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princeton123211

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Everything posted by princeton123211

  1. Peak foliage in Boston is usually early Oct but varies year to year. And it isn't linear-- QC to Boston you sail North up the St Lawrence before you turn South to Boston and same thing in reverse the other way. Also the area we are talking about, Quebec City to Boston, isn't so large that temperatures are going to be wildly different. As I'm writing this it's currently 46 degrees in Boston and its 40 degrees in Quebec City. Official average temps are about 10 degrees for October between the two. Personally I would do Boston to QC because I love QC and would want to spend a little time there at the end-- arriving early in the morning the day you disembark, you could see a lot of the city with 1 or 2 nights in a hotel. The time of peak foliage in any given location changes year to year-- historically both options put you square in the middle of it for that area. I don't think you can say one is better than the other until we get closer and know for sure.
  2. Purely because they can't or don't want to make a decision for themselves. Way back in the day (like late 90s/early 2000s) Cunard used to have a longstanding relationship with the Waldorf=Astoria that I think went back to the 1940s (which also included The Savoy in London). You could actually get a decent deal through them. But that hasn't been the case in a long time. Always better deal to book direct yourself.
  3. It's super easy to just go to a nicer hotel for coffee/late breakfast/early lunch and they'll be more than happy to check your luggage at the bell desk for a nice tip. I've done this many times in SF at The Fairmont, Ritz, and Westin St Francis. No issues. What interests you? If you've done the city tour already maybe it could be walking around and getting some drinks and a nice meal before your redeye. I wouldn't get wildly ambitious and leave the city for like Sausalito due to time but you can do anything you like in the city itself. The Presidio is great that time of year-- I did the Walt Disney Family Museum last time and it was excellent.
  4. You're in a tough spot-- Oct 26th is the night of a Taylor Swift concert downtown. Hotel rates are going to be in the stratosphere. To get under $300 you might need to stay well outside of the city.
  5. I hit submit by accident so thats why there are multiple posts. The Hilton and Marquis are both very average, mediocre hotels. The Knickerbocker is better. I wouldn't fall over myself to stay at any of these three-- especially at a premium from the cruise line. Lots of options, too many to list-- what is your budget if you removed the relatively small costs of Ubers from Penn Station to hotel and hotel to Brooklyn Cruise Terminal?
  6. Rack rate. And yes-- the prices the cruise line shows you include transportation and are often multiples of what you can do on your own for hotels and transport.
  7. A great spot and highly recommend-- but keep in mind that most rooms in the inn itself do not have ensuite bathrooms.
  8. Typically I just go to a nicer full service hotel and grab a cup of coffee or lunch and they are happy to store the bags for free for the day for the cost of a nice tip to the bellman. The Westin, Intercontinental, and W are not far from the pier and would do this without a problem if you spend a little bit of money there.
  9. No-- you use it just like you would anywhere else. It will give you the pricing in MXN. You can use an app like XE Converter to do the conversion. It will bill your credit card in MXN so make sure you have a credit card linked to it that doesnt have foreign transaction fees.
  10. Check out the Willows Lodge in Woodinville. https://www.willowslodge.com/
  11. Yep-- to the OP, Piraeus is less like a traditional cruise terminal and more like a small airport for cruise ships and ferries. Much like an airport one day you might dock near your ferry connection, another day not so much and you might not know until you're there.
  12. Got it-- no one can say for sure (you could be delayed, the folks at Immigration could be taking their time or being extra vigilant, etc but I would say usually an hour or so after your official docking time you would be able to self disembark. The terminal (it's hard calling it that, it's more like a big industrial shed) at Boston is very small by cruise standards. You're off the ship and curbside within a minute.
  13. ?? I never commented on Secaucus at all much less calling it desolate. Wouldn't be my first choice which is why I didn't mention it. It is a lot more urban than either of the two places I mention which are in very upscale suburban towns.
  14. No need to prebook. Plenty of Ubers around there at all times of day. Yes, Boston's cruise terminal isn't nearly as well laid out as most. It's a converted commercial pier. This will entirely depend on the type of accomodation booked and your status with Celebrity. You'll know ahead of time with your disembarkation tags or you can ask them now.
  15. Consider stopping a little further out and you have some nice options that are in less urban areas but still an easy ride into NYC in the morning. The Westin Governor Morris is under the Marriott banner and is closeby to Morristown and Madison NJ which have great dinner options and the ability to walk around. A little down the street is the Hilton Short Hills which is right across from the Short Hills Mall, one of the nicer malls in the country, with a ton of options to eat and hang out. HSH is one of the nicest Hiltons I've stayed at and a great value.
