cruisinqt

On 4/6/2023 at 3:02 AM, FreestyleNovice said:

A bit late to the party but you can swap Blue Lagoon for the smaller and newer Sky Lagoon, which is also located more convenient in Reykjavik. That might save you some time perhaps.

 

Enjoy Iceland, it's a beautiful! 

Thanks for the info. We booked the Golden Circle tour in Reykjavik and decided to do the geothermal baths in Seydisfjordur at Vok baths instead. But we will be in Reykjavik for 14 hours so it’s nice to know about Sky Lagoon if we decide we want to hit a geothermal bath that evening. 

I just order the bottled water online, it’s $9.95 for a 12 pack and will be waiting for you in your cabin.  Each person in your party can bring a 12 pack of canned drinks. It can’t be in your checked luggage it has to be with you as you board. You can also bring more 12 packs of soda on board at each port. 

3 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

We did the Boyne Valley with a private tour guide (Derek Smith of Beautiful Meath Tours).  He took us to the High crosses and then to Newgrange to tour one of the ancient burial tombs that predates Stonehenge.  Fascinating.  He shouldn’t wed us a variety of other places and it made for a wonderful day.  

Thanks I’ll check him out. 

8 hours ago, Capt_BJ said:

 

I looked at the site for the Golden Circle tour and see a price for 'small group'

as 16.900 IKR / person which is $123.25 US if my app is giving me the correct exchange rate.

I booked with Saga Travel for our stops in Reykjavik and Akurreyri. They have some of the best prices out there. And they have really good reviews too. Our cruise lines tour is the exact same itinerary but double the price. I’ve gotten to where I really dislike booking with the cruise line. It’s so crowded and you’re always waiting on someone that’s wandered off and can’t be found. I can’t wait to see Iceland 

3 hours ago, Nitemare said:

once you get out of the city, "traffic" is likely sheep on the road or horses alongside, or a few cars pulled over taking pictures

We live in the countryside on a couple of acres in a small town so that sounds wonderful to me. I figured seeing various animals along mostly deserted roads would be the case in Seydisfjordur and Grundarfjordur (our other ports) since they are so small. But with Reykjavik being much bigger and being the capital I figured there would be a lot more traffic to deal with initially right there in the city. Being from the countryside I hate big city traffic, especially if it’s in a foreign country with different traffic laws. But driving in the rural areas of Iceland sounds wonderful. 

3 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Seven years later I still suggests he should move to Austin because the winters are too cold in Ottawa where he lives now. 

Oh my Ottawa has extremely cold winters. I don’t blame you I’d do the same thing. October through December it’s usually in the 50’s-70’s. January and February is our winter with a few cold snaps then it’s back to the 50’s-70’s until June when summer hits. We do have incredibly mild winters. It was in the 80’s today. Austin is a great place to live with lots of growth and job opportunities. It’s a couple of hours from where I live. I’m 30 minutes south of Fort Worth. 

49 minutes ago, marbleski said:

I still can't believe they gave up the nice second half lead they has last weekend. 

Yeah it was a real bummer. People around here are pretty sore about it. 

3 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Yep much more complicated than hopping on a motor coach on the dock. Plus the insurance and damage issues ... they seem to be mentioned often. I might dig a bit more and see if I can find a post from someone who rented a car last season.

 

Thanks once again

I looked through my notes (yes I keep notes when I’m planning something like this) and I did look into getting a rental car in Seydisfjordur. I just didn’t like the tours offered they sounded boring and I really wanted to go to the Vok geothermal hot baths in Egilsstadir which is a 30 minute drive away. It has a swim up bar in the pools, a free hot tea bar, a sauna, and a really nice restaurant. But the only bus going that way left before we arrived and a taxi was super expensive. So I looked into car rentals but they aren’t available in Seydisfjordur. Then I found a private driver that will drive us round trip for $163 (that’s for a total of 4 people.) All we had to do was book Vok baths ourselves which was very inexpensive. He told me that there aren’t any rental cars in the smaller ports but it’s easy to get one in Reykjavik. Good luck. 

5 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Thanks for the homework assignment lol. I looked briefly at rental cars for the two larger ports in Iceland but its a bit complicated and probably time consuming in Reykjavik.  Did you look into a car rental?

I never looked into it because I read some posts about it being a complicated and time consuming process in Iceland. But since we are in Reykjavik for 14 hours it might be worth it there. I just didn’t want to mess with traffic in a large city in a foreign country. 

