WisRiver

We have done several long cruises, 50+ days.  My only complaint is the receptive nature of the menu. When we are in port, we try to make enough time to shop a local grocery store or market for snacks.  You would be amazed at the different flavor of chips (aka crisps) in New Zealand, Sweden or Thailand.  We have no problem bringing food back on the ship, only if you try to take it off.  Also local grocery stores can be a great place to shop for souvenirs.  Many Icelandic grocery stores have knitting and yarn sections in addition to excellent dried lamb sausages.

We may purchase local cheeses, and keep them cool in the cabin refrigerator.

Also Post It notes for putting reminders on the mirror. 

Two years ago we started a cruise from Reykjavik, but not on HAL.  We are a group of four adults.  A taxi from the airport is about $150 US for a minivan that held our luggage.  The taxi for four persons is. a little more than four fares on Flybus, but you get door to door service.  We booked a downtown hotel (Radisson Blu) for two nights and then rented a car for two nights and did the Golden Circle with two nights in Vik.  We rented the car from the Blue Cars downtown location.  We returned the car after dropping two people and the luggage at the cruise ship, returned the car and took a taxi back to the ship.  We boarded about an hour before departure.  Iceland is incredibly expensive, but the four days pre-cruise were worth the cost.

• We winter in the village of Chicxulub Puerto near Progreso.  We go to Merida at least once a week, and usually into the center of the city.  For a first time visitor I would try to find a guided tour of the center of the city.  I can recommend a licensed private guide who will work with you on a day trip.  A guide will cost you more, but will give you an introduction to an extraordinary city.  
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My email is:  wisriver2322 at gmail dot com

We travel as a group of four adults.  Our experience with Uber XL is that the vehicle is a mini-van or an SUV.  Each person in our group travels with a large checked bag and a carry on.  Plenty of room for our luggage, but the back seat is a bit of a squeeze for three adults.  We have used Uber several times in the past five years, and had no problems.

We booked our previous Hurtigruten trips, Antarctica, Iceland and two Coastal Voyages directly with Hurtigruten without using a travel agent.  We had no problems with communicating with Hurtigruten.  All our trips were before Hurtigruten split into two companies.  We are booked on the Northwest Passage in 2025, Seattle to Reykjavik.  We will follow @Futureaarpmember's postings.  Since we have two (red and blue) expedition jackets, it is good to know we can get a credit for declining a jacket.

We are 5* Mariners, and for the three cruises we have taken since cruising restarted, we have been able to get day passes to the Thermal Suite including one cruise on the Rotterdam.

We forgot to bring enough reef-safe sun screen.  https://savethereef.org/about-reef-save-sunscreen.html. The ship's store had one small tube, and no replacements.  The reef-safe sun screen was hard to find in French Polynesia (in tourist shops) and New Caledonia.  Had to wait to get to Australia to get a resupply.

You might want to consider Icelandair for one way fares to Europe and the UK.  Their round trip fares are double the one way, and you can book one way fares.  We have done six transatlantic cruises and flown Icelandair on five.  You cannot fly non-stop from the US to Europe.  You have to stop in Reykjavik, and Icelandair flies from only twelve US cities.  Nevertheless, Icelandair is an option worth exploring.

We have sailed out of Fort Lauderdale four times and disembarked three times.   The first time we used a shuttle arranged by our hotel Embassy Suites.  The shuttle was a slow, expensive process.  We were in a mini-bus and had to wait for the shuttle to load and unload passengers and luggage.  The. next three departures we used a taxi and Uber.  The cost for two persons was about half the cost of a shuttle.  In all three trips the driver helped us with our luggage, which generated nice tips.  Even with the tip, the cost was still less than the shuttle.  We had almost no wait for the taxi or Uber.  My suggestion, use Uber.

Our flight home did not leave until afternoon, so we chose the latest disembarkation time.  We left our bags in the hallway to be picked up by crew.  We were out of our cabin by 8 AM and had breakfast in the Lido.  When we disembarked at about 9 AM the crowds had thinned., it took us about 10-15 minutes to clear customs and immigration.  Lots of HAL staff to facilitate disembarkation.  We used Uber/Lyft to get to the airport.  We had to wait for the Uber/Lyft, but it was not long.  We like the ride share because we know the cost before getting in the car.

Enjoy your trip.

We are booked on the Amundsen for a 26 day cruise later this year.  Is there a self service laundry on board?  Does the ship offer laundry service.  

12 hours ago, tigervixxxen said:

Also, I don’t want to make a thread to ask this question but anyone that’s had the MDR lasagna, does it have ricotta in it? The description doesn’t say so but I need to confirm that for DH who won’t eat lasagna with ricotta in it. Thanks!

We were on the Noordam for 38 days earlier this year.  I had the lasagna several times.  It was very good.  I could not tell what was in the white cheese filling.  I have made lasagna with cottage cheese, so it is possible HAL's recipe does not have ricotta.   

