lyndaler

We love the drive to Antigua from Puerto Quetzal and thought, $39-$40 for Holland America 1 1/2 hour bus ride to be *doable*. I see this trip they're now charging $60US for the ride alone, without any guiding. Sigh.

I see you often arrange for your own tour guides.

I like to arrange for our own guides as well, because we take a lot of photos and don't want to inconvenience others on a large bus if we want to stay longer...or leave earlier!!

Besides we aren't shoppers, and it seems every tour that others arrange involve a lot of hours window shopping, or time spent in bars or restaurants. That's just not our bag.

We are heading for the Mediterranean on HAL's Maasdam, 50 day, return FLL trip, Oct 30-mid Dec 2015.

We've been lucky enough to catch a couple of good deals and have thus sailed around South America on 49 day cruises, twice and I've arranged independent tours a couple of dozen times; about 3/4 of them before leaving home, and another 1/4 once we were in port.

But Europe is a whole new ball game for me. Have you sailed there? Have you any recommendations for tour guides in any of the following places:

Santa Cruz (Tenerife), Canary Islands, Spain

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain Puerto del Rosario, Fuerteventura, Spain

Tangier, Morocco

Almeria, Spain

Valencia, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

Naples (Pompeii), Italy

Messina, Italy 08:00 AM

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

Kerkira, Nisos Kerkira (Corfu), Greece

Valletta, Malta

Mgarr (Victoria), Gozo, Malta TR

Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy

Cartagena, Spain

Gibraltar, British Territory

Cadiz (Seville), Spain

Casablanca, Morocco

Funchal (Madeira), Portugal

I thought I'd try to get on this as soon as I could, as I have no idea how complicated it will be as time goes by/in port.

Thanks.

len

We are doing the Noordam b2b in February 2015 as well. Luv 2 take photos, but awkward to join groups when we want to spend extra time with good light/better angles. If you're interested in sharing transportation at various ports, perhaps let us know?

SUCH good, practical advice! The info on the headsets was really useful. I've seen them used in the odd museum here and there in the Americas, but only in about 10% of the places/tours we've been on...really frustrating as only the keeners working their way to the sides of the guide get to hear the info.

Didn't know the devices had such good range. Would most of the tours...say 90% make use of them?

I love to hear the details and stories of the guides but because of lack of headsets and preferring not to have to push to the front of the group, have prioritized photo taking and shrugged off the verbal descriptions, going with written details or more research later.

So hearing we can linger, yet hear the details, was great.

Since these boats have, say 200 passengers, do the land tours often end up with smaller tour groups, or do you end up at a site where there are 600 people in smaller groups of say, 25, because 3 boatloads of people hit the location at the same time?

I'm feeling a little more comfortable about river cruising as an option. I still have lots more research, and likely questions for other threads before we pull out our credit cards ;)

Thanks again!

This is my first day reading through River Cruise posts and it's mind numbing. I tried to do searches for photography and free time in ports, but couldn't find much info, so please bear with me.

We started cruising in 2009, and have ocean cruised 10 times, totalling around 250 days. In those 10 trips, we've found we love the port days. We have a tendency to research well in advance, and then strike out on our own, or with two or three other couples when we hit a port.

We've never been to Europe, and I have to admit, coming from a small town of 10 thousand, I'm a little hesitant about whether densely compacted locations may feel really congested. Yet, conversely, we've had wonderful times in larger centres such as Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Lima, and Melbourne.

But when push comes to shove, it's the smaller ports that we often end up smiling about, because we've had a better chance to meet and talk to local people who love their home cities.

Heading out in groups of 40 people...sometimes even 20...at a time seems, well, a little like 'herding cats'. So many varied interests, and needs. Some people want to eat and drink locally. Some want to move, move, move to get as much local colour as possible in the time in port. Many times hearing the guide is hard if you're at the back of a group. And waiting for people at bathrooms can eat up a lot of touring time.

So, we're wondering how we'd fit with river cruises if we LOVE our free time at port during daylight hours for amateur photography. We can spend a LONG TIME waiting for the light we want, or for the right angle.

And you get to talk more often with locals if there's only two or four of you, rather than being part of a group of 40.

I like the concept of moving from location to location in an easy manner. I like the concept of not having to pack and unpack every day as we move along. I like the concept of meeting new people on a small boat of maybe 200 people. I like the concept of smaller towns and interesting walks.

How does one find out in advance how independently one can spend one's time in a port? If we need to check out each cruiseline/itinerary/date the concept becomes daunting.

Or is it likely we're just not meant for river cruising?

