wanderingoz

10 hours ago, gnome12 said:

I wish you luck. 25 nights is a very long time for a first river cruise. It is nothing like ocean cruising. Some people love it and some hate it. Most people recommend a shorter trip for their first river cruise.

 

That said, I wish you a wonderful trip.

Thank you for your good wishes..😐

We are booked on the Uniworld Ultimate European Journey from Bucharest on 30 Sept. 25 nights but I'm sure we won't be bored.  So looking forward to it. Our first river cruise.

On 3/26/2019 at 11:51 AM, Janman said:

Can anyone tell me the price of Uniworld ‘s extra cost Peles Castle tour out of Bucharest?

Happy Cruising!

Interested to hear if you find out.  I have reached out to Uniworld via their Facebook site but have yet to receive an answer. Also finding it difficult to get information about the Exclusive Mozart & Strauss Concert.

You are arriving too early if you are going in May. What day are you in Denali?

27 May

There are a few Princess tours, that you can not upgrade the NHT.

And it seems one of them is what we have booked. I have pretty much read posts about this until my eyes bleed.

We are booked and locked in to Princess Cruisetour in May 2018. T8AJB5 starting in Fairbanks on 25/5.

Our itinerary has 2 half days in Denali. Neither gives us enough time to upgrade to the TWT. We are booked for the NHT in the afternoon of arrival in Denali.

My question is, is it still worth doing the NHT in the absence of a better option? Is there anything on the NHT that if we missed, I would later say "oh darn"?

Are there other things we can do to better spend the time we have? (I'm thinking here White Water Rafting, Back Country Hiking etc.) To be honest, the thought of sitting on another bus for 5 hours after bussing 3 hours from Fairbanks is rather unappealing.

Group of 4 active 60+ Australians doing a (probably) once only tour to Alaska.

All opinions welcome.

That is the one, but I really do not know about shuttle from port. We didn't even know about the shuttle to the port until I asked the best way to get to the port and they told us about it.

Received a reply to my query to Sheraton Wall Centre.

"Thank you for booking with us at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre.

Unfortunately, we no longer provide the complimentary shuttle from the cruise terminal to/from the hotel.

It will be a short taxi ride for 3~5 mins from the cruise terminal to the hotel or 15-20 mins walking distance."

We used the Sheraton that was right near the WMCA. We took a taxi from airport as it was late at night. But they had a shuttle to the port. We felt it was in a easy place to get around. Right across the street from the free shuttle to the Suspension Bridge. We enjoyed that, but go in the first bus to be there before the crowds.

DD is this the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre on Burrard Street? If so do you know if they do a shuttle FROM the port?

It is actually slightly downhill from the hotel to the port - the Sheraton Wall Center hotel complex is located near the highest point in Downtown Vancouver.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Dennis

:):):):)

Thanks for that.

We are going from Terminal to Hotel so I guess it will be slightly uphill :)

oh yeah' date=' good point, going to add extra sd cards to my shopping list, can't have too many indeed[/quote']

 

Call me paranoid but I also carry one of these - WD My Passport

Each night I load the contents of the days SD Cards to the hard drive. Simply unplug the card from the camera and plug it into the WD. It transfers all photos automatically if setup to do so.

 

Cheers

OK... so you want a place on the night of May 12th. Here's some alternatives.... on booking.com in USD with availability

• $372 Sheraton Wall Centre
  

Thanks for all the great info.

We have been booked in to the Sheraton Wall as part of a package and intended to walk from the cruise terminal.

Google says about 2km which is not normally a problem for us. Is the walk fairly flat through this area?

You'll get US $100 for the AU $130, which is an exchange rate of 0.7693. That's not too bad, the "live" exchange rate (from XE.com) is 0.7965. Most banks will offer to sell you USD at around 0.75 to 0.77, so not much different to the Princess rate.

 

The Princess exchange rate was set for your booking at the time you booked and won't change. Therefore you can wait to see how the exchange rates are going before you buy the OBC if you wish. Even if the "live" exchange rate falls below the rate you have on your Personalizer, the Princess rate will not change.

Thanks.. cross posted but confirms what I am seeing.

Cheers

So looking at Travelex it looks like about $US100 at the moment. I guess Princess is pretty on the mark at this stage.

Have searched the forum but couldn't find anything recent. Hope someone can help.

We have booked a Canada/Alaska cruise with Princess for next year and are looking at buying some OBC. When I login to the Cruise Personaliser it shows an option to buy $130 in Australian dollars. I'm assuming this will convert to $US for the cruise, but I can't find any reference to the exchange rate. Anyone have any insight into how much OBC I get for A$130?

This is how they stacked up in Brisbane.

Ive got kids, but am starting to doubt if I'll ever have grandkids.

That's what I said 5 years ago. Now I have 6. You never know. ;)

Europa 2 visiting Brisbane today:

Oh that's a shame. I missed her. She was obviously docked at the Grain Terminal.

I need to pay more attention. :o

I truly wonder what ML is making of all this. :rolleyes:

Hi all

We are taking 2 cruises out of Sydney in March/April We will be staying in Sydney for Mar 10 to 13 pre-cruise, then Mar 25-27, then Apr 10 &11. I would love to add a rugby and football match to our visit. Will this be in season for any team? What level? Any recommendations on what teams to watch/where to see them?

I think all the best options have been given already but I just wanted to congratulate the OP on their attitude. I can't think of a better way to immerse yourself in the culture of a different country than attending the most popular sports. Well done!

P&O just emailed me to tell me they've added a birthday package to my booking for my husband. They said there is a surprise for him on our first night. Has anyone had this? What is included?

Has anyone else heard of P&O doing this? I have a cruise booked for the Social Director's 60th later this year and would be interested in finding out what the go is.

A bit slack by Translink to not have a retailer at Portside.

If you can't find an alternative I'd be happy to forward on to you or buy one and send it.

Welcome to Brisbane :)

Ephesus out of Kusadasi was wonderful, I will get to Istanbul one day as well along with Egypt I suppose.:D

Such a shame. We got to see both Kusadasi & Istanbul on Norwegian last year. Both are fantastic destinations. Norwegian have also dropped all Turkey ports. :(

I hope I don't die waiting for the new terminal at Luggage Point. How ideal would it be to have a City Cat terminal adjacent so cruisers can zip up the river to the City/Lone Pine/or out to the islands.

:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Experienced travellers would likely have asked 'how much" at each offer, but just something to bear in mind.

As ever, just know the scope of the 'contract'.

Sage advice. Cheers.

Private tours are invariably much cheaper than ship tours, since the cruise line acts as a middleman. They are generally more flexible, often having more and different locations and varying times to see them. However they are not guaranteed by anyone other than the proprietor, so you take your chances.

 

Private tours are riskier than ship tours because, at least in theory, the ship will wait for all its own tours to come back before leaving. If you go on a private tour and the vehicle breaks down somewhere remote, you will be waving bye bye to the ship if you don't get back in time.

 

The way tendering comes into it is that even on the best ships in good conditions, tendering takes hours. When docked you can rely on getting off the ship and onto the wharf in minutes.

 

Without priority tender tickets you are going to lose most of the morning getting off the ship. This impacts on getting a private tour and the amount of time you have to get anywhere and back again.

 

So to cut a long story short, unless you are familiar with local conditions, don't risk private tours in tender ports. Too much rushing and anxiety.

 

However, in docking ports, private tours make a lot of sense so long as you are careful.

Exactly. Cheers.

I like to have an hour before all aboard, that way if someone wants, they can still have a little look around at the shops/ markets that are often set up by the dock.

Yes I like to work the same way. The local markets at the port can be left for the return.