Tuffydog

Harald,

I enquired on the German equivalent of CC Roll Call on your behalf.

The respondent Flavia said yes that they were LG TV's with a ship fit out date of 2014. He suggested that you bring your cables and try anyway to see if you can in fact plug in.

He wished you good luck.

Tuffydog

Very nice and very interesting. It's exciting to see information come to fruition. I know on your side and on our side, there is so much more to the story. We live in San Diego, but have been to Australia. We'd love to go again. We did Sydney, Cairns, Port Douglas, and Great Barrier Reef. My husband had work in Singapore for almost a year. We met in Sydney for our 30th anniversary. He had work in Melbourne as well. Would love to see it and Tasmania.

Hi Pan Am Girl,

I have posted your comments on the German equivalent site as a quote and endorsement for AusWanderers Haus. My post is in English, and it might take some sleuth work for you to find if you want to see it. I have a bit of fun trying to interpret the instructions and the moderators censor any link I might try to include!:D :D:D

We too like the parts of Australia that you have visited and hope that your Melbourne and Tasmania trips come to fruition. It is an easy relaxed and friendly part of the world, and once here not hard to get around

Kevin

Hildy, we had a similar experience when researching our German heritage. We knew some details verbally passed down and an memorium notice in the paper in OZ. We paid a Hannover ancestry firm to do research in Duderstadt archives, and found nothing whatsoever. We then went to the town and by appointment went to the Catholic Archives. There we met the supervisor who did no speak English, but brought her daughter in law who did speak English to help us. Judi met a guardian angel also doing his research, and he stopped what he was doing to help us. We went through 18 nearby parish records all in beautiful Latin but came up blank. The guardian angel arranged next day to pick us up at our B&B and take us to some town historians, and a little research showed that he had left from a neighbouring village 1kilometer away. His age was incorrect on the memoriam notice by one year, and his age on the Ships List was 10 years out. Apparently when you left the village you had to advertise in the papers a month or so before you left so that if you owed money people could catch up with you. We found this article from 1857. Since then this guardian angel Dieter has found our family history back to 1500 and some relatives, plus the old family home. So our visit to this beautiful walled city will be something special too. Kevin

My parents were both born in Germany, my father in Hamburg and my mother in a small village near Baden Baden, and met in New York City. After our first visit to Hamburg, DH and I traveled to Bremerhaven, especially for the Emigration museum which I had heard about. This museum was phenomenal for me, as it so personalized the experience my mother had in November, 1926 when she left there for the journey to NYC. As her brother was already there in NY, as her sponsor and holding a job for her and a place to live, she did not have to go through Ellis Island (location of a famous immigration museum) but got off in New Jersey. Ellis Island is always emotional (especially the movie part showing the people leaving Bremerhaven). When the grandchildren are ten, I take them to New York for their heritage tour to show them about where we the grandparents grew up and where the great grandparents lived, were married, etc. Bremerhaven was a lot of fun -- things to do, etc. We even took a public bus to an outdoor concert. Fabulous museum -- wish I could take the grandkids there. We found the ship's manifest (when my parents went to visit her family in Germany in 1932), in the computer room there.

Great story Hildy and Joe. We are looking forward to our visit to the emigration museum. If it is OK I will post your comments on the German equivalent site. I am in Bali Indonesia this week and will do it on my return. Cheers Kevin

Message in a bottle:

Interesting article in the Australian newspapers today about a 132 year old German message in a bottle found on the West Australian coast from the Captain of the ship Paula and found some 950 kilometers from drop off point:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/oldest-known-message-in-a-bottle-found-on-wa-beach/9518632

The point of the exercise was to measure ocean currents, when found and inform the German Naval Observatory in Hamburg.

Tuffydog

Flavia on the German website has commented :

"you have to drive 1 hour (on german Autobahn) from Bremen to Bremerhaven ( so Bremerhaven is not really the habour of Bremen, it is a separate Town). If you like to stay one Night in Bremen, it is a good idea to book a Hotel directly in the City. So you can walk to see the old City Hall, Schnorr Viertel, Böttcher Straße. The „Bremer Geschichtenhaus“ is perhaps perfekt for

you. At night (and when the wether is fine) it is a good idea to have Dinner in a Restaurants direct by the river Weser in an area named „Schlachte“. .....in Bremerhaven, it could be interesting for you to visit the „Auswandererhaus“.

