ScotsLady

2 hours ago, oceanpark said:

  I have a cruise booked for February on Azamara, Buenos Aires to Barbados, including going to Manaus, Brazil.  I would love to hear any thoughts on cruising the Amazon and the ports on the river.

We did Amazon cruise 2 years ago and loved it. In Manaus we did a day with a guide from tours by locals who was excellent. 
for Santarem and Alter do Chao we used Gil Serique who has a Facebook page and website gilserique.com

This guy is a legend and knows everything about local wildlife, history and the environment. The best 2 days of the cruise we had with him 

7 minutes ago, Fa-Li said:

 

We were ultimately joining a tour with Tauck, so they arranged a greeter and driver for us.  They were with a company called Southbound Travel, the phone number given to us was +56 9 9639 1191

The company Esteban suggested if we had not had something prebooked was called Transvip and they have a counter just after baggage control.  If we had asked ahead of time, he would have simply booked someone for us I believe.

 

The main advice from all sides was do not go with any of the "pirate" drivers who will accost you and try to take control of your bags.  

 

Our hotel was the Singular Santiago and it was lovely.  Very comfortable and quiet room, great bathroom.  The staff was overwhelmingly wonderful.  Good restaurant onsite (we only ate breakfast there) and nice little rooftop bar.  Very easy to walk from there to many sights, including the central Plaza in one direction and Pablo Neruda's house in the other.  Just around the corner was a pedestrian area with many, many wonderful restaurants and a colorful street scene.  

Thank you

7 hours ago, Fa-Li said:

We were in Santiago for a few days before a land tour, and I spent time on these boards to get some ideas, so I wanted to come back and recommend the company/guide we used in case that helps anyone else.  I know a lot of cruisers end up looking for a guide pre/post cruising out of  the nearby port.

 

I booked with Privatetours.cl  https://www.privatetours.cl/index.html   The little form on the contact page of their website seemed to have a glitch, so I just emailed directly info@privatetours.cl and got an answer within hours.

 

Esteban is the contact person and he was wonderful.  Their website has a bunch of tour suggestions, many of which suited our purposes (we wanted one day of city tour and one day of wineries, there are many other options too).  When I asked about the ones that appealed, he was quick to ask about particular preferences - favorite wine, how we felt about funiculars, etc - and then suggested a personalized itinerary that was ideal.  Pricing was very reasonable and paid through a link online to confirm booking.  For just two of us, two full days with guide and driver and all admissions, it was about $900

 

The day before our first tour, Esteban reached out to confirm again and to offer tips for safe navigation through the airport and to see if we had already arranged transportation.  We had, but if needed he had people who could help.  

 

The first morning, when we came down to meet our guide in our hotel lobby, she was already there about 15 minutes early, which was so nice to not have to worry.  Jeanette was our guide and it turned out she had worked in guest services on Royal Caribbean cruise ships for many years - an immediate bond!  We had a driver and a super clean Mercedes van to take us around, so we had Jeanette's full attention the whole time.  Cold water was available, and the cooler was nice to have when we had leftovers from lunch and when we bought chocolate that we didn't want to melt.  

 

All through the first day, out in wine country, Jeanette got to really know us so that she added stops that we would enjoy that day and tweaked the plan for the next day in the city to be perfectly suited to our tastes.  It was awesome.  The tours at the wineries were conducted by their guides, and we had been booked into the highest level of each of them.  This meant a private tour at Santa Rita, where Jeanette stayed with us, and a small group second tasting with a sommelier at Concha y Toro, where she waited for us.  We would not have known to book those particulars and they really added value.  

 

Jeanette was a wealth of information and we learned so much.  She is also available to book on her own, though I don't know how that would work as far as driver/van set up.  If anyone wants her email I can share it.  

 

I am happy to answer questions about the exact things we did/saw/ate, but I figure most of us are just looking for a place to start and a reliable company to work with so I'm not putting all those details in this first post.  If you have time to spend in Santiago and its surrounding area, lucky you!  We loved it!

Thanks for this information .

How did you get from the airport to your hotel?  What hotel did you stay in?

Irene

3 minutes ago, JSR said:

Thank you. We are trying to decide about doing a boat tour in a Manaus or Santarem. We overnight in Manaus And call at Santarem twice. Any thoughts.

