MTJtraveller

I tend to book my cruises more than a year in advance. I have noticed that the closer to sail the price of excursions sometimes go up, at least this was true for our Normandy excursion. I'd say if your pretty sure you'd like an excursion, book it in advance. If you cancel you do get a refund.

My daughter and I stayed at a lovely, family owned small hotel 6 years ago. I have booked again in October for my mother and myself. Hotel Al Ponte Mocenigo gets great reviews on TripAdvisor and we are paying 180€ a night for a little larger room. Breakfast is included. It's in a quieter neighborhood, canal access so the water taxi can drop you off, 1-2 blocks from Aliguna stop. Best of all, besides the owners, is it has a little outdoor space, a courtyard used for breakfast in the morning (weather permitting) and we used it to eat our "dessert" each evening when coming back from a bakery.

I highly recommend. Very convenient

We purchased Museum Pass only and received fast-er lines in the museums. It doesn't bypass or make the security lines any less but the Louvre was a separate entrance ( group entrance) and Saint Chappelle line for Museum Passholders was non existent once security was cleared. Pompidou and Orsay had no line when we went. The Museum Pass was great.

I was traveling with my 17year old daughter and she was able to gain entrance right alongside me without a Pass. It was a great savings (being under 18) money wise and time wise.

Possible flaws:

Booking one-ways does not allow you the flexibility of a stopover. They are not allowed on one-way tix.

Also if by chance you need to change a ticket or cancel, your fees are double as they are booked on different ticket numbers.

Given that, if you don't foresee the need to cancel (have insurance that would cover those fees ) or change I would go ahead and book the one-ways as you never know when the seats you want will be available again. I had a difficult time finding business class seats to Venice in October and business class seats from Athens home. I booked one-ways as soon as I found itineraries I was satisfied with.

Hope this helps.

I can't comment on the one your are contemplating, other than I was worried about it "riding up". I purchased the shaper similar, begins under the bra and end like "boy shorts" style and I'm please. It creates a fluid, smooth shape. I always buy larger, that way I'm not grunting to squeeze it on, it conforms to your shape nicely. There was a nice selection at Kohls.

Aboard the Wind Spirit one evening we watched, fascinated, at marine phosphorescence. It's a heatless light generated chemically by marine plants and animals. The sea literally lit up as the stabilizers cut thru the water. It's seemed like pure magic.

My "do not mss " port would be the Falkland Islands. Book Volunteer Point Penguin Tour with Patrick Watts. Early. It was the best iour I have EVER done.

We rounded the Horn in 2010 and while the weather and seas were a bit tumultuous I've been in worse on other cruises.

I was on the Star Princess in 2010 and we disembarked in Valparaiso right after the earthquake. Valparaiso was a wonderful city, wish we had been able to enjoy it more but we were working on obtaining bus travel over the Andes as there were no flights out of the airport. Quite an adventure, a great trip.

rafinmd,

Looks like we'll be on the same cruise, at least the Lisbon to Tenerife portion. I love how you are doing a transatlantic both ways, wish we had the time.

I'm especially looking forward to the Casablanca stop, having never been to Marrakesh we've hired a private tour for the long port day. I'll look forward to reading your blog post after we get home.

Jean

@Host Walt

I hope my response was acceptable. If not PLEASE remove it. I don't want to break rules as I utilize these boards a lot. Thanks!

I believe you can receive some perks from travel agents, OBC etc but pricing has mostly been consistent with Windstar. I have booked my last two Windstar cruises thru a TA affiliated with my airline credit card and have received, thru ongoing promotions, enough miles into my airline account to just about purchase my award flights to my cruise destination.

Thank has worked very well for me.

I search and search online for best price. Last two times I booked with the Airlines Cruise TA whom I carry the affinity credit card from. I was able to receive 4 miles for every dollar spent on the cruise (balcony) plus my credit card companies 2 miles per dollar spent at the airlines website. This trip comes to 46,000 miles, almost enough for a RT plane ride to the cruise. I'm pretty happy.

I have sent credit card information in 2 or more separate emails, asking the hotel to reply when they have received all the information in order to complete the transaction. This has worked well many times.

No problem kdsoup. Unfortunately Windstar cruisers are either reluctant to post on CruiseCritic or because there are fewer of them the boards are very quiet.

I would say if that trip catches your eye go for it. Our last cruise on the Windsurf was a starboard aft cabin and it seemed was always blocked of view while in port. Of course we were not in the room much while in port so it wasn't really much bother. Back deck was a fantastic place to watch as we sailed in and out.

I'm liking the look of Dubai to Athens in 2015 but wish the date better fit our life. Too close to college daughters return home. Perhaps 2016.

Arriving early is always a bonus especially to overcome jet lag. Rome is a beautiful city with so much to explore. Even immersing yourself in the Italian Cafe scene gets you prepared for your special cruise on Windstar.

The Windsurf is beautiful. Lots of places to quietly relax in but also great spaces to meet others. Don't miss the sailaway on the back deck. Truly special. The crew is fantastic and by the end the sail we truly were sad to leave. It's that special.

We sailed Windstar Athens to Venice a few years ago. Unforgettable sailing into Venice in the early morning light. Dubrovnik is special. Only the small ships can anchor at the ports, larger ships are a few miles away and arrive by bud. This affords you to enjoy the city before the flocks of tourists arrive. We were in Capri on another lines small ship. Spectacular scenery.

It's a fantastic trip for couples, cannot recommend more!

Thanks for the review! We will be disembarking in Tenerife and spend 3 days there. Looks pretty special!