We are looking forward to exploring both Bremen and Bremerhaven as outlined above.

Tuffydog

Bremen Stopover.

Currently booking accommodation before we board ship in Bremerhaven in September.

Hopefully without offending any locals, is one day or 24 hours sufficient to see a selection of points of interest in Bremen?

We only have 9 days travel window in Germany, coming up from Paris to Bremen with a longer stop off in the town where my ancestors lived.

We will forgo a port cruise as we will be sailing shortly thereafter and have undertaken a harbour cruise in Hamburg previously.

Has anyone visited Bremen and what is a must see and do with public transport or taxi's?

Thank you

Kevin

.

On three cruises with different Mein Schiff ships, nobody was ever dressed formally in any way. Not in the dining room nor in the specialty restaurants. I don't remember a tie, I sometimes saw a dress shirt and jacket. Polo shirts are not as popular as in the USA, therefore German men tend to wear casual cloth shirts with patterns. My husband brings his polo shirts.

 

The only thing you should not do is wear flip flops or other rubber sandals, shorts, sleeveless shirts and similar extremely casual, beach or work-out clothing in the dining rooms.

On our last cruise, we saw a passenger wear a robe into the Bistro area for breakfast at a busy time mid morning.

However the Bistro was only a short distance to the sun deck above! Saves two trips!

Kevin

Just wondering what the dress code is on board MS for restaurant dining, and if there are formal (at sea) nights on a 13 night cruise?

 

Dandelion from the German forum answered my query on Restaurant dress code and formal nights:

"tuicruises.com/blog/2015/09/5-dos-donts-fuer-eine-kreuzfahrt-mit-der-mein-schiff-flotte/

Hi @Ruffydog

by accident, I found your question from Jan 12th in your CC thread regarding dresscode. Please check the link above, it is from TUI Cruises. There are no gala nights nor other formal events at all, on "Mein Schiff", you will not need neither a suit nor ties on your cruise in general. You need, of course, for restaurant dining, full-length trousers and closed proper shoes (which mean: no flip flops, no sandals and no shorts or other kind of swim wear in MDR).

Polo-Shirts and good Chinos/neat Jeans are also appropriate and sufficient. If you consider to visit fine dining in "the Richards", you may would like to dress up with long-sleeve cloth shirts (with or without a tie) and slacks. Hope this helps?

I found in addition this discussion w/ dresscode, maybe helpful?

Kleiderfrage ....

In case of other general queries, feel free to start a new thread -on the forum".

That took a bit of sleuth work and is much appreciated .

Thanks Dandelion

Keviin

Just wondering what the dress code is on board MS for restaurant dining, and if there are formal (at sea) nights on a 13 night cruise?

We have cruised on Cunards QE and they take formal nights fairly seriously, as do some of the river cruises. CMV have a dress code that they enforce in the dining rooms and formal nights can be for men a dinner suit or neat slacks,coat and tie.

As we are away for 9 weeks we have to plan ahead with what we are packing for the Mediterranean, southern France to Paris and Northern Europe.

Thanks.

Kevin

Happy New Year!

Only 249 days to go before we board Mein Schiff 3 in Bremerhaven.

Whilst there has been some interest, I'm not sure if there any fellow passengers on this thread. There are a few on the German equivalent website.

Looking forward to finalising some excursions over the coming months. Options include

Bremerhaven- Auswanders Haus.

Le Havre- Bus to Honfleur.

Lisbon (considering BlueBear4Travel experience). This sounds great!

"Our shipped docked close to Santa Apolonia station. We walked to the station and bought a day ticket for public transport. We then took the subway to Martim Moniz and took a ride on the 28 tram car. Be there early! At 9am lines already started to grow. We rode until close to Praca de Camoes and then joined a fantastic guided tour (free walking tour) with Sandeman´s New Europe. The end of the tour was at Praco do Comercio and from there (asked the guide for directions) we walked along the water to the market (Time Out Market Lisbon) to have some of these famous vanilla pastries (Pasteis de Belem)."

Gibraltar- will probably be a simple walk around perhaps public transport to key lookouts.