 

 

We did the same  stops. If you see my post above I highly recommend Gil Serique  who lives near Santarem. He people from our cruise who did the private tours with him all raved about it. He is so knowledgable about the wildlife, history etc. on the way to Manaus we stopped at Santarem and he took us on his boat down a tributary of the Amazon. What we saw was amazing. Then first day Manaus we did the tours by locals tour with John .it was just the two of us. We saw everything , the markets , the opera house, old town, the city centre. It was so hot but his car had air con and he supplied cold water.  We stayed overnight and the next day we just went ashore to the cruise terminal but it was so not we went back to the ship. Other people on our cruise did boat tours  and went to some zoo place but they were not impressed with the zoo. you could see pink dolphins beside the ship. Another tour was to go and swim with them somewhere .

on the way back we stopped in Alter do chao which is where Gil lives and not far from Santarem. There is a beach there but not much else. We did a private tour with Gil, probably about 12 of us. He hired a bus and it took us down dirt roads to a town built for the rubber plantations and now abandoned. We also went to original rain forest on land his family owned . On returning he took us all to his house and served us snacks and drinks. His house overlooks part of the beach. He then took us back to where he picked us up where a small market was set up and you got the tender back to the ship. 
we loved the Amazon.

3 minutes ago, JSR said:

 

 

2 minutes ago, JSR said:

@ScotsLadyWhich guide did you use with Tours by locals?

• João Paulo Valente Manaus, Brazil

We did a similar cruise last November with Oceania. 
in Santarem and Alter do chao we did amazing tours with a guy called Gil Serique, he is on Facebook as Gil Serique tours. He has wonderful knowledge of this area. Santarem he took 12 of us in his boat to tributaries in the Amazon river, saw lots of wildlife.

in alter do chao he took us on a bus tour to see native rain forest where his family lived and fascinating history of the rubber industry. He then took us back to his house by the beach and gave us drinks and snacks.  
In Manaus we did a private tour using tours by locals. The guy was excellent and we saw lots in the city

5 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

There is one thing I'm a bit salty about; instead of having a bottle of Laurent Perrier champagne waiting for me in my cabin as a 'Welcome Aboard' gift, I had a bottle of Kirkland champagne. I felt sure it was a supermarket I had seen somewhere, probably the UK but I've just looked it up and it's the Costco homebrand - $24.99.

 

I'd call that a cutback.

We are aboard in a Princes Grill suite and were  most disappointed to be given a bottle of cheap sparkling wine, I looked it up and it sells at $10 in Australia. Then a second has appeared but we have not tried them. I would have been happy with the Costco brand 

57 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

You're very kind @sfred. I have had an exhausting afternoon - been on the phone for the last 6 hours trying to organise exactly that. Outcome - unsatisfactory.

 

The call centre for Australia is off-shore, in the Phillipines apparently. One fellow I spoke with just after receiving the email fobbed me off that they would send me an email during the day - of course nothing has eventuated from that.

 

Then I spoke with a brilliant woman in a travel agency who went in to bat for me but they told her (after 2 hours on the phone) that they couldn't complete the booking through her as I made the original booking directly with Cunard - no matter that it's a new booking.

 

The second Cunard employee at the call centre I spoke with for the last hour and a half was well-meaning, I'm sure, but totally lacking in authority or ability to access information beyond what any of us can see on the public website, nor had he the ability to make this new booking. He has emailed the UK as I pressed him to resolve it and I will have to wait until Cunard Uk starts work in an hour and gets around to my problem, then emails Cunard in the Philiipines call centre who are now closed for the day. In 14 hours when Cunard call centre in the Phillipines re-opens it may be too late to make the booking and get me on the ship which sails in 22 hours from now.

 

I haven't had a holiday in four years. I've got the dogs being cared for for a couple of weeks at the kennels at huge expense and a suitcase packed and ready to go. To think that the ship will sail tomorrow with empty cabins and I will miss this much-anticipated break just because the computer says 'no idea', is really so very disappointing.

 

What is the point, seriously, of Cunard's direct sales centre for Australia if they are unable to make a booking? Anything simple we can all do ourselves on our home computers. The fact that the call centre can do those sorts of bookings ONLY is pathetic.

