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chefestelle

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Posts posted by chefestelle

    St. John's Newfoundland

    in Canada/New England

    Posted

    As promised, here is my review of St. John's, Newfoundland as viewed from a cruise perspective though I am on a conference. We have arrived in Newfoundland after a fairly arduous series of flights from British Columbia. I can't say much about St. John's yet as we were pretty delirious. But we did pop out for a brisk walk before dinner. We are at the Delta and can see down to the water where I assume any cruise ships would dock. It's misting rain but blowing which made for a chilly walk in 9 degree weather. It never gets particularly warm here but 9 is harsh in July.

     

    The down town core is very walkable if you are not mobility challenged. It has been described as a mini San Francisco, which I poo poo'd when I first heard it. Suffice it to say that our glutes, calves and thighs got a really good stretch on our walk. We walked a good length of Water Street, turned up and then walked back along Duckworth. Water has lots of shopping though nothing particularly gripping to my 15 year old DD. I'll examine the shops more closely for places that may appeal to cruisers. This street is just up from the waterfront and so it should be accessible from your cruise ship without transit. I'll see if I can nail down where the ships come in.

     

    Duckworth is gloriously speckled with restaurants. We can't wait to try as many as we can for lunches and dinners. There are chains, to be sure, but most look to be independent bistros and the like.

     

    George Street above Duckworth is the pub row and a must see. So we shall see it - when we are less tired!

     

    And the painted ladies! I haven't seen Jelly Bean Row yet, but the painted ladies are everywhere and done in marvellous colours. I'm anxious to get out with my camera.

     

    I'll report more on all of this once my conference is done for the day. Last night, we retired after a simple dinner of cod au gratin for me and fish and chips for DD. We were well satisfied.

     

     

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    Chefestelle and DD cruise the Med

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Thank you everyone! Yes, lobster will feature large on the menus this week. Of course, I think the actual season is over so we are probably left with pound lobsters. I will try to make posts, though SLOTheta is on the Eurodam in the Med right now and I think she posted the inet was slow. I'll watch for you Despegue! I'm impressed you have so many languages you can speak. Perhaps from all that flying? I ran into a group of Dutch people a couple of decades ago while they were visiting Vancouver. They were trying to figure out where to go on Vancouver island. They couldn't speak English well and I couldn't speak Dutch at all. But we all had a smattering of German and managed to stumble our way through some discussion. It was fun!

     

     

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    Chefestelle and DD cruise the Med

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    The countdown begins! DD and I are excited to be on our way! We board the Eurodam on July 17 for the Mediterranean Empires 12 night cruise. We are too excited! The itinerary looks fabulous, the only anxiety being if we can get into Istanbul safely.

     

    I have downloaded my apps: app in the air, mobily, tripcast, ulmon and maps.me (thanks the-inside-cabin, LAFFNVegas, and team flames!). I have been testing them to see which I prefer. App in the air was very useful! It reminded me to check in online! Between visitors to my own town, sports trips and business trips, I've had plenty of practice with these apps and have a sense now of what works best for me.

     

    I have the little credit card protectors, money belts, thief proofed daypack, and cooling towels all packed. Itineraries, proof of dinner, excursion and hotel reservations are in the travel folder and ready to go. Passport expiries have been checked and rechecked. We both have our books packed for when we are reading in the sun or I can't take the iPad screen any longer (I mostly read my tablet). We are taking an extra suitcase for shoes etc because the overweight charge is $100 each way regardless of the overage, whereas the extra bag is only $35 each way. Considering we would both likely have been over, that's quite the savings! There will be no packing light with my shoe fondness and our first week away...

     

    We start today for St.John's, Newfoundland for a week of conference and then we are off to Venice! I can hardly wait. Luckily, we have not yet been to Newfoundland so this will be a pre-adventure adventure! It's two completely different vacations in one. I cruised (pun intended) the Canada/New England port section for recommendations to go with my other research. Boy, that was tough. Most of it was about Saint John, New Brunswick! Very little about St. John's but thanks to maryann ns, declansdad, and Jolie_Cruiser, I was able to access some great threads and get some good feedback. I'm hoping to post cruise oriented info in the relevant ports of call section over the next week for future actual cruisers.

     

    Anyway, this cruise was booked at DD's request early last year. She's 15 so I was quite taken aback by this. We have travelled all of her life: mostly DIY land trips with a smattering of all-inclusives and only one prior cruise each - and not together. We then took a Christmas cruise in December to get used to the idea. It was fabulous except for the noro that hit me after I got home...

     

    Her goal for this Med trip is to see where she would like to go for longer. A day in a port isn't a lot to go by, but it is like an amuse bouche anyway! I'm just looking forward to a lovely, varied vacation!

     

     

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    Bombing in Istanbul airport

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    That's just it stratheden and randyk47. They are so gracious and welcoming. I was there in '85 for about a month and found the Turkish people as a whole to be so welcoming, warm and helpful. Even in the south where things were less modern and we were a bit more of an unusual event, visitors were encouraged enthusiastically to learn customs, speak some Turkish, eat great food and drink tea (real tea, not apple stuff) while you shopped. It's one of my favourite places I've been. I so want to go back again. My heart goes out to the Turkish people who will suffer so much from this horror.

     

     

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    Eurodam in Istanbul?

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    The Prinsendam was the one that made the five hour stop. Since then at least one thread has reported that the HAL ship stopped as planned and overnighted as well as planned. That was very recent but I can't remember the thread I read that on. Maybe an Istanbul port of call thread?

     

     

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    Now on Noordam - Code Red

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    Every time I see a noro thread I think of all the people on my aircraft when I came home with noro. I didn't show any symptoms til I woke up in the middle of the night at home, violently ill. Stayed that way for three days. Was awful.

     

     

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    Search this forum

    in Holland America Line

    Posted

    I did serendipity1499. That's how I narrowed it down to the staggering number of threads referring to Saint John New Brunswick as St. John and St. John's. Neither of which is correct and, if Newfoundland was mentioned, it was by an experienced Eastern traveller pointing out the error. The thread I was ultimately referred to was on the wrong port of call board so I may never have found it if it weren't for someone recalling seeing it and where.

     

     

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    Search this forum

    in Holland America Line

    Posted · Edited by chefestelle

    How do you think posters come up with the links to previous threads that they post? I don't think they have them memorized. It may require a couple different attempts with different key words, but that's still quicker than post and wait.

     

     

    It's like when you search for something on one search engine you get certain results. Use another search engine, you get other results. You also get what your device has cached. If you've never found the thread or been in it, it won't be cached. Rather than doubting what other posters are saying about their experiences, you might turn your thoughts to something more helpful.

     

     

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    Search this forum

    in Holland America Line

    Posted · Edited by chefestelle

    Exactly right! I searched St. John's, Newfoundland and came up with a pile of threads on Saint John, New Brunswick. There were some that dealt with the difference between the two places and some that corrected people who spelled one place or the other incorrectly. However, it gave me nothing on the port. So I posted the question. One fabulous CCer recalled a thread, found it and posted the link for me. It was immensely helpful. I have no idea why my search didn't produce that link. It just didn't. I've experienced 3rdGenCunarder's issue repeatedly since joining the forum. Unless you just browse the most recent threads on every topic to see if yours is there, the search function is really just too cumbersome. I know it's frustrating to see repeat threads so I persist in doing the search first. Sometimes I get results!

     

     

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