princeton123211

If you are arriving on the 25th and overnighting onboard Infinity at Piraeus until the 26th your ship will clear Immigration upon arrival on the 25th and once that happens the gangway will be open 24/7 for you to come and leave. I think your TA is giving you the canned answer in case you were arriving the morning you wanted to transfer to a ferry. You should be able to disembark any time in the early morning on the 26th and easily make the ferry as the ship will have already be cleared the day before.

At Santa Lucia Station in Venice you step up several steps into the train (vs the door height raised platforms you often see int he States). This can be a challenge for someone who is wheelchair bound and was for my father in law. While most of the trains don't have wheelchair lifts (or at least I didnt see them on our journeys), the station does have portable ones that can be set up next to the train. This does have to be arranged when you arrive at the station through a desk they have set up for disabled passengers. For this reason I would give yourself extra time when arriving. The station itself is fairly accessible in that it is one one level.

Its essentially like walking from one outside door to the next in an airport arrivals/departures area. Its close and its covered both on the upper and lower levels. Super easy.

Most likely a smart idea-- Ubers/taxis etc will also be limited on Christmas Day. Hopefully they bus you to the other side-- the whale watching off Kahului on that side of the island isn't nearly as good as it is in Lahaina Roads-- the area between Maui, Molokai, and Lanai. If I had to guess, with Lahaina not an option, you will be going out of Maalea. Enjoy it-- being on a zodiac for a whale watch off Maui is one of Hawaiis great experiences.

We do it a few times a year and only on a zodiac-- by far the best way to do it. The closeness to the water is the best part for us-- you dangle your feet over the side and put GoPros into the water etc. All things you cant do on some of the larger boats that do the whale watching tours. Just too many people for us. The whales can get quite close but only by their own choice-- once a whale is spotted within a certain distance any vessel must stop their engines and drift until they pass. Sometimes the whales swim by and sometimes they can get very close as Bruce said. We've had whales get very close and go right under the raft but not touch the boat. They are very intelligent and aware of their surroundings-- you have nothing to worry about in terms of getting harmed by a whale in this scenario. They don't have any interest in colliding. Competitive pods, where the whales are a bit more boisterous, can usually be spotted at a distance and a captain would not put the raft in the middle of that. All this being said our favorite operator, Captain Steve's, lost both of his rafts in the fire. I haven't been back so haven't checked to see if they have plans on restarting their business. There were a lot of boats lost in the Lahaina fire. I would check and double check that any options you are looking at are actually operating as most of the good whale watching was out of Lahaina.

Keep in mind that there is literally zero difference between Dial 7 and Carmel from an experience standpoint. They are both large aggregators that pull from the same group of independent drivers. They are both basically like UberBlack with outdated business models. I say this not to put them down (they both get the job done-- not the nicest black cars in the NYC market but also not the most expensive), but to make the point of not getting hung up on one over the other based on reviews. Compare these two companies purely on price-- that will be the only way they might differ.

Agree with eurocruiser-- if you want to see the main sights and not dive too deep this can easily be done by yourself. You'll often see recommendations here to stay in Piazzale Roma or near Santa Lucia train station-- if your budget permits you to spend a bit more, stay more central to San Marco. You'll spend less time walking back and forth (vs saving money by staying there in less expensive, less centrally located hotels) and more time in the areas you want to be touring. Doing so will be more expensive though and most likely necessitate the use of expensive water taxis to get your luggage in and out of town-- but the upside is you'll maximize your touring time in Venice proper.

If you stay in Marriott/Marriott owned properties with any regularity do you have a significant amount of Marriott Bonvoy points? Or possibly transfer credit card points over to Bonvoy points? In all likelihood you could book a nicer hotel than you are budgeting here for or a bigger room and spend little to nothing. Some great Bonvoy redemption properties in incredible locations St Ermin's Hotel (Autograph Collection), Sheraton Grand Park Lane, and Park Tower Knightsbridge (Luxury Collection). There are others for more points and some for less but those are some great values from a redemption standpoint for the location. Worth looking into if you have points or access to convert them over.

Im with Charles here-- taxi cabs in the Baltimore area are notoriously seedy and old. Uber/Lyft will have much better and cleaner vehicles for a similar cost.

Solid advice. For one night before boarding these make a ton of sense. For two nights with touring these would not be my first choice.

Then you're totally fine if its one itinerary. Like I said above, they'll spring to action and drive you across the tarmac if things get really tight.

