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Well darn!  Another cruise pulled from under us.
Time to start searching for another cruise.

12 minutes ago, TheRabbit said:

Email with the link just went out.

Most excellent.  Link received.  Sent out a request for the Chef's dinner.

16 minutes ago, Pepes Pal said:

Here’s an interesting read from the Wall Street Journal. Reading it makes it sound very gloomy for cruising this December & beyond, & perhaps next year to be available without masks & social distancing. I won’t feel comfortable until a safe vaccine is available & cruises not requiring masks & social distancing aboard. I’m afraid many will stay at home to wear a mask & social distance. 
Judy

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/royal-caribbean-norwegian-outline-to-cdc-how-they-plan-to-cruise-safely-11600682405

Alas, the article is only available to subscribers.

Notwithstanding, we agree completely that we need to have a safe, and effective, vaccine before the final payment date arrives in June.  Even with a vaccine, we will have a long look at what is happening around the world and cancel if we do not have a high comfort factor.

4 hours ago, susancruzs said:

I was looking at the 8/30 British Isles but think I'll do a NE 7 day after the transatlantic.  I want to do the Baltic plus TA probably Fall  2022, not the Spring one, want to keep my price down.  

Once we book get the TB booked, we will look at the NE/Maritime cruise.  Want to find out if we would be allowed to leave the ship in Halifax rather than continue on to NYC.

Just found this new home for the former TA out of Copenhagen.  Hoping to book a room when it becomes available on the 30th.

On 5/3/2020 at 9:24 PM, Ruthieofthesea said:

After almost fifty years of cruising and land trips I have many favorite ports. The most amazing sail in was Sydney.

Auckland

Dubai

Venice

Santorini

Hong Kong

Christ Church

Paris (river cruise)

I love to watch as the ship navigates to port, especially when they approach the dock from the side.

 

Happy cruising. 

 

 

New Zealand, Australia and the Persian Golf States are Bucket List items for us.  We envy all who have already sailed to these parts of the world.
Nice to find another cruise couple who like both ocean and river cruises:  it is usually one to the exclusion of the other.  The feel and format is most certainly different for each but we enjoy both equally.  I am trying to think which river cruise was our favourite but, truth be told, each one was memorable and we would happily do each one over again.  If forced to pick a favourite, I think it would be our Dahabiya cruise on the Nile.  

12 minutes ago, Ruthieofthesea said:

After almost fifty years of cruising and land trips I have many favorite ports. The most amazing sail in was Sydney.

Auckland

Dubai

Venice

Santorini

Hong Kong

Christ Church

Paris (river cruise)

I love to watch as the ship navigates to port, especially when they approach the dock from the side.

 

Happy cruising. 

 

 

Forgot about Santorini.  Love that island.  Always try to make sure we are in Fira at lunch time so we can go to Lucky's Souvlakis (best in all of the Greek isles, bar none).

12 minutes ago, clo said:

Do you spend any extra time in those cities?

Extra time in Barcelona, Shanghai and Istanbul but not Yokohama yet (just two, two-day, port visits).
We like to combine time on land (land cruises?) before and/or after all of our cruises:  especially in ports that we particularly love or ports close to other favourite cities, like Rome.

Istanbul is our favourite because it has so many, integrated, public transit systems and also because there are so many contrasting areas on both sides of the river to explore and enjoy.

If you have an opportunity to visit Istanbul again, give some thought about spending a week in Cappadocia.

Istanbul, Barcelona, Istanbul, Yokohama, Shanghai, Istanbul, Barcelona, Yokohama, Shanghai .... did I mention Istanbul?

Truth be known, we have never visited a port we did not enjoy for one reason or anther but the above four ports are our absolute favourite, with Istanbul at the head of the list.

Well, the Caribbean season is very close to the end and ships are headed off to Alaska with lots of lucky HAL passengers aboard. Some are bound for San Diego and others to Seattle (ship ends in Vancouver but I don’t see anyone from here headed there). Whatever the destination everyone will experience the wonders of the Panama Canal as the crew pampers them. Whatever your destination have a wonderful cruise.

 

Bon Voyage to Nieuw Amsterdam Panama Canal to San Diego and Seattle:

15 day Panama Canal – FLL to San Diego

cruz chic

George’sGal

19 day Panama Canal – FLL to Seattle

Sea-travelers

Retiredkid

hoopman - Congratulations on your Retirement!

