cjsegninir

Yeah, I checked and the Noordam has the kids club from 3 years old, so she will be fine. Might be the only one there though haha

Thanks Expatcat,

normally itinerary is the most deciding factor for us. 

In this case both are quite similar, each one with its own pros and cons.

That's why I'm not sure which one to choose hehe

Hello everyone,

We are planning for a cruise with our small daughters (3 and 1 yo) to Australia/New Zealand, but we are unsure about which ship to take. We are debating between Noordam and Ruby Princess.

We loved our only HAL cruise on the Zaandam and didn't like too much our only Princess on the Diamond.  However, both were a bit affected by the itineraries, so we are a bit biased to HAL.

Providing they are similar itineraries and prices, which one would you choose?

Cheers

Hi!

I'm originally from Venezuela and I can tell you that it might not be so easy to get English speakers there for a tour.

Last time I went I met a friend, Miguel (miguelrojas52@gmail.com), who has a small travel agency.

Contact him, he speaks english, I'm sure he will organize a nice tour for you. Tell him you know Carlos Segnini, from Trinidad and Tobago. He will remember me.

If you have any more questions about Margarita, let me know...

Cheers!

PS: What kind of tour do you want? There are nice beaches, you can swim with dolphins, there are some old Spanish forts and towns, big malls for shopping, water-parks, all-inclusive day-passes to hotels, catamaran cruises to deserted keys, and many more things you can imagine.

Hi,

So did you already come to Trinidad?

Going to Maracas is relatively easy if it is a week day. From the port you can walk into City Gate (The bus hub) and take a "Maxi Taxi" (a van used as taxi). It will cost probably 6 TT$ (1 US$) and take about an hour to reach.

On the way back it would be wise to have plenty of time, because it might be harder to find transport, and traffic into Port of Spain is terrible in the afternoon.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Cheers,

C.S.

PD: On weekends is harder, because there is no "normal" service. It is better to walk into the city centre and negotiate with a taxi driver for the full service. I would say some 200-300TT$ (40-50 Us$).

Thanks for your reply ;)

It looks like you're on a Ghost Ship :eek: only 1 page is that right ?

Yes, it looks like it's only 5 of us for the whole ship :cool:

Another question , are you comfortable doing (or organizing) private tours ?

Tha's what we have done before most of the times. I think in 7 cruises we have only used the ship excursions twice... The rest it has been tours organized in the roll call or calling the operators

 

We feel that cities or towns like BA , Santiago and Ushuaia are do it yourself experiences (no tour needed).

I agree, but still I use the tour itineraries to pinpoint the places I would like to visit while there. Unless there is a place outside the city that we should go with a tour. Any must-see in those cities?

 

If you are comfortable with private tours , we can give you our contacts or you can find others online.

 

Please, any ideas will help me to start!

You are blessed to be going to the Falklands and the name that comes up most is Patrick Watts

 

One of the ship's tour that I would recommend is the Magdalena Island penguin tour in Punta Arenas.

I have read about Patrick Watts somewhere before and also about Magdalena Island. Both of them are in my list so far :D

This is where we got screwed on our first trip.

Wow! What an experience... Our worst was actually with a ship's organized excursion in Funchal. We took a whale safari, but the sea conditions were not appropriate. They still sailed and we had a ready hard time and didn't see any whales :( As happened with your friends, my spanish allowed me to understand what they were talking in portuguese. They knew that no whales were on sight and that it was dangerous with the rough sea, but they didn't want to cancel the trip and lose money.

All this conversation doesn't let me work. I want to go now!

I would love to go to Iguazu or El Calafate, but then it means hotel there plus transfers. Are there any day-tours from Buenos Aires as interesting as those?

I was also checking the tours on the HAL website and I was shocked by the prices :eek: I understand these areas are not easy to get to, but still even the normal city-tours are in the 100's range or close. I think we need to save some more to be able to make the tours.

What tours would you recommend for my itinerary? What tours are the best for seeing fauna? Which tours we MUST take? ;)

Cheers

What a wonderful review!

It really built up our expectations for our next cruise on December 8th 2014.

We have been looking this trip for a while, but there was always something in the middle. Now we just decided and booked it before something changes! It was not the itinerary we wanted (We first thought the drive-by antarctica) but dates were not working, so we went for this one.

We are doing the reverse itinerary, with some small changes. Sailing from BsAs, Montevideo, Stanley (fingers-crossed!), Punta arenas, Ushuaia, Puerto Montt and debarking in Santiago. Any tips are appreciated :)

One big thing I learnt from your review is I NEED a new camera! We have been using a digital with a big zoom, but it won't be enough. I guess I'll (finally) go the DSLR route.

Thanks for sharing all your pictures and experiences!

Cheers,

C.S.

I guess someone else has made this question before, but I couldn't find the answer here.

I haven't decided if taking Woody or Levi on our cruise in june. I contacted both and they seem differently good. Levi's is cheaper and goes to the regular places but Woody promises to take us to the "real" dominica and do more stuff.

What do you think? Has any of you taken both? thanks for you help.

Cheers