dizzlepop

On 4/20/2023 at 12:46 PM, Island2Dweller said:

Public transport options have improved in the last year.  The opening of the Elizabeth line means you can get from the airport to Greenwich with only one change.  There are lifts at the change station.

If you want to do this, take an Elizabeth Line train from Heathrow (destination Abbey Wood, not Shenfield) and get off at Canary Wharf.  (Use the rear exit).  Take the lift to the highest level, cross the psychaedilc bridge (which I know sounds wierd but will be very obvious as soon as you get out of that lift).  As you exit the bridge, look right and you'll see the DLR station.  There is a lfit to the platform.  Take a train towards Lewisham and get off at Cutty Sark.  This station is right beside where Viking check customers in.

Using a contactless bank card or phone (do not buy a physical ticket), the fare is just under £15 per adult.  The Elizabeth line trains are brand new, spacious, air conditioned, and run about every ten minutes from Heathrow.  The DLR trains are every five minutes.  It will be a touch less an hour overall.

Clearly a car service is easier but costs much more and will not be quicker

Thank you so much for this! Doing this in reverse soon 🙂

Reporting back: Original Downtown tour with Vallarta Food Tours was great! Al was our guide and he took us to five long-time family-run taco stands and one place with agua fresca. Really great food, got to try goat for the first time, too.

11 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

Well at least maybe you will get better hours at Cabo now. The current 630 am to being back onboard at 130 pm is rather lame.

Yes! 7am-4:30pm in Cabo, 9am-9:30pm in PV.

We were going to skip Cabo but now we will venture in!

UPDATE on Panorama:

Headed out today as scheduled, changed order of stops and two v three: Cabo Tuesday, PV Wednesday, skipping Mazatlán.

Is the simplest way to get pesos to use an ATM? That's the case for Euros, just wondering!

Thanks!

23 hours ago, MSN-Travelers said:

We have done the Original Downtown tour ourselves but take our first time guests on The Street, the night time street food/taco stand tour.  We are timeshare resort visitors with over two decades of eating experience.  The eating habits of the locals are different from up north and most cruisers are back on the ship before dinner service starts for street and restaurant venues.   

It's hard to get people past food phobias based on preconceived notions. These tours go a long way toward showing that great food is available away from the well known restaurants.

 

Enjoy!

Thanks! Booked the Original Downtown as we're cruising and the evening one's cutting it close. Very much looking forward!

On 8/8/2023 at 11:56 AM, MSN-Travelers said:

I am generally in Vallarta most Novembers.  I tend to take first time visitors on a street food tour immediately after they get off the plane.  I have used Vallarta Food Tours (https://vallartafoodtours.com)     most often. The day of the week and the time of day your ship is in port may impact what organized tour you and your group can take.

 

Enjoy!

Oh, this I am very interested in! Do you take the first-timers on the Original Downtown Tour?

Thank you!

FYI you can reach out to Viking before you sail and request the egg crate for your bed; they'll have it in place when you get there. (Call or chat works.)

From the docs:

*Latest country-specific updates reflect requirement changes in the following locations (changes have been shaded):
• Greece: removed requirements from this document.
• Indonesia: added the Benoa Port Digital Customs Declaration form.
• Israel: removed the Israel Entry Form.
• No other country-specific requirements have changed since this document was last updated on October 10, 2022.
Requirements for all other countries are up to date at this time.

On 8/26/2022 at 3:31 PM, DrKoob said:

I agree with all the folks who have posted. Just wanted to say that we have used ToursByLocals and they are outstanding. We got two great guides in Iceland. Another superb one in Amsterdam. We are on Viking Sky next week from Athens to Barcelona and we are using TBL the day before the cruise in Athens and the day after in Barcelona.

 

Jim

Thank you for this! Will be checking TBL for our upcoming cruise (on Jupiter), same itinerary.

On 8/10/2022 at 11:49 AM, Selion said:

Got that right!  😁

 

March 2022.  Cabin 4122.

 

THANK YOUUUUU! We have an aft on the upcoming Med Antiquities for 15 days! Let's gooooo!

