Mr Piano

We are now considering our 2016 cruise, done fly med cruise, done Caribbean. Now considering Canaries or Baltic in June. With Baltic coming out favourite so far.

Has anyone done or got advice on Baltic, obviously weather won't be as good, but we are not sunbathers, but don't want to be wrapped up in woollies either. So how is the weather, and how are the ports of call. Example what's is St.Petersburg like.

Any advice on making our decision would would be great fully received, as we my book in the coming weeks

Fly on Friday and you can go to the Hoistens fish fry. Got to be done!!!:cool:

 

Peter and Jenny

We found the opposite to be true, I wanted to do Friday night fish fry also. We flew out Friday, coupled 2 hour flight delay and time it took to embark. We were too exhausted to venture out.

As opposed to those who flew out Saturday and were fresh enough to do Oistens on the final night of the cruise before flying home on the Saturday

My only comment is those places are the one example of visit not no do on your own. Not done Herculaneum yet, but in my opinion Pompeii would have been pointless without a guide. Our guide brought the place alive, he captured the imagination of the entire group. As he said at the start, "I am going to transport back in time" he certainly did that

We sat on a table in dining room that evening with a family who did Pompeii on their own at same time we did a tour. They knew very little and were surprised about the detail we told them they had missed

For us Pompeii was one of the highlights, Don't spoil it by just walking around a heap of old ruins, as the family we dined with did. Get a tour

You should do both, the bus takes you away from the town site seeing, but you will have plenty of time to explore the town on foot as well. Maybe have lunch in the town as we did.

The bus company suggest you can hop on and hop off the bus and get a later one at the stop off points. But nobody on our bus did so, as you risk oncoming buses being full when they get to you

Kotor was the biggest surprise. The sail in was magnificent. The town beautiful. We arrived by tender which was well organised. As soon as you arrive at town gates you will see open top bus tours on offer, quite cheap, we did this but most enjoyed the town itself, like a mini Dubrovnik but a lot cheaper

I think if you do a saver fare you have more chance of freedom dining. Friends of ours on Ventura in Feb booked a saver and got freedom but wanted 2nd sitting. They went to see restaurant manager and got it changed. Regretted it afterwards though - didn't get on with others on table. We have booked for Britannia at end of January next year on an early saver and hoping for freedom dining. Going back to Antigua so may be in touch with our friend Lawrence!

Hi Jan, nice to hear from you again. We really enjoyed our trip with you and your husband in Antigua, so give our regards to Lawrence, a great guy.

I have booked both saver and select in the past, and did get freedom dining on the saver, but booking well in advance, but if we leave it very late in booking, choice may be limited. I was just hoping if we leave it just a week before sailing we might get a good deal if they have lot of unsold cabins. If not ŵe'll just book a week in Tenerife or something. But we are considering just a short cruise in Fjords,

but club dining is not an option for us. We like to meet lots of different people at dinner

Wondering if anyone has experience of getting a late deal, for example perhaps just a week prior to sailing. We did the Caribbean in February, so may be a little extravagant doing 2 cruises in one year, unless we could get a good deal. Don't really want to book saver as we would want to be absolutely certain of freedom dining.

Not too concerned about risking not getting the cruise if we missed out on the one we wanted, we would just book a last minute holiday instead

We did the combined tour, Sorrento was okay, and worth the trip, but Pompeii blew us away, it was fantastic, I hope you get the same guide we had, he brought the place to life. What ever you do, don't do Pompeii on your own without a guide, it would be meaningless

We booked early saver on last cruise and got everything we asked for. However this time we have booked select. As we considered with on board spend and no charge for shuttle bus. The saving for early saver is not as big amount as you think. The little extra is worth comfort choosing your cabin and knowing you will get the dining you want

Oh well, fingers crossed we will get them.

 

What bothers me is that the printed off labels are just paper, so could easily be ripped and lost. I have read that people sometimes laminate them - but we do not have a laminator at home.

 

Cheers all and thanks for the replies.

Go on Amazon and search "Instant self laminating luggage tag" we used them last year and got them again for our cruise this Friday. They are perfect and cost around £3 for 5 tags. There is no way they will come off

daiB got it spot on while I see less DJs than he indicates I'd say over 90% have at least a suit.

 

By the way if you've got a 52s I'll be in.

I disagree, I'd say at least 50 percent wear a dress :D

I pre booked Whites on personaliser just two days ago for our up and coming cruise in a fortnight, last two weeks in February

Loved Whites on last cruise, but to be honest I preferred East, but will be doing both again

We did a boat trip with Baleine Tours and Captain Wayne,bought tickets at the dockside just through the cruise terminal. We got our tickets around 9.15 ,the trip was at 10am.

