Turtles06

We have been to Puerto Quetzal twice, both with NCL. Each time, we took the "Antigua on your own" tour through NCL. This is round trip transportation to/from Antigua. A guide on the bus will give you information along the way and you'll be given a street map. The central/tourist area is very compact and you will not get lost. You'll have time to walk around and explore, and time for lunch. Antigua is very interesting, and I highly recommend going there. The drive is also a scenic one. (If you don't feel comfortable being on your own in Antigua, then pick one of the guided NCL tours.) If you do some research/reading over in the Guatemala port of call forum (link below), you will see that taking any form of non-cruise-line transportation/shorex to Antigua is not recommended because of the distance and because there can be traffic backups. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/356-guatemala/ Enjoy your cruise! Edited to add: I posted a detailed review (with photos) of our 2017 Panama Canal cruise at the link below. My comments on Antigua begin at post number 50. There may be other ports that are also on your itinerary.

Thanks for taking the time not only to respond but also to find and post those very helpful links. Glad you had another great WC!

Thanks for that information, much appreciated.

It's not near the usual docks used in Amsterdam If you go to the British Isles/Western Europe ports of call forum (link below) and do a search for Ijmuiden, you'll find a good deal of information, including transportation options. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/148-british-isleswestern-europe/

We have a port call to Bergen in mid-July aboard the HAL Rotterdam. From the port's web site, it looks like we'll be docking out at Jektevik and not at one of the more centrally located docks. It's my understanding that this is an industrial port, and that there will be a shuttle for cruise ship guests to the port entrance, but I'm trying to find out whether there's any shuttle or bus from the port to the central/tourist area of Bergen. (A search in this forum turned up very dated, pre-pandemic info.) I know it's early in this cruising season, but if anyone has any information, I'd appreciate it. And any information from the 2022 cruising season would be helpful as well. I know the distance is walkable, but if it's a really rainy day (hello, Bergen!), we'd like to have other options. If there's no shuttle, would it be hard to get a taxi from Jektevik? (I've also posted this in the HAL forum in case someone there has info about a cruise-line provided shuttle.) Thanks for any info!

We'll be calling at Bergen, Norway, on July 12 aboard the Rotterdam. It appears from the port web site that we'll be docking at the industrial pier in Jektevik, rather than at the docks near the (tourist) center of the city. Jektevik also seems to be the docking location for the earlier port calls to Bergen this season by the Rotterdam and the Nieuw Statendam. For anyone who has called at Bergen already in May on HAL (May 4), or will be doing so later this month or in June, I would appreciate knowing if there was any shuttle or other bus provided from Jektevik to central Bergen. And if anyone has any information from the 2022 cruising season, that would be great as well. Thanks in advance for any info!

The itinerary you posted above shows the ship is in Colon from 5pm-9m, not earlier. The ship will have done its partial transit before that. Could you please post the description of those excursions, and their times? Thanks.

Glad it was helpful. I strongly suggest reading David McCullough’s “The Path Between the Seas” before your trip. You will appreciate the Canal even more.

The OP’s itinerary shows the ship in Colon from 5-9pm. This is to pick up pax returning from shorex begun after the Atlantic locks. I highly doubt there will be shorex leaving from Colon at those hours. Your advice is spot on not to leave the immediate port area. Everything I’ve read in the Panama Canal forum about Colon is that it’s not safe.

May I suggest you head over to the Panama Canal forum (link below) where you will find a great deal of information about Panama Canal cruises -- partial as well as full transits. On a partial transit, the stop in Colon is not really a port call in terms of shore excursions, etc., it's for the ship to pick up guests who got off in the Canal to take ship-sponsored tours (the only ones you can take from there), including, for example, taking a small vessel through the locks on the Pacific side that you will not have transited on your own ship. A partial transit from the Atlantic side will go through the locks on that side (I think the Beyond may be too big for the original, historic locks and will use the new locks), and then enter Gatun Lake, where guests who have chosen to do shorex will get off for those. Guests may also opt to remain on board and go back through the locks they have just transited, staying on the ship to Colon, where the ship will await the guests returning from shore excursions. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/54-panama-canal/ I hope that's helpful.

