dreams_of_travel

17 hours ago, EmmyJK said:

Google says a taxi from ship to Mendenhall visitors center is $35-45 each way.  That is my plan to save some money and do the trails/sights on our own time. 

 

The public transportation bus is another option I have read/watched videos about.  It is cheap but leaves you with a good bit to walk and takes much longer.  

I think the Blue Bus tour operating from the dock does a round trip for the cost of that one way taxi trip. The taxi could be problematic to try to get a return from the park.  FYI the cell service at the park can be spotty, so trying to get a taxi sent to you may not be possible.   I agree the public bus option is a long distance to walk from the bus stop, and may not be the best. 

On 2/7/2023 at 8:31 PM, JeannyJ said:

Hubby and I are going on an Alaskan Inside Passage cruise with HAL July 12-19. We will be in Juneau on the 14 (our 25th anniv) and after much debate we've decided that we want to head up to the Glacier over going to the Salmon Bake.  There are 2 cruise excursions up to it that we can afford ... Mendenhall Glasier Explorer (a tourbus ride through the city and up to the visitor centre) and Juneau Tram On Your Own. My hubby REALLY wants to do the tram but I'm really afraid of heights and would need to sit on the ride up (esp if the tram swings at all). Soo I need your wisdom and help in choosing!  I need to know about the bus on the first excursion and if it's accessible for larger people, and about the tram (how stable is it and how far from the cruise terminal is it, etc) and the ride up and back down. Also how groomed are the trails to where you can see the glacier?   I'm really excited about our trip and leaving the prairies behind for a while! 😊

I was at Mendenhall in May last year.  I was pleasantly surprised how accessible/smooth/paved the trails were most of the way to the glacier.  FWIW I rarely do the ship excursion b/c they don't allow enough time at the park.  I usually just book at the tour booths after getting off of the ship.  Super easy, and you can stay as long as you like at the site, which also gives you time to hike as close to the glacier as the trails allow. YMMV

This is a dumb question (maybe) but how does one book a window suite? Which category pulls that designation class up?  

12 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

Sorry! I completely got that one wrong haha. Totally back to front. We did Daydream Island as a ship tour sorry. Probably paid far to much.. but it was an excellent day out. Basically the ship tendered us there and left us there for the day and then came back and got us (and lots of other passengers). Sorry that's not much help. 

Thanks for following up. Sadly, there is not an excursion for that currently being offered.(There's not one offering Wave Dancer either).  I'll see if I can find one via Viator or some other site. What year was it that you did Daydream?  I'm wondering if it just hasn't started back up with the cruise lines. 

5 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

https://wavedancerlowisles.com/sailing-the-great-barrier-reef/fares/

 

That shows you the fares as well as a live calendar showing availability. 

 

Back when we did it; we booked that excursion through the ship.. but nowadays we book things direct as the ships are burglars! lol. 

Yes, thank you. The Wave Dancer site was well done, and easy to find all the info.   I was wondering about the Daydream Island site.  Do you recall what you paid for that excursion/day?

On 1/25/2023 at 7:49 PM, Over from NZ said:

If you didn't want to go to the outer reef but still wanted to technically go to the reef and do some snorkeling (it can be a couple of hours across open water to get to the outer reef); I reckon this excursion was one of the best we've ever done on a cruise - https://wavedancerlowisles.com/

Turtles, coral, the works! And such a well-run excursion. We did it from Port Douglas. That left us the chance to explore Cairns from Yorkeys Knob. At Airlie Beach (Whitsundays) we took the excursion to Daydream Island for the day. That was awesome too. Got to use all their facilities, the pools etc. Great buffet lunch. https://www.daydreamisland.com/ 

 

I've poked around on the Daydream Island site, and really can't work out their cost for a day pass or whatever would be. Any suggestion for where to look would be appreciated.  I'll also check what shore excursions are being offered with the ship. 

