Haljo1935

@Tk_cruiser are you here?

@Chelle111213 congrats on scoring not only a free aft balcony but Terrazzo - nice! When are you on Venezia? We are B2B NYC Sept 16-29. Not free, paying ALL of it, ugh and green for you, but very much looking forward to it.

Enjoyed the review and the "ride along." Sorry it has to end w/a journey into road traffic - safe travels.

Hey @fraj1 congrats on selecting a ship - every stage of a cruise is exciting and you seem to be thoroughly working through each of them and I have no doubt yoh will be rewarded with a fabulous trip. For cabin location, we prefer a true aft as the wake views are simply stunning. In AK, we've been blessed with whale sightings during breakfast and sail a way more times than I can count. I also find the sound of the water very soothing, so aft is perfect. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

Yes it was 10043 - my fat finger, lol. It was awesome - have recommended it many times. Had a thermalpass and loved the convenience.

Appreciate your detailed info @Hlitner I know it will help us considerably when we also board board in Yokohama for the Apr 27 2024 TP. @Gail52 seems we're going to AK and Seattle together!! We are still working on our pre cruise details trying to pin down exactly how many days prior we will be able to spend. It will be 2-3 days only, so we're looking to maximize our time. The flights we were looking at have tripled in price and we don't want to book hotel til we secure flights, so things are a bit in flux. After reading about shipping luggage, would it be wise to have the 2 big suitcases shipped from Haneda to Yokohama so we only have carry-on w/2-3 days clothes to worry about? We are anxious about schlepping luggage on public transport as it will be just my sister & I to deal with it. I will have more luggage than her as my husband is joining me in Seattle for the next leg to AK, making this a 23 day B2B for me. Also, we understood we didn't need anything beyond our passports, including no visa. What is the QR code process you're referring to? I've clearly missed something. @Gail52 if you don't have excursions finalized for the couple days before 27th, we'd be open to a small group tour. Thanks!

Shoot - hopefully we'll both find a couple more.

Good job - consistency is admirable!!

And back to our own little lives for the rest of us, lol! My turn is far too far away - Sept Venezia NYC.

You've gotten spot on directions to the restroom closest to the tender dock at Bar Harbor; as for the rest of the town - there are shops and restaurants everywhere that would provide facilities with minimal expense on your side. ie buy a soda, use the restroom. It's a lovely walkable town. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

Your faculties may still be intact - it's possible there's just a delay in Viator updating their site. I have never had an issue with any tour or other service I've booked through them. If you got the email confirmation from them w/your e-ticket, I would feel very confident you are booked. Especially if you see the charge on your account. As for booking through Viator vs directly w/the tour operator - really no different than booking w/TA vs directly through an airline. One has the convenience of seeing options from multiple providers in 1 place (which also provides 1 point of reference for summaries) and may find value in clicking through that way. No wrong way, just different ways/preferences. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

Getting to both Bar Harbor and Portland gets my vote. Either will be lovely. We are going on our 3rd CA/NE cruise in Sept. It's on Carnival, previous have been on HAL and Princess. LOVED both of them. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

I think his shoes are wearing shoes and he's blowing out of his left one...

I think that one's in Time Out - or doing a tornado drill.

Thanks - will you follow up with your thoughts after you go? We'd like to do this, which would require canceling what we have for Kennebunkport, so all the feedback we can get to help us make our decision is appreciated. Safe travels - enjoy your cruise!

I may have missed it in here and the map on their website is blurry so not much help - can anyone tell me how far the station for the Maine Narrow Guage Train is from the cruise port?

Hey @jdaviddo you have availability for Wed Sept 27? Our ship gets in late at 1:30pm, leaves 8pm. Thanks!

Aligned Bar Harbor is very walkable with excellent food choices. All the times we've been there, including last year 1 week after Hurricane Fiona, the weather more than cooperated - we were blessed with blue skies and gentle breeze so walking was nice. You can easily walk down to the bridge trail and cross over to Bar Island if it's low tide. We have been there at low tide and walked about mid way out, but I'm a chicken, so we haven't walked all the way over. It's very pretty either way. And free. https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/hike-bar-island-trail.htm

Hey @1stItaly what day are you needing 2 more people? We're ported in Sydney Wed Sept 20 also interested in the tour.

Do you have a link to their site? We're also looking to book. 😊

https://www.cascobaylines.com/maine-boat-tours/specialty-cruises/mailboat/ Direct link to the tour company - of the 4 tour options, 2 time with our port stop; schedule allows for only 1/day so have to choose between Mail Run and Diamond Pass. We're canceling our Kennebunkport excursion hoping to do one of these. Thanks for sharing!!

Hey @ellenw what ship and sail date are you there in Sept? Portland is on our itinerary Sept 16-29. We also want to do this. Looks like we only go to Portland once - Mon Sept 25.

Was just gonna say Rowena got busy changing your cabin around while you were gone. How much Duck Tape does it take to tape a bed to the ceiling??

@momof3cruisers mentioned an important piece of booking through the ship - tenders. Most cruiselines allow pax booked on "their" excursions onto tenders before the other pax, so be sure to consider if you're looking to purchase "outside" the ship if it's a tender port. Then see what time that excursion is scheduled - if the start time is very close to ship arrival time, on a full ship at a tender port you run a risk of missing your excursion w/no refund. "Outside" excursion companies will wait for stragglers but eventually they have to leave to get the tour started. This wasn't so much an issue at the restart, but recently we've seen longer waits for tenders. Something to consider.

Why people choose to spend money on alcohol (or anything) while on a cruise aside (whatever the choice - drink, don't drink; eat steak, don't eat steak; gamble, don't gamble, spa/no spa...we all agree is a choice), I think the real question is why do the cruise lines charge so much for the drinks? 🤔 Multiple Live reviews for VV cruises people reported paying $20+ for a drink, some shots were over $30 - yikes! Of course, they charge those rates cuz they can, but geez. They're often making more on a single drink/shot than they pay for the entire bottle - that's a hefty markup.🥺