cruiseathon

A good idea is to start your trip to Alesund with a visit to the tourist info center at Skateflukia where you can pick up a self guided tour of the stunning Art Nouveau bit of town. And the short walk up Mount Askla is well worthwhile for the 360° beautiful views!

WN i believe

Yep, the Costa cruises website still lives!  By my reckoning it was effectively down from 5th January to 14 February - nearly 6 weeks!

You should be fine during the early part of the year in the south eastern Caribbean, as the sea conditions are generally very favorable.  The SeaDream 1 may be small, but it does visit some fantastic ports, out of the way to larger vessels. And you could always pack some sea sickness tablets just in case!

When doing some research on snorkeling opportunities at Ocean Cay, I noticed that there's a partly sunken wreck off the North tip of the island (past the wedding cabana). You can see it in the official MSC video at 2.10.  Does anyone know if it's accessible and a good snorkeling destination?

Hi, I think I can fill in one of the gaps! Looking through the charters list at cruisetimetables.com I noticed that Noordam, Feb 14 2020 is chartered out to Atlantis Events for an Auckland to Sydney cruise.

Hi rstackjd,  Yes, we just took a taxi from Basseterre town to Frigate bay.  It was not too expensive, $30, and we managed to arrange a return taxi with the same driver for the same money.

We were there in February 2018, and managed a stroll around Basseterre - the limited highlights were the Berkeley Memorial Clock at the Circus, Independence Square (a little run down) and the Cathedral.  Then we went off to Frigate bay (which was gorgeous).  And at the top of the road on the way over, my better half was persuaded to take a photo opportunity with some guy's pet monkey - I'm still worried about the disease potential😉

Photos attached

My number one tip would be to carefully plan your day in Cozumel - where to go, what to see and what to do. Otherwise you'll waste too much time, and miss out. And I agree about not playing bingo - the ship version of the game is over in a couple of minutes, and somebody else always seems to win.

My recommendation for Villlefranche would be the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. Take a short walk from the tender station to the (very pleasant) beach, then continue onwards from the beach for about fifteen minutes. The house was once owned by the Baroness Ephrussi who married into the Rothschild banking family (nice gig if you can get it!). It must be the quintessential grand Mediterranean villa with beautiful archictecture, fabulous furnishings, fine views over the bay and a magnificent garden. A little like the superb Vizcaya villa in Miami, only not so damp! Ooh, I forgot the musical water fountains. Here's one of my pictures from when I visited on Liberty OTS in 2013.

Chania is a beautiful town, and it would be a crying shame to go on some long excursion elsewhere, missing out on this jewel of the Mediterranean. When we went there on Navigator OTS it was our favorite port. It's very easy to get to, as there should be a free (or low cost) transfer bus available, and the journey time is around 15 minutes. Things to see include the Venetian harbor, the Venetian shipyards, the old mosque, the castle with a marine museum, and a fantastic old town. Find a restaurant under the old city walls for an unforgettable light lunch. There's also a great beach around the headland past the castle. Here's a picture from our visit - ;)

The other thing is we went to Katakolo last year, and to get to Olympia we took the train - the station is within easy walking distance of the port. $$$$ cheaper than a taxi!

Hi, we went to Paleokastrista from Corfu cruise port last September. We went via bus - regular and cheap - first pic shows bus stop just by port entrance - head left as you come out of port. For the timetable see https://greenbuses.gr/index.php/routes-en?rt=A9. Journey time was just 25 minutes. There are three beaches at Paleokastrista, but the main one is the best one by far. Though the beach experience was a little spoiled by the endless coaches of cruisers going on grotto boat tours :) - from the little pier on the far side of the bay in my pics. We did not try the grotto boat tour ourselves (so could not comment), or wander up to the monastery. But it was a brill beach. Second pic shows beach, and third pic shows nearest enjoying some light refreshment ;)

Something else to consider for an easy day in Piraeus would be Piraeus itself. The Municipality of Piraeus have just published a guide 'Destination Piraeus' that has some walks that might be of interest. The guide is available on line at http://www.portnet.gr/attachments/article/6064/destination%20piraeus%202016.pdf

Alternatively how about Batis beach around 3 miles away from the port - quite good for a town beach. We went there ourselves a couple of years ago - see http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2013759 for my picture ;)

Excellent puzzle! I suppose the simplest answer is that the Port of Los Angeles will use one of their (many more-than-adequate size-wise) deep water container ship berths, and bus the passengers from cruise terminal to ship.

