Gypsy025

Neither

There appears to be some misunderstanding about wait times (2022)....

 - If you arrived into Schiphol airport from North Amarica, at the beginning of your cruise, did you experience any long lines going through Customs and Immigration? if so, how long.

 - On disembarkation from the Rottedam from a Norway Cruise in Amsterdam -

        - Did you disembark at the Main Cruise Terminal (Piet Heinkade 27)? When? If so, What time did they start to disembark guests with carry-off luggage? Were there taxis readily available early?

        - Did you disembarked at the VCK Waterland Terminal, When? What time did the ship start to disembark guests with carry-off luggage? Were there taxis readily available?

50 minutes ago, uktog said:

Thanks for the really comprehensive guide to your time in Tokyo, very helpful

If you would like my complete notes, email me at stingrayPBI at aol dot com

The following is taken from our notes of this cruise 04/27 to 05/12/2019....hope it helps....

April 25: The flight landed a few minutes ahead of the scheduled time, 3:40 PM, in Tokyo (Haneida); after an awfully long walk from the gate, immigration and customs was Japanese efficient. Rather than take the airport shuttle, we decided to take a taxi to our hotel ($59) – great move after the long flight! The Hotel JAL City Kanai Yokohama was pleasantly good, after previous experiences with small rooms in Tokyo; a 2-night stay, including breakfast was $252.50. The weather was unexpectedly warm and sunny, but we did not take advantage of it – we were beat. After a restless nap, we were hungry, but there was no room service at the hotel. It was not a tourist hotel. All the guests were Japanese. The amenities were particularly good. The Internet was amazingly fast, the room had both slippers & sandals, a cover-up, and many bathroom accessories.

April 26: We were both awake early, to a cold, rainy, miserable day. We had breakfast, before 8 AM – lots of variety, but mainly Japanese food, not to our liking. After getting ourselves together, we decided to take a “tour around Yokohama” bus. The bus stop was close to our hotel; the first man we asked for directions escorted us the four or five blocks to the bus-stop. We did not have too long to wait for the bus – the all-day pass 500 yen each. We happened to sit next to an English couple, from Yorkshire, who were on a 1 day stop off an MSC cruise ship. After a short stop at the railway station and a shopping mall we re-boarded the bus to the stop where we originally boarded – at China Town. It was “spring break”, so there were literally thousands of well-dressed, well-behaved college kids in the city, especially in China Town. We had lunch there, then back to our hotel to catch up on sleep; on our way, we picked up a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of coke at a convenience store – for dinner. Sleep was good, but the sandwiches were a bust! We got caught up with pictures, write-ups, and blog.

April 27: This morning, we asked for fried eggs for breakfast – they were more than happy to oblige. Check out time was 11 AM, so we left the hotel soon after taking a taxi to the pier; it was about a half hour comfortable ride (Approx $26). The weather was like that of yesterday – showers and cool. The ship had experienced a bout of norovirus on the previous cruise, so boarding was delayed so that a thorough cleaning could take place. The usual Japanese efficiency took place with actual check-in procedures taking place on-board. Rooms were finally made available soon after 3 PM. Our cabin #8034 was extremely comfortable – balcony; lots of closet space. The safety drill took place at 5 PM; the ship sailing at 6 PM. The ship was having WIFI connectivity problems. There was a Seafood Buffet in the Windows Café, so we elected to dine there. We were still catching up with jetlag, so we had an early night

Today's When and Where publication indicates the All Aboard time as 6:30 PM, but at 6:25 PM, there are still guests coming aboard. By the way, it has been raining very heavy most of the day in Trieste - miserable!

I may have missed something, but, have casinos been cleared to open, after the Covid-19 restrictions?

Our May 01 Black Sea Cruise was cancelled by Azamara on 02/26/21. I completed a request choosing a refund the same day. I received a "You're All Set" acknowledgement from Azamara, also on the same day.

A full refund was received via my credit card on 03/11/2021.

Excellent service Azamara!

We have three (3) cruises booked all in 2021.......

 1) Azamara Quest, Black Sea; May 01-15. 

 2) Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam, Alaska Cruise tour; Jun 20 - Jul 3. 

