Cornishpastyman1

These comments are really helpful. I'm wondering if anyone could suggest which beach would be better when traveling with kids (ages 5-15). Also, I'm thinking we would walk around the town a bit first, then head to a beach for a couple hours. If so, do you recommend lunch in town or at the beach? Thanks!!

We did exactly that sort of thing, taking lunch in town before catching the bus to Paradise beach. All the best, Tony

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Thank you Tony! Your videos are great. I've only watched the Venice ones at the moment, but they were helpful. We are sailing out of/ into Venice in August/September and I'm trying to plan where to stay, and what to do before and after our cruise.

 

Thanks Diana, they are just a bot of fun to remind me where I went, as on a cruise the days can merge into a blur. I hope you have as much fun as we did, especially in Venice which is my all-time favourite port.

Debating if both can be seen adequately in one day or to comcentrate on just one sight...anyone having done either?

Hi Karen

Both very well worth seeing. I went there from Kyoto, so a fair bullet train ride away. It made for a long day but we still had plenty of time for good look at each location and I assume you'll be starting from much nearer than I did.. All the best, Tony

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If it's any help in your planning, here are short videos from most of the major Italy ports at most of the best-known tourist destinations,

This is the 7.5 hour train/bus combo day. There is no audio on the outside platforms, probably by design so people don't hog the space for long periods and everyone who wants to can have some time out there. Chilkoot don't guarantee having the end car but usually do. If you do it I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. All the best, Tony

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I have 24 hours in Vancouver with an overnight stay in a downtown hotel. Any suggestions on which highlights to hit, given our limited time?

If it's any help I did this. All the best, Tony

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If it's any help, when we went to the castle a few years ago we walked up, and as this shows (near the start) the no. 28 tram goes up to and maybe all the the way to the castle. All the best, Tony

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Thanks for posting those videos Tony, I'll have a look as soon as I finish replying.

Sorry there was time wasted trying to dock but at least you still had a good day.

What time of year was it? Rainy season by the look of it :)

Thanks (and to Ski Mom 2 too) that day was 16 October 2013. The weather was very pleasant throughout the cruise, and not bad during that day but it ended in heavy rain. With the light fading fast and our transport back to Naples leaving at 7.30 pm we didn't have the option of nipping into a cafe until it passed. To be honest, once we couldn't tender into Amalfi our plans were in tatters and it was only the miracle of two people falling ill that morning and so dropping out of a pre-booked tour of 8 and me happening to be standing by the tour leader when he found out that we had the super day that we did.

Hi,

 

Been reading through the posts on the Amalfi Coast but would love to hear peoples experience & recommendations for tours just to these three towns. I'd really like to visit Villa Cimbrone & Villa Rufolo in Ravello. Positano is on hubby's bucket list & Amalfi is between the two so we'd like to check out the Cathedral there :). We'd also like perhaps a bit of flexibility on the day too & not just do something that is structured that doesn't suit. We have booked ships excursions for some other ports but they are not really offering what we want at this port. We'd just like to mainly soak up the coastal atmosphere of these 3 towns, whilst seeing some sites that are of interest to us. We don't really want to be on a big bus for this one.

 

Cheers

LM

Hi LM

We "did" those 3 towns but couldn't tender into Amalfi as planned, instead having to dock at Naples which camped our style as we couldn't even do that until noon and the daylight ran out around 7 pm.. We were in group of 8 with Joe Banana and it looked like this. From memory entry to Villa Cimbrone was €6 pp. It was still a super day, although I could have done without the rain at Ravello. All the best, Tony

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Thanks ever so much for this post. I would truly hate to miss seeing this in person.

 

I have read some of the reviews on some of the ship's excursions. One excursion combines whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier. But the complaint was that there was not enough quality time to do the glacier. Nugget Falls looks absolutely AMAZING on that video.

