Jamietravelstheworld

I’ll be on a 40 day cruise on the Navigator and want to bring my electric toothbrush. From past cruises on other lines, the only outlet in bathroom is only for shavers. Can toothbrushes be plugged into that outlet or is there another one in the bathroom, and is it 110 or 220. Thanks. 

4 hours ago, buchhalm said:

How far out of the box are you willing to go?

Tattoos of Aboriginal designs? An erotic massage? Tandem para-gliding? Flight simulator experience?

You gave me a great laugh this morning. 

On 11/8/2019 at 3:47 PM, SF said:

We are scheduled to be there the first week of January disembarking from a cruise and we had planned to stay 3 days in a hotel not far from Nathan's Road. With all the riots and unrest right now we are seriously thinking about changing our flight reservations and leaving the day the cruise disembarks. The riots seem to be more violent and not only contained to one area so we feel if we stay we won't get to see very much plus the unease of not knowing if something's suddenly is going to happen nearby concerns us . Anyone else considering changing their flight reservations to leave earlier after disembarking a cruise or canceling their trip to HK?At this point we are so unsure of what to do as it seems that things are only getting worse.

I've thought about changing my flights - I arrive in HK on 2/29. But haven't for the following reasons. My cruise line is still running their post-cruise tour (I'm not on it), and so they're not overly concerned. I'm booked to stay down by the harbor, and my plans are: 2/29-cruise ship tour to Lantau Island; 3/1-disembark ship, go to hotel, and private tour of parts of HK I haven't been to before; 3/2-tour to Macau; and then 3/3 I fly out. Lantau Island and Macau have not been affected by the protests and if there are problems on 3/1, I'll just stay at the hotel and enjoy a relaxing day. My hope, of course, is that everything will settle down by then.

I have a day and a half in Sydney in January. I spent a week in Sydney this year and did most of the touristy type things. I've been a full day tour to the Northern Coast for my full day, but am struggling with what to do on my half day. Right now I'm thinking the Taronga Zoo with the behind the scenes with the animals. But is there somewhere/something you've done in Sydney that you'd recommend? Something out of the box?

Thanks,

Jamie

Has anyone done a day trip from Hong Kong to Guangzhou? I'd love to find a guide or tour that starts and returns to Hong Kong, not one where you have to get yourself to Guangzhou. Any suggestions or experiences?

I'll be in HK Feb. 28-Mar 3. Arriving on Regent Seven Seas Voyager - the 28th I'm doing a ship tour to Lantau Island. The 29th I disembark the ship and have a hotel on my own on Hong Kong Island until the 3rd. These latest posts are making me nervous. My plane ticket is for Mar. 3rd and there's a change penalty. I was going to do a day tour to Macau on Mar 2nd, so the option of just going to Macau on the 29th would be a possibility. Are there other areas around HK that people would recommend besides Macau? Thanks.

Absolutely buy trip insurance and beyond what the cruise line offers. I was injured on a Princess New England/Canada cruise in 2016. I didn't have trip insurance and thankfully my health insurance covered a lot, but trip insurance would have made my life a lot easier and would have saved me money on rebooking plane tickets, the part my health insurance didn't cover, and possibly would have paid for medical airflight. Now I always buy it, and go to either www.insuremytrip.com or www.squaremouth.com to compare plans. Go for the highest medical coverage you can afford.

Thank you all for your feedback. The ship does not offer an Australian Zoo excursion so I'm going to pass on that. I wish the ship offered the river cruise with Lone Pine - the excursion that is included is bus tour with Lone Pine. Deciding if I will do that, or will pay myself for the cruise/Lone Pine tour.

There's a roll call for Bali to HK - check it out here. I'm on Auckland to HK, same cruise.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2585093-voyager-bali-to-hong-kong-12-feb-20/

One day in Brisbane, should I go to the Australian Zoo or Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and why?

I hate Regent's website for booking excursions. Really clunky, slow, and hard to use. And if you want to make a change you have to call Regent. I wish they'd go with a system like most of the other cruise lines use.

