exiledowl

Its basically a quirky , typical German town enclosed by the desert. You'll see what I mean by the architecture, most notably the Hohenzollern building and the Woermann house. Luderitz is similar but on a smaller scale.

If you've only got a day a trip to Swakopmund would be a good idea ; it's more attractive and interesting than Walvis Bay.

We're arriving in Georgetown/Penang in March next year but looking at the map in my guidebook the pier is more or less within walking distance of many of the sights so walk is what we'll do. Apparently it's also a great gastronomic centre for hawker food so we'll use our noses as well as our eyes.

Hi Borna We've been before and went to Ile Goree, a must see imo on any visit to Dakar but when exactly are you going? We're docking there on the 30th of December but are keeping an eye on the political situation that is developing there. There have been some violent incidents recently in the lead up to the presidential elections in February and if that's still going on (it will be a Saturday when we arrive) I'm certain that the captain won't let us ashore. However, if everything is ok we plan on visiting the museum of black civilizations which is just past the railway station. A fellow passenger on our cruise has enquired about a private tour and has been quoted a ridiculously high price, much higher than the equivalent ship tours so I'm sorry I can't help on that score.

I'm looking forward to something similar sandiego 1, but like you I had some favourites on our shorter cruises , often appearing on the same evening. In such cases I'm not afraid to say I ended up pigging out on 2 main dishes in the buffet restaurant

Going off at a tangent a little bit here but we'll be in Benoa next year for the best part of 3 days as it's a turnaround port on our world cruise. We're thinking of indulging in some pampering for our creaking old bodies whilst we're there ; can anyone recommend a reputable spa treatment/ massage in Denpasar at all? Thanks.

Thank you to all of you for your advice. I've actually been tracking our ship , MS Amera from Phoenix reisen in Germany, on its last 2 and current cruise and checking the menu each day and the food offered is following the revolving pattern I mentioned in my original post. Hopefully on a world rather than a regional cruise we'll get different dishes to reflect some of the exotic destinations!

Hello everyone, our world cruise starts in late December and is split into 6 sections, but we have found that most of the passengers are, like us, on board for the full duration. What I would like to ask the community is for their previous experience of the food on board during a world cruise. Is it likely to be the case that there will be some kind of "revolving menu" where everything is different for a few weeks and then returns to the beginning again? Or do the chefs try to serve food that reflects the part of the world that the ship is passing through, and also pick up supplies locally? We have been on British and German ships in the past few years, but only in northern Europe and the food on board was generally made to suit perceived national tastes. Very interested to hear anyone's experiences here.

Thanks for the tips. I've been using you tube a fair bit and finding it good on the popular destinations but less so on the more obscure ones we will be visiting. For those the articles and blogs by your namesake I've found more informative but I'll try again with you tube and see if they have anything new! Thanks again.

Thank you those who alerted me to "The Inside Cabin " . Full of tips, warnings but most of all some great photos of some of the places we will be ( weather permitting)visiting on our cruise.

O.k. I'll try that too. Thanks!

Thanks Heidi13. I actually try to watch a lot of films of our destinations on you tube, so good ,some poor, and I've enough guide books to sink the cruise ship. But sometimes I need little snippets of info that can only be provided locally, which was the reason for my original post, and expression of disappointment for the lack of response. However thanks once again for your reply.

I've looked at the 1st 3 but the 4th is a new one on me .Thanks for the info!

As a prelude to our world cruise starting in December I've been contacting many city and state tourist offices for specific information, about 12 so far,and have received a reply from 1 of them. I would have thought that if tourists are so important to some of our ports of call there would be some enthusiasm in response to enquiries. Back in a bygone era when I first started going abroad ( Inter Rail at that time) a letter to a tourist office would result in the return of a thick brown envelope full of literature plopping onto the doormat. Nowadays not even a returned email. Are there any other frustrated pre-cruisers out there?

Thanks Patria21, no I wasn't anticipating our cruise with fear and trepidation, quite the opposite, we're really looking forward to it and thinking positive things about it all the time. Just that it's a once in a lifetime experience for us and we want to return with good memories. We're reading up on all the stops and thought any experiences from other cruisers would help us take sensible precautions like you say.

Thanks for the info. The FCO UK site is excellent and up to date , I'll also take your advice and look at the U.S. one as well.

Thanks I'll do that.

We start a world cruise in December and were wondering if anyone on CC can give advice on any scams that they have experienced after going ashore , or more importantly how they've prevented them from happening. Thanks for any advice.

Thanks ekka49. There seems to be a trend developing here - don't build up your hopes of visiting Easter Island despite a photo of the moai taking pride of place in the cruise company's glossy catalogue.

That was the one we had planned!

I know my original question had a bit of a "how long is a piece of string "look about it but I'm glad for your information Heidi13. The cruise companies themselves always bury the stuff about missing ports somewhere in the small print. Thanks too sandiego 1, Dakar, East London and Tolognaro are 3 of our destinations out of a possible 66! We were thinking of booking a private tour to the latter, we'll think again now.

Thanks for your good wishes Heidi13. The reason I've posted this is to try and judge what kind of % we might miss. We cruised to Greenland and Iceland last August and had the misfortune to miss 2 out of a grand total of only 12!

We are taking our first world cruise in December, lasting nearly 5 months. It's only a relatively small ship (850pax) and many of the ports of call will be tender ports. Having done a lot of research on "What's in port " we've found that in quite a few cases cruise ships fail to call at a port, usually due to the sea being too rough to tender. Has anyone experienced this regularly on a world cruise? For instance, one of the places on our schedule is Easter Island and we'd be really disappointed to miss it.

Thanks for all the info Mrs f, certainly gives us plenty to work on.

Thanks for that Kristal Blade. We've got to do one of two things when we're there, either the trip to KL or another one to Malacca, a more beautiful old city but then we'd miss the towers.