Jan3

Question: if you are having a glass of wine in your cabin and not finished, can you carry it into the dining room?

He is sold out on our date, 10/3, also. ☹️

On 4/3/2019 at 1:00 PM, Turtles06 said:

 

As Maryann said above, you will probably get more answers by posting on the HAL board.  That said, we just cruised with HAL this summer, and had several tender ports (in Iceland and Greenland).  On our cruise, HAL used tickets for the tenders, and gave them out, first come first serve, in a lounge the same morning we were in each port. There are folks who get priority tendering (I think certain Mariner levels, maybe suite guests).  We had no priority and had no trouble getting on an early tender by getting to the lounge early to get our tickets.   (If there are ship's tours in those ports, I suspect HAL will take their own shorex guests in the first tenders, but you'll want to ask about that on the HAL board.)

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks for the tip about the tender tickets. We are early risers so will get to lounge area and also check in with guest services the day before. 

Many of you have shared your experience with excursions. So helpful! Can you give feedback on the ships process for people who do not book their tours?  We have a HA cruise scheduled for end of September, New England and Canada, and have booked several tours which involve tenders(Newport, Bar Harbor, Sydney). Any suggestions or thoughts on this?

Thank You

Many thanks to everyone for the great tips and sharing your experience. We now have an idea about how to handle the tender (no pun intended) issue. We leave NYC on 9/27 so when we return I will do a follow up on our experience. Hoping for great weather and beautiful foliage. 

Yes, it is next to Marriott. Thank you for directions. Someone suggested getting down to the disembarking area at 7:55 if tender ticketing starts at 8:00, another person mentioned fog, something else to worry about! So far I haven’t heard that anyone missed their tour. I guess there is something to be said for the ship excursions but on a previous cruise with Viking we booked private excursions and it worked perfectly. No tendering though. 

12 minutes ago, RuthC said:

I'm going to presume you are referring to the larger Visitors' Center, not the small one at Perrotti Park. The large Center is about a block up the street from the docking area.
As you come off the tender, and get to the end of the ramps, turn left and walk along the sidewalk. Cross the little side street, walk up to the main street, and keep heading in the same direction. An 8:30 tender should give you plenty of time.

In Newport we go to the visitor center to catch the trolley and need to be there by 9:30. Do you think we could get on the tender by 8:30?

Thank you for the response!  People on Cruise Critic are awesome, so helpful to the newbies. We have booked excursions at two tender ports, Newport and Bar Harbor, with a 9:30  check in. We need to allow time for the tender and finding our way when we arrive at the dock. What time should we arrive at the tender? Would 8:30 be early enough?

We are looking forward to our first cruise on HAL from NYC to Quebec City. I have been researching excursions offered by HAL and independent tours. I am leaning towards booking independent based on reviews, price and selection. I have been getting conflicting information about disembarking at tender ports. It appears that passengers booked with the ship excursion are allowed to tender first, then Neptune. Passengers booked with other vendors get off last. I am concerned about meeting our scheduled tour on time. Does anyone have experience with this process?  Do you need a tender ticket? Getting various answers to this question.  Any advice?  What about other ports that are not tendered?  Any tips will be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you. 

4 hours ago, midwestchick said:

 

I’m not looking at the Cuba cruises.  I’m looking at the Canadian Maritimes. 

Excuse me!!!  This thread relates primarily to Cuba. You might want to look for another thread or start a new one based on Canadian Maritimes. 

Good luck. 

9 minutes ago, midwestchick said:

 

Thank you.  What is the evening dress code?

Evening casual. There is one Captains night but not formal, nice slacks and top or casual dress for ladies. No tie or tux for the men. 

Excursions included in every port. Tip guides and driver. 

The lectures are outstanding, especially Janis. 

You may want to have a full experience of Pearl Seas before committing to another cruise. I think most people were positive but I would not book another cruise with this company. 

Enjoy your time Cuba. 

Thank you for taking the time to respond. My expectation is more positive after reading your comments. We have been looking forward to this trip and are ready to go!

