acadian_dad

My wife and I are on the Azamara Onward stopping at Amsterdam 30-Aug/31-Aug 2024. I am planning a trip to Holten to visit the Canadian War Cemetery (link) on the 31st (looks like about a 1-1/2 hr drive each way). I checked trains but it looks like it could be 2 hrs + each way and so feels a little tight with our relatively early departure from Amsterdam at 5pm and doesn't really give us option to tour anything else. Wondering if anyone can recommend a preferred private hire car / transfer company operating out of Amsterdam who could do this trip and possibly add a few tourist stops along the way (I found a few by Googling but wondering if anyone has a specific recommendation) ? Alternatively, can you rent cars out of the cruise terminal in Amsterdam (or within walking distance) ?

thanks for the photos ! Are you on board right now ? Would love to know how long / wide that bed is when open if you have any way of measuring (maybe take another pic with a standard sheet of paper on it and I can do some math 😂) anyway - thanks again !

that’s right - unless we happened to get a solo deal but those are unlikely at this point since this is a popular itinerary likely to sell out

We'd like to bring our adult son along with us on a future cruise. There would be 3 of us adults in the room to avoid the large single supplement for him. After experiencing a Veranda stateroom for the past 2 weeks in the Med (which was fine for just 2 of us), I don't think we could do it with 3 of us ... add to that he is a larger guy and the tiny shower would be "fun" for him ... The booking engine suggests we could fit 3 of us in a club continent suite but the floor plans for the suites don't show a fold-out / sofa bed ... so just curious if anyone has done it / has pictures of the bed arrangement with a 3rd passenger ? The itinerary we are looking at is on Pursuit in 2025 if that matters.

Just got an email from Azamara - in our case, if we are doing ship’s tours, they will get the visa exemption but if we are doing our own arrangements we will need a proper visa.

Would normally mean in-transit but Egypt could make any determination - which is why many of us are applying for / have the visas “just in case”.

the Ottawa embassy and the Montreal general consulate have different "jurisdiction" areas that they cover ... I don't know how critical it is that you attend to or mail to the correct one ... below is from the FB page of the Embassy in Ottawa :

according to port schedule, the Apex arrived there 2-Oct

Things did change 1-Oct in terms of e-Visas for sure. However, there are these other service providers who have always offered to coordinate a standard visa (in passport) and I believe that they can still get one on your behalf (I had contacted one of them a few weeks ago and they confirmed this then). You should contact those specific services and get confirmation directly from them. They are definitely not cheap though - so be careful to understand all the charges (on top of the fee the embassy charges).

no - we haven’t booked anything yet - hope your trip is very nice

We have somewhat similar situation of a 2 day stop in Alexandria, staying on the boat overnight but want to disembark to explore both days. The embassy in Ottawa said to be sure that when heading back to the boat on the first day, ask them to not stamp our visa as if we were leaving the country as we could have issues re-entering the next day. Good luck !

Guess we’re getting a little off topic here 😂 Oh yeah, John’s Lunch has always been one of our goto spots - but lately we’ve been going to the Pleasant St Diner which has a bit more room. Hint - if you ask for no fries, they give you more fish !! Sanity prevailed and we rebooked for a couple of weeks out.

Yeah - crazy us, we’re flying there tomorrow for an extended weekend ! 😂 My wife needs her annual feed of fried clams and I need my haddock tips - 😆

I suspected as much ! My father hails from Shediac. 👍🏻

if you can wait, you might want to see how the first few cruises hitting Alexandria fair after 1-Oct to see what occurs on the ground ... it will be interesting to see