We did it on a smaller ship that called on Nevis-- didn't have to travel from St Kitts. Its very nice-- exactly what you would expect from Four Seasons. We paid more than $75 so thats a bargain. It is a significant step above the Park Hyatt and Marriott on St Kitts, which are frequently mentioned as day pass alternatives, in terms of quality. Smaller, much better food, faster service, less crowded, beautiful pools right off the beach etc. Obviously weighing the water taxi travel times/cost will make a difference here-- only worth it if you have a decent amount of time to enjoy. But it is much quieter than St Kitts, especially if there are a few big ships there that day, so worth it from that standpoint.

We had friends that stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn down the street and said it was fine for a quick overnight. Less than 10 minutes to the airport by car.

Not necessarily. I live several months of the year on the island and Uber and Lyft will flip flop which one is more expensive from time to time. Uber availability tends to be better overall. Its worth checking both if something seems a bit more than you were expecting.

I called them once I was ticketed. I had a full fare Business Class ticket. They provided the ground service free of charge because of my status with United at the time and brought me to a private passport control and then drove me to the next flight where I boarded via the stairs next to the jetway. It could be that they charge for this if you don't have the status (I was Global Services with United at the time). Munich also has a VIP transfer service and VIP terminal which sounds similar (not run by Lufthansa like what I experienced but a private company). Its pricey-- a transfer is like 500 Euro-- but it would guarantee you the quick trip across the airport.

Are you flying Lufthansa or another Star Alliance like United? Lufthansa offers a great ground service in Munich with private passport control and private cars between aircraft. While normally reserved for their First Class passengers I have been able to utilize it twice in Business purely because I called and asked them about a tight connection. Drove me to the First Class terminal to quickly do passport and then literally drove me to the gate of my connecting flight on the tarmac.

Only by 2-3 degrees on average and still firmly with highs in the 80s-- I wouldn't make this decision based on Hawaii's weather which is pretty consistent year round. One thing to consider for the Mid March trip is that would put you in whale watching season where Mid October would be a bit early to see much.

Just make sure there are no one way drop fees-- sometimes these are not shown in the rental cost and can be significant.

To echo what Bruce said-- its more about the weather difference. There will be very little humidity (compared to Florida) and it will be cooler, especially once you set sail and are a few miles off coast. The ability to layer will be helpful. In terms of formality it might be a tad bit more country club casual than a Florida sailing due to the demographic (most likely has more in common with a sailing from NYC in the summer) but won't be materially different.

The Palace is a great redemption on on Marriott Bonvoy if you have points to burn. Stunningly beautiful hotel-- just walk through it or have a drink at the Pied Piper Bar if you don't stay there.

As others have said, pretty much everything but taxis credit cards are almost universally accepted. The one small caveat is if you do use US dollars-- and they are accepted as the Bermudan Dollar is pegged to it-- you can and will get change back in Bermudan Dollars which then become paper souvenirs if you don't spend them before leaving the island.

Boston is a fairly expensive city for hotels and the port is located right in the city. Hotels in the immediate vicinity of the hotel will be on the more expensive side, generally speaking. Of course-- but what is reasonable for you? What sort of budget are you looking at? It's a lot easier to help with that in mind. There is a Hampton Inn right by the pier which can be in the mid to low $100s but sometimes can jump into the $200-300s range depending on if there are conventions in town etc which is still pretty reasonable for Boston. There are plenty of restaurants in South Boston/Seaport district where the pier is. I have not heard of a hotel with a shuttle to the cruise terminal-- Uber or taxis will be your best bet. Your other option would be to stay outside of the city in a place like Quincy which will lower prices significantly but you'll have to Uber to and from the port.

I often travel by myself with carry on luggage and will sometimes try some very, very tight connections (knowing that I won't always be successful) so I get where you're coming from there trying to get home early. What you're describing is physically possible-- Long Beach Airport is tiny so in airport delays with TSA are minimal and there is very little walking to gates. Also the distance between the cruise port and airport at that time of morning is short-- without traffic you're about 20 minutes door to door. If you are pierside and in a car no later than 7:30 (and any earlier will only help you) you should be able to make it. But as the others said-- you are gambling. Any number of things that cause a delay will cause you to possibly miss the flight. Just have a backup plan.

I was in San Juan for a quick work trip a few weeks ago and just used Uber-- super easy and you can go on the app right now and get an idea of what the cost would be. Went from the airport into town and then back to the airport the next day-- was about $18 each way which I believe is less expensive than a traditional taxi there.

They did update the front cabin on the 767s on this route earlier this year to the new Polaris suites-- a huge improvement from the old configuration that didn't provide direct aisle access. Given this is an 11 hour ordeal it was stupid they didn't do this sooner.