It was a speedboat trip up the coast,we also spent a while at a beach(so wear swimming costume if you want to swim) and were lucky enough to see Dolphins.Really enjoyable morning.

 

We went to the beach in the afternoon by water taxi,it is a small beach but worth a trip if you like sunbathing and swimming in the sea,sunbeds and refreshments are available.Again really enjoyable.

That sounds good to me, I think we will wait and see what's on offer at the cruise terminal on the day, but really fancy Baleine. We are not really beach people, more beach bar persons :)

I asked the question about St Vincent because a friend returned at the weekend from a cruise on Azura and said St Vincent was his least favourite port of call and actually didn't feel safe in the town

http://www.fantaseatours.com/#_=_

 

Great day had by all - family and friends :D

I already looked at that, but no information about times or prices on website. I sent enquiry to find out and got a message thanking me for the reservation,Huh! :eek

Does anyone have any ideas for St.Vincent, none of the ship excursions stand out for me, and there is no info on the Ports of call pages

Are there any recommendations for private tours, or otherwise

We got 20kg on the fly med in June, but we are getting 23kg for our up and coming Caribbean cruise. We fly with Thomson

I think the 5kg for hand luggage is next to useless, my empty bag weighed just over 2kg on the Med trip, leaving less than 3kg for the contents

Yeh been to Caribbean a few times and seem to get on with yanks better less hang ups of social class and I'm better than you attitude!ended up on po as read a review and said its just like benidorm thought that would be a good craic!

 

 

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Firstly I don't think anyone said he couldn't wear sandals or chinos, only that he may be in a minority, just as I would have been had I wore my cruise dinner suit on my recent fabulous holiday in Benidorm.

I like to play golf and I am told what the dress code is, I don't have any hang ups about dress code or I wouldn't play golf. I am told what the cruise dress code is, so happily go along with it. What's the problem?

As an ex St.Helens coal miner of 22 years and staunchly working class, I suppose, yes I am the social elite :rolleyes:

I think it would be acceptable, as you say. But I think you may find yourself in a minority. Most men seem to be dressed smart trousers, shoes and short sleeve open neck shirt. The guidelines suggest smart jeans are okay, but in reality you rarely see them

Sorry just noticed you're on azura. We were actually on Ventura. But it's same layout. So will be identical

We've booked a Caribbean cruise on an early saver fare and just received our cabin allocation. It's L312 on the Lido Deck (right next door to the bar). Has anyone else had a cabin on the Lido Deck? I'm worried it will be noisy.

Well what a coincidence, yes we were in the very same cabin last June for the med We booked again for Caribbean in Feb for normal price and strongly considered choosing same cabin, but decide on a change. There is no noise at all at night. The only thing we could hear was the sale away music late afternoon, I think there was only 2. No problem. Also sometimes we could hear the crew putting sun loungers out in the morning above our cabin for about 5 mins.

Don't worry it's a great location, and very handy for breakfast and the observation deck at the end of corridor. Just turn left out of the cabin door and the lift is a few yards away.

By the way I left a book I hadn't finished reading. Darren Clarke autobiography, can you check if it's still there :o

We arrive on a Friday from Manchester and we are overnighting on Ventura. I would love to try the fish fry, so I hope we are not too tired after the long flight.

I have read the reviews on trip advisor, as usual they are mixed. But several references to long waits for food. So is this true? If so, is it feasible to eat on ship then just go for a few beers, in other words are tables for diners only? In saying that I don't mind the wait if I can have a beer or 2 while we wait

Thanks all very helpful, well if you see a naked lady running on a muster call it's me! [emoji12][emoji33]

You won't be alone :rolleyes:

Same issue raised on another thread. You will have no problem taking alcohol on Ventura, as we did last June and will be doing so in February. For consuming in cabin.

We packed our main luggage with one of the plastic bottles of gin you get at airport duty free shops. Bought on previous flight. Got tonic and lemons in the first port of call. Cabin steward provided fresh ice each day. But as mentioned you can get your booze after security at Manchester for your hand luggage

G.& T on balcony each evening pre dinner. Can't wait

For what the cost, just leave the liquids behind. As for pyjamas, you can go commando for a night:rolleyes: :)

Hi Mr Piano

 

You may find this helpful.

 

http://crew-center.com/crew-wifi-locations-ports-worldwide

The only port were we could get free wifi on our balcony was Curacao.

 

Cb

Thanks very much, that does look helpful:)