Thanks for your kind words (and to Gloria too). From memory (but correct to 15 minutes :)) we docked at 1 pm and caught the 1.5 mile shuttle to Juneau town. There is room for one cruise ship in the town but it wasn't ours that day. So we were in town by 2 pm and booked a whale watch/Mendenhall combo with one of the vendors there ($125 pp in 2014).

At 2.30 they took us by minibus to Auke Bay so we would have been on the boat at 3 pm and spent 90 minutes on the water, which was fine, we saw lots of whales (video below). We were then taken to Mendenhall (I would say we were there by 4.50 pm) and told that the return bus trip to Juneau town was leaving at 6.15 pm, so had just under an hour and a half at the glacier area.

From the drop off point in the car park to Nugget Falls is just under a mile walk, so doing that at a leisurely pace with a detour to the Photo Point will take 25 minutes at the most, 45 minutes there and back. Even if you spend 10 minutes on the beach looking at the waterfall you can do it all in under an hour so have a few minutes to look at the salmon running if the season is right. Had we had 2 hours we may have gone into the Visitor Centre but what we had was enough, as it was cool and damp. From Mendenhall - Juneau town took about 30 minutes so we were back by 6.45 pm, and rather than wait for a shuttle ($3, every 15 mins I think) I walked back to the ship. All the best, Tony

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If you looking for variety of experience and have time for an activity you like the look of, I would say do it. As Juneau was before our GB day we went to Mendenhall after our whale watch tour. It was by no means a waste of time and did not cost much but you get a better view of glaciers, esp. Margerie glacier from the ship in GB. At Mendenhall you have a nice walk and can stand close enough to Nugget Falls on the beach to feel the spray, and there is a visitor centre too (which we didn't have time for). I don't regret what we did but with hindsight would have at least investigated other options, although as our hours were 2-10 pm there may not have been many of them :) All the best, Tony

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We are visiting this spring (May ) what are the must see sights and things to do in 3 hours here?

From about 2 minutes in this shows what I did in my 3 hours there All the best, Tony

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Hello: 1. Can anyone recommend a tour company for this port?

2. Is the port close to "need to see"?

3. Can you do this port on your own?

Thank you we will be going on Celebrity Constellation next summer

This is what we did on on our own, buying local currency at the bureau de change outside the palace. All the best, Tony

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Will be stopping at Leixoes next year and can find very little info on this board.

 

Looking for a tour guide (taxi driver, even accepted) for a few hours tour in the morning and then drop off at Sandeman's or Taylor's Port for visit and long, leisurely lunch and then return to port. Any recommendations?

I can't give any recommendations but in case it helps we did this from the port. From memory the train was about 3 minutes walk from the dock and we bought an all-day ticket for about €6 (in 2013) and just walked around. The boat tour was around €10. All the best, Tony

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Hi Tony,

Your detailed notes are very much appreciated. We are taking a Pacific Northwest cruise out of Seattle next Sept. and hope to do a 5 or 6 day Rockies tour. It will be just the two of us and have some flexibility, so could go either before or after the cruise. Flying into Calgary from Boston would work well for us and then the self-drive to Vancouver would be doable.

 

Lots to research and your notes are a tremendous help. We don't ski or white water raft, but we do like adventure and there is lots to choose from. Again, thank you so much for letting us pick your brain as it were. Have a good weekend.

 

Best regards,

Denise & Mark

You're so welcome. Being just a couple you can be much lighter on your feet than we were so may get away with just 2 days at Jasper. Anyway, if I can help further get in touch (my e-add is in my signature).

Hello Tony,

Have begun to watch your terrific videos on You Tube. What a wonderful job you did, we are thoroughly enjoying your tour. Makes us want to visit the Rockies even more. We love these types of trips to Alaska as well, can never get enough of the scenery.

 

 

Would you mind if I ask what rental car company you used? You made a self drive trip very tempting. Our only concern is that we would want to end up in Seattle where our cruise begins.

