lilli

Thanks—your thoughts are much appreciated! 
I was thinking that the included tour would likely be pretty superficial. 
also appreciate the food tour recommendation!

Thank you for the information—very helpful!

Hoping someone who has traveled with Avalon to Prague and Vienna can help us!  We are on a Christmas Market cruise in December on the Danube, Nuremberg to Vienna.  We have a few days pre cruise in Prague booked through Avalon and two additional nights in Vienna at the end.  There is an included tour in Prague whose description says:  

On 2/23/2024 at 3:18 PM, john2003 said:

Has anyone found a snorkeling tour in Bora Bora that just goes to the Coral Gardens. No Rays or sharks as we have done these before. I have found one option so far. 

Definitely do a tour that takes you to the Manta Rays!  They were very cool to see

We did not really see many options to book when you got off the ship.  We did a tour with Bora Bora H2O as well and they were fantastic!  We also rented a small boat with La Plage and they provided transport to and from the dock.  

We just were on the Windstar Star Breeze and our tender went to the Hotel Kaveka.  The Paul Gaugin cruise was docked in Ōpūnohu Bay so you probably need to check with the cruise line to verify.  

We were just on the Breeze and had the wifi package.  we found it to work really well--great for texting and surfing the net. We were able to do a couple FaceTime calls as well.  

Awesome--thanks for all the helpful replies!  and I assume catching ferry to Moorea is straightforward as well?  

Are the taxis cash only?  assume there is an ATM at the airport to get local currency?

3 hours ago, 6rugrats said:

I have sailed in FP on Windstar several times and once on Paul Gauguin.  Always booked my own flights and hotel.  Have always stayed the first day at the Intercontinental.  It was less expensive to do myself, and I had more control over it.  There is not a lot of choice of airlines flying to PPT.

 

I found seven days to be enough.  If I stayed extra days, it would not be on Tahiti, but on one of the other islands, probably Moorea.

I am looking at flights on air Tahiti. any advice on flying with them?  

I think we are going to fly in and spend three days on Moorea and then the 7 night cruise.  

Thank you for your input!  I think we are leaning towards a 7 day cruise and a few days on "land".  

Appreciate your input--I also care way too much about seat assignments etc and like to be in control of those aspects!  

May I ask where you stayed on arrival? the intercontinental? 

I was intrigued by doing a few nights on Moorea either at the start or end as well.

Thank you again!

Thank you for your thoughts and insight!  Did you use the Windstar package for airfare and hotels?

Hello--we just had to cancel a cruise this month secondary to family illness and now are looking to travel to Tahiti in February or March 2024.  I see there are options for cruise only or some options with airfare and added hotel stays.  I wanted to ask what people's thoughts were regarding booking it as a package through Windstar vs doing separately.  

Also, is 7-8 days is enough? I see the longer cruises as well.  Just wondering if it gets repetitive?  

We are traveling with the goal of relaxing and unwinding post retirement and a long year!

Thank you for any constructive input!

On 1/16/2020 at 8:39 PM, baldtomato said:

4.   Booked with VINCENT (thanks to the forum post upstairs who mentioned him) to pick us up from Le Meridien to go to Colon port.  He was perplexed how we found him, and was overjoyed when i told him he's now famous on Cruise Critic LOL.  He recommended a half day trip to Portobello but we requested to see the Agua Clara locks and Fort San Lorenzo.  What we didn't know was that the 9 miles paved road to Fort San Lorenzo had more potholes than i have ever seen in my life as a Canadian.... and it took us almost an hour to drive that 9 miles (i know right?  i know some ppl who can run faster than that....). Vincent was great - on time, engaging, LOVES his country, knowledgeable and gives us so much info enroute.  The pot-holed filled road wasn't all for naught - we found out it actually was an old american army b

Baldtomato—thanks for all the info!  We are on the windstar from puerto caldera to colon leaving Saturday. 

We also have booked with Vincent to pick us up at colon. We are currently planning to visit the Agua Clara locks and then head to Casio Viejo and craft market. 

How did you like them?  Worth a visit?

we are also booked with Manuel’s tours at Quepos!

thanks!

