Packman1000

We are planning a 15 day Grand European cruise on Viking.  I know they don't have laundry machines on board for passengers to use.  Is there potential to take laundry off the boat and find a laundromat close by in one of the ports.  With the pre and post hotels, we will be traveling for about 3 weeks and would prefer not to pay the normally outrageous prices of laundry service on the ship.

Second question.  Any advice on the post hotel packages?  Trying to decide between Prague and Budapest.  The price difference is $400 pp for just one more night in Prague ($399 pp for 2 nights in Budapest versus $799 pp for 3 nights in Prague).  Is going to Prague worth it?

On our next cruise we will be Elite and have the mini bar setup.  I'm trying to find out "exactly" what is in the minibar on Princess.  Does it include beer, wine, soda, besides liquor?  Since neither my DW nor I drink any kind of straight liquor, does Princess allow us to bring on a mixer, like 7-UP, or margarita mix if there is tequila, or bloody mary mix if there is vodka, etc?  I know you can ask the cabin steward to switch out some items.  If you do that, do you give the steward a list, or just tell them?  Does the swap happen the same day?  Lastly, we are going on a 14 day Caribbean cruise that is made up of two 7 day cruises.  Do we get two mini bars?

Thanks.

Thanks for the suggestions.  I did call our cell phone provider - Consumer Cellular - and they said our service is with AT&T, but said they didn't think our service would work in Vancouver.  How would one know for sure?  Do we just try it when we get to the airport?

Thanks for info.  We'll look for the hotel phones, presuming they are around baggage claim - and skip the taxi fees.

We are only spending one night in Vancouver pre-cruise.  I just realized our cell phones probably won't work in Canada and I don't want to go through the fuss and expense of new SIM cards, or whatever, for one day.  We are planning to use an airport hotel in Vancouver and take the Sky Train to the Waterfront Station the following morning to board the ship.  Without phones, does anyone know how we could contact the hotel from the airport to request their shuttle?  If we can't call the hotel, do taxi's in Vancouver take credit cards (also not planning to get Canadian dollars)?

Don't know if airports still have those hotel phones.  There must still be a lot of people that don't have cell phones - how do they travel??

We are only going to be in Vancouver for one night (from US) and I am not planning to get any Canadian dollars.  If we want to tip a few people (like the hotel shuttle driver and the luggage folks at the port), can we use USD?  I know if someone handed me a Canadian dollar, I wouldn't know what to do with it.

Thanks so much for the advice.  It should be an easy process.

We are staying at the Day's Inn Vancouver airport the night before our cruise out of Canada Place.  This hotel is very close to the Bridgeport light rail station (Sky train).  We plan to walk to this station from our hotel (unless they will shuttle us to the station) and catch the train to Canada Place on a Saturday morning.  Is this a reasonable option?  Can we buy tickets for the train with a credit card, since I'm not planning to get any Canadian dollars?  How long will it take to get to the waterfront from Bridgeport?  Is it an easy walk to the cruise ship from the train station downtown?  Any other advice?

Our flight doesn't arrive until about 8 PM the evening before the cruise and staying at an airport hotel is far cheaper than any other options I've found.  We have been to Vancouver before, so we don't plan any "sightseeing".  Just want to get from an airport hotel to cruise port in the least expensive way.

We are planning to go to Stone Island or the Malecon while in Mazatlan.  Any recommendations on which is better?  I assume the Malecon is better for shopping and Stone Island for beaches.  We would be walking (with water taxi) to either.  Are restaurants/bars similar in both?  Anything to see, like historical areas in either place?  Any issues with safety?

Thanks.

Our cruise ends in Whittier and we would like to tour on our own for 4-5 days ending in Anchorage to fly home.  We have already been on the train from Denali to Anchorage so I thought we'd concentrate on points south of Anchorage on this trip.

1. What would be the best mode of transportation?  Do we take the ships transfer from Whittier to Anchorage and then rent a car (enabling us to return to Anchorage to fly home)?  If so, we'd have to back track a couple of hours if we headed toward Seward.  Or take trains, buses?
2. What are the must see/do options south of Anchorage?  We like animal viewing, boat trips, shorter hikes, etc.
3. What type of lodging is most recommended (hotel, B & B, cabin).  We would likely be in a couple of different places in our 4-5 nights.
4. Any other advice would be appreciated, as I am just starting to plan for next June.

Thanks.

Taking our first Med cruise on Princess and wondering if any kind of "maps" are offered to passengers by Princess of the ports. Not the ones that show where all of the jewelry stores are, but something a bit more helpful if one is planning to walk around in the port. Ports include Rome, Genoa, Naples, Athens, Greek Isles, etc.

Wondering about transportation in Rome itself. We are arriving in Civit. on a Saturday and will take the train to Rome. We have been to Rome once before (for 3 days) and have seen most of the sights. This time we hope to have a bit more relaxed pace, yet see some of the sights for a second time. We plan to get off the train at the S. Pietro station and walk to the Vatican. From there we plan to walk to the city center seeing Piazza Novona, Pantenon, Trevi, etc. We would then like to go to the Colosseum and from there get back to one of the train stations going back to Civit. We will have about 5 hours to spend in Rome.

So the questions are: How do the Rome buses work for tourists who don't speak a word of Italian? What routes would work for us in this schedule? Are buses or taxi's a better alternative for us if we don't wish to walk all of this way in the city? What train station will be the best one to use to leave Rome? Is it reasonable to do this in 5 hours (we do not plan to go into the Vatican or the Colosseum, as we have already done that)? Suggestions please.

