sailingdutchy

We are booked on the Zuiderdam cruise from 14 April (22 days Rome to Rome), so there are two weeks available from 31 March for the dry-dock prior to our embarkation. But I am generally optimistic ... and I trust the ship will be sparkling after the work. We have a D Class Oceanview, and it was a very good price (including the Beverage Package for each of us).

 

Looking forward to it ... it has a great set of ports in the itinerary ... we'll hardly notice the ship!

I'm with you Cargill ! I am an optimist and have been on a few HAL cruises and have never had a major issue about the state of the ship .

And you are right we will be so busy in the many great ports that we are doing on this cruise during the day , and having the Beverage Package is a great benefit that we did not even take into account when we booked , major bonus ! .

Looking forward to this cruise and looking forward to meet you ! :D

On top of that we also booked the maiden voyage of the "Koningsdam " another great adventure , sure there will be some issues but you can't beat the exitement that will be there for the first few weeks ! Keep on sailing !

This is the third year in a row that we were cruising in Italy and of course I checked out the different tours available from Rome in Limo in the ports that we would visit . After contacting Jany in the office who is always fast to answer and also gives some great tips I had decided on our 3 tours and through Cruise critic found some fellow cruisers to join us for a group of 6 or 8 in one of the nice Mercedes vans . This year we decided on a tour from Naples to Ravello , Amalfi and Positano and as a small bonus a wonderful olive oil tasting near Sorrento . Our driver was Tony , personable who gave us lots of information and tips of what to see , and in perfect English . Tony was also a great driver which is necessary specially in the mountains and along the Amalfi coast .

Our secong excursion was in Palermo to the small coastal village of Cefalu .

Valeria was our guide who showed us the high lites of Palermo first which is not very easy because of all the traffic specially because there was some kind of a student strike going on . We were happy to leave Palermo to go to the wonderful small town with a hugh Duomo in its centre and some lovely streets to walk around with nice little restaurants overlooking the beaches .

Valeria did a great job and we all had a very nice day .

Our third and last tour was in Livorno , I had asked Jany if Elizabetta was available as our driver guide to the wonderful medieval Etruscan towns of Volterra and San Gimignano because we had so much fun with her last year ( mama mia !! ) Elizabetta was waiting for us , a small group of 8 , when we went ashore . Our group was formed with the help of Cruise Critic postings . We had a great group looking forward to these wonderful towns but first E. had a big surprise for us on the way to Volterra she veered of to the town where Andrea Bocelli has the family farm and visited the place in the rolling hills of Tuscany where once each year he gives a special concert in the fields on a specially built stage . Elizabetta is very enthusiastic about this beautiful area of Italy gave us lots of information and history about the two towns , gave us tips of what to go and see and was never rushed to leave . Our tour would last 9 hours she was a great driver which at the end of our day showed when we approached a hugh rain and wind storm near Livorno .

We all had a wonderful day and ourselves we hope to come back some day for another tour with her to another couple of locations around Livorno .

I can wholeheartedly recommend Rome in Limo . I am sure you won't regret this choice because of the great people that took care of us . Also there is no comparisson , a tour with 8 or a hugh bus of 42 or more from your cruise company at a higher cost and you will never get the experiences that we had with RIL .:D:D:D A 5 Star company !

Isn't strange that Captain Albert has nothing on his blog the last couple, unles head office has told him to be quiet. This wouldn't be the first time that has happened.:rolleyes:

It was announced on the HAL website " For Booked Guests " a Veendam travel advisory that the Oct 11th sailing was also cancelled and that the ship is going under its own power without guests from Quebec to Philadelphia where the dry dock work will take place .

We have been a couple of times in Granada to the Alhambra which is just out of this world .

This time on the cruise on the Noordam in October we will do for the second time a tour of Malaga itself . Last time we were on the HOHO but this time specially with all the very valuable information that I found on this forum from you , I think I am going to do a walking tour .

First to the Atarazanas , than to the Cathedral the Alcazaba and back to the Antigua Casa de Guardia . We have lots of time and are in port until 11 pm . I am just not sure yet if we should walk all the way to the market or take the shuttle . And of course we will go for the tappa's !

Thank you very much for starting this forum and keeping it going with the most minute information . You are a true ambassador to this city ! :D

I am glad I have found this forum.I just booked a cruise for Oct.2015 and have two days in Malaga and are planning on Granada for a day to see the Alhambra.Just wondering if we could take a train to get there or if we should do a tour.My husband is not big on tours but will do one if it is the best option.Second day we will spend in Malaga doing some of the things that I read on this forum.Thanks for all the info.

I would seriously consider a tour with spaindaytours who provide a great tour reasonable and they will look after the tickets to get you into the Alhambra . On a lot of days tickets are hard to get they are time sensitive and the line ups are long . Spain day tours will look after that . Have a look at their website .

We have done tours with them at a lot of the ports in Spain and have never had a problem . They also form smaller groups that the ships tours will .

We just arrived back home from a cruise to the Mediterranian and were in Civitavecchia and because of a short day in port did not want to get into Rome on Palm Sunday . After some fast emails to Jany we decided on a tour to the medieval towns of Sutri and Capranica . Through their special website it was easy to get a group of 8 together , we had a marvelous day with our driver/guide Stefani who had all kinds of valuable information took us to some wonderful places where a large bus could never get to .

The vehicle a Mercedes Van was great for the 8 of us , everything went like clockwork and we were still better of moneywise than any of the shorter tours in a large bus with the cruise company . This was our 4th time with RIL and we can recommend it to everyone , , never had one problem .

Any questions , Jany is the best one to help you .:D:D