Are any of you keen on small group travelling in ports? I'd appreciate any suggestions/comments/observations. You can also email me at

yknot05 at hotmail dot com

That's yknot zero five at hotmail dot com

Thanks!

In January 2014, I'm taking GCTs (used to be OATs) winter Adriatic cruise on one of their 50 passenger coastal ships. I was on one in July 2012 and fell in love with coastal cruising. GCT has 3 coastal ships. Their cabins and balconies are huge compared to river ships. In July 2014, I again taking a cruise on one of GCTs coastal ships. This time it is their Riviera trip. Lastly, I have their Rhine Xmas cruise booked for December 2014.

 

I also have a deposit down for a spring 2015 on GCT's new river Bordeaux river cruise.

We've done close to a dozen ocean cruises, and have started investigating other options. I read your post about coastal cruising the Adriatic in January and would be interested in any comments you may have about your trip.

We have done NO river cruises, so can't compare anything to them.

I'd be interested in trying a river cruise, but there are so many lines, I'm still trying to work my way through the advantages and disadvantages of each.

However, we DO love to hit port independentally because we take a lot of photos. Both of us have never been comfortable with bus trips as it seems to take forever getting 40 people on target...and bathroom breaks take forever.

Is it likely that if we enjoy touring a port on our own for the photography aspect that we'd be unhappy with River cruises?

I'd be grateful for any comments you or anyone else might have.

Thanks.

You can email me at yknot05 at hotmail dot com if you'd prefer. That's yknot zero five .

Thanks again.

I haven't belonged to CC for too long, so am still trying to find my way around the site, so apologize for this way of contacting you through another thread.

But I thought I saw some posts you did from the Invergordon area. We're quite interested in nearby Cromarty as ancestors came from there. We've been having a hard time on the internet finding any kind of info about getting from Invergordon to Cromarty in a timely/frugal manner where we could spend time concentrating on the geography/architecture/breathing in the atmosphere without having to drive our fool faces off from 6AM to 5PM when Veendam leaves.

Would you happen to have any suggestions of things to do see in Invergordon or getting around/across the firth to Cromarty?

Or did you happen to make any contacts in Invergordon that we could contact that might be able to make some suggestions for us?

Thanks,

Ellen

We're headed for Trinidad in February on Crown Princess.

Is there any way to contact Anthony in advance?

We had a rental car so we just drove by the ship and checked our wine and bag before we returned the car and jumped on the ship shuttle. Piece of cake.

As stated in another reply..the temps here have frozen my brain cells, so I'm just clarifying....

So...you leave the cases of wine with your checked bags? Did you have to protect the bottles in any way other than the way they are divided in the case by cardboard dividers? Were you ever concerned that the box would be scrunched/dropped when the forklifts bombed around?

So, would I just print an extra couple of 'luggage tags' and tape them to the boxes at the wine store, and when we got out of the taxi with our checked baggage, point out the two wine boxes were also coming to the room?

Sorry to be so thick!

This is not up for dispute. Cruisers know they will now pay a corkage when carrying on a larger quantity of wine. Not like in the past when we carried on a box of 8 bottles without a wink or cash due.

In fact, when we had the embarking photo taken by the ship's photographers, DH is standing there with the box on his hip. :D And you know how the pictures are on display for everyone to see!

Bear with me...the -30 temps have frozen my brain! I don't have the problem with the $15 corkage. It's the logistics of how one gets the case of wine from the shuttle/taxi to the cabin.

So...you leave the case of wine with your checked bags?

Or you find a way to drag it on with you with your carry on through the security rollers and THEN they take it?

I'm a 60 year old woman, and I'm going to be wearing my backpack with laptop/photography gear. I can probably carry a case of wine through the lineups into the security area. Brian is mobility challenged so he won't be able to carry anything other than his camera equipment. Any suggestions if we hope to get TWO cases of wine onto the ship?

Thanks for the information.

 

Even better, for wines that are your favorites, bring them on board. Corkage fee? of course. And if you love wine, you know which line/s have this policy

I'm hoping you're still following this thread, or it's forwarded to your email addy:

We love the big styles of wine: Shiraz/Cabs/Chards and the ones with the big mouth feel. We find that those styles are in the upper end of the $$ on board. And we're going to be on Crown Princess for 7 weeks so I'd like to be able to continue to enjoy wines with dinner. And if we're looking at $45 bottle wines for 7 weeks...well.....

*If prices on board are high, I wouldn't mind investigating bringing multiple cases (two) of wine on board at embarkation.

*We're staying near the beach at a hotel we haven't stayed at before. FLL is unfamiliar to us, so we're trying to find a wine store near the hotel. Consequently we have no idea of how the store/s handle people buying/taking two cases of wine from the store to the ship.