Barcelona- Walk around the Gothic quarter, Cable Car, and beach area Barceloneta. If time permits and the queues are not to long, perhaps a revisit of La Sagrada Familia and see what has been finished on this masterpiece since we last visited in 2010.

Mallorca- Have a limited time before our flight out, but last time we we there (2010) we had private taxi who took us to key spots for a very reasonable and agreed price. Maybe do the same, look for different sights to explore.

If we had time I would like to try to see the residence or locations used in the TV show "The Night Manager" but it is on the other side of the Island. The residence, La Fortaleza is privately owned, its owner is reportedly the British banker Lord (James) Lupton who bought it for between £30 and 35 million in 2011. Apparently opened to the general public four days of the year. Pollensa town hall, as part of its History of Pollensa programme is organising the guided tour of La Fortaleza.

Still some more research to do.

Looking forward to making contact with fellow travelers.

Kevin

Mein Schiff 3 & 4 are the best in their fleet.

 

 

Not finished yet, still much to do, but probably most comprehensive: All about Mein Schiff.

Enjoy!

 

Yes, I do agree that their cruises are quite expensive.

This brand is a kind of RCI umbrella, so as things are going downhill, the other two ships (#4 & #5) are following the trend.

But the beginning (#3 & #4) was fantastic!

Thanks for your post Ronbe65,

I found the links provided a spectacular visual insight into the MS 3 facilities and decor .

We are impressed.,

I will spend some more time reviewing the videos.

Cheers

Kevin

The ship is fabulous. It has a lot of indoor space and doesn't feel cramped at all. We had 2 600 passengers which means that several cabins had 3 passengers. I guess they were very young children and babies. None of them bothersome.

 

Since many people had booked the cruise to get away from the abysmal German fall/winter weather, the outdoor areas around the pool and on the higher sun decks were packed, sardines in a can come to mind.

 

Food was good to excellent, but we shouldn't have bothered with the pay restaurants.

 

I loved this itinerary, maybe not as much as the Baltic and Norway, but these emerging cities are simply fascinating. Their architecture is very varied. The United Arab Emirates are only 46 years old, sand, water and palm frond shacks in the fifties, then wham! the oil boom! Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai have lots of construction sites and the accompanying traffic jams. The Souk in Muscat still had shops for locals not just tourist souvenirs.

 

If you do this itinerary on a German ship, arrange your own tours or combine taxis with the rail in Dubai or use the Hop off hop on bus whose tickets they sell in the ship's lobby. Our guides were German speaking from countries that have lost much of their tourist trade, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Sri Lanka. One guide spoke English, but the ship provided a translator.

 

English is widely spoken and the common language for locals and guest workers. Guest workers make up 50% to 90% of the population depending on the country.

Just a question, and in relation to an earlier comment you made on the class of Mein Schiff ships, is MS3 and MS5 of the same class/style and facilities offered?

MS 5 sounds great and I can't wait to experience MS3.

Kevin.

Tuffydog,

 

I am just back from our cruise on Mein Schiff 5 and learned something: no need to learn the word 'inbegriffen'. The drink menu says 'inklusive'. :D

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Thank you Floridiana.

How was MS 5 and the ports of call?

Kevin

Hi Maria, you are correct in Tui not being well represented on CC. Indeed whilst there have been over 2000 reads, we are yet to find any fellow cruisers on Cruise Critic.

 

I am astounded with the interest on reading our blog, but wonder if these readers are English/Thomson Cruises UK cruisers. I think that they charter and use certain Tui ships.

 

I have registered on the German website and made a couple of posts and can read contributions. Because of my poor German, I cannot now locate the login area (like CC) or are blocked from making another contribution.

 

My Username there is Ruffydog if you have time to look.

 

Your advice on login would be appreciated.

 

Thank you

 

Kevin

 

PS How was the Cruise in November? Which MS was it and what was the route?

HI Maria , My German tutor has helped me find the login section. I feel like a dill!

Kevin

Hi tuffydog,

we won´t be on this particular cruise but we´ll try "Mein Schiff" for the first time in November, too. We are Germans but since we have cruised mostly with american cruiselines before, we love CC and met a lot of nice people at the M&M onboard (also from Australia :) ) .