On 10/13/2019 at 8:32 PM, Cairn Mom said:

If you are supposed to be in HK on a weekend then it might be best to go directly home. Currently, I’ve heard the weekends there are dreadful and nothing is open. However, apparently, it’s business as usual during the week. 
Our ship docks there over a weekend in March. Plan is to take a ship excursion to Lantau Island on Saturday and fly out on Sunday.Hope the situation is resolved before then. I have great sympathy for the protestors in HK.

Cairn Mom, what ship/cruise are you on? I'm on Regent Seven Seas Voyager that arrives in HK on 2/29 - I'm doing Lantau Island tour that day. I disembark on 3/1 in HK and am scheduled to be there until Tuesday the 3rd, but depending what's going on, may change that.

11 hours ago, jwh said:

Thanks so much for your review JamieandSam and also thanks to JennysUncle and T8NCruise.   I'll be on Zaandam later this year.    Can I ask what your cabin numbers were?  I shall cross fingers and hope that I don't have a cabin with tiles coming off the wall etc.  

We were in 2513. I wouldn't recommend the cabin, not only because it's dated, but it was forward Deck 2, and we were awoken several mornings but the tender deck being put out, by the anchor, and/or by the gangplank being set up. It wasn't a huge deal for us because it was around the time we were getting up anyways.

1 minute ago, freestyling said:

Where did your cruise take you? Were the ports interesting? Any excursions worth advising us on? 

Cruise was Montreal to Boston, with port stops in Quebec City, Prince Edward Island, Sydney and Halifax Nova Scotia, and Bar Harbor Maine.

Quebec City was fabulous, we toured the city and went to the falls. We had included lunch at Chez Muffy, which was excellent.

I've been to PEI before and it was still wonderful. They were still recovering from Hurricane Dorian, so there were areas without power and we saw a lot of downed trees. At the Anne of Green Gables home the bathrooms were running on generators. Tour included lobster lunch which was great.

Sydney, Nova Scotia is a waste of time. We did a walking tour which was fun but not very impressive.

We had been to Halifax before so we did the Hop On Hop Off bus mainly as a way to get between sites. Lots of tree damage from Hurricane Dorian so we couldn't go to the public garden. It wasn't storm related but we couldn't go to the Titanic Cemetery either, I didn't really understand the issue. Halifax is a great city, and others mentioned their tours were good.

We didn't do a tour in Bar Harbor as we had been there before as well. Acadia National Park is always fantastic and people on whale watching boats said they did see whales. If you stay in town, it's mainly cute shopping.

I just returned from a week on the Zaandam, Montreal to Boston. I was so disappointed and thought I'd share my review.

I'm a frequent cruiser, generally Princess, Royal Caribbean, and NCL. It's been at least 20 years since I was on HAL but I know it has an excellent reputation. The Zaandam did not live up to it.

Food: 

• Dinner in the main dining room was poor. I ordered red meat 2 or 3 times, and the meat was overcooked (I ordered medium rare) and texture was off. Lobster tail was overcooked and wasn't served with melted butter. Desserts were okay, but weren't as described. Fish tasted like frozen fish was used. Service was mediocre, our waiter seemed tired all the time, and on 2nd gala dinner, service was atrocious.
• Dinner in the Pinnacle Grill was excellent, steak cooked appropriately, and huge servings. Well worth the $39.
• Lido Buffet has a great salad bar for lunch and dinner. Breakfast food was average. Main courses at lunch and dinner were mediocre. Desserts and ice cream were average. Buffet closed at 2pm and didn't re-open until 5:00 or 5:30 so if you were hungry in the afternoon or when returning from shore excursions, your options were Dive-In Grill or afternoon tea (which I heard was good but I never went).
• Dive-In Grill for hot dogs and burgers was good.

Ship:

• The Zaandam is in need of renovation. The bathroom tile was coming off the wall in places and looked like it was from the 1960's. We did have a tub/shower combo which is a rarity on a ship, but I would rather have not had to climb over the high tub edge to get in the shower. 
• Cabin was well-designed and had a lot of closet space.
• I found blood on my pillow cases - wasn't from me - pillow cases were immediately changed but this grossed me out anyways.
• Public spaces were nice.

Entertainment and Activities:

• Main stage shows were terrible, with the exception of the stand up comedian.
• I never saw Amanda, the cruise director, anywhere except for the main stage shows. She did not seem particularly enthusiastic.
• America's Test Kitchen was ok, but needs an overhead mirror so you can better see what the chef is doing. Not enough seats in there.
• I didn't go to any of the computer workshops, but there are a lot of these, mainly on working with digital photos.
• There were almost no daytime activities. Trivia was boring and questions so obscure. I only ever saw one other cruise entertainment staff other than cruise director, and she wasn't very enthusiastic either.
• There was a fabulous string quartet, but other entertainment was terrible.
• I was so bored on this ship - and other people felt the same way.

Jamie

I stayed at the Twin Palms Resort and Spa. It was amazing!

3 minutes ago, sippican said:

 

They are quite expensive when compared to other highly rated tours. Can you tell me what makes them stand out?

It's a private tour, so is more expensive for that reason. They're really fun and knowledegable people who will adopt the tour to what you're interested in.

I highly recommend http://www.sydneyprivatedaytours.com.au/. I used them when I was in Sydney last year, for a trip to the Blue Mountains. Julia and her husband (whose name I don't remember) run the tours - Julia was fabulous and we ran into her husband while out there as well and he seemed great. On my cruise in 2020, I have 2 of their tours booked.

I am doing a tour in the Pattaya area, not booked through cruise line. There's a lot to do, including beaches, elephant sanctuary, tiger zoo (although reviews online are mixed of that), floating market, and much more.

5 hours ago, JenZ said:

However, the exchange rate went down after the airport shut down and I saved $100 by booking then.  

Maybe that's why my rate is lower.

12 hours ago, Sky shield said:

Hotel prices are so low, unheard of.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up. I just rebooked my hotel in Hong Kong (2 nights post cruise) and saved almost $100 US per night.

Thanks vada_9. This is very helpful and I just changed my tour for Napier.

Would love some input. I am booked for a shore excursion in Napier to Cape Kidnappers for a Gannet Safari. My cruise begins in Auckland and I'm doing a 3-day pre-cruise tour of Auckland. I was reading that tour discussion last night and read this in the description:  "Muriwai Beach on the rugged west coast. A stop is made on the cliff tops overlooking the beach. From here there is a walk of approximately 250 metres, through native plants, to the lookout. At the lookout you will be able to see the gannet colony. This is one of only two mainland gannet colonies in the world. You will be very close to the birds and depending on the season and time of day, you will be able to see their various activities such as nesting, feeding and displaying. Gannets are spectacular aeronauts and you may be able to see their wonderful displays as they dive for fish."

So my question is should I change excursions in Napier as I'll be seeing them in Muriwai Beach in Auckland. There's so much to do in NZ that I if I will experience them in Auckland, I'd love to do something different in Napier. If you've been to Muriwai Beach, is that a good place to experience the gannets?

Thanks,

Jamie

11 hours ago, mrlevin said:

 

Under Find My Cruise on rssc.com there is pull down menu for "ports."  If you select "Ho Chi Minh City" you will park up the Saigon river not too far from central Saigon.  If you select "Phu My (Ho Chi Minh)" you will dock at Phu My 80 miles from Saigon.  The only cruise scheduled to stop at Phu My is the Explorer in March of 2021; you are safe.

 

Marc

Thank you, that makes total sense. 

On 8/4/2019 at 11:43 AM, mrlevin said:

Ok, not into the city itself, but still within a few miles.  Phu My is 80 miles away on the coast.  It looks like just the one itinerary in spring of 2021 goes to Phu My, the rest of the stops still sail up the river.

 

Marc

 

 

Marc, where did you find this info. I'm on Regent Voyager next year and trying to figure out which port we're at. I'm hoping it's not Phy My.

Jamie