 

 

I feel for you.

we came to Australia 2 weeks ago from Scotland. We have had 2 amazing weeks in Uluru, Melbourne and the Great ocean Road but the main purpose for our trip was New Zealand . We are devastated to hear what is happening.

we booked back to back cruises so when ship returns to Melbourne we were staying on to do the cruise to Perth. We would then stay 4 days in Perth and fly home. 
we do not want to go to east coast Australia as we have been there. We spent thousands of pounds on this cruise to see New Zealand and not sit on a ship.

waiting to hear from our travel agent in U.K. if they will refund us for the second cruise so we can book with Celebrity and sail to New Zealand on 16th Feb. I thought if you booked back to back it would be  ok but looks like I may have been wrong.

16 hours ago, Dylancat said:

Hi folks, It would be nice to think that Cunard  would respond truthfully  to my request for information on this in a timely manner. Thanks for your comments ballroom cruisers. We are seasoned travellers and appreciate that there are events out of the control of the cruise lines. The difference here is that Cunard know about the legal requirements for hull cleaning and should take steps to ensure  cruises can be completed as per their own schedules. I hope that they do not cancel ports after we have set off……….

My travel agent spoke to Cunard  in U.K. who said they intend doing the itinerary as published but said they no nothing about hull cleaning.

I tweeted Cunard and they did reply again saying they intended to to the published  itinerary but ignored my question about hull cleaning. I tweeted again and asked them to confirm the hull has been cleaned and they ignored the question and stated the itinerary will go ahead.

after reading things on here and on Facebook Cunard down under group I don’t believe we will get these ports. They worded the answer carefully, we intend doing the published itinerary …..doesn’t mean they will do it and they are still selling it

Hello, 

we have a cruise booked on Celebrity Millenium for March 2024 Tokyo to Tokyo.

we will fly into Haneda and go to a hotel in Yokohama pre cruise.  How many days would people suggest to stay in Yokohama?

we intend to stay on post cruise. Should we stay all the time in Tokyo doing tours from there or should we move around? We want to see Tokyo and also go to Hiroshima and Miyajima. I read you can do this in a day trip using the bullet train. Or would we be better using a tour company to arrange everything for us and if so can anyone recommend a company?

Thanks for suggestions

Irene

On 1/20/2023 at 2:50 PM, WorldTraveller5000 said:

Hi, Crew in the know that were aboard (22 Dec 22-5 Jan 23) mentioned it was a minor refresh. a drydock for 2 weeks in Singapore (18/3-2/4) for a thorough hull clean, inspection and repaint. An overdue maintenance issue that has seen QE cancel several ports recently (Dunedin/Bay of Islands/Fjordlands and some Australian ports) due to biofoul (mussels, foliose, oysters, algae, hydroids, sponges, tunicates, crabs, and starfish) damaging delicate ecosystems.They have had several attempts to clean it during her Australian homebase season, but to no avail. There will also be a little maintenance of a few engineering systems. Certainly not a major refit planned. There is a possibility that they will use the time to do some TLC around the ship; hopefully the changeroom showers mosaic floors can finally be retiled (been loose for about 5 years now...), some deep (steam) cleaning of stateroom carpets, replacement of any worn out mattresses/pillows etc.I'm boarding the day after the refit and will check in this page again then (3 April) and advise if anything else noticed.

 

I would love to know when the real refit/remastering is planned, as QE is beginning to look a bit dowdy after her sister Queen Victoria major refit ~2017 that saw the magnificent new aft cabins decked out in rich timber colours and beautiful new furnishings, as well as QVs winter garden and Lido pool deck that are now far superior to QE (in my opinion). I'm guessing the remaster probably won't happen until after Queen Anne launches though, so maybe in 2025 sometime...

I only hope you are wrong and the hull is cleaned before 14/2 cruise to New Zealand. If it is not then why are they still selling this itinerary?

we will be so disappointed as this is a once in a lifetime trip for us from U.K.

21 hours ago, need_a_holiday said:

The QE received a dirty hull notice from NZ authorities during the Christmas cruise preventing it from entering the first and last stops - Fjordland and Bay of Islands.  They tried to clean it during the Jan 5 NZ cruise while adrift at sea but had to abandon it only 40% through due to safety concerns for the cleaning boat and divers.

 

They couldn't find any port in NZ willing to let them clean the hull at port.  

 

If they don't find a way to finish the clean they will be skipping those stops on the Feb 14 cruise as well.

Any updates on when they will try and clean the hull? 
we are on 14 Feb cruise, coming from U.K. for  once in a lifetime trip to Australia and New Zealand . We’re booked originally for 2020 but Covid cancelled that.