Can anyone tell me how the timing of tenders work in Kotor. Our ship (Crown) arrives at 7 AM and I want to know how long it may take to get ashore for those with private tours. I don't know if they use the ships lifeboats, nor do I know how far from the pier they anchor, etc. So, I'm looking specifically at the port of Kotor.

Thanks

Thanks for all of the responses (I'm the OP). I know these are gray area questions, so I understand the differing opinions. I had reason to call Princess today on another issue, so I asked the two questions about bringing wine onboard at the interim embarkation ports and the 3 credit question. They said wine (to our stateroom) would be allowed only at our original embarkation and only 1 cruise credit, since I booked a 21 day cruise. That is what I expected them to say.

It would sure be nice to be able to buy a nice bottle of local wine, while in these famous wine making ports, to enjoy in our stateroom. I just can't put wine bottles in my checked luggage. One time at baggage claim we saw a suitcase almost dripping with alcohol. I don't feel sorry for the owner of the suitcase, but I do for the owner of the one beneath it.

We are taking a Princess Med. cruise this summer in which the ship does several 7 day cruises back to back. We are going on 3 of these for a total of 21 days. So two questions - will we be allowed to bring one bottle of wine onboard (pp) in each of the ports in which a new 7 day cruise begins? Also, we will get credit for three cruises in their loyalty program (which would be better for us than 21 days)?

Lastly, a question about dress code. We will be in Europe and I'm told you must cover your knees and shoulders in churches. Does that mean no shorts at all for men or women? What about a dress for a women that is slightly above, or near, the knee?

Thanks much.

We are taking an Alaskan cruise-tour from Vancouver to Anchorage in June. However, we plan to fly to Seattle for a couple of days (we have credits to use on Southwest) then take the Amtrak train to Vancouver for a couple more days, prior to sailing. I'm trying to figure out how to do this, so I have a few questions.

- Could I use the light rail from the airport to downtown and walk to a reasonably priced hotel? Could we also walk to the Amtrak station the day we go to Vancouver? If not, what are my best alternatives without renting a car?

- Downtown hotels are very pricey from what I've seen so far. Are there better alternatives, again, without having to rent a car? We don't want or need the high end hotel, but want a clean, quiet room in a safe area where we could do some downtown sightseeing. Would like to keep the nightly cost of the hotel under $125.

Help!

Upon further review...There is an Enterprise location inside the Hilton Marina on 17th Street that I was unaware of. You can drop the car off there and they can run you to the convention center (if you don't feel like walking to Terminal 2), but they are not authorized to enter the port, which now that the guard shack has moved south past the convention center/Terminal 2 entrance they are not.

 

Problem solved!

 

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

1881 Se 17th St

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316

+1 954-618-4030

Thanks Lido, I'll check out that location for Enterprise.

My concern with Uber is that I would have to wait longer for the ride to arrive than it would take me to walk, especially that it is the usual super busy Sunday in Fort Lauderdale with something like 10 ships in port. I've never used Uber, so I don't know what the wait times are. I suppose I could get Enterprise to take me to the gate off 17th street and walk from there since it's much closer to terminal 2.

Thanks for the responses. I'll have to see what the car rental people can offer to me. It's funny that Enterprise won't drop me at the ship, since Hertz said they would (but Hertz charges more for the car).

Enterprise told me that they cannot give rides into the cruise port (don't know why). I like to walk, would not have any luggage, and don't want to wait for a cab or Uber. I think I could walk in faster. It's a winter cruise so temps and humidity aren't a factor. I just didn't know if one can walk through security and if there are sidewalks along my route.

We are renting a car pre-cruise and I want to use the car on the day of departure to go to terminal 2 and drop our luggage and my wife. Then I plan to take the car back to Enterprise (on 26th and Federal) and walk back to the terminal via 24th street. Google maps says it's less than 2 miles. We have already once walked into Port Everglades from 17th street, but I don't know if you can walk in on 24th street? Can anybody tell me if that is possible?

Thanks

If you get a Princess promotion with "free gratuities", I assume you do not need to give your waiters and room stewards an additional tip (unless you wish to). However, my DW thinks we should tip them with cash at the end of the cruise. If we do that, and only give them, say an additional $20, I wonder if they think that is all they get from us. It's just awkward at the end of the cruise when they seem to be waiting for an envelope.

How do others handle this?

If you have already checked out Trunk Bay , consider going to Cinnamon Bay. I was in awe when we went there.

Good idea. Maybe we will check out Cinnamon Bay. Does anyone know if they have any kind of showers to wash off the salt water? My wife really liked the shower area at Trunk Bay.

Hi Anne. This is quite a thread you have going here. Perhaps you will remember us, as you led us in November 2009 (Holland Eurodam) to Trunk Bay. We are gonig again in February on the Emerald Princess and are planning to do the same trip again. Perhaps we can return the favor you did for us, and lead some other first timers. Thank you again for doing this for us a year ago!

All, I have been on 10 cruises including the Med., and this trip to Trunk Bay still ranks right up there with the best places I have even been to. Anyone on the fence - DO IT - you won't regret it.

Anne, hopefully we'll run into you again some day and would look forward to buying you a drink for introducing us to this place.

Dave

I found your story fascinating. Please tell us more. How did you come to that island? What is it like living on such a small and remote island? Are there towns of any size? I noticed there are 2 airports on the island, that seems strange. What is the housing like? Do you own a car? Are there many American's there? Wow, sorry I can't seem to stop. I don't mean to pry, but I'm living out my fantasy of just not getting back on the ship and staying in one of these islands. I grew up watching Gilligan's Island, so forgive me!

Thanks.