28 minutes ago, RummyB said:

Has anyone stayed in the DV1 aft cabins on the Sky?  I usually love the aft cabins but this is a much smaller ship.  Thanks.

Haven't done so, but we're booked in a DV1 aft on the Jupiter for 10/22. I've had an aft cabin once and so loved it, chose this cruise date based on getting that placement! Here's hoping it's worth it!

We've booked the Viking (Paris to Normandy and back), originally 11/2020 and now 11/2021. We did a Viking river fall of 2019 and LOVED it. It's go go go every day, good food, good tours, stellar customer service, zero complaints! (We booked a 15-day Viking Ocean cruise for 11/2022, too, based on the ports and the level of service we've experienced so far on the river.)

We are leaving on the Majesty, May 9th.

No RCI excursions booked.

Have dinner arranged first night ashore, then onto some bars. Maybe a club.

Next day a tour booked vi Blexie from 10 am-4pm (May be a little earlier, ship sails at 4) 130Cu for a group of 4.

 

2 Brits and 2 US citizens.

We've booked with them as well, and they actually adjusted our time to 9 am to 3 pm so we could get our entire tour in vs. ending early! Same day as you, this week.

I just booked a 6-hour tour via a private company that's well-regarded with CruiseCritic folks: Blexie Cuba. The full day is 130 Cuban dollars total (we are two people, but i know of another group of 4 that is paying the same price). Since Majesty leaves at 4 p.m., they even changed our tour times from the usual 10-4 to 9-3 instead!

Blexie has other guides . We had Isbel who was great.

Thank you, Holly!

My husband and I are on this ship with you! I'm hoping Blexie has other spots, as it sounds like the best option!

-Gigi

We are leaving on the Majesty, May 9th.

No RCI excursions booked.

Have dinner arranged first night ashore, then onto some bars. Maybe a club.

Next day a tour booked vi Blexie from 10 am-4pm (May be a little earlier, ship sails at 4) 130Cu for a group of 4.

 

2 Brits and 2 US citizens.

My daughter brought hers on the Pearl last week, no issues!

If you're booking through ncl, can your sales rep do the legwork?

We had a group of 8 (plus two kids) and we had a standing "meet at the next Trivia" agreement, starting with the 9 a.m. one!

And we also tried to have dinner together every evening when on ship, and would discuss the next day at that time.

I saw a couple of rooms with a small write on/wipe off board attached just to the side of the door with a message like "dinner at 5:30 at xyz spot," etc.

When we checked in for our Pearl cruise last week, no one even cared/asked about our docs! I'm not printing them next time, LOL!

I recommend Tepanyaki. Here's why:

We just got off the Pearl and we had three specialty dinners (Cagney's, La Cucina, Tepanyaki).

I will NEVER spend time, effort, nor calories on La Cucina again. Tepanyaki was fun, food was good (but holy garlic), and the chefs were fun. Guests were singing, etc.

La Cucina: it was much of the same food from the main dining room. The only thing our group (of 10) ordered that was different was the risotto, and it was pretty good risotto. My pork scallopini was like leather and had so much pepper. And it was the very same dish I had at the lunch buffet! The carbonara is the same as the dining room, so is the chicken parmesan. Service was meh. On Royal Caribbean, the Italian restaurants are something special, with upscale, high-end dishes, so I expected the same!

Tepanyaki: it's like Benihana. Fun, loud atmosphere. Lots of dish choices. I got the filet and it was SO much steak! Cooked perfectly. There was seafood (scallops/shrimp/calimari), meat/seafood combos, etc. Everyone loved their meals.

You didn't ask about Cagney's, so for the benefit of others reading here: that's a good one, too! Really good steak, cooked as requested. Fabulous service.

Ugh, that was rude.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to photograph and post all those images!!

Very much appreciated!

Thank you (I think!).

I'm DEVASTATED that there's no trivia :( We, as a family, always do Trivia and it's a fun time to meet up in the afternoons. :loudcry:

Woo, I'll take anything! Hoping for next week!