 

 

Would appreciate any suggestions you may have. Again, your videos were terrific, you have a nice looking family. Everyone seemed to be having a ball.

 

Thanks again,

Denise & Mark "Sleddogs"

Hi Denise and Mark

Thanks for your kind words, I always make vids of my trips as especially on trips like that I would otherwise never remember where we went ! We had a great time with that one.

On the car hire, to be honest I can't recall which company we used except it was one of the big ones (Alamo/Avis/Hertz) but our "search" would not have been very sophisticated. We flew into Calgary from London, collected the car at the airport and drove to Banff. As we needed a Dodge Caravan or similar I imagine my sister (Chief Administrator for Overseas Trips) just Googled "car hire Calgary airport" and took it from there. We collected it at 4 pm which meant it had to be at the Vancouver drop-off point by 4 pm a week later or we would trigger another day's hire charge. Despite seemingly meticulous planning we only made it with 10 minutes to spare but that could be because I threw in an unscheduled stop at Whistler purely because I went skiing there 20 years ago. The others were not overly impressed :')

We bought a 5 day National Park pass, and as we were a family/group (of 6) it was just under $20 a day. The driving is very easy, with plenty of parking everywhere. 2 nights at Banff and 3 at Jasper worked well. For our white-water rafting my niece was too young to go on the grade 3 rapids and rather than split the party we just did the grade 2. I think unless you go up to grades 4-6 the difference is marginal, and it was good fun. As it turned out I could easily have taken the camcorder but with the cruise coming up the next week didn't want to risk ruining it, so that is why that bit has just a few stills from the CD that you can buy at the end.

Overall I would give ourselves 8.5/10 for the itinerary and what we saw. Maybe even a 9. With hindsight I think I would have done a glacier drive/walk instead of the Glacier Skywalk and missed out the Banff Gondola, which is all very pleasant but had no wow factor after all the really steep gondolas/cable cars we have ridden on our ski trips. My favourite sights were the crashing waterfalls and walking the canyons, especially Maligne Canyon. It was a wonderful experience in the summer but would be even more spectacular in winter when waterfalls are frozen.

You'll see that we followed the well-trodden path that 99% of first-timers do, nothing very groundbreaking. As long-time skiers, while we enjoyed the scenery we really wanted to see bears and after a slow start we got lucky. Which was just as well as we didn't see any on the Alaska cruise, and specifically our day out of Skagway and into the Yukon, which was always going to be our best chance.

As you're heading for Seattle you'll taking the same roads. Jasper-Vancouver is a very long way, which is why we had to stop at Kamloops. But we did get to see a Grizzly bear at the wildlife park, which you won't in the wild. Obviously how you would do it is down to time, budget and how much driving you want to do. It's clearly not ideal to have a long travel on the day you start the cruise but Vancouver - Seattle is "only" 142 miles so if your ship departs late you could leave Vancouver early to catch it. But that would mean seeing very little of Vancouver and also Seattle (I've not been but imagine it's a great city).

These are only my thoughts, there are so many ways to do this sort of thing, but having a car gave us options each day by allowing us to stay longer here and shorter there as the mood took us , as well as be able to work around the vagaries of the differing opinions of a party of 6 :D We saw the Rocky Mountaineer at Jasper but all the passengers on that would have to get on coaches to go where we did so they must have been all around us at various times. All the best, Tony

Have wanted to do this itinerary for a long time and would really appreciate any advice.

In case it's any help or interest we did a self-drive from Banff-Vancouver ahead of our Alaska cruise and I made videos of each day which can be seen from no. 7 in this playlist

It was all very easy, from memory we stayed 2 nights in Banff, 3 in Jasper and 1 at Kamloops (where there is nothing to see but that wildlife park but Jasper-Vancouver is a very long drive). All the best, Tony

A friend of mine returned from an Alaska Cruise and said that Glacier Bay was foggy so she never saw any glaciers.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments on this issue.

