pomgit

Thanks everyone, especially to Puddles99 for direction to that super-detailed post. That was exactly our plan - overnight at Volcanoes National Park.

Yep, we're fully aware Kona is a tender port and therefore it increases the likeliness of skipping the port. Now to check if that scenario would be covered by travel insurance! Thanks again!

Hi all - we're super-excited just booked a trip of the Pride of America for November this year - first time to HI, second time on NCL. Last year we went on the Star around the Baltics - loved the ports, not so keen on NCL, but we've booked again and have figured that we won't spend that much time on the ship so we've not let our previous experience deter us from this AMAZING trip. However, this year we'll have our new addition to the family, our son Sam, with us - should be fun!

Back to my question - does anyone know if we can leave the ship in Hilo and pick her up again in Kona? I've just booked in an overnight one way rental car and we are looking at staying close to the Volcanoes National Park. I assume I just need to okay it with corporate before travel and then confirm when we board so we don't generate a delayed departure from Hilo whilst they try and locate us. Thanks in advance for your help!

I posted this on the Oceania board as someone was looking for recommendations .....

We were in St Petersburg a couple of weeks back. We (four of us) did a private 2 day tour with SPB. The itinerary that we had designed with Viktoria got some 'last minute' readjusting. We were unhappy with this because it essentially reduced our time at Peterhof to 30 minutes (it was unfortunately a spectacular sunny day) so we could make an early lunch and we didn't get our promised 8.30 AM early entry to the Hermitage - we got in at 09.45 AM instead. This meant our time to stroll around town was cut to zero.

When time is tight to maximize sightseeing a reputable company is worth it's weight in gold. When we passed on feedback about the tour to Viktoria she became really defensive and said that because it was so busy it was difficult to secure tickets to the Hermitage and that we were, in fact, extremely lucky to see Catherine's Palace. She could have easily managed our expectations with a short email to say that things had to be rearranged, instead of leaving it up to the guide to let us know the unhappy news.

I completely understand that prior planning is required to secure tickets to see these amazing sights, and that sometimes it just doesn't work out. I was just unhappy with the way changes to the itinerary were dealt with (like a the entrance to Peterhof) and the manner in which Viktoria responded. She did present us with a box of yummy chocolates the next day and instead of early-early entry to the Hermitage we did a canal cruise which was particularly enjoyable in the sunshine.

Just wondering if this is a new thing or it's been reported previously with the 'big' operators. Perhaps it would be wise to do some homework and go with a smaller operator that can guarantee a small number of tickets, unlike SPB/Alla how obviously can't satisfy the demand for tickets given the large number of people booking with them. It will be interesting to see reports as the season progresses.

I also forgot to add on that post that we did the walking tour in Tallinn as well. We had paperwork to say that we would meet shoreside at 9 AM. So we get there at 9 AM and it was hard to find someone with a complete list of groups. The guy with the list had wondered off, when he returned fifteen minutes later we found out that we were actually on a 10 AM tour - frustrating because we had to hang around to leave. The tour was fine, few too many ghost stories for our liking.

Completely agree it seems they have lost their edge and they seem a big too big to maintain previous levels of service.