8 hours ago, r&rd said:

Absolutely. Have done that cruise 6 times and I always wear white cropped

jeans with a nice top. Actually, sometimes I felt dressier than a lot of the other passengers.

Thanks!

I am starting to pack for our upcoming Panama Canal cruise on the Windstar— our first cruise on this line. I realize the dress code says no jeans but wondering if nice white denim cropped pants are acceptable?

thanks for thoughts/opinions. 

We bought wine at the duty free in Reykjavik and it is much cheaper than the state run stores. It is easy to find—right near baggage claim and ATM’s!

they had a good variety—-I think there is a list online—-here is a link. 

https://www.dutyfree.is/en

If you use the Orange sim for one phone, the other phone can use the Orange one as a “hotspot”.  Since it comes with 10 gb of data, it is plenty for two people. 

The holiday card costs about $50 on amazon and it is around $20 to “top up” for an additional 2 weeks with added data, talk, text. 

Have fun!

On our last two trips to Europe, we purchased a SIM card. We bought an Orange card which is a company based in France. The EU has no roaming charges so we could use the card in all the countries we visited.   They offer an option called an Orange holiday card and it is good for 2 weeks and includes talk, text and data. I believe it had 10 gb of data which was more than we could ever use. 

Here is a link:  https://orange.simoptions.com/

the first trip we bought it in the Paris airport but the last trip in 2018, I bought it online from Amazon. I was able to change the SIM card before we boarded our transatlantic flight and we we landed in Rome and turned on the phone it worked. I love having access to data, maps etc and also able to freely contact family back home. 

If you are going to be gone for more than two weeks, you can “top up” the card while traveling and add more data, talk and text. 

Here is a link for amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Orange-Holiday-Europe-tethering-countries/dp/B06XBYMX58

it costs a little more from amazon but worth it IMO because you can not worry about buying it when you are tired after a long flight and you also know your phone number before you travel..

i still  have the SIM card and plan to “top up” and use again for a trip this summer. 

This is a link to their top up info:

https://topup.orange.com/

you need a paper clip to acces the SIM card drawer on your phone. Lots of you tube videos on how to change it. And need a way to secure your verizon card during the trip so you can replace it when you get back. 

we had very reliable service with Orange and it was a game changer for travel!

hope this helps and happy to answer any questions!

We are doing the Panama Canal cruise next January and are trying to decide how long to stay in Panama City post cruise?  Any thoughts?  We have never visited Panama. 

Thanks for your thoughts!

I will look forward to hearing how the trip goes!  Enjoy!

Thanks for the detail newcruiser—great info and I will check out that other post on a or b deck. 

Have you used the sports deck platform? 

Thanks for all the replies!  Love the picture too!

We like the idea of the sailing ship too--It seems like the cabins are all pretty much the same--and I saw a thread about different cabins and their noise level, etc but it didn't seem to have much rhyme or reason as far as deck and location.  

Any suggestions?

Also as far as booking--are there certain times that windstar does "sales" or big promotions?  Right now it looks like $2699 per person give or take $100

any opinions on which direction to sail? east to west or west to east?

and when is the sports platform utilized? 

Thanks again!

My husband and I are interested in a Panama Canal cruise.  We have sailed on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Disney and Celebrity but never Windstar.  We like the smaller ships and don't really care about the shows, and "bells and whistles" so thinking Windstar would be a great option.

Planning for January or February 2020 and it looks like we could choose either windstar or star pride--appreciate any thoughts on pros and cons for which ship for the panama canal and costa rica.

Appreciate any helpful advice!

Thanks!

Do you know how they calculate text messages within that? Our kids will be back stateside with our parents and we may want quick texts to check in and not necessarily a full-blown phone conversation. Thanks

When we were in France, we texted freely to the states on the orange holiday card.

The top up was actually easy too. We waited and bought both the holiday card and the top up from a kiosk in the airport right after immigration/customs. She installed the card for us and gave me a receipt with the “code” and instructions to enter when it was time to top up. It actually worked perfectly.

I bought one online from amazon for our trip in November since we are starting in Italy. It was a little more money$50 instead of 39euros but I had read some so so reviews of the TIM card and other Italian ones so just went with what I knew!

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