bacchusman

To Nearpost345.  In Amsterdam did you dock at the main cruise terminal by the Movinpick hotel or out at the Felison Terminal in Ijmuiden?  Thanks for all your good info!

Great itinerary! One minor "fact" challenge. La Coruña (or A Coruña in Gallego) is actually the second largest city in Galicia. Vigo is a bit larger and is Europe's #1 fishing port. However, La Coruña is home to Europe's richest human!

These boards encourage us to “write a review”! Here goes, again, in live, blogging style. Later, you can see links to our previous cruise blogs and posts. Two live/blogs are at around 220,000 views while another is over 181,000 views. It seems that the visuals make a big, interesting difference, sharing the beauty and drama from these wonderful regions of the world.

 

Tell us what you like, any questions, suggestions, etc. Don't be shy!! Love the interactive nature of live blogs, getting feed-back and comments as we travel. But, this cruise is very port intense. With no sea-days during this cruise, be patient that I am not able to have time to post fully all photos and details on the days when events happen. But, I will catch up as we travel.

 

We arrived in Lisbon/Portugal on Saturday, June 10, starting five days to explore in and around this very cosmopolitan, historic, charming and scenic town. More details and visuals soon on Lisbon and our other Portugal spectacular sights and fun experiences.

 

We arrived in Spain at La Coruña, the largest city in Spain's Galicia region. It is among the Spain's busiest ports. This somewhat remote Galicia area is in the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula. The name "Galicia" is Celtic in origin, as the Celts occupied here around the 6th-century BC and erected fortifications. La Coruña was an important port under the Romans. They were followed by an invasion of Visigoths and later in 730 by the Moors. Today we traveled Santiego de Compostela, a key and dramatic religious site that was a world attraction dating back to the 9th Century.

 

Our sailing out of Lisbon was wonderful, passing under their Golden-Gate-style bridge. So much to share for the details as to why we loved Lisbon so super much. Great city, people, culture, history, etc.

 

LISBON TO ROUEN/FRANCE BASIC SCHEDULE:

Our first port stop on June 15 was Porto for this historic home of famed port wines and being Portugal’s second largest city. Today has been La Coruna with much history in this major Spanish port with cultural background going back to the Celtics, Romans and Moors. Tomorrow will be Bilbao with Frank Gehry’s dramatic Guggenheim museum and historic medieval streets; then St Jean De Luz, for accessing San Sebastian with its top-rated food, elegant Belle Époque architecture; Bordeaux for sampling top-rate wine chateaus, its famed architecture/history; La Rochelle with more Bordeaux options including where Cognac and other specialities are produced; Belle-ile, the largest island off Brittany’s coast with Breton coastlines of cliffs, creeks and beaches; Saint Malo with Brittany and Normandy options including Mont St. Michel and WWII D-Day beach/cemetery; St Peter Port/Guernsey, an island with cobblestone streets, blooming florals and scenic harbor; and finally Rouen after sailing up the Seine River as the site of Joan of Arc’s final moments and with its famed Gothic Cathedral of Notre-Dame immortalized by Claude Monet’s paintings. Plus, three more days in Brittany after our cruise.

 

Our past cruising?: We have done eight cruises. First was June 2006 on 204-passenger Seabourn Spirit, Athens to Istanbul, enjoying these Greek-Turkish areas. Late July 2008 on the 940-passenger Crystal Symphony, Dover/UK to Stockholm, for the Baltics and Russia. July 2010 on the 296-passenger Silversea Silver Cloud from Copenhagen for Norway’s dramatic coast, above the Arctic Circle. June, 2011 was from Barcelona for Italy and Croatian Coast on this same 2850-passenger Celebrity Solstice enjoyed for two weeks from Sydney to Auckland in early 2014. In 2015, we escaped the cold winter with 26-days doing a return to the Silver Cloud going up the Amazon River and visiting ten different Caribbean Islands. Early 2016 was South Africa, including ten days on the Silver Cloud. In March earlier this year, we did 15 days on the 2200-passenger Island Princess through the Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. All five lines are different and generally very good, etc. What’s best? The honest answer is . . . “It depends!!!”. Ports, schedules, timing, food, entertainment and prices vary much. Personally, the biggest plus with smaller ships is being able to better connect with fellow passengers and the staff.

