tobes

I was also comparing the cruise (Celebrity) excursions with Chilkoot but Celebrity just sent an email with Black Friday 50% off excursions so that sealed the deal for me. 👍😎

Ive narrowed my choices to Ace Hotel, Staypineapple and Belltown Inn based on location and price for a 1 night stay in Seattle pre cruise.  My cruise is in June and most hotels mentioned in these posts are extremely expensive.  Any comments on my 3 choices will be appreciated. Thanks, Judy

If Oceania would stop sending me beautiful colorful brochures EVERY DAY they would save enough money in printing and postage to pay my single supplement! 😂😎

Thanks for your post. I'm on the 5th March sailing and was wondering what to do in Fujairah.

 

Have you written a review of your trip yet?

I just want to add to the last review that we did snorkel snoopy island and had the best lunch in the restaurant there. If you like middle eastern food this was the real deal!

How do you guys find these specials? Is it through the cruise lines' websites, or other cruise agencies' websites? There's so many cruise travel agencies out there - how do you know which one is legit? I don't know where to start looking!

 

Thanks for any info!

 

Dumb Dora (tm The Match Game)

I'm dumber, I don't even know what c & A stands for!

Carl, you don't mention what itinerary you are looking for, but Crystal Cruises 13 day Panama Canal cruise (Crystal Symphony Jan 4 2012 LA to Miami) cost me less than $4k for a single, including a $500 OBC (plus some perks from the travel agent).

 

There is also one running the other direction (Crystal Serenity Jan 4 2012 Miami to LA 14-day) on Crystal's other ship, that will cost more (mainly because Serenity's cheapest cabin is more expensive than Symphony's cheapest cabin). It should come in under $5k.

 

Crystal has 25% single supplement on their Oceanview cabins, so it prices out pretty well for a single, even though it's a luxury line.

 

- Nancy

I'm on Oceania's Nov 12 sailing and the supplement was only 25%.

I live in Nevada and am looking for something for the spring.

If anyone hears of any good deals for solo travelers for April/May, please post.

I would hire a private guide for the Vatican, actually if you are booking a tour of Rome with Romeinlimo you can't go wrong. We had Paula as our guide in Rome and Vatican, she was wonderful and we got more then our moneys worth. Working with Jany is great, they get back to you very quickly with any questions you have and are very accomodating as to what you want to do on your tour. I can not recommend this company enough they made out trip to Italy because I never would have been able to see and do the things without them. Linda

What about the tours given by the Vatican tour guides? Certainly a lot less money than a private guide. Anyone ever tried it? Judy:)

Uniworld has many river cruises with no single supplement. I've done it twice with my adult children and it was really nice for each of us to have our own cabins!:)

We're also going on this cruise on 15th February. We've booked a desert safari with arabia horizon tours for 215 AEDs each

for the 21st of February. Description sounds the same as ship cruise, but seems a lot cheaper. If anyone has done this excursion or used arabia horizon will they confirm ok.

There seem to be many companies that offer the same excursions for much less money. I have booked a night safari bbq with exotictravel.ae and I'll bet we see people from every other tour company and the cruise excursion at that same bbq dinner!:):)

The souk looks like fun. We would also like to see the fort, does anyone know if that is within walking distance? If not, are taxi's available and for how much?

RCCL offers a walking tour of Muscat that includes the Muttrah Souk so that is obviously walking distance from the pier. Then they offer a bus trip to the forts (plural) Nizwa Fort is described as being at the far end of the souk and through the gate which makes me think it would be a long walk. The other forts are driving distance from there, so I guess it depends on which fort you are talking about. Judy:)

I think some of them were too small to even call towns, maybe villages. Stepping off the ship and walking around where we were docked sometimes took all of ten minutes. The excursions usually involved a bus ride, never very long, to see something of interest. The longest ride to Salamanca was about 45 minutes. All the scenery along the way, whether from the ship or the bus window is breathtaking. I particularly liked Oporto which was very picturesque and Lamego where the cathedral dominates the town and sorta flows down into the center of town via 700 steps and landings, which we chose to walk down.:)

quote=H2Otstr;20917752]Sueswny, I did the AMA Douro trip last September and wrote a 2 part review. You might want to try to find it using the search function. AMA also gave us a $100 discount for being AARP members.

