Just wondering if there were any tours to The Alhambra while you were in Malaga?

35 minutes ago, Liz Masterson said:

NY Gov. Cuomo’s Press Conference’s on both March 16 and 17 were enlightening in a terrifyingly way. I suggest everyone watch them. The science and math is eye opening. Don’t be fooled. This is not the flu. Italian Hospital’s are deciding who they have ICU beds for and who they don’t. If you are 80 you are not getting a bed as the younger people have a better chance of surviving if they have that bed. And they have more beds per person than we do. 
 

It’s going to get ugly. 
I will be overjoyed to discover I am wrong and the naysayers are right. 

I just read the things than NYGov Cuomo said and they are quite frightening. It is amazing that a few days ago, the whole country had 1500 cases, and now NY alone has1500 cases.  The number of hospital beds is the critical point, hence the absolute need to "flatten the curve".

8 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

We are certainly happy to be aboard this amazing, clean and healthy ship, where we loaded more beer, wine, toilet paper and possibly even some food last night.

 

Life could not be better. We actually feel sorry for all the issues and paranoia everyone is experiencing at home.😁

Sorry but I guess that I am one of the "cranky-pants members" as I don't think "issues and paranoia" can quite describe what the world is experiencing:  Daily life in the United States continues to grind to a halt as authorities scramble to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Across the world, countries are taking drastic steps, shutting their borders to travelers and enforcing quarantine requirements. Yet local transmission is on the rise in many places, especially Europe and the United States, demonstrating the difficulty of containing the virus.

This new coronavirus is more contagious and more widespread than previous ones.  The "experts" say that we have about 2 weeks to "flatten the curve" (the spread of the virus) before it explodes, and we have such widespread infections that our health care systems will be overwhelmed due to the increased number of people who will require hospitalization. Hence the need for "social distancing", limiting the size of crowds, etc.  This is a serious public health crisis!!!!!

49 minutes ago, georose said:

16 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Our Viking “meddy” cruise from Istanbul to Stockholm was anything but boring.  It was awe inspiring.  

What was the name of that cruise-sounds great!!!?

38 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

Haha, that's for sure.  Boston.  So many great places to eat, so little room to put it all.  Boston is one of our favorite towns.  Love the food, history, food, architecture, and the food.  Spent the morning wandering about Faneuil Hall/QuincyMarket area with a few stops to replenish supplies and convert Canadian Dollars and Pounds Sterling to USD.  Had to have chowder and a meal at Legal Seafood.  A sunny and warm day for a change and everyone seems to be enjoying it.  Supposed to start raining sometime tonight.  We are meeting friends in the North End for Italian so hope the rain holds off till then.   

Another great place for lobster rolls is James Hook and Co, on Atlantic Ave

5 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Wish I could delete part of this post now.  Shortly after posting I ran into the Captain in the elevator.  He knew of my request and promised an answer soon.  In 30 minutes, of course I was in the shower, he personally delivered detail chart copies of our proposed track from Boston to NYC.  Yes, the Cape Cod Canal transit but then outside of Long Island for the traditional entry via Ambrose Light, Verrazano Narrows Bridge then past Quarrantine and the Statue of Liberty up the North River to our published berth 88 at the Manhattan Passenger terminal.  I had never seen any other cruise ship use the East River approach as spectacular as it would be but I fully understand the logistics of it.  We need to get the map people at the Viking Daily to brush up their accuracy.  It will be something everyone wants to be on deck for as we are scheduled there in daylight.  😎  Boston tomorrow and dinner with pals in the North End.  Love Boston. (except the Red Sox)......🍺

Be sure to go to Mike's Pastry in the North End for the best cannoli!!!!!!

6 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

That's right.  There should be no change for those boarding in Bergen, barring any issues with their flights.  All the departing passengers are gone and there are around 300 of us rattling about the ship.  😎

Jim, how many passengers are staying on for the whole 245 day World cruise?

Just read this:

Norwegian cruiser “Viking Jupiter” crash at Piraeus pier on its maiden journey. Just read this on a Viking site:

 Three fenders were detached from the crash impact. Small material damage of a length of 15 meters was caused at the pier.

The “Viking Jupiter” was accompanied by three tugboats.

The Central Port Authority of Piraeus issued a sailing ban for the cruiser until a class confirmation by the technical company where it is registered has been submitted, Greek media report.

The 1st Port Department investigates the incident.

It is not known what will happen with the passengers.

Viking took delivery of its sixth ocean vessel February 7 at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, Italy. Viking Jupiter began its maiden season in mid February offering Antiquities itinerary between Athens and Rome.

19 minutes ago, Dauntless said:

 

I'm looking at the one that goes from Barcelona to Copenhagen.  I forget the name of it.  I call it the outside of Europe.  Though I've been to Barcelona and Copenhagen, there are still things I would like to see there.

It is called "Along Europe's Western Coast" but still showing only April 2019, no other cruise listed.

When we were in Tromso in June 2017 on the "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise, we docked right near the Tromso Botanical Gardens as we were able to walk to them but I do not know the name of the docking area.

12 hours ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

We used Spain Day Tours on our recent trip on Celebrity Reflection.  We did the Malaga to Alhambra tour as well as others with Spain Day Tours while in Spain. I can't say enough good things about Spain Day Tours.  Highly recommend them.

