screen-gem
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Posts posted by screen-gem
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I emphasize "early".
Kathie,
I reiterate wavetime's advice to book "early". Last month, I logged on to MVJ at 7am eastern time the day our bookings opened (a DV cabin on Passages of Europe voyage on the Star). I was able to reserve all the included (free) excursions in which we were interested. A few hours later, our traveling companions on the west coast logged on to do the same thing. They found the first timeslots for some of the tours already sold out, so they reserved later times.
We are hoping that once on board, the helpful staff at the Explorer's Desk will be able to juggle things so the four of us can explore together.
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Still docked at the Fincantieri yards (as of Mar 4, 2016).
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Presently docked at the Fincantieri yards at Ancona (as of Feb 14, 2016 22:25 UTC).
The Sea can be tracked here:
Or here:
Her IMO/MMSI numbers are 9725421/247369200.
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Yearning to get aboard? You can locate the Viking Star here:
A map showing her Latest Position is half-way down the web page on the left.
The website can also display where she's been (Past Track) and where she's going (Route Forecast).
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I have been looking at the forum and web pages and I am a lot confused about the visa free tours that everyone seems so keen about and the guides that they recommend.
Advice please.
@chris,
As others have suggested, the Roll Call for your cruise is the place to start. A few years ago, I was in the same situation, and posted on the Roll Call looking for like-minded travellers to share a private tour in SPB. Quickly found 2 other couples, and arranged a private tour for the 6 of us with Red October. They were excellent, and customized a tour to include what we wanted to see over the three days we were in port. Our guide was Katya Chystiakova, who I recommend without reservation. She was great. Transport was a comfortable 8-passenger van, driven by Ivan (who knew his way around the city). They took care of the visas, and we breezed through Immigration each morning ahead of the hordes taking the cruise line's bus tour.
A (competent) private guide is definitely the way to get the most out of your brief visit to that amazing city.
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Anyone on the Viking cruise Barcelona to Bergen? Have not been able to find any fellow passengers.
Lynda
The Roll Call for the April 24th cruise is here:
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A search will see the common recommendation for Overlord dot com. Great operation.
Now at http://www.overlordtour.com/
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Maybe I'm missing it, but I can't fine an English version on the site. Do you know of one?
Now that you mention it, I remember using Google Translate to translate a few phrases so I could figure out how to submit a reservation. It wasn't that hard.
https://translate.google.com/#nl/fr/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.schipholtaxi.nl%2F
If you have the Chrome browser installed on your PC/Mac, it will automatically detect that the webpage is in Dutch, and offer to translate it for you. See attached screenshot.
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Last fall, we paid 36 euros with schipholtaxi.nl. Two people, two suitcases, two carry-ons.
Booked it on-line in advance (no pre-pay required).
The car was a very nice Tesla - sweet ride!
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The best way into central London is undoubtedly the Thames Clipper - it is a very scenic ride and is certainly quicker than any coach or bus option.
Would you recommend taking the DLR from Cutty Sark and connect to the Underground to get into Central London? The TFL Journey Planner proposes various connections, depending on time-of-day. Less scenic, of course, but perhaps quicker than waiting for the next Clipper.
(thanks for the tips on what to see in Greenwich!)
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For getting from ship to land - -
Once you get off the ship onto the Tier pontoon (quite small really), you get onto a shuttle boat which takes you to the Greenwich Pier. From there it's a short walk to the bus parking lot for various tours. For us, shuttle boats were supposed to run every half hour which was not nearly often enough. But sometimes they seemed to actually run more often.
Thanks for the update about ship-to-shore shuttle, and the warning about delays getting off the Star.
For those curious about local transport options, once you're on the Pier, you can:
- take the Thames Clipper into the City on Boat RB1 (runs every 20 minutes).
- walk 5 minutes to the Cutty Sark DLR (Docklands Railway) station. DLR trains run under the Thames and connect with the London Underground.
- walk under the Thames through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel to Isle of Dogs.
- take the Thames Clipper into the City on Boat RB1 (runs every 20 minutes).
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One of the unique ports for the Viking Star is London (Greenwich). The big ships stopping at ‘London’ mostly dock at the English Channel ports (Southampton, Portsmouth, Dover), or at the London Cruise Terminal in Tilbury at the mouth of the Thames.
