petepie

10 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Thanks for the post.  For others we would suggest that using Trieste as a base to travel to Venice is not a great idea or a good use of one's time.   Extending one's stay at least another day and than relocating to a hotel in Venice or somewhere closer to VCE (such as Mestre) would make a lot more sense in terms of commuting to Venice :).

 

Unfortunately for cruisers, the forced relocation of cruise ships to places like Trieste and Ravenna have had a huge impact on cruisers experiencing the joys of Venice.  The work around is to spend some time in Venice pre or post cruise before the long trek to the port.  We can all hope that the Italians get their act together and open up Marghera to most cruise ships.

 

Hank

Agree this was not optimal way to see Venice. We were disappointed when the port moved to Trieste but decided to try to get to Venice anyway, even for a limited visit.

11 hours ago, DCThunder said:

Just curious, did the cruise end in Trieste?  Is that why you went to the airport on the 2nd day?  I've got an overnight in Trieste on an Adriatic cruise from Piraeus in October 2023 and was wondering about day trips to Venice so your information is very helpful for long range planning. 

Yes our cruise ended in Trieste. Was supposed to end in Venice but moved to Trieste. HAL provided free bus transfer to VCE airport day of debarkation

10 hours ago, Petersonfcu said:

Thanks for this report.  We are considering taking the train the opposite direction (Venice St Lucia to Trieste) in October to embark our HAL cruise.  How was the train ride?  Was it full?  Seats comfortable?  A place for luggage (realize you were on a day trip, but maybe you noticed . . . ). Any interesting views?  

Train ride was fine - we were in 2nd class, groups of 4 seats facing each other without a table in the middle. No food car but did have toilets. We were in regional service, takes 2 hrs. Look at the timetables when booking - be aware that some trains are local service that takes 3 hrs. There are also fast trains but they only save you about 10 mins (Italo & Italia rail frecciarossa). Lots of people with luggage - train was not full so most just had their bags in overhead or rolled into their seating area. We were n the train on a Monday afternoon and evening so I’m not sure of crowds on weekends.

Nice views of small towns and countryside, briefly went by the coast near Trieste. Interesting note - train goes right by Fincanteri shipyard and we saw the NCL prima under construction.

I think they’re the same. They look the same

Just finished a cruise on Oosterdam, which overnighted in Trieste for the last night. We did a DIY trip to Venice that afternoon.
 

Ship docked at 1:45pm and we were off immediately and walked about 20 mins to Trieste central train station. Easy to find, but a longer walk than I expected. Taxi would have helped but the train left at 2:16pm so we didn’t want to waste any time looking for a taxi at the port.
 

Took a 2:16pm train to Venice St Lucia. Trains are every hour and we bought our tickets at the station. Arrived in Venice at 4:21, lost some time figuring out the water bus system and took a water bus (number 2) the “long way” down the grand canal to st marks square. It was packed.
 

Missed the last opening at St marks (around 4:45-5pm) but did get into Doges palace at 5:45pm (last entry 6pm, palace closes at 7pm). Got out of doges  palace close to 7pm and grabbed a light meal in Venice.
 

Walked the streets and headed back to the train station on foot. Caught 9pm train back to trieste, arrived 11pm. Walked back to the ship (felt safe and several others out walking in Trieste) and back on board by 11:30pm.

Got up the next morning and took the HAL bus transfer direct to VCE airport ( 2 hour bus ride).
 

Some thoughts - Venice is a stretch for a day trip especially with such a late arrival in Trieste. You will not be able to get into more than one site due to closing times. If we had missed the 2:16 train, we would have been on the 3:16 and likely missed the doges palace last time slot, unless we hired an (expensive) water taxi to take us straight from the station to st Marks square. If you decide to disembark on that first day, I think you would still be squeezed for time - you’d have to stop by a hotel in Venice before going to the sites.
The only ticket available in walkup at doges palace was a 25 euro multi site ticket. We could only use the doges palace portion - the other included museums were closed by the time we got out of the palace.

Train was 15 euros per person each way, water bus was 7.50 per person but I’m not sure I got the correct/cheapest ticket.

Bottom line - it is doable, and worth it to at lease see Venice and walk the canals, take a gondola ride etc. it is tough to squeeze in more than one site due to afternoon arrival in Trieste and later arrival in Venice.

Just got back from Oosterdam cruise. My advice is to assume nobody else is following Covid protocol and then make your own decision about whether you are willing to cruise (or travel in general) with that risk. The airports seemed highest risk area - densely packed with I’d guess only about 10-20% wearing masks. Security lines, check in lines, and the planes themselves were packed. On the cruise, it was much less dense. Staff 100% masked and shops not full, but I estimate only about 20% masking of passengers, including on excursion buses. On the boat actually seemed most spread out/lowest risk, and had the ability to somewhat control risk.  Out in ports, hardly any masking including in very crowded areas (eg tourist attractions like Acropolis etc), and even though you’re outdoors, you’re densely packed in queues with others to enter sites. 

