Over from NZ

Hello. Looking for advice/recommendations please. Before we board our cruise, we're going to spend 4-nights in either La Spezia or one of the villages in Cinque Terre. Leaning towards La Spezia - cheaper.. we can train from there to the villages each day as well as the other way to Porto Venere and we'd look at doing a day-trip to Pisa. Would you recommend any particular parts of La Spezia (e.g. Historic centre if there is one versus waterfront) and/or any Hotels or accommodation? Or pay more and stay in one of the 5-villages? We're arriving by train and after the 4-nights, catching the train to Rome to join the cruise. Thank you.

The thing being however.. most cruisers using OBC would have purchased the martini, the upsell restaurant.. the spin on the roulette etc anyhow.. even if they didn't have the OBC. Yes, you're right.. the cost of the ingredients is a fraction of the cost. However.. the cost of the lost revenue (given they were likely to spend that money anyhow if they didn't have the OBC) is lots. Most of them would cruise the same number of times too.. regardless of receiving the OBC. So ditching the OBD to shareholders isn't probably a bad move. Comped casino cruises - they're aiming for the fools that spend money in the casino. The maths works out very well for the cruiseline.

I think many of them are more chasing status than anything. The perks always have been blah. They make the jewellery-wrattlers feel a bit more important though.. but really, they're hardly an enticement if you do the maths sensibly. They could give out stickers saying "I'm elite" to wear on the cruise once you hit elite level - that would make most of them just as happy and cost nothing. Ditch the gimmicks I say. And yes, we would be hitting Elite with our upcoming cruises next year.

Kotor is cool. So is Santorini. But I have to say (as a Kiwi I don’t want to lol), Sydney Australia is hard to beat! Especially coming under the coat hanger!

I agree with Aus Traveller. NZ is far better done by land. You miss so much of the best stuff by cruise. And I agree with them the South Island is the prettier of the 2. Drive from Christchurch to the West Coast (or take the tranzalpine train if you can pick up a rental on the coast - the train ride is excellent). Head down the West Coast (perhaps a wee detour North to the Punakaiki Rocks first), past the glaciers etc and drive the Haast Pass. Google the Haast Pass - it's an excellent piece of scenery! From there, you're into the Southern Lakes, Queenstown etc. From Queenstown - get the bus to Milford Sound and go out on the boat. Don't drive it! leave your car in Queenstown. You'll enjoy it far better through a glass-roofed coach than if you're carefully driving the winding road. It's awesome. You could fly back from Queenstown to Christchurch to save the long drive. Then you could head up to Nelson, the Marlborough Wine Region.. the Abel Tasman is near Nelson and is super pretty and you've got Picton a couple of hours from Nelson with the Marlborough Sounds. From there you could cross over to the North Island.

Cheers! I haven't been to a library for about 35 years. But got online.. and sure enough our local library has tons of his books! Will read up and then decide which ones to buy/download. Appreciate all the advice!

And cruisemom42 - thank you both!

Hi. Do you recommend his books? I'm looking at them.. but there's a few we would need to get and shipping to NZ will be expensive.. so am just wondering if it's worth getting them. Even if we just get the Italy one as we're spending 2 nights in Venice and 4 nights in Cinque Terre before the cruise. Any thoughts appreciated. Cheers.

I wouldn't even bother with Auckland. As you say, it's just another city. The prettiest parts of NZ are in the South Island.. and Queenstown and the Lakes District is the Jewel in the Crown.

It's very disappointing isn't it! It's noted Princess!! Negatively change enough things.. and we'll shop around more. 🙂

Spot on!!

You're not going to have cell phone coverage out at sea. Get the internet package.. and check your e-mails sporadically.

Thanks Hank. We've been to Barcelona before. This time going inside the La Sagrada is a must (will book the tickets earlier this time). We're thinking half day for that and half day for Monserrat. Do you think that's realistic? Also.. what's the roads like getting up to Monserrat? I don't do well with vertiginous steep sided mountain climbs up narrow roads. T.i.a.

The fact that you're overnight in those ports is good. We did many of them just before Covid and it wasn't great. For example, Ho Chi Minh was 2.5 hours on a bus to get there.. about 3.5 hours to look around and then 2.5 hours on the bus back to the port. Bangkok was similar from memory as was Kuala Lumpur. All the Aussies onboard were complaining about Sihanoukville (think they must have been expecting a resort like Bali). it was certainly very much a work in progress port.. very dusty, dirty and construction going on everywhere (although we enjoyed it!). Singapore - allow as much time for there as you can. We had 4 nights prior and 3 nights after and it just flew by. So much to see and do!

Well even from there, it's only a 20-min walk. It's only a 10-min walk from the train station.

Yes you can walk it. At a quick guess, about 20 mins.

Thanks for that. Hadn't thought about that. Last time we were there, luckily we were the only ship there. Just looked up for next time.. and there's 4 in that day! We'd planned on spending as much time ashore as possible.. really dragging it out. So I think we'll make plans to walk down the hill instead of the cable-car.. allow time for that and be on the safe side.

Ahh.. ok lol. So Pelican aside.. start at the old harbour and head in towards the town from there?

Thank you for that. The "Pelican"?

That's just crazy. How do you find out how many ships will be in port for a particular day?

Hello. Probably a silly question or 2.. but bear with me. Where in Mykonos is the little streets with the shops, the picturecard types with the white walls, blue doors, pretty flowers etc. Is it any particular part of Mykonos? Is Chora something relevant? If it's in that sort of location.. is it handy (walking distance) to the Windmills and little Venice? We're not really into the beach. We've got day after day of seeing ruins.. so for Mykonos, we thought we'd explore the old town, the windmills and Little Venice. Any help would be appreciated. Such as say a starting point/address to the old town where we could start wandering. And finally, is it close to where the ships tenders land?

Hello. We've got 4 nights here post-cruise. Have never been there before. Thinking we should stay in the Valetta area. Would love for any recommendation for accommodation (and if so, why.. what's nearby etc). It will be June, so very hot and must have a pool. Thank you!!

Thank you for all the guidance. Am thinking Ephesus at 8am with private tour. Do you think it's worth seeing the castle next to it at Selcuk?

Would suggest 2-3 as a MINIMUM. We had 4 nights pre-cruise and 3-nights post cruise last time. There is just so much to see and do. Particularly nights. You want to catch the nightly light show at the Gardens - it's spectacular. Dining down the Clark Quay at night is lively. Take the Singapore River cruise at night is great! We're going to do the night safari this time too. We did many of these.. there's just so much to see and do - https://santorinidave.com/best-things-to-do-singapore

Great choices. We used that same company italytoursharing.com last time and visited Pompeii, Amalfi & Positano. We're using them again next June also (except the wife wants to do 50 shades of Lemon which goes to Ravello and Amalfi).