Duane T

Those going this morning caught the 5:30 am bus from the hotel to the top. The weather was good and no crowds so it is a good time to get another set of pictures.

You'll get a wide selection of food to eat. Seafood was all great. Besides beef, chicken and pork, you'll also get to try Guinea pig, llama, and lamb with a huge variety of potatoes, yams, beans, other veggies. I'll spend a few months after this burning off these calories. At this hotel, they arranged for a Pisco sour (local drink) and ceviche (fresh fish) appetizer before dinner. It was fun tasting these drinks dishes .

We headed back to Cusco shortly and do some shopping.

Day started off with good weather at Urubamba. The Urumbamba (Tambo del Del Inka Hotel) was really first rate and Lima Tours had constantly provided details on what would occur at check-in and check-out). Since we will stay overnight at the town nearest Machu Picchu (Aqua

Calientes), we were told to only bring an overnight bag. Most brought backpacks and/or large totes (about 90%). A few brought rollerboards but I understand some passengers had special medical needs that required a bag or suitcase bigger than a backpack. Our regular luggage was collected that morning and will be sent to tomorrow night's hotel in Cusco (Hotel Libertor Cuscso).

We all boarded the shuttle from the Urubamba hotel at 7:45 am and went straight to the Ollantaytambo Train Station. We recevied our train tickets with seat assignments. There was enough space underneath our seats to hold our backpacks and each carriage had a small luggage area for the larger baggage. The 1.5 hour train ride was on the Vistadome (alot of info on Youtube if you want a preview..but the actual signts were more spetacular.

On arriving at Aquas Calientes train station, a hotel rep coordinated with Lima Tours to have larger bulking overnight bags tagged and taken straight to the hotel (Sumaq Machu Picchu) where they were waiting in our room when we checked in later that afternoon.

We were fortunate that the weather was great. Cloudy at first but the sun came out later. Mild Temperature (about 69 degrees F). The guided tour was great and they made arrangements for a easy walking touLima Tours was very educational and Lima Tours arrange a speical tour for individuals who had a hard time walking up/down steps. I'll leave the details of the tour for another separate Trip Advisor report, but we were completely satisfied.

We have another chance to see the sunrise at Machu Pichuu tomorrow morning and do a more relaxing independent exploring on our own, or they offerred a more challenging hike.

Checked off one more bucket list site to see.

Hi Duane

 

Thanks for the morning update. Everything seems to be coming together. Glad to hear you are having fun! Are you traveling in large buses or the smaller vans? Tomorrow is the big day--Machu Picchu! Hope you have good weather and have a wonderful time. We will be thinking about you.

 

Sally and Mike

Hi Sally and Mike,

We've used different buses for different segments but what we seen so far.

Lima- full size with a bathroom. The city tour was only 3.5 hours and each stop had restroom facilities our tour guide would point out.

Cusco to Urubamba. We had a several mini buses pick us up at Cusco Airport primarily because the locations we went to narrow (roads, village streets) and are the way they were built 500-600 years ago.

Urubamba-Chincheros-Ollatamtambo. Same mini-bus.

Chincheros is at 12000 feet elevation. Our guide paced the group very slowly. Favorite dinner topic was how the latest altitude medicines were working. Some mentioned the tried the local coco candy that tastes like green tea did help. I didn't try it... Not sure I trust the label but our guide did hand it out to some guy and claims it works.

I'll let you know how the train ride to Aguas Calientes and our first day at Machu Picchu goes.

Duane

Hi Duane

 

Thank you so much for your reports today. We eagerly wait to hear the next report. The trip is now really coming alive for us and we look forward to it more after each of your postings. It is good to know that they are very careful and have you verify your luggage at each step. Did you leave suitcases at the hotel in Lima to pick up on Friday? We plan to pack a suitcase for the cruise to leave in Lima and then pack our usual carry-on bag as our checked luggage on the trip through Peru with a small backpack for our carry-on in Peru. Is this the best plan?

 

We got altitude medication from our doctor to start taking on Saturday as we fly to Peru. We have heard so many warnings and want to be sure we feel OK. Hope you are adjusting easily to the altitude. Did you take the medication?

 

It is wonderful that you are enjoying the trip and we look forward to doing the same exactly 4 weeks from now. Again, we really appreciate you filling in all the details and answering our questions. Enjoy tomorrow and we look forward to hearing more.

