Monkeygirl2

We have done Cairo so wanted to spend a day looking around Alexandria

Has anyone been to the famous Cecil hotel which was frequented by Montgomery, Churchill, Agatha Christie & Al Capone? 
On our last cruise our MDR colleagues got dropped off there on the ships freebie shuttle and enjoyed drinks there. They were taken into a room with photos and mementos of those famous peoples stay and said how interesting it was

Alexandria library - I want to take a look but my husband thinks it will be swamped with hundreds of people on the ships Best of Alexandria tour. Any feedback from anyone who has visited on if you can wander around on your own or have to take a tour. I’ve noted the entrance fee

also are the Catacombs worth a stop.

thanks

It does look like it’s 90 JD for tourists not staying in Jordan but why not use the Contact us form on the Visit Petra website and get clarification 

We took a ships tour to Petra so not sure how much of the cost was entrance fee but we did go into the information office for maps and free wifi. The staff there were very helpful

You will have a fabulous day

Thanks, appreciate your response, staying in a holiday post cruise so we’ve gone with Tim Brown tours as great reviews

Hi

Just looking for some advice on anyone who has taken a day or overnight safari to Hluhuwe-Umfolozi Park whilst staying in Durban. We are staying there Post cruise in Nov so I’ve been looking what’s available by Tour operators. Pick up from our Durban hotel would be ideal but some tours start from the Park itself so we would have to arrange our own transport there and back (1.5hr journey)

I contacted our hotel to see if they have vendors there (or the concierge) that could arrange our tour but they can’t help. Perhaps such tours are readily available in the city but would rather have it booked in advance

We haven’t travelled to South Africa before so looking for advice or feedback on people who have taken this tour in the last year

thanks

Thanks for taking the time to reply and the valuable information you provided. Very much looking forward to our visit

Thanks very much for the feedback, its given me some confidence. Much appreciated

Hi there, we are in Santa Marta on 20th Jan on MSC Poesia, we dont dock until 9am and I can see that the Guru walks and other free walks all start at 0830 or 9.30 from the historic centre. You mentioned docking at the commercial port and getting the bus to the gates/town as is normal practice so Im thinking that there will be a bottle neck of people waiting to disembark and we wont make the 0930 walk. They always give priority to people who have booked shore excursions with getting off. The afternoon tours are too late as we sail at 6pm

I suppose we could book and hope for the best but wondered how long it took you to get into Santa Marta

thanks

Hi there, we have 3 ports of call in Papua New Guinea in March 23 - Alotau, Kiriwina Islands and Rabaul (New Britain)

Has anyone visited them recently and what was their experience of the ports of call and whether there are any other options than the ships shore excursions 

I have looked at the official visit Papua New Guinea website and there isnt much detail on what you can do on a one day visit if you aren’t getting married or staying in a hut

We sail at 6 or 7pm each day so dont want to be “lost” at the other side of the island so happy to stay near port 

thanks

Pam

Thanks guys, great advice. Pacific Whale looks the business and a good deal

Thanks for that detail, much appreciated and food for thought. We are in Honolulu the following day (we leave Maui 2359hrs and arrive Honolulu 0700) - do you think we will see whales early in the morning on our way

Im excited about the whale watching, we have a full day in port so will make the most of it

finally, the ship runs a 4hr Haleakala at Sunset excursion - have you done that? Sunset is around 1830hrs so thinking of squeezing that in too

Thanks Mrs Brightside, useful info. I think he has looked at GlobeLink and hope nothing really bad happens !! 

So true, dont need a grumpy husband, having a rethink of RTH

Scott, thanks for the feedback, I hadn’t considered the state of the road. our cruise line is selling this trip at a good price (better than independent operators) so Im tempted to book it however we have been lucky enough to visit Oahu, Maui and Kaui previously on cruises and taken helicopter and road trips, swam on beaches with black sand and stood under waterfalls

The ship excursion experience seems to be taking to photos from the coach and perhaps wetting your feet in the sea when we get to Hana

it does get great reviews from everyone but the photos they post look like things we have already done

Wouldnt mind a whale watching tour but not sure Feb is a good month

thanks again for the detail, will check out Paia also

Hi there

We are in Kahului and I am keen to take a shore excursion along the road to Hana. My husband isnt that keen and wants to stay in port but it sounds like a great day out

One of the independent tour operators say that they dont go back the same route to Kahului so their trip is more interesting? Has anyone done that or just doubled back along the same road when you get to the end?

also some of the Independent tour operators say they will drop people off at hotels and then back to the port which is a time waster for us (versus getting a ship shore excursion)

can anyone recommend a good tour operator they have taken the Road to Hana trip with or if you stayed in port what did you do or other options

thanks

Pam

Hi there

what is their coffee and tea like? I normally take my own tea bags but as this is a Brit ship hoping the tea will be drinkable. PG tips, Twinings?

