TenerifeSharon

51 minutes ago, Midwest Sunseeker said:

I called HAL ten days after applying and was told that both appear on our Spring Booking.  She was able to see the source of each, stock and AARP, and sent us an updated invoice.  

Thank you!

51 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Both of my cruises were refused (but refused because they said I already had the benefit?) -- one has AARP credit and the other pre-dates that promotion. The AARP and SHB should be stackable. 

 

I am hoping I'm really already redeemed and that it's just not showing yet. Waiting until next week to call again.

Thanks for the information.  I'm curious to hear what others have experienced about the stacking possibility.  Good luck!

A friend mentioned to me that she had read/heard of people being refused the Shareholder Benefit if an AARP credit was already applied.  Anyone else heard of that DP?

3 hours ago, rabin1 said:

You are correct!!! You must be a theater fan as I am.

Stay safe

Kathy

40 years as an opera singer in Europe!😄

On 10/19/2020 at 5:44 AM, rabin1 said:

Mine is for my afghan hound Rabintinathia. My mom used to tell me by the time I called her she would be gone. So I gave her a nickname Rabin. I had another one named Dulcinea (does anyone know what that is from)?

Kathy

 

Are you a fan of Tagore and/or Cervantes' Don Quixote?

My handle is still with me, although the house we had on the Canary Island of the same name is - thank goodness - finally sold (only took 12 years to do so!)

BTW - another Mustang fan here ... my first "real" self-bought car was a '66 wine-red 'ragtop' bought in 66.  Wish I still had it! 

8 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

I have not tried every link to see if they all work but I had the idea to use the waybackwhen machine to see if an archived copy of his website existed.

 

 https://web.archive.org/web/20041009220856/http://www.chesterh.com/chapters/1.htm is a working link for his first review.

 

 

WELL DONE!!  And thank you - saved me going through about 30 cartons within the next year or so.  (But I'll still keep searching for other "lost" treasures.)

On 9/22/2020 at 12:49 PM, dani negreanu said:

 

At the time, I think that Chester meant to safeguard all his "musings" on a separate "entity", which doesn't change its shape every time and then, but since he passed away, his account was closed for the lack of "upkeeping".

 

Should u find his reviews, I'd grateful if u could send them to me.... korema1 at gmail com, many thanks

I've already searched through many files on the laptop I'm now using, and promise to keep looking.  But it may take a while (hopefully in this lifetime)! 

1 hour ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Sadly, after posting the above link, I've realized that everything was removed.

You can, maybe, read some of Chester's posts by looking into his profile and press "posts".

The links are worthless....

May be the mods can "relive" them?

Thanks for updating this, dani!  Somewhere on my old PC, I downloaded all of Chester's wonderful reviews and, IIRC, even printed them all out (lots of pages).  Now that I am only using a laptop - and 2 moves later - I haven't booted up the old PC in a couple of years and think the "dinosaur" is in a stored carton.  Maybe there's hope one of these days....

Hi Turtles06,

We just disembarked Zuiderdam a couple of days ago - in Copenhagen - and, although we did not port at Djupivogur, we had 4 wonderful stops in Iceland including an overnight in Reykjavik (as well as 2 ports in Scotland in addition to the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands). Glorious weather, and the ship is in great condition ... this cruise was also our first with HAL, and we are extremely happy to have chosen it and discovered this "perfect fit" for us. Hope you experience the same fantastic weather we had, the excellent crew, and the wonderful beds in very comfortable cabins.

BON VOYAGE!:D

BTW...be prepared for the rather exorbitant pricing of internet at $25.95 per day (bargain price of $14.95 if you only want social media and no emailing), and laundry at $30 per small bag! Only negatives for us during this super cruise!

We made it to Ireland today.

 

For our English tour we gave our guide an extra 50 because he really went out of the way for our group of 7. The driver was great with our daughte and that made it a very enjoyable time We also paid a lot less for the tour than other operators I contacted . For 11 hours private driver we were very happy with the service and the price.

 

We begin or Irish adventure tomorrow for few days before heading to Edinburgh.

Happy to share the tour guide info for both Ireland, England and Scotland if interested.

I'd be very grateful for the tour guide info. We have two cruises coming up with several port stops in Ireland and Scotland and, since we booked late, am getting a bit desperate to set up tours. Many thanks!

We had 2 wonderful tours (Northern Lights, which were brilliant during our visit in December, & Golden Circle) with Time Tours. It's a small, well organized, family owned company, and we couldn't have wished for better guides/drivers. They do have, IIRC, several vans which would be fine for up to 16 pax.