 

 

Bon Voyage Everyone with special wishes to Retiredkid extending the cruise with a train ride across Canada. Enjoy the whole trip and especially Jasper and Winnipeg. Have a great cruise and a wonderful time! Roy (for Jacqui)

Thanks ever so much for your wonderful bon voyage message. We are going all the way to Vancouver on this, our very first, HAL cruise.

We are booked on an Emerald Princess cruise in May that starts in Athens, goes to Istanbul and finishes in Civitavecchia in Italy.

 

Do we need a multi entry visa for the EU? Princess seems to think we do, but I have my doubts about this. The visa free conditions for Australians talk about 90 days in a 180 day period. If you only spend 90 days in the EU, you would have to leave the EU.

 

Has anyone had experience with this? We are intending to organise a visa for Turkey as there is one day at Kusadasi and two days in Istanbul.

 

The issue is that there is a lot of documentation and personal attendance (presumably in Sydney) required for the multi entry visa.

A Visa is not required for port visits in Turkey if the visit is under 72 hours. Here is a link to the FAQ for Turkish Visas wherein that very question is asked and answered:

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/frequently-asked-questions.en.mfa

Here is the same info as shown on the Celebrity Cruises web site:

http://www.celebritycruises.co.uk/manage-my-booking/important-sailing-information/visa-information/

Thanks!! That's very helpful! We've got a great guide our TA has used before and had great responses from the clients she sent out with them. We arrive in Istanbul on 9/30. We have that afternoon and evening open...haven't decided what to do yet:confused: but I'm still researching!

 

AMA can't tell us if there would be enough people also flying (vs the bus) to run a City Tour on 10/1. Also, my DH is a rather avid amateur photographer and we would like complete control of the itinerary and to spend more time in the very early morning on or above the streets of Sultanahmet when the lighting is good. So our plan now is:

 

Oct 1 tour Istikal St with several stops at the guides preferred coffee and dessert spots as well as the Pera museum. (I have a recent interest in Orientalist paintings, and there are some good ones there!) Then we will take a Bosporus cruise and set our feet on the Asian side. I'm still working out where exactly, though we may just leave it up to the guide. The most important thing for us is to actually set foot on the continent (it's number 6 for us and we have Antarctica planned for 2016/17, so even though we will go on other Asian trips in the future, we wanted to call Antarctica officially #7;))

 

 

Oct 2 The rest of the AMA pax arrive and would likely have the 1/2 day City Tour, but since we wish to get started early, so instead we will do a complete tour of Sultanhmet with our guide starting close to dawn. We hope to fit in the Galata tower too.

 

 

Oct 3 AMA will offer that tour of Topkapi Palace, that you mentioned, and we will rejoin our AMA friends for that, and maybe take another (the optional AMA tour) cruise down the Bosporus. We don't want that to be our only Bosporus cruise because from your photos it appears the AMA group doesn't dock and set foot in Asia. Can you confirm that?

 

We fly home the 4th.

 

While we were on Enchantment of the Seas recently, the headwaiter was from Turkey and insisted I contact her Istanbul based sister for advice...which I did and she's been very helpful with suggestions!:D But I'm leaving it to our guide to suggest those out of the way, unique places like you mention...that's one of the benefits of having the guide.

 

Incredibly, Istanbul is an amazingly reasonable place to hire a private guide and car...our 1 and 1/2 day tour includes all transport including the car and driver, entrances, a few snacks and lunches for less than 300 pp. So that's 100 dollars a day for private guiding with car and driver. I find that among the most reasonable in the world where we have traveled and therefore well worth it, even if it means skipping one already included AMA tour. I know in most places in Europe, guiding at that level would be close to 1000 for the day. Given the "change-y nature" of Turkey right now, and the experience you had last summer, it also gives me a measure of comfort to have a local guide who can have an ear to the ground should things start happening and know how to keep us safe, rather than go on our own.

 

We will be paying off our cruise in just a few weeks and will have the opportunity to sign up for the various signature tours, so I'm trying to get everything in order before then, so I will have a good idea of what I'd like to sign up for. Also, I am with you...planning is part of the fun of travel for me...I often arrive in a new place with a pretty good "map in my head" for where we are and culturally, what to expect there...I find it really deepens the experience!:D Thanks for sharing your photos and answering (my endless:rolleyes:) questions!!

I read your planned activities, with your private guide, with great interest because we will have several days in Istanbul before our AmaWaterways cruise officially begins. Might I be so bold as to ask who you guide is and how I might contact him/her (please e-mail me if this info is too sensitive or not allowed on Cruise Critic).

We are flying over early so as to spend a week in Cappadocia before coming to Istanbul. We were able to add additional days in Istanbul at our AmaWaterways hotel so that we will not have to loose precious time switching hotels before the official AmaWaterways tour begins.

