cc cruiser

Thank you so much!  Secret Cove it is!  

We are traveling with 4 non snorkels.  (First time cruisers, 60ish) They may do their own thing that day.  But if they want to hang out at Secret Cove,  are there facilities there?  Restaurant? Bathrooms?  Is it a nice beach just to hang out? 

Is there some way to get beach conditions on the day we are in port?   We went to Sapphire Beach one time and the water was a little to rough for good snorkeling,   We heard others had great snorkeling on other beaches the same day.   We would like to try Secret Harbor this time.   Would the taxi driver know about conditions?  Or is their a website I can check the day we arrive? 

We are flying to LHR on stand by tickets, so we don’t know which flight we will arrive on.  Our plan is to take the National Express non stop to SOU.   
 

My questions are:

1) Do we have to buy the tickets online?

2) where do we go once we have our luggage? Is it well marked? 
 

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

Thanks for all of the help that you provided all of us on this thread!

We are arriving on Saturday, May 6, Coronation Day, for our cruise that leaves on May 8. We plan on staying in the Southampton area until our cruise. So we will be taking the bus to Southampton from Heathrow. I am just wondering if there is any talk about delays and interruptions on the bus system due to the coronation.

And what about crowds that weekend?  Will London be unusually crowded?  
I wrote to Windsor Castle and they said they are not selling tickets for May 6, which I interpret is they will be closed.  I am guessing the same will go for all Royal establishments.

So that takes me to my next question… what day trips could we take to get away from the crowds?  If we go to Liverpool or Salisbury what is the likelyhood attractions will be open?  
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! 

Our British Isles cruise leaves on May 8, 2023.   Right now we are scheduled to fly into London on May 5 so that can tour London for a few days.

Now that the Coronation is scheduled for May 6, we are wondering how the crowds will be at London sites while we are there. What about trains and tubes? 

Also, will museums and attractions be closed on May 6? 

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

We have one full day in Papeete before cruising. We have a half day East coast tour planned for the day of embarkation. And a full day West Coast tour planned for the day of disembarkation. But what are the must see things while in Papeete? 
Thanks!

On 5/11/2020 at 4:20 PM, minidonuts85 said:

I saw some great deals on Tahiti cruises for 2021 so I moved up our sailing from Aug 2022 to Aug 2021 for a much lower price and went from a 10 to an 11 night.

 

We booked 106. I didn't see it on the list but 104 and 108 next door says quiet so here's hoping.....

Minidonuts85…can you give your opinion of cabin 106?   We will be in that cabin March 7.   Thanks!   

Hi Again,

I have a few more questions, maybe someone who has already traveled can answer.

1) We know a night tour is included in Quito.  Can you tell me more about the tour? What did you see? We don't want to duplicate attractions in our afternoon wanderings.  (Any suggestions for wandering???)

2) What meals were provided in Quito? Did find any great restaurants?

3) We are providing our own transportation to & from the States and Quito.  For those of you who also made your own travel arrangements, did Silversea perform Covid tests at the end of the trip that were acceptable for travel back to the States?   If not, where did you get your covid test?

4) When I spoke to a Silversea representative today, she mentioned we would receive a complimentary "Parka."  I can't imagine needing a "parka!"  Is this a jacket that would suffice on the Zodiacs and in case of rain?  I'd love to have one less thing to pack!

Thank you so much!  We leave Thursday, so I won't be bothering you much longer! 

2 hours ago, gui218 said:

Hi cc cruiser, you will so enjoy the Galapagos.

The answer to question 1 is shorty wet suits etc are provided. They did have a few long wet suits. I think sizes are small medium and large. If you have your own and can pack it I would bring it. We went in Sept 2019 pre covid and this is in cool dry season. Water is 68 degrees fahrenheit.

The new ship looks terrific.

Thanks so much!   My husband has a wet suit…. I think I will try to find a long one for myself.  68 sounds pretty chilly!  😊

We just booked this expedition this afternoon for next week!  I had just called my travel agent to rebook a cruise that cancelled yesterday.  We were going to rebook a Greek Isle cruise for November.  He opened the conversation with, "Have you ever considered a Galapagos Island cruise?"  I said No.... then within an hour had this one booked for Oct.21!   

You all are amazing!  I have gleaned so much information from this thread.  Special thanks to TLC Ohio for starting the conversation!

You have answered most of my questions already.  I do have two.

1) Are the wet suits provided long sleeve, long pants?  I ask because a friend recently went on Celebrity Expedition and theirs were short sleeve.  she knew ahead of time and brought her own long one.

2) We are arranging our own transportation to/from Quito.  Will Silversea still provide us a day room before our 2:00am flight back to the States?