 

Thanks, Sally and Mike

We did not leave a bag at Lima but Lima Tours did have the porters collect bags with a tag to identify them as going to the Airport this Friday when we fly back from Cusco and connect on to Santiago. They will give you a set of Pompoms to attach to you bags going to Cusco. Most on our group just brought a carrying on roller board wit a backpack or large tote.

Altitude was an issue for one or two but the guides were always watching everyone for any problems so you should be ok.

Hi Sally, the Cruisetour flights from Lima to Cuzco went smoothly. We got our wake up call at 4:30 but we were already up. We had a very small bit to eat at 5:00 AM at the hotel buffet but it did not include hot entree items this morning. Lima Tour had two tour managers getting all our luggage and passengers on the bus to the airport.

At Cuzco airport, the tour managers asked us to verify our bags were off the bus. Then we checked in. We asked for seats together and got the seats we wanted. Some people did not ask or checked their boarding tickets and ended apart but there were plenty of empty seats so everyone was accommodated. LAN airlines airlines flight was a short 1 hour 10 minute flight over snow capped Andes and a scenic decent into Cusco. At Cusco baggage claim, the tour managers asked everyone to confirm their checked baggage arrived and then porters took everyone's bags to a truck to be delivered to our Hotel in neighboring Urubamba. We went on our Cusco city tour, Inca ruins, and a local Pisco market. Afterwards, we went to the hotel, got our keys and our suitcases were inside our room.

Everything went per the schedule and we enjoyed this initial day adjusting to the Cusco altitude.

Duane

Duane

 

I so look forward to your reports from Peru. Sounds like your group is doing a good job getting things straightened out, especially getting them to give you the tour on Sunday afternoon. That would work for us, so I hope it carries over. At least I know that you got it and we can tell Lima Tours that we want the same if they don't offer it.

 

Wow! I knew things would start early, but 4 am is really early. You will all be ready for the first day at sea on the ship to get some rest. But it is a wonderful opportunity and we are really looking forward to the experience.

 

It will be interesting to see what they do tomorrow as far as seat assignments for the flight.

 

Did you book your Saturday night stay in Lima through Princess? We did and don't know if it includes breakfast. Guess I can ask Princess once they decide to tell us where we are staying. :)

 

Appreciate your reporting so much.....enjoy....sounds like things are going to work out OK.

 

Sally and MIke

Hi Sally.

Yes, I booked the extranight through Princess and it did include the breakfast. But last year in Beijing and before in Copenhagen, I did the same thing and booked an extra night but the breakfast buffet were not included. The buffet here is very nice with both local and more traditional items to select from. This Casa Andina Private Collection hotel is also very near a bunch of tourist friendly markets, a short 15 minute walk to the waterfront (Lacomar Shopping center on cliffs overlooking the ocean) and JF Kennedy Park that has tons of places to eat, shop (think Macy's), arts and crafts (just 5 minute walk from the hotel 3 blocks).

I'll let you know how the LAN intra-peru flights go.

Having Fun.

Duane

I have printed the sections showing receipt for our full payment, OBC, special requests, and shore excursion booking. Do I really need to print a full copy of our travel summary?

 

Or is the boarding pass and luggage tag for each of us sufficient with the above?

We are on a Princess cruisetour now and had a dispute with the local Princess tour agent about a cancelled city tour that was included in our package and not compensated for in anyway. They (the local tour agent) offerred a replacement tour but at an additional $48 per person. That led to a contentious argument where the agent called up his main office to get it resolved somehow with Princess. Princess was aware of the scheduling conflict but never notified the passengers on this cruisetour segment. We ended up getting our City Tour today (Sunday) instead of the Friday for 34 pasengers at no cost (well so far we haven't seen any more surprise charges pop up yet in our Cruise Personalizer but we'll have to see if somethng pops up on our bill at the end of the cruise. The bottomline is that the tour agency only offerred the FREE excursion if we had our original Itinerary that indicated that we were scheduled for a City Tour. I suspect the other 32 members of 66 who didn't go on this City Tour today are arriving later today/tonight or did not have a copy of their original itinerary.

Manchu Picchu Cruisetour 2nd Day ( 12/15/2013). Had our first group meeting with Lima Tours at 9:00 am in hotel lobby. They have provided the revised itinerary to a group of about 20 people. The Lima Tours rep indicated there would be about 66 people on this Princess Cruisetour. He explained how we should tag our checked baggage to make sure the Cusco hotels would recognize our suitcases. He also covered the schedule and a few tips.