18 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

We are probably on the same cruise in April (Sydney to L.A.), right?  We also consider doing Princess excursion Road to Hana, but haven't booked yet, mainly because my friend gets car sick very easily, and don't know if she will be able to handle the long ride in a minibus.  I am just guessing it will be a mini bus because the excursion indicates maximum of 20 persons.

 

Under the excursion "details", it tells you how long the tour stops at each place.

 

 

Not sure we are on the same cruise . We are doing 15 night Hawaii round trip from LA on Crown Princess

4 hours ago, abbydancer said:

CrownDecember Day 5

 

We woke up to two of the Princess messenger bags on our door, I guess for the quiz last night.

 

Our last sea day before port days.  We slept in a bit, and as we were getting ready to go out, there was an announcement in the cabin.  (Never good when unexpected).  Yup, we are going to be late to Kauai.  Not entirely unexpected, since the ship has been moving quite a bit pretty constantly.  I rather like it, but some don’t.  Neither Glen nor I head it well, so we had no idea how late.  

 

As we were finishing up, I had Glen look at his folio.  The bogus phone charges were still there.  So I went to guest services.  There was no wait, and a couple of very nice crew members took my room number.  Once they brought it up, they asked if it was about the phone charges.  I said yes, and they explained that they were told yesterday that the system would go through and correct, but late last night they were told to do it.  So they removed the charges and printed a correct folio.

 

No sign of Glen yet, so I went to the casino and quickly lost 4.00.  I put the rest of the 10.00 I bet into my bank and went down and joined the line for coffee.  Glen soon joined me so I gave him my order and found a table.  We had our coffee and chatted with some of the people near us.  

 

The breakfast entrees were gone by this time, so he had a bacon quiche and I had a blueberry/cherry crumble.  Close enough.

 

After we ate, we decided to do a walk along the promenade deck.  It was open all the way around, so we stopped at the bow of the ship to watch the ship go up and down.

 

After that, we decided to head back to the room for a bit.  It hadn’t been made up yet, so we thought we’d stay until the steward came to make up the room.  At about 12:40, I turned on the service light, and our steward showed up, so we headed up to the buffet.  We weren’t quite ready for lunch, so we wandered around the top deck until just before 1.  We did see this:

 

 

Notice the pool is drained.  We’re not sure if it’s for safety reasons, or just to keep the bar near the pool dry.

 

We then headed to the buffet.  Choices were a bit better today, so I selected some things.  After my first go round I was a bit hungry,  I went back to the food line and noticed they were putting out sushi.  I asked if any was vegetarian.  They were just putting some out, so I asked if they could put a couple on my plate.  I got 5, so when I got back to the table I shared it with Glen.

 

After lunch, I headed down to club fusion for the end of line dance.  The guy teaching seemed to be teaching a dance to YMCA, that he seemed to be making up as he went along.  He followed that up with a dance that seems to be a variation of Elvira, that was in Spanish and long.  

 

That ended and I waited for the hula class.  We learned our last dance for the show, and reviewed the others.  I had my phone so recorded them for practice.  She also talked about costume, something tropical if you have it, and please no coconut bras and grass skirts (which are Tahitian anyway).  I have a bathing suit coverup that’s tropical but maybe I’ll find something in one of the port stops that would be better.

 

After hula, I’d agreed to meet Glen and Carol at Club Fusion to go to the wine tasting this afternoon.  Carol showed up, so I called our room.  Glen was just getting ready to go, so we decided to meet him there.

 

We went to Michealangelo dining room, and were quickly seated.  Glen arrived soon after, as well as a couple.  The tasting began with the Manager of Club Class speaking and the the Manager of Michaelangelo.    It was a pretty standard Princess wine tasting.

 

After that, we went back to the room to relax for a bit, and watched the first half of Fantastic Beasts - the Crimes of Grindenwald.  

 

At about 5:30 we headed to the Elite lounge, and were soon joined by Carol and Eric.  We stayed until they closed at 7, because there was no dance music at 6.  At about 7:15 we headed to Explorers for Beatles Trivia.  We did well, but on one song got half the title, so we marked it as wrong.  Several teams tied for first with perfect scores, so they had a tie breaker.  Afterwards, on the way to dinner, we thought maybe others had given themself credit for the partial answer, but we’ll never know.

 

After that we headed to dinner.  There was no line, and we were quickly escorted to a table in the center of the dining room, we decided it was too loud and asked for a quieter table.  They took us to a table in the same section we were at last night, but with the other wait team.  