  16. You have to pass through the city to get to the pier so personally I would go find a nice hotel to have breakfast in that could check my bags for a few hours and I could hang out after breakfast for a little bit before headed to the pier. Personal favorite for breakfast is the Sagamore Pendry Hotel in Fells Point. The Four Seasons also does a nice breakfast and is located nearby. There's a spot called Miss Shirley's in the Inner Harbor that's also good (have had some biz meetings there). Its not in a hotel but it is more budget conscious than the above recs and is in an area you could walk around a bit before Ubering to the port.
  17. Uber also works really well from Schipol and priced similarly to a taxi.
  18. Don't overthink poutine-- usually the nicer spots are total crap and it's the hole in the walls that win with poutine. Best I've had in Quebec City, after a long night of having fun, was a tiny hole in the wall called Chez Gaston. We took an Uber to it-- it's not immediately in the main tourist area. The place is what we'd call a diner in the US or a lunch counter. Open late. Remember it being excellent.
  19. There were taxis-- I wouldn't say a plethora of taxis-- but they appeared to keep showing up. We were also on a very small ship. We had something similar-- early flight and first ones off. We prebooked through an app called Blacklane for a livery car. It was more expensive than a taxi but to make sure we didn't miss the flight it felt fine-- Mercedes S Class standing by with the driver as soon as we disembarked. Was about 110 Euro all in with gratuity. I think a taxi is about half that. You can also call a taxi through the Uber app-- not sure if you have to pay them through it or not (because we didnt use it that way) but I was told you could call a cab that way.
  20. Call me old fashioned but I just don't understand why someone would pay a commission to a site like Viator when you can just book direct. Even if the company you are using pays the commission to Viator you are still helping a small local business. Just takes a tiny bit of research.
  21. Sorry this happened to you. I have not used Redline but have used another outfit called Captain Steves extensively in the past which operated similar rafts further up the island. Was this a private tour you booked? Typically we would always have to be at the dock 20-30 minutes before departure because there are up to 20 people on these rafts so boarding takes time which is why they ask you get there early for an on time departure. Sounds like that could have come into play. Also sometimes booking direct with the outfit rather than through a third party aggregator like Viator can result in better communication in these situations.
  22. Another option that avoids a ferry (and while it can be expensive, but there are deals here and there and you can use Marriott points to reduce cost or get it for free) would be the Hotel Grande Bretagne, actually in the center of Athens. They have a spectacular rooftop pool deck with pool bar which we spent an entire day at last time-- you can literally pretend you're not in the city, although you still have spectacular views.
  23. Uber works very well in Amsterdam-- I've used it many times to get from Amsterdam to Schipol and also Rotterdam to the Schipol. Priced competitively with taxis but the benefit of just using your credit card. There's an app called Blacklane that works for something a little nicer-- more like a black car. Its more expensive than Uber but a little nicer and you schedule in advance. I wouldn't completely rule out the train-- platforms are even with the trains themselves, elevators in the station. And the train is by far the fastest and least expensive way to get to Rotterdam-- about 40 minutes vs over and hour by car. Very easy to do.
  24. I was going to mention the FS Astir Palace as well-- close to Athens and ticks the boxes you mention (except for being all inclusive). It is stunningly spectacular, but also breathtakingly expensive.
  25. We go once a year-- Hawaiian Airlines runs a great nonstop from JFK, Boston, and Orlando direct to Honolulu. United has a direct to Maui from Newark seasonally and Honolulu from Dulles year round. Hawaiian is an absolute joy to fly compared to the usual suspects and has a much better inflight experience. I love cruising (or else I wouldn't bother posting on here) but it's just one of those places that doesn't lend itself well to cruising as things currently stand with rules and regs. Lots of sea days (unless that is your thing and then have at it) or stuck on NCL Pride of America which I think is a subpar ship. Flying intra island is easy, quick, and usually pretty inexpensive. Hawaiian has a great service and flights are usually a quick 20-30 minutes with nearly hourly departures more like a shuttle-- you don't go sit and wait at the airport like you do for flights at home. Also there are some great smaller options like Mokulele Airlines which fly smaller planes which can essentially give you a free aerial tour (the flight from Kapalua to Honolulu usually takes you on the North side of Molokai which people pay hundreds per person for in a helicopter). I get what you're saying but, especially if you haven't been before (making an assumption), spending 3/4 days there and sailing 5 days in either direction is going to seem like a tease when you have to leave.
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