Then he went over the deletion of the Local Lima City Tour on Friday due conflicting airline flight schedules from Cusco to Lima to Santigo Chile, but we could pay $48 per person and get the tour this afternoon. Then a large contingent of our group demanded the Lima Tour rep contact Princess to provide us a remedy and pay for the same tour being offered this afternoon. The Lima Tour rep called his main office to investigate with Princess. After a 20 minute wait, he got a phone call and 34 of our tour cruise group of 66 people were told we would get our Lima City Tour this afternoon at no cost. I'm not sure to the other 32 people in our group.

Tomorrow morning we our day starts at 4:00am to get up and head on to Cusco for 2 nights and then on to Aguas Calientes and Machu Pucchu.

Duane,

 

Thanks for the update on your Cruisetour. So glad it is going well. We look forward to ours in 2015. -- only 15 more months to go!! Hope you are able to post more updates on your adventure.

 

One question -- Did you book your air through Princess?

Yes, I used Princess Air with this cruisetour package. It turned out to be almost half the price versus going through Orbitz or Travelocity or even the respective Airlines websites. The low airfare popped up one day and only lasted at that price for 2 days so I booked it as a Refundable/Flexible which was cheaper than the non-refundable...hence I was incented to lock it in too. But I had to check it every day or every other day and prices really fluctuated. I didn't use a Travel Agent so this is where a TA might be helpful.

The Princess Air airline selection was American Airlines from Honolulu to Los Angeles and then connected to a LAN airlines from Los Angeles to Lima. I never flew LAN before but they are part of One World so I asked they book my American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flyer number when I checkedin. The airline review sites had mixed ratings/comments on LAN but we had very good service from check-in all the way to Lima.

12/13/2013-12/14/2013 -

After being in the air/intransit for the past 22 hours, we arrived at Lima on a LAN flight from LAX at around 10:30 AM today. Although we were prepared for the worst (flight delays, lost luggage, questionable service on LAN per Yelp! and Tripadvisor reports), everything went extremely well. We had nice checkin/flight attendant service on both our American Airlines and LAN flights. We breezed through customs in Lima and Lima Tours was waiting for just outside the Customs gates using their Ipads to flash our name in bright colors so we could see them in the crowd (cleverly done).

Lima Tours' airport's rep (Johan Diaz) spoke excellent english and gave us a great briefing of Lima, climate, food, tips that we took notes on, expecially the food and places to eat near the hotel (Casa Andina Private Collection - Miraflores). He gave us a packet with maps and the updated Machu Picchu Cruisetour itinerary which actually had more details to questions that we could not get answered by the Princess teleophone reps. While we drove through the city, he pointed out places to shop, get groceries and suggested 2 restaurants to get us started on Peruvian cuisine which we hit one of the two so far....excellent Cebiche!

Johan walked us thru the Hotel checkin, asked the hotel staff to make copies of our passport AND the Peruvian Andean Migration Card for us to carry around and emphasized we need to present thee Peruvian Andean Migration Card at the other hotels that we will stay at during the Cruisetour and present when we fly to Santiago, Chile.

So far, Lima Tours has ensured this trip got off to the right start and we appreciated the details they provided on the rest of the cruisetour, Lima, and Peruvian customs.

Hopefully the rest of the trip goes this well.

Hi Sally. I noticed the Itinerary in Lima did not quite match up to the flight schedules. I actually sent an email to the Lima Tour operator who indicated they had selected Lima hotel as the Casa Andina Private Collection (Av La PAz 463 in Miraflores district). Princess finally sent me an updated Itinerary that had the same information about a month later. So you might want to contact Lima Tours and see if they have finalized the hotel for your particular cruisetour date.

 

Our revised Itinerary from Princess still says we have a Lima Tour on the day we fly to Santiago but the flight schedules don't match it...i.e. we're catching the flight from Cusco to Lima to Santiago the whole day from 8:10 AM til arrival in Chile at 5:30 PM (2 hour layover in Lima...too little time to leave the airport).

 

So we're planning the extra day that we have in Lima before hand to go see the sights in Lima.

 

Have a nice trip. If I see any problems, I'll try to post them on cruise critic when we start our cruise tour in Lima this Saturday.

Just got off the phone again with Princess Cruises rep. She admitted she and the land tour staff had no idea that there was no time for a Lima city tour. The Princess Land tour group staff actually told her to tell me that there will be some sort of land tour even though there was no conceivable way we could fly from cusco to lima (2 hour layover in Lima) and then connect on to Santiago Chile. I was then referred to customer service...which apparently never answered the forwarded call. We'll see what they say when I land in Lima tomorrow morning.