I don´t live in the north of Germany so I won´t be able to tell you much about Bremen or Bremerhaven but if you have questions about Germany or "Mein Schiff" feel free to ask. I will do my best to answer

TUI is not well represented on CC, I found you thread looking for our cruise. There is a german forum called pooldeck24 which provides a lot of information about "Mein Schiff". Maybe you want to post there, there even might be a roll call for your cruise.

Hope you will enjoy your cruise and Germany! I hope to be able to visit Australia once, too.

Maria

Hi Maria, you are correct in Tui not being well represented on CC. Indeed whilst there have been over 2000 reads, we are yet to find any fellow cruisers on Cruise Critic.

I am astounded with the interest on reading our blog, but wonder if these readers are English/Thomson Cruises UK cruisers. I think that they charter and use certain Tui ships.

I have registered on the German website and made a couple of posts and can read contributions. Because of my poor German, I cannot now locate the login area (like CC) or are blocked from making another contribution.

My Username there is Ruffydog if you have time to look.

Your advice on login would be appreciated.

Thank you

Kevin

PS How was the Cruise in November? Which MS was it and what was the route?

Gibraltar Excursions:

In Port 800-1800. Temperatures 20-27 degrees in September, Average rainfall 20 mm over 8 days in September

A review of in Port activities from Cruise Critic Reviews shows in order of rating

1. Gibraltar Museum (1 review only)

2.Rock of Gibraltar

2.St Michaels Cave

3. Apes Den

4. Great Siege Tunnels

5. World War 11 Tunnels

6. Fortress Gibraltar

7 City Under Siege Exhibition

8 City Tour

9 Dolphin Watch

10 Alameda Gardens

In addition Trip Advisor has the additional points of interest:

* Mediterranean Steps (high level of activity)

* Moorish Castle

* Ocean Village

Most activities listed have entry fees or are part of a tour so I would be interested in what piques the interest of other travelers.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences in Gibraltar on what is great to do, including walking around the old fortress, eateries and sights.

Kevin

BREMERHAVEN PORT: MUST VISIT DEUTSCHES - AUSWANDERER - HAUS

Last Friday my excellent German friends visited the"Deutsches- Auswanderer-Haus" in Bremerhaven and advised us about the Emigration Museum

"It is great. It shows a real illusion of emigrants living on board of sail and steamships. You can see the life-histories of hundreds of emigrants, documented with fotos and letters.Each station there are telefones, for hearing about exponates.

I forgot to ask, hearing in Englisch is possible too. There is one room for family searching. We saw all dates and pictures about your grand-grandfather (that) you inserted in ancestry. You will find all German emigrants worldwide by name.

When you come next year,you must visite this Haus"

I couldn't ask for a better recommendation. He advised we should allow about 2 hours minimum to explore the exhibition.

We are looking forward to it before we board Mein Schiff 3 for an afternoon departure.

Kevin

Kevin,

 

BH means bra in German. ;-)

 

And to continue the language lesson: the word "Deutsche" with an e at the end is a) eine Deutsche = a German woman or b) the plural, Deutsche = Germans.

Hi Floridiana.

I had to laugh at my poor use of acronym BH in this instance. Of course I meant my better half- Meine Frau.

I have been doing Deutsch lessons for two and a half years and this is the first time someone has explained the feminine "e" for eine / plural Deutsche relating to German/Germany!. I should have realised.

I hope that I can survive with basic conversational German on the cruise and will be continuing lessons until the trip commences.

Cheers,

Kevin

Hi Floridiana,

I will look for the words inbegriffen and most likely manage my drinks from this section of the bar menu.

Thank you for the helpful tips regarding water containers.

I just informed my BH that she might strike nudity in the sauna but she can wear her swimsuit in need. Not sure how she will manage this!

Cheers.

Kevin

Windstarke 8

My kind Deutsche friend has sent me a book and DVD on the immigrant ships leaving from Bremen with the title Windstarke 8 which is a report of the sea passage of emigrants to Amerika. This was a 1919 build, 247 tons 3 mast top sail schooner Fridtjof Nansen and was "baptised" in Bremen.

He relates - The original SS Ohio my Great Grandfather traveled on in 1857 was a 3 mast barque of 450 tons. The emigrants lived in a tween deck unless they could afford cabins, and passengers were not allowed on deck.