One idea is a snorkeling trip to South Friars beach, a 10 minute cab ride from the cruise terminal. There's a long reef parallel to the beach (about 50 yds offshore) which is home to hundreds of colorful fish. Combine this with a walking tour of Basseterre, and your day is just about done.

Here are some photos from our recent visit, to give you the general idea ;)

View of North and South Friars beaches

South Friars beach

Basseterre - The Circus

Basseterre - the entrance to Independence Square

Basseterre - the fountain at the center of Independence Square

Definitely take the port bus. It's very convenient and regular. The only downside (if you're into that sort of thing) is the missing of some great cruise ship photo opportunities. Here are some useful photos -

Photo of the sign (at the waterfront side of the Columbus statue) showing the way to the port bus stop

Port bus stop 100m from Columbus statue

Rubbish photo taken from bus (this is where walking would have been better!)

Epic looking good ;)

If I were you I would make straight for the train station and follow the previous poster's suggestion of a day in Antibes, a far more friendly town than Cannes. Here's there's lots to do - enjoy the bustling town center, then pick from several options - a cultural visit to the Picasso museum, or a relaxing visit to the Gravette beach, or a watersports visit to the Juan les Pins beach, or a envious wander around the mega-yachts at Port Vauban, or a energizing walk along the Cap d'Antibes coastal path. The train between Cannes and Antibes is very scenic, cheap, and regular.

We visited Coki beach in March, snorkeling gear at the ready. Beautiful beach, but absolutely heaving with people, the busiest beach ever! Worth considering other options?

Cruisinwhizz - to answer your question - the walk from Nelson's Dockyard to Pigeon beach via the Goat Trail (also called Middle Ground trail) took about 40 minutes over a small hill at a very gentle pace, in all only a distance of a mile or so. Note that there's a big sign between Nelson's Dockyard and Fort Berkeley announcing the start of the trail. There was lots to look at on the way - some interesting ruins of old gun emplacements and lookouts, colorful cactii, and some wild goats ;)

Had a great day. Took public bus over to Nelson's Dockyard, looked around the historic sights, then wandered via the Goat track over the hill to Pigeon beach, relaxed and swum at the beach, then walked back by the road to Nelson's Dockyard and picked up the bus back to St Johns. Here a some photos to give you a flavor of the day ;)

You know there is another option - the buffet restaurant. There's no extra cost, there's no set time, and the food is often the same as the MDR but plus lots more. IMHO it's definitely the best option for winding down after a busy day exploring a port of call.

Here's my picture of the piton(s) from Emerald Princess - not as good as pghsteelerfan's I fear, but at least it's another sight ticked - without having to endure a bumpy coach ride or heaving boat trip!

Our cruise ship called at Civitavecchia last year, and since we had already been to Rome, we decided to walk around the town. The attached photo shows the highlights of our tour. Working from the top left 1) Roman lighthouse (fenced off) 2) Roman harbor 3) Porta Livorno 4) fountain of Vanvitelli and church in old city wall (beautiful). You can also walk along the top of the wall via the steps next to McDonalds 5-7) Old town (heavily bombed in WW2 and little remaining, and yes, it's my better half under the purple umbrella!) 8) Cathedral 9) Trajan theatre 10-11) Il Pirgo (the beach looked good enough for a swim/sunbathe on a hot day) 12) ‘The Kiss’ statue on seafront promenade (same as the one in San Diego?). Two other things we planned on seeing, the Forte Michelangelo and the National Archeological Museum, were both shut. Overall we much enjoyed our day despite the fact it was drizzling and overcast.

One good thing is that the pavement between Civitavecchia port and station is very wheely friendly - there are little ramps at all the kerbs. (Photo attached). The walk was very easy with a moderate amount of luggage.

Here's a picture of the big statue mentioned. It's a useful landmark. (The sculpture is of VC Bird, the first prime minister of Antigua ). When we arrived at the bus station we just asked a bystander where to catch the #17, and within seconds we had joined a bunch of chatty and very friendly locals in a small minivan, which took off straight away.