The towns were extremely small on the Douro. The landscape is unbelievable; breathtaking.

We are interested in this cruise for 2010 and have read on these boards that Uniworld offers an interesting dining option. Did you get the opportunity to dine on the sun deck? Apparently this option is available to smaller numbers of people who prefer the less crowded conditions of the restaurant. Any comments?

 

Bill

They had a bbq on the sundeck one night and it was delightful. We sat up there chatting until quite late. It was always an option at lunch time to take your plate up there since lunch was always a buffet.:)

What was the name of the hotel you stayed at in Lisbon? Thank you.:p

Tiara Park Atlantic (next door to the Four Seasons):)

Cat 2 ( # 200's) & Cat 3 (# 100's) cabins are over the dining room & I guessing the kitchen. Any issues with noise or smells?

We're talking about a pretty small ship so I would say everyone is over the dining and kitchen. I never noticed any smells or noise.:)

Would you explain how the upgrade works when you are a previous cruiser with Uniworld. For example if we book again we will probably book a cat. 3 cabin, so what will we get?

I booked a cat 2 and got upgraded to cat 3, maybe thats the only option.:)

I had an upgrade because I was a previous customer. When people asked to be upgraded due to empty cabins, the response was that they couldn't because it wouldn't be fair to the people who had actually paid for an upgrade. Personally, the difference in cabins is the balcony which is so narrow I saw one man sitting with his leg over the side. I think the extra cabin space is better. My daughter and I did two nights pre cruise in Lisbon which was very nice. We actually spent 8 nights in Spain before that so we flew from Ca to Madrid, flew from Madrid to Lisbon to hook up with the cruise, and then coming home from Oporto to Madrid and then back to the U.S. There are many discounts out there, we chose the one that gave us our own cabins with no single supplement. That was a real treat. That was one of the reasons I chose Uniworld but Uniworld is one of the top river cruise companies and I had had a good experience in the past so it was a win win situation. Judy:)

Couple of questions: Since the ship was 2/3 empty did they upgrade cabins? Was there a pre-cruise in Lisbon? Which cities did you fly in and out of? Also since this is "not the season" was the trip deeply discounted? Thanks

Was on the July 26th sailing. The ship was very nice and the food was very good. Better than I remembered from a previous Uniworld cruise. Portugal is a very beautiful country and the scenery is gorgeous. Laying on the sundeck and watching it go by was truly awe inspiring. Went through lots of locks. Most of the ports are so small that it was necessary to get on a bus to go see something. We were able to visit two major wineries on foot. We also had dinner at two local restaurants, one walking distance and one by bus. Lots of wine, champagne, porto, etc. at all the meals (included). The crew was fabulous which I think is really important, again much better than my previous experience. There were only 42 people because this is not the season, however, the weather was perfect, in the 80s, so we lucked out. Apparently, the ships are full April, May, September, October. Happy to answer any questions. Judy:)

Ate in Prime C twice and A once. Loved the onion soup fondue in Prime C and the chocolate fondue dessert! Menus were the same but special menu on Christmas. $5 service fee, no trouble getting reservations when we wanted. Liked it much better than main dining room food. In fact, liked Windows cafe better than main dining room. Judy:)

OK, here they are!

 

The menus (Prime C and Aqualina's regular and tasting menus):

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/569499885tAqkGm

 

The wine list (they share a common one):

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/569501370uOvoWF

 

And what the heck - here's the Discoveries wine list, too:

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/569304330dEuJhL

 

Enjoy!:)