OntarioCruiser38

18 hours ago, Floridiana said:

Traditional dances were slow, no comparison to Tahitians. 

Thank you for posting the pictures.. This is great.  

17 hours ago, Cathy611 said:

We were there in March this year. We did Best Tours/Tour American Samoa, they have a website. They were with everyone else at the Pier.

Yes the bus seats are a bit hard on the backside but you are in and out of the bus. The best thing about the busses are the artwork on the outside. 

We had a good time. And yes the island is lovely.

 

 

Hi Cathy,

Thank you so much!  I will look into this group.

Did you have a guide?  Anyone you would recommend?

How many did the bus hold?  

Thank you again

Jonathan

Sounds like you had a great discussion as part of your tour.

It is great to learn about the people as well as seeing the countryside.

We are really looking forward to seeing these islands.  

I am sure no matter what we do we will have a great time. 

Thank you so much for the post.

J

3 hours ago, Floridiana said:

It's been ages since I have been there. Don't expect much. I would probably take a ship's tour, but we weren't there with a ship. They had a tourist info kiosk in town and I am assuming that the tourist people will be at the location where the tenders come in. It is a tender port, isn't it? You will see a lot of traditional clothing, great photo opportunities. Ask.

 

And please come back to tell me how it was. 

Thank you again,

I am working on a private tour, possibly for a group from the ship.  

I was thinking of renting a car but like the idea of a driver and van.

Will post our impressions after visiting.

Great picture, thank you for posting it. 

Thank you again.

J

5 hours ago, Floridiana said:

We were there in November 2019. First we booked a local bus tour inside the perimeter of the port wehre all the vendors have put up their stalls, then we looked at the bus and decided to cancel because the bus had wooden seats that barely fit 2 people.

 

Outside the port gate, locals were offering their tours. We took one of the taxis for one and a half hours. He took us up to an overlook of the other side and then we went down again to drive along the coast line. We were more interested in learning about  life on the island than seeing another beach. I probably asked the driver more questions than he could answer. 😉

 

By the way, the island is vey pretty. 

Hi Floridians for your reply.

I was researching local transport and schedules last night.  I like your idea though.

I have not seen very many tours online so I may just wait the day of and arrange something at the port.  Was there anything other than the lookout that you feel was a must see?   Could you give me an idea of the cost of the 1.5 hours?

Thank you so much!

J

We will be in Nuku’alofa - Tonga  for a day in April 2020.

We would like suggestions, for those that have been, on things to do or possibly a great tour for the day so we can see the island. 

Looking for a great experience. 

Thank you for your assistance!

We will be in Vava’u Tonga for a day in April 2020.

We would like suggestions, from those that have been, on things to do or possibly a great snorkel or boat tours for the day so we can see the surroundings. 

Looking for a great experience.

Thank you for your assistance!

We will be in America Samoa for a day in April 2020.

We would like suggestions, from those that have been, on things to do or possibly a great tour for the day so we can see the island.  

Looking for a great experience. 

Thank you for your assistance!

19 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Auckland is a lovely city you wil love it

Thank you Phillip,

We are looking forward to our stay!  

Jon

Saturday Morning Farmer’s Market Suggestions?

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The Culpeper on Princes Wharf has really nice coffee.

All great ideas.   Thank you so very much for the orientation.  The Culpeper is in the building so that will be great!  

The orientation of the supermarkets is extremely helpful.  I expect Countdown is one of the major supermarket chains so I will mark a few more just in case we are close by as we travel. 

The idea for the drives are good ones so a car rental for the day or two separate days will come in handy.  The ferry over to Waiheke will definitely be another day trip.  We found a package for the ferry and hop on hop off bus there. 

I went through your post and marked everything on our map app with your comments and directions.  This is very helpful.  At the very least it provides choices.

Thank you so much.  It is possible to do this by google however when you have the opinions of people  with context it makes it so much easier.

We appreciate the help.

Jon & France

17 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

The meal we had at the occidental pub ,a bucket of NZ mussels.cookd in white wine and butter.some hand cut chips and some fish,a jug of their beer,2 glasses wine for about $50.

Okay.. that gives us some reference.

Thank you

1 hour ago, Chiliburn said:

Auckland as all NZ and Australia is expensive.

Thank you for the post.  

I will place your suggestions and comments comments within my map program.  That way I can call them up when we arrive and don’t have to remember a year’s worth of research

We had the pleasure to visit Sydney in April. 

Agree about the expense however we were able to economize by finding very nice accommodations and because we have some dietary restrictions we do many of our own meals and splurge when we go out.   Grocery shopping is fun wherever we happen to be.  

Seafood is our biggest treat as we are basically landlocked at home with limited fresh seafood other than lobster... so we are really looking forward to your suggestions.  

We found a great one bedroom at an extremely reasonable rate right at Prince’s Wharf so we are spending the extra days before our cruise next April 2020 to really get to know Auckland and the surrounding area. 

Thank you again for your post.  

Jon

We will be spending a week pre cruise (April 1, 2020) in Auckland and would appreciate any comments or assistance with regard to:

Where to purchase?

- Groceries (Grocery stores)

- Markets vegetable and farmers markets

- Purchase Fresh Seafood

- Best places for coffee in the central area?

- Best breakfast place anywhere in Auckland?

Things to do?

- Best local experience

- Day trip ideas

- Must see or you didn’t get the full experience

Although we will be in the Central Business District we don’t mind travelling further a field.

Thank you so very much!

