed it.  The area that the stingrays are in is about 3 feet deep and the water is calm, so no swimming skills necessary.  The "wranglers" were very informative and entertaining.  We learned a lot about stingrays and had lots of time with them.  Next time I go to CocoCay I plan on doing it again!

1 hour ago, Trinam2 said:

Is this tour offered through the cruise line?

We booked the Falmouth Food Tour online.  It was not available through the cruiseline.

You can even find those ponchos at the dollar store.  They about the size of a deck of cards, so easy to toss into your backpack or purse.  Nice to have when needed!

On 12/7/2018 at 12:38 PM, rajacks said:

I know you said you weren't doing an excursion, but we did one last year called the Falmouth Food Tour with Jamaica Culinary Tours that I would highly recommend.  It's a walking tour.  Your guide will meet you inside the port area and walk you out.  It's a great way to sample some local food while seeing the sites and hearing some of the local history.  One of the best we've ever done!

 

Ruth

Another vote for Falmouth Food Tour!  Loved it.  Enjoyed the food and the tour.  Felt very safe.

We took this excursion in Sept of 2016 and we enjoyed it. We got on a bus at the pier, and they drove us about a mile down the road to the train station. The train was clean and comfortable. It was a commuter train so we made numerous stops, but the scenery was beautiful. When we arrived in Egersund we were bussed about a mile down the road and from there walked to the Grand Egersund Hotel, a very elegant old hotel, where we had coffee and waffles. After that they had a walking tour of Egersund. We ditched the tour and headed to the Egersund Chocolate Factory, explored the old part of town and the wharf and did some shopping. The bus ride back to Stavanger was long and boring. Egersund is absolutely charming and I would go again in a heartbeat, but next time I would buy my own train tickets and take the train both ways.

I "used to" make all my calls during the overnight hours and found the Oregon staff to be very helpful. I have called twice in the past couple of weeks and gotten someone from Guatemala. I asked him yesterday if the Oregon overnight office is still there and he acted like he didn't know what I was asking.

Oregon call center now closes at 9 pm Pacific Time. ALL calls after that get routed to Guatamela.

Hopefully, the person trying to remain anonymous isn't the person you refer to in some of your prior posts.

The OP is anonymous to me too, but I understand why they felt the need to create a new account.

Unfortunately, this is true. I live in Springfield and know several people who work there. They had to sign a non-disclosure agreement which I am sure is why the OP is trying to remain anonymous.

The Holiday Inn actually has a great breakfast buffet. I wouldn't go somewhere else. We went to the Sea City Museum before our cruise. They had some really interesting exhibits on the Titanic. It is walking distance from the Holiday Inn and the Pier.

The water is about waist high. They did have life jackets for those that wanted to use them.

We did this in February. It was wonderful! The water is not deep. You walk (actually do the "stingray shuffle") from the pier where the boat docks to where they feed the stingrays. You will be surrounded by friendly stingrays to pet and feed. They did offer snorkel gear, but there wasn't much to see besides the stingrays. The stingray "wranglers" were very knowledgeable and entertaining. It was well worth the money.

We did a Norwegian Fjords cruise in 2016 and LOVED it. We used the National Express bus from Heathrow to Southampton for about $24 per person. It was a nice ride, and got us close enough that we just walked to the port. If you have lots of luggage, I would suggest a taxi though.

On the return trip we used International Friends and toured Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, and Windsor Castle before airport or hotel drop off. We really enjoyed this tour and felt like it was a great value. Enjoy your cruise!

My daughter is a Certified Vacation Planner at Royal Caribbean. Yes, they get commission (they call them incentives) for every cruise they book. When a cruise is transferred to a travel agent they do lose their commission.

We used the National Express bus to take us from Heathrow to Southampton. It was only about $16 per person. We walked from the bus station in Southampton to our hotel, but if you have a lot of luggage you might want to get a taxi.

When we disembarked we used International Friends from the link on the London toolkit website. It was an excellent tour of Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, and Windsor Castle with an extremely knowledgeable guide. Afterwards they drop you off at Heathrow or your hotel. It was well worth the money.