*How did you handle getting them on board and to your room? How do you 'carry them on'? or How do you check them so they get to your room unbroken? Where/when does one pay the $15 corkages?

I can live with paying a $15 surcharge knowing that the wines I like on board are costing $45+. Even with corkage, I'd still save $15 a bottle by buying before embarking.

Brian has mobility issues, so if we just purchase a bottle or two at every port, it could get costly/time consuming trying to chase down liquor/wine stores in each port if we have to go by taxi for just two bottles of wine.

And then there's the added puzzle of being unfamiliar with various wines. Coming from the Great White North, most of the wines we see on listings are unfamiliar to us, so in order to get the biggie mouth feel, it can get costly just working our way through the listings to find one in a style that we like at a reasonable price. Ditto for picking up wine in port. What's the old line...There are only two types of wine..good and bad. If I like it, it's good. If I don't like it, it's bad.

Our email addy is yknot05 at hotmail dot com if you have any suggestions. That's yknot and then the digits zero and five.

Thanks.

Largin, thank you so much!

This will be our first Princess cruise and we love a nice bottle of wine with dinner.

Until recently, we've been able to pick up whatever amounts we wanted, put them in our backpacks and board HAL with a dozen wines from any wine store nearby in San Diego. We're from the Great White North and don't often know the wines we're seeing listed on the ship. So it's a bit of a gamble each bottle we order. And because we don't know a lot of the wines, we had tended to buy ones we knew the characteristics of, before we went on board.

Now, we're into a new game with HAL and other lines.

Wish they had wine tastings first sea day from the various packages/wines offered on board.

With this listing we now have an idea of the wines offered and the prices involved. THANK YOU! We had been considering buying a couple of cases from a nearby wine store and then figuring out how we'd get them to our room as we'd never done that before. I don't mind a $15 corkage fee if the wines on the ship listing are $45+

But these Princess prices seem reasonable.

I've also been trying to find a Princess phone number that I could call to see if they're going to offer wine packages on the Feb. 15 Crown Princess sailing. Can't seem to find a phone number for that. Any chance you know of a phone number to use?

Thanks once again!

We have been on two Princess cruises since the new rules have gone into effect. Both times, we checked a case of wine with no problems. They just charge the corkage fee on 10 bottles and deliver it to your room.

 

On our Alaska cruise, we also bought wine in ports with no questions asked. Our first Hawaii port is today, so we will give it a try and let you know how it goes. :-)

I'm hoping you are following this thread or it forwards to an email to you.

We love the big styles of wine: Shiraz/Cabs/Chards and the ones with the big mouth feel. We find that those styles are in the upper end of the $$ on board. And we're going to be on Crown Princess for 7 weeks so I'd like to be able to continue to enjoy wines with dinner. And if we're looking at $45 bottle wines for 7 weeks...well.....

*If prices on board are high, I wouldn't mind investigating bringing multiple cases (two) of wine on board at embarkation.

*We're staying near the beach at a hotel we haven't stayed at before. FLL is unfamiliar to us, so we're trying to find a wine store near the hotel. Consequently we have no idea of how the store/s handle people buying/taking two cases of wine from the store to the ship.

*How did you handle getting them on board and to your room? How do you 'carry them on'? or How do you check them so they get to your room unbroken? Where/when does one pay the $15 corkages?

I can live with paying a $15 surcharge knowing that the wines I like on board are costing $45+. Even with corkage, I'd still save $15 a bottle by buying before embarking.

Brian has mobility issues, so if we just purchase a bottle or two at every port, it could get costly/time consuming trying to chase down liquor/wine stores in each port if we have to go by taxi for just two bottles of wine.

And then there's the added puzzle of being unfamiliar with various wines. Coming from the Great White North, most of the wines we see on listings are unfamiliar to us, so in order to get the biggie mouth feel, it can get costly just working our way through the listings to find one in a style that we like at a reasonable price. Ditto for picking up wine in port. What's the old line...There are only two types of wine..good and bad. If I like it, it's good. If I don't like it, it's bad.

Our email addy is yknot05 at hotmail dot com if you have any suggestions. That's yknot and then the digits zero and five.

Thanks.

I'm hoping you are following this thread or it forwards to an email to you.

We love the big styles of wine: Shiraz/Cabs/Chards and the ones with the big mouth feel. We find that those styles are in the upper end of the $$ on board. And we're going to be on Crown Princess for 7 weeks so I'd like to be able to continue to enjoy wines with dinner. And if we're looking at $45 bottle wines for 7 weeks...well.....

