Worldtraveler 4727

Hello All~

We are two couples looking for current information from fellow travelers who have booked their own transport from ship in Warnemunde port to Tegel airport post cruise. I would love to hear from anyone if they were able to take a train, a bus, or booked a private van. I would appreciate all the details you could provide, including cost. Transport from the ship is $99 each, so anything under $400 is appreciated.

Thank you in advance! :)

Thanks so much! I'm making notes on all these great suggestions! 👏🏻👏🏻

Hotel Mercure Checkpoint Charlie will be our hotel for 3 nights in just a tad under 2 weeks. The location & reviews are both favorable. Plus this hotel offers early check-in at 10am for a fee, which is ideal for us since our flight gets in @8! This hotel also has a few rooms with a balcony overlooking greenspace so hope our request for one can be honored. Breakfast is pricey but there are lots of options nearby on Friedrichstrasse.

 

Will report back on our experience there.

Will definitely look into this hotel as well. Stayed at one in Paris many years ago and liked it.

I look forward to reading your review! If you are using and can recommend a tour company in Berlin, I'd love to read that review as well. Thanks so much!

Thanks for the great information!

Spent considerable time in Berlin last fall. Our hotel had AC. What is your price range?

It's a bit hard to tell what prices might be for Aug 2017, but according to the prices I am finding for Aug 2016, I am thinking $150 or less per night might give us some good options.

Also looking for advice on getting from airport to hotel and hotel to port.

Thanks,

We spent three days in Berlin last November. We stayed in the Melia Berlin, beside the river and very central. The hotel had an a/c unit in the room. We weren't on a cruise, so can't answer your other questions.[/quote

 

Thanks so much! I'll check out Melia Berlin.

So we can recommend two reputable sources, although neither will be cheap. Romeinlimo (romeinlimo.com) or Romecabs (romecabs.com). Check their web sites where you can learn about the companies (both highly recommended by many CC posters) and then send them both e-mails to get the price! Both companies will pick you up right on the pier in Livorno and drop you on the pier in Civitavecchia :). Perfect service for a "lady of a certain age" as their drivers will even load and unload your luggage :).

 

Hank

I can personally attest to Rome in Limo--GREAT service from hotel to port. We used them last October. We had a driver who called himself "Bobby" DeNiro. He was most charming and funny.

Hank--I posted questions to you on an old Berlin thread from 2014. I am hoping you'll be able to access it and respond? Thanks so much! ;)

As one who often rents cars in Europe (on both cruises and extended driving trips) we would offer one important caveat. It is a long way (nearly 200 miles) between Warnemunde and Berlin. When driving that kind of distance during a port day one should always have a good "Plan B" which is what to do in the event you would miss the ship. Depending on your ship's itinerary this can be a major problem (especially if the following port is St Petersburg). We would only consider a rental car (at this port) if we could catch the ship the following day.

 

It is not that we are alarmists, but just experienced independent travelers (and cruisers) with over forty years experience. Most of the time independent travel is wonderful. But there are times that things can go horribly wrong (like getting stuck on the Autobahn because of a major accident) and one needs to be prepared.

 

Hank

Hello again Hank--we last "spoke" when you gave me some great advice on Venice for our fall 2015 trip. I need your expertise again, please.

Four of us are doing the Princess Baltic cruise in Aug 2017. I'm planning already. :)

We'd like to do several days pre-cruise in Berlin. Any hotel recommendations mid-range price?

Any advice on the best way to get from the airport to the hotel?

And what is your advice for the best way to get from the hotel to the port? The train seems endlessly complicated....

In Rome we used Rome In Limo--do you know of a company like that in Berlin?

And I'd love to hear your thoughts on renting a car one way to the port. It would appear many people have done this successfully. Do you think it's too risky time-wise? Our port after Berlin is Tallinn (after a day at sea)

Thanks in advance for your time!

Hello CC Friends,

I am looking for recommendations for a Berlin hotel, 3 days pre-cruise, for late August 2017. I have read that like some European cities, some hotels have no AC. I am assuming in August, AC will be a necessity??

Also, I would appreciate any information regarding the best way to get to the port from Berlin/our hotel. There will be 4 of us.

I understand there is a train, but does anyone have experience with renting a car one way to the port? I would appreciate details on that, for instance, does an American license suffice driving in Germany?

Does anyone know if there are private transfer companies like Rome In Limo, which we used from Rome to the port?

Thanks in advance!

Yes you can.

Thanks, Dave.

Hello all~

Hoping someone can answer a question here for a first- timer on Regent:

Our excursions window opens soon, and if an excursion we want is wait-listed, can I be put on the wait list AND sign up for a second choice as well??

Thanks!

Thanks for the great responses. I went ahead and booked a cancelable hotel room. And thanks Burtie for the added timeline suggestion and offer to answer further questions. :)

We have found that the best deals are about 2-3 weeks before the stay.

Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I've read some success stories on CC about using Priceline or Hotwire for good deals on SF hotels. Can anyone tell me how far in advance these can or should be tried? We sail out on Sept 3, 2016. I would like a hotel for at least two nights. I've never used these sites, so ANY ADVICE about using these sites would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks, everyone.