The sailing ships took the same track through the North Sea to the English Channel like the MV Mein Schiff 3 will do.The sailing ships required easterly winds. The "Strait of Dover" which is a small channel where you can see both coasts in good weather, but is very dangerous for sailing ships with strong currents (6 miles speed) and changing winds. Often conditions included fog and raining.

Before entering the Atlantic Ocean, sailing ships waited in the Bay of Falmouth for convenient winds.

Steering southerly they passed the formidable Bay of Biscay, with high waves and wind. After passing the Cape of Finisterre, the wind is mostly northern, very good for sailing ships south bound.

Mein Schiff 3 will leave the track of the SS Ohio on the height of Gibraltar and will steer into the Mediterranean Sea. The sailing ships would then head south chasing the trade winds.

At the trackpoint Cape Verde islands near the equator, American bound sailnig ships steered westward direction toward the Antilles, those to Australia crossed southward to the Cape of Good Hope.

I am sure we will experience a considerable difference in the luxury and comfort on board Mein Schiff 3 compared to the cramped conditions of the Emigrant sailing ships and I hope that I can sight some of the highlighted points of interest that the original sailors would have used as landmarks in their voyage to the "New World" in the 1850's.

Kevin

If you take a closer look at the pricing, you´ll see that on TUIcruises there is no service charge per day and no special drinks package, since all drinks are already included in the price.

Thanks for clarifying this point BlueBear4Travel.

So as I understand it, the Premium All Inclusive package covers all wines beers and spirits and cocktails are "free" during the course of the cruise (presumably up to a pre-determined price/quality) and available at all bars and restaurants (as appropriate to the venue)?

Thanks in anticipation.

Kevin

I forgot to mention something that might be helpful.

When booking this cruise, I made my way through the registration process in Deutsche and manged to successfully book.

I sent various emails to TUI to confirm payment details but they wanted to speak on the telephone to confirm. Now sitting on a phone in Australia listening to music on hold is very expensive and painful. Their email responses were also sent to acknowledge my various emails but I never received a formal response.

Alternatively your travel agent can arrange. I have a daughter who is a travel agent and she spoke to them direct on the Agents dedicated line but they wouldn't recognise the Agent possibly for commission purposes

I then sent a message on their Facebook page and got an instant response in English. and arranged a call back by TUI to complete the deposit payment. Very impressed with their Facebook response!!!

Kevin

Le Havre:

We walked to the station and took a public bus to Honfleur. I think it was bus number 50.

We absolutely loved it, since Honfleur is really pretty. Unlike other old towns, here you really have one old house next to the other without any modern houses in between. Everything is nicely decorated with flowers and you can take a lovely stroll around the shops and the harbour.

 

Lisbon:

Our shipped docked close to Santa Apolonia station. We walked to the station and bought a day ticket for public transport. We then took the subway to Martim Moniz and took a ride on the 28 tram car. Be there early! At 9am lines already started to grow. We rode until close to Praca de Camoes and then joined a fantastic guided tour (free walking tour) with Sandeman´s New Europe. The end of the tour was at Praco do Comercio and from there (asked the guide for directions) we walked along the water to the market (Time Out Market Lisbon) to have some of these famous vanilla pastries (Pasteis de Belem).

BlueBear4Travel.

Thank you for your contribution. We have been to Hornfleur briefly in 2010 and remember the Timber church built in the style of ships timbers. We loved it and will try to do it again this trip. Lisbon travel options also noted and we head back there on a Tour after our cruise.

Kevin

If you´re looking for information and fellow travellers for "Mein Schiff", you´re better of in a german forum for TuiCruises. Don´t know if I am allowed to tell the name of the forum here in public but you can send me a message and I´ll let you know.

 

 

I am originally from north germany and might be able to help out if you have any questions also I have recently visited Lisbon and Le Havre.

 

Our next cruise will also be on Mein Schiff.

Hi BlueBear4Travel,

I have found the Deutsche Forum and posted on the Cruise dates scheduled for Mein Schiff 3 (3rd Quarter 2018). My post was brief under the name Ruffydog (I have had a few Boxer dogs!) and the website deleted my reference to this site (as you say above- you are not allowed to provide links to a "competitor"- fair enough!). I will add to it as we get closer to the travel date.

I would be interested in excursion options that you undertook in Le Havre and Lisbon, what is good to see and whether privately arranged or shipboard tours.

Thank you for your input

Keviin