Hi Anthony,

Yes, I think your schedule would probably work out fine!

A suggestion: Try to get to Cicar before the rest of the passengers. It's a small office in the ferry building - located on the upper floor, and is very often manned by only one person (never more than two). Since they are the agency closest to the pier (Hertz or Avis used to also be in the same building, but moved into town) it's the one that most cruise passengers race to once the ship is docked. If you want to get an early start on your trip, get there quickly. If you are used to hiking, you might be at the office faster than with a port shuttle bus, especially if the bus isn't yet full and is waiting for more passengers before it leaves!

Enjoy your day in port! (We have a house in Icod de los Vinos, about 20 kms. north of La Orotava - so we know the island quite well.)

Just saw your inquiry about the drive from Santa Cruz to La Orotava ... via Mt. Teide and the Parque Nacional. If the weather is clear, it will be a great trip! Don't know when you will be on Tenerife, but the north side of the island can get quite a bit of rain (actually even snow when you get up to Teide in the winter!) and early morning fog. The roads leading up to the Parque are mostly one-lane each way and following a slow tourist or bus or truck can take quite a bit longer than the stretch appears on the map.

If your main sightseeing aim is La Orotava, you won't be able to spend a lot of time enjoying the moon-like lava-rock scenery of the Parque. Plan on approx. 3/4 of an hour taking the T-5 to La Orotava (if no traffic ... luckily at the time you are planning, traffic will all be headed TO Santa Cruz) and double that by taking the 21/24. So, 1 1/2 hrs. to Mt. Teide via 24, approx. 45-50 min. from Teide to La Orotava. La Orotava back to Santa Cruz can be done in approx. 40 min. (again, without traffic). It may be a bit tight to do both Mt. Teide and La Orotava and be back in time to return the rental car and get back to the ship (wait for the shuttle bus - or a hike of about 15-20 minutes) by 2 PM.

We usually rent from Cicar.com, which is located at the Fred Olsen Ferry Building at the port, and they generally have the best pricing for a one-day rental. The other agencies are all a little further away from the dock.

What ship are you on, and when are you leaving? I'll try to help if you have any other questions, but we'll be on Freedom OS beginning Sunday (23rd), and I won't be online much during the 14 day TA.

Enjoy!

So if you are curious as to which cabins are available you only have to put in about 1450 cabin numbers (Solstice Class) 1 at a time? As others have said, there are quite a few decent cruise agency web sites (booking engines) that will show inventory in a more efficient manner. Another complication is that some cruise/travel agencies will block out a significant number of cabins for their own "group" bookings. This can take hundreds of cabins out of available inventory....that are actually unsold cabins. At some point close to the final payment date these unsold cabins are released back into available inventory...and/or used to fulfill guarantee bookings. We have actually booked cruises on "sold out" ships by simply shopping around among some of our favorite large cruise agencies.....to find out who (if any) had available cabins.

 

Hank

You do realize that you are quoting my reply from 11 years ago??:D Things have changed a bit since then ... some for better, some for worse!;)

Back in "those days", lots of cruisers here were looking, for example, for an FV aft balcony cabin or a "sweet sixteen" or port vs. starboard, and the method mentioned was a faster way to find which ones were available.

EDIT: Sorry, just saw that champagne123 was faster in replying!

When looking at the 4er groups of the 1A cabins facing aft, the 1st and 3rd balconys of the 4er group (i.e. 7286, 7290) will be somewhat larger/deeper than the 2nd and 4th (7288, 7292), and the first (7286) is largest of all!. But all 4 are oversized, so they're all good!:D We prefer the aft-facing balcony cabins to provide shelter from wind on sea days (especially on transatlantic cruises or in Alaska).

There is a thread here on CC about the largest 1A balcony cabins. I'll try to find it for you.

hey girl....which company are you using?

 

D has pretty much decided which pictures to use, but now we're discussing general layout questions...do we use things that aren't photographs of places...like admission tickets, maps, on the page with the photographs.

 

Help!!!??? I'd like to use some unusual backdrops for the photos...like maps, or a giant photo, say of a Buddha, with smaller pictures...

