emp

I received an email about a shore excursion being available, too. I tried to purchase it, but it showed as sold out. Then I noticed that there was something in my shopping cart. I clicked on the shopping cart icon, and the excursion was there for purchase. Hope yours is in your cart, too.

Tom's port guide has a guide to Kristiansand.

We used it when we were there and really enjoyed the port. Happy cruising!

https://www.tomsportguides.com/port-guides.html#norway2

Just double check when you get your boarding pass that you are leaving from the cruise terminal next to the Movenpick Hotel (Passenger Terminal Amsterdam). We were on the NS last August for a Baltic cruise and she left from the VCK Waterland terminal, Elbaweg 10, 1044 AD Amsterdam. I found this out from our roll call. The terminal is in an industrial area that is not serviced by public transportation. We ended up taking a cab from our hotel. We disembarked at the PTA terminal, which is very close to the Central Station and accessible by public transportation. 

Small world indeed! Happy cruising! And enjoy the Canaletto and the NS! We really liked it.

We also had the Dutch apple pie in the Grand Dutch Café--it was excellent!

We were on the NS in August for a Baltic cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal in the Canaletto. The service and food were both excellent. Best of luck and enjoy your cruise.

We used our magnetic hooks on the Nieuw Statendam for our Baltic cruise in August. We were in a verandah cabin on deck 6. We used them in our closets and on the wall next to the bed. Worked fine for us.

We just returned from a Baltic cruise and we stayed at the Hilton at Schipol.  It is on the same hallway as the Sheraton, but it is almost at the end of the hallway. The hallway leads to the Sheraton, Hilton, parking garages and an office building at the very end.

aledomom Yes, it says we disembark at the PTA on Sunday, 8 September. The PTA is next to the Movenpick.

I'm not familiar with cruising out of Amsterdam, so I don't know if that automatically means that you will embark from the PTA.

I was made aware that we will embark at the VCK Waterland terminal on the roll call for our cruise. Some cruisers received a notification that we were embarking at the VCK Waterland terminal from their TA. That was confirmed when I printed out our boarding passes.

Hope you have a great cruise!

Mike

According to Google Maps, it's a 16 minute cab ride from the PTA, and is to the northwest. I've never been to Amsterdam, so I can't comment on what it is near. It seems to be an industrial area, because Google maps wouldn't give me a public transportation option. Looks like we'll be taking a taxi from our hotel.

Just double check that you are leaving from the cruise terminal next to the Movenpick (Passenger Terminal Amsterdam). Our boarding passes show that on our cruise we leave from the VCK Waterland terminal, Elbaweg 10, 1044 AD Amsterdam. We disembark at the PTA terminal. That is for the Sunday, 25 August sailing of the Nieuw Statendam, returning Sunday, 8 September. 

I had trouble printing out my docs, too, although my luggage tags printed out without any problem. I called the HA support number on the top of the "print my docs" web page--877-724-5425. They emailed me the docs in a .pdf format. I opened the email and printed the docs out. 

Hope you have a great cruise!

You will also go through US Customs/Border Patrol screening if you are going to the US, in addition to the normal security, bag checking, etc. 

It's a line outside (directions to the line are very well marked inside the terminal). There is a person who tells you which taxi to get into, but you just get in and then you pay the driver at the end of your trip. Have a good trip!

We did this cruise in early June on the AMACerto and loved it. We bought Euros from our bank prior to leaving. For the other countries, we just used an ATM to have spending money for ice cream, etc. Some stores said they accepted Euros, others had big signs saying it was illegal to accept foreign currency. We didn't try to use Euros anywhere except Vienna. We used our credit card to pay for dinner in Vienna, Rostov and Bucharest without any issues. We also bought souvenirs at several places with our credit cards without any issues. YMMV.

This was our first river cruise and we really enjoyed it. We did the pre and post cruise package with AMA, and the hotels were top class. Our cruise director, Nikola, was superb. They really did a great job taking care of us.

I hope you enjoy your cruise.

Mike

Scandic Palace.

Great location, near the Central Station, walking zone and Tivoli. Excellent breakfast. Staff will arrange a cab to get to the cruise port for you. We stayed there the last two cruises from Copenhagen.

Highly recommend the Wonderful Copenhagen thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2488925

Happy cruising!