59 minutes ago, Tom2 said:

we docked at every planned port and where we docked big ships wouldn't fit other than Havana and there we were docked next to some big ships but there was plenty of room.

Thank you very much for your response. 

It sounds like you were able to go to every port. Did Pearl Seas do a good job with guides and spend plenty of time with the people to people program? Did you go to the Tropicana?

We are leaving Saturday and excited about the trip. Just want to be prepared for any glitches that I read about on another thread on CC. Any tips would be appreciated. 

Thank you again 

On 8/20/2018 at 8:19 AM, craftygram said:

 

Thank you for the info and wonderful video!! :)We are booked for Dec. 29th, 2018 cruise. Is there any info on gratuities? Thanks

How was the December 29th cruise to Cuba?

We are booked on the January 30 cruise and concerned about reviews regarding difficulty docking in the various ports   It appears that because Pearl Seas is a small ship they may not be able to get in due to the  larger ships with many more passengers. 

Would appreciate hearing about your experience. 

Thank you

I think you have a problem getting your money back from the credit card company, to dispute has to be made within 60 days or some number that is less than the time between your deposit and your trip

Thank you for your response. I checked with my CC company and I have 118 days from date of purchase. So this will work for me. I will be checking on Cuba approval and if The Pearl Mist sails in October.

After cancelling our Cuba trip days before sailing we are still at this time waiting to hear if we are to receive our $400 airline change fare because we had to use our tickets or lose the full price. We sent in all info, was assured Pearl Seas would make good but they have not yet done so. Of course, they had promised all was well for sailing to Cuba and that never came through so do not trust this shady outfit! If they come through, I will post that they did and we are happy customers but until then, not much else to say about their business practices.

Yikes! So glad I found this thread.

We just booked a cruise to Cuba for February. After reading the posts I started making inquiries with Pearl cruise line and my travel agent. My agent told me that she just returned from a cruise on the Great Lakes on the Pearl Mist. She said the ship was wonderful and all went well. She also said there was literature on Cuba and that they received their approval from Cuba. Today she said they do not have approval but expecting it any day.

My plan at this point is that I will wait until the first sailing in October and see if it happens. If not I will cancel and they will not be able to keep my deposit because I will dispute it with my credit card company. Pearl told my TA that I would have to pay the cancellation fee but I will fight it based on the fact that they cannot deliver what they sold. We are new to cruising and this company. Does anyone see a problem with my plan?

The options for traveling to Cuba are limited and we felt this was a good way to go and would like to go sooner than later.

I've just reached out to Tim for a Celebrity Silhouette cruise in 2016 and am eagerly waiting to hear back from him.

 

Can someone tell me how it works to book a two day tour with Tim or a similar sized company in St Petersburg, do we still return to the ship at night? I notice on the website it makes mention of hotel stays but perhaps that is for non cruise ship clients?

 

In any case, he certainly gets good reviews. I'm hoping it works out.[/quote

]

We recently booked a two day tour with Tailored Tours and were very disappointed.

We were promised early entrance (9:30am) at the Hermitage and Catherine's Palace but we're not admitted until 11;00. We were then rushed around to the other sites with less time to view the art and architecture we were looking forward to seeing The two lunches were of very poor quality even though we specifically asked for authentic Russian food.

 

We were assured that we would be provided headsets but a representative from Tailored Tours would show up and collect them after a few hours which left us struggling to hear the guide For the remainder of the day. I observed other tour groups who had headsets at all times.

 

Overall our tour with this company was not a good experience and I would advise looking at other companies that have a strong reputation

That is great news. I had gone through all the laundry rooms a while ago and they all had the same problem. Since, I have only been in and using the 4th Deck LR. As of three days ago it was still all hot. I will ask in there later today. Do you know if all three machines on Deck 3 now have cold water cycles that work, or just the first machine?