 

My phone gave out midway through, but here are some pictures.  

 

Menu:  

 

 

 

 

 

Watermelon appetizer:

 

 

I had the above appetizer, plus a second of steamed asparagus with warm bacon dressing.  We all then had a veal scaloppine with a really good mushroom sauce. I finished with Cherries Jubilee.  There seemed to be nothing going on when we left,  so we walked around the promenade deck for a while.

 

At about 10 Glen and went to the Wheelhouse, and it turned out that Cel & Tito were leaving and the house band (aka the orchestra) were setting up.  When they started, it was loud, and seemed to be more jazz than dance music, so we decided to call it night.  We ran into Carol and Eric coming in, so we said good night and agreed to meet at the IC at 10am.

 

Back to the room and some TV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi , just come across your blog and read with interest .

we are doing this cruise in April, first time with Princess after about 20 with Celebrity and anxious we will like the ship, we are so used to Celebrity .

I downloaded the Princess app and booked dining for 740 each night but glad to see we might not be stuck with this time . I also booked the Italian for one night and was a bit annoyed they took the money there and then instead of putting it on our onboard account. 
Would you say the food is as good as celebrity?

Irene

On 11/12/2022 at 3:30 AM, tuffyiscruisin said:

Completely agree with Scott on this tour we did it yesterday with Princess and have to say it’s one of the worst most boring excursions we have done. If you can’t or are afraid to drive this road you probably shouldn’t have a licence! It is as boring as batshit! 

Hi,

we are on a Princess cruise in April and want to do Road to Hana. I was thinking of the ship tour…..how boring is it? What size of vehicle do they use and how many people on the tour? Do they stop often for pictures to be taken?

Hubby not keen on driving as he drives enough at home…looked at private tours but look very expensive 

14 hours ago, aliaschief said:

A beautiful day in Scotland. Great countryside vistas and we stopped at some distillery’s. In Dornoch tonight staying in quaint Dornach Castle. Just a wonderful experience.

 

Dinner is ordered and having a venison dish and gals partridge.

 

Thanks for report and post.

 

 

 

You are lucky with the weather this week.

looking forward to meeting you in Rotterdam

Hello, we live about 50 mins from Greenock just south of Glasgow.

I would recommend staying in Glasgow, the Greenock area is very industrial and not much to do in the town itself. So much to see and do in Glasgow.and many hotels depending on your budget.

sorry I can’t help with a company for transfers but I’m sure if you Google you will find something

My husband works in police in Scotland and was refused as not for international guests, not very fair

1 hour ago, aliaschief said:

We signed up for Hal transfer after receiving port change information. $39.00 is much better than the average 160 Euro cost of a cab. Train is cheapest but the bag drag would be a hassle. Some days you wonder whether all this is worth it.

Where do you find out about the transfer?

And is it only on Sunday morning?

we cancelled our Amsterdam hotel and booked one by port in Rotterdam, Then found cost of cabs so decided to get train but worried about all the bags

7 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

Thanks for the notice.

At least they gave u 2.5 weeks' notice.

Did they give u transportation info between Rotterdam & AMS airport or Amsterdam Central train station?  Included or $39 cost?

Following since ours still says Amsterdam PTA in Sept...

No it says

We look forward to you joining us on board Rotterdam.

We wish to advise you of a change to our embarkation port. Because of a prolonged drought in the Netherlands, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management has limited the hours during which the IJmuiden locks leading to the port in Amsterdam can operate.

We had planned to pass through the Ijmuiden locks overnight en route to Amsterdam to disembark guests from the current cruise and for your embarkation. As this will not be possible, your embarkation will now take place in the city of Rotterdam on Sunday, August 14, 2022. At this time we are still evaluating the effect on more distant future voyages and will advise you of any changes to your planned disembarkation on board. Please note that your online itinerary, Navigator app, and any notifications generated by our booking system will continue to show Amsterdam, as we are unable to make that change this close to your cruise due to system limitations. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

As a gesture of goodwill, guests will receive $50.00 USD onboard credit per person to offset any unexpected costs this change may cause.

Guests with Holland America Line pre-cruise hotels or airport transfers will be taken directly to the pier in Rotterdam. Guests flying into the Netherlands will not have to make any adjustments to their flights due to this change. For guests who are making their own way to the ship, please see the below information regarding Cruise Terminal Rotterdam.