Thanks for the Wavedancer recommendation.  I'm traveling with an open ocean swimming adverse person, and I think their offerings would be okay for them while I go off to snorkel. 

I was just on the Eclipse, and as my usual routine went to book a future cruise onboard.  I laughed at the prices they were citing for their upcoming cruises.  They wanted over $3k for 7 day in an interior cabin in the Med for spring of 2024.  I wasn't even booking as a solo.  IMO they have priced themselves out of the market for me personally.  I will wait to see if they have last minute price reductions, but I'm not holding my breath. FWIW I've got two Princess cruises booked at prices I am happy with for each of their respective lengths, 7 and 14 days. 

On 1/24/2023 at 8:59 PM, jajsmom said:

DH is a big Lord of the Rings Fan, so Hobbiton is a must visit for us.  Our cruise has three different ports that have excursions there (Christchurch/Lyttleton, Wellington, and Tauranga.)  Which is the preferred port to do this excursion?  Can we do this privately, or must we do it through the cruise line?  And tour recommendations please if we can do this on our own.  Thank you!

If you are going to Auckland I can recommend WETA Unleashed there.  It is an in-depth look at their creations, not just LoTR stuff. Their gift shop has all sorts of LoTR things that the WETA workshop were out of, so of course I spent too much there.    I just did a "cruise to Middle Earth", and visited the usual sights in each of those ports.  Christchurch is Mt. Sunday, but you won't have time to actually climb it, sadly.   You could try to arrange a private tour, but it will be pricey. I've done this tour twice with the cruise ship excursion.  Wellington is the WETA workshop. Tauranga is Hobbiton.

I do recommend visiting again, and doing a land based tour to see even more filming sites.  There is a land based tour company that specializes in LoTR/Hobbit tours of up to 14days.  I did it about 10yrs ago, and want to do it again some day. They really do a great job, and you get to see lots of the country.

4 hours ago, cachouonacruise said:

Thank-you very much for the suggestion TMLAalum, I will keep it in mind, since it does not yet seem to be offered by Celebrity at this time. We're still 13 months away from the cruise, may be more options will be posted in the future.

I just got off of a Sydney to Auckland with Celebrity, and they offered the Queenstown overnight etc, leaving from Milford Sound since that was where we entered New Zealand.  I think they offer that going either way around NZ. 

The only excursion I have done from your list is the Bay of Islands, Glow worm/forest tour.  It was an enjoyable trip.  Walking up to and through the glow worms caves was good.  I liked the forest part as well as getting to walk through the forest.   I don't know what else to add to describe this excursion.  I think it is a good choice based on your requirements.

On 1/13/2023 at 1:36 PM, JamieLogical said:

Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated. Sorry I haven't been back on CC at all since returning from our cruise. Everything has been insane in my real life. I didn't even unpack from the cruise until Weednesday night! My husband had COVID when we returned, work was completely nuts (I work at a college and our Spring semester starts Monday), I had a flat tire when I came home.... just all sorts of stuff to deal with and I feel like I am just now getting things back under control. Hopefully I will have a minute to actually relax this weekend!

 

I am sorry I didn't post about the last two days of the cruise. Overall, my general impression is that I will probably never sail Princess again unless there is an absolutely AMAZING itinerary for an AMAZING price, but it would have to be genuinely amazing. When I booked this Panama Canal sailing with Princess, Celebrity was supposed to have a Panama Canal sailing on the Millennium at the same time, just offset by one day. The price for the Millennium sailing was double the price of the Princess sailing, so it seemed like a no-brainer choosing between the two. Confronted with those same options now, I might be very very tempted to just pay double and sail on Celebrity. Especially since the Millennium is such a fantastic ship that has been complete renovated inside and out.

Sorry to read your hubby got Covid.  Hope he has recovered by now.