I'm sure all who mentioned not trying to send photos from the ship are correct. We will definitely avoid that.

Good Morning Sandy~

Thanks for the good info and advice--I hope someone might be able to pinpoint better for us some of the wifi places on this Med trip that will work for us--maybe they will be obvious, but until you go there once, it's all such a mystery of where such things might be found.

Less than a week to go now! Woo Hoo!

~Kathy

Thank you everyone.

I can always count on the Cruise Critic Family :)

For imessage, I suggest typing out the messages in advance in the notepad, or other text editor, connecting, and pasting it into imessage. Sometimes I got errors that they didn't send for some reason.

 

I mainly sent emails. This seemed to work fairly well, as my ipad put them in the outbox and once I connected they were sent.

 

I didn't use whatsapp because it's online and would gobble up time messing around with more apps to connect.

 

Are we all on the same Med cruise on the Island Oct 25? If so I can help you out at the internet cafe.

Yes, several of us here on the Island Med cruise Oct 25 :)

Thank you leet102 for your kind offer

Kathy

Kathie, I used the Princess ap this past summer on the Coral. It worked well, It was difficult....or rather lengthy....to upload, but the gal in the InterNet cafe did it in about 5 minutes....it seems to upload different....anyway, once loaded it was very easy to use. Could check all of my bills, keep track of what was going on, etc.....I liked it and will use it again next week..BTW...Kathy and Keith...it appears that there will be a white truffle festival in the streets when we are in Florence.....:) More good things to eat......;)

A white truffle festival? Woo hoo!

I'm not familiar with the Princess Ap at all...

And how many minutes did you purchase for the trip?

Kathy

"can you tell me how you track the minutes you have used"

After you log out a summary of minutes used and those remaining will display. You'll get a message saying something like it's will display momentarily and then it usually comes up fairly quickly. You've already logged out at this point so this time is not eating into your internet minutes.

 

Also a quick comment - I've found that logging into my email is painfully slow as already commented. An alternative is to log into your facebook account if you have one. I use FB to private message family when cruising. The connection is much quicker than regular email.

 

Have not tried to upload photos though. I suspect this would be time consuming

Thank you for the info!

Have you (anyone?) used iMessage or What's App? (not crazy about using FB)

Thanks

Also, can you tell me how you track the minutes you have used?

Thanks

I compose emails etc off line, copy/paste when I log in to save minutes.

I don't count on it. The last couple of cruises I gave up on the ships internet and left a lot of my minutes behind.

I think you will probably be ok. It is usually slow though.

Hi Keith

I am just interested in sending iMessages or texts through What's App back home to the kids. For the 12 days on our Med cruise coming up, would 120 minutes be okay or should I get the 240? I will use the advice of composing offline and then logging on and sending.

Also, how easy is it to use/find WiFi in the ports we will be visiting? Perhaps this is money ill-spent onboard the ship?

Thanks,

Kathy

I was on the Island earlier this year. I was able to pick up the wifi on my Ipad from my cabin, which was on the same deck as the library/internet cafe. The minutes remaining show up once you log in. I also noticed that the internet seemed still active for about 5 min after I logged out, so I could do some quick 'free' last minute surfing. Be sure to run their log out program or the laptop remains connected (and eats up all your minutes).

 

The wifi at sea was brutally slow. I suggest composing the messages, attaching very small photos, then connecting to upload/download email. Then logout. Each login/out took me about 5 minutes. I would do limited surfing because loading webpages was really slow. The speed was better early in the morning/late at night. The number of users seemed to affect the speed.

 

The princess website is always free. You can send e-postcards from there.

 

Shore wifi was always faster. Depending on your ports, McDonalds, Subway and some cafes often have free wifi. I recall some ports had wifi for a fee.

This is the first time I have ever heard of e-postcards from the Princess website. Is there a link you could post?

Thanks

Can anyone tell me if the WiFi on the Island Princess is fairly dependable?

I only want to send a couple text messages per day back home to the kids--maybe a photo or two in an email.

For a 12 day cruise, would the 120 minute pkg be enough time to send a couple short messages?

Also, how do you keep track of your purchased internet time?

Thanks so much for your advice!

4727, 18 days... are leaving from Seattle? Anyway, while you are traveling south off California the PM sun will be on the starboard side. As the ship gets further south on the Mexican coast, say around Puerto Vallarta you will start to head more towards the southeast, this will cause the PM sun to start to walk towards the stern. You will keep that general heading until you get near the Costa Rica/Panama border where you will be headed in a more easterly direction causing the sun to move more towards the stern, this will be about the last sea day and a half or so before you get to the Canal. After you round Panama's Azuero Peninsula mostly headed north here, but no sun worries because this will be the evening/night before transit.

 

After the transit and depending on your route back to Florida the PM sun will favor the port side.

No--not Seattle. SF to NYC.

This has been an interesting discussion. No consensus...but interesting....

Thanks to all who chimed in with their ideas. Some food for thought here.