 3) America Queen Steamship Company's American Duchess, Aug 01- 16, The Mighty Mississippi, Minneapolis to New Orleans.

Hoping for the very best - we had 3 cruises cancel in 2020.

enough already.......almost all the other CC Cruise Line sites have the same message....

To all the disappointed couples out there.......This is my second canceled cruise of this year, because of the virus. After my first cancelled cruise I bought, on Ebay, a 4 pound bag of Hershey Kisses and each evening, after dinner, I place 2 Hershey Kisses on my wife's pillow. Not quite as good as on a cruise ship, but believe me it has helped!

Ray

The ships must still be at sea - not in the port!

Does anyone have any experience with renting cars with APEX Car Rentals in New Zealand: e.g. - condition of vehicles, reliability of vehicles, customer service etc...... 

My documents (issued March 1, 2019) for the April 27 cruise shows "OSANBASHI YOKOHAMA INTERNATIONAL PASSENGER TERMINAL".

I was also a disembarking guest from the Queen Victoria on March 9.....but a US citizen. We left the ship with other Americans on our deck, as scheduled at 8:50 AM. The lines in the terminal, after claiming our bags, were horrendous; but well organized by Cunard's ground operator. Fortunately, we were ushered into a short line to US Border Patrol for US and Canadian Citizens and were through the formalities in no more than 10 minutes.

I am, by no means, defending US formalities, but offer a few comments:-

- travel, since 9/11, has changed dramatically and, if there was any fun in travel, not any more. Nowhere in the world and in some countries worse than others.

- can you imagine trying to staff US Border Patrol officers at the South Florida Cruise Ports (Ft. Lauderdale and Miami), when -

- all cruise ships arrive within a window of a couple or three hours.

- most cruise ships arrive either Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday; for example - (according to Cruise Ship and Port Schedules), the number of passenger arrivals at FLL were:- Mar 9, 5781; Mar 10, 12,367; Sep 11, 24258: Sep 12, 3823: Sep 13 and 14, nil.

- at FLL there are nine SEPARATE terminals, clearing passengers in each..

- IMO, most arrivals are US Citizens: certainly not the case off the Queen Victoria on Mar 9.

- What do you do with these officers the rest of the year if you attempted to staff according to the winter work- load months?

- mention was made of boarding officials at previous ports, to clear passengers on-board before before arrival at the next port. Good customer relations, but very poor cost effectiveness.

We were assigned to a large table, first seating, on the Queen Victoria, sailing from Rio to Ft.Lauderdale (disembarked yesterday). On the first evening (around 6 PM) we requested, from the maitre d', if a table for two became available we'd appreciate it. On the 3rd day out, we received a call from the maitre d', advising us that that he had a table. About a week later he called to see if we were happy with our table, as the table for two adjacent to ours had a French speaking couple, with whom we got along with fine. We thanked him. That was great guest relations.

Hope you are successful.

On checking my notes of our Southampton disembarcion from the Queen Elizabeth 2 on Sunday, Sep 20, 2016 and where we used Wet Quay Taxis, the read -

"Day15, Sep 30: Southampton, where we docked around 6 AM. Our Self HelpDisembarkation started around 7:05 AM, we were off the ship – nocustoms/immigration – waiting for our pick-up at 7:25. Our driver, Mike, showedup just before 7:45 (our requested pick-up time). A very comfortable ride to Heathrow, where we arrived ataround 9:05. We were all checked in etc and by 10 AM were waiting in thedeparture lounge"

....sorry.....stingrayPBI at aol dot com.......

We used a tour operator - GOTOPERU - for an extended tour to Peru, including Machu Picchu. They were very good to deal with via the internet in planning the tour. Their execution was excellent. They even provided us with a prepaid cell phone with all their representatives (in each area we visited) speed-dial numbers pre-entered. If you are interested in our itinerary, please email me at stingrayPBI dot com.

Ray

Thank you rayjames7 for your reply......

We had arranged with a limo service to take us from the ship to the train station hoping to take the 8:23 AM train to Milan with connections to Lake Garda.

However, we are now having second thoughts of our post cruise adventure, because of the handing of our baggage on/off the trains. Despite our best intentions, we feel that we simply can't do the trip with roll-aboards.

Northern Italy will have to wait for another time.