I'm not quite sure what you are asking with your departure times but the railway people were wonderfully responsive in answering questions. I purchased tix last year for our group of 20 & wrote a post of suggestions based on my experience. Hope it is helpful in some way:

2013post:

I purchased train tix for our Roll Call group of 20 for the Flaam train and I would say it was a great experience BUT if I was to do it again here is what I learned:

1) Keep the group number manageable. We were a group of 20, 8 of which were in my personal traveling group. 20 was manageable as we had a group of 4 also. I truly don't think there is anything wrong with booking a group of 10 and then another group form for 10. When I pre booked there were probably 35tickets left.

2) As you need to pay for all the tix with one currency, keep it as simple as possible. We had a stop in Bergan the day before Flaam so everyone was able to secure NOK ahead of time. If i had paid by credit card I could have asked for US currency and collected at our M&G. That would have made it easy on everyone to not have to hunt me down after Bergen.

3) I had one no show. While it wasn't THAT traumatic of an outcome, it made for a lot of consternation on my part from 10pm-midnight trying to reach the couple. Fortunately someone at the M&G had given me their cabin number as an alternative if something opened up. They stepped up and everything was ok.

4) No need to get off the ship in any hurry. Yes indeed, there is a separate line for group reservations. Easy as pie. Lots of grouchy people in the regular line as they QUICKLY sold out. I could have easily sold the tickets for the no show couple IF I had the correct amount of payment, hence my idea of paying with a credit card.

5) The train company does a great job of marking specific train cars, groups of seats for Groups. The people who buy the tickets the day of do not have "assigned seats" and seem to infill after the groups are seated. We had a couple spots open in our "area". What was a shame is that some of those people got on before the Princess group and because of the unwieldy size of the Princess group some of them were left to "search for seats" in the following cars. Get your group on and seated on the earlier side rather than later.

I hope some of this info is helpful to someone. The train trip was a highlight of the trip and I would not hesitate to book it as an independent group again.

Also look up on TripAdvisor "Taxi Katakolon Private Tours by George"

Have a great trip.

I can unequivocally say that George is wonderful. It's been a number of years since I first met George. In fact it was because of my first review of George those many years ago that his business took off running.

George was honest, trust-worthy, loved to share his country (especially Olympia) and the people who make his country special. George has built his business but kept it personable. Probably every other year I have received phone calls or emails from different clients of his coming back to the US to give me a personal greeting and to tell me how much they enjoyed their time with George.

I know he has a FaceBook page where you could look up more on George. I believe I and most all his customers would give you a same recommendation.

I came back from my trip with a new friend in Greece. George.

I'm a BIG fan of "airline miles" accumulated on various credit cards. There is a whole world of information out there on accumulating miles (try FlyerTalk.com) that gives you all sorts of inspiration in accumulating miles for tickets. It's time consuming but for me has been worth it. We flew as a family (3 of us ) on miles from our regional airport to London for a cruise, my husband & I flew Business for a cruise to London and back from Lisbon on miles this Fall and I'm waiting to book my husband and I back to Lisbon for our cruise next November. ALL on miles.

Sure makes a vacation a lot more feasible. :)

I would add one small caveat...

I would keep my group small, 10 is the minimal group booking size I believe. I had a bit larger group I was in charge of and it's a bit of a hassle making sure you have money from each person in your group ahead of time. It all needs to be the same currency. You also all need to board together at the same time. Luckily everyone in my group met at the appointed time. I had one couple no show to collect their money. While I was able to get another couple to take their place it was a stress I did not want while on vacation.

Also, when you collect your ticket at the station don't be intimidated by the long line of seemingly grumpy people quite aware there's no chance they will get a ticket. :eek: Politely proceed to the front and get in the group sales line...easy as cake!

I'd do it all again in a second but keep it as simple as you can. Seating is assigned in the coach, be on time and all is well.

Count me in as a big fan of Windstar. One of the things I find charming about the staff IS their friendliness. Ditto on the double cappuccino at breakfast, without ever asking.

Double bonus is repeat sailing and seeing staff from previous cruise....and they remember you! I love those personal touches in such a seemingly impersonal world.

:)

About 5years ago we sailed on the Wind Spirit and Dubrovnik was a tender port. They dropped us off right at the walls to the city. We were there early enough that we did the walls before the buses rolled in from the larger ships. It was a great port. Enjoy!

When the ship debarks a mass of people literally runs for the train station to get tickets. Then there is a line. We had an advance group reservation for 20 but that still meant someone had to wait in the line a while to pick up the tickets. I would have not wanted to be trying to get tickets without that group reservation. I hate doing stuff like this thru the cruise line but without a group reservation I would not chance it.

Charles 4515,

I put together a group of 20 from cruise critic for the 9am (can't remember the exact time as I write) train, the second train and from what appears a train Princess has also booked its excursions.

I have a logistics question I hope you will answer for me. We plan on meeting early, get off the ship as a group and head over to pick up our reserved tickets. Are seat assignments also reserved? How easy/difficult was it for your group of 20 to get tickets, seats and on the train. Any hints you may have would certainly be appreciated.

Also, were you able to use separate credit cards and/or cash at the window to secure the seats? Would it be best to take with me to the window one person from each "group" of our 20 to pick up the tickets? I would imagine the line could be quite long thought I think the majority of the train tickets are booked by Princess. Is there a separate line for reserved tickets?

As you can see I like knowing EXACTLY what I am doing before I get there. I don't like surprises!

Thanks for any info you can provide!

Hi!

My husband and myself along with another couple we are travelling with to SA in February on the Star Princess were going to renew our vows while on this sail. Has anyone had any experience with this...regular package or deluxe package....that you would like to share? I really appreciate your opinions!

Thanks in advance!

Probably a goofy question here, but because you are part of the UK...can I find Winegums on the island? I absolutely adore these candies and when I fly thru the UK I always pick some up...keeping my fingers crossed!:rolleyes: