mkcruise

Thanks for your comments - given schedules it looks like we will opt for something around 1pm out of EWR - ugh!

We are booked on the Apr 1-16, 2020 cruise from Miami to New York, with a scheduled arrival time of 7:00 a.m. Our previous port is Charleston, so I assume we clear customs there? In any event, we are making our own flight arrangements, and there are options from any 3 of the New York area airports (LGA, EWR & JFK). Any thoughts or experiences on what should be the earliest flight time out (domestic)? I appreciate that the stress varies with the time of departure, but I am curious as to what would work? Thanks.

Thanks dkata and cruise kitty - definitely the information I was looking for - this is our one port to "play by ear", and it sounds like that is very doable. Now all we have to worry about is some decent weather!

We will be arriving on the Celebrity Solstice on 10th of February, 2019, and at this late date, we have nothing specifically planned or booked. It is a tender port, and we have priority, so we should be able to get off fairly quickly if necessary based on the 7 am arrival.

If we play it by ear, what are our options once we tender to port - are there various kiosks with tours and other activities? It looks like Fuller has several boat tours - do they have someone there as we get off the tender, or do we have go into central Paihai to find possible connections? Thanks for whatever suggestions you can provide ,

Mark

knot normal - I hope it helps insure a successful transfer. One of my fellow passengers on this tour/transfer did a little more digging, and discovered that the issue of not providing the promised van seems to come up on a number of occasions, so if the size of the van is important, I am not sure how you can fully protect your concerns. We were really packed in - there was luggage in the front seats, so the guide had to either stand in the area immediately behind the seats next to the exit door (where we also had bags) or in front on the center console.

Tour/Transfer From San Antonio to Santiago - we had an unfortunate experience following our disembarkation from the Emerald Princess on February 14, 2018 with our scheduled tour/transfer to the Santiago airport with SOUTH EXCURSIONS (it may market under other names as well). We were a group of 8 adults, and had made the arrangements back in October, 2017. The problems were as follows. (1) The company had confirmed that it would provide a van that could readily handle all of our specific luggage requirements - however, without notice they provided a much smaller van that provided for a very uncomfortable riding experience for the 8 hours. (2) The van was not permitted into the terminal area for pick up, and we had to exit to the street, which was chaotic and crowded, and made loading the van (which then took 30 minutes because it was too small) very difficult - the guide who met us just outside of the terminal did not seem to know that the van would not be permitted to come into the terminal pick area like the buses, and none of the materials disclosed this information. (3) Once enroute, the guide had no idea that we had specifically (by email confirmation) included a stop for lunch. (4) Apparently, because of the shift in the ports, the company/guide were not particularly familiar with a suitable "tour" and the associated traffic issues that made it impractical to maintain the schedule for the tour. (5) With the combination of the "new" tour from San Antonio, and the traffic delays which the company acknowledged afterwards is what happens when the cruise ships come in), the guide really became even more disorganized and confused. (6) Apparently to accommodate the revised schedule, a different lunch place was designated, one which the tour guide said he had never been too (earlier he commented on a lunch stop that was along our original route with special arrangements/pricing for us as cruise passengers). The price for a relatively simple meal, including drinks, was overpriced compared to several other lunches we had in Chile during the cruise. (7) The tour included wine tasting - which involved three (3) samples being poured, the date and alcohol content being provided, but absolutely no information on the background of the wine or the winery. (8) At the airport drop off, the driver was not familiar with the drop off area for international departures.

To its credit, the company did respond to my email outlining these issues, but basically laid it off to not being real familiar yet with this tour/transfer. Since I rely heavily on comments on this board in planning my trips, I thought it would be helpful to share our experiences with this company.:(

Thanks for the info and comments. The Google Earth shot did look like it was heavy industrial/shipping. Since we have the extra in port after checking in, I will probably do a little exploring during the day. Does anyone know what hours the buses run from the port entrance to each ship?

We are headed out in a few weeks for the South America cruise on the Emerald Princess, and wondered if anyone had any recent experience as to the following:

1. We board on the 31st, but the ship remains in port and leaves the evening of the 1st. Since we are coming directly from the airport on a Princess transfer with no opportunity to stop, once we have boarded, can we leave and bring on our free bottle of wine on board later that day or the next day?

2. What is in the general area - walking distance ideally - of the cruise terminal in terms of market/wine store. Apart from picking up the wine, we are looking for some permitted beverages to take on board.

3. Any flower stands in the area of the cruise terminal?

4. I have read about some of the "incidents" in BA to watch out for, but any specific warnings in terms of using taxis to go into the city, including for dinner?

Thanks for your input. :D

We are headed out in a few weeks for the South America cruise on the Emerald Princess, and wondered if anyone had any recent experience as to the following:

1. We board on the 31st, but the ship remains in port and leaves the evening of the 1st. Since we are coming directly from the airport on a Princess transfer with no opportunity to stop, once we have boarded, can we leave and bring on our free bottle of wine later that day or the next day?

2. What is in the general area - walking distance ideally - of the cruise terminal in terms of market/wine store. Apart from picking up the wine, we are looking for some permitted beverages to take on board.

3.

Just what I was looking for, and was planning a stop a Publix on Friday morning for "other things".

We are flying into Miami in May on a Thursday (landing around 4:30 p.m.), for a Friday departure on Celebrity. We are staying at the Hampton - Brickell, and for past cruises (other departure cities), we have taken a flower bouquet on board (pack a cheap flower vase in our luggage). Are there any places, like farmer's markets, or outdoor stands, that would sell flowers on Friday morning - we have found that bringing our own is not only much cheaper than the ship's flowers, but depending on the source, they last a lot longer. Thanks.:)

As with many, with all the perks we will have an abundance of OBC - I would like to pre-book a couple of shore excursions, but they get charged to your credit card, NOT your SeaPass account. I have seen some comments that suggest (but it seems unclear) you can, once you board, cancel the credit card payment and use OBC - however, does that risk losing the reservation for the shore excursion if it has filled by then?

I have only been to a route Aruba once on Princess and we left early afternoon. In May we will be there on the Equinox until 11 PM and I was wondering if anyone recalls if Celebrity generally docks by pulling straight in (bow towards the town) or if it backs up to the dock.? If it pulls straight in, we have an aft balcony and I thought it might be nice to have dinner out there - or at least enjoy the sunset from our cabin.

We just used Max for our December 6th visit - I did not want a structured tour, andI booked it online. There was one glitch, and that was there was only 1 available, but I spoke to Max by telephone and emails a couple of weeks prior to arrival, and he arranged for the 2nd ATV. Overall, I thought he was responsive and easy to work with - he spotted us walking out of the cruise area and escorted us to the ATVs. Very simple and as promised - we enjoyed the DIY approach to touring the island and stopping where and when we wanted - had plenty of time to do what we wanted. Would definitely use him again on a return visit.

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. I particularly like the thought of a nice breakfast in South Beach, although I would like to avoid dragging the luggage around so I need to find an accommodating hotel to drop the bags off for the morning. From reading some of the other threads it sounds like things are pretty close together.

Our red eye flight from the West Coast will arrive in Miami a little after 6 a.m., for our Celebrity Cruise that departs that day - it is a Friday, in early May, so it is pretty much the end of the Caribbean cruise season, and being a Friday, hopefully there are not too many ships in port that day. Any suggestions on what to do or where to hang out until we can head towards the cruise terminal, presumably around 11 a.m. ?

We did the bike tour only portion (you ride in a van up to the top of the pass) a couple of years ago and loved it. The key was that it was the first tour of the day, so we were going down the hill when most of the traffic was still going up out of Skagway. You need to be comfortable on a bike (definitely not wobbley) but they control the group speeds fairly well, and do a good job in getting you safely into the photo stops, even when on the other side of the road. We had pretty good weather - some very light drizzle - but at times the sun did break through for some great pictures. I can't comment on the train portion - been to Skagway 4 times (number 5 in a week from now) and never have felt compelled to do the train - but that's just me.

We are on a 7 day Caribbean cruise on the NA in December, 2016, and our promotion included 200 minutes of free internet - actually shown as 2 100 minutes (I guess 1 for each passenger - does anyone know if we will get any sort of credit towards the cost of the unlimited package like we do on Princess? Thanks.

Before Princess suspended their stop at Matzatlan, we used to walk out of the gate at the port and go down to the end of the street to catch the water taxi over to Stone Island - is that still doable? How many restaurants are still open and operating on Stone Island - even before the itinerary change for cruise ships, it seemed like the number of places to sit and enjoy a meal on the beach was dwindling.

I am normally a Hertz fan, but we are using Avis since it includes unlimited mileage, but I think it comes to around $110/day, including the charge for dropping off in town at the end of the rental; the per mile charge from Hertz seemed pretty steep, and I just did not know how many miles (km's) we would put on, particularly if we do the island tour.

Thanks for the comments - I did consider going to Moorea for our first night but also wanted to kind of ease into the start of our FP vacation/cruise, so I opted for the night at the IC Tahiti and renting a car. Not knowing the territory I thought doing a one nighter over to Moorea might be pushing it a bit for our first visit. I probably should have come in even earlier and spent a couple of days on Moorea, but we really didn't have the extra time to do it this trip. Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed that the Air France pilots aren't still on strike....

We arrive in early October a couple of days before our cruise departs from Papeete - the flight is an early one, and we assume we probably cannot get our hotel room - IC Tahiti - until later in the morning - we will have a rental car - any suggestions for a reasonably priced place to eat breakfast? How difficult is it to find parking in town during the day? Also, a little off topic, but what are the typical sea conditions this time of year, for things like whale watching or other open water excursions?

Emdee - thanks for the heads up - I was just trying to avoid something on the other side of the island or located at one of the hotels (I think there is a whale watching tour out of the IC Tahiti), and I wanted to avoid that trip if necessary just as a matter of convenience of getting to and from the ship.

We are arriving in Papeete a few days before our cruise in early October, and it appears that it would still be whale watching season for the area. I have found a couple of dive shops that seem to do small tours, but I would like to leave from the dock area where the cruise ship is parked. Any suggestions? Is it generally necessary to reserve ahead of time (it would probably be on a Thursday or Friday)? Is it better to take the ferry to Moorea and go out of there? Thanks.

I concur with the majority of the posts - the Ocean and the Pacific (been on each once) are wonderful for port intensive cruises. We found the service to be very attentive, easy to get off and on, and on warm weather cruises, nothing beats the back deck for breakfast IMO. On sea days, I did find that there was not quite as much to do on board, but we always book a mini-suite, and the balcony is truly the perfect place to spend the day reading and relaxing. We are headed to Tahiti in October this year on the Pacific - looking forward to it!