Address

Cruise Terminal Rotterdam

Wilhelminakade 699
3072 AP Rotterdam

it also gives info on trains and recommends you take a train.

we fly into Schipol on Saturday morning and have now cancelled our hotel in Amsterdam and booked one by the port in Rotterdam. Only pain for us is lugging the cases on a train. Have looked at many sites for car pick up and nothing under 100 euro

Just had email to say we will be departing from Rotterdam and not Amsterdam on 14th August Sailing

We did sea scooter snorkel tour in Moorea last week and we stopped here to snorkel. 
There were  people on the motu that had  arrived by jet skis but they looked like locals. 
We were not on the motu but saw lots of fish , 3 rays swam along with us, saw a turtle and shark.
 

8 hours ago, medskis said:

We and another couple are booked for Rotterdam for 21-28 August dates. Verandah Deck 6. We have previously sailed HAL Osterdam 12 nights in 2018, on Adriatic dream itinerary and Eurodam Mexican Riviera 2019. 

 

Yesterday we completed our first Celebrity cruise (to Bermuda, 10 days, on the Summit).  We originally chose Celebrity a few years ago to cruise the Med on APEX in 2020…. Cancelled of course and rebooked Apex for Med 2021…we canceled that when they moved Apex to Greece for summer 2021 as so many other ships were doing.  With HAL scheduled for August 2022 (lift and shift from 2021) we chose the Bermuda / Celebrity Summit as an easy way to use our FCC.  After talking with many on board, and some who had cruised on Rotterdam during the winter, and a friend who just completed APEX Baltic who had done a few HAL Europe cruises, I think we are talking apples and oranges in some comparisons. Celebrity Edge class ships like APEX are very well regarded for facilities, food, entertainment and all……  a very frequent cruiser on Summit who had done 2 weeks on Rotterdam in February declared HAL food « consistently » better than Celebrity and that seemed to be applicable when considering the sailing we were on…. Food good, and a few times great, but not quite what we had experienced on our own prior 2018 and 2019 HAL cruises in Europe and Mexican Riviera.  My friend who just did Apex in Baltic raved and said she would rebook Apex in a heartbeat (they had sailed HAL 24 days Konigsdam in Europe pre Covid)

  We are very much looking forward to cruising on the Rotterdam on 8/21 and I also hope to be able to sail Celebrity Apex /Beyond in not too distant future.  With a bit more time to staff up (one server last week told us it was her first day on board/new contract and I am sure all lines are trying to staff up) it would be interesting to have more reports with apples to apples

comparisons.   re food, I guess it is also « on the palate » of the beholder! 😊
On the HAL Mexico cruise we were joined by friends who had cruised multiple times on Oceania. I was surprised on the last night when in the MDR they said they thought the food on HAL was every bit as good as what they experienced on Oceania.  I was impressed.

Fyi - one more note re the Summit…. Beautifully redone interior spaces including cabins but what a tight bathroom.  We are narrow people but the shower was quite tight to maneuver within as was whole bathroom and someone paced out the cabins and said most are 8.5 feet wide.  Plenty of good storage though and long enough for a vanity desk/ small loveseat close to balcony end of cabin.  We were Aqua class which is just below Suites class, midship, deck 9. It was quite nice having an exclusive restaurant for breakfast and dinners for Aqua guests, considering we were a bit adverse to BIG venues.  Re Covid, someone just posted they asked CD (?) on way out and he said 6 cases reported , 1900 pax / 90% full. 

Maryellen and Rob  Philadelphia, Pa. 
               PS ScotsLady ……  we are visiting Scotland for 12 days before flying into Amsterdam.  First time there. Lucky to have an old friend in Edinburgh and we even have tickets for the Royal Military Tattoo.  Renting a car and headed to Oban, Skye and Inverness too. 

 

 

 

Hi,

Good to hear your views on the ships.  We have sailed Edge and Apex and would do either again.

Enjoy Scotland, hope the weather is kind to you, nothing worse than seeing our beautiful country in the rain. We live in the west near Glasgow .

Currently in Moorea for 2 weeks then on Paul Gauguin cruise.

Irene

We are on this cruise 24th August, first time with HAL but we chose for ports.

cruise mostly with Celebrity but also Cunard, Oceania and RCI. Last cruise was with. Celebrity Apex last September and was just wonderful, hope HAL measures up.

we are in an aft suite for this cruise.

Irene

2 hours ago, seascot said:

Yes, we have booked with Teking in Aitutaki, not Rarotonga.

So have we