Mickie

Oh my gosh, so glad I found this discussion. I've apparently missed posts since at least Monday to my Roll Call for a September sailing on the Westerdam.  Someone tried to help, but I couldn't clear it. 

Tied on my main computer, cell phone and Kindle. 

test, not receiving postings

8 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

thanks Mickie.  Guessing this is on the Westerdam.  How many days please?  And I will be happy to add you 😊 

Yes, sorry I wasn't concise. Yes, the Westerdam, 53 days!!

Majestic Japan, September 2024...

Cruise Critic Name: Mickie

Mickie and Neil Bachrow

Jackie...Its been a while for Neil and I to cruise on HAL. We will be on the Volendam, January 3, 2023 Grand South America for 72 days.

He and I will never forget the wine tasting in your cabin, on the wonderful Prisendam. Our bottle of Aldis house wine won the tasting!!

Mickie

11 minutes ago, LoriLoriLori said:

 

I think Italy is coming out with new guidelines at the end of March. As of now, if you dock in Italy you must take cruise sponsored excursion.  Hopefully this will change at the end of March.

 

I am questioning my cruise choice.  Carrara port is 146 km to Florence.  One-hour and 45 minute drive.  There are closer ports to Florence.  We are staying in Barcelona for a few days before we board so I will make the most of it and may look at closer cities to Carrara.

I hope rules change re shore excursions. You make a good point re Carrera to Florence! We are also planning on staying in Barcelona a few days before. We had all these reservations made for 2020. Alas starting again.

I wss just told the same from a Florida TA while booking cabins for NY relatives on a Royal Caribbean cruise next year. Not sure what to do next.

We are booking the July 2022 cruise today with our grown children and two teenage grandchildren.

We rarely book ship tours and agree with other posters about all those private companies being so much better and less expensive..

However, has Royal changed their Covid rules that do not allow passengers gets off the ship UNLESS with one if their groups?  Hope I'm not spreading misinformation!!!!

14 hours ago, marazul said:

You can get uber. It should be about 20-25 euros. Use your uber app to do a couple of "fake" tryout bookings and see what results you get.

 

Also look at rome2rio.com to check fares in all manners of transportation. 

 

You definitely need a car (uber or taxi) to get to the Chagall and/or Matisse museums, otherwise you spend far too much time and aggravation using public transport.

Thank you so much for your quick and helpful post!! I have the Uber app on my cell and will look at the other one you mention!

We're a little hesitant about buses or train from port to Nice, given the language difference.

Are Ubers there generally and reliably available?

We want to go to Chagall and Matisse museums, but there are no tours there on the day our Royal ship is in port, August 13, 2020.

1 hour ago, edinburgher said:

The "Google map of Venice Restaurants" is a good starting point.  The more you zoom in the more restaurants you can see, plus there is usually a brief descripotion of them on the map location.

Website links to each down the left side if you think you found it.

 

And if you look at Tripadvisor reviews of your hotel, there is often a link there to "restaurants nearby".

 

And Tripadvisor. Venice. Restaurants.

Click any one of them on the list as it will bring up the mapon the right side which shows all the listed ones.  Again you can zoom in.

And you have the links to each for reviews and there is usually also a website link.

 

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

We are returning to Venice next summer and would like to locate specific restaurant we enjoyed. It's off Saint Marks Square, not far, a couple of blocks, from hotel we stayed in, Best Western Monte Carlo. 

Is there a really good map that might help us locate it?

8 hours ago, Sujormik said:

Hi, I’ve been trying to find the itinerary for the 4 day pre-cruise land portion of our trip and I can’t figure out how to get it on the website since they have no availability to add more people.  Any suggestions?  I just want to see what is planned so I don’t duplicate when we arrive ahead of time.

 

Thanks!

How about trying another date, in July or August, where it is available, and review details. Or go on another popular website, that I'm not allowed to mention, and check details.