I’m sailing on the Apr 17, 2016 sailing of the Star out of Barcelona, which stops at London/Greenwich en route to Bergen. The Viking documents indicate this is an ‘anchor’ port. I got curious about where a cruise ship could anchor on the Thames (almost in the middle of London) so I asked Ms. Google. Her research indicates that the Star moors at the Greenwich Ship Tier.
Not to be confused with the the Greenwich Pier, the Ship Tier is a large pontoon moored in the Thames, just up-river from the Pier, and near the mouth of Deptford Creek. This marine facility, named “Welcome”, is operated by the London Port Authority. LPA claims the Tier is the only floating cruise terminal in the world. Passengers tender to/from shore.
The Star first docked at Greenwich last season. At the time, she was the biggest cruise ship to have ever sailed that far up-river, navigating through the Thames Barrier. That transit can be quite tricky depending on tides and winds. The event got lots of news coverage.
The Tier is about 2000' west of the Prime Meridian (i.e., longitude = 0.00000) which was established in 1851 as the basis for navigation around the world. It runs through the Royal Greenwich Observatory nearby. The Observatory is a short walk from the pier, and may be of interest to historians, sailors, and others interested in navigation or timekeeping. It's the nexus for worldwide navigation (latitude, longitude), time keeping (GMT), defence (GPS satellites), and much more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Meridian_(Greenwich)
The Greenwich Ship Tier is located at [51.483925, -0.015543]. If you’re interested to see what it looks like, you can paste those coordinates in to Google Earth or Google Maps. Since a picture's worth a thousand words, see the attached picture. If you look closely, you'll see six buoys near the Tier, three just upstream, and three downstream. Ships attach their mooring lines to these buoys when 'docked' against the Tier.
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We used Roiner also, but we got to him at www.coachcostarica.com. Maybe he has changed companies? Patricia also was the one we made arrangements through. Website is still good, since I just checked. But so is trekscostarica.com...hmmm??
@SailorJM,
I was in touch with Patricia earlier this year (re a referral for some friends who were planning a trip to CR). As of Feb 2013, she and Roiner were both at trekscostarica.com.
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@susiesan,
We did this same Windstar trip a few years ago (and loved it!!!).
Had the same dilemma: how to get from SJO to Caldera.
I booked a private transfer to take us to the port, then pick us up a week later. The driver (Roiner) took us on a countryside tour on the way back to SJ, stopping at some interesting small towns (Sarchi is one I remember). Also a stop at an amazing aviary/zoo just outside SJ where we saw all the tropical birds we didn't see in on the Windstar rainforest excursion! Roiner dropped us at our hotel in SJ (Hotel Grano de Oro) where we stayed a couple nights. Next morning, he picked us up at the hotel and took us on a tour of SJ, saw the market, the Gold museum and various other sights. Next morning, he picked us up at hotel and took us to SJO.
I don't remember what we paid, but it was well worth it. We saw some of the Costa Rica countryside and the city of SJ that complemented the cruise experience. Roiner was a great driver/guide.
Contact Patricia at http://www.trekscostarica.com. She made all the arrangements for us.
On the cruise, we took the Windstar excursion to Nicaragua (town of Granada) and the Masaya volcano. We really enjoyed it.
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@kayelbee,
Thanks for posting this. We'll be visiting Waterford off the Windsurf in Sept.
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@Emily,
We love the Windstar - have sailed (literally) on them 4 or 5 times, plus a couple trips on Princess, and most recently, Oceania to the Baltic. We weren't terribly fond of the ship, but the itinerary was our all-time favorite, including 3 amazing days in St. Petersburg. Something for your bucket list!
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Emily,
Nine months later and your epic review is still attracting viewers and comments! That must be another CC record. Congrats.
I'm in the midst of planning our upcoming BI cruise, and Mr. Google led me to your thesis. Thanks for all the great tips and suggestions.
Stimulated by your excellent reviews, many who have posted here have expressed interest in doing a BI cruise. There's another cruise line in the game. Windstar has added BI to their itineraries this season (2013). There are only three sailings this year: Edinburgh/Dublin and Dublin/Portsmouth (and one reverse). We're combining them on a B2B in August. The Windstar vessels (technically, they're schooners) are quite a bit smaller than the Princess and Celebrity megaships, so they can stop in smaller ports. Alas, Liverpool is not one of the stops. After reading about your experience there, I'm sorry we'll miss it.
Regards.
Dave
Hey Viking, how about an update on Sea?
in Viking Ocean
Posted
The change of flag might indicate that the ship has been officially handed over from Fincantieri to Viking (and the check didn't bounce).