Mike

We took the Holland America version of this excursion in 2014. We boarded a bus at the ship, and drove into Rome. Our guide had to wait in a line for a few minutes at the Vatican Museum, but after a short time we went right into the Museum. We did a whirlwind tour of the Museum, then went into the Sistine Chapel where we had quite a bit of time to marvel at the ceiling, and then we went into St. Peter's. We had some time on our own in the Vatican City, and the bus took us to the Ostiense Train Station. Our guide arranged for cabs to meet the bus at the station, and the cab took us directly to our hotel. We thought it was a great way to end the cruise. We spent 4 more days in Rome, and had a cab take us to the airport.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Lauri:

I highly recommend the Wonderful Copenhagen thread for learning about this great city.

Here are a couple of other threads I found on a search:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2469344

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2494141

We really like the Scandic Palace, located on the City Hall Square. We have stayed there twice.

Best of luck on your stay in Copenhagen.

Mike

From looking at your hotel's directions, you need to get to the "Orto" or "Madonna Dell'Orto" stop. Both the 4.2 and the 5.2 leave from Piazzale Roma and head to Orto, and according to the schedule, they leave from the "B" station at Piazzale Roma. I'm not sure what the name of the B stop is, but it will have it in big letters over the stop. [The stops look like little floating barges.] According to the schedule, it will take about 20 minutes to get to the Orto stop. From there you walk to the hotel. I pulled the following off of the Venice for Visitors web site--note, these directions mention both the vaporetto and the Alilaguna lines, which are ticketed and paid for separately. The 4.2 and the 5.2 are both vaporetti or ACTV. Hope you enjoy Venice--we sure did!! Best of luck. Mike

The five-star Boscolo Venezia belongs to the Boscolo hotel group's Autograph Collection of boutique luxury hotels. Its 72 rooms occupy an historic palazzo in the Cannaregio district. Amenities include a huge private garden, a water-taxi landing on the Venetian Lagoon, an upmarket restaurant and bar, a spa and wellness center, and a free hotel shuttle boat to the Piazza San Marco.

The Orto (a.k.a. Madonna dell'Orto) waterbus stop is close to the hotel. It's used by several ACTV vaporetto lines and the Alilaguna Orange Line airport boat, and there are no bridges between the pier and the hotel.

How to reach the Boscolo Venezia from Madonna dell'Orto (Alilaguna Linea Arancio):

I used this site, which I thought was very helpful, to learn about the transportation in Venice: http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-vaporetto-water-buses.htm. The Rick Steves' Venice book also helped a lot. We bought the 72 hour pass when we were there in 2014 and used the vaporetti a lot. Good luck!

We stayed at the Scandic Palace across from City Hall and thought it was a great location. It was a short walk to the main train station where we took the train to Roskilde one day and Malmo the next. The pedestrian walking area is just around the corner from the hotel, and we walked all over Copenhagen. We liked it so much we are staying there again for our next cruise in July. Hope this helps.

We used Rick Steves' "Copenhagen and the Best of Denmark" since we stayed in Copenhagen for several days prior to our cruise.

We also found Tom's Port Guide for Copenhagen useful. We did not go to the other ports so I can't comment on those.

http://www.tomsportguides.com/uploads/5/8/5/4/58547429/copenhagen-09-30-2012.pdf

Here's the one for Halifax by rental car:

http://www.tomsportguides.com/uploads/5/8/5/4/58547429/halifaxrentalcar-04-04-2017.pdf

Hope these help.

Have you looked at Tom's Port Guides? Lots of good info.

http://www.tomsportguides.com/port-guides.html#bh-maine

We did a walking tour with Boyle's Tours last September and we were very pleased. He picked us up at the ship and we took a very short ride to the start of the tour (uphill all the way). We ended back at the ship. Here's the contact info.

Address: 115 Cavendish Sq, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador A1C 3K2, Canada

Phone Number:

+1 709-364-6845

We were at the Scandic Palace in August and we loved it. As mentioned above, the location is fantastic. The staff were great to deal with. They arranged for a taxi to take us to the cruise terminal, and everyone we dealt with from check in to departure was very professional.

The AC worked fine, but it was in the low 70's during the day so I can't tell you how it would handle a heat wave.

Although we booked it independently, Holland America and other cruise lines use it as part of their pre- and post-cruise packages, so you'll see a lot of other cruisers.

Hope this helps.