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has recently arrived, on Seabourn, at the port of Monte Carlo. The scheduled arrival time of a future cruise indicates 7:00 AM.

1) What time did the first guests begin to disembark?

2) Were taxis available on the pier at that time and if so were they in decent number?

3) If anyone took the train from Monte Carlo's rail station.....How long did the taxi take? Were there many stairs to navigate at the station?

Today, there are eight (8) Cruise Ships 'turning around' at Ft.Lauderdale......Regal Princess, Carnival Conquest, Allure of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Celebrity Silhouette, Veendam, Zuiderdam and the Noordam.....and.....this is only the beginning of the 'season".

A little off the subject, if I may....

A couple of years ago, after picking up our luggage at the Fiumicino Airport, Rome, my wife and I were using the ramp from the baggage claim area down to the taxi area, each rolling 2 wheeled suite cases. As usual I was ahead of my wife. All of a sudden, as I neared the bottom of the ramp, my wife's 2 suite cases rolled past me. I looked around to find my wife, on her backside, being helped to her feet by other passengers, who, obviously were having trouble keeping their feet. We found out later, that someone had leaked olive oil from one of their bags, resulting in a mini skating rink. Fortunately, only her pride was hurt.

I see that the Queen Mary arrival is on May 8, a Monday.....

Our experience, off the Queen Elizabeth on Sep 30, a Friday, at Southampton, was:-

- the ship arrived around 6 AM

- we used "self help" and left the ship at 7:05 AM - few lines.

- pre-arranged car service arrived at 7:40 AM and left soon after for LHR.

- arrived LHR, Terminal 2 at 9:05 AM (a Friday, traffic slightly less than mid-week).

- all checked-in and completed security checks etc bu 10:00 AM.

Hope this helps.

As mentioned in various posts, for US citizens, the Indian Consulate no longer handles Visas. They are have 'sub-contracted' to Cox and Kings (CKGS), who do most of the leg work and collect the application fee. The on-line process (mainly the form completion) has to be the most time consuming and complicated visa by any country in the world - they actually give you one and a half hour's to complete, otherwise I don't know what would happen - probably the applicant would give up and decide somewhere else to go!

Anyway, if a US citizen is lucky enough to complete the form in the allotted time, the fee is $100 for the visa, the CKGS fee is $17.00, there is an ICWF fee (whatever that is) of $3.00, the shipping fee by FEDEX is $15.00 each way and there's a "convenience fee" (really) of $5.25 for a total cost of @155.25. On went the application - by the way, each application has to be sent in a separate package.

I'm not finished yet.......I then received a reply from CKGS to the effect that because my packages were 'overweight', there was an addition fee (per package) of $16.64, plus a (you've got it) convenience fee of $0.58. A grand total of $171.89 per visa application.

I'll keep you informed of any addional charges that my visas might incur.

S.Dakota Cruiser....

All very good information......Since you are going to disembark your cruise in Lima (Callao) I would suggest that you not limit yourself to 4 or 5 days to truly visit MP and area.

As you are aware, most tours from the ship take you from Callao (port) to Lima Airport for a flight to Cuzco. The 'group' spends two (2) nights at a hotel in Cuzco. (I would suggest that the cruise line's tour uses Cuzco, as a base, because of the availability of 4 and 5 star hotels there). The first day of the tour, after arriving into Cuzco calls for a free afternoon, takes the group to a restaurant for dinner and show. The altitude of Cuzco is 11,152 feet. (Experts suggest sleeping at lower altitudes for a few days to become acclimatized). The second day of the tour, normally, starts with an early departure by train from a station in the Sacred Valley (Ollyantamba is at 9,160 feet and Urubamba at 9,420 feet) to Aguas Callientes(6,690 feet). On arrival a bus will take the group to the entrance to Machu Picchu (7,970 feet) for a tour. In the late afternoon, the tour makes its way back to Cuzco, by the same route, for a hotel overnight stay. The last day (3rd) is a tour of Cuzco and various sites in the area, the group takes a flight back to Lima, then bus back to the ship at Callao. A great tour to see this absolutely magnificent area, if your time is very limited and one's stamina can take it.

Take your time and enjoy it. Happy and safe travels.