Cynthia,

One way I like to include things like entrance tickets, maps, programs, etc. in a photo book, is to use them as a half transparent background for the actual photos of the place. OR, I use a single photo as a half transparent (perhaps black/white) full page "blow up" behind the same photo in full saturation, and covering only half of the semi-transparent background. (Did that with a photo of the 27 hairpin curves, taken from the top of the road going over the Andes. Hard to describe - and sorry it sounds so confusing -, but made a wonderful labyrinth effect.)

Once you get started with the actual work on the book(s), they get to be VERY time consuming to get them exactly the way you want.

Very glad to help...after all you've done for so many of us!:)

Hi Cynthia,

Hope you are still receiving notices when there are new posts being added to your wonderful travelogue!

I was just checking back to a blog that I previously used for great info about photo book suppliers, and thought this might include some good additional possibilities for your "short list". The blog is http://www.photobookgirl.com,and she is very thorough in her comparisons of various offerings (paper quality, software, printing, photo resolutions, binding, delivery, etc.)

Hope this might be of some assistance in case you and Mr. W. haven't yet made a final decision! (She also includes any presently available promos for the various companies.) :)

for those of you interested in such things, Mr. Wonderful has done a count of miles covered re: nautical v. statute miles and believes that O is off in their count of nautical miles and tells why.

 

He includes detailed notes for those who like this stuff--including a GPS "picture" of the entire world route and a couple of excursions.

 

For the rest of you that take a look at what he's done and think...why?....remember this is what engineers like to do, so welcome to my world!!!

 

http://drdavebradley.blogspot.com/

Truly amazing -- all the calculations! Perhaps Mr. Wonderful might be interested in a further consulting position -- for O! :)

Welcome back to the real world!!:)

We will all miss your daily epistles, but so enjoyed being taken along "for the ride".

Thank you again.

Another "fan" who will deeply miss your wonderful reports!:( I have looked forward to reading the postings as soon as they appeared in my "subscribed" mails, and will probably now suffer withdrawal symptoms. (Not to be compared, however, with your pending withdrawal symptoms!)

Thanks for letting us join you and Mr. Wonderful in your journey around the world....

Although I have most of my books done in Germany, I have had good experiences with photobookamerica. I was surprised that they did the printing and shipping in/from Malaysia (IIRC). The quality was excellent.

I also received one beautiful book from a company in CA, aandibooks.com, but their software was a bit difficult for me, as a novice, to use at that time, and I thought it was more geared to professional photographers

You'll find that the most work will be in pre-sorting which pix to use of all the many thousands. We had almost 10,000 from a 4-week trip to Asia and it took me just about that long to pick the ones to use. I did several rounds of elimination (hard to choose when you've grown attached to so many places!)

I only use the lay-flat page option (lots of extra costs) if I have several wide pictures that are covering a double-page. Otherwise, just upgrade to a slightly better quality paper instead. You will have put too much effort, time and expense into taking beautiful pictures, sorting, choosing, etc. to have less than optimal paper.

The software is quite varied. Some companies have lots of options, others bare-bones. You might want to download a couple of different ones before deciding on a company.

AND, last but not least, if you're a bargain hunter like I am (and especially if you're planning on doing at least 5 books), watch for discount codes on Groupon, Living Social or google for codes to any companies that have software that appeals to you. And you'll probably want all 5 books from the same company, since the sizing and finishing can be slightly (to massively) different from each one.

It does get easier after you've finished the first one. :D

Just another thought ... you might want to check out adorama.com, located in NYC. They do great photo work and offer free webinair tutorials on producing your own photo books.

 

i suggested to Ray that he play "yes we have no bananas" as we come into port. I don't know if the Aussies will smile but it would be fun for the passengers to hear! He liked it...whether he does it remains to be seen :)

Wonderful humorous suggestion!:D If he can't get the song downloaded for your arrival, I would bet he'll be sure to have it aboard for the next cruise that stops in Australia.

Hi Ya'all ... amazing is it not? ... how the years cruise by.

 

Three years today since Dad's passing, and it brings me Peace and Joy to see that he continues to bring inspiration and motivation to readers here as he cruises the heavens.

 

Not sure how long Dad's website will remain active, however if you wish to know more about him, you will find it here: http://home.cablerocket.com/~egon/index.htm

 

All the Best to You. ~ Steve Landsberg

 

 

.

All best wishes to you, Steve. It must help your loss .. at least a little .. knowing that Egon remains in the thoughts of many of us after all this time. He is not forgotten.

Also please, what are "zippy" pants"?

Since you are located in Florida, you can find the Reel Legends brand "zippy pants" at Beall's (very often on sale). Generally only men's sizes, but they may fit.