Our only disappointments so far, are the singular lack of an official meet-and-greet before the tour begins; the inability to determine how many will be touring with us; or how to contact our fellow cruisers to see if anybody will be in Istanbul before the cruise as we are. AmaWaterways does not seem to encourage folks hooking up before their tours but this may be because river cruisers are a more solitary bunch (we have mostly done cruises on larger ocean-going ships and but one other river cruise).

We made our final payment yesterday and were able to book two of the three Limited Edition Tours offered (two overlapped so we could not book all three).

Here’s a link to the slideshow I created for the Balkan river cruise on the Amacerto, Istanbul to Vienna, beginning May 29, 2013.

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/115520979706388828246/56AmacertoBlackSea52913?authkey=Gv1sRgCMz1urXYh6r6cg

Sergio,

Thank-you ever so much for posting your beautiful pictures and for adding to the excitement of our upcoming cruise on the AmaCerto from Istanbul to Prague (27 Aug 2014 cruise).

Jim

I was excited to find your review of this ship and this itinerary...we are booked on the same cruise, to depart in 16 days!

 

You mentioned doing your own laundry....can you tell me where the laundry rooms are located? I can't seem to find them on any deck plans. Also, are the machines coin-operated, or can you use your sail+sign card to activate them?

Name: Launderettes

Location: Riviera Deck 1 - midship / across from 1219

Main Deck 4 - aft / across from 4230

Upper Deck 5 - aft / across from 5270

Empress Deck 6 - forward / across from 6102

Verandah Deck 7 - midship / across from 7267

Hours: hours posted on the door to the Laundry

Function: Self-Service Launderette

2 or 3 washers

2 or 3 dryers

1 iron and ironing board

Vending machines dispense small boxes of detergent and water softener

Last time I used them, they were coin operated but I don't remember the price.

In Kona we rented a car and went to Greenwell Farms- a coffee plantation. There we took a small guided tour with a very informative and personable guide. It was extremely interesting. We purchased coffee after tasting 10 of their brews and had it sent back to the states. We then went to a macadamia nut factory about an hour up the coast. We loved the variance in the scenery on the ride. The coffee guide pointed out the different weather on the island and we could see it on our ride. The factory had many flavors of nuts and was the only place to find brittle. It was extremely easy to find. You can look both places up on their web sites. We took our own GPS. If you rent a car in Kona do so at Enterprise. They are the only ones down by port and have a shuttle. The airport is not close!

Kauai (Nawilliwili) We had a ball. We rented a car from Budget at the airport (on-line) went to see Waimea Canyon and continued up that road to the end where we could see the Canyon on one side and the ocean on the other. Breath taking. We bought taffy in different flavors--coconut, Guava and enjoyed it on the ride back down. We went to Spouting Horn and saw the water spraying as well as turtles and dolphins. There was a beach right there but we just stopped and looked but did not get out. We then went to the Village of Poipu. We went to the shopping center there where we got a few souveniers and then got a Puka dog. We had seen it advertised on the food channel and had to try it. I loved it my husband that is not very adventurous did not so much. It is a hot dog in an encased bun with relishes shot in it. I had a dog with Hawaiian mustard and Mango relish. I loved it. We also got a shaved ice and sat and watched the birds. This was the stop where many took plane or helicopter rides. They all raved about them but my husband was a hi liner for the electric company and doesn't "do" helicopters any more!

We kind of felt like you in the beginning about those ports as well but I got lots of information from the ports of call Hawaii site and then researched like crazy on the internet and thru clientele of my business that had been before.

You will have a ball. My husband is still raving about the "best" vacation he ever took and we travel a lot.

Thanks for getting back so quickly and for the detailed and informative post. Great ideas for both ports-of-call. I do believe we will be doing exactly what you good folks did .... touring about and enjoying all that these islands have to offer. Thanks again.

Thanks ever so much for the cruise summary. We are looking forward to this cruise but had some of the same apprehensions that you did so your post went a long way to calm those concerns.

We are booked with Rickys Tour so thanks for your comment vis-a-vis his itinerary.

Out of curiosity, what did you folks do in Nawiliwili Bay, Kauai and in Kona, Hawaii? We have nothing planned at the moment for either of these port calls and have found little on-line that strikes our fancy.

:)Thanks so much for your posting on the Mekong trip. We leave in a couple of weeks for about the same trip. We will have 3 nights in Hanoi before the organized portion of the trip. The Green Tangerine was one of the places on my list of possible places to eat. It just moved up a notch with your recommendation.