Thank you CruisinSubMan and jkerr. We will be traveling in Stockholm for a week before boarding so was hoping to take care of our laundry on the ship. Looks like deck three will be our go to laundry room. Any other updates would be appreciated. Cruise Critic is an awesome way to communicate. Seems like everyone can benefit from all who take the time to post.

Again, many thanks.

On one of the threads the washing machines were mentioned. My understanding is that you can only wash in hot water. Has this changed? Would appreciate an update if possible.

Thanks

We are intending to use the light rail system - Bybanen- to get to the Stave Church. Rick Steves in his snapshot of Norway recommends the Paradis stop. He also suggests using the Bybanen to get to Edvard Grieg's house.

I see that the ship excursion for those is quite expensive....around $139 pp if I recall and it's more fun independently - especially since we are here overnight.

I recently saw a newspaper article about concerts at Troldsalen on the grounds of the Griegg Museum. Bus tours depart daily from the TI in the city center at 11:00 AM. Round trip NOK250 pp (20 min each way) includes concert, museum, and guided tour through villa. There is a on-site cafeteria and a garden to explore.

Have a great time in Bergen!

Jan - we do not hear any noise from overhead. However, I hope you don't have room 8019 or 8020. These are the last rooms in the row next to the exit doors to the Sun Deck - these bang very loudly, so much so that our cabin shakes when they slam shut. From talking to others on the floor though, this issue only affects these 2 end cabins. Our A/C has not been working properly since we boarded. I think this too is just our cabin - other 8th floor travellers can jump in here if they want. I know Bear_Music is up here too. So far it's been cool enough outside that we can open the doors and cool it off. Only bad times are when we're getting the direct afternoon sun. Of course we close the drapes, but still gets hot. Love the rooms up here though. Lots of storage space and great views.

Hi Elizabeth,

Thank you for your response. We are in room 8012 so I hope this is far enough from the slamming door. Wonder if Viking is working on a solution. This must be difficult for people near the doors.

Any other comments from people residing on the 8th deck?

OK - so this is the thread we all agreed to use today at our wonderful Meet & Greet. Thanks everyone for coming and making it such a great time!

 

Plugs near beds - In our cabin, the promised plugs next to each side of the bed, are actually behind and below the beds. They are not up beside the bed stands like they are on the river ships. I don't know if that's the same in everyone's cabin, but my guess is that it is. You have to physically move the beds (this isn' hard) to get to the plugs. Like the other plugs in the cabin, one side is European and the other is "American" 110. Someone asked about using a CPAP and I think it would work depending on how long the cord is on the CPAP. However, if it were me, I'd bring a standard household extension cord just in case. We're in a PS1 category cabin. Other's can chime in whether they can find the plugs behind and below their beds.

 

Another peculiarity, speaking of electricity, is that all the lights in our cabin are controlled by the same switch. You either have them all on or all off. So if one person wants to sleep and the other wants to read, it's a problem. There is however a desk lamp with a European end on it that we're thinking of moving to the other side of the cabin near the "seating area" so that it can be turned on and off independently of the overall cabin lights.

 

Off to dinner.

Hello Elizabeth and all on this exciting cruise.

Elizabeth, I have been following your posts and I believe I read that you are on the 8th deck. We will be on the same deck in June and wondering how the location is working for you. Do you hear overhead activity/noise? Does the AC work okay? I have a hard time if the room is warm. Any other issues on this deck?

Many thanks to everyone for taking time out of your day to post for all of us waiting for our turn to begin the journey on the Viking Star.

There is a company called Norled that provides boat trips through the Fjords for a much lower price than Viking. They also have a senior discount. Take a look at their website http://www.norled.no. They have a minimum of 15 passengers per trip.

Their schedule shows a departure of 12:15 and return at 3:15 which would work for our arrival time of 10:00am and departure of 6:00pm.

We have the same issue with timing the boat tour. I found another company called norled, check their website http://www.norled.no. Schedule shows a departure at 12:15, return 3:15. Special rate for seniors which is less than Rodne. Let us know if you think this would be a good option.

Janice