I am kinda feeling the same about Celebrity after my recent cruise.  I sailed the Eclipse from Sydney to Auckland starting 2 Jan.  The MDR food was horrible.  They somehow made usually flavorful food inedible multiple times.  The staff were fine, although the feel on the ship was all business, not the usual friendly crew. The pizza was totally tasteless.  Room service was equally bad.    What is weird is there weren't any food issues last May on Solstice. I'm not sure what is going on but it isn't a good change. I took one of my adult kids along, and he was beyond disappointed with the food compared to Princess food.  For a first Celebrity cruise, it was not a good one at all.  He has said never wants to go on this line again.  

I got off of the Eclipse on Saturday.  The food in the MDR was awful.  We ate there for breakfast, and dinner.  I could list the items that were inedible, flavorless or just wrong, though I may not remember them all.  A few things stick out.  One morning the bacon was rancid, having an awful odor, smelling like it had been fried in old oil that had been used for frying fish.  My travel partner had the schnitzel one night, and it lacked flavor beyond the telling, so he requested dijon mustard to try to eat it.  On several occasions a dessert was so bad it couldn't be eaten.  One was a pineapple upside down cake, another cheese cake, the third was an apple tart with caramel sauce with the sauce having been burned, so the whole dish was bitter.  FWIW I am not a picky eater but it was such a challenge to figure out what if anything would be better than the previous night.  Meaning we began to joke about which dish would have flavor each night.  It wasn't just me or my friend, it was our entire table of six. 

The buffet was not any better.  The pizza was flavorless.  I didn't know that was even possible to get pizza wrong.   Room service food was equally flavorless. 

We did eat in Sushi on 5 three times.  Those meals were quite good.

There was a theory we considered, that Celebrity is purposefully making the free food so terrible that it would drive guests to the specialty/for fee venues to raise more money for their coffers.  YMMV

4 hours ago, possum52 said:

I believe it is the banks who charge for a foreign credit card transaction, not the business. The business may charge you a transaction fee to cover their bank costs - 

 

'Credit card and debit card surcharges typically range from 0.5% to 2% of a transaction. But businesses can set their own surcharge amount as long as it is based on the cost of accepting a particular type of payment. Surcharges can't be worth more than that cost.

As a general guide, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have outlined the following costs per transaction, based on the type of card being used:

Visa and Mastercard credit cards: 1% to 1.5%

American Express credit cards: 1.5% to 2%

EFTPOS: Usually less than 0.5%

Visa and Mastercard debit cards: 0.5% to 1%

 

While most surcharges will fit within these rates, the ACCC website also notes: "different businesses have different costs of acceptance. In general, smaller merchants' costs might be higher than these indicative figures."

 

 

Thanks for posting.  I hadn't researched this for a few years, so it is better than I had remembered.  

On 12/8/2022 at 10:51 PM, possum52 said:

I live in Melbourne and have not had cash in my wallet since before Covid. Just about everywhere takes cards. For one day in Sydney, I doubt you would use even $5 as I think you will find you will be able to use your card everywhere for what you plan to do. If by your last meal, you haven't spent all your cash, put it towards your meal bill. 

Don't most places charge a 3% fee for foreign credit cards transactions?  While the exchange rate USD to AUD is quite favorable currently, that 3% fee will add up over many transactions.  YMMV

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I brought a power block that plugs into an EU outlet as I do on every single cruise. I have never been on a ship that didn't have at least one EU outlet. I always thought I was clever for utilizing the EU outlet for my additional outlets and still being able to use the US outlets in the room as well. Be er even occured to me there wouldn't be at least one EU outlet on Princess ships.

Pretty sure if you pull the bed out from the wall there is an EU plug down towards the floor. Though it may not be practical to use with your power block. 

On 12/16/2022 at 6:55 PM, Thunderbird19 said:

Will be visiting some of the same ports you are in January.  Booked a couple excursions through the cruise line, will do walking "tour" on our own at some ports, booked with Zealandier Tours for an excursion in Tauranga. They were very responsive to work with online.In Christchurch there is a free "penguin express" shuttle to the Antarctic Center if you are interested in that.