In July, we used onpoint testing to observe us taking the free flow tests we got at Costco. Results were emailed to me within 5 mins of completing the test and were accepted by verifly as well as HAL at Civitavecchia.

We also used onpoint for Oosterdam cruise in July. They witnessed us testing with the free flow tests from Costco. Once you register with them, pay for the test, and select your testing appointment date and time, they email a zoom link. Click on the link and the “host” (onpoint) will “let you into the meeting” at the meeting time. If you log in to zoom a few minutes early, just sit and wait for them to open the meeting. Results emailed to us within 5 minutes of completing appointment, and accepted by VeriFLY and HAL at civitavecchia. 
 

The results were sent as a pdf file attachment for each traveler so easy to print as well as upload to verifly.

FYI. If you’re flying Air France, their ticket counter doesn’t open for check in until 2 hrs before the flight. You can do most of the check in online but we still needed to go to the counter to show passports and get boarding passes. May not be the case for EU only travel.

We used onpoint for recent cruise on Westerdam. Cheapest option I found - $15 per person to observe our own tests (used the free flow tests from Costco). Results confirmed via email within 5 minutes of completing the session and accepted by VeriFLY and HAL at Embarkation at Civitavecchia. 

Taxi from the square to lions gate (cruise terminal c, port gate e12) was 25 euros last week. Taxi stand is right in the square, so very easy to find.

I’ve been on Celebrity and Disney to the Caribbean, HAL to Alaska and am booked for HAL again to Greece this summer. I think the OP review sounds like our experience n HAL. We were on Westerdam in Alaska. Really like the ship, it was upgraded and I like this size better than the larger ships. However, as the OP mentioned, entertainment at night was lacking. No venue that played current top 40 or dance music. Pianos were good but they were focused more on the oldies from the 60s, 70s, 80s. Shows not as good as celebrity or Disney, Activities during sea day were sedate. HAL’s strength is the itinerary, and a great place to come back to after a day of touring off the ship.  

I wonder why they are waiting until 1 August. It would be nice to drop it before then

I’m wondering if these trips were chosen because Norway is not a member of the EU? So they do not follow the EU healthy gateways recommendations that require cruise ship testing.

Try refreshing the page where it shows your names and departure airport. Refresh many many times and it may work for you on one. Also middle of the night

Thanks! I’ll try to call the travel agent. Really hard to get through to anyone on the phone.

Booked a cruise this summer through the big box travel agent. Then booked flights several weeks later directly on HAL website using flightease. The travel agent has not updated the cost of the cruise to include the flights. Is that typical? And do I pay HAL directly for the flights? Or should they be included in my travel agent total? Finally is there any advantage to going with the early ticketing on flight ease? Thanks

You can pick any princess cruise in the same general region and pick a specific airport. E.g a Princess cruise leaving from Barcelona will let you estimate air to and from other European cities. The cruise dates need to be close - Princess won’t let you put in a departure date after their cruise starts or return date before their cruise ends.

Anyone know what was done to Oosterdam during the March 2021 dry dock?

I thought FlightEase was down for the last several weeks but then realized that the website is very temperamental- you can get through if you keep refreshing your browser and reloading.it must be capacity restricted.

As an alternative, a great tip I got from this board is that Princess uses same flight booking and you don’t have to create a reservation to see rates. You can go to the Princess homepage, click find a cruise, pick one with roughly same dates and region as the HALctuise you’re looking at, click on it, and the look in the black banner on the cruise page for the flight quote. Put in your dates and airports. Note this will show regular pricing, not including the Hal $500 off for some dates and cruises.

I booked with big box travel and the payment and cancellation penalty schedule was fully disclosed when I booked and on my confirmation docs. In my case, HAL moved the payment date out after I booked, so a 2 week buffer between the travel agent date and HAL date became 6 weeks. 

When I booked, Our big box payment date was set 2 weeks before HALs final payment date. That was before Holland America adjusted final payment dates by an additional month. So that may be why you’re seeing a big box date 6 weeks before HAL.

Flight Ease is down for flights to and from Venice. I’m wondering if HAL is considering a port move for Venice itineraries.

Thanks everyone, and appreciate the pictures. Sounds like majority vote is itinerary 1!

We took teens on HAL to Alaska one summer and they enjoyed it. But there really isn’t much for them during the day. Activities offered were art auctions, acupuncture, shore talks and similar. We were in port a lot and just relaxed on the sea day, but if you’re looking at an itinerary with many sea days, that’s something you may want to consider. In the evening, they liked the piano players (billboard on board). One also met some kids to hang out with in the teen club. Overall they like HAL better than Disney, which they thought was too chaotic and crowded with kids.  They also really liked celebrity, which may be another good option. We have not tried RCL. I think there are a lot more families looking at HAL as they have some of the best fares on 3rd and 4th passengers in same cabin. Enjoy!