We boarded the. Oosterdam last fall in Barcelona.  We had to be out of our apartment by 11.  We took an Uber to the cruise terminal expecting we would have to wait.  We arrived at about 11:30 AM.  We are 5* mariners.  However the lines were not long for people without priority boarding.  I do not think there will not be 2000 people boarding.  On our trip fewer than new 1,000 passengers boarded.  Lots of passengers were continuing on.

We are doing back to back cruises departing on each cruise from Piraeus.  This means that we will have a day in Piraeus.  We will have spent a week in Athens before our departure.  Unless we have missed something of major importance, we have decided there is no reason to return to Athens and to stay close to the ship.  We will also have to change cabins before starting our second leg, so we may not be able to start early.

Our Piraeus day is November 2.  Is there a Hop on-Hop off bus?  We would like to have a nice lunch off the ship within walking distance.  I think we are docking at Terminal A.  Any suggestions?

I suggest the smörgåsbord in the Veranda of the Grand Hotel.  It is a classic, Swedish smörgåsbord.  Our Swedish friends have taken us there on special occasions.  Book a table ASAP.  Last year the cost was about 700 SEK per person.

AutoProgreso is the local bus company and they offer excursions from Progreso to Chichen Itza.  Since we winter near Progreso, I have never used their cruise excursions.  However, I regularly use their busses from Progreso to Merida.

We have T-Mobile which has good international calling service.  When we are in a foreign county, for example Spain, we have to use the Spain county code (+34) to call another Spanish number.  If we wanted to call a number in the UK, we would use the UK code, +44.  When we are in a foreign country, we use +1 and area code to call back to the US.  We put our phone on airplane mode when on a ship unless we are docked.  

Some of the aft verandas are classified as Vista Suites.  We like aft verandas and a deck 4 Vista Suite was the only aft veranda available for our November repositioning.  I think the aft verandas classified as Vista Suites are on decks 4 and 7.

We were on the Noordam earlier this year.  We were to dock at White Bay Terminal.  Our arrival was delayed by five hours because of bad weather in the Sydney Harbor.  In previous cruises we overnighted in Sydney before catching the noonish flights back to the US.

If we were to finish a cruise in Sydney again, we would spend the night in a hotel to insure getting to the airport on time.

In 2022 we did the 35 day circumnavigation of Australia on HAL.  We started the Australia cruise with the 34 day repositioning from San Diego to Sydney, so we were on the Noordam for a total of 69 days.  The circumnavigation portion was extraordinary.  I have no other cruises to compare, since this was my first and probably only circumnavigation.  

On our two cruises last year on the Oosterdam and Noordam, internet performance was adequate.  I use the internet primarily for e-mail  and documents.  I had to do several video conferences and scheduled them for port days to insure strong land based internet.   On the transatlantic in November on the Oosterdam, there seemed to be poor internet in the middle of the Atlantic.  

Last year we did a circumnavigation of Australia on HAL's Noordam.  The itinerary is about the same as the one posted by strobe1.  We started in San Diego and did a 34 day South Pacific cruise to Sydney where we started the circumnavigation.  The Westerdam is a midsized sister ship of the Noordam.   Both are very nice ships.

When you sail from Rome to Messina, you will sail by the island of Stromboli.  The Stromboli volcano has been in almost continuous eruption for the last 2000-3000 years.  In 2018 we sailed from Messina to Rome and we could see the erupting volcano from our starboard balcony.  Assuming the captain takes the same course, the volcano should be visible from the port side.

The bus station is on Calle 82 about two blocks from where the cruise shuttle drops you in Progreso.  Busses run about every 20 minutes and it takes about an hour to reach the Merida terminal near the central square.  The busses are clean, well maintained and reliable.  Here is a link to the bus company's web site with a map of the route.   https://www.autoprogreso.com/en/   I ride the bus several times a month with no problems.  You buy tickets at the ticket window in the station.  

When are you going to the Blue Lagoon?  BL is currently closed because of the nearby volcano eruption.  As I understand the highway from Reykjavik is blocked by a lava flow.

I winter in a small village east of Progreso. One of our visiting grandchildren's favorite place to visit was El Corchito.  They first visited when the were pre-teens and have gone back as teenagers.  You arrive on the north side of the lagoon and pay for transport in a small boat to the dock for the park.  I am not sure  what is the cost.  Here is a recent story about the park.  https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2022/09/el-corchito-a-fantastic-ecological-nature-reserve-just-minutes-away-from-merida/

I think it would be possible to walk from the shuttle bus stop from the end of the pier to the park, but I would take a taxi.   You walk through the city in neighborhoods with poor or non-existent sidewalks. No food can be taken into the park (they do not want you feeding the animals), but bring your swimsuits, beach towels, bug repellent and reef safe sun screen.  Since we live in the Yucatan, I am not sure about excursions from a cruise ship.