Thanks again, CC Friends!

Do you think this will be the policy for all cruise lines?  I know I heard this about Disney a couple of months ago.

We prefer private excursions because the groups are smaller and more personable.  Our next scheduled cruise is for Thanksgiving 2021....with 22 family members. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary.  The outings we have planned will be nixed now.  We may have to rethink our anniversary plans! 

We prefer private excursions because the groups are smaller and more personable.  Our next scheduled cruise is for Thanksgiving 2021....with 22 family members. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary.  The outings we have planned will be nixed now.  We may have to rethink our anniversary plans! 

Hello Good Friends!

We will be traveling in and out of Southampton in May.   We will arrive two days precruise and stay in London (Where??  My next research project) 

We will take public transportation from London to Southampton....or perhaps an excursion. (International Friends does not offer one on our embarkation day)

My question is about our return to London.  We have decided to rent a car in Southampton and drive to Heathrow for a flight the next day.    I have a list of places we are considering visiting on the trip to Heathrow, but I am having trouble determining what is feasible.   I was hoping a local could suggest an itinerary that would work.   I know we can’t visit all of these places but our interests would be Salisbury, Bath, Cotswold, Brampton and Windsor Castle (that is the only must on the list) 

What do you think would be the best route for some of these sites?   
 

Thanks for helping an old lady who couldn’t navigate Google Maps or Trip It!

Great news!  Thanks to all of you for the helpful info my CC friends provided.  We contacted RAD Car Hire again and supplied copies of the insurance info in our contract. They have now said their first correspondence with them was a mistake.  We owe nothing for the accident.  The “No Excess” insurance we purchased covers the damage on the other vehicle!  So thank you for encouraging us to follow up before we wrote that check!  Lesson learned!  

40 minutes ago, possum52 said:

 

 

 

What lcmortensen stated is correct, the standard comprehensive insurance you would have paid in your car rental cost would have covered you/husband in the event of damage to another vehicle or property. The excess as explained above ($1900 from memory) was brought down to $0 because you paid an extra fee to do so.

 

Check your car rental agreement to ensure that you did pay the extra fee for excess reduction. My first step would be to phone the RAD (Call FREE from anywhere in the World to New Zealand  on 0064 9 275 8620) and explain what happened and ask/demand that they/their insurance cover the other person's costs to repair her car. They have a messaging system on their webpage, you could use that too. If you phone ask to speak to the manager. 

 

If they are not forthcoming RAD Car Hire is part of the Index Group and they can be contacted via their webpage through a messaging system. 

 

Good luck,

 

Leigh
 

Thank you so much, Leigh. We will follow up with Rad on Monday.

15 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

I've had a look at that website, too, for the corresponding T&C. These say:-

 

 

 

 

Clause 12 allows the hirer the option to reject the insurance, but that would have to be a deliberate choice by the hirer. Otherwise, the renter has that amount of third party liability, which is extremely unlikely to be insufficient given that there is no need to insure against third party liability for personal injury.

Thank you all for your input and research!  We just got home from our holiday, so we are actively looking into this.   The quote #11 is the exact wording from our car hire company.  It looks to me as the “no excess” insurance we purchased should cover $1900 damage to the other vehicle.   Is that how you are reading this?  
If so, I wonder how to handle this from across the ocean!  

Thankfully, no one was injured in our accident.  It was just a bump. My husband didn’t see any damage.  (He wishes he had taken a photo). The lady he bumped into to got an estimate.... it’s $1900 NZ.  Of course, we want to be fair & will pay for any damage caused by the accident.  We have asked for a second estimate.  And we told the rental company we would pay the repair company directly.   
We did pay for the extra “excess” insurance, but evidently  it only covers the rental car.  Our credit card does not offer car rental insurance.  And our own insurance has a $1000 deductible, so we will pay out of pocket. 
From what I just read, NZ has a no fault policy, but is that just for bodily injury? 

3 hours ago, pink845 said:

When you rented your cars, did you buy the excess insurance that is referred to so often.    Normally, being Canadian we travel to the US very frequently and always rent cars.  Our credit card covers the car insurance in addition to the personal car insurance we have in Canada extends over to car rentals in the US so we do not pay out of pocket at all for any additional car.  In New Zealand, I understand that it is critical to purchase car insurance and something else called Excess to make sure that we are 100 percent covered in case we hit someone or someone hits us (is it true New Zealanders do not insure their cars?    Please let me know what was your experience with Avis in terms of insurance.  

