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QuattroRomeo

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Posts posted by QuattroRomeo

  1. Just a followup for anyone curious about excursion reviews:
     

    I received 3 emails from HAL/ Carnival, on Mar 22, 23 & 25, reading 'How were your shore excursions"? Each asked about a different excursion we did on the second leg of our 21 day collector cruise. The tours were taken on Mar 1,2 & 4. I have yet to receive any emails for the 2 excursions taken during the first leg of the cruise Feb 15-25. Why, I have no idea!

    I included my reviewer name on all 3, but they put "anonymous" on 1 of them.
     
    To their credit, the reviews, and photos I attached, were included in their entirety. When I was following up on them, I noticed that sometimes the reviews appear on the website with the shore excursion descriptions, and sometimes they don't. 
     
    Somehow I don't believe I will get any requests for the first leg after this amount of time! There are a few glitches in their review process, but at least some reviews make it to the site. 
     
    • Like 3
  2. We bought the refillable mugs at the Dutch Cafe where you then received 25% off any refills. We get a lot of coffees & didn't have a drink package so it seemed reasonable and saved cups and lids. Or so I thought! They still had to put the coffee in a paper cup and pour it into the mug while I held it. It seems they were still under covid protocols for this and therefore couldn't do it directly. I imagine it would be a similar process for your own mug. 

     

    This was Feb 15- Mar 8, Rotterdam, so maybe it has changed or will change soon. 

    • Like 1
  3.  
    If your cruise itinerary matches one of ours, I still have the daily paper programs, which is what we used. Origin Story and other talks aren't listed in daily activites there; rather, they show under Entertainment and Events.
    We just did the 10 day Feb 15- 25 and 11 day Feb 25- Mar 8. 
     
    We enjoyed Origin Story and went twice. It was particularly poignant when Cruise & Travel Director Tjalling talked about the various crises during HAL's history. He was aboard I believe it was the Volendam, when the world suddenly shut down for Covid, and no ships were allowed to dock. I checked the Officers' biographies on the tv screen in the cabin. He has been with HAL 4 years, starting in Dutch Cafe, then Internet station, and then Cruise Director! I wonder whether his performance during Covid represented exemplary behaviour? At any rate, he is an excellent speaker and we attended all of his talks.
     
    Other talks he gave were:
    Islands of the Mind- story of how 3 people influenced the Caribbean- Hemingway, Ian Fleming, and Jimmy Buffet. Very enjoyable.
    The Caribbean Spirit- the story of rum. Very enjoyable.
    Catching Waves- the history of surfing. Interesting, as we knew next to nothing about it!
    A City on the Sea- how things operate on the ship behind the scenes. Kind of a standard, but well done.
    The Wizard of Wireless- the discovery of radio waves and its development, up to internet at sea. Really interesting.
     
    Photos show the cover page of the daily program for the date, and then the inside of it  showing the talks on that date.
     
     

     

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    • Like 1
  4. Thanks to you both for the tips. I'll do some researching and figure out something!

    We actually saw the Dali collection there at the old museum, back in the 80s, while visiting relatives in Clearwater. Really looking forward to seeing the new building! The only other thing I remember from that trip is a visit to Columbia restaurant in Ybor City. That was an experience!

    p.s. we visited the Dali museum in Figueres twice and his house in Port Lligat on Med.  cruises..loved those trips!

  5. We are cruising in Feb 2024 out of Tampa, and afterward would like to visit the Dali Museum in St Petersburg before flying home out of Tampa airport. We don't know the area and would appreciate suggestions for an affordable hotel to stay in that would be convenient for the museum and airport. Are there airport shuttle services anywhere? I can see on the map that it is a fair distance to the airport from St Pete.  Thanks for any suggestions to accomplish this!

  6. Well I guess I will hold on to my notes for a little while in case I get an email. If not, I'll just write something in the Ports of Call section on CC. We had a mix of private and ship tours. Like others have said here, I like to include details about the ride to and from a place, any conditions at a site that might be important (tricky stairways, poor bathrooms for example), and of course highlights & recommendations for the good ones. So often one reads something like " great tour" or "horrible tour" which don't tell me much!

    Thanks for your replies.

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
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