Coffee is normally poor in the restaurants so that you fork out for the premium coffees. Is that the same on Ambassador. What is their paid for coffee like? Costa/Starbucks

Understand there are kettles in the room so you can make your own brews. Do they have mugs or cups? UHT milk I would assume?

thanks

Pam

Might be a generic question and they havent updated their web page so refer to MSC, I dont think they are trying to trip you up. Expect we will have the same issue when we sail with them in Jan. Good luck

Just wanted your thoughts/advice on this please. We are on the MSC Poesia World cruise next Jan and the deal we bought has several “free” shore excursions. I am assuming that if we are at a port of call overnight then the free tour would be on day 1. This seems like a sensible conclusion however when we phoned MSC to confirm this they said we need to wait until we board the ship and check with the Shore Excursions team

Our predicament is that we are trying to book additional trips eg the free trip is San Fran city and Bridge tour (doesnt state the duration of the tour and it isnt listed on the Excursions page) but we want to book the Alcatraz Island tour independently and it books up quickly so we want to get it done 90 days before we sail (and you cant get a refund if you cancel)

also, shore excursions are 20% cheaper if you book before you sail

Hope you get where Im coming from, it relatively minor but a bug bear that they cant tell us now or find out

We have booked too, impatiently waiting for Ambassador to list their shore excursions. In the meantime Im checking out the usual Get your guide, Viator, Shore Excursions etc but they seem to focus on small groups ie from prices based on how many book

We’ve done lots of the Med ports before but excited about Istanbul, Troy, Haifa and Alexandria 

Hope there will be a meet and mingle/roll call too

Thanks JB, very good points. Definitely booking the shore excursion, not much difference (cheaper in fact) and independent small group trips

I’d be interested in feedback on independent tours also. We dont visit until 26th Apr 23 however we had Aqaba as a port of call in Feb 2020 and as we were only in port from 0800-1800hrs we made the decision to take the ships excursion (there were 2 good ones, one with a packed lunch and a restaurant lunch) regardless. Covid meant it was cancelled. When I spoke to other travellers on the ship they said they always use tour operators/guides when they get off the ship and havent had any problems. Better safe than sorry I say. Hoping to get more detail which I will share

We have booked a MSC World Cruise next January and with the pre cruise stay we need to have insurance for 120 days. We are 61 and 64 when we sail and in good health however most of the UK based companies we have looked at do not offer insurance over 90 days. Ideally we would like annual insurance as we have other trips planned but struggling to find even Long stay/extended duration single trips insurance

Any thoughts/advice please

Last week my husband woke up with stomach pains and within hours was admitted to hospital and had his appendix removed. Lucky for us we were sat at home and not on a cruise from S. Africa to Venice as planned. We’ve all seen people being evacuated from ship via the tender or helicopter and you are just grateful that you have good holiday insurance with you. It set me thinking about what would have happened to me and whether I would have been allowed to pack and disembark with my husband or not. If I had to stay onboard is the cruise line expected to support me with knowing which hospital he had been taken to and his progress or would it be down to me calling the Travel insurance people and hoping they work everything out for us. Does anyone have any experience of being evacuated?

Hi everyone

looking forward to our Shanghai to Southampton cruise on MSC Splendida 14 Feb 20

This is the first MSC cruise we have taken and would like some feedback on how organised MSC are with managing ship booked shore excursions ie from shepherding us off ship onto coaches etc.  We have booked 3 shore excursions Petra, Bangkok and James Bond Island (Phuket) as they seemed relatively good value for money and took the stress out of making sure we were back on time

From online reviews MSC gets poor feedback about being disorganised with excursions so thought I would ask the question. Petra also includes a packed lunch which should be interesting

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Meet & Mingle meeting

Pam

Hi Thom

thanks for the detailed reply. We are on 3 different RCI ships. I agree it sounds a hassle. At the Cuba presentation someone asked a question about B2B cruising and they said " no problem" but didn't give any detail on how it would work in practice. The same person also asked about how much duty she would have to pay if she took more than a litre of Cuban rum through but they just shrugged. We had 4 bottles but there were no customs people around anyway

i will ask at guest services when we get onboard and post about how it went when we get back

thanks again

Pam

Hi, looking for some help and/or best practice re back to back cruises. We have 3 b2b cruises out of Miami all with Royal Caribbean. Our first cruise is to Cuba so we will be bringing at least 4 bottles of rum back with us. We would expect to be able to put this in our luggage rather than carry it through. We also expect to get one or 2 other bottles of spirits at our other ports of call. Do the cases get scanned and could the booze get removed or queried?

Also, any tips for smooth swap over days. Anticipating having to wait around in the terminal or ideally handing our bags in and then getting transportation into Miami for a walk around

thanks

Pam