I'm curious which tour you decided on for Tauranga. I looked at the Zealandier site, and found one that seems to do it all in 7 hrs.   Seems reasonably priced as well.  I just haven't booked yet as I'm still researching this port stop.

Sorry OP for all the troubles.  Hope you have a relaxing cruise.

I'll never use EZAir again.  I didn't have terrible issues, but once I realized they were just an airfare consolidator similar to other online airfare travel agents I decided it wasn't worth the travel risk.  They are no help during IRROPS at all, and I've read will just tell you to deal with the airline directly.   I always book directly with any airlines, and hotels b/c the $$$ saved is not worth the hassle.  YMMV

52 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

Same issue.

 

I post from my iPhone or iPad. So, composing to a program (like word) is not an option.  So, I have to endure the CC dumping entire posts for unknown reasons. Doesn't happen on my home computer (like me typing this right now).  Cruise Critic seems to have some sort of incompatibility with ship based internet service.

Re: not having Word or similar.

I'd suggest using the Note app on either iPhone or iPad.  Type up your post, then copy/paste it into the Cruise Critic thread of choice. 

1 minute ago, drakes2 said:

I received an email for my last cruise so opted in I think its 1 point per night.  In all honesty I did not notice anything different as far as cleaning tidying room. 

How far in advance of the cruise did you get that email?  I sail Jan 2nd, and haven't seen anything yet. 🤷🏻‍♀️

6 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

The gravy train seems to have pulled to a stop, at least for now.

 

About all I can bank on any more are the Go Green points. Scored 24 last month 🙂

 

Tom

Where do you request the Go Green for a sailing?  In the past I got an email asking me to opt-in.  I sail in January. 

Re: wifi being reliable.  Generally yes it is quite good.  On my Crown Princess cruise in November I was able to stream the entire Sandman series on Netflix with little to no issues.  Posting your reviews should be just fine.  I would suggest you compose in Word or whatever app you normally use b/c I've had Cruise Critic forums eat entire posts, or refuse to post anything.  On my Emerald Panama Canal cruise I had issues getting Cruise Critic to load.  All the other sites I normally use were just fine. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

I'm looking forward to your review.  Safe travels, and weathering the incoming storm.  

32 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

When you do a search and see a list of cruises, there is a button at the top to choose Standard or Plus.

At other times the option to choose Std / Plus / Prem pops up after room selection, it is confusing.

When I'm looking at cruises, there is no price differences between selecting Standard vs Plus.  When you get through the booking and select show promos, there is none showing.   As someone mentioned above IT is clearly not ready for this offering.  I will keep looking, and hope they (IT) get things sorted soon. 

2Mil GBP?!? that is insane.  That aside, my companion has his regular health insurance which does cover to some extent overseas travel.  Going forward I will pay more attention to this for future travels.  Just glad that my extra insurance has Covid clause coverage whereas when I was booking a trip for 2020 it did not.  So many were caught unawares as travel came to a halt.    We will be okay for this trip.  Thanks for the discussion.

2 hours ago, hallasm said:

I assume that everyone who travels has travel insurance that covers illness, hospitalization and transport home.  An amount of USD 30K is in this context a very low amount.  
I'm sure it will be covered by all travel insurances.

I suppose.  The question is more that they will deny you entry if you don't have specific insurance coverage. I have an annual travel policy, however my travel companion does not.  I've read my policy, and it seems to cover both of us somewhat. Though the listed coverage is 25K after my regular health insurance has been charged.  Guess I'll find out next month. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was just reading entry and visit requirements for Singapore.  I was a bit surprised to read they want you to have 30K in travel insurance.  Is this a real thing, in that you won't be admitted if you don't have it?  Given that all in my travel party will be triple boosted, we should only have mild symptoms should we contract Covid, and not need hospitalization.  Can anyone elaborate on this requirement?