Jonathan and France 

This is such a great thread and I have enjoyed reading each post as the information has helped us in planning our upcoming Asia cruise. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences.:)

Agreed! Ron has been great and we will be testing out many of this recommendations in the next two and a half weeks.

You are raising an interesting question, but it's not really appropriate for a "Live From" thread, which is intended to provide those of us who aren't sailing an opportunity for a vicarious experience by a generous member who has invited us along into their cruise vacation.

 

Your question would be better asked in a separate thread on the Celebrity board.

My apologies. I did not realize that there were rules to this sort of thread. I appreciate the correction. I thought it was as well for those of us to learn. Please know that I meant no malicious intent or lack of enjoyment of others.

If possible as host please delete all of my posts from this thread.

I apologize to all the rest if I have impacted your enjoyment.

I will not post on the thread again.

My apologies Debbie.

Sincerely

Jonathan

Thank you so much Debbie for your time posting and for your time answering questions.

I am going to assume for now that the procedure for off boarding in Hong Kong will be the same as in Singapore. ( Yes big assumption)

Just to clarify, you cleared customs on the first day in Singapore? Or on the second? This is important for us as we want to ensure we adjust our plans for either day to take into consideration the time required to go through this procedure before heading off for a private excursion on first day or off to the airport second day.

If the do the customs check first day I assume this is without luggage. Will the check luggage second day and will this slow us getting out of terminal as we have booked a car and driver for 7:00 a.m to take us to airport.

Thank you again.

Jonathan

I don't think there was a fee, but if there was it wasn't much. From memory the shuttle bus stops are quite well signposted when you come out of the cruise terminal. There are also plenty of taxis which are not expensive.

As an aside, if you have time go to the gardens on the roof of the terminal building. Very peaceful.

Greetings Roods,

This is very helpful. Thank you!

Jon

Certainly in February this year there was a shuttle bus from Kai Tak to the nearest MTR station. I'm pretty sure the station was Kwun Tong on the green line. I believe there was also a shuttle bus to Diamond Hill. See Map:

 

http://www.mtr.com.hk/archive/en/services/routemap.pdf

 

Kwun Tong is not just an MTR Station, it's also a shopping mall, the station is down below.

Thanks Roods, very helpful!

Was there a fee for the shuttle?

Jon

We used the MTR to get around Hong Kong. Very cheap, clean and efficient. Much quicker than road travel. We purchased Octopus cards which can also be used for all forms of public transport as well as in 7/11's and many other retail outlets. They are extremely good value for the over 65's. Cards can also be used on the Peak Tram, as well as the Airport Express. Station signs are all in English.

Read about it here:

http://www.hongkong.net/transportation/octopus-card

http://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/main/index.html

How hard is it to get to the MTR from the cruise terminal?

Sammy

thank you.

I now understand the itinerary.

The question for Debbie can now be to describe the exit procedure in Singapore.

Can you do a roll off by taking your own bags or do you have to get a number?

Is customs done on first day or second day in Singapore? I am guessing second day or when you take your bags off?

Could one disembark a day early? Will customs be around to clear a passenger?

Jonathan

Actually, not at all. There are several sites where you can find just about any ship anywhere in the world, at any time, and its voyage itinerary. The one I like best is www.cruisemapper.com.

Thank you Sammy.

I should have clarified that Celebrity does not show itinerary once shopping sales. It was hard to find but having the original embarkation date helped. Thank you

12 Nov 2017Singapore, Singapore6.00pm2Mon 13 Nov 2017At Sea3Tue 14 Nov 2017Phu My, Vietnam7.00am8.00pm4Wed 15 Nov 2017At Sea5Thu 16 Nov 2017Hue, Vietnam7.00am6.00pm6Fri 17 Nov 2017At Sea7Sat 18 Nov 2017Hong Kong, Hong Kong7.00am5.00pm8Sun 19 Nov 2017At Sea9Mon 20 Nov 2017Manila, Philippines8.00am5.00pm10Tue 21 Nov 2017Boracay, Philippines8.00am6.00pm11Wed 22 Nov 2017At Sea12Thu 23 Nov 2017Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia7.00am3.00pm13Fri 24 Nov 2017At Sea14Sat 25 Nov 2017Singapore, Singapore2.00pmovernight15Sun 26 Nov 2017Singapore, Singapore

Debbie has already stopped in Hong Kong, midway on her voyage (see above posts). If you check her Nov. 12 sailing itinerary, you will see that she was in Manila today, and her voyage ends in Singapore on Nov. 25.

I have been trying to find the iterary. No worries.

My apologies my question to Debbie therefore is not valid. I thought Debbie’s Itierary was the opposit and for some reason was going singapore to Hongkong Manila and then back to Hong Kong.

It is difficult to find an itinerary on line once the cruise has started.

Hi Debbie,

Are you disembarking in Hong Kong? Will you be staying overnight in Hong Kong?

I’m not sure if you leave and go home right away. I was wondering if you could give us a post to tell us how the disembarkation works. Normally on Celebrity you can roll off your luggage and the rest have to take a number. We need to be off the ship at 7:00 am. Do you have any advice on how we can get off the ship on time so we can meet our car and driver?

Thank you so much.

Jonathan

If anyone knows Debbie’s cruise schedule could you please let me know?

Hi Debbie,

This has been such valuable information.

You mentioned you took the cable car. We were thinking of doing this on our own after checking in at the airport.

If we were at the cable car ride that you took would we be able to do it in 3 hours. Going up.. looking around and then coming back down? We would like to blow some time in the morning before taking a mid afternoon flight.

By any chance did you take a car with the transparent floor? We wanted to know if it was worth it.

Thank you so much

Jon