We did purchase the “excess” insurance.  We were told by the rental company (Rad Car Hire) that there would be zero out of pocket expenses if we were in an accident.  Then when we called to report the accident, they said the insurance only covered the rental car. We exchanged information with the driver of the other car. No police report was filed. Unfortunately my husband didn’t take pictures of the damage on her car. He said it was very minor. She was afraid that there were some plastic parts broken that we could not see. She is supposed to send us an estimate of damages. But we haven’t heard anything back yet. It’s been over a week.   I need to do more research on this “excess” insurance.  

We have returned from our wonderful adventure and thought I would report what we did on the three days we rented a car.  
Bay of Islands:

We were able to see so much!  We made a brief stop at Haruru Falls.  Then headed to Manginagina Forest.  We arrived before the cruise excursions so it was a very peaceful stroll.  Heading towards the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves, we stopped at the famous Kawakawa bathrooms..and there was a very good bakery across the street.  We loved the tour of the caves.  Our guide was the youngest member of the family...a very bright and lovely 14 year old.  I was impressed!  We still had half a day so we asked her for recommendations for the afternoon.  She recommended Stone House Heritage Park and we were glad we went.  It was a lovely historical park, a lake and many beautiful flowers.  On the way back to the ship, we had time to stop at the chocolate factory and Kauri craft shop in Kerkeri.    This was a fun and full day!

Tauranga:

Here we stopped at the Okere Falls and Tutea Falls.  It was one stop and a really nice walk. We enjoyed watching young, adventurous rafters going over the waterfalls!    We continued on to Te Puia where we had 1pm tickets already purchased.   Just a hint...you can arrive before your “show time” and begin your visit and see the geysers.   The ticket time is just for the Maori Welcome Show.   We only had a little time after our Te Puia visit to go see the Blue Lakes and Green Lakes.  They are very close to Te Puia, but we only had time for a quick drive around.  (In retrospect we should have skipped going there.). We drove straight back to the ship, but could not find a gas station to fill up the car, so my husband dropped us off in town and drove back 3km to the nearest station.  Traffic was really bad by then & my husband barely made it back to ship in time.  (There is more to that story....  leaving the gas station, my hubby back up and bumped the car behind him.  It did no danger to the rental car, but the lady he hit said there was a dent in her bumper.  We had purchased “no excess” car insurance, so he gave her his name and the name of the rental company.   Now the rental company claims the insurance only covers the rental car.....hmmmmmm....they are supposed to email us an estimate for the repairs)

Akaroa:

Since there were 4 of us, it was more economical to rent a car than take the ship shuttle to Christchurch.   And ....we got a BMW convertible, so we travelled in style!   On the way back, it was warm enough to put the top down which was simply fantastic.   The best part of our journey was the scenery.  We are not city fans.  If we were to do it all over, we would skip Christchurch and just enjoy a longer drive in God’s gorgeous creation.   
 

As a further note, just be aware that the cars you rent will likely not be new.   The newest we rented was a 2012.  But they were clean & in good condition. 
 

Car rentals in the ports are expensive.  There were 4 of us splitting costs so our “excursions” were still less expensive than the ship’s.  And a lot most flexible. 

New Zealand is gorgeous!  Enjoy exploring!

On 1/11/2020 at 11:01 AM, singnrn said:

Could you share where you are renting a car in Tauranga? We are on an NCL NZ cruise later this year and would like to explore this option. Thank you.

We are using Rad Car Hire in Tauranga.   Its not cheap... But we are splitting it 4 ways, so it's less expensive than an excursion.. And much more flexible!  😁

On 1/11/2020 at 11:01 AM, singnrn said:

Could you share where you are renting a car in Tauranga? We are on an NCL NZ cruise later this year and would like to explore this option. Thank you.

1 hour ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

How do you plan to get to Kerikeri to pick up the car and then get back again ?

The tender drop off wharf is at Waitangi and it’s a fair distance over to Kerikeri.

Yep, we noticed that also.  So we were able to find a company that would meet us at the pier.  Yay!  Time saver!

Spontaneity is my middle name!  We are so looking forward to all the natural beauty NZ has to offer us!  Thank you for your advice and encouragement!

4 hours ago, Budget Queen said:

I also  just rented a car in Napier,   which is also excellent,  and so is Dunedin      Tauranga can be tricky.   It's a very congested city,  and hopefully you have a long port day.    I suggest you get off your ship immediately upon clearance,  because the shuttle pick up is a distance away.     In New Zealand,   I have a data Sim,   because downloaded maps aren't always accurate and don't have traffic detour options.   

I’m a little behind technology  times....what do you mean by data Sim?  We have rented a GPS with each of our cars.  Will that suffice?