 

So excited about this trip. Somewhat worried about the typhoon headed that way. Sure hope the people stay safe and that there is not too much damage. So many of the Vietnamese are already living in substandard conditions and any loss would be just horrible.

 

We have arranged for a walking food tour of Hanoi, love trying local foods. Taking lots of meds to counteract any 'mistakes' in our tastings. :eek: LOL.

 

Thanks again.

The Ly Club (within two blocks of the hotel and a pleasant walk) is a fantastic restaurant .... so good we went twice. We were there on the 1st and 2nd of this past October.

Wish we had had additional time in Hanoi but our China schedule did not allow for additional time: just what was included in the AML package.

Just back from our cruise on the AmaLotus.

 

How was your trip?

 

Every bit as expected and then some. The humidity was a killer but the weather was very cooperative during the entire trip with just a few tropical downpours.

 

The AmaLotus portion of the trip was quite relaxing as we choose to skip several of the group tours in favour of pleasant time on the ship because we had had more than our fill of temples, etc. from our previous 30 days in China.

With respect to the currency discussion on this board, we will be booking a transfer from the airport to the hotel in Hanoi and the rates are all listed in USD, and payment is requested to be made in either USD or VND. We also have booked a tour in Saigon and payment is requested in USD. I don't have any problem paying in USD in a country where this is obviously acceptable or even beneficial to them. Would never consider using USD otherwise.

Just back from our cruise on the AmaLotus. Among the small bills we brought with us, we had everything from crisp new to badly worn (none ripped or torn). We had a few vendors glance at the bills we offered them but none were ever refused. At one store there was a sign at the register saying "no US bills older than 1997."

Our bills came from our bank here in Canada and I checked them all over after reading this sign and found all to be series 2007 or later.

Is it possible, I wonder, that date of issue might be more important than condition?

Have put a cabin on hold for the November 11th, 2013 sailing (land package starts Nov. 5th. ) Anyone on this sailing? Looking at either flying Cathay Pacific from Toronto with a layover in Hong Kong, or Korean Airlines with a layover in Seoul. Cathay Pacific departs at 1:25 am and is one of the few flights that arrive in Hanoi in the morning rather than in the evening, giving us 3/4 of a day there On our day of arrival. Any advice from any of you who have flown these airlines?

Thanks.

Alas, no: we are booked on the one immediately prior to your cruise (starting 1 Oct 2013 in Hanoi). Thus far we have found no other couples on our cruise and, were we not already booked, would jump ship to join your cruise. I don't suppose there is any possibility we can convince you to move your itinerary forward to 1 Oct?

We are spending time in China pre-cruise so will be flying into Hanoi from Hong Kong.

We are 60 days from cruise day. We have been working on finalizing our extra days since we are doing them on our own with another company. About the same price but more days and we made the schedule based on what we really wanted to see.

 

This company will be getting our visas for us so need to get the stuff together n this. Getting very excited but a little scare. Not of the trip but since my head injury, a little scare of being in a third world country. But, I am feeling good. I am really getting excited. :)

We're jealous you will be heading on out so soon. Looking forward to hearing of our exploits after your return.

We are on the cruise starting in Hanoi on 1 Oct 2013. Anybody else on this particular trip?

Oh, and if anyone is interested in my photos, just leave an email and I'll send you a link. There's a lot of them, and I wouldn't subject anyone to them that wasn't planning the trip themselves. I was always interested in seeing others photos (thanks, Viv!)

Very much interested. jim.eakins@ns.sympatico.ca

Yep, forget the jacket and tie. There's one 'dressy' night, the captain's fareweell. Most men wore khaki type pants with a dress shirt - some button down, some Tommy Bahama type. A lot of the ladies wore sun dresses or one of their beautiful new scarves with a sleeveless top and capris. You could sort of vaguely notice folks were making a bit of an effort, but that's the extent of it. Some folks weren't even aware that a dressyish night was even happening. It didn't matter.

Who are we to buck a trend. Thanks ever so much for the edification. :D

This wonderful, informative, thread has gone quiet. Could it be that everybody is presently on the AmaLotus, cruising down the Mekong River?

On the down side, will not be going until this coming October but on the up side we will hopefully have lots of fresh reports before our departure date arrives.

One question, if I may: our travel agent says AmaWaterways encourages men to wear a jacket and tie on the two formal nights and we wonder how rigidly this is enforced. I would like to bring a jacket but the current airline luggage restrictions suggests it might be more practical to leave the jacket at home to make room for more tourist "bling".