 

Here is the link to my post on the Spain Ports board.  My comments are post #142  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1210662-spain-day-tours/?page=4

Thank you for the information-we emailed them, got a prompt reply and have booked the tour. We will look into the other stops in Spain to see what tours they offer.

 

Has anyone used Spain Day Tours to go from Malaga to the Alhambra? We will be on the Jupiter cruise "Along Europe's Western Coast" and are looking into private tours.

5 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

I know all that we can do is look at the averages, and maybe the last year temperatures, but even if you do that you are still at the mercy of the elements. Even during ordinary times you can have aberrant weather events, and I think that will be even more so in the future. The best you can do is research, and then try to have a good time in spite of the elements.

 

Our recent sailing of Trade Routes of the Middle Ages was influenced by two hurricanes, and some sea days and port days were impacted. Even though it was not exactly what I hoped for, it was still a very good trip and we had enjoyed ourselves very much.

How was cruising thru the Bay of Biscay-we are doing  "Along Europe's Western Coast" in April and just wondered about that stretch of water, tho with 2 hurricanes, maybe not a relevant question.

Do let me know how that goes with posts. I'm looking at this cruise. It does cover Copenhagen, as we did on VH cruise and Barcelona that I just did with the Mediterranean Odyssey but both of these cities have so much to offer that I just didn't get around to and all the places in between would be new for me so I am interested.

Trade Routes of the Middle Ages does the same itinerary but ends in Bergen rather than Copenhagen. The one we are doing is the only one listed-it might be a repositioning cruise to get it up to the Baltic area, but I don't know if it will be offered each year.

We are booked on Viking Jupiter April 25th, Along Europe's Western Coast, Barcelona to Copenhagen.

Can you post a link to the roll call? I can’t find it.

Viking Jupiter-April 25, 2019-Along Europe's Western Coast

Gigiandbaba

This is a new cruise in 2019 so no reviews. We booked this cruise, and I did start a roll call. Several people have said that the Bay of Biscay can be a "rough patch" of water, but the whole cruise sounds really good so we are looking forward to it.

How was the cross from Porto to Falmouth thru the Bay of Biscay? I have read that can be a "rough" patch of water. We will be doing that next April and just wondering if there are times when it can be a smoother ride.

We did the Oslo to Bergen train in June of this year as part of our Midnight Sun cruise, and it was spectacular. We bought our tickets online 90 days before the train ride-was easy to do by using PayPal because we had a problem using our credit card and were advised to use PayPal by NSB. We had a porter service pick up our luggage so we would not have to worry about that-they picked it up at 7am at our hotel, and it was delivered to our hotel in Bergen by 4pm on the same day, and it was very reasonably priced. We did the train ride the day before we were to board the ship. All in all, it was a highlight of the trip.

This is a great question, jodi0553 -- and hope my other pals from this voyage (and anyone else who wants to) will jump in, too.

 

We're pretty independent travelers and found the included tours to be hit and miss. In some cases, we just wanted a cursory overview of a place (thinking of Tromso) and that we'd get. But you really skim along -- for instance we were able to wander around the outside of the Arctic Church there but no time (or tickets) to go inside which seemed to me to defeat the point. Also in Tromso, where a highlight was driving out into the mountainous tundra to see where you can watch northern lights in other seasons, we flew past the city's well-regarded botanical garden. Considering its northern location, we would have loved to make a stop there. Edinburgh was just a drive around. We'd been to Shetland islands so just took the standard tour. The ponies were darling but the tour was otherwise kind of banal.

 

 

The more specialized tours can be more satisfying (the North Cape trip by boat to go crabbing, and then to a lovely camp where we ate them) was worth doing. But not always. I did the World War II tour in Orkney and it was right out of a textbook. Nothing terribly special.

 

 

Long way round to say -- if you have the time and the desire, especially because these ports are all pretty easy to get around -- book a car if you can. Journo colleagues of ours did just that in both the Shetlands and Orkney islands and came back with terrific stories and -- no photos with crowds anywhere.

 

Just my humble opinion!

 

Carolyn

Carolyn, we are on the Viking Sea at the moment, and I am so glad that we canceled the optional tour in Tromso as 2 of the places I really wanted to see were the botanical gardens and the Arctic Cathedral. The ship was within walking distance of the botanical gardens so we walked there and spent 1 hour + just looking at the spectacular garden-totally in bloom. Then we hopped in a taxi and went to the Cathedral and spent some time there. It cost 50 NOK to get in. We then walked across the bridge and wandered around Tromso, finding a "locals" place for lunch. That was definitely the way to go!!!!

Try "Friends of Dave" Tours-the guide is Christian and he is really great-we absolutely loved the tour-think there were 8 of us from the ship.

We are having a car pick us up at the Greenwich Pier.

We are leaving Oslo on the 24th and staying in a hotel that night-the luggage service picks up our luggage at the hotel around 7am on the 24th, and we are catching the 8:25 train to Bergen, and they will deliver it to the hotel in Bergen by 8pm that night. I guess you could check with the porter service to see where they would drop them off. You might be able to state when you want the bags to be dropped off.

We are basically doing the same itinerary as you-going to Oslo early and staying in London for a few days after the cruise. We are doing the train from Oslo to Bergen and using Porterservice.no to take our luggage from Oslo to Bergen. We were on the Homelands cruise lasy year and I rarely saw anyone "dressed up". All the clothes you mentioned are the ones in my suitcase!!!!:p