5 minutes ago, marbleski said:

OMG you are so good. Thanks so much for the quick reply. The Iceland tours seem to be the hardest to figure out during my first few days of research. Are your Grundarfjordur, Akurreyri and Reykjavik tours on the larger tour buses or small group tours? 

 

Thanks so much

 

Reykjavik and Akurreyri are with Saga Travel which uses mini buses that carry no more than 15 passengers. The reviews often say there were only 8-10 people in their groups. With Grundarfjordur I used Sandra’s Tours which uses the large tour buses with reclining seats and a toilet. It’s a long tour with lots of long distance traveling so I think that’s why it’s a bigger group. I’m not crazy about big groups but there’s not a lot of local cruise tours to choose from and this bus sounds pretty nice. 

21 minutes ago, marbleski said:

Did you make arrangements for tours yet and who did you use?

Finding tours in Ireland and Scotland were easy since the ports are large cities with a big tourist industry and lots of cruise ships visiting. But Iceland was challenging. Reykjavik was easy since it’s the capital and a very large city. But the other 3 ports are small with only one or two small cruise ships visiting occasionally so they mostly cater to land based vacationers who will be there for a few days. So most of the tours I found online were very lengthy with no pickups at the port mentioned. I did finally get some amazing tours booked for decent prices though. Here’s what I booked all prices are for four adults:

Dublin- Boyne Valley Tours. A private tour with just our family where we choose where to go for a whole day for $550 

Belfast- Giants Causeway Tour with Odyssey Coach Tours for $238 GBP 

Reykjavik- Golden Circle Tour with Saga Travel for 79,600 ISK which is $580 USD

Grundarfjordur- National Park, volcano, & waterfall tour with Sandra’s Cruise Tours for $476

Akurreyri- Lake Mayvatn Tour with Saga Travel for 79,600 ISK which is $580 USD

Seydisfjordur- We booked a private taxi with Asgrim’s taxi’s to Vok geothermal baths for 150 Euros or $163 USD

Invergordon- Dunsrobin Castle & Distillery Tour with Thistle Excursions for 500 GBP or $619 USD 

All of these have very good reviews online and have good ratings with TripAdvisor 

32 minutes ago, eileeshb said:

check out the archeological website for Ireland.

I’ll do that thanks for the information it helps a lot. 

10 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

I had no idea, Royal Caribbean does nothing!

That’s good to know because I was contemplating some longer sailings with them. On the longer journeys you need extra stuff to make those extra sea days more fun so I’ll probably stick to cruise lines that do more things. Lectures are interesting but I really like the throwback days and dance classes. My favorites were the 1950 throwback day and the 1987 throwback day. It was fun learning the jitterbug and the Charleston too. 

5 hours ago, 3Shelaghs said:

There are other important tombs nearby, (if you can talk the driver into a quick stop and hop a few fences).

I’ve had total knee replacement surgery so I doubt I’d be able to hop some fences but my daughters love history and would jump at the chance to do so (pun intended lol.) 😆 Thanks for the info. 

5 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

If you can get to Enniskerry and Powerscourt House so much the better.

I’m looking at a private tour that’s more personalized so I can request places to go to. I’ll look into those places I appreciate the suggestion. 

2 hours ago, Joanne G. said:

I also would go with Glendalough and Wicklow

I guess that’s why most of the tours go there instead of Boyne Valley. I’m glad I researched it ahead of time thanks for your input. 

20 hours ago, Joanne G. said:

Yes, you can enter one of them, through a passageway so narrow that you have to leave bags and purses in a locker before entering

Hmm this worries me because my husband is 6’6” and has a bad back. I watched the video and the inside of the tomb didn’t look near as fabulous as I thought it would. I imagined all of these tunnels, tombs and carvings on the wall. It’s still very cool though. I wonder if my husband could get through there. If you were visiting Dublin again and had to choose only one tour which would you choose to go on?

6 hours ago, leela8 said:

How do you order bottles of wine and steaks from room service? I didn't know steaks were on the room service menu?

It’s not on the room service menu. But you can order from the pizza place or any of the restaurants and have food and alcohol delivered to your cabin. It goes onto your bill as a room service charge since it’s delivered to your cabin so the casino comps it if your offer includes room service.  Or at least they comped it for us. 

We are looking for a tour in Dublin and came across a tour going to Boyne Valley (Bru Na Boinne). Most tours go to Wicklow and Glendalough (along with Sally Gap and Lough Tay) and that area does sound interesting. But now that I’m reading about the tombs in the Boyne Valley area I’m more inclined to do a tour going there. It sounds like such a unique experience and I love historical sites. It includes a visit to Hill of Slane and Hill of Tara and possibly Trim or Slane castle and some Abbey’s too. Can you really go inside of the structure where the tombs are? Is it as interesting as it looks? Or is the Wicklow/Glendalough tour a more interesting area to visit? 

