Reydnn38

We are scheduled to pull into Kai Tak on Sunday, March 10, 2024.  Would like to get to Hong Kong Park and the Botanical Gardens.  Does anyone know what the easiest way is to get there?  Take the Ferry or a subway over?  Looks like the closest MTR stations are Admiralty Station and the Peak Tram.  Thanks in advance. 

I am going on a Princess cruise around Great Britian next month.  Do you remember if there was a shuttle from the port in LeHavre to the LeHavre bus station?  Trying to get to Honfleur for a walking tour the day we are in port.  Thanks for anything you remember about this.

OK, so I'm confused.  In Fodor's 2020 Tokyo Guide it says "For the most part there is no tipping in Japan.  There are a few exceptions to this rule.  If you hire a private guide or a private driver, it is the customary to tip 2,000 Yen to 3,000 Yen for a full day with a guide, and 1,000 Yen for a driver."  They also add that the tip should be handed over in a small envelope.  

I understand that years ago tipping was considered rude, but Fodors makes it sound like this may be changing - at least for private guides.  Anyone have recent experience with using a private guide and/or driver?  Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks. 

I can't eat any dairy and what the others have said has been true for me - they bring you a menu the day before and you pick out what you want so they can make it dairy free (in my case).  They have a "special diet" station that I think these requests go through down in the galley.  However, it's not always perfect.  I've been served a "dairy free" dessert topped off with real whipped cream - my head waiter caught it as it was being served.  And the buffet is another issue.  Lots of room for cross contamination there - their head chef told me to always ask for a serving of something from the back as on the line food drips from spoons, etc. into other dishes.  And I always ask the line chefs what I can eat that doesn't have dairy in it.  If I ask three different people about 25% of the time I get different answers so proceed at your own risk at the buffet.  I also bring my own dressings and breads onboard because that seems to be two areas where it's hard to get items dairy free.  Sometimes I also bring my own desserts onboard as I get tired of eating fruit for dessert all the time.  So there are limitations but the travel makes up for that.  Just please, please bring an EpiPen with you.  I don't know how many times I've chatted with passengers with allergies and either they didn't bring one on the trip with them or it's back in their room somewhere.  Good luck!

Returned last night from France's Finest two week tour.  We were the only couple who masked religiously on and off board. We wiped down our room and hands with sanitizer constantly - did no good. You can't eat with a mask on so we tried to get to the Aquavit Terrace for all our meals, but getting seats there was quite the competition!  Heard (from one of  their neighbors) that a couple came on board with Covid in Paris and asked to be tested.  They were removed to a hotel and sent home. We watched as people happily coughed and hacked their way through the breakfast buffet, lunch, before dinner drinks, and dinner.  By the end of the trip I'm guessing at least 30 to 40% of us had visible symptoms. Both my husband and myself each missed two days of tours and we had all five shots. We'd watch other couples where one would come out for dinner without their partner and then a couple of days later the partner would reappear looking like "s!*t. Viking didn't care if you were dragging yourself around the ship as long as you didn't ask to be tested. I had the audacity to ask the front desk if they had any cough drops - it was on a weekend and no pharmacies were open - and they just said they don't give out medicines.  (Hmm.  You are happy to have us spread Covid all over but won't help out when we get ill?!) They are definitely in a "we won't be asking so please don't tell us" mode.  My husband got ill to the point of me thinking about the need to get him to a French doctor but instead he quit taking his Celebrex and gradually got better.  I was surprised because he is in his mid 60s and had all his shots.  Guess you never know.  Anyway long story short, if anyone in your party is immunocompromised please reconsider doing this type of tour or you may come home with an unwanted souvenir. I've decided to forgo the joys of sailing with Viking and instead will just reserve a couple of hotels as bases where we can have a bit more control of who is around us 24/7.  Good luck!

I'm not an expert but when I check into the ingredients in "non-dairy" creamers and margarines, they often include some form of dairy. I'm really sensitive to any form of dairy so these don't work for me.  My fall back has been to ask for vegan products just because the chances seem to improve of getting something that's truly dairy free.  We leave for a Viking trip this fall and I'm trying to locate a vegan store in Paris near the dock.  

On 5/25/2022 at 11:52 PM, caribill said:

 

 

Reydnn38 does not say husband's illness was related to Covid.

Just noticed this.  My husband did not have Covid and was ill before the Covid pandemic - that's the last time we sailed. That said, we'll still bring our own thermometer in the future. 

On 5/22/2022 at 11:03 AM, Princessfan20 said:

Theometer

On our last trip my husband became ill and the medical office charged us $50 each time just to take his temp!

One time we found a one night cruise from Seattle to Vancouver.  So we took that up and then just switched over to our "real" ship the next day.  

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Not talk to just someone. Make it the headwaiter or the head buffet chef on duty.