Duane T

 

We are on the Machu Pichuu Cruisetour on January 12. Princess says the Lima hotel is a new contract and that don't know the name yet. They have also cancelled our Lima city tour before our flight at the end of the to Santiago to start the cruise due to its conflict with our flights. We would like to book a Lima city tour on own own, since we will arrive a day early in Lima, but cannot book until we know where we are staying. Did you have either of these problems? What Lima hotel are you staying in? Thanks in advance for any information you can give us. Reply here or to sally603 at gmail dot com.

Hi Sally. I noticed the Itinerary in Lima did not quite match up to the flight schedules. I actually sent an email to the Lima Tour operator who indicated they had selected Lima hotel as the Casa Andina Private Collection (Av La PAz 463 in Miraflores district). Princess finally sent me an updated Itinerary that had the same information about a month later. So you might want to contact Lima Tours and see if they have finalized the hotel for your particular cruisetour date.

Our revised Itinerary from Princess still says we have a Lima Tour on the day we fly to Santiago but the flight schedules don't match it...i.e. we're catching the flight from Cusco to Lima to Santiago the whole day from 8:10 AM til arrival in Chile at 5:30 PM (2 hour layover in Lima...too little time to leave the airport).

So we're planning the extra day that we have in Lima before hand to go see the sights in Lima.

Have a nice trip. If I see any problems, I'll try to post them on cruise critic when we start our cruise tour in Lima this Saturday.

Wondering if the MDR wine choices are the same on all ships. I know they can run out of a variety here and there but basically are the same brands offered?

 

I do know different bars around the ship can offer different/fewer bottles and glasses.

You answered your own question quite well. We've been lucky so far and the ship always had the preferred Cabernet we liked.

Can you have a wine package delivered to your cabin or is the wine only available in the MDR's? We enjoy a wine on the balcony before dinner and will be on the Emerald for 2 x 14 night cruises (b2b) next year.

While this may differ from ship to ship, we normally ordered the wine bottles at the dining room with dinner. I recall you couldn't redeem wine bottles at bars or at the buffet. But we always asked for a extra bottle from our allotment to keep in the room especially on nights that we knew we be back from a shore excursion late or for dinner at the buffet.

Wow. We're going on the Golden in December. We normally went with Anytime on the Crown Princess and Diamond Princess and never had a problem getting a table for 2 at 5:30 PM. But I just noticed the dining room option for our December cruise on Golden has openings for 5:30 PM Traditional seating so I just selected that option. Oddly, that option (Traditional Dining table for 2) was not initially available when I made my reservation for this cruise a few months ago.

The buffet restaurant on the Golden has a very small and congested layout. Is the buffet on the Sapphire basically the same layout or did they spread out the buffet areas to make it easier to get in and out to various food areas?

 

Also, do they have food trays? I did not see any on the Golden and they would be helpful to carry the plates and drinks.

 

Thanks.

We were on the Diamond and did not see any trays in the buffet except for the large ones the busboys carried. We were always "given" utensils and a plate as we walked into the buffet serving area. I did pick up a really cheap (~$1)small tray at our next port of call and used it to carry plates to our room below the buffet on Aloha deck on days/times when the buffet was packed. I think they will also use trays for room service...now that I think about it, our room attendant mentioned that was a good way to get a tray...but it was larger than what we wanted to handle going down the stairs to Aloha deck to our room.

Thanks for the heads-up question on buffet trays. We're going on the Golden in December and I had forgotton about this "tray" issue on Princess.

If you prefer traditional dining, and there are still openings, take that. When onboard, try to get a table for two. If you cannot, you can always change to anytime dining. If you are an experienced cruiser, I am sure you know that traditional to anytime can always be obtained, but the reverse, almost never.

I just looked at our Golden Princess cruise and I noticed something changed on the dining portion. I have anytime dining because when I locked in the reservation months ago that was the only seating that allowed my wife and I to get a table for 2 (hopefully). Now I noticed Regular Seating Table for 2 openings at 5:30 for our South American cruise in December. There were other Table for 2 times but had waitlists as well (it actually tells you how many couples were waitlisted for other seating times....neat feature).

1. Get your visa application package together today and walk it into CIBT in San Francisco tomorrow. Include a recent bank statement with account number blacked out.

 

2. They are aware of the problems with the SF consulate and will likely tell you that your application must be forwarded to another consulate. Let them handle the transfer to another consulate -- you as an individual cannot do this.

 

3. Tell CIBT the date that you must have passport (with new Brazil visa) returned to you. At that point you will know whether this can or cannot be done by your deadline.