 

Our early 2018 plan? Southeast Asia!! For our first visit to this part of the world, we will start with four days in Hong Kong, then to Bangkok. We start in Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, then spend seven days sailing up the famed Mekong River, seeing Cambodia and arriving in Angkor Wat. We fly to Hanoi, sail Ha Long Bay, fly to historic Hue and finish at Danang for the in-depth exploring of Vietnam.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio.

 

AFRICA?!!?: Lots of interesting and dramatic pictures can be seen from this live/blog at:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

Now at 32,204 views for this visual sharing including Cape Town, along South Africa’s coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta area.

 

In doing our sail-away from Lisbon, here is the view in getting ready to go under their famed bridge that was designed by the same people who did the Golden Gate structure in San Francisco.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger!)

 

Here is some welcoming ship action. First is having pasta specially prepared and served on the back deck for our first lunch upon boarding. Second is getting a drink prepared.:

 

 

Here are three quick visual samples from visiting Porto, our first cruise ship stop on June 15. Loved doing a small-craft sailing along their historic town areas near where Port wines are stored and sold. Plus, seeing the famed tile designs inside their rail station, etc. There are also more pictures to prove why Porto was so super special yesterday with its architecture, iron balconies, etc.:

 

 

If you want to just venture around central Taipei on your own, the Keelung rail station sits just across the bay from where your ship is likely docked. You get off, stop at the tourist office on the way for maps and answers to your questions, and continue around the end of the bay to the train station (15 minutes max from the ship). You then catch a train (around $45HK--$1.50US) to Taipei and see bits of Taiwan along the way, some of it pretty gritty. From central Taipei, which seems very mellow if you've already been to Hong Kong, you can also catch the metro to whatever part of the city you want to see. Whatever you do, don't sign up for an expensive ship excursion called something like "Taipei on your own" where you are dropped in the central city for a few hours and then picked up, paying $50-$100 for the ride. The train will cost you less than $3 round trip!

We chose to stay in Yokohama after our cruise (for 5 days thru May 4th). Advantages in doing this is an inexpensive cab ride to your hotel (many nice ones within a $7 ride from the cruise terminal--some within walking distance if you want to lug your baggage). Yokohama is a comfortable place to walk around, with a vibrant China Town, major league (Japanese) baseball team and stadium, zoo, waterfront, etc. Most of historic interest is on Yokohama Bluff where sit several Victorian and other American style houses from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Beyond those are some pretty exotic recent structures that make for a pleasant extended walk. Yokohama housed a major U.S. military facility after WWII and you can find a 1949 map of the city illustrating this and a lot more at: http://www.yohidevils.net/kanto/maps/moremaps.htm

Yokohama has a comfortable metro system as well as Japanese Railway (JR) stations to connect with the rest of Honshu. We found it convenient to visit Tokyo using the JR--take the Keihin Tohoku line. The trip costs around $11 round trip and takes 45 minutes to an hour depending on destination.

As others have noted, the YCAT terminal in Yokohama has comfortable buses with frequent departures going to both Haneda and Narita airports. From our hotel to YCAT the taxi fare was about $13. Tickets to Narita are 3600 yen, or, yes!, 2000 yen if you're a senior (it pays to get old!). That trip is an hour, 15 minute minimum, and can be much longer if you go during high commute periods.

Wow! Great to hear the interest in on-board lecturers. I am one of them and will fill you in on what little I know. In general, there are three types of lecturers: 1)port lecturers with which you all are familiar; 2)destination lecturers--folks who, on a Caribbean cruise, would speak on Caribbean topics, but not necessarily all the details on particular ports, and 3)special interest lecturers, folks who give a series of lectures on a particular theme. The latter could be a naturalist, an astronaut, a professor with a specific interest, a former diplomat, etc. I've done all of the above, but more frequently destination topics (Caribbean, South America, Mediterranean).

I will be on the Diamond Princess out of Singapore on April 15 and continuing for two weeks to Tokyo. In this case I will be a special interest speaker on topics related to the history and geography of wine. These will have nothing to do with wine tasting, but we'll look at things like the origins and early spread of winemaking and the kinds of evidence available to reach such conclusions. I'll also talk about wine in Roman times and the Wine Revolution of the last 50 years and what it's all about. You don't have to be a wine consumer to get something out of these.

Like the rest of you, I'm hopeful their will be a destination or port lecturer with us as well since the area from Singapore to Tokyo is all new turf (and agua!) for me.

Finally, my sense is that Princess has recently been seeking more speakers if the increase in postings for these positions I've seen lately is an indicator. Hope to meet some of you on board!!