On 7/5/2021 at 10:31 AM, 64funwhisper said:

hey Tom have you been on a Elite ? I have one booked Oct 2nd how soon do they notify you on parking and liquor for your room - was it fun ?  thanks

I’ve been on several Elite cruises and I really like them. They will send you an email about 3 weeks before your cruise. There’s a link so you can arrange for free parking or car service to and from the cruise. It’s in a nice luxury sedan or SUV. It can be from anywhere not just the airport so we usually book ours from the hotel to the port pre cruise then from the port to the airport post cruise. You also select your choice of alcohol and mixers to be in your cabin. You can choose a free excursion from the list or use the $300 elsewhere like the spa. They have several cash giveaways at the Elite party and everyone gets an Elite lanyard. In the casino they have lots of cash giveaways for Elite cruisers too. You’ll get a big fruit basket with cheese and crackers it’s the $50 one in the fun shops. They give you several gifts and more bottles of wine mid week. The free room service is really good you can order anything steaks, bottles of wine, dessert etc. We usually order a couple 12 packs of soda to keep in our fridge. The free drinks anywhere is really nice on the ships with the Shake Spot. Their spiked milkshakes are amazing, especially the white chocolate truffle. If we see an Elite cruise we usually try to book it because we love being pampered. 

2 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

A couple of months ago I had some decent offers but I decided I would wait and book last minute to get a better deal. Big mistake, like you said no last minute deals to be found except the $50 last minute casino deals which are actually too last minute, sailing from the next day to maybe 3 days out.

My next booked cruise is on NCL in May. I booked 2 months ago and as of yesterday the fare has doubled, crazy times.

It’s the same situation for me. I booked an Alaskan cruise almost a year ago with Royal and I just checked the price and it’s more than doubled for me too. Cruise prices are crazy right now 

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Guppies are what casinos want because more often than not they don't come home with any money.

I never thought of it that way but you’re probably right it makes sense. 

I think Carnival has changed their strategy since the pandemic. All of the cruise lines, having been shutdown for 2 years, are hurting pretty bad financially so they’re looking to make up for all of their losses as quickly as possible. Carnival seems to be trying to do so by appealing to their main moneymakers, the gamblers, so they’ve revamped their casino players program. They are trying to get as many gamblers as they can on the cruises because they spend way more money than other regular guests. I’m not a huge gambler but I’ve been getting some insane offers with lots of very cheap last minute cruises. I used to never get offers like this because I’m not a whale I’m more of a guppy lol. I bet the minimum and limit my spending. But even nobody’s like me are getting great offers so I think Carnival is betting on the gamblers to help them get back on track financially. And they’re saving their last minute cheap cruises for gamblers as a perk for them so maybe there won’t be cheap last minute cruises for non gamblers anymore. 

3 hours ago, MBP&O2/O said:

Apart from "Maritime Websites"  ...... have you ever read Derretts " Ship Stability for Masters and Mates"  ?

That explains various aspects of ship Stability including  GM, GZ, and Curves of Statical Stability in more depth 😵‍💫

My father was in the navy so being a military brat naval things fascinate me. So was my husband, his father served in the Navy in World War 2 and boy did he have some good stories. I really miss him. Anyways, I’ve inherited tons of naval books from both of them and read quite a few so there’s a good chance I’ve read it but I’ll have to check to make sure. (Though if it’s a really new or recent book I might not have it.) I can’t check the collection right now since I’m letting my cousin go through it, he loves these types of books too. I do remember a book that really fascinated me though, it was called “Stability And Trim For The Ships Officer.” I liked it because it broke things down really well without getting too complicated. You should check it out sometime it’s a good read. I may even bring it with me on my upcoming transatlantic cruise since we will be having lots of sea days. I had planned on bringing some of my father in laws old World War 2 books but now you’ve got me missing all of those naval books. 

Our cruise just replaced a port stop with Dublin. We are looking to book a small private tour there. Most tours go to Wicklow and Glendalough along with a visit to Guinness. I found one that goes to Boyne Valley and it sounds interesting, especially the tombs at Newgrange. We aren’t big drinkers so the distillery doesn’t interest us. We love history though, especially castles and Abbey’s. Does anyone have firsthand knowledge or experiences with these two areas? I’m torn about where to go. Also, are either of these areas physically demanding? I’m fine walking around and exploring but I have a knee that will start to hurt after about 30 minutes but I’m good if I rest it a few minutes.