*If prices on board are high, I wouldn't mind investigating bringing multiple cases (two) of wine on board at embarkation.

*We're staying near the beach at a hotel we haven't stayed at before. FLL is unfamiliar to us, so we're trying to find a wine store near the hotel. Consequently we have no idea of how the store/s handle people buying/taking two cases of wine from the store to the ship.

*How did you handle getting them on board and to your room? How do you 'carry them on'? or How do you check them so they get to your room unbroken? Where/when does one pay the $15 corkages?

I can live with paying a $15 surcharge knowing that the wines I like on board are costing $45+. Even with corkage, I'd still save $15 a bottle by buying before embarking.

Brian has mobility issues, so if we just purchase a bottle or two at every port, it could get costly/time consuming trying to chase down liquor/wine stores in each port if we have to go by taxi for just two bottles of wine.

And then there's the added puzzle of being unfamiliar with various wines. Coming from the Great White North, most of the wines we see on listings are unfamiliar to us, so in order to get the biggie mouth feel, it can get costly just working our way through the listings to find one in a style that we like at a reasonable price. Ditto for picking up wine in port. What's the old line...There are only two types of wine..good and bad. If I like it, it's good. If I don't like it, it's bad.

Our email addy is yknot05 at hotmail dot com if you have any suggestions. That's yknot and then the digits zero and five.

Thanks.

I had checked 2 cases with my luggage in a shipper earlier this year in Fort Lauderdale and had no problem.

I'm hoping you are following this thread or it forwards to an email to you.

We love the big styles of wine: Shiraz/Cabs/Chards and the ones with the big mouth feel. We find that those styles are in the upper end of the $$ on board. And we're going to be on Crown Princess for 7 weeks so I'd like to be able to continue to enjoy wines with dinner. And if we're looking at $45 bottle wines for 7 weeks...well.....

*If prices on board are high, I wouldn't mind investigating bringing multiple cases (two) of wine on board at embarkation.

*We're staying near the beach at a hotel we haven't stayed at before. FLL is unfamiliar to us, so we're trying to find a wine store near the hotel. Consequently we have no idea of how the store/s handle people buying/taking two cases of wine from the store to the ship.

*How did you handle getting them on board and to your room? How do you 'carry them on'? or How do you check them so they get to your room unbroken? Where/when does one pay the $15 corkages?

I can live with paying a $15 surcharge knowing that the wines I like on board are costing $45+. Even with corkage, I'd still save $15 a bottle by buying before embarking.

Brian has mobility issues, so if we just purchase a bottle or two at every port, it could get costly/time consuming trying to chase down liquor/wine stores in each port if we have to go by taxi for just two bottles of wine.

And then there's the added puzzle of being unfamiliar with various wines. Coming from the Great White North, most of the wines we see on listings are unfamiliar to us, so in order to get the biggie mouth feel, it can get costly just working our way through the listings to find one in a style that we like at a reasonable price. Ditto for picking up wine in port. What's the old line...There are only two types of wine..good and bad. If I like it, it's good. If I don't like it, it's bad.

Our email addy is yknot05 at hotmail dot com if you have any suggestions. That's yknot and then the digits zero and five.

Thanks.

Just finished Caribbean/Panama 12 day on Nov. 30. We were in 6027 (avoid if at all possible...WAY too tiny) and rarely smelled the sewer smell, though maybe half a dozen times we caught a whiff for a few seconds.

Only toilet issues were that occasionally one would push the button and it would take 40 seconds or so to flush. Sometimes we'd be washed and back watching TV before we heard the sucking sounds.

However, big time smell deck 10 starboard stern. And on the second last sea day, the starboard hallway near the Ocean Bar was ripe, and the Art Auction just across from it was so bad, I had to hold my nose when I walked by it.

I had written a couple of comments on notes to the front desk about the Deck 10 smell, but no answer back. I phoned down about the Ocean Bar/Art Auction, again no response.

But, I suspect it's not their job to speak up for HAL. The smell wasn't enough to spoil our trip, but it is enough that I wouldn't 'recommend' to any friend a trip on Z at this point. And as someone mentioned earlier on, at least it isn't smelled in the dining room or Lido.

As for the A/C we had it cranked up full bore and it was 'comfortable' though not really cool/cold.

Several times in ports there was an announcement that parts of the ship would be losing electrical power while they did work on something or other. The down time was minimal...barely noticed it...so maybe something is happening re a/c.

All in all...smell and a/c...it was adequate. But the staff/ports/food/and way we were treated on the ship were terrific.

However, I think I'll wait til I hear from HAL that they've addressed the odour issues before I go back to Z.