On one cruise the ship's head chef walked me through the buffet line but he told me to ask the servers to get some of the items (like grits or other things next to dishes with dairy) from the kitchen behind the lines because of cross contamination out on the actual line when they move a dripping spoon over several bowls of different types of food.  He made it sound like it wasn't a problem to ask the servers to do this.

11 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Did you say brownies?  Where do you purchase dairy free brownies?  Yummy!

For one cruise I bought out the Qdoba at the airport (theirs are/used to be dairy free) but for others I bake my own using the Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge mix box and then top them with Enjoy Life chocolate morsels which are allergy friendly.  I freeze them and carry them in a small insulated lunch bag with a frozen block until I can get into the cabin for a fridge - yeah I know it's a lot of effort but it's worth it to me to have something special. 

On 7/24/2021 at 12:44 PM, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I have never seen dairy free yogurt at the buffet.  I do send an email ahead of time with my dietary needs and then I talk to them when I arrive at the main dining room.  Here are a few dairy free things from the MDR.  

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see these photos.  I can't eat any dairy and in the past when I cruised on HAL I ended up only having a choice of sorbet every night for dessert.  On the last cruise I brought my own diary free brownies onboard, plus some dairy free margarine (don't know if that was OK or not but it's what I did).  If Princess has more options I may be switching cruise lines!!

On 6/17/2021 at 10:49 PM, caribill said:

 

 

Looks like all 2021 cruises are so designated.

 

Princess cruises sailing through 2021 are available for guests who have received their final dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise and have proof of vaccination. Crew vaccinations will be in accordance with CDC guidelines.

I don't see our cruise to South America via the Diamond Princess on the list, unless I missed it. 😞

I just hung up with Princess.  The rep was gone for quite a while and when she came back all she could share was that they were updating the website and I should try again later tonight or wait until Friday. 

We are going on a Baltic cruise next month and will be taking several group tours with Alla and SPB.  I'm not sure what to tip for some of these tours.

For example:

I received paperwork from Alla that offered two suggestions for the same 5 hour $125 Copenhagen tour for tipping their guides and drivers.  In one place it said to plan on 10% to the guide and 5% to the driver.  On another page it said to give 5 EUR to the guide and 2-3 EUR to the driver.  These two sets of amounts don't match.

Then for Tallin for a  $70   5.5 hour tour  we were advised to do 10% of total cost to cover both guide and driver and in another page advised to give just 3-5 EUR to the guide.

I know this isn't a large amount of money but, over a number of tours it can add up and we are on a pretty fixed budget.   I would like to make sure we don't over tip or under tip. 🙂

I would welcome your advice on which of the amounts seem the best guideline for the above Alla tours.  Thanks in advance. 

We sailed on the MS Spitzbergen (Hurtigruten) last year and I was impressed that they have a sink for washing your hands near the buffet area - after you've used the hand sanitizer. We would get spritzed with the hand sanitizer, go through the buffet, then go back to the sink for a real wash up. Lots of people got sick on that trip with some sort of cough/cold but we escaped. Only a couple of us used the sink at every meal. Wish more ships had that set up.

We are also on Spitsbergen on September 16th and chose that because of the altered itinerary. Will be a little disappointed if that is not the xase. Currently we haven't booked any excursions as I found it confusing as to which ones could be done when without overlapping them. Hurtigruten have said they are posting a hard copy out but I haven't received it yet. We are planning on breakfast at North Cape. Just not sure what else yet.

Peppajay,

We look forward to meeting you then! We live in Port Angeles Washington and our names are Danny and Deanna. I printed off a list of excursions back in November when I put down our deposit. Here's the link the agent gave me then. It is tricky to read because about half of the excursions won't be running when our cruise starts. https://www.hurtigruten.us/excursions/#destinations=1647,1648&seasons=8&sort=recommended&asc=true

You are right, no cars on MS Spitsbergen (but still, at the moment she is doing the Coastal Express journey in Norway, until MS Midnatsol comes back from Antarctica sometimes in March I believe, and then she will be doing exploration trips).

We booked the MS Spitzbergen for September 16, 2017 for the 12 day Coast trip because we were told she would be skipping the night ports to stay longer in the day time ports. I called Hurtigruten last week and was told she won't be doing this - will be following the same route as the other ships. Oh well....

We are going on the 12 day on September 16, 2017 on the MS Spitzbergen. I'll check back to this thread as I haven't seen anything on my trip specifically. Was told the MS Spitzbergen wouldn't be carrying cars and would be skipping the night time ports so it could stay longer in the day time ones when I booked. However, I called Hurtigruten last week and the rep said "no - that's changed; will be doing the same schedule as everyone else". Seems you need to double check much of what you are told because they don't provide updates. So if anyone has any insights I'd welcome them. Thanks.