I've read through the tips and did a search. Can't find an indication of the number of PEOPLE that go on a shore excursion booked through the ship, particularly in Sitka.

There are small group tours that can be booked privately, up to ten, that sound more inviting to me.

Mickie

How do you contribute to the Crew Welfare Fund? Cash? 

14 minutes ago, kayakcove said:

The only way I know is through the online booking process. You do not have to enter any personal data to get the availability.  I use a different browser for doing those.  Azamara site recognizes me in Chrome and takes me to booked cruise page, so I use Microsoft Edge for my test searches.

Hmmmm....I'll try that. TU.

5 minutes ago, kayakcove said:

We are the same sailing and had booked a Balcony and bid on Club Continent Suite and won (See post 105). I had been tracking available cabins and I am not surprised by your offer, earlier this week there were 43 open V2 balcony cabins available with none or very few Interior or Oceanview.  They may want to shift passengers to areas where the room attendants have more capacity. 

How do you track available cabins? I've done that in other lines, but can't figure it out on Azamara.

Several of us stayed at the Banks Mansion after our cruise. Loved it. Basically all inclusive and well done.

 

It's location was perfect for us. We could walk to the Anne Frank House and to the museums (we like walking).

 

 

Other CC friends stayed at the JL No 76 which is right in the museum district and were very pleased with it.

 

 

Amsterdam is very easy to get around and they have great signage as well as friendly people if you take a mis step.

Jacki, thanks to Gigianne, I think, for the recommendation of the JLNo.76!! Great small hotel, lovely room, helpful staff and included breakfast. Very short walk to van Gogh and Riiks.:)

Wow!! Great news. We are flying delta next week from MCO. TPA would have been preferred!

This may be obvious to some, but not me.

We will be on multiple segments on the prinsendam next month.

We have much more OBC for first leg than the others.

Would it make sense to purchase a second wine package toward the end of the first segment to be used in the second segment?

Question for Mickie, Did HAL send the cruise information to your TA at your request?

We were thinking of booking this cruise direct with HAL and not working with our 2018 WC TA.

When we pre-booked on-board, we did not give them our TA's name & address.

I think HAL sent booking to TA because she arranged the Future Cruise Credits several months ago at our request.C

The $200 was fine, but we're hesitant to be giving HAL $4800 more by NEXT WEEK!!!

HAL has already assigned a cabin and dining arrangements, none of which I have had a chance to review yet.

While on the 2018 WC, we put in $200 with the Future Cruise folks for the 2020 Grand South America & Antarctic Voyage.

We know it's not going to be on the Prinsendam but rather maybe on the Rotterdam.

Got an email today from HAL asking us to log into their site for checking into our reservation for the 77-Day Grand South America & Antarctic Voyage departing FLL on 5 Jan 2020.

The email had no information or links as to which ship and the details of the itinerary.

Could not get very far anyway with check-in because my current passport expires before the planned end of this cruise.

Question: Has anyone gotten an email from HAL on this cruise?

My TA called that she received paperwork from HAL today re this world cruise, looking for a payment NEXT WEEK.

I haven't seen ANY details of the trip yet.

:)

We are on the Koningsdam for a Mediterranean cruise late Sept with our grand daughter who loves Weetbix for breakfast. I've done 5 HAL cruises but have no idea about the range of breakfast cereals. Is Weetbix or Vita Brits available?

 

I'm trying to get her onto porridge/oatmeal as a back up but am not having much success to date but there is always toast and Vegemite (she is an Aussie after all).

Where's the vegemite thread?? Lol!!

We bought a small jar back to the U.S. to show friends. Guess it's an acquired taste as the pictures we took of friends trying it attest to.

How do I find the specific Fll Pier address to put in the Uber form so that the driver can find us and transport is to Ft. Lauderdale hotel in november?

Mickie' date=' I think that you and your husband may have been on the Prinsendam wth us in May 2013 on a TA?

 

 

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You're right!!! I think we played maj jongg together several times and Neil and I are also from Florida!!