I agree. I had a situation like this before and CIBT(Visa Central) took care of getting the paperwork processed through another consulate...in this case Brazil's Los Angeles consulate might process it faster, especially if you need it urgently.

Check the Princess website periodically. I noticed it will say it's closed or sold out and then reopen again a few hours/days later, sometimes with different promotions/pricing/airfare. I'm on the December 15 2013 Machu Picchu pre-cruse tour (on Golden Princess) and I've been planning this since late 2011. The biggest price savings (flying from Honolulu Hawaii) was in airfare which varied from $1300 per person to $3200 per person. Princess EZAir had the best airfare price "one weekday"...so I locked it in and we leave in 30 days going to Lima two days early to adjust to timezones. We're doing this trip for similar reasons as you...we don't want to wait much longer as travelling is a getting a littler more of a challenge every year.

Good Luck and enjoy your trip!

Trip Advisor hasn't told me the answer so I'll try here.

 

Heading to Berlin for cruise in May followed by 30 day motorhome trip after cruise so type of luggage and packing strategy is important.

 

Question--Are the carry on rules for a round trip itinerary those of the initial carrier? We're talking Air Canada and Lufthansa over and Lufthansa back to Seattle.

 

I've read everything I can on both sites and can't find the answer.

 

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Each Airline has different rules that you can find on the airline's website based on cabin (First/Business/Economy) or frequent flyer mileage level or if you have the airlines premium credit cards that allows free first bag, etc. Otherwise, plan on paying for each piece of checked baggage if you go over any free allotments.

Our experience on Diamond Princess and Crown Princess didn't differ by much but with Anytime, we always went early at about 5:30 and always got a table for 2. Once we were seated at a table for 4 but had it to ourselves. We usually went to the show afterwards and then got a snack in the buffet (usually chocolate strawberries, fruit, or some deli meats/cheese

0.

Hi ML,

 

When we booked the 2012 Amazon Explorer we were faced with the Brazil Visa problem. I combed the consulate web site for information. The Los Angeles Consulate does not mail, and we live about 100 miles each way from the office.

 

We used Visa Central....Holland America's recommendation. They had a special rate. If you are flying to Brazil, Delta also had a special rate with Visa Central. I calculated that we would have saved $100 (factoring in gas and time) if we did it ourselves. Not worth it!

 

Visa Central worked for us and were very pleased...it took about 3 weeks. I sent the Package from the post office insured with delivery confirmation, and you could track the progress at their (Visa Central) web site. You could also call, but it was a long wait to get an agent. The company also offers a lot of unnecessary "extras" that can drive up the price. The only extra I chose was a signature when FEDEX delivered it.

 

You also charged all the costs to your credit card. There are a number of agencies...MY TA, plus the Brazil Consulate provided a list for your convenience. It cost about $550 for our visas, which are good for 10 years. All the complaints about the cost is getting absurd. If you can and want to go to Brazil it has to be done. Relieve stress and use and agency.

I concur. We got our Brazil Visa's and it was relatively straightforward using Visa Central. Princess had a link for our voyage so it was easy to get it set up. We also used CIBT/Visa Central for our trip to Peking last October on an expedited basis. It was very reliable.

We just finished the Beijing to Bangkok cruise on the Diamond Princess. Captain Dino Sagani was great, always walking around and visible. We got to chat with him twice. He announced on our cruise that he will be taking over the new Royal Princess AFTER it's inagural cruises in the latter half of 2013. Maybe he's headed out to the Royal early to familiarize himself with that ship.

Does anyone know if this wine package is available on the Diamond Princess???

We just got off the Diamond this past Sunday. I know they had a wine package that was offerred during different times during the cruise. Between the wine we had on board the ship and the wine we bought while we were on shore excursions, we did not sign up for the package. When you're on the ship, I'd check with your waiter who can give you the details. There is also someone we met on Deck 7 in the Atrium that was available to provide information and sign people up. Don't get me wrong, the wine on the ship was excellent...it's just we decided to stop by wine shops while in port to see/experience what they had...which were really good (NOTE: I did not try the Snake/Scorpion wine in Vietnam but our port lecturer did and he said it was sweet...I prefer dry wines).

I love the little slabs of concrete known as the Princess bed. I am on the Star in January and I am a bit worried the new mattresses will be too smooshy.

I just got off the Diamond Princess. The beds were changed out and we we found the new beds firm but with the bed cushion much more firm and comfortable. We saw them take the old beds off the ship where they were carted off somewhere.