According to this article, problems might continue throughout the summer: https://www.cruisehive.com/massive-cruise-port-traffic-backup-due-to-security-checks/101296

I've had the Face ID problem forever, but today the app says it "can't connect to the network." This is on two devices, so it would seem there are (different) issues today. Have a great cruise!

I have an iPhone 13 Pro. Every one of my apps that says it works with Face ID does so, except for HAL’s Navigator app. Anyone else have this problem? (I did a search, but nothing turned up.) If you’ve been successful using Face ID with the Navigator app, I’d love to know if you have any tips. (I have Navigator turned “on” in the Face ID settings of course.) Thanks!

I don’t tip differently in Florida than I do in NY. $5 per bag.

Same here. An awful thread.

You haven't asked me, but I posted earlier in this thread, having cruised to Greenland. See my comment No. 17 above about Nanortalik, which is lovely, a great place for walking around. The Open Air Museum is a don't miss. And if the local choir is offering a performance while you are there, that's worth the time as well.

I wonder what level of folks you talked to at NCL. I'm not saying they are wrong, but I think we all know that cruise line phone reps, especially front line reps, don't always have correct information. Yes, according to what I've read here on CC, the cruise line has to pay to use the Sea Walk; I really doubt the official port site would show a ship at the Sea Walk if payment hadn't been made or contracted for. I suppose the port site could be wrong, but . . .

Re buying tickets at the box office: there was something very special (if you lived in or were visiting NYC of course) about going up to the box office, asking what they had available for a specific date, watching the ticket seller pull out a stack of different colored tickets from the cubby for your date, and then looking at the options spread before you. Yes, I'm dating myself. It was such a pleasure to do that, especially as a young person. And you got those nice ticket stubs, too. 🙂 (Happy to report that I've moved up [or rather, down] from the Rear Mezzanine over the decades. 🙂) (my notes say: Pippin -- Ben Vereen and John Rubinstein)

Another way is to go to the web site for the specific theatre/show, which will have a link to their official ticket seller (Ticketmaster, Telecharge, etc.)

Cruise lines list Geiranger as a tender port, because it is for most ships. However, one ship per day gets to "dock" at the Sea Walk, essentially a floating pier, and so no tendering is necessary. The calendar on the port's official web site, linked below, will show you where your ship will be; if you see Pos. 4B/SW, I've read here on CC that's the sea walk. https://www.stranda-hamnevesen.no/cruise-calls/

The information in the first post says "4 land tours," but if that refers to the following 4 days listed, the first seems merely a transfer to the hotel in London, and the 4th, "London Embarkation," is a transfer to the actual embarkation site, Southampton. Is any actual touring done on either day? London is one of the world's great cities, and a very DIY city. If it's feasible for the OP, I would consider flying in early, and/or staying post-cruise, and doing more than the one day of "London Sightseeing" listed for day 2 of the "Land tours." I also want to point out to the OP that Paris is nowhere near the actual port (Le Havre) where the ship will dock in France. (Le Havre is, however, a great jumping off point for seeing the D-Day sites in Normandy, which is an incredible and very moving experience.)

Yes, thanks for that info! Totally new development!

A few years ago, we were on a Celebrity westbound TA from Southampton to Florida. Among our port calls was an overnight in Manhattan. 😊

Unless someone has taken a tour with Hi Colombia (which I've never heard of, fwiw), I don't know how they can really answer this. All I can say is that we toured with Dora some years ago, and it was a great tour. From my reading here on CC, that still seems to be the case. (And it is a private tour, just not a very tiny one.) What do you know about Hi Colombia? I can't find them on Trip Advisor, although a "Hi Cartagena" company comes up there. The most recent reviews are really poor. (I think it's the same company, because if you go to the Hi Colombia web site, scroll to the very bottom, and click on the Trip Advisor logo, you get taken to the Hi Cartagena reviews.) I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do!

If a paid Behind the Scenes tour includes the engine control room and the bridge, in addition to the usual places (galley, theatre, laundry, etc.), I think it’s worth doing, at least once, if you have any interest at all in how a ship operates. Is it pricey? Yes, and not just on NCL. The cruise lines have figured out another way to make money. I look at the cost as a shore excursion on a sea day. 😊