Very sad to hear this, these are the GB glaciers. All the best, Tony

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Hi Randy

If it's any help or interest, somewhere in here

are the vids I made of my days in Boston, BH and Halifax, all done on our own, with the day out from Halifax using a taxi at the dock ($60 per hour, we had 3 hours). All the best, Tony

For that American west coast drive holiday we should have flown in and out from Dublin. Unfortunately one of our party needed emergency surgery in California, necessitating an extra 10 days stay and we had to return direct to London. So all I have from Dublin is this from the outward journey, stretched wafer-thin to fit the song :D It's not much of vid but that's the way things go sometimes. All the best, Tony

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I am taking to the boards of CC hoping for some help from fellow cruisers who are usually very friendly and helpful.

 

My wife and I are taking the Jade in October to Canada and Quebec.

 

So I am hoping for some suggestions and tips on planning our trip. Our stops include Sydney Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, a 2 day stay in Quebec, and Halifax Nova Scotia.

 

Any suggestions of any can't miss sights/places? Any excursions worth the money? I will preface this with saying my wife has asthma and COPD so alot of walking is out of the question. Some is ok, with stops inbetween.

 

Any guidance would be very much appreciated. Thanks, Mike

 

EDIT - My wife did say she wants to see the red sand beach in prince edward island. But again, not sure where that is in comparison to where the ship is docked.

Hi Mike

If you're going to Cavendish to see about Anne of GG/Lucy Montgomery then Orby Head is a good place to see the red sand cliffs/beach (take binoculars) - it shows at about 2.10 in this

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We hired taxis at the dock throughout our cruise at $60 per hour (in 2015), which worked out fine for 6 of us. All the best, Tony

Which is more handsome/interesting? Which drive from the city is more scenic?

 

Thanks!

I know nothing about the canyon but this is the waterfall. Not the most spectacular in the world but still very good, with plenty of access points to view it from all sides if you have the time. Can't really comment on the drive there as we went by 800 bus and I didn't pay much attention to it. Maybe that suggests it wasn't all that stunning :D All the best, Tony

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On my NE/Canada cruise I thought Boston and Quebec were outstanding, Halifax and PEI interesting, Bar Harbor was OK for a relaxing but unmemorable day, with Sydney the least interesting port I have ever been to. All the best, Tony

Hello! I am working on planning my first ever Alaska Cruise and we are hoping that we might be able to do this in as few cruises as possible, but we dont know where to begin. We have only seen one cruise that seems to cover all of Alaska, the Great Alaskan Explorer on Holland America; but looking at the reviews on here it looks like the ship HA is using is not very good so I am hesitant to say thats what we want to go with; so I thought I would try my search a different way.

 

If you had to give someone advice on the ports they ABSOLUTELY need to go to when going to Alaska, what would you tell them? And if you could give a little information, such as, lots of shopping, need to do an excurision, or lots of sightseeing, I would sooo appreciate it!!!

 

FYI we are not looking at certain cruiselines at this time cause we are truly just trying to figure out our itinerary right now so please dont suggest itineraries, just ports.

 

Thank you everyone in advance!!!

The first 6 videos in the ALASKA (Inside Passage)/CANADIAN ROCKIES/VANCOUVER playlist below show what we did in Juneau, Skaway, our Glacier Bay day and at Ketchikan. All the best, Tony

Hi Tony, I checked out your video before of Thunder Hole and you've managed to capture your time in Bar Harbor really well. I looked up the Tidal information for Thunder Hole and we're not going to get any action either during our time in port. The tide is happening around 6 in the morning and we don't get into port until 8 in the morning however we are still planning to visit Thunder Hole, Ocean Path, and Sand Beach. Thanks for sharing your video and your experience.

No, that does sound a bit short of thunder :) but if there's no wind then it would only fairly gentle lapping of waves in any case. If I hadn't spent so long following the family into various shops faffing around to no great purpose I could have